grumpyf1

This is a bit weird. I'm not a newspaper columnist any more. After submitting my foldy phones piece last week, I received an email saying The Mail are rearranging how they do things. Going forward, there will be a weekly "On the podium" section on a Monday, where a particular topic will be discussed. One week will be local MPs giving their viewpoint, the next the current columnists. Word count will be around 250-300 words (I was writing 400, originally 500, with that full-page period at 1000), so greatly reduced. Disappointingly, I had to ask if they wanted a final column from me for this week, before the new section starts on Monday. I was hoping I'd have a chance to say a kind of goodbye after seven years of penning my column. But they didn't. So, just like that, I'm no longer a columnist. In case they said yes, I wrote a farewell piece, so, for old times sake, here it is: One last Friday feeling Seven years ago, I was wondering what to write...

Remember when mobile phones first appeared? Wow – you don’t look that old. The first civilian call was (kind of) made by Ernie Wise (yes, the short, fat, hairy-legged half of iconic comedy double-act Morecambe & Wise) on the 1st of January 1985. By the end of the decade, they were pretty common (phones, not Ernies), and now – well... try living without one. The model used by Ernie - a Transportable Vodaphone VT1, fact fans – cost about £2000. Ouch. Having said that, smartphones have been getting both progressively smarter and more expensive over the last decade or so. Roll back to 2010, and you’d have been pretty gobsmacked at the thought of paying £700 for a mobile. Now, the latest top-notch iPhone is in that expensive ball-park, and there’s more bad news for the bank account of anyone wanting the latest, smartest, tech. There’s a new kid on the block. The Samsung Galaxy Fold does what it says on the (alarmingly expensive) tin, and opens out to create one large screen, w...

Do you think your latte is a lotta money? Or your cappuccino needs a price cap? Spare a thought for Boston Tea Party (BTP), an independent coffee chain, who voluntarily banned single use cups last year. It was an expensive decision – to the tune of £250,000. From June 2018, the chain’s 22 stores decided to put planet before profit, and told their customers they had to bring a reusable cup, pay a deposit on one that they could return, or drink their hot beverage of choice in the branch. v A bold decision and one that has proven costly. Owner Sam Roberts realised this would happen, and included the loss in his plans. With normal annual sales of £1m worth of takeaway coffees, a 25% drop is a big hit for a relatively small organisation. Finding that offering 25p off for customers with their own reusable cup didn’t really work (just 5% showed up with cup), BTP decided to really go for it. Roberts has challenged the bigger chains to follow-suit, saying “We felt this was a financial ...