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Sunday 8 November 2009

We are not a number ... We are a free man

Monday, 9th February 2009

Portmeirion is a surreal place at the best of times. But it gets even stranger when you see Clarence Mitchell, the spokesman for the McCanns taking a stroll through this pink and green mini-utopia, shortly before bumping into Yasmin Alibhai-Brown from the Independent, the historian Simon Schama and Julia Hobsbawn, the mad genius behind this crazy trip.

This bizarre fantasy village on the north Wales coast is best-known as the set for the sixties sci-fi series, The Prisoner. What’s happening here is weirder than that. Two coach loads of journalists, PR folk and business people pitched up here yesterday evening to discuss… well what exactly? How to save capitalism from itself? How to put it out of its misery?

How to find a new way of organising human society? All this while being ferried around in Jaguars and Land Rovers courtesy of the event’s sponsors.

This three-day symposium is called We are Names not Numbers by way of tribute to the original catchphrase of Patrick McGoohan’s character in the Prisoner, “I am not a number, I am a free man.” Discussion has been pretty wide-ranging with a vague focus on the individual in the 21^st century.

The panel from the world of business struggled to put a brave face on the economic situation. Alice Sherwood, a retail expert and former head of audience at the BBC Digital Curriculum (whatever that means) did her best to provide an example of a successful retail company. Apparently toiletries from an outfit called Sanctuary did very well over Christmas by providing a cheapish version of luxury for the ordinary punter. Mass-prestige they call it, or “masstige”.

Alice warned that what we were facing looked a bit like a wet afternoon in 1973. It certainly feels that way.

There was a lot of talk of the personalisation of products and the importance of training in the downturn. But only Giselle Bodie of Cision, who do something called “media intelligence”, was frank enough to say that during the downturn most companies would be looking to their own survival first rather than helping the government see us out of the recession.

A second session on “social entrepreteurship”- a cumbersome term for companies set up to do good - was pretty lively. David Aaronovitch of The Times chaired with typically drole scepticism. It was good to hear Suzanne Moore say that some people just don’t want to be entrepreneurs and that she had felt forced into it, both in her professional life and in fighting for decent school places for her children.

I was hugely surprised to find Louise Casey (who was once the homelessness tsar and is now some sort of bad behaviour tsar) really quite inspirational. It’s not often you can say that about Home Office officials. She talked about the importance of maintaining moral values in hard times. She warned against the “walk on by” culture of the 1980s returning. But she also said that everyone in the room with any power or influence should be preparing for the crisis ahead and asking themselves: “What’s my role?”

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Alf Tupper

February 9th, 2009 8:07pm Report this comment

I lost my cherry on a wet afternoon in 1973 so it wasn't all doom and gloom you know.

Alf Tupper

February 9th, 2009 8:09pm Report this comment

THX 1138 ?

ben stilwater

February 9th, 2009 9:26pm Report this comment

Its a shame that Alice Sherwood's example of a successful retailer was not a retailer but a toiletries brand owned by PZ Cussons destined to fill the supermarket shelves with yet another subset of the shampoo unverse.

If she were to pick a successful retailer, then she could have chosen Primark, Peacocks, H&M or Morrisons. These are not masstige, simply chavtige.

Oscar India

February 9th, 2009 10:50pm Report this comment

Jack Straw famously launched a plea to end the "walk on by" culture in 1998, so I can only assume that didn't work. He did it by explaining how he bravely tackled a yob at Blackburn railway station....until Ed Owen, then his SpAd, called an end to the press conf when some hack got Jack to admit all his armed Special Branch detectives were with him.
Nothing changes.

persaud

February 10th, 2009 12:11am Report this comment

Welcome to the Speccy Mr Bright;you are looooong overdue.

Shouldn't that be droll?

Frank P

February 10th, 2009 12:53am Report this comment

Alf Tupper

You're not telling us that you lost your cherry to THX 1138 are you? Never would have thought it of either of you. But unfair of you to out him though.

Vauxhall Man

February 10th, 2009 7:53am Report this comment

Masstige? Masstication for the masses, obviously.

It all sounds a bit bubblegum and pop.

AngloWelshDragon

February 10th, 2009 11:33am Report this comment

Ben Stilwater. How very snobbish of you suggest Morrisons is Chavtige. There are parts of the world where Waitrose has yet to set foot you know and anyway, you can get tamarind paste in my local Morrisons but not in Sainsburys so if I have to rub shoulders with the tracky brigade, it's a small price to pay.

Ian C

February 10th, 2009 12:17pm Report this comment

Alf Tupper

No, it was a lovely sunny July afternoon that year when I lost mine. I can still see the sun shining through the window!

Doom and gloom it was not - but it got alot better from there!

Ian C

February 10th, 2009 12:24pm Report this comment

But, putting cherry loss to one side Martin, it sounds as if these people should have paid attention to the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. They would know the answer is "42" and need not have gone to N. Wales in a dreach Februay at some vast expense to find that out! Especially if it meant having to share an auditorium with Alibhai-Brown and some other space-cadets. I do except Louise Casey from that as she has a rare thing among bureaucrats - a very good reputation.

Slim Jim

February 10th, 2009 12:51pm Report this comment

Martin, I apologise for my intrusion, but you appear to have uncovered something odd. Just like Alf Tupper, and Ian C, I too lost my cherry in 1973! I would like to point out that neither of my fellow Coffee Housers were present. Alas, I can't remember what the weather was like, but I do recall the (very brief!) experience.

BrianSJ

February 10th, 2009 1:14pm Report this comment

The importance of maintaining moral values in hard times - from the Home Office - or two-homes office.
A fish rots from the head, as they say.

Rhoda Klapp

February 10th, 2009 4:49pm Report this comment

If we are referring to HHGTTG, then I suggest the Portmeirion meeting is assembling the passengers for Golga-Frinchan Ark ship B.

1970, with a norwegian. Three times.

Martin Bright

February 10th, 2009 7:36pm Report this comment

Chavtige! Now I know I am writing for the Spectator

Alice Sherwood

February 12th, 2009 10:55am Report this comment

Just so you know, I mentioned a number of retailers and businesses that are doing well; Poundland, Asda, Morrisons, Domino's Pizza, Pontins - all in the mass market value sector (really not 'chav' - please). So yes, Ben Stillwater, I think we're agreeing here. But the point of the conferance was the individual/cutomisation, which I don't think is likely to happen much now, a possible exception being 'masstige' (mass prestige) products. So the Sanctuary brand was being described as a range of products rather than as a retailer. It is a smallish company that has been so successful that it has been bought - just in the last few months - by PZ Cussons. The interesting thing about Cussons, which started in the nineteenth century as a trading post in Sierra Leone, is that it has a very clear strategy of growing local brands (look at its African and Asian businesses)rather than rolling out a uniform roster of global brands. I'm glad everyone else had such a great wet Wednesday in '73. I was watching ScoobyDoo.

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