Edifying to note that the likeable Sir David Attenborough has collected another honorary degree without having to have studied at the University, in this case St Andrews in Scotland.

Our Dave told the students who had studied there that his free degree was an honour he valued most highly, because universities are “the one institution which speaks truth, independent of commercial reasons, political reasons and dogma,” which should silence the cynics who feel that honorary degrees are just the cheap PR of academia. Continue reading →

Those marketeers in the business of giving business gifts will know that some items can definitely give an unfortunate impression in some cultures.

The word “clock” has a similarity to the word for a pre-funeral visit to the dying in China; in Latin America the gift of a knife means that you wish to cut the relationship, and the cross logo on a Swiss Army Knife is un-impressive in non-Christian countries; reminders of death are also given by anything purple in Brazil, anything yellow in Mexico and chrysanthemums of any colour in Belgium; and in the German language the word gift means poison.

One amusing example to now add to the list has been supplied by bankers Barclays who recently gave those attending their shareholders meeting a Barclays branded mug, prompting some mischievous elements in the press to wonder if this was what Barclays secretly thought of those who gave them their money ……..

So where do the UK’s marketeers stand on the increasingly popular sport of banker-bashing?

Many politicians and business types are fervently hoping that our financial experts won’t be carrying out their threat to take their immense talents, and greed, to another country, and an equal number fervently hope they will, and screw up someone else’s economy.

Answers on a blank cheque please…