Jonny Harrison is sailing to Australia from the UK via the Panama Canal before he starts work in Sydney on a secondment at his firm PricewaterhouseCoopers »
Andrew Hebden is Assistant Editor (Business) of The Journal »
Matthew Rippon is an IP lawyer for BHP Law »
Formerly editor of a national business lifestyle magazine, Jez Davison is a business writer for the Evening Gazette in Teesside »
Ross Smith, Head of Policy and Research at the North-East Chamber of Commerce »
Norma Foster from the North East Regional Portal writes about e-business »
Andrea Wilkinson of Shared Interest is visiting Rwanda to deliver business training »
Jonathan Wheatley from Stokesley-based MC Ware writes about IT matters »
Paul Williamson from Deloitte »April 2008 Archives
Will new parking rules help disabled?
Posted by Steve Wilkinson on April 5, 2008 11:40 AM
Fellow disabled motorists could understandably get excited at last week's change in the rules about parking control.
Supposedly, amongst other changes, CCTV is going to be used to catch offenders. But will this make any difference to the continuing abuse of blue badges.
Only last week, over the course of about half an hour while shopping in the area, I watched a single disabled parking bay just off Gosforth High Street have 4 different vehicles parked in it that weren't displaying a blue badge.
So where are the traffic wardens (I think they're now called parking attendants - it's a cosmetic change like calling linesmen, assistant referees)? I don't think there are enough on patrol.
A single warden standing on the corner could pay his wages and more by applying the £30 penalty tickets.
So come on, Council. Take your parking control duties seriously and really clamp down on this parking abuse. Or is that a vote loser at the next election?
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King Canute .... The Great!
Posted by Ian Brown on April 5, 2008 9:07 PM
King Canute was indeed Great and like most anecdotal stories about historic characters there is a lot more to him than meets the eye. I will talk about managed realignment later but have been reassured that - due to climate change - by 2050 Northumberland will be the most pleasant part of Europe in which to live. My certainty comes from having a role with the Environment Agency which helps me understand the potential shape and climatic conditions of the north east in the future
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Off And On
Posted by Julian christopher on April 14, 2008 12:52 PM
Following up on a previous blog about 'off the record,' the piece below from Media Guardian illustrates very clearly just how, er, interesting such conversations can prove...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/07/pressandpublishing1
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The birth of bouncing baby businesses
Posted by Ian Brown on April 15, 2008 9:55 PM
I am pleased to have been at the inception and indeed birth of many businesses. In rural areas there now is as broad a spectrum of business as in urban areas, indeed with the north east having broadband access second only to London we are well placed to start new business here and indeed encourage entrepreneurs to the area with their families to start and grow businesses. It was thus great to see the new incubator space in Berwick The Workspace is fantastic and I think farmers should be thinking about how they can diversify off the farm into such sites.
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The secret's out
Posted by Andrew Mernin on April 17, 2008 9:48 AM
It's official. Women can't keep secrets. And what's more, they are prepared to give away private information with the lure of nothing more than a chocolate bar. But don't shoot the messenger. This isn't me being sexist, this is according to the latest survey by a top research body with too much time on its hands.
A survey by Infosecurity Europe found that women are far more likely to give away their computer passwords to total strangers than men.
Apparently 45% of women versus 10% of men were prepared to give away their password to strangers masquerading as market researchers with the lure of a chocolate bar as an incentive for filling in the survey.
The research also asked for workers names and telephone numbers so that they could be entered into a draw to go to Paris, with this incentive 60% of men and 62% of women gave up their contact information.
So there it is - proof if it were needed - that men are more trustworthy than women.
Admittedly the survey should be taken with a pinch of salt as only 576 people were questioned but it also highlighted the dangers of internet security, or lack of it.
To read the full report click on the link below.
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Meeting expectations
Posted by Katie Pringle on April 20, 2008 10:25 AM
Two weeks ago myself and the business partner attended the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate. Since that time it's been a bit crazy at RPS towers. You see for us, orders are like buses, you wait for ages for one to come along and then three turn up at once.
No complaints on that front, I love "buses", but it has meant a slight re-evaluation of our production methods. Telling stockists that they will have to wait 4-5 weeks to receive their products is not something we think is acceptable, but at the moment, to tell them them anything else would mean dissapointing them come delivery day.
So we find ourselves having to do something we have as yet managed to avoid as a small business.
Forward plan.
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What a load of Rubbish?
Posted by Ian Brown on April 21, 2008 12:47 PM
On the land I look after I have a zero tolerance to rubbish, so since we are not able to stop people chucking stuff out of their windows I'd better give some time to picking it up myself?
I rent my farm and we have a long drive of some three quarters of a mile, this is to maintain, keep pothole, ice and litter free.
So what is to be found in a kilometre of hedgerow in the backwoods of North Northumberland?
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Hands up those who can feed themselves?
Posted by Ian Brown on April 27, 2008 2:09 PM
I have had a food policy theme running in my diary this week. Society generally moves along almost without us noticing but it seems the very slick energy and food juggernaut is easily brought to a halt and since most of us can not produce food or energy directly it leaves us vulnerable to disruption - whatever the cause. Taste and Eat are two northern initiatives worth supporting here in the north east so that people outside of the industry appreciate the difference between the best and the rest.
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