economic situation is dire

[peterms]

All in this together: the scene outside George Osborne's grace-and-favour house.

[Xela]

Moet is hardly extravagant though is it? Its towards the bottom of the Champagne list.

Should he have ordered Lambrini or Blue Nun?

[peterms]

Moet is hardly extravagant though is it? Its towards the bottom of the Champagne list.

Should he have ordered Lambrini or Blue Nun?

According to this blind tasting, it comes out twice the price of Sainsbury's but not as good.

So Mr O fails on both taste, and value for the public purse (I suppose he's not paying). No surprise there, then.

[peterms]

All in this together: Mr Osborne goes to watch Chelsea, at our expense.

Final insult: George Osborne claims £949 trip to Germany to watch Chelsea's Champions League win was 'to discuss Eurozone'

[Genie]

^{I guess he wasn't discussing the Eurozone during the game, and judging by that seat it probably wasn't bought. Maybe he was in Germany on business and was offered the seat FOC?}

^{EDIT: "While there the German government offered him a ticket to the match at no cost to the British taxpayer.”}

Edited January 2, 2013 by Tamuff_Villa

[coda]

Tory councillor slams food banks as an unnecessary indulgence

[peterms]

Tory councillor slams food banks as an unnecessary indulgence

To be fair, he looks like he knows about unnecessary indulgence.

[drat01]

and Jessops are the next to go into administration

[tonyh29]

and Jessops are the next to go into administration

It managed to avoid administration in 2009 by securing a debt for equity swap with its lenders HSBC, following a series of profit warnings and debt fuelled over-expansion.

[peterms]

It managed to avoid administration in 2009 by securing a debt for equity swap with its lenders HSBC, following a series of profit warnings and debt fuelled over-expansion.

You make it sound like a failing of the firm.

In fact, the most relevant factors are likely to be (without studying their accounts or business plan):

• high rents on high street properties, levied by profiteering parasites who create no value, just suck up value created by others
  
• unfair competition, down to UK government failing to create a level playing field for high street and internet retailers
  
• lending strategy of the banks, usually combining madly generous credit with (later) rolling that back, but with decisions being made by a central commissariat, not anyone with any knowledge of the business in question, more recently followed by pushing credit again
  
• and of course smartphones undercutting the demand for cameras
  

It's a sector under threat. Those threats are not of its making, or as a consequence of negligence. A proactive industrial strategy would look at how to help those firms to adapt, not stand by as they sink.

[Risso]

Jessops are over-priced, their staff are generally lacking in knowledge, and their stock range poor. When I buy photography equipment, I either go to an expert local non-chain shop, or I buy it online from someone like Wex Photographic. Those are the relevant factors in my opinion.

[Awol]

It's a sector under threat. Those threats are not of its making, or as a consequence of negligence. A proactive industrial strategy would look at how to help those firms to adapt, not stand by as they sink.

Commercial businesses have to constantly adapt to a changing environment driven by consumer behaviour, particularly in the retail sector. It is their responsibility and not that of the government to constantly update and improve their business model to reflect that. Companies that don't always have one eye on next week, next month and next year will eventually pay the price. Innovate or die, that's the fundamental nature of a competitive market.

[TrentVilla]

All in this together: the scene outside George Osborne's grace-and-favour house.

I always that Osbourne would take his deliveries via the trademans enterance.

[PauloBarnesi]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pq9lc

An interesting programme on Grimethorpe, an ex-mining village and its economic and social problems, and its recent regeneration. Though new industries have helped nothing will employ as many people as mining.

[peterms]

Commercial businesses have to constantly adapt to a changing environment driven by consumer behaviour, particularly in the retail sector. It is their responsibility and not that of the government to constantly update and improve their business model to reflect that. Companies that don't always have one eye on next week, next month and next year will eventually pay the price. Innovate or die, that's the fundamental nature of a competitive market.

That sounds quite like the Ted Heath early 70s lame ducks position. That changed, when it was found to be simply untenable.

With retail at the moment, doing nothing will only hasten the decline. Yes, things change, and firms that can't adapt will die. There's no call for the number of milliners shops or tobacconists that there used to be. But I don't think that means we should expect the government to stand by like a dispassionate observer, watching all our high streets turn into deserted and shuttered ghost towns, while firms based offshore take all the business and pay no tax. Businesses exist to serve our needs, not the other way around. Leaving the market entirely to its own devices is not likely to produce outcomes which are always in our best interests. That's something Ted Heath learned.

[Risso]

So using Jessops as an example, what would you suggest the government do? As someone with a keen interest in photography, I'm actually surprised they didn't go to the wall ages ago, as they don't do any one thing particularly well. If I want to buy the missus a point and shoot compact camera, I can get the same thing cheaper online or at somewhere like Argos. If as is more likely I want a new lens, filter or other accessory for my DSLR, I'd much much rather buy it from a shop in the high street than online. Yet if I go into Jessops, I know full well that they won't have anybody who can answer my questions and they more than likely won't have what I want. I'd put up with the additional cost if they had what I wanted for the sake of convenience, and also doing my bit for the high street, but invariably they don't. I'm afraid it's just the usual story of a company not doing anything particularly well, and not keeping up with the times. People use Jessops as a tool for browsing items, then going back to home/work and ordering it online. Why they didn't beef up their own online presence is beyond me. If it was me, I'd make sure all the staff were at least conversant with the basics of photography, and then have an online portal in store, so people could buy things there and then if they weren't in stock. They could have demos of the cameras and lenses for people to try out and display some images on screen, that sort of thing. Not just have some typical Dixons style bored, uninterested staff who don't know anything about the products they sell.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Risso

[Awol]

But I don't think that means we should expect the government to stand by like a dispassionate observer, watching all our high streets turn into deserted and shuttered ghost towns, while firms based offshore take all the business and pay no tax.

So what exactly should government be doing, examining the business models of private companies?

EDIT: If high streets morph into a different kind of social area full of cafes and niche boutique shops, then it will be because customer behaviour has made the old arrangements untenable. That's no different from the way high streets changed from lots of little butchers, bakeries and green grocers to chain stores and large national retailers as I was growing up. /EDIT

Businesses exist to serve our needs, not the other way around.

Businesses exist to service, or in the cleverest cases to stimulate, consumer demand. If they misjudge that or fail to do it in a way that a customer feels adds sufficient value to their shopping experience (see Risso's last two posts) they are screwed. No business has a divine right to exist and it is not the role of the state to prop them up - and that goes for the banks too.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Awol

[TrentVilla]

I wanted to buy at Cannon 600D before Christmas, so I went to Jessop's but as posted above didn't find them particularly helpful or knowledgable.

So I went elsewhere and got a much better service and indeed price at John Lewis. At the time I thought to myself I'd rather buy it for JL as they have more chance being around if I have a problem, how true it has proved.

Jessop's just weren't very good.

[Risso]

But the government should have intervened somehow to make Jessops good!

[Jon]

I used to prefer Sammi Jessop