Lego isn't bricking it as Indiana has the whiphand

In Lego we trust or that's how the story goes in a downturn when the Danish toy maker reported a 51% rise in UK sales in 2008. It's all about the trust us consumers have in established and loved brands, apparently. They say it's the new Indiana Jones line wot done it. That's the formula everybody: a film tie-in with a product of timeless appeal. I admit it's an old idea but we need ingenuity to get us through this recession. How about:

Slumdog Chips - bruised and battered by the healthy eating fascists, let our chip shops rejuvenate their coffers and our palettes with spicy, colourful fried potato offerings of hope and renewal.

Benjamin Chocolate Buttons - imagine chocolate buttons that get smaller as they melt in your mouth whilst you actually grow younger...

... oh yes, and The Last Emperor's New Clothes - clothes so transparent that it actually looks like you are not wearing any. And they are completely free!

Please send me your film tie-in recession beaters, along with your name or moniker of choice and together we can beat this beast.

UK After The Recession

The blogosphere is buzzing with responses to the recession. A very welcome new addition is UK After The Recession. This blog's serious assessment of the factor's that have led to the UK's current economic predicament are discussed with a view to encouraging a debate 'about what happens after the recession'. Writer and business technologist, Rob Killick, poses a challenging question in his blog that he wants us all to engage with:

'Is it possible for genuine innovation and change to thrive inside a society which is wedded to risk aversion, state intervention and welfarism?'

His outlook feels refreshingly positive. Killick believes 'that the decline of the UK can be arrested, but that the barriers to growth and change are broader than generally realised.' Rob Killick shares an interest in the shifting of the balance of world economic power with another Robert and Uncrunched favourite, Mr. Peston of the BBC. In The UK economy after the recession-Part 1 Killick starts to explore a theme that is followed in later posts about how:

'The decline of manufacturing in the west relative to the east has created a disequilibrium which underlies the global credit crisis.'

We are not faffing around with bloomin bankers here, this is trying to get to the heart of our economic malaise - a theme that Peston addresses today in his analysis of the significance of 'today's historic investment of $19.5bn by Chinalco - a giant Chinese resources group - in Rio, the metals and minerals group.'

Uncrunched welcomes these future driven blogs and will continue to provide the light touch so everything can be kept in perspective. Have you heard the one about the former banker, the regulator and the prime minister?

Blaming bad bankers is the easy way out

Yesterday's 'Bankers' Sorry Fest' was a truly pointless and futile carnival of apology. It was a lose-lose situation for all involved. Those who wanted abject, tear-inducing, grovelling apologies from the big four former bank chiefs will have been desperately unsatisfied with the low sorry count. (There were 7 sorries, 13 apologies and 1 regret in total according to The Times). Any of us after some more probing questions that may have led to deeper and more profound answers to the cause of the banking crisis came away from watching the charade with zilch.

However, while we were all looking at the phony interrogation by the Treasury Select Committee, the 'real' story of the day was lurking elsewhere. The Sir James Crosby and the whistleblower story hovered around all day and then butted into the evening news agenda with a vengance. We all know what happened next. It is indicative of the fluid nature of events, and the out of control blame culture we all live in, that news stories about the economic crisis have a habit of seemingly popping up from nowhere and usurping the current story of the day. The trouble for Gordon Brown (GB) is that the blame radar keeps on revealing targets closer to home. I predict that the end of this process is going to be painful, obvious and inevitable: GB will be staring at himself as the radar makes a constant bleep and he will be unable to defend New Labour's record or his personal role in the perceived mismanagement of the economy. A few months ago he employed the blame radar to locate a distant American submarine, or subprimemarine if you will, as the toxic asset-packed vessel that was to blame for UK's economic woes. In the last few weeks, with the aid of some crass contributions by 'Up Pops John Prescott', GB's ire has been fixated on THE BANKERS. And now, today, a close aid and appointee of GB's, Sir James Crosby (CEO of HBOS from 2001 to 2006), has had to resign because of accusations that he unfairly dismissed his former head of risk at HBOS for articulating his fears of the bank's rapid and risky growth. Bleep, bleep, bleep, bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

When one member of the Treasury Select Committee, Liberal Democrat MP John Thurso, said: “Could we get back to Captain Mainwaring running a bank we could trust?” the quaint ineffectiveness of the whole occassion was sealed. Sir Tom McKillop (former RBS) laughed and replied: “Well I recognise that sentiment.” Ahhhh...

...the reassuring, bumbling amateurishness of Britain's favourite bank manager and part-time Captain of the Home Guard (a fictional character I love, by the way) versus the former Masters of the Universe - no competition! In this climate Mainwaring wins every time. But perhaps a slither of sense sneaked under the door of the Select Committee and floated like a nasty smell through the corridors of the Palace of Westminster to get up the noses of any MP who might try and escape the dense toxic fog engulfing UK's political class and the sensible words were:

“It’s just too simple if you want to blame it all on me.” (Sir Fred the Shred Goodwin, former RBS CEO).

Case not closed. Case never properly opened.

Gordon Brown: saving the world from depression

I have complete antipathy with anyone who occasionally muddles up words. My heart goes into them. It's only humane; everyone does it sometimes. Gordon Brown is only suffering from Wrong Word Syndrome (WWS) and it is cruel, and frankly not politically correct of David Cameron, to tease and jibe Gordon about what is clearly an affliction.

Today at Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) Gordon told MPs: "We should agree as a world on a monetary and fiscal stimulus that will take the world out of r... depression." In December, Gordon said at PMQs: "we not only saved the world" when he meant to say "banks".

There is only one man who can save the world from depression and that is Gordon. I can't think of anyone else more suitable to lift hearts and minds and put a smile back on faces as we sit at home thawing out by maxed-out, fuel bill unfriendly radiators.

Gordon is going to make sure that we get off with a light headache you just wait and see. You might feel a bit fuzzy but it ain't full blown, clinical "D" word. How do I know? Just look into his eyes... he hasn't a clue what's going on, let alone what's coming out of his mouth.