Ever since Larry and Sergey put their tech-heads-together in the late 90s we have asked if Google is making us stupid? There is a palpable sense of crisis wrt our concentration spans together with our ability to finish the jobs we start and actually get anything done. Distraction is everywhere.
Immigration, both legal and illegal, has long been an issue within ol’ Blighty, often appearing centre-stage. But if immigration is red hot then what this feeds into, the actual composition of the workforce, is viewed as being luke warm at best.
The King has cancer. That’s Life’s Ester Rantzen has cancer. Even super-fit Chris Hoy has cancer. With half of Britons predicted to get cancer at some point during their lives we all probably know someone who has cancer. The good news is that the majority survive the diagnosis and live with it.
Aiming to tackle air pollution by targeting out-of-town non-resident drivers of heavy, large and high-polluting cars, Parisians voted, in an admittedly largely ignored referendum where less 6% turned-out, to triple parking costs for sports utility vehicles (SUVs) to as much as #200/day.
Yes, I know, I’ve said that every year since 2016 and, even though my meagre stash’s value is half of what it once was, I remain a firm believer. Admittedly, any speculation on cryptos remains risky but several of you have asked whether or not the recent US announcement of Bitcoin EFTs removes any of the uncertainty associated with the coins.
Apple, the world’s largest company, this week celebrated the 40th anniversary launch of its legendary Apple Macintosh. Few organisations transform whole industries and fewer still do it several times, but how exactly did Steve Jobs’ Apple grow into the almost $4trn behemoth it is today?
The sad news of New Labour’s Derek Draper’s (Mr Kate Garraway to many) recent passing has brought the issue of parliamentary lobbying back into the limelight. Draper made a reputed fortune from the dark-art of lobbying before it all came crashing down around his ears when surreptitiously recorded blatantly offering to sell access to high-profile ministers. Quite rightly, it signalled the death-knell of his political career.
New year, new me. Turning over a new leaf. Out with the old, in with the new. As a society and maybe as a species, we seem obsessed with change. Forever seeking to hone the self, to shed our perceived negative traits like snakeskin, whilst seamlessly replacing them with aspirational qualities – the way we would like to be as opposed to that mediocre, uninspiring image we often see in the mirror.
Being the modern-day equivalent of Ebenezer Scrooge, I can very easily buy-into everybody’s favourite all-round-good-egg Martin Lewis’s merry manifesto to ban Christmas presents.
It’s clear that with his Napoleon witnessing Marie Antoinette’s execution and ordering the French forces to shell the pyramids, Ridley Scott is playing fast-and-loose with historical fact in his rollicking epic about the French emperor. Notwithstanding, two hundred years after the death of Napoleon Bonaparte, his legacy within France remains bitter and contested, an almost cultural battleground.