Ireland’s call

Not a good afternoon for Irish rugby fans (me included) yesterday at Twickenham. It is not so much the loss of the game to England (which was always on the cards) but that change is needed. The entire Six Nations campaign has been if not a disaster then a great disappointment. Whether the IRFU will have the courage to take the actions necessary, who knows. I am not convinced, notwithstanding the announcement that there is to be a detailed review.

Philip Browne, the IRFU’s chief executive didn’t look happy at the press conference, next to Eddie O’Sullivan, and rather too much management speak (what is an ‘optimal structure’?),

“The IRFU share in the disappointment with the outcome of this year’s RBS Six Nations championship from an Irish perspective and will be undertaking a detailed review of our performance. Our objective in this, as always, will be to ensure the Irish rugby team has in place the optimal structures to allow it to perform at the highest international levels into the future.”
There’s a lot to be done before the All Blacks in early June.

The curse of the BlackBerry

A rather depressing article in The Sunday Telegraph, about the world of work. Once work was work, and home was home, but now no longer, or not for a lot of people, if a report by Continental Research for Mitel is to be believed.

Getting away from work is growing harder, with more than half of companies encouraging staff to check their emails while on holiday. Businesses are taking advantage of mobile gadgets such as the BlackBerry to ensure that workers are never out of touch. But critics fear that the blurring of the line between work and leisure time is putting employees under strain.

For the lawyers who work for us, the BlackBerry is still a status symbol. Although they may be ubiquitous in the City, we do not give them out to everyone. Consequently the day IT produce one, you know you have made it (well, think you have). Which makes it all the more puzzling for my team that I handed mine back some two and a half years ago, fed up with the endless email traffic, and the invitation to discourtesy that BlackBerries offer. Not a meeting passes without someone playing with one under the table. I’m with Jim Norton, a senior policy adviser at the Institute of Directors, who is reported as commenting: “Anyone who works 100 per cent of the time will not be working very effectively.”

Why people struggle

Darling’s first budget has left me cold. Smug (see Oliver Hartwich’s post on Coffee House) and do-nothing (but see Tim Harford’s Undercover Economist blog on FT.com). I have been far more struck today by the statistic told me at supper this evening by my wife. There is apparently £2.5 billion of pension credit unclaimed. Why? Because the system is so complex people cannot understand it, even if they know about it (and many don’t); they cannot fill in the forms; many simply do not know they are entitled and there remains if not the stigma of welfare, the feeling that they have never claimed, they are able to do without it and are not going to start now. This is a truly appalling fact, and epitomises all that is wrong with this government.

The sophisticated client?

Show me the sophisticated client, and I’ll show you the opportunity to make some more money. As I wasn’t there, perhaps it is unfair to criticise, but I remain unhappy at the continuing pressure to widen the conflict rules, ostensibly to allow the sophisticated client to make the choice to instruct the lawyer who would otherwise be conflicted. Thus, from The Lawyer.com today

Clifford Chance general counsel and chairman of the City of London Law Society rules and regulation committee Chris Perrin has called for significant widening of client conflict rules at The Lawyer’s Strategic Risk Management Conference. The City of London Law Society has made proposals, which would effectively allow clients to consent to all conflicts of interest. Perrin said: “We’ve been talking about this possible change for some time. It gives sophisticated clients who know what they’re doing freedom.”

Ethics are ethics: except it seems when money is involved. It is a slippery slope.