GETTING ANGRY ABOUT SUCCESS

My site minder said somewhat peevishly “you could do with more passion in your blogs. You’re at your best when they’re angry”.

Bastard!

Well I’ll tell you about what makes angry. It’s the persistent moaning about how terrible everything is with no acknowledgement that the world consistently gets better. For sure, because we are human, there are odd exceptions and hiccoughs but overall the world is a better place.

“Oh yes. What about today’s youth? Drunk, drugged and up the duff and on benefit as like as not….”
Well the facts are somewhat different. Alcohol consumption is down in the UK, especially amongst 16-24 year olds. Drug use is down and, as one pundit wryly observed, “drugs aren’t cool anymore.” As far as teenage pregnancies goes they’ve also gone down to the lowest level since the 1960s.

Yet every morning on the Today programme I hear the Welsh and Scottish lilts of Humphrys and Naughtie pronouncing imminent Armageddon ….. the collapse of the NHS, the decline of education….of transport.

There’s never been so much airtime devoted to “news” and so little devoted to wondering what’s expressed in the immortal lines from Mel Brooks film  “The Producers”

“How could this happen? I was so careful. I picked the wrong play, the wrong director, the wrong cast. Where did I go right?”

Where did we go right?

Take transport. Best service you can imagine from Brighton to London – 11 trains between half past six and half past seven in the morning, they take an hour yet all I hear are grumbles. We have a fantastic underground, bus service and so it goes on.

Live departures and arrivals board for London Victoria

Time	From/To	P
17:58a 18:01	Littlehampton & Ore	17
18:02 On time	Brighton (East Sussex) Starts here	13
18:03 On time	Ashford International via Maidstone East Starts here	3
18:03 On time	Epsom Downs via Norbury Starts here	9
18:03a 18:01	From Orpington Terminates	5
18:04 On time	Bognor Regis via Horsham & Portsmouth Harbour via Horsham Starts here	19

The Boris Johnson brand of gung-ho “we can do it…just watch” is seductive because it’s rooted in a series of truths.  As the Olympics and Shard have shown we have the best civil engineers in the world.
London is the no. 1 capital city.  We are the top country in the world for the arts….no don’t interrupt…..
If the NHS were a private enterprise most of the problems would be discreetly solved as opposed to the constant attempt to fix the plane in flight with the media watching… basically it’s a brilliant product.

Angry….I’m mad for all the wrong reasons. I’m beginning to feel that Britain has become,  like that silly joke about France, “a brilliant country apart from the people”.

We are skilled at innovation and change.
We have an innate sense of fairness.
And we want to win….don’t we?

But that silence in response to the question may be the problem.

www.colourfulthinkers.com

LET THE SUNSHINE IN

Odd how a bit of sunshine completely changes the way you feel or think. Or in my case not think. My brain has gone into “idle” ever since a fortnight in sunny Venice and a return to, heaven be praised, sunny  Brighton. (Now I understand the problem in Greece, Italy and Spain – too much sun). Now I’m in a kind of “what’s it all about Alfie?” frame of mind. Given the state of the world today,  Alfie rather than the IMF or the rest of that wretched Troika might have a more useful viewpoint.

So Alfie what do you think?

“Well the Olympics are great. Have you noticed how much nicer people are being at stations and throughout London – smiling and being helpful? I guess we might be learning to lift our standards of customer service…and be like they are in New York. And yes the sunshine helps. And there’s something odd in the press: a series of views that the bad news about recession may have been too gloomy and possibly wrong. Even James Naughtie was cheery on the Today programme. Post Leveson could we have a good-news media? Are we being infected by what Boris called a “benign virus”? What else do I really think? Economics is boring and always wrong - always. Bankers are barmy. The uber-rich are wretched and doomed. People at the top of companies are all “out of touch”. Oh yes one other thing.  The Olympics is wonderful because it’ll be about everyone trying their best but I don’t much like McDonalds, Coca-Cola or Visa. Oops – shouldn’t have said that…. What else do you want to know?”
Just your address Alfie, so the Brand Police can come and arrest you for “reputation-terrorist-attacks” on those great brands.

How do we recreate that sunshine we’ve missed for so long? Speeches don’t do it. Images can start to. Music helps. But it’s an event that does it. We need an anniversary, a national party, a big unifying event to make everyone grin.

The lesson of the Olympics is a lesson in the power of “Event Marketing”.

And Alfie is right.
I was in London today, the Olympic spirit is wonderful and London buzzed.
We are so lucky because I suddenly realised how great London is – here’s how Nancy Durrant of the Times described it - “a heaving, breathing, shifting beast with a mind of its own.”
And that’s just Boris Johnson.

Boris – a mind of his own - sunshine or shower?

JUST LIKE THE GOOD OLD TIMES REALLY...

The ghost of Christmas past stared at me gloomily, a Woodbine in one hand and glass of brown ale in the other. He was referring to the student riots, “them revolting students” he said coughing noisily “reminds me of the good times.”

Yes, it was a plus ça change week…

Charles and Camilla having a charge of the light brigade moment as they encountered some young people; Mr. Plod being wrong footed (again); students breaking the windows of….Top Shop – Top Shop? Makes you weep about their sense of irony; the Australian response to losing a test match – “we fielded like a bunch of Clydesdales” and that James Naughtie on-air spoonerism of the Culture Secretary’s name …and I bet Jeremy Hunt’s glad his parents didn’t call him Mike.

Good old times; it was a Private Eye kind of week.

But the ghost of Christmas future lives in the words of the 14 year old who solemnly told me “one day everything will be much better.” Thus, dreadful old pubs become super-gastro-zones (like a local bar in Brighton previously nicknamed the “Stabber"); WikiLeaks tries to make things better by causing a stir, telling us things we knew but about which we previously didn’t speak– “Prince Charles asked where the lavatory was and was gone a while” – A Chas-Bog-Shock story? No. Nothing new - just a leak.

Get used to it. Turmoil; even ambiguity and change but…life goes on….and it does usually get better.

The immortal comforts in life over this week? A warming Spaghetti Bolognese with a double jar of a rich tomato sauce, the impact of which reaches your knees, a glass of claret, a hardback novel, a few great carols (and I love it that “most highly favoured lady” has been transcribed by choirs everywhere to “most highly flavoured gravy”) and a prospect of a must-get-better-future despite, or even because of, student riots.

Most of all I love to see these students revolting …over “whatever”…. as they always have.  The bankers of tomorrow behaving like bankers today (that is – I think – a counter spoonerism.)

Happy days, says the ghost of Christmas future looking at Christmas present, and I think she’s right.