There's no Plan B

It's only 9.05 am and already I'm rather hot under the collar. I keep reading about green shoots everywhere and how we're on track to getting back to where we were.

Why don't the politicians get it? We cannot go back to where we were - it's broke. It didn't work. It ain't worth saving. The endless growth of spending and consumption has to end if life is to continue on this planet. Up to this morning I couldn't quite understand why politicians don't seem to realise that.

Now I think I know the answer. The reason politicians, economists, business leaders and all the vast heaps of quangos keep banging on about green shoots and growth is that they know nothing else. They can't imagine anything else. It is beyond their comprehension that life could be other than an unmitigated drive to growth and consumerism. So if the economy is not growing and consumerism is not flourishing, well they hope it will soon. They are not looking for any other model or solution.

Even the 'Thought for the Day' speaker on Radio 4 spoke about the use of that word "consumer" today and what a sad reflection it is on our modern lives that we categorise ourselves as consumers, people who eat up resources.

To illustrate how I think those that rule don't understand the plot consider this. I've just read the introduction of a leaflet from Her Majesty's Government entitled "Real Help Now For Women" - a Central Office of Information publication it appears. There's a whole page - the second one in the introduction - which is just singing the praises of the government, it's nothing to do with helping women. And we are paying for that page with all its white space around the words. We are paying for that political propoganda at a time when we're in a recession and everyone's tightening their belts. Obviously the COI is not.

This leaflet is a symptom of the problem. It illustrates the unwillingness or inability to change ways for working, for this juggernaut that is our government to do things differently. Why not cut the design element, cut all the white space and stick the information in that leaflet onto a couple of sides of A4 and save thousands? I don't suppose it ever occurred to anyone.

The COI is doing what it's always done, government is doing what it's always done, the politicians are crossing their toes and fingers and hoping that the economy will eventually do what it's always done. So that means setting up initiatives, web sites with lots of links, beautifully designed leaflets, lots of spending that can be flagged up in the intro to yet more leaflets. It's all so predictable and I suspect completely useless.

Somewhere along the way those who seek to lead have lost that ability to think outside the norm. They just cannot grasp that all previous models have failed and we are in unknown territory so we need to do something different.

There is no Plan B and at the moment there's no comprehension that we even need one. I think that's the biggest problem we face, there is no Plan B.

Royal Mail's "pricing made easy"

You could be forgiven for letting out a large and long guffaw if you picked up a leaflet from the Post Office today entitled "pricing made easy". In the last few years Post Office management has done its level best to ensure that the pricing is anything but easy.

I run a small business and up to now I've always been aware when there was a price increase because the Royal Mail made a point of telling me and sending me the new tarrif. Not this time. I'm obviously not paying attention for today I only discovered the rise in postage prices when I went to the Post Office.

I'm visiting Post Office counters more and more these days because I'm finding it more and more difficult to know which category my post comes under. Let's face it, you now have to know not just the weight but also all the dimensions of your letters and check if they go through the little slot.

I was lucky because I received a little slot in the days when Royal Mail communicated regularly with me. I wonder how ordinary mortals, without little slots, cope? Well, actually I don't really wonder at all, because I see them in their droves queuing at the Post Office in order to send their one package.

The queue is longer of course, because wherever it can (under the dictates of Europe) Royal Mail has closed post offices, so people have to travel to find one that's still open.

For me, who stores stationery for years, there's an added trip in the system. I cannot assume that my larger envelopes will pass the tests and many of them have to be cut down and taped in order to make them the correct sizes.

So Adam Crozier, if you're reading this, just think about things from a user's point of view for a change.

Pricing made easy? - you've got to be joking!