Barclays et al

Why did it take Bob Diamond so long to go? In every organisation I have woked for it has been the Chief Executive who has publically set the cultural norms for the business. In Barclays it is clear that there was some sort of cultural problem - even if only in the investment banking part. Mr Diamond headed up that function before he became CEO. So - he had to go. It is worrying that the board appeared to want him to remain at the helm. Are these people living in such a rarified atmosphere that they simply do not understand? I also wonder about the head of Internal Audit and his/her team. What were they doing?

Olympic Volunteering and Extra Pay for Services

Last Friday I attended my latest Olympic volunteer training day - but that's not what I want to concentrate upon in this post. I came back to headlines about bus drivers demanding extra pay and threatening to go on strike which set me thinking about the cost to many of the volunteers. Some of the people I met on Friday had come considerable distances - Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, York. One person I talked to has already agreed to rent a flat in Croydon for the duration and will be giving up her earnings as a pharmacist for the pleasure.

So, I ran a quick calculation - suppose it costs a volunteer £30 every time they come into London and that person is giving up work valued at, say, £300 per day they will have paid quite a hefty cost (opporunity cost, much of it) by the end of the process. For someone who has attended an intial interview (1/2 day), undertaken training (3 days), collected their uniform and accreditation (1/2 day) and done 16 full volunteering stints (a full day, each - all my shifts are 10 hours) then using the above costs the overall value is some £6630.

So, bus drivers, train drivers, underground workers and anyone else aiming to squeeze extra cash for, yes, probably working harder - just think about the rewards for London and the country as a whole, and think about what the volunteers are giving up to make the whole exercise a success.

There - it's off my chest.

The Swifts Are Back

At this time of year there's always one thing to worry about. Will our swifts be back? We always have a few and it's a great joy to sit out on a balmy summer's evening to watch them screaming overhead. However, their numbers have been dwindling and we fear the first year when none returns. One Monday, one appeared. By Wednesday there were three up in the sky. And over the weekend four have been providing a wonderful aerial display. Four may seem (and is) very few - but at least it's not zero.

Litter, Litter Everywhere

Wonersh is a relatively small community with a population of about 1800. It is bisected by the B2128 which connects Guildford to Cranleigh and there is a branch off in the centre of the village to the next settlement - Bramley (and the A281). Twice a year we run a community litter pick to tidy the place up. Just look at what 15 of us collected over 1.5 hours last weekend:

Most of it came from those roads I mentioned - and at the extremities of the village to boot. In other words those responsible were car drivers and passengers passing through the village, not the residents themselves. Shame on the lot of you!

Greenest Government Ever?

I've banged on about this several times. Now Greenpeace has tried to test opinion as to whether voters belive that we do, indeed, have the greenest government ever. Sadly, only 2% of those questioned appear to have answered in the affirmative. Well, well, well.

What Price Nuclear?

Wow! It's over a month since I last posted anything. Sorry about that to my loyal band of followers. It's been a hectic time. So many organisations have an April year end and silly budgetting arrangements that I've been snowed under with work. So much for semi-retirement! (Well, it could be argued to be semi as I did little over the summer!).

Anyway, 29th February saw the closure of Oldbury PS - something of a blast from the past for yours truly - and then a month later Horizon owners RWE and E.On (who own land at Oldbury) announced that they are not proceeding with their joint venture. I can see that there may well be political reasons for these two companies to pull the plug, and quite possibly the economics also don't appear to stack up, but I think it is a bad news day for UK electricity production. I am convinced that the country needs nuclear and for two large companies with nuclear generating experience to pull out now has rather put the CO2 cat among the emissions reduction pigeons. Wind is just not going to do the job for us which leaves CCS which will be no picnic.

Growth - Will We Reach The Limits?

In 1798 Thomas Malthus published "An Essay on the Principle of Population" which contained some dire warnings for mankind. As we know, the agricultural and industrial revolutions rather put paid to those warnings - at least for the next couple of centuries. Then, in 1972, the Club of Rome issued "Limits to Growth", which again, posited, in most of the scenarios investigated, a turning point, possibly catastrophic, around 2030. Although the predicitions are now much derided a revisit 30 years on did not suggest that the issues have changed radically.

With all the recent talk about growth being the way out of the current national financial mess I've been musing about whether, on a more parochial level, we have actually reached a point where growth is not the paradigm to be adhered to. My rather under-developed thoughts run along these lines:

The UK has prospered as a service-based country for the last few decades, gaining from providing added-value services to the baby boomer generation (my generation!). Now the baby boomers are all retiring and are switching out of fat salaries into somewhat slimmer pensions (though not as slim as the likely pensions of the follow on generation - but that's another story). So - big question - will there be a growth market for value-add services? Quite possibly not in the UK and western Europe. So how about the emerging economies (BRICS, for instance)? Well, they may be emerging but per capita earnings aren't that high so it must be questioned as to whether there is a market for the UK there.

Which takes me back to my original thought. Is it time for a paradigm shift for the UK?