From the Guardian, Fri 18 May (and a new book)
“Britain, on the 10th anniversary of Tony Blair’s arrival in Downing Street, is a place whose default mode for earning its crust is to employ the gift of the gab. The Germans may have the engineers, the Japanese may know how to organise a production line, but the Brits have the barristers, the journalists, the management consultants and the men and women who think that making up jingles and slogans in order to flog Pot Noodles and similar products is a serious job. It has the deal-makers in the City who make fat fees by convincing investors to launch bids for companies, and the corporate spin doctors who tell former pals in financial journalism that tycoon X will make a better fist at running Ripoff plc than tycoon Y. It has the publishers and it has the “film development” companies, some of which have actually been known to produce a film. The four iconic jobs in 21st-century Britain, according to a thinktank called the Work Foundation, are not scientists, engineers, teachers and nurses but hairdressers, celebrities, management consultants and managers.
“The essence of successful bullshit is that the really top-notch exponents not only manage to convince others but also manage to delude themselves. Some explanation has to be provided for Britain’s increasingly lopsided economy, dominated as it is by those not-so-heavenly twins, the City of London and the housing market. And the explanation is that the UK’s future lies not, as might seem apparent at first glance, in the drinking factories, the estate agencies and the clothing chains that make up Britain’s monochrome Identikit high streets, but in the knowledge economy.”
No comments yet.