It’s only when you put on your bifocals and go beyond page 8 of your average broadsheet, or listen to the World Service, that you hear about other stuff that’s going on in our Wide World. 75% of Bangladesh blacked out as rich nations secure their oil and gas supplies at the expense of the poorer; civil war leaving thousands starving in Tigre; Saudi Arabia and Iran still fighting a proxy war in Yemen with cholera running rampant as a result; and Russian airstrikes still a regular feature of life in Syria. We bemoan the insularity of most Americans, yet our own focus rarely moves beyond the same half dozen stories; and Meghan, of course. And, hey, if you’re worried about our inflation rate hitting double digits, in Turkey it’s currently 83%! Their president has famously gone for growth, and continued to cut taxes and interest rates despite everything. So there’s an interesting precedent.
“The working-from-home illusion fades”
Are workers working from home more or less productive than those catching the 7.02am to London Bridge every day? ‘Probably sitting at home in their bleedin’ jim-jams’, said someone recently of a less-than-helpful call centre employee, the assumption being that, were they surrounded by colleagues and with a manager cracking the whip, he or she would have sorted his energy bill more efficiently.
