Category Archives: Uncategorized

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”

The Pandemic has accelerated the decline of the British high street, leaving many shops empty and boarded up. Landlords have no rent. This is particularly apparent with department stores. However, these premises usually consist of several floors and are generally in fairly good repair. They need to be utilised. Covid has also seen an urgentContinue reading “Empty Lives Empty Shops”

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) has been declining globally since systemic efforts were first made to begin measuring this quotient approximately one decade ago. The ‘State of the Heart’ report, which uses World Health Organization data to underpin its research, suggests that from 2011 to 2017, global EQ has declined by 5%. This trend is established acrossContinue reading “Opportunities to halt, then reverse the global decline in Emotional Intelligence”

Children have missed out on education during the pandemic. The key challenge is that the poorest children, those in the least well-equipped and organised schools, and those without family backup in terms of resources or personal support have lost the most. The challenge is to restore to them their education and the life chances atContinue reading “A key challenge posed by COVID-19 is restoring our children’s education”

Factory farming and eating of animals is creating the conditions for diseases to spread from animal to human, as seen in the latest new virus: COVID-19. The pandemic has created an opportunity to tackle this threat and as a consequence also tackle three other emergencies that are threatening the existence of this planet. Our needContinue reading “Reduce factory farming of animals to tackle four emergencies of our time”

A key challenge presented by the pandemic was the failure to allocate productive work to volunteers and to those using the furlough system. The inherent opportunity is to consider ways in which such people could be utilized ‚’ not just in responding to needs created by the pandemic but also in terms of developing skillsContinue reading “An opportunity to dedicate underutilized and unutilized productive work towards projects and trainings”

A Key Challenge identified during the Covid-19 Pandemic has been the need to respond quickly to new manufacturing demands. This is highlighted by the UK‚’s lack of capacity in the manufacturing of low-cost / high-risk / high-value items. An example would be the current (2 January 2020) reported under-supply of vials at scale for theContinue reading “The need to respond quickly to new manufacturing demands”