Stormy weather

Mervyn King was very honest last night in his speech to the South West CBI-IoD dinner about what is in store for UK plc in 2008. Listening to him with upwards of 725 other South West businessmen was a sobering experience: no flashy delivery, no blinding with science, no self-congratulation on a job so far done well (how unlike Gordon Brown, who cannot resist telling us that even if things aren’t quite as good as they might be (a) it isn’t his fault and (b) that that it is as good as it is is all down to him and his best friend Prudence). Instead, from the Governor a critical summary of where we are, why and what is in store. Aside from the main points in his speech, and see an excellent report by Norma Cohen in today’s FT, two things remain in my mind: that as consumers we must save more and spend less (fairly obvious, but blindly ignored by most of us); and that the fear of what is still to come out of the sub-prime catastrophe in the US is as potent a destabilising force as what is already known.

It is all a matter of trust

An interesting column by Stefan Stern in the FT this morning on trust, and why deception is the real enemy of trust. He refers to a Gallup poll quoted by Mark Thompson (BBC DG) last week, that only 36% of UK citizens thought politicians were trying to do their best for the country. In the context of the government’s proposals for Northern Rock and Miliband defending the refusal to offer a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, we should not be surprised.

A curious incident

In his The RSPB View (February Birds, the RSPB’s Quarterly) Graham Wynne, the charity’s Chief Executive, returns to the story of a pair of hen harriers being shot on the Sandringham Estate. He writes, “The shooting of two hen harriers at Sandringham last October and the poisoning of a golden eagle in southern Scotland last summer were despicable acts and should be sources of shame for those responsible”. I could not agree more; but, Mr Wynne, there is still no evidence that two hen harriers were brought down, no close eye-witness, no dead birds and no charges brought. Although this doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen, is it the job of a responsible charity to repeat this canard? It is not so much the story as the innuendo, that the shooting involved the Royal Family, whether directly or indirectly. On 21 November, a month after the alleged shooting Charles Moore was continuing to draw attention to what he referred to this ‘curious incident’ in his Spectator column, and it seems surprising that two months later the RSPB still maintains that the hen harriers were shot.

Compliments to avoid

I was rather taken aback reading Anne McElvoy’s Diary in this week’s Spectator. Apparently ‘You’re a star!’ is to be avoided as “an apparent compliment but with the undertone of addressing a slightly simple housemaid”. Leaving aside the fact that I do not have a housemaid, simple or otherwise, it is a comment I used only recently to my secretary at work (I suppose the modern day equivalent of the housemaid). Let’s hope she doesn’t read The Spectator.

Canute revisited

A snippet on the Radio 3 news this morning (which is not yet up on the BBC News website), about coastal erosion. Apparently this is happening and, according to “environmentalists”, the government should do something about it. Quite what we weren’t told. If they still taught history properly in schools we would be spared this sort of story!