Macro-Level Trends – Culture and Capital – Sociological Disruption Negates Investment

Investors of most types, from pension funds to even (the safety off-set strategy of) hedge funds, seek basic socio-economic stability.

It is the pre-requisite to monetary injection into commerce and business, and the obvious reason why time after time massive amounts of domestic and foreign capital has been seen to exit a promising turned tumultuous Emerging Markets country.

That story replayed over and over again, from the boom and busts of late 19^th century Brazil, and the initial signs of revolutionary Communism, to reasons given for monetary flight from Argentina and latterly Turkey over the last few years. All the while the failed New Socialism efforts of Venezuela, an effective 'buffer-stop' to the broader spread of overt idealism in the region.

South and Central America, Coastal Africa, the CIS countries and South East Asia all - on an individual country by country basis - temptingly offer new opportunities for informed heavyweight investors. Each seeking to re-enact their own version of Jim Rogers' 'Investment Biker' escapades and rewards, though often more so from the comfort of a City or St James's desk and their imaginings on their BMW commuter bike.

[NB Given his long-time Asian and Russian investment focus, Rogers decries Trump's tariff regime against China, and asks China to reform far quicker. Yet it seems that China's leaders will continue to take their time and will do so on sector by sector basis - as seen with the opening of the auto-sector. Yet after Chinese success in Africa and Latin America through creation of new infrastructure and majority purchase of energy companies, the CIS, Middle East and North Korea will continue to be the expansion strategy; so negating the impact of American tariffs, by creating its own new markets and investment goals

This is why the West must attend to fixing itself socially and socio-economically; and not so through forced liberalism and obviously socio-directed winners and losers].


To the West....

Beyond the usual rhetoric about aged demographics and over-indebtedness, little true in-depth societal attention is directed at the West. Why look inward when there is so much opportunity elsewhere, and why bother trying to fix what in actuality is too often a re-divided and part-broken society?

Let private equity cherry-pick the best yesteryear brand names for re-invention in export markets, and let government and institutions provide for high cost low return infrastructure projects like rail and social housing.

But of course, a revitalized economy requires far more than such simplistic answers.

Over the last decade savvy western investors have suckled from Central Banks' teet of 'QE' (itself a perverse anomaly to the edicts of good investment theory). Only recently has near full capacity utilisation been filled in plant and people,  without the drag of substantive new investment in new equipment and escalating labour costs , so creating ideal conditions for boosted EPS and so incentive for corporate share buybacks.

(NB one of the few investment hungry sectors being Autos, with the switch to Hybrids, PHEVs and EVs requiring measured yet heavy costs per research/ development , plant transformations, high value component sourcing, and dealer-service centre updates).

Yet western societies are still obviously socially fragile,  as compared to ideal macro-fundamentals (as derived from PESTEL analysis) of a unified functioning stable society, ideally 'young' and with increasingly positive socio-economic feed-back loop.

This is central to investment confidence, hence the ideal of the perfect EM nation – best exemplified by the rapid rise of China since the mid 1990s, wherein an essentially unified population was well directed by Beijing in a prescriptive manner to direct and leverage human resources through good orchestration of the country's 4-tier industrial capabilities: across 'primary', 'secondary', 'tertiary' and 'information' based activities.

That golden period centred around China appears very unlikely to repeat elsewhere ever again, with even its slow-down still well managed in the face of U.S. tariff wars.

Economics books galore have been written about their 'economic miracle', and digested for learning by many, from students to western governments; much as we saw the myriad of management books centred on Japan in the 1970s and 1980s, to assist western global competitiveness.

But what has perhaps been (possibly deliberately) over-looked was the topic of national identity, unity and so social cohesiveness.

China both yesteryear and today is in practice the very opposite of the 'mosaic' West, consisting of multi-various backgrounds from previous colonial days and elsewhere, and upon which much of the previous economic uplift was dependent.

Here in the UK, that being everything from 1950s Afro-Caribbean nurses and bus-conductors, 1960s Indians, Italians, Turks and Greeks as much from waiters to shop-keepers to property entrepreneurs, 1970s exiled African-Indians into restaurants, pharmacy and doctors – thereafter an economic re-rise, followed by in the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s an influx of Eastern Europeans in services and agriculture.

Like Germany, The Netherlands, France and Scandinavia, the UK has (arguably more than the American idiom) welcomed others; this as a two-way economic deal, to necessarily suppress the national wage-base to maintain state-owned enterprise costs (the public realm) and to support business competitiveness and to inject new dynamism into the economy (in the private realm)

Each wave of immigration has been both economic boost and burden upon the state, the former ultimately out-stripping the latter, as people's become settled, integrated and their second-generation children become better educated and theoretically move-up the social ladder away from the instability of wages and into the supposed stability of salaried positions reflective of their discipline(s), capabilities and sector experience.

Likewise, the roles of women in the workforce, as importantly commerce shifted away from the last gasps of the 'primary' and 'secondary' industries in the 1980s and shifted toward 'tertiary', from the boom in retail (shopping malls and the high street), call centres, the expansion of the NHS under the then new Trusts model, and of course female entrepreneurship, whereby the greater sociability of women as typically 'people orientated' rather than 'task orientation' of men, saw 'female networking' become the buzz-word of the 2000s.

This all assisted by the expansion of liberal education, rise of gender-related and socio-related educational topics, rise of the liberal arts such as publicly funded arts, the good work of inclusiveness art and stage groups (that demonstrate that all people are just 'people'), the art and dance therapies that assist greater self-confidence in those with 'downes' etc, and of course the inevitable certification models that formalised, and bureaucratised an ever sprawling liberal politico-commercial agenda.

And though it is unpopular to mention, eventually with the increased influence of immigration and liberalism came not only socio-economic upsides, but down-sides aswell.

From the immigration standpoint......

Given typically different and often far tougher backgrounds, immigrants retained (very necessarily at first) a mono-cultural, almost tribalistic, mindset, which defended themselves against inevitable oppression and ridicule when entering their new land by many members of its indigenous populace.

The theory was that would change over the years to come as the mixed backgrounds normalised and 'integration' took place. This often so, with broken-down barriers what used to be called 'mixed marriages' in the 1960s/70s, most often prescribed to white and black couplings, both then from the lowest echelons of society. This altered over the years, to the point now where even royalty marry into others of different ethnic origin.

But things were different even back then, and different groups mixed and inter-married at different rates, from encouraged to totally shunned; the latter typically when the families in the group/community had either experienced the negative effects of integration or had build up wealth they sought to keep in the community.

If that were so then simply understandable, but there is another story, whereby 'the group' is used not simply to defend economic power, but to attack others to grow it.

Thus under the surface of old-country national pride – itself with historical context of the old-country 's experiences – that inter-group cohesion used to become deliberately oppressive to others.

Especially so when seeking to take-over specific urban areas, and especially so when money was/is to be made from property. The most marginalised, typically older and widowed, targeted as easy prey into forced  separation from their homes. So an 'agenda animosity' hidden behind  'happy-faced hypocrisy'

Or we see, a cross cultural dynamic of another kind.

This ironically when one ethnic group seeks to take advantage of another 'frenemy' group.

[NB this a horribly disingenuous term, that Hollywood should be ashamed of, seeking to normalize endemic hypocrisy; ie one person/group to take advantage of another to greater gain, and then seek to re-befriend the marginalised group on the basis of a far smaller social or economic return – truly repugnant behaviour].

This seen by the now often long-forgotten stories of the newly arrived 'Windrush' Afro-Carribeans suffering in slum-like conditions in Notting Hill and West London, or in Brixton, South London., after the previous 'White Flight' there. Unscrupulous landlords pushing out the older generation (harassment), buying properties and demanding high rents from the 'coloureds','blacks', 'negroes' and 'schwarzers'; whilst pretending to be their friends since they were the only ones who would rent to them.

The insightful film 'An Education' provides a glimpse of insights into how one apparent 'ethnic minority' takes advantage of another supposedly similarly socio-marginalised group, the pretense of a helping hand and friendship, but only seeking inflated monetary returns on their rental properties.

These then the basis to tribalistic mindsets that are retained one generation after another, and sit beneath the surface of everyday consciousness, especially after any experience of being deliberately taken advantage on the pretext of socio-separation whether because of colour, religion, or whatever.

From the gender perspective...

Likewise, there will be a societal stress with a broader socio-economic fundamental shift, and especially so when that shifted power-base sees a fundamental shift in the general social harmony and change in the ideal 'economic reciprocation model' (ie the earner assisting the non-earner).

Indisputably, for good and bad, Western society has shifted enormously over the last three decades with the rise of not only the service sector - whereby administrative process and intelligence replaced much of the previous raw physical-power (now only really seen on construction sites, or specific delivery trucks like pub barrel wagons), or the long hours of taxi drivers - but the massive rise of the 'liberal economy' that was so endemically female orientated.

Thus maleseconomiesinarguably been comparatively diminished, since not only did the expanding service sector and liberal economies primarily assist women, even the previous male-dominated areas (such as construction, security, pharmaceutical and civil engineering ) also saw an influx of new females with the idiom of rebalancing what appeared male dominated areas.

Thus the majority of economic expansion for two decades has been pro-female and largely in 'cushier' jobs undertaken from an office or 'workshop' meeting place; though of course areas such as postal or warehousing demanded much of those who took such jobs.

And whilst this apparent utopian existence does exist for many, more than men,  obviously there are positions of responsibility and power held by women - from Prime Minister to Directorships in public and private companies  posts - that require highly capable individuals, and whose own lives have been dedicated to purposeften in male dominated environments.

(NB the best 'boss's the author ever had was female...an executive at Land Rover's Business and Product Strategy Dept. in the mid to late 1990s. Someone who demonstrated the best of female and male characteristics, gave space to capable subordinates an led by quiet example. Who as a WI member served others before herself, such as her role in the pensions committee).

So we have seen the inevitable rise of equalising female economic power....except that many men who were just responsible 'worker-bees' and 'family-men' have experienced a very different outcome. 

Yet, even well before the 2008 Financial Crisis, it became apparent that this new socio-economic paradigm model was adding enormous stress-fractures to society at large, especially with regards to the social unit that is the family.

And arguably, (as the MRA and MGTOW groups believe), specifically to the middle-aged white men – who had never had any of that supposed 'white privilege' – who themselves had been moulded by the idiom of self-sacrifice to support their nuclear family. Instead, redundant skills attuned to old, dwindling industries, or when in management roles, seen as too costly compared to the available talent pool of the younger and increasingly female.

Now this appears just 'how the socio-economic cookie crumbles', couples now made-up of two working adults, the format continued when children came along.

Except that there was a clash between the social norms and expectations between the sexes, that had existed for millenia based on the patriarchal society, and the economic new norms that had arisen.

And this generated shifted and mixed understandings and expectations; a changed landscape creating difficult to navigate terrain for both sexes, dependent on personal values. Spanning from who pays for a first date (the man or 'going Dutch') to domestic chores in coupled relationships, to at work, the often very different mindsets of women and men regards getting the work done for a company to stay afloat and prosper.  

There are now various youtube commentators who cite academic and informal studies which illustrates that the sociological data regards marriages, divorces, single (ie single-motherhood typically) illustrate that the old family inter-relationship of societal 'reciprocity' (inevitably of that between man and wife) had broken-down; perhaps beyond repair.

Women were not willing to directly replace the previous role of the husband as the sole bread-winner as and when circumstances dictated, such as the man's loss of his work. With her own money made from work, and any divorce and sale of the family home providing for a nice 'restart financial package', why bother carrying the baggage that was a useless partner or husband?

Men had never thought in such a way, until now, seeing and experiencing the 'rough end of the stick'.

MRAs and MGTOWs typically believe that the empowerment of women's rights was theoretically a good thing, but the social outcome of nuclear family fragmentation, division of the sexes and inevitable social bitterness was highly socially destructive. They believe – and it is a growing trend amongst old and even younger males – that the consequences of 3^rd and media hyper-fuelled 4^th wave feminism, led to the damaging 'brain-washing' of two generations of increasingly self-centric actions of 'overly-entitled' and socially unaccountable, 'me, me, me' women.

That empowerment shifting from true equality toward feminist tyranny; whereby the worst of the female character becomes a norm for society; and hence the rise of sociological and pyschological mind-games that have become so common in both the workplace and upon the street, between co-workers and against target (supposedly anti-left) strangers, who stand in the way of the feminist drive to feminist power.

That drive to power being obviously directed toward wealth appropriation –  note not necessarily wealth creation – why build it when you can try to take it – and typically involves property; and is plied for via nothing less than a very surreptitious but powerful psycho-sociological war against those men who see what's going on and oppose it because of its negative effect on themselves and society at large.

'NAWALT'.....'Not all women are like that' of course, and thankfully so, but the male targets of such obviously agenda-laden power-based ploys in an increasingly transparent western socio-ideological civil war, are very dubious of the women in the modern western world; and its being seen in their own self-defensive beha

om the rise of new men's think-groups, to the rise of the so called 'INCELS' (young men who retract from sexual activity) to the increasingly widespread fear of false accusations, the deliberate misinterpretation of their actions or word by a woman, or at worst the belief that so many woman have become so brainwashed toward female advantage (ie their gain over true equality) in nearly all circumstances, that they intentionally stay clear of women as much as possible, given the negative outcome.

Hence, beneath the surface of a supposedly diverse yet integrated western society, the objective men and women of the everyday well recognise the fractures that have occurred and exist, and try to work around them in their everyday just by being decent human beings.

But those fractures - whether real and deliberately hidden (such as tribal and gender conflict), or falsely exaggerated (such as immigration numbers and effects) - have also been simplistically unified under the risen banner of 'New Popularism', (which itself is a propaganda device to keep the common people ill-informed and angryangry).

The fact is that as long as social instability permeates the west, because of the mixed selfish actions of many, from those who seek to keep tribes and genders as foes against each-other, to the willingness of such tribes (singularly or as cooperatives) to socio-economically marginalise another tribe or person(s), the longer the west will suffer from social conflict, instability and chronically low investment.

We live in a world in which the West, after the last positive effects of QE have been subsumed, will become ever more reliant from the rest of the world for investment – that is the central idiom of BREXIT.

Those supposedly named EMs – which often display greater standards of living than that lived by much of the west - though previously contracted by the global recession are themselves on fast-track economic escapes toward slowed but stronger regrowth.

And before investing heavily, the BRICs and CIVET countries will want to see true social stability in the west, and not just a pretence of happy diversity in company mission statements, whilst office politics and a lackadaisical mentality continues to sweep the west because of ethnic and gender differences.

Its time the West to woke-up from its ideological and very damaging sleep-walk of utopian pretence, re-taught not just children but critically adults about the basic values of mutual respect, to negate what is now an endemic 'passive-aggressive' society with at extremes it 'gas-lighting' traits, and got real about what makes a truly strong economy, prosperous people and thus a content and happy and so productive populace.

The legendary “Welcome to Britain” sign which has stood for 70 years at Heathrow Airport, may also need some simple directives about the basics of expected decent social behaviour.

(NB since 'gas-lighting' was replaced by electric lights over a century ago and we now live in a supposedly more enlightened age, whilst 'flying monkeys' don't have landing rights at airports or anywhere else; since such actions are criminal offences).

Only then, it would be a Britain of true social stability and integrity, upon an upward trajectory, that offers far more than just financial  RoI, but a social one aswell.

Macro Level Trends - Cultural Capital - Goodwood Revival: Inspirational History, Not Histrionics

The West now exists at a time of mainstream 'culture-jamming', wherein false news has become the norm, specific tribes look more than ever to old and new media that validates innate ideologies, and the media's pretence of inter-cultural harmony actually masks a reality of separation.

Stand back from the crowd and the 'social pawns' of the far left and alt-right, both knowingly or unwittingly used, whether under the pretext of 'equality' and 'fight for rights', or alternatively, to invigorate a 'New Enlightenment' under which the extremes of Post-Modernism perieshes.

[NB. here in North London, the social machinations of portions of the 'middle-left' through 'collusion cliques' are constant, transparent and repugnant; the consequence of overt socio and psycho intellectualism. So much so, it makes the teachings of the 'middle-right', as seen by over zealous junior managers, appear downright naive].

The social anti-dote to such destructive 'culture jamming'?...

...Jam with culture....some clotted cream, scones, and pot of Earl-Grey.

As regards the culture, what better than a 'slice' of socially observant Jamiroquai, a soupçon of Japan's Jam Orchestra and just a little bit of Duke Ellington's C Jam Blues.

British sensibilities should to be rediscovered by the urbanite masses, beyond the immediate, but now ageing, appeal of hipster beards, storyboard 'ink', craft beers and ever more idiosyncratic curios; or the inner-city aggrevation of of 'grime and drill' or bling-laden tropes of modern  R and B.

Thankfully, such answers can be found once again in the provinces.

This weekend, Britain's South Downs, one of the grandest houses and a the very sociable Lord March plays host to the Goodwood Revival. An event that has become not only a 'must-do' for many on their annual calendar, but a veritable central pillar of the UK's own culture industry.

Whilst English Heritage and the National Trust do fine work in maintaining and conserving an archetypical Britain that dates back to the Middle Ages, with buildings and landscapes of utter beauty, for good reason (even with re-enactments etc) much appears as if preserved in aspic; and inevitably typically pre-dates the 20^th century.

In contrast, it has been the very dynamism of Goodwood that has fuelled its popularism.

The modern event is construed as having its origins as the initial get-together of the automotive cognoscenti, as an amateur's haven to race yesteryear BRM's, Coopers, Maseratis and other single-seaters soon followed by second and third tier coupe and saloon racers with their E-Types, Shelby Cobras, Listers and big Galaxies, Mk2s and the gaggle of little Austins, Morris's and badge-engineered Rileys, et al.

A world almost mythologically derived, akin to the Aristocratic back-story of the real Edwardian Chitty Chitty Bang Bangs, merged with the tireless mechanical efforts of the fictional Caractucus Potts. Those origins the antithesis of 1990s class obsessed Britain, about a meeting of minds rather than social strata, where the owner of a V12 Ferrari 330 could talk about compression ratios, advanced ignition timing or four-wheel drifting with the owner of a humble Austin-Healey Sprite.

Well, the beginnings may not have been quite as mythological, perhaps a lot more considered; but brilliant events management and a world of goodwill mean that the myth soon became reality, and so much more.

From reality to hyper-reality as prescient moments in Britain's social history became condensed into 3 wonder-packed days.

With so much rich social history to draw from, the 1948-1966 timespan accorded to the cars (reflective of the track's own previous lifespan) became simply tokenistic  yesteryear, as regards all that happened 'track-side' and far beyond. As with the inclusion of WW2 to both evoke the national spirit and need for modern globalism; the raft of Allied memorabilia joined at times by vehicles and planes from the Axis powers.

After the fall of Communism, the Goodwood Revival became an instrument of Britain's internationalist soft-power; whilst simultaneously re-connecting new generations of its own increasingly diverse peoples to the historical heartland.

But what was/is the events attraction? It appears to be the paradox of of 'realism in escapism'.

For the drivers and vehicle owners, the heart of the Revival Meeting itself consists of the classic car's loud pops and bangs, the smell of new and burnt Castrol oil, the visceral feeling of open-cockpit or closed-cockpit speed – the open with bugs on goggles and in teeth, and the roles reversed in closed cockpit, as the driver becomes the the 'bug in a rattling tin'.

Its where the need to be uber-rational meets the uber-emotional, such as when deciding on a ' late apex dive across' to take an inside line against another, or the in-situ mechanical assessment required to ascertain whether a whisp of white (not blue) smoke from the tailpipe means the head-gasket will last another race before a rebuild. Is where 'mind and matter' meet, and more realism is gained in the activity of weekend escapism.

[NB Doing so encapsulates the 'living in the moment' mentioned in the previous weblog, and the mantra espoused by 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'].

For the attendant crowd, the heart of the Revival Meeting is to a degree the excitement of what happens on the track, but more so, personal travel through an apparent time-warp into a very well staged former period.

One that merges in the hyper-real manner, aspects of the real, such as vintage clothing and else, with the fictional, such as the nuanced and deliberate recreation of Best of British film plots.

Per nuance, by chance there may be a svelte, caddish figure stood by a Bentley Speed 6, that just might conjure-up the scene from 'The Fast Lady', as the charming but slippery salesman (Leslie Phillips) convinces the overly rational Scottish anti-hero (Stanley Baxter) to swap his bicycle for the car, in his bid for a fair maiden.

[NB In the spirit of the Revival, a little something for the Gentleman, and some ladies,...take a look on youtube at 'The Fast Lady - UK Trailer' (CarryOn Trailers)....wait until 2mins 12 secs, and enjoy a demure momentary thrill that sums up a romantic sexiness that beats modern porn by a country mile].

Or perhaps at Goodwood one might stumble upon the likeness of a young Stanley Baker (not Baxter) stood by an old Foden, ERF or Leyland truck, in an oil-stained shirt, sleeves high-folded with a packet of unfiltered Capstan, looking tough; a moment then from 'Hell Drivers'.

But far more likely for most will the momentary transcendence into the cinema screen or onto a long-lost Pinewood film-set, as with the brilliant previous efforts of 'Carry On Cabby'.

More subtle but arguably even more immersive are the efforts to recreate the environments of the byegone everyday, a form of very specific 'deconstruction for reconstruction', as with a 1960s Tesco shop, or branded car dealership; the verisimilitude enjoyed given the play on the senses.

Vitally, it is the rich tangibility of the vintage items that populate the foreground, amongst the backdrop of plywood constructed scenes, that provides emotional meaning.

Those surviving (and even well reproduced) items, whether vehicles, clothing, accessories, auto-jumble, etcetera, actually feel materially different to our senses than that of our modern everyday, and not just because they may be musty.

It's the quality of materials and manufacture, the weight and longevity, that feel so different to how supposed quality is represented and experienced today.

Whilst undeniably modern vehicles are better 'all rounders' when in use, regards driveability, fuel efficiency, crash absorption etc, the senses received them as less substantive and so 'less'.

Engineering techniques to improve the perception of quality abound, from 3mm shut-lines to steering-wheel stitching patterns and spacing to acoustic tuning; but the necessary high-rationalisation of vehicle engineering for cost, weight, manufacturing and performance purposes – the centre-grounds of modern QFD – have altered the innate character of the car.

This philosophy started at Ford of Britain in the late 1950s with 'Project Cardinal' (which morphed into the 1962-66 Ford Cortina Mk1) and thereafter further rationalised by its Ford of Germany counterpart on Mk2 and Mk3/Taunus. So providing for mutual technical learning for each camp, and so circularity of savings; leading to the integration of Ford of Europe.

Hence the original Cortina (and US/Australian Falcon/Futura) provided for a step-change in Design Methods; soon copied by GM and Chrysler and taken to extremes by the Japanese with Sigma 6 and Kanzai. And these products introduced a new Modernist age, one which itself - as with the film 'Made in Dagenham - has inevitably yet ironically become an historical snapshot in its own right. 

But with such sleekness also came the loss of high tactility and confidence inspiring 'build-quality' and the long-lasting emotional connection of the buyer/owner/user to his/her vehicle.

As product cycles sped-up, marketing campaigns ran and components failed near their 4-year designed lifespan, so the commercial strategy of 'Inbuilt Obsolescence' expanded further, from its 1950s origins to become the fundamental basis of 20^th century consumerism.

This is why in this period the Rover P6 was such a hard car to get right on so many levels for the Wilks Brothers. Since they had to try to combine and balance: America's cost-down engineering methods, France's demonstrated technical sophistication whilst still retaining the Best of British Rover's build-quality, for both the diverse demands of domestic sales and export orders.

Hence, the Goodwood Revival isn't just a grand day out, nor simply 'living history', portrayed through brilliant characterisation.

It illustrates the paradigm shift in a rarely available 'compare and contrast' manner, the watershed period between 1948 - 1966 when Britain itself was innately remoulded by the challenges and opportunities of new internationalism and its direct effects upon the commercial imperative.

To end, a toast...

“To the death of 'culture-jamming' and all negatively associated with it”

and instead,

“To culture with jam, clotted cream, scones, a pot of early grey and a 'slice' of jamiroquai...

...to meaningful national reflection, a new age of creativity and sound macro and micro financial stewardship ...and substantive commercial-industrial transformation”

And how about a 'laugh-a-minute' government funded remake of 'The Fast Lady'?..just to inspire!   

Summer Message - 2018 – Retro-Fitting UK plc: Deconstruction for Reconstruction....

Why Eco-Driven 'Industry 4.0' Regional Planning Should be Influenced by “Zen and the Art of Project Binky”

'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' was the equivalent of a 'secular bible' for the harried American company-man of the 1970s; who sought to recapture his soul, albeit for but a short time on a Sunday evening, to re-connect with his inner-being and true self.

Obviously in the world where capitalism rules and long hours worked, sabbatical visits to Indian ashrams, midday yoga sessions, tantric massage retreats and all else that “re-balanced the chakras” was out. Instead, he had a book about bike journeys and the contentment of attending to the inner-workings of the machine; and so, the slow satisfaction re-balancing the chokes on the carburettors was probably the closest he got to nirvana. A basic tool kit, the time taken to do a good job, the contentment of enjoying the motorcycle and a sense of self being in 'full tune'.

As the author R.M Pirsig stated, the central theme was that of the 'Metaphysics of Quality', which in layman's speak, is that which gives one's life meaning and value; born from the harmonious inter-connectedness.

Eighty years earlier, this had been the motivational force behind the previously described Garden Cities projects of Letchworth and Welwyn in Hertfordshire, UK; wherein Ebenezer Howard had sought to install and instill the essence of 'quality' into the average person's life. When able to exist in stable and uplifting surroundings people would themselves provide better quality professional work, undertake more productive pastimes and by means of a virtuous circle create improved communities and so society.

At its core was the ideal of the ability to raise consciousness and contentment through work, rest and play via self-fulfilling self-improvement, so that people could live lives at best as the euphemistic extended 'hand of god' – able to utilise being 'at one' themselves.

Today, beyond the relative rarity of beautiful park-lands, historic old towns and exhibits of museums and galleries in the everyday, we in the world at large arguably have very few contemporary examples of things made by man but seemingly 'touched by the hand of god'. Such items themselves born from a personal process of 'absorbed creation' that forms one aspect of the 'Metaphysics of Quality'.

As has been retold time and again, industrialisation and associated mass-scale productivity did and does still allow for the many to afford much, from cheap 'throwaway tat' at one end of the spectrum to intrinsically well designed, notionally long-lasting items at the other.

Yet whilst people enjoy much, from Primark clothing to Habitat ceramics, the general absence of either the truly hand-made, or better still the self-made, denies consumers and self-users a connection with either the original crafts-person or being themselves wholly subsumed for a period in the mystical creative process.

Ebenezer Howard (and the Garden City idiom) wanted to see people be both contented and become “the best of themselves”, and the importance of slow joy  to be had from  pastimes and hobbies of the period that promoted learnarom gardening to carpentry to tapestry weaving – each and much more,  central pillars to betterment.

Howard's effort was toward nothing less than the societal re-construction required from the negative results of an over-zealous capitalist system; one which had created a gulf between the enormously wealthy industrilists and financiers with allied managerial 'officer class', and the lives of the remaining masses: the working poor and destitute, with privation and vice-laden distractions.

But Howard and his “Social Reformer” peers weren't just seeking to spread middle-class values so as to end poverty, improve productivity and so enrich the nation; but to open the eyes of the less fortunate to become more at ease, mindful and content – in short 'to grow' beyond their own often self-damaging behavioural
limitations to find the inner peace and contentment that exists within Pirsig's 'Metaphysics of Quality' - which itself echoes the old spiritual belief systems of the East , from Persian Zoroastrianism to Chinese Tao.

Such personal contentment is experienced typically when one achieves something, or when practically working toward that goal in a manner which utilises skills gained thus far. Hence the satisfaction of practical hand-work, wherein the mind and body operates simultaneously in both parallel and unity.

Howard sought to re-construct his new towns in a deliberately hybridised manner, taking only the better aspects of city and country existence, and deleting the worst aspects of both places.

In short, as with any analytical design process...

”De-Construct to Re-Construct”.

Those new 'model' towns and suburban expansions helped re-ignite local, regional and national economies through humanitarian principles that ultimately through better lives delivered improved products, services and lives for all. Well directed and use of the Humanities in 'mission' and policy-setting so as to then better direct the Sciences in commerce and education.

[NB For Letchworth, the results of that attraction  was in its day, the many  light-engineering SMEs, such as automotive and railway firms, the positive ripples of which seen  in the educational slant toward the STEM subjects in its schools].

Today, more than perhaps ever since that crucial period, Britain needs to 'De-Construct to Re-Construct' at the macro and micro levels:

1. National Level - regards properly considered Regional Development Planning

2. Personal Level – regards capabilities and sense of self of the lowest demographic.

Aspects of the current national development projects appear ill-considered, and simply default to historical policy-planning.

The supposed panacea that is HS2 and 'Northern Powerhouse' Rail is in actuality little more than the application of increasingly obsolescent infrastructure from a very different age. Railways were created to supplant canals in the transport of initially heavy commodities such as coal, iron-ore, and thereafter other goods (often time critical) and thereafter people. It was a freight haulage system suited to the needs of the then myriad of Primary and Secondary Industries, thereafter consideration about the conveyance of people, with obviously regional commuter rail by far the most important current need – as with the new Elizabeth line.

Besides the interests of specific FDI backed mass-production (vehicles most obvious) Britain has been effectively been post-industrial for nearly 40 years. Yet the economic development policy reliant upon the expansion of rail – notionally argued as more eco-friendly – actually harks back to a now defunct age of coal mines, steel mills, textile mills, potteries and beer brewing towns.

Also obviously, the invention of the telephone reduced the need for personal travel enormously, applied en mass a century after the initiation of rail, and and so again with the internet nearly a century later again.

Unless Brexit actually results in the very opposite of Britain's re-globalisation aim, and by which Britain must again produce all itself for itself, the returned 'railway mania' appears very odd, unless for vested interests. Even then the necessary 'clean-burn' use of LNG and CNG and the improved affordability of naturally sourced eco-energy generation, increasingly on a local basis, means that further investment in rail appears less convincing than better considered infrastructure projects.

To this end state-planning ought to be better 'de-constructed and re-constructed' given the critical ROI demands of PPFI backed by investor institutions that have long-horizon pension liabilities to the British population.

That said, this web-log, seeks to focus upon the individual – men, women, boys and girls alike - and the importance of creating a living environment that promotes education, practically applied learning and the basis for a new and meaningful economic template that necessarily relies to a great extent upon the re-use of already 'circulating materials' via sophisticated recycling and redeployment.

The phrase 'reality bites' has never been so prescient, and it is an unpleasant reality which won't go away for many people, even with statistical GDP growth and the popularity of nationalistic efforts such as Trump's 'America First' policy.

The everyday reality of tight-budget living by many, and the contraction of job opportunities after 2008, especially affecting the young, was precisely why the highly popular Macklemore-Lewis song 'Thriftshop' became such a meaningful theme for so many 15-40 year olds.

Critically, changed times call for changed economic templates.

Which is why investment-auto-motives conveyed many years ago and so soon after 2008 that the economic western 'new norm' of low western growth, itself predicated upon reduced future demographic demand, and the long-lasting sociological effects of the Great Recession, would demand a new approach by sections of banking and business – far beyond the fascination with the likes of Lidl, Aldi and Poundstore – and into new realms.

Some may recall the long weblog series devoted to the futuristic philosophical redesign of emergency service vans, with special focus upon police demands given the massive diversity of tasks within that arena.

Hence, it is the central theme of 'Deconstruction / Re-Construction' that should be far better considered.

- At the personal level to generate learning and interest......

- At the local level to create a model of 'eco-procurement' hubs.....

- At the commercial level to generate new business models......

- At the national level to enlarge the positive impact of a recycling economy......

Many of those entering adulthood after 2008 entered a very different world to their parents previous experience, most recognising that the 'good times' had gone and they would have a harder time of things, as with student debt, decades of home-renting instead of property buying, the shift away from marriage and life-time relationships, etc...and together with increased social friction given the consequences of socio-economic decline actually views the world at large more cynically, even if they must publicly appear open and upbeat to befit the social zeitgeist.

Part of this is the recognition of self-reliance and the need to expand their skills-base to get-by and enjoy.

Video-upload platforms such as Youtube highlight many younger (and older) people trying to find new social roles and related income streams. The 'new norm' prompting a wide range of self-publishing responses from thrift-shop 'hauls' to food foraging to 'living off the land'. The need for low-cost living, ideologically supported by eco-consciousness, has moulded youth and many people's mentality toward that which is either wholly 'DIY' directed, or re-set toward the communal ideal of combined effort.

However, whilst undoubtedly there is renewed interest in the 'Good Life' (as depicted in the 1970s comedy TV series) by the few seeking 'hippy living', most often today's examples of DIY learning aren't about ethically driven, drop-out, life-changing habits, but simply about pursuing personal enjoyment.

Wherein a person – often as part of an on-line based special interest group - chooses (in an arguably very infantile manner) to partake in a personal sublimation into the escapism of the cartoon worlds that exist inside the video screen.

This of course the trend of 'CosPlay'.

Ironically, though facing less real-world problems that those in reduced circumstances, it has been the 20 and 30-somethings of the middle-classes who are able to devote time and money to this escapist past-time.

However, the positive outcome has been a growth in self-created items and associated the handicrafts devoted to the making of costumes and accessories.

To recreate the characters and outfits of screen-based figures they have had to utilise both imagination and their limited resources, stretching the former to bypass the latter.

Increasingly popular annual Comicon events have seen the costume efforts of its participants evolve from poorly executed using odds and ends, a glue-gun and spray-paint, to highly sophisticated interpretations deploying much from artisan old craft-skills to 3-D printed accessories.

This renewed and specifically directed interest in design and making (albeit upon a presently small comparative basis) has undoubtedly helped to add to the new-wave of designer-makers.

Added to this has been the TV programming trend for re-constituting, refurbishing and re-purposing old furniture, materials and fabrics. Such activities much assisted by the now long existent interior design trends of yesteryear 'industrial-chic', the more soulful 'distressed', 'age-worn' aesthetic', and eclectic bric-a-brac, that long ago opened the younger generation's eyes to 'crafting and curating' something personal and unique; albeit actually within accepted resonating styles.

Such trends led to fascination for the old, such as motorcycles, typically from the 1920s to the 1980s, along with interesting curios like old metal signage and much else besides including esoteric task-dedicated machinery so well illustrated by agricultural equipment.

But is has been the plethora of TV car-based shows predicated upon the formula of reconditioning for resale, and that of a vehicle-owner commissioning of a personalisation project, that have been the greatest prompts towards a re-popularisation of repair, re-use and customisation.

The programmes seen on TV however, rarely illustrate the reality of a vehicle rebuild or major re-design; oft edited to obtain a 25 minute progression story behind which have been 100s of hours of thinking and much physical effort.

However, the best results are achieved through even slow, more relaxed concentration.

TV typically depicts supposed money-making exercises to enthuse the masses and create social trends, and in this instance drive up prices in the classic car sector. Yet all too often the reality of the time, cost and effort required doesn't accurately 'stack-up' as a profit seeking exercise.

For the most part the business model of piecemeal classic car restoration is rarely a money-making exercise unless either for rare vehicles at the 'top-end' that have high demand, or for specific models awaiting their demand-upturn bought at the right time and at the right low cost (invariably meaning much work). Or when the business is so well financially supported and large enough to enable a mix of  client projects  from light reconditioning to full restorations . This the template behind the rise of various auto-manufacturer's own business  strategy expansion into the classic sphere, with finance, time and  authentic origin.

Neither do most television shows to convey the true essence of such undertakings, mostly done by men who do it as a personal hobby and/or challenge. It is a 'journey' in itself and for the satisfaction of completion at some unknown future date. 

But there is an exception in TV-land, something approaching the central message of 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance', and that was 'The Re-Assembler', presented by James May of Top Gear fame.

It provided a deliberately slow, peaceful, and considered atmosphere for the re-assembly of various yesteryear consumer products, spanning: a model locomotive, electric guitar, petrol lawnmower, monkey-bike (motorcycle), GPO telephone and other items.

It was produced as a light-hearted social antidote to the madness of modern time-compressed, unthinking and reactive, modern-life; the antithesis of today when Britain itself (through both rose tinted spectacles and sepia image) supposedly felt as slow as a long Sunday afternoon.

May – himself nicknamed 'Captain Slow' – provided the perfect insight into the original high-mindedness of the (mostly men) who created well designed and manufactured 'quality' products for all ages and interests.

He reflected the high-idealism of what could be called proper industry, when company reputations were built on long-lasting goods available to an ever expanding client-base, between the 1920s and 1960s.

'Integrity' was the watchword, built into the product, into the company and into the people.

And it is very likely this idealism, of time taken for a job well done, that compels the 'men (and women) in sheds'.

Yet of course such people are rarely widely known, even if the  those who do exist might be said to form the ethical backbone of Britain and elsewhere.

So, to find a true evocation of the RM Pirsig message, one must seek-out the very best from on-line video content-makers, those who operate in the realms of vehicle deconstruction / re-design / reconstruction.

The best by far seen to date has been the project build from 'Bad Obsession Motorsport., with their wholly entertaining and completely absorbing 'Project Binky'.

The endeavour itself relayed with passion, humour and modesty.

It involves the efforts of two men located in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, who are jokingly depicted as 'master and apprentice', and who on a part-time weekend and holidays basis, seek to fit the body-shell of an original Austin Mini with the engine, gearbox and 4WD drivetrain of a Toyota Celica GT4 Turbo.

Whilst others within the Mini-sphere have updated with off-the-shelf upgrades or gone as far as to install far easier transplants, typically the eponymous Honda VTEC or Suzuki Hayabusa engine, the endemic aim of Project Binky goes far further and far deeper..

It is as much about the process as the outcome, if not more so.

With very detailed reconfiguration of the engine-bay, front-end, front bulk-head, under-floor, rear bulk-head and most other engineered 'hard-points', it includes an enormous amount of necessary (and debatable unnecessary) custom-made, and heavily adapted, parts, from the Mini, the Celica and a host of other vehicles and new shop-bought parts.

Moreover, the ambition demands more than simply practical know-how, but periodically delves into the STEM subjects, such as when needing to use trigonometry to calculate the required swept-area of the front and rear screens, or to calculate the volumes of a newly fabricated petrol tank, HVAC system and hydraulic reservoirs.

Thus requiring intellectual inquiry and conclusions.

Humour and self-mockery are constant elements throughout, well illustrated by the use of their version of 'CAD'. Normally applied to Computer Aided Design, its the synonym for 'Cardboard Aided Design' that describes the cardboard templates (that themselves become origami artforms) so well appreciated by the amateur or professional repairing or renewing body-shell components.

Of specific note is the deliberate slow pace of progress, which itself is a welcome antithesis to the frenetic pace of the modern world. This because of the time limitations available given their other professional and family responsibilities. Hence episodes appear as and when ready, not to a prescribed schedule and time-frame.

Yet, it is precisely the correlation of the time required to achieve such micro-detailed substance, and the similar quality of video-production, that rewards the viewer. Something to truly ogle, in the old and prototypical sense of the word.

'Project Binky' is quite unlike anything else depicted on television or Youtube for its adherence to the innate ideal of 'true quality', the striving for which provides meaning and satisfaction for many likewise automotive obsessed addicted viewers.

A Utopian world hardly exists, but if people would choose to view and appreciate life though greater introspection and aforethought – known in engineering design philosophy terms as 'QFD' (Quality Functional Deployment process) – one day it might.

Time for QFD in the nation's analysis of Eco-Industry 4.0, supporting National and Regional Planning, use of financial resources and human education and talent, and within ourselves to become higher quality people.

Summer Message – 2018 – Retro-Fitting UK plc, by Learning from the Provinces.

The last message conveyed the vital idea of retained outlook of globalism – so necessary for a successful Brexit and to avoid geo-political and internal domestic conflict. Yet the present age from the USA to UK to Europe and even Latin America sees the results of ideologically fueled populism to both left and right, and labels such as 'LGBTQXXX' set against the supposed rise of extremism under 'New-Nationalism' or somesuch.

[NB though of course labels are very dependent upon who is ascribing them and to what propogandist ends].

Thankfully, the UK is not quite as endemically politicised as the USA or parts of Southern and Eastern Europe.

But as with these countries, in the UK much of the 'silent majority' having been forced to endure many years a very vocal urban left, that has via a multitude of ways and channels, forcefully relayed the expanded civil rights of everyone except heterosexual white males - seen as the endemic enemy. Though the vast majority of whom were never part of a supposedly exclusionary (and very illusionary) elite, but were for the most part self-sacrificing figures molded by historical precedent.

The rise of MGTOW appears the reaction of 'betrayed' men who recognise that their own life-approach of familial responsibility and delayed gratification to ensure security of the family unit, was/is not shared by partner or relative female. Absolute separation deemed necessary by many of these men given the traumatic experiences and mental scars endured because of 'empowered' female manipulation and deceit, often under the guise of supposed 'victim', invariably centered on obtaining money / property. 

However, a more recently emerged counter-point trend to far left dogma and social consequences consists of swathes of average 'non-damaged' people - typically mature Gen Yers - who recognise the need for open and honest gender cooperation, and true mutuality, and so as to successfully run society; from bedroom to Boardroom.

This the re-awakening of conveniently forgotten 'sleeping elephant' which comprises the true foundations of society.

Whether that be decent men sick and tired of the over-blown 'feminazi' propaganda that encompasses much of modern culture to their detriment, yet often fails to pass muster in the real world; or the socially pressured women who do not readily fit into the ascribed expectations and 'boxes' conveyed by 3rd wave feminism. People of both sexes choose their own preferred path because of personality type, circumstances and real world opportunities.

Similarly, by women who feel that the outcome of modern times have done more bad than good, with unrealistic expectations, a compounding of female selfishness, over-burdening with multiple social roles, and the experienced chasm that have left both sexes more distant and distrustful of each-other. So leading to an inevitable increase in the number of middle and old aged singletons, and so fundamental change in Western society's dynamic and future.

Moreover, those who really objectively see the world around them had noticed that whilst the pink and rainbow banners were waving, society in other ways was falling apart.

The social values and so social standards that previously created cohesion, trust and so willing interaction has dropped through the floor.

Educational standards and their environments much declined leading to an under-educated, easily distracted and so less capable and critically unfocused labour force. Petty, mid-level and serious crime rates much risen (except in the uber-wealthy, often touristic, city enclaves). Weakened police numbers and capabilities because of previous budget cuts, only now being slowly improved. Overly lenient punishment regimes, both within society and during incarceration, which obviously do not deter society's .bad eggs'. Three meals a day, hot water and assured immediate medical and dental treatment that appears actually far better than available to many decent folk in straightened circumstances in 'free' society itself. Such socio-economic circumstances creating such life limitations that such people feel psychically and mentally trapped inside their own lives, unable to enjoy anything near notional normality.

Add to this an undermining of civil society at the highest level - property rights - with hidden realities of property crimes (fraud and harassment) on ethnic, familial and generational basis, so setting fractures through a civil system of what should be respected basic rights. With, at the lowest level of the everyday, a virtually unrestrained media that simultaneously typically promotes 'adult-infantilism' via petty distraction at one end (via TV), and at the other (via the Web), easy access to depictions of warped and socially damaging sexuality (ie porn video sub-titles that confer/promote the idea of parental or sibling incest).

The argument of the new right is that  whilst the many on the left were screeching about their personal 'entitlement' regards very private esoteric issues, few of those same people cared to raise the issue of a realistically fragmented and degrading society; infact many ironically deliberately using vile language in the presence of minors to supposedly strengthen their message during demonstrations, whether verbally, on banners or placards.

Eventually the 'cognitive dissonance' (ie the mental chasm between the conveyed, perceived and the actuality of experience – much of the cause of today's supposed 'mental illness') of modern society has been recognised by many whose own and group values-sets are innately conservative with a small 'c', and put rationality far ahead of emotionality.

And so the paradoxically named but highly relevant 'New Traditionalists' have formed in what they see as the true centre-ground in reaction to the increasingly extremist left; whereby  far greater systemic rationalism and group and personal responsibility is viewed as desperately required to try to maintain a stable and productive society.

In their eyes, this notional socio-economic stability (though itself historically shown to be prone to boom and bust) having become deliberately undermined across many fronts: from language (eg by the pro-nouns argument per some trans-gender or other identifying people) to the fundamental underpinnings of neo-classical and neo-liberal capitalist economics, (with efforts toward other forms of payment systems; from direct bartering of goods or skills to crypto-currencies).

The fact is that what is now coined as modern hyper-liberalism was only able to emerge because of the far more comfortable social environment created by the post-WW2 capitalist boom. So allowing for ex Eastern European emigrés to take up new professorships and authorships, then to gain cult-like sycophantic followers who in turn further explored yet further reaches of sociology and psychology through theory and experimentation. That learning thereafter used to the advantage of both academia in creating new gender studies disciplines to supposedly emancipate women, whilst simultaneously consulting with Madison Avenue advertising agencies to influence both the minds and so consumer choices of mass middle-America, increasingly women, whilst also able to expand and gradually monetise Hippie Counter Culture.

Yes, the 1960s counter-culture provided the cultural beginnings of “alternative values consumerism”, from the anti-status statement of the VW Beetle so beloved by lecturers of the period, onto the more ethical business practices begun in the 1980s led by Anita Roddick and Body Shop, so leading up to highly visible CSR business models pioneered again by of the likes of Starbucks in the 2000s.

Yet, all too ironically, it was the government tax-take provided by American industrial might and the corporate right, and the deeper pockets and spending power of the American peoples of all ranks, which bank-rolled the eventual snowball hyper-liberal influence. Out of places such as NYU, The Chicago School, UC-Berkeley and elsewhere, even eventually reaching into the Ivy League establishments where previously the overtly ideological had always been scuppered by the Enlightenment values of scepticism, scientific enquiry and the balance of thesis, anti-thesis and hypothesis debate.

But since the late 1960s, perpetuated by the impossible idealism of a virtually utopian existence, the liberal influence has become increasingly unbounded and uber-liberal. Such academically evolved issues thereafter directed through the mass-media and into the hearts/minds and so thinking and behaviors of many socially-accepting, uncritically-thinking, people. This obvious; especially so in areas of high, dense populations in which underlying idioms could be easily spread, made all the more easy because of their youthful idealism and so open-mindedness which proved all too easy to influence.

Inevitably then, it is in the areas of less population density, away from large cities and towns, or socially separated within, that more independent thinking prevails; and thereafter when undertaken in responsible manner assists in the true development of society.

So as to positively 'socially engineer' a populace in an upward trajectory, instead of the obvious 'dumbing-down' through widespread low-brow culture seen for so long. To make broad society more 'high-minded' and so objective, insightful, creative, productive and respectful. Far more of an uphill battle to achieve than creating and controlling dumbed-down 'sheep'; yet necessary to evolve humanity. 

Instances of such past attempts however do exist, and have proven in their time to boost the social education, critical thinking and capabilities of such 'socially-engineered' small populations. The vital component being that this is only achievable in secure, comfortable and inspiring surroundings within which true formal and autodidactic education can take place.

The well documented efforts of mid and late 19^th century industrial philanthropists and their model villages and towns such as Saltaire, New Earswick, Bournville, Port Sunlight, etc are true totems of positively managed sociological history.

And thereafter the combined efforts of similarly important influential people recognised as 'social reformers', with creation of the 'Garden Suburbs' at Bedford Park, Benthem and Hampstead in west and north London.

[NB Though it must be stated that like the consumers of William Morris' wares supposedly destined for the masses, Bedford and Hampstead were all too soon occupied by the upper-middle classes as opposed to the deserving working class, who could not afford the leases and rents].

However, the positive outcome of this was the establishment of the even more influential 'Garden City Movement' consisting of the original model town of Letchworth and successor Welwyn Garden City, both in Hertfordshire. These both generated from the '3 Magnets' philosophy merging the best advantges of country and town into a unified plan.

These landmark living spaces combining beauty and functionality for individual, family, industry and commerce altered the face of the nation, as the ruralesque archtectural DNA of its homes became the miniturised 'country life' signature style for the new sprawling suburbs of many expanding metropolitan areas. To this end the initial ideals of 'place and space' spread far further, affecting the lives of millions far from the initial epicentres.

Thereafter the Garden City Movement influenced many other similar societal betterment projects in Europe, North and South America, Japan and Australasia.
Some of these were also connected to the betterment trend involving eugenics research of the time, aimed at latter generational health and intellectual improvement to the advantage of society at large; and not as sinister as latterly portrayed.

This effectively 'clean sheet' approaches were enabled, and demonstrated themselves as successful, precisely because of the fact that such villages and towns were planned directly in association with the interests of industry. From the Titus Salt's productivity concerns at his Yorkshire textile mill in Saltaire, through to the production and marketing expansion strategies of the likes of Spirella (corsets) and Welgar-Nabisco in Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City respectively.

The ability to closely estimate the corporate planning, building and operational costs, including the prime component of specific head-count costs, provided for greater certainty in the broader planning of housing capacity and type aswell as the requisite new infrastructures and wider landscaped and natural environs.

Those very humanistic layouts and buildings, together with the certainty imparted by respected companies and senior managers, as well as fundamentally a shared belief with originators like Ebanezer Howard, aesthetic sensitivity of architects like Unwin and Parker and patronly town administrators like de Soissons, meant that newcomers felt immediately planted and secure.

This a critical repreave from the consequences and economic fragility prevailing in the period, when an effective trade-war with Germany and the might of American made exports incurred a recession and instability for many.

However, the arrival of America's Spirella and Welgar-Nabisco actually meant closer ties with the USA and the gains of FDI and technology transfer, for the employment and learning of British people. Home production meant 'import substitution' and the creation of local supply chains so creating a trickle-down effect across the regional and national economies.

The point to be clarified here is that such socio-economic stability allowed many of the new inhabitants of these locales to not only enjoy a better existence compared to previous urban and rural slum-dwellings, but provided the environment in which they could better concentrate and relax so as to improve their professional capabilities.

Whether one of many young female machine workers hoping to eventually be promoted to section head, or young male apprentice seeking to one day become the works manager.

Or infact as a managing director able to more easily deploy early forms of management science to reduce costs, or to stand away from the conurbation's herd of similar manufacturers so as to self-develop in-house or adopt new techniques from elsewhere for greater efficiences and with important privacy, time and space.

This 'mental space' to think anew in whichever industrial and commercial discipline, can only be achieved in what today is called a 'Campus'-like environment, where the mind is able to relax and recognise cross-disciplinary synergies.

Hence, the Garden Cities were in a way the prototype Campuses,  allowing for not only fresh thinking within one's own field, but the ability to absorb from other diverse local companies in different yet rapidly evolving sectors.

In the case of Hertfordhsire, as diverse as Garments (with Spirella), early FMCG (Nabisco), Automotive (the 'Blower Bentley's' race-prep engineering unit), Aeronautical (de Havilland's expansion to Hatfield (near WGC), and much else besides, including an early example of streamlined partial self-service in the monopolistic Retail schemes that help finance Letchworth and WGC in their early years.

Thus matters pertaining to Production Methods, Construction Materials and Methods, Design Techniques, Captive Consumer Markets and Flexi-Hours Labour Management (enabled by close quarter living) meant that the new thinking behind the Garden City enabled new thinking for in-situ companies.

As Britain today lurches in what seems a wholly ill-prepared, uncoordinated and shambolic manner through the socio-economic political maze that is 'Brexit', and vast sums of many billions of pounds are spent on the land purchases and construction of HS2 – ironic in a cyber-age when physical travel is less required than ever – those lessons from the past that illustrated true 'Grande Plan' thinking with truly life enhancing synergistic industrial-residential planning should be remembered and re-learnt.

So even with the substantive results from the previous Industry Strategy Boards laying out firm foundations for tomorrow's 'Industry 4.0' era, the past visionaries of the late 19^th century and early 20^th century would be ashamed of the lack of true foresight, non-aligned thinking and so poor macro-scale planning (and very possibly the contrivances in scope and delays that incur massive project cost over-runs to the additional gain of approved contractors).

The schemes of Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City were very well budgeted to almost the last penny, that exactitude apparent given the need to convince naysayers.

Over one hundred and ten years of supposed progress in infrastructure planning, and because of a lack of true vision and clarity, and even with brilliant examples such as London's new sewerage system and new Elizabeth Line, in other instances such as HS2 and the Northern Powerhouse, we appear less advanced than the efforts demonstrated by Barnett, Howard and other similar luminaries before and since. 

Contemporary industrial and commercial innovators and investors deserve better.

Yet the present climate of a 'bungled Brexit' and the enormous politicised populational chasm, will only negate, delay and dilute such a desperately needed outcome.

If ever Britain needed an independent, non-political 'Governor General' to take charge of a well planned future, it is now.

Summer Message – Russia 2018 – The Signs of a Re-Caste Globalism?

France has proven itself  “haute de la classe” in Moscow, a result which will provide population elation, a magical summer and also serve to illustrate that much of its sporting success starts metaphorically “beyond the peripehrique” and so lessen the tensions of different social stratas.

The joy of Benjamin Mendy when holding the trophy was obvious; who together with President Macron, sent the signal that although the graduates of elite universities like 'Science et Lettres' (et) 'Ecole Polytechnique' still effectively run socio-political France, it was 'foreign' (African) names like Pogba, Mbappe, Kante and Matuidi that also carried the tricolor.

Yet it could be deemed that it is Croatia that should celebrate even more so given its small size yet enormous will-power. Independent since 1991, having re-identified and rebuilt itself after terrible ethnic war, to re-assert itself as far more than a remnant of previously enormous empire and an agglomerated Soviet border. To have trained and fielded such devoted players to reach the World Cup Final with such comparatively small human and financial resources, and to surpass the Group and Round barriers, illustrates that the archetype of the 'giant slayer' is not forgotten yesteryear legend. Though defeated on the day, from Dubrovnik to Vukovar, the country deserves self-congratulation and renewed internationalist confidence.

As for the host nation of Russia, though vilified by Britain and now Greece for apparent nerve agent deployment and apparent local bribery to disrupt the Greek-Macedonian negotiations; to much of the rest of the world, and especially its BRIC counterparts and second-tier EM nations, Russia has shown itself as very much 'open' in both a more globally attuned mentality and thereafter a willingness to seek its own fortunes beyond its boundaries.

Interestingly, though the US President says 'American First' and the tariff regimes suggest protectionism and increased isolationism, in this dualistic age within which every beneficial stance is taken as the result of economic re-strengthening and subsequent 'real politik', Trump also offers a second conciliatory face to those seen as important – eg North Korea for expanded Asian  capitalism and Russia (as opposed to Iran and perhaps China) as the preferred powerhouse behind Central Asian development.

The meeting of Putin and Trump will offer little more than platitudes and mutual respect. The antics of the Pussy Riot demonstration – now illustrating a disrespect for the home state aswell as previously the church – will inevitably draw these two closer as mutually appreciative representatives of the old centre-right, which given the previous enormous leftist pull over decades, today sees them by millions occupying something closer to the old lost middle-ground.

The men themselves could not be more different in background and personality: Putin's near asceticism and calmness providing for rounded and deep consideration ; compared to: Trump's previous excess in all things, from  deliberately blusterous  vocal persona, to his symbolic status buildings to the manipulation of the press via tactical deployment of post-truth to fight fire with fire, and to provide optimal every-angle outcomes. Yet Trump has latterly mellowed and become a more sensitive communicator so as to better convince of oft valid points.

As America looks to buoy itself at the suspected cost of both its old allies (Europe) and newer trade counterpart (China) and the Environment, at such a crucial juncture of the global economy, the majority of other world leaders might begin to identify with a slightly more open Putin and opening Russia, than the less 'easily readable' Trump.

As Trump and his advisors seem to want to seek to re-draw the world map of international relations in search of possible national fracture and later-date capitalist opportunities, and possible disruption of China's trans-continental 'Belt Road', the historical lessons of France's 'Entente Cordiale' (with antagonistic play-book) and the Yugoslavian 'Failed State' (prompted from within) might well be seen again across Central Asia and the North Korean-Chinese border.

Let us hope that the advisory teams of both 'strong men' seek proper cooperation and positive global influence, rather than any re-drawing of the global influence map to benefit of each.

To do so would be to reverse the enormous advancement of the last 73 years. In vehicular terms, that distant yesteryear was based upon the might of respective Sherman and KV tanks racing to Berlin.

Today, metaphorically Trump's GM 'Beast' and Putin's new Aurus 'Senat', could roll side-by-side together in a processional and progressive demonstration of global statesmenship that encourages other world leaders and peoples to continue to re-build a globally safe and prosperous future.

Such an outcome – that goes back to the philosophical origins of Adam Smith's monumental work that begat globalism - would be the best trade deal by far. To negate head to head competition in a myriad of arenas and comprise of a system that sought the best home advantage for international exportation, and thereafter create mutual alliances for international synergies.

An Ameri-Russian co-creation of a future generation of 'Beast' and 'Senat' would be the sign of re-cast globalisation.

Summer Message - Russia 2018 - It's How You Play The International Game That Counts

The England Squad have effectively ended their World Cup run.

But Southgate, Kane et al - all throughout - demonstrated what had become a lost mantra in football....

....Gentlemanly Sportsmanship

As Britain seeks to re-make its mark on the global stage after BREXIT, England's 22 have set a very much needed new tone of internationalist fairness and mutual respect.

The way in which Eric Dier and Harry Maguire in the last portion of Extra Time simultaneously offered helping hands to a downed, cramp-laden Croation player said it all.

England has shown that 'old fashioned' values are able to take their place again at the vanguard of sports; and hopefully thereafter, within broader society.

If Britain can export the 'Southgate Spirit' in all its future international commercial dealings, throughout Europe and far beyond,  it will be a win-win-win for England, Britain and the Rest of the World.


     

Summer Message – The England Squad(ron): 1918–2018

The Royal Air Force celebrates its Centenary (plus 100 days) with its magnificent Fly-Past, whilst the England football team seeks to maintain its winning streak in Russia.

For the event, each and every pilot had to choose the right throttle level and aero-surface 'angle of attack' - whether with piston roar or jet scream, whether for oval, straight, swept or delta wing, whether single or double rotors, so as to orchestrate pitch-perfect their own tightly weaved formation patterns. 

For the match, the operating formations of the team must alter to befit the moment of play, but unlike their flying counterparts in aerial parade, their own wing-play and 'angles of attack' will need to surprise with unexpected 'shock and awe'.

Both arenas rely upon the counter-force effect of high pressure and low pressure impetus for an upward trajectory.

So in 2018....“Lift that Trophy England”...and make the Squadron of 1918 proud once again.