The carrier bag law: what happens next?

Plastic bagsIt won’t have escaped anyone’s attention that a levy on plastic carrier bags has finally been introduced in England (way behind Scotland and Wales), requiring customers to pay 5p if they don’t bring their own bag (except in mildly obscure circumstances – flowers or prescription medicines, anyone?).

As a sandal-wearing, Guardian-reading leftie I’m very pleased – long overdue and it won’t take long for it to totally change our daily mindset.

However, I’ve had a couple of additional thoughts about what happens next…

Will supermarkets replace plastic bags with anything?

Anyone who has watched US TV will know that across the Atlantic, paper grocery bags have long been used for shopping. Obviously, many Americans drive to out-of-town stores and dump their bags in the boot of the car, but I wonder if any British supermarkets might consider this.
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Are our kids growing up in a safer world than we did?

man in uniform with burns maskThe recent graphic images of dying refugees, coupled with threats of a bombing campaign in Syria made me stop and think about what my daughters think of the world around them. 

Do these events frighten them? Are they scared for their own lives? How different is the world in 2015, compared with my upbringing in the 70s and 80s?

Threads

The image above is taken from a TV movie shown on the BBC in 1984 called Threads. 

At the time, as a school kid, this was a huge deal. 

The film showed what would happen in the event of a nuclear attack on Sheffield and the fallout thereafter.&nbsp
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How Enid Blyton helped shape an early CRM system

image

Customer Relations Management feels like a very modern element of how to run a successful organisation, but it’s not a new invention.

When the legendary Biddy Baxter started at Blue Peter in 1962, she set up what she called a ‘Correspondence Unit’.

Enid Blyton
As she explained to Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs, this unit came about as a result of an experience she had with Enid Blyton.
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