My area regeneration business, EPONA, is currently undergoing some re-development and a new website for epona-land.co.uk will be launched toward the end of March. In the meantime, please send emails to consult@crookbarrow.com. Other contact details remain the same.
Updates on EPONA's work can be found @ http://eponaland.wordpress.com/
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Sound Advice from World War 1 German General
Update 12 February
This post may now be read in the context of the story of Sir James Crosby, the former Deputy Chairman of the FSA, who resigned yesterday. I would define a stupid person as someone who disregards potential risks :
Speaking today of the current banking crisis, Lord Adair Turner of the UK Financial Services Authority referred on BBC Radio 4 to : "An intellectual failure to understand that we were building a system which had huge systemic failures..."
Might I suggest that he and other business and political "generals" reflect on this apocryphal story from World War 1.
The German army was apparently becoming short of officer recruits. Meeting to to discuss this problem, one general described 4 categories of potential recruits as follows :
This post may now be read in the context of the story of Sir James Crosby, the former Deputy Chairman of the FSA, who resigned yesterday. I would define a stupid person as someone who disregards potential risks :
Speaking today of the current banking crisis, Lord Adair Turner of the UK Financial Services Authority referred on BBC Radio 4 to : "An intellectual failure to understand that we were building a system which had huge systemic failures..."
Might I suggest that he and other business and political "generals" reflect on this apocryphal story from World War 1.
The German army was apparently becoming short of officer recruits. Meeting to to discuss this problem, one general described 4 categories of potential recruits as follows :
- Intelligent and energetic
- Intelligent and lazy
- Stupid and lazy
- Stupid and energetic
He added that the first 2 categories had been exhausted, and category 3 was also depleted. Nevertheless, his advice was still that, on no account, should the army recruit officers from category 4. What happened next I do not know.
However, herein, I warrant, lies something of the answer to the cause of much of our present day economic woes. I strongly suspect that I am not alone in encountering a fair proportion of "stupid and energetic" people in positions of authority.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The Moscow School of Management
Like most professionals, I imagine, past the first flush of youth - and I'm well past mine ! - I contemplate from time to time the prospect of embarking upon a major personal education or training project. However, this prospect soon recedes as I could never be persuaded to take out a large loan for this purpose, and now it is very unlikely that such a loan would available anyway.
Nevertheless, spotting an advertisement in The Financial Times the other day for "The Moscow School of Management", my dream of an educational enterprise was momentarily revived when the thought crossed my mind that I might secure sponsorship from some wealthy Russian oligarch for this purpose. Although they to, I understand, are falling upon hard times.
I have, in the meantime, consoled myself by writing a post entitled "How too much 'Construction' led to "Meltdown'" at my Social Limits to Growth/De-constructing the New Labour Project Blog : http://limits-2-growth.blogspot.com/ in an attempt to expand not only my own intellectual horizons, but those of a few other people too !
Nevertheless, spotting an advertisement in The Financial Times the other day for "The Moscow School of Management", my dream of an educational enterprise was momentarily revived when the thought crossed my mind that I might secure sponsorship from some wealthy Russian oligarch for this purpose. Although they to, I understand, are falling upon hard times.
I have, in the meantime, consoled myself by writing a post entitled "How too much 'Construction' led to "Meltdown'" at my Social Limits to Growth/De-constructing the New Labour Project Blog : http://limits-2-growth.blogspot.com/ in an attempt to expand not only my own intellectual horizons, but those of a few other people too !
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Does Cameron have the "Ken" to run Britain ?
Some 9 months ago (in a post of 18 April 2008, to be precise), I asked myself : Does Boris have the "Ken" to run London ? I can now answer this question in the affirmative. Mayor of London Boris Johnson's actions (which count stronger than words in politics) on transport and police issues - always key matters for Londoners - demonstrate him to be the right man for the job.
The question now arises : Does David Cameron have the "Ken" to run Britain ? His appointment of Ken Clarke to the Conservative front benches, as Shadow Business Spokesman, yesterday is a positive development in national politics.
For my part - and with due respect to the inauguration of Barack Obama as United State President today - I want Britain to be more independent of America in the future. This inevitably raises questions about our relationship with Europe and the vexed question of UK membership of the Euro, about which, like, apparently, the majority of British citizens, I still feel some ambivalence.
PS In an earlier version of this post, I mistakenly used "election" instead of "inauguration" : a Freudian slip, perhaps anticipating a not-so-distant future event over here.
The question now arises : Does David Cameron have the "Ken" to run Britain ? His appointment of Ken Clarke to the Conservative front benches, as Shadow Business Spokesman, yesterday is a positive development in national politics.
For my part - and with due respect to the inauguration of Barack Obama as United State President today - I want Britain to be more independent of America in the future. This inevitably raises questions about our relationship with Europe and the vexed question of UK membership of the Euro, about which, like, apparently, the majority of British citizens, I still feel some ambivalence.
PS In an earlier version of this post, I mistakenly used "election" instead of "inauguration" : a Freudian slip, perhaps anticipating a not-so-distant future event over here.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Fewer Regional Development Agencies would be Better
The return of East Midlands MP, and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ken Clarke to the Conservative front benches, to shadow Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, is welcome news.
To adapt some recent words of Mandelson : common sense is a quality lacking in the New Labour Government gene bank (and a few other sorts of banks beside !). Ken Clarke has plenty of common sense. Moreover, his namesake Ken Livingstone - when "Purple" in 2000 - once expressed the view to me that if Ken Clarke had been leader of the Conservative Party, things might have turned out very differently. Indeed !
One of the most important achievements of the last Conservative administration was to redress the balance of economic power between the regions and London. The new New Labour Government of the late 1990s looked as it they would build upon this success, with the creation of a Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, but soon relinquished this ambition in favour of policies - notably housing market-based growth - which have made the UK economy particularly vulnerable to the current banking crisis. Therefore, as Shadow Business Secretary, Ken Clarke must focus on the regeneration of the entire UK economy.
Reducing the number of English Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) outside London from 8 to 4 will, in my view, be an important part of any recovery programme, and I would suggest the following combined/existing RDAs are retained :
To adapt some recent words of Mandelson : common sense is a quality lacking in the New Labour Government gene bank (and a few other sorts of banks beside !). Ken Clarke has plenty of common sense. Moreover, his namesake Ken Livingstone - when "Purple" in 2000 - once expressed the view to me that if Ken Clarke had been leader of the Conservative Party, things might have turned out very differently. Indeed !
One of the most important achievements of the last Conservative administration was to redress the balance of economic power between the regions and London. The new New Labour Government of the late 1990s looked as it they would build upon this success, with the creation of a Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, but soon relinquished this ambition in favour of policies - notably housing market-based growth - which have made the UK economy particularly vulnerable to the current banking crisis. Therefore, as Shadow Business Secretary, Ken Clarke must focus on the regeneration of the entire UK economy.
Reducing the number of English Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) outside London from 8 to 4 will, in my view, be an important part of any recovery programme, and I would suggest the following combined/existing RDAs are retained :
- South and East of England (with an HQ in the Thames Gateway)
- Central England (based in Birmingham)
- North of England (based in Leeds, or Manchester)
- South West (current structure retained)
This new RDA configuration should focus on sustainable economic development and regeneration, with dedicated operating units focused on key regional issues, like Regen-WM in the West Midlands. Sub-regional assemblies (ie the present regional ones, which are currently being wound up) should be retained to oversee spatial planning, with a particular remit for environmental sustainability. There is also a need to rationalise government/public sector organisations/quangos etc at the County and local levels. Revitalising democracy outside London should be a core part of this process.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
"Change proves true on the day it finished"
Belated Greetings for 2009.
The old Chinese saying that "we live in changing times" certainly applies to the present, and I've been reflecting of late on the above quotation from The Book of Changes or I Ching. This advises us not to confuse the process of change with its outcomes, and also to observe closely the "Tao" (or wisdom) of events, particularly small ones in my experience. In short, it is what actually happens which is important : "Change proves true on the day it is finished".
It's fair to say that Britain's New Labour Government has not engaged with much "Small Thinking". Instead, there has, and continues to be, a strong tendency to confuse "Big Thinking" with intended, positive, and commensurate outcomes. More often than not, of course, the outcomes have been unintended, negative, small and, in some cases, non-existent. However, this being essentially non-reflective, such outcomes tend not to register on the New Labour psyche.
Therefore it behoves the rest of us to observe closely the process of change, particularly if we are engaged in our own small enterprises, whether for profit, social good, or some combination of these. For whilst the changes invoked by this Government have yet to prove true, it is also the case that some changes arising from present economic problems and uncertainties will create opportunities for entrepreneurs and, perhaps, positive social transformation.
The old Chinese saying that "we live in changing times" certainly applies to the present, and I've been reflecting of late on the above quotation from The Book of Changes or I Ching. This advises us not to confuse the process of change with its outcomes, and also to observe closely the "Tao" (or wisdom) of events, particularly small ones in my experience. In short, it is what actually happens which is important : "Change proves true on the day it is finished".
It's fair to say that Britain's New Labour Government has not engaged with much "Small Thinking". Instead, there has, and continues to be, a strong tendency to confuse "Big Thinking" with intended, positive, and commensurate outcomes. More often than not, of course, the outcomes have been unintended, negative, small and, in some cases, non-existent. However, this being essentially non-reflective, such outcomes tend not to register on the New Labour psyche.
Therefore it behoves the rest of us to observe closely the process of change, particularly if we are engaged in our own small enterprises, whether for profit, social good, or some combination of these. For whilst the changes invoked by this Government have yet to prove true, it is also the case that some changes arising from present economic problems and uncertainties will create opportunities for entrepreneurs and, perhaps, positive social transformation.
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