Category Archives: Uncategorized

As commuting to work becomes less of a necessity thanks to Work From Home, an opportunity presents itself. Boris Johnson has promised to “Build Back Better”, and perhaps the key to this is to build commuter villages across the country. Gone is the need for centralised towns, which while unhelpful for the town centre, isContinue reading “The Great De-Urbanisation of Great Britain.”

At a time when covid has forced many people to work from home, it offers a significant opportunity to consider energy waste in major cities worldwide. I am now retired but when working I flew extensively around the world, returning mostly to London, and often late at night. I was struck by the huge amountContinue reading “energy saving in major cities around the world”

During the pandemic I have been involved in supporting the vulnerable. This has been a confusing time for many. In the first wave, people were told to shield and not leave their home. In the second wave they were called clinically extremely vulnerable and were told to stay at home if they were able to.Continue reading “Isolation and loneliness”

Children have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic already, and the lockdown conditions have exacerbated conditions for cases of child sexual abuse. The true size of additional child sexual abuse cases in children are unknown and unmeasured. Furthermore, key predictors for the maltreatment of children are exacerbated – the economy is shrinking, increase in domesticContinue reading “Pandemic Impacts on Child Sexual Abuse”

The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated starkly the dangers of obesity in our society. An obese individual who develops Covid-19 has a less favourable prognosis than one with a body weight within the normal range. Obesity is a drain on our precious National Health Service resources as obese individuals can develop diabetes and other health relatedContinue reading “OBESITY-THE CHALLENGE”

COVID-19’s economic fallout has revealed the precarious nature of the UK’s personal finances: pre-pandemic a third of Britons had less than £600 saved for emergencies. One in ten hadn’t any savings whatsoever (creditfix.co.uk). As a nation we were ill-prepared to withstand a downturn, let alone a pandemic. This begins with education: among adults, the UKContinue reading “A lack of financial literacy skills exacerbates the economic impact of COVID-19”

This submission is not a polemic against bureaucracy: it is a plea for greater attention to relationships and results whenever rules and requirements are being considered. In the same edition of The Times announcing this competition, there was an article about 21 requirements for retired doctors wishing to help in the Covid pandemic (‚’Bureaucracy bafflesContinue reading “Balancing Relationships and Results against Rules”

For many people, one of the great revelations of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the value of using audio-visual communications for family and personal communication. People have not only been able to maintain their usual contacts during Covid, but some have even been encouraged to reach out to people they haven’t talked to face-to-face forContinue reading “Access to Easy, Affordable and Secure personal Audio-Visual Communications”

Government spends billions of ¬£s on outside consultancies and COVID has brought that spending into headline news (“¬£7000 a day”). But in terms of solving practical problems it is the employees closest to the coalface who know the answers; it’s just that we don’t ask them or invite them in to become the problem solvers.Continue reading “Engaging people closest to the problems instead of using external consultants in government”

The key opportunity presented by the pandemic is ensuring that we developed sufficient technology to enable the vast majority of us to work and live anywhere in the world. In terms of economic implications, this means that the old assumption that labour is immobile, and capital mobile, is potentially no longer true. This has significantContinue reading “The case for flexible working and global mobility”