Author Archives: mikewpaice

About mikewpaice

Freelance writer and researcher.

Observations on a Record Breaking Trade Deficit

Even with the most cynical and negative side of my persona, I cannot honestly say that I foresaw just how stubbornly weak the UK economy would remain. The double-dip recession was pretty much a foregone conclusion and the latest turndown … Continue reading

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Education: Back to Basics Again – Part II

In the first part of this post, I took the stance that education systems are all too often unfit for purpose because they do not meet the needs of their customers – the students. I also suggested that simple changes … Continue reading

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Sobering Thoughts on Gun Crime

Statistical comparisons between the UK and the USA rarely have any real value. You have to adjust the figures to reflect the huge disparity in the size of our respective populations if there is to be any real perspective given. … Continue reading

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Education: Back to Basics Again – Part I

In any line of business, success or failure will be determined by how closely a business’ offering meets its customers’ needs. If a business does not really understand who its customers are and what their needs are, it is already … Continue reading

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Civil Service Cuts: Still flogging the old nag

The UK’s Civil Service is already smaller than it has been at any time since World War II (WWII). But the general consensus within parliament and within the economic and political communities is that this is only a start and … Continue reading

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Business Growth = Economic Growth: And the curse of technophobia

It’s a simple equation really: business growth = economic growth. The phenomenon of governments trying to influence the first element of the equation is nothing new – neither is their inability to succeed in any meaningful way. The first hurdle … Continue reading

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SME fear of the future drives double-dip

So we’re here – officially in the second dip of our double-dip recession. At the coffee shop we never saw a way of avoiding it – although, if I am honest, there was just the shortest of times when we … Continue reading

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GEW UK launch day

A great start to GEW UK 2011 and although I have been enjoying the National Health Service experience today by proxy, I did get a chance to have a limited browse at the Government’s contribution on launch day. At last … Continue reading

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Global Entrepreneurship Week

Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2011 starts on Monday and despite the uncertainty earlier this year over who would organise the UK contribution, Youth Business International has done a superb job in a very short amount of time. More than 1,800 … Continue reading

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CSR – where ‘C’ is for cynical

You would think that in the era of the internet, social networking and online reviews of just about everything, companies would be a little more serious about their corporate image. At best they just “don’t get it” at worst they … Continue reading

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