On 20 January 2012 The Telegraph reported that BA and Heathrow airport (formerly known as BAA) were locked in a 'blame game' about the disruption caused by the recent snow.

Without wading into this particular debate (I want to use this issue to illustrate a wider point rather than to… Read More ›

In his 2011 book The Darwin Economy Robert H. Frank explores the ways in which individual and group interests are often sharply different: individuals frequently compete in ways which are detrimental to the common good. This is not unique to human society, but is found in the behaviour of many species. 

For instance, bull elk with larger antlers are likely to beat their… Read More ›

In an interesting recent article, the psychologist Sally Augustin summarised some of the research into the features of our homes that are most likely to be conducive to our creativity. 

While this would clearly be of relevance to the 'creatives' among us – artists, writers and the like – brief reflection on what creative thought entails shows that we can probably all benefit from having our creative fires… Read More ›

An important question to answer in considering our home decoration goals is: who are we trying to please?

The obvious answer to this is: I am of course trying to please myself, and the people with whom I share my life.  This answer is self-evidently correct but perhaps a little too quick. This is so for several reasons.

Firstly, we are all, to varying degrees, susceptible to what may… Read More ›

In our rational approach to the world, which is the stance we (necessarily) often favour when we are considering spending significant amounts of money, one of the concepts we use in determining what to do is that of "return on investment". Will a particular home renovation project show a sufficient return, for instance in improving the value of the property or making it more likely that it will sell?… Read More ›

The economist Martin Wolf, writing in the Financial Times  (Wednesday, 3 October 2012), asks whether we may have reached the end of economic growth.   As in structurally and longer term,  rather than just in the cyclical "it's going to be a tough few years" sense.  Melodramatic, perhaps?  Well,  it turns out to be an interesting and salient question rather than just an attention-grabbing headline.   … Read More ›

Whatever one's views on the short term prospects of UK house prices,  the following graph, which is based on data from the Nationwide Building Society (and published online by Housepricecrash.co.uk) shows that recent trends have not been particularly buoyant.  

… Read More ›