Month: Aug 2020
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Clark Kent
The actor Chadwick Boseman passed away earlier this week at the age of 43 years. Now, I’m typically sceptical about the cringe-inducing missives concerning the dearly departed from those who never knew, nor even considered the dearly departed when he or she was alive. And to an extent, this was the same. Shoddy, self-serving Twitter…
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Suck Cess
It’s the $64,000-dollar question: how do you achieve success? I would say, precisely on your own terms. But that is not the way the world is turning. As COVID clowning forces more and more people into relative isolation, online technology has snagged a wider window of opportunity. And hot on the heels of any online…
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Rowing in the Wrong Direction
Psycho-federalist keyboard warrior Guy Verhofstadt is in the boat rowing for migrants this week. Purportedly. Pithily, he reminded us that migration has been central to human history, and wryly noted that, ‘reportedly, even Nigel Farage’s ancestors once fled to England to make a better life.’ As barbs go, that wasn’t bad for a bloke who…
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The Golden Turd
I remember a time when the favourite educational pastime was slagging off Media Studies. That has hardly aged well. Most people seem to be neither able to accurately identify fake news nor to understand the relationships between discourse and power. And no, reciting Homer at tiresome dinner parties for the entertainment of twittering hoes, who…
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Debbie ‘Nam
A conference call and off you pop. It may be the end if an era, but the demise of Debenhams should not perturb the cognoscenti. Yet at one time, they were rocking. Great products with modern designers and all-round accessibility. So what went awry? Well, this is not a COVID horror story per se. Yes,…
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Lying Low
The UK Education Secretary Gavin Williamson foreshadowed the latest Government debacle with a warning on the danger that school students might be over-promoted into jobs that are beyond their competence. I can only admire his steadfast ability to deadpan that message. That’s weapons-grade irony, right there. This is a man who probably hides a spare…
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Get Dawn on It
Dawn Butler has been in the news again, which is always a nailed-on opportunity for absurdity and a good giggle. This time it’s some stop-and-search shenanigans. If you need a good laugh, just get Dawn on it. Whatever has occurred, it will doubtless be a matter for some up-and-coming cop to unravel while maintaining his…
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Excuse Me
Back in the day when I was managing services in the world of outsourced contact centres, we used to love disasters. Whether it was a hapless navvy slicing through a communications cable, or a PR disaster that simultaneously sent enquiries through the roof and service crashing through the floor, we high-fived each other into joyful…
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They Don’t Half Pick Them
Grim news from the Lebanon where Beirut has been left looking like, well, Beirut. Domestically, commentators on all sides were shaken by the proclamations of Sir Iain Duncan Smith who has concluded that the EU Withdrawal Agreement – that he voted for – is in fact a juicy steamer. Even a nine-month old baby would…
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Why? Because.
The current mask debate has come to epitomise the woeful society we now inhabit. Now, ever since the COVID question arose, there have been pro-maskers. After all, it is a natural response to don items of clothing for the purposes of protection against an environmental threat. A coat, a hat, a pair of gloves. Masking…
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