Grombles

Western societies are progressively waking up to prejudices deeply ingrained in our cultures. Gender (both self-selected and birth-allocated), skin colour, religion, nationality and age are all differentiators which traditionally our cultures used to define how we treat people. Today - at least amongst civilised and liberal-minded people such as they might exist - we celebrate diversity, and we try to treat all flavours of people as equal... which of course we are. But is there a classification which we still wittingly, or otherwise, use to define our behaviour towards people who adopt or are given that classification? Are we still prejudiced despite our new liberal nature? Are we prejudiced by a person's occupation ? I recently received a form I needed to complete before being accepted for household insurance cover. It's what they call a Statement of Fact. It includes a whole range of things you might expect like 'have I made any claims recently', 'does my proper...

Business is risky. It has to be so we aren't overwhelmed with an infinite number of businesses all demanding their right to flourish. It's pure Darwinian capitalism. Only the fittest survive, so businesses that don't attract enough revenue or capital to pay their costs, will fold. Cease trading and liquidate what's left. The founders, shareholders, directors, staff, suppliers, creditors and customers need to take a deep breath and move on. Easy to say, enormously hard to do. When you've poured you life, soul and probably your house, marriage and family's future into something, deciding when it's time to call it a day is massively difficult. Usually there are still reasons to be hopeful. An order about to drop; New product around the corner; New strategy to test; New advertising in the pipeline; New management; Competitors failing. Endless reasons to be optimistic, except one. You're running out of money and the risk of the business failing is increas...