There has always been a school of management thought that says you get the best out of people through fear. Make them scared of you. Make them feel they’re not good enough. Bully them. Take for granted what they do well. Magnify and publicise their mistakes. Make them feel their job’s on the line every day. And, once in a while, fire one of them pour encourager les autres. Continue reading
Defective vision
At last! A week in politics that has not been entirely about the Brexit negotiations. Although, in fact, it largely has, but in a different way. Eleven (at the time of writing) defectors have decamped to the untenanted centre ground of British politics. The final collapse of the two main parties is under way. Or not, as the case may be. Continue reading
Silver screens and white lies
It is a truth universally acknowledged that we baby-boomers have had a pretty good time of it. Prosperity. The chance of buying our own house. No wars to fight. Free university education. Cheap travel. Cures for cancer and Parkinson’s. Well, not quite yet, but I expect they’ll have been found just when we need them. And we’ll be dead before the planet has been destroyed. What a good time to have been alive. Continue reading
Misérables memoirs
Much of the final episode of the BBC adaptation of Les Misérables featured our hero wading chest-deep through raw sewage, with a barely supportable burden upon his shoulders. This felt an appropriate metaphor for the entire series. Continue reading
Desert Island daydreams
The chances are that I will never appear on Desert Island Discs. But just in case, and like many people, I have spent odd moments over the past ten years thinking about the eight records I’d choose if I was. Continue reading
A Brexit miscellany
Glossary of terms
No Deal – A policy by which we expect to get a better trade agreement with the EU by paying them nothing than we could have got by paying £39 billion. Continue reading
Waaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!
After the most amazing, unprecedented, extraordinary (supply your own hyperbole here) day that Parliament has ever known in the whole history of the world, the upshot is that everything has … well, remained pretty much the same, really. Britain is still leaving the EU (probably). It will still avoid a ‘no deal’ exit (probably). It will therefore still need a withdrawal agreement with the EU, and in due course Parliament will agree one (probably). No change there, then. Continue reading
Look back on anger
On Saturday 2 April 2016, two things happened. Well, of course, a million things happened, but these two were connected, and they affected me. One was that Ian McEwan’s comments on sexual identity at the Royal Institution were denounced in the Press by anyone with a megaphone to hand. The second, somewhat bathetic by comparison, was that my tweet on a related matter caused about 10% of my Twitter following to desert me (@JimPowellAuthor). Continue reading
Falling in and out of Europe
It is nearly a year since I decided to divorce The Times after decades of fidelity and embark upon a reckless fling with The Guardian. It hasn’t turned out to be as ecstatic as I had expected. Yes, there is more serious news and comment, but it comes at a price. The price is a relentless pessimism and negativity that infects the entire newspaper. Britain and the world, as presented by The Guardian, constitute a living hell. To anyone contemplating a similar migration, may I suggest that a prescription for Prozac should accompany your subscription. Continue reading
The Irish elephant in the room
An episode of the Morecambe & Wise Show from 1968, thought to be lost, was discovered recently in Sierra Leone and screened on Boxing Day. It included a lengthy sketch in which the IRA was treated as something close to a pantomime joke. It is safe to say that this sketch could not have been written or broadcast even two years later, which is a useful reminder of how quickly things can change. As they are changing now. Continue reading
