Boom and bust

One of the more depressing attitudes I come across in life is the "Why should we do anything about our carbon emissions when what we produce in the UK is only 2% of the problem. There's no point until America, China and India come on board." This attitude is variously known as narrow mindedness, negativity, lack of vision or plain lack of understanding of how the world works.

We all know - well some of us do - that all change follows a known cycle. The early adopters are small in number but they lead the pack. In time their numbers increase as problems and costs are resolved. Eventually the new way becomes mainstream and it remains only to tidy up the laggards. The aforementioned countries do look as if they are starting to shift their position - but would they have done so if others had not taken the lead? I think not.

Today an old geezer sat next to me in the overpriced cafe at a trade show and started to expound these sorts of attitudes as if he expected to me agree with him. He was keen to let me know that he had breakfast with the governor of the Bank of England and that what this country needed was people who had made their way up from nothing and not smart arses out of university.

What he didn't know was that I also have had breakfast with the governor of the Bank of England. (And on another occasion dinner with Kate Barker of the Monetary Policy Committee - who can only be admired for her intellect, perception and insight - and who has a working class background as well as having excelled in her academic career.) The Governor, however, was keen to tell us what a great job the Bank of England was now doing having stopped the cycle of boom and bust, and that we hadn't had a recession for over a decade.

At this point I got on my hind legs to say that a good old recession once in a while is a good idea because it pushes some of the less efficient companies out of business and clears out the crap.

He had a counter argument of course, but what he didn't know is that I had a list of names up my sleeve. Businesses that Stoke on Trent can do without. I was going to say that if they are reading this they know who they are - but they probably don't because they are too stupid. As of today the list has just increased by one.