September 15, 2010

The Guardian: mouthpiece of The Real IRA?

I’m getting slightly worried by The Guardian’s obsession with the wickedness of bankers. Now I know they are fat. And that they hoard money in the boot of Bentleys and in those small lockers on board their yachts in Cannes. And I accept that they must be depicted as feline and slimey in all the funniest cartoons. It’s a fair cop boys (and the odd girl). You are rich. Ergo...

September 14, 2010

What I do: business and politics fused

People reading my blog have been asking what I do, and why I am writing about tax and politics and suchlike (see older posts). The answer is that I have a marketing consultancy background, with a bit of agency planner and brand planner time served along the way. I help clients to be clearer about their organisation’s ambition and key market-facing messages. Simply and clearly, ideally. Increasingly, I find myself...

Mark & Evan Love Tax (less so Ed Balls)

It has been fascinating listening to the highly approachable Evan Davies educating us all about our tax system. Especially right now, given where we are in the tax and spend debate. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tpp4w/Evan_Loves_Tax_Episode_1/ As regular readers and friends may be aware, like Evan, I too “love tax”. Having worked with one of the Big Four Firms to deliver a number of international Tax Summits lately, I’ve become unexpectedly fascinated by a...

September 9, 2010

Tea with Alastair Campbell

A few folks (Roger, Elizabeth, hello) have “told me off” for having a blog and then not (a) updating it with news of what I’m up to business-wise and (b) not using it to share interesting stuff. So from now on, I will blog if something interesting stikes me. Yesterday was interesting. A chat with Alastair Campbell about his involvement in a major event. For my money, he is one...

July 29, 2009

Twit

If I called this a twitter would I be lying?

September 2, 2008

Credit Card Bet

Here is the bet: Open your wallet. Get out your credit cards. I bet that you can’t give a rational explanation for all the cards you own? I suspect that you are deeply irrational about the credit cards you have. Yes? No? Was I right? (Tip: click on “COMMENTS” just under my name, and then – as you fill in the comment – don’t worry about having a “google identity”,...

July 7, 2008

You never know who’s watching

The thing about a blog linked to a website, is that you never know who is watching. Will anyone in Romania read this? Can anyone in the UK work out why I am mentioning Romania? Is there any point to this blog? Feel free to comment in whatever real or surreal way strikes you:

June 18, 2008

Is anybody there?

Back in July 2007, I last wrote a blog (see below).Since then, the link to my blog has been available via my website. I have absolutely no evidence that anyone has ever read my blog since July 2007. I have absolutely no evidence that it is of any use. And yet, here in the midst of the credit crunch, with many better things to do, I persist, and have updated...

July 2, 2007

KEEPING PROMISES

I promised that I would try to find out something about blogging and report back. Here goes: 1. Blogging is a minority sport (despite all the noise). 2. It is increasingly decoded as 21st century narcissism by the non-blogging majority. 3. The right visuals & well-chosen wit can mitigate this view. 4. A blog without comments is not a blog (it’s a me-me-me diary in disguise) 5. Some”famous” bloggers who...

April 18, 2007

HELP ME BLAG MY WAY INTO BLOGGING

Well this is Mark, the manwith3heads. And this is my first ever blog posting. I’m an unashamed second-waver. I wait and watch technology, then I adopt it – to suit my own wicked ways. I’ve been watching blogs for a bit. Like everything to do with the internet and marketing folk, the pace of take-up feels exaggerated by those who write about it – most of all in blogs. There...