It is the ultimate irony that Waterstone's, a chain of bookshops, is dropping the apostrophe in their name. Facing a barrage of criticism for ditching the apostrophe managing director of Waterstone's, James Daunt, expained this decision: “Waterstones without an apostrophe is, in a digital world of URLs and email addresses, a more versatile and practical spelling." 

I am sure that in this digital age you could make the same argument for almost every other grammatical rule on which our language is based, but I see it as backward step. Of course, you can't have apostrophes in web addresses or e-mail but that's no reason to change the rules to suit.

What they should have done, if they really wanted to simplofy things, was remove the apostrophe and the 's', so that you would simply have Waterstone. Sainsbury's could easiliy become Sainsbury in just the same way we have John Lewis — it's never been John Lewis's (unless you're writing about something John Lewis owns).

Whichever way you look at this story it is a PR gaffe that could so easily have been avoided.

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First of all: Happy New Year to everyone.

I hope you had a relaxing break and are now busily putting your New Year resolutions into operation.

Whilst you may be looking to lose weight, get fitter, stop smoking or any number of personal objectives, what have you planned for your business?

Well, if you run a business, are a senior manager or company director shouldn't you have given thought to what your company needs to focus on this year? With the downturn still lingering in the headlines it's easy to postpone any decision that involves spending money on perceived intangibles such as marketing, design and PR, but this is exactly the time to make such investments.

Whether it's starting to get news out to your target audience, create that newsletter that's been on the 'back burner' for years, update the website or refresh your corporate identity then now is the time to get serious about growing and developing the business.

We look forward to being of service throughout 2012.

Have a record-breaking year!

Simon Turton

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It is excellent news that a pub landlady has won the right to show Premier League football games on her foreign satellite decoder.

I would usually be decrying the interfering nature of the European Courts of Justice, especially when they poke their beaks into issues of national importance, but in this case it seems that common sense has prevailed. If we're in Europe then we should be able to benefit from a truly single market and the fact that this landlady was taken to court shows just how anti-competitive UK football and satellite broadcasting has become.

With the increasing use of digital technology and mobile devices to access international programmes the broadcasting laws in this country have been left behind. Another result of this landmark ruling is that the costs of watching live football must now surely fall, because there is suddenly a much cheaper legal alternative for football fans; the logical follow-on scenario is that footballers' wages might actually start to fall.

I suspect the market for foreign decoders is going to have a bit of a boom.

We just need to start learning Greek!

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I have a client meeting in London next Tuesday at 9am, and especially as I haven't caught the train in a while, I thought that it would be the obvious choice.

Think again!

At £181.00 return (peasant class not first, I might add), it is just a ridiculous price — even though my client will be paying for our travel costs. In these post- (or should that be pre-) recessionary times, I simply cannot justify such an expense claim. So, I will be in the car, as usual, in which I will drive to Luton and then hop on a commuter train from there. Yes, I'll lose a couple of hours of productivity, but at 5am I'm not worried.

Interestingly, train travel is on the up and up, which in some ways in good, but at these prices we won't be part of the rail renaissance, which is a shame because I would prefer to be on a train and not stuck in slow-moving traffic.

The problem is that the rail companies have moved to the same pricing policy as airlines, which is all very well if you can plan 3 months ahead; in business you need flexibilty, which is why we will continue to be in the car unless or until the government makes rail travel cheaper so that it is a genuinely affordable alternative to car travel.

The communications message in all this is: that there is no clear message when it comes to caring for the environment. On the one hand we have so-called green taxes and on the other we have a government still wedded to the oil-derived tax receipts. If rail travel was cheaper the government would lose tax revenues, which it is unlikely to do. Until then we have a transport policy that is nothing short of a car smash.  

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As much as I really like the iPhone 4, there are certain operating issues that Apple (and any of the network providers) should advise on once said item has been purchased.

The iPhone 4, as all smartphones, are essentially handheld computers that you can also use as a telephone. With previous generations of the iPhone you could run applications (apps) on a one-at-a-time basis; the iPhone 4 lets you switch between apps that stay open all the time. 

This means that even when you think you're closing an app it is still running in the background and there is only one foolproof way of closing them. The problem is that every time you open contacts or any other feature on the iPhone 4 that it leaves it running to the point that if you have more than 4 "pages" of apps open then it will start to impair the performance of the 'phone.

I only found this out the other day when I trudged all the way to Meadowhall (a.k.a. Meadowhell) to get to an appointment at the Apple Store. People had been struggling to hear me whether I was on the loud speaker or using the 'phone normally.

It transpired that because I had 8 "pages" of apps still open that this was causing problems when it came to making calls.

It is quite easy to close the apps, which I advise anyone with an iPhone 4 to do every couple of days.

To clear the background apps you unlock the screen and then press the home button twice in close succession. The main screen appears to slide upwards to reveal a number of icons at the bottom of the screen. The rest of the icons still visible but only as greyed-out images that you can't interact with at this stage.

To delete the icons simply touch and hold your finger on the first icon until a red minus sign appears on the icons that are now moving.

Simply tap the minus sign of all the icons until there are none left in this view mode. Don't be alarmed: you are not deleting the apps from the iPhone for good; it is the iPhone version of closing an application on a computer.

Once the icons have been cleared you press the home button once and all the icons re-appear and the 'phone is ready to use.

Simples. 

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Survey says … PR firms (still) the No. 1 source for journalists

A report posted on Linked In PR Daily (08/08/11) said that: "that journalists are increasingly relying on social media for their sources, but it’s still not as influential as PR. Oriella PR Network polled nearly 500 journalists, and learned that 47% are using Twitter (up from 33% a year ago) and 35% are using Facebook as a source (up from 25 percent a year ago). 

Still, social media isn’t the first thing they’re going to—only 4 percent said they use Twitter, Facebook, or blogs as their first source in researching a story. The No. 1 resource that journalists in this study are using for sourcing was PR agencies, with a whopping 62 percent. As for the first port of call when researching a news or feature story? PR again! Nearly 22 percent of respondents say their initial stop is a press release. Oriella PR Network, an alliance of 15 communications agencies in 20 countries, has published its annual study on digital journalism since 2008. One striking stat in the article suggests that journalists are working harder: 'Almost half (45 percent) admitted they have to produce more content and a third (34 percent) work longer hours. However, despite this added pressure, 44 percent of the respondents said they enjoyed their job more, compared with 34 percent in 2010 and just 27 percent in 2009.'"

This is great news for PR agencies and further demonstrates their value that we deliver for our clients.

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With every man and his dog announcing a version of cloud-based computing it seems that computing is going full circle.  

During my post-graduate course in IT (1989-90) we had to use mainframe computers for a variety of assignments. Essentially, you sat at a computer terminal with the 'brains' of the machine housed in large air-conditioned rooms. Their computing power was probably less than my iPhone but nonetheless they crunched numbers remotely, which were displayed on the terminal's screen.

The same idea is behind cloud computing: that you don't actually store anything on your computer's hard-drive any more and your machine becomes a terminal.

Songs, photos, videos, games, word-processing files, spreadsheets and presentations will be stored on a remote computer (or computers to prevent data loss in the event that the remote servers crash).

In principle, it all sounds great: no more having to buy loads of software that is out-of-date by the time you have installed it; no more worries if your computer get stolen because all your files are safely stored on the moon.

Call me a control freak, but I quite like the idea that what's on my computer isn't open to interception by hackers as your personal data is flying through cyberspace between your computer and the cloud. Of course, we're all open to hacking whilst we're online and we know that our e-mails are a secure as on open prison, that has no doors that has yet to be built, i.e. sero security, but... having everything stored out there in the ether that is protected only by a few easy-to-crack passwords and your entire life is but a click away.

We store so much online as it is, whether we're on facebook or twitter, that I don't really ever want to give any more information away; the major search engines are continually building profiles about your usage that you don't even know that you're being tracked digitially.

Is it a problem? If you've nothing to hide why worry, is the voice of the liberal. But, as much as I have nothing to hide I wouldn't want to go around droppng my bank statements on the floor for anyone to read, which is exactly what happens as you give more and more away about how you live, what you spend and where you go.  

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When it comes to making the best use of e-mail, one of the best tips I can give anyone is to always use a fresh e-mail to communicate information; it is tempting to forward or to reply to an e-mail, but all too often there are several 'conversations' that have been copied in automatically.

It is not always easy to spot previous e-mail correspondence if you're reading e-mails on a smartphone or if you're just in a hurry. In haste you could easily send an e-mail that contains negative references to the person to whom the negative comments relates. Whether it's a client, a supplier or a boss, such information could end business relations, get you the sack or land you in court.

E-mail is a fantastc tool, but remember you can never, never, never, unsend an e-mail.

The same advice goes for replying to e-mails that are aggressive or rude; too easily we get 'screen rage' and fire off venomous responses. The solution is simple: you write the e-mail but you DON"T send it. Leave it for ten minutes or 10 hours, but either way you will return to the e-mail and probably re-write or delete it. I don't suggest that you should roll over and accept rudeness, but there are ways of dealing with such correspondence.

My final tip, is that you should only look at your e-mails a few times a day. I can speak from past experience of losing a morning simply by jumping from e-mail to e-mail and firing back responses. The result? You don't achieve any more just because you've spent time responding instantly to e-mails.

It is tempting to have a look at what's come in to your in box, but resist, press on with the job in hand and have a look at your e-mail at the allotted time.

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The last time I looked, apples (and all fruit for that matter) were not covered in plastic in their natural environment, so why do supermarkets insist in wrapping fruit and veg' in plastic?  

When I was growing up in the 70s my mother used to walk (not drive) to the shops to buy her daily provisions, including fruit and vegetables and the only packaging was a brown (bio-degradable) paper bag; potatoes were wrapped in old newspaper.  

Today, we're all being encouraged to 'go green' and yet supermarkets continue to over-package food that has often been shipped half-way around the world.  Then, whilst we're being brow-beaten to turn off the stand-by lights on our TVs and other electrical gadgets, which makes about zero difference to our impact on the environment, we have companies heating shops with their doors left wide open.

No wonder consumers feel rather confused about what they should do to help the environment.

The reality is that we're all being bombarded with doom-and-gloom messages to make us change our behaviour when there is an economic imperative to all this greenwash; every change in environmental legislation (no matter how well intentioned) means that someone is making money out of the consumer.

We have to insulate every millimetre of our living space so that there is no heat leakage and then we find that we're living in such an artificial environment that our children fall prey to the slightest snivel that goes around the classroom.

And then, there's the energy-saving lightbulb.  There's a good reason why they save energy because since the devil incarnate, a.k.a. the filament lightbulbs, were banned across the EU people are reverting to candles.  At least with candles you can actually see inside your home when the sun goes down and they come on straightaway.  The energy-saving bulbs take so long to warm up that you've often left the room before the light finally reaches your eyes.

I just wish that governments could get their story straight before they go making headline-grabbing pronouncements.

As for business and what they can take from all this: you can only take your customers for fools once.

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Opera Public Relations has just delivered a brand new website for Charlie's Café & Bistro.

This is the first time that the owners, Charlie and Becky Cartledge, have had a website for their business, which they launched 6 years ago.

Charlie's brief was for a clearly laid-out website that was easy to navigate, which would help to convey the essence of the bistro: beautifully-presented freshly cooked food served in a relaxed and stylish environment.

As well as designing the website Opera wrote the copy and produced the photography for use on the site.

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I am not sure what Jet2's advertising agency were on when they came up with the jolly whizzer idea to promote holidays in Egypt, when the country was on the verge of civil war, but let's hope it isn't legal.

Of course, when planning advertising campaigns you can never know what is on the international horizon, but surely it should not have been beyond the wit of the client to determine that it simply wasn't appropriate to run a campaign.  Had Jet2 consulted their public relations department then the advert may have been pulled, especially given that Jet2 clearly flies to other more appealling destinations.

The problem often is the silo mentality that all too often clouds judgements that result in ads such as the Jet2's that I recently witnessed; the same applied to BA when a few years ago they ran a series of adverts conveying the message that they flew to more destinations that other airlines at the same time when they were actually reducing the number of destinations to which they flew.

With the silo mentality every department feels that they should have the upper hand.  Advertising want to lead because they're the creatives; marketing want the limelight because they're the strategists and sales promotion want to lead because they'll make the sales.  

The reality is that those responsible for corporate reputations, the PR departments and consultants, should be leading the communications debate and ensuring that everything that the marketing, sales promotion and advertising departments produce actually works to convey the same corporate message.

Flying off at different tangents might not be a catastrophe for companies, but mixed messages will only confuse the customer and deter sales.

As well as having ads signed off by the client they really ought to be passed under the noses of the communicators so that customers don't turn up their noses at the product being promoted.

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It seems that no matter which side of the political divide MPs sit, if indeed you can have a divide in this touchy-feely age of the coalition and consensus politics, that they all suffer from the allure of power.

Take Nick Clegg and all those LibDems who now wield power in government; they all argued, in the run-up to the election, for no increase in tuition fees and pledged to the electorate that they would not support any proposed changes to the £3,000 per year threshold.  Now that they're in power they will be supporting the Tory-led stance that universities will be at liberty to charge up to £9,000-a-year from 2012.

No wonder there is no faith in politicians, when they say one thing before and election and do a volte-face immediately after.  In business, if companies make outlandish claims for their products or services, and they don't live up to advertising hype, there is at lesst the Advertising Standards Authority.

The cop-out, for at least the next 12 months, is that any policy reversal will simply be put down to the fiasco of an economy thay the Lib-Cons inherited.

Fortunately, we're not so easily fooled.

Or are we?

When we have front page news about X-Factor contestants rather than the state of the economy, unemployment or the rise in the tuition fees then it seems that if we were being sold tickets to hell in handcarts, provided we'd get our faces on the telly then we'd be gladly queuing up.

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It is interesting to observe that the term "unemployment" is increasingly being replaced with "worklessness".  I can only assume it is the politicians' attempt to sanitise an area of concern to the population at large and to reduce the impact of any announcements refering to those seeking work.  Whilst the term "unemployment" accurately describes the position someone finds themselves in when they are out of work, the MPs have realised that the problem is softened if they use a term that is prefixed with the word "work".

As the cut-backs start to bite and the numbers of public sector workers made redundant starts to increase you can bet your bottom dollar that we won't hear anyone referred to as being unemployed.

The other word that is particularly in vogue at the moment is "progressive"; the new Lib-Con alliance is continually talking about a progressive society or progressive taxation.  It sounds like an equitable concept that we should all be embracing, yet the vagueness of the term renders the ambition vacuous and meaningless.

It is, apparently, progressive to allow withdraw child benefit from households with a £60,000 salary, if earned by one individual, but if a household has both parents on £40,000-a-year then they're allowed to keep every penny.  There are many other examples where the term "progressive" has been used when another concept should be used.  Whatever the reasoning behind the use of such phrases they are designed to divide opinion, so that you are either for a progressive society or you're against it, irrespective of how valid that argument is.  It is no more than Punch-and-Judy politics from a party led by someone, a former PR meister, who wanted to bring an end to opposing for the sake of opposing.

For those of us in business it is essential that we continue to communicate with clarity, rather than trying to confuse our audience by twisting the meaning of innocent words or phrases.  Let's ensure that we continue to call a spade a spade and never call it an earth-moving implement.

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David Cameron's party conference was thrown into disarray following the announcement that family allowances would be cut for high-income earners.

However, only days after the announcement there was much confusion and anger about those who would lose out after 2013, the proposed date for ending the universal benefit.  Many families with household incomes of £50,000, if earned by one person, will lose all benefits; for households where both parents are on £40,000 they would continue to receive the payments.

Most newspapers have condemned the apparently ill-conceived policy, although there is no doubt that reform is needed.

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Opera Public Relations is pleased to announce that from the 1st of September the company will be implementing and manageing a media and marketing campaign for Pilsley-based Litton Properties, a regional developer with a growing portfolio of commercial and mixed-use schemes.

The appointment covers both site-specific and corporate publicity; Opera will also be involved with Litton's digital media and brand strategy.

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If England want to regain some dignity from their appalling performance during the World Cup then my advice is simple: give your fee to charity and publicly apologise for one of the worst achievements in recent tournaments.

This won't get them back into the competition but it would help atone for their dreadful behaviour when the team simply walked off the pitch without acknowledging the fans, which was more than worse than actually losing the match.

What we got was a childish reaction that it not becoming for anyone in an England shirt.

Shame on them.

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When the would-be prime minister, David Cameron, stated publicly that: "We have no plans to raise VAT", we should have all been able to decode the political language, which essentially meant that they had every plan to raise VAT.  Given that the new coalition government has inherited one of the worst budget deficits in the western world we all knew that Osborne's first budget would be the exact opposite of Labour's pre-elecion give-away: it was going to be painful.

The problem is that the Tories, who are historically against tax rises, had to reach a compromise with the Liberal Democrats (why did Gordon Brown always refer to them as the Liberal Party?), who are broadly in favour of higher government spending.  

It is too early to know whether this budget will affect the future stability of the Con-Lib government, but one thing is for sure by next January the cost of living will go up.  For businesses that can pass on the VAT to their customers the rise is largely irrelevant; the problem comes with the consumer who cannot pass on the increases to anyone and who will be faced with higher prices.  If people start to rein in spending then this could undremine the future stability of the economy on which all our futures, public and private, depend.

From a communications perspective, the budget was clearly delivered with the Chancellor laying his cards on the table; the problem lies in the pre-election promise on VAT, which hasn't been simply stretched or bent,  it has been well and truly shattered.  

If VAT was high on the list of the in-coming government they would have been better not to have denied the possibility of a rise and Osborne would have been better to have increased VAT incrementally so that he had some "wriggle room" to delay the second half of the VAT rise.

The best advice is to always play things straight with your audience and you won't get bitten in the proverbial by spin (if that isn't a mixed metaphor too far).

On a lighter note, I can't get enough of Lady Gaga's latest hit, Alejandro, which is set to be Opera PR's song of the summer 2010.  If you haven't heard it yet then simply click on this link (or paste into your browser) and turn up the volume: 

www.youtube.com/watch

Enjoy.

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With another season of Britain's Got Talent behind us, it is clear who is the real winner of this programme that has become the saviour of ITV: Simon Cowell.  

The carrot of a £100,000 deal that is on offer to the hapless thousands who put themselves forward as having a talent, is but nothing compared to what the show generates for ITV, Cowell, his television production company, his record company, not to mention the hundred of thousands paid to the judges and the presenters of this money-spinning phenomenon.

For Cowell, who was worth an estimated £120m in 2009, being a judge on these shows must be like being a child in a sweetshop when show after show he is presented with possible signings for his record label.  When we also consider the opportunities from X-Factor and American Idol then it is doubtful that he actually worries whether the shows discover winners that he likes or would wish to sign; there are more than enough acts that he will be exposed to during the audition and selection rounds; by the time we get to the live finals I am sure that he will have his eye on the next star.

Whilst Cowell has a rare ability for spotting talent it seems that he now has the power to influence the results.  Although the winner of BGT Is apparently in the hands of the viewing public, as the final ten acts performed there was a very telling gesture that I feel was enough to lead the audience to choose the winner that he wanted.

In a display that Derren Brown would have been proud of Cowell crowned the winner even before the first vote was cast.  He gave his only standing ovation after Spelbound's performance and that, in my opinion, was enough to tell the audience (or to tell enough of those open to suggestion, using the Derren Brown analogy) who they should vote for.

Of course, there's no evidence that his standing ovation resulted in Spelbound's success, but we know the power of influence from the world of celebrity and if you don't believe that then consider how many potential buyers of VW's Touareg cancelled orders following Jeremy Clarkson's review when in 2003 he stated that rather than buy a Touareg he would "rather eat £50,000".

So, before you pick up the telephone to support your favourite act during the next series of Britain's Got the Idol Factor just remember that it might not be an act of free will. 

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The owners of The Old Vicarage, Curbar, have appointed Opera PR to create a new identity, website and brochure for this start-up luxury B&B business.

Set in the heart of the Peak District The Old Vicarage will offer a tranquil alternative for adults (children are not catered for) looking for a relaxing hideaway yet accessible for walking (from the doorstep), sightseeing and visitng local attractions.

The new B&B offers two en suite bedrooms, one self-contained apartment and one bedroom with a separate private bathroom.  Breakfast will be served in the spacious and airy conservatory with views out over the extensive private gardens.

Opera has been tasked with creating an appropriate identity, accessible and informative website, and a range of marketing material. 

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With just two days until the General Election it seems that the main parties still have everything to play for.

The Conservatives are on 35%, Labour on 27% and the LibDems on 28% (source: UK Polling Report), which means that although the Tories (all things being equal) will have the largest number of MPs in the House of Commons, we are still in hung parliament territory.

Although the idea of parties having to work together sounds appealing, as happened during WWII, the reality is that it would leave the markets nervous and country in the doldrums; there would be no strong direction as the main party that provides the PM would be held to ransom by the junior partner in the new administration.

But let's face it, there's a good reason why there's been no surge towards one party, as happened in 1997, because we're all that bit more suspicious of what we're being told by the politicians.  In 1997, of course, and things were very different.  The polls were against the Tories from the outset and they had no chance of winning; D:Ream told us that "things can only get better..." and Blair soared to become a demigod to lead us lesser mortals; he almost floated into Number 10 on May 7 such was the euphoria of the morning after the night before.

And we believed this whiter-than-white, youthful, vigorous new PM; it was a fresh new start that would really change the country for the better.  

Out with the tired old sleazy Tories and in with a dynamic new team of political stars.  Blair became the master of all ceremonies especially on the morning that he made his speech about the "People's Princess", Diana, Princess of Wales; probably not a dry eye in the country when that broadcast went out and his popularity surged.  Blair could talk the hind legs off a donkey and then sell them back to the donkey for a profit, and the donkey would still have thought that he'd got a great deal, such was his ability to frame an argumet or to sell a dubious foreign policy.

Of course, the undoing of Blair and the start of the end of the love-in with Labour, sorry New Labour, was probably the Iraq War.  Most people seemed to be against the invasion, including many in the Cabinet, which was based on an epic performance by Blair who... well, distorted the truth would be the kindest thing to say.  

The march by thousands of Middle Englanders, who had never previously demonstrated in their lives, went to London to show their disapproval to the prospect of war, but to no avail.

Fast-forward to the expenses scandal and cynicism with our politicians strenghtened to the point where even fewer of us believe what we're told by those that we pay to run the country for our benefit, not for personal gain.

Although our political system has its flaws we do have stability, a relatively strong economy and we are free to do pretty much what we want, within the boundaries of the law (of course).

Let's hope that that when we wake up on Friday morning that there is a clear winner and that our new leader will learn from recent history.  Let his new MPs be more visible in their constituencies (more often than once every 4 or 5 years) and let them not try to make promises to everyone. Honesty would be appreciated and being told things as they are (as difficult as it might be to hear) would surely be better than being told that everything's fantastic when the proverbial has hit the fan.

I think we're all ready for a change, but most of us, it seems, still have no idea what that change should be.

Happy voting.

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Tim Turner of Hathersage-based Blue Deer, a property development company, is putting his money where his mouth is in setting up a brand new business.

Turner's unique idea is to set up a new floristry business in one of his unit's at the new retail development at 131 Chatsworth Road, Chesterfield, which his company developed.  He will be looking to recruit an experienced florist to run the business and then after 12 months, if the venture is a success, he will hand the keys over to the employee, who will take on the business.

In a deal that to some will appear to be too good to be true, the new employee will not have to put one penny of their own money into the company. Once they take on the business they will simply pay a slightly increased annual rental for Turner's company to recoup the set-up costs.

With the banks still allergic to lending money to new businesses, Turner's unique business model could well start to set the agenda for budding entrepreneurs who simply lack the cash to get a new business off the ground.

The new business is set to open early May.

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 As someone who grew up in the 1970s I was part of the generation of school children that were still being taught using a method that today is now considered quite unfashionable: learning by rote.

The broad definition is that it is learning without understanding, but that belittles the power of the technique.  We all essentially learn to speak by rote.  Our parents repeating words over and over again until they eventually become second nature.  In those households where parents don't speak to their children, it is now accepted, that they are at a disadvantage in the literacy stakes.

From the 1970s, however, new ideas were starting to filter into the classroom; educationalists (people often with little or no classroom experience) were starting to meddle in the curriculum and education itself became politicised.  Out went reptitive rote learning and in came group learning where children were encouraged to explore problems rather than simply learning facts, figures and dates.

But, and there is a "but", educational standards are falling with illiteracy and innumeracy on the increase, especially so it seems, for children from deprived backgrounds where there is little parental support once the child leaves the classroom. 

Rote learning might not be the most stimulating way to learn and should not be the only way our children are taught, but when I can remember with absolute clarity the table of French possessive adjectives (his, her, yours and so on) after 30 years then you cannot deny the power that this method has.  What if you don't want to speak French, isn't that learned information useless?  In my case it is very useful as I am picking up my French tuition, which I left behind at 13 (languages by then were not compulsory) and it certainly comes in handy as my boys are also learning French.

If we look at the broader issues, such as English and Maths -- the building blocks of all learning -- we need to get our children to know certain things without question: the way we spell, the way grammar works and the way to work out equations.  We can't let such important areas be left for children to explore at their leisure.

If we want to increase base levels of knowledge then we ignore rote learning at our collective peril.  We need to stop reducing learning to the lowest common denominator and stop worrying that our children might find something boring.  Some things are boring but essential, but until we stop pandering to childish whims we will see educational standards fall further.

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Opera PR's owner Simon Turton has just had his first business column published in the January edition of Derbyshire Life, which appears on pages 94 and 95.

This is the first of a new bi-monthly column that he will be writing over the forthcoming year.  He has also had a 5-page article published about the Lea Hall and Harthill Hall, both in rural Derbyshire, as part of his monthly activity for Derbyshire Country Houses who own the properties (www.derbyshirecountryhouses.co.uk).

The magazine is now available in all good newsagents and an electronic version should be available in the near future: www.derbyshire.greatbritishlife.co.uk.

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No matter where people stand on the global warming debate, there is no doubt that the doubters or non-believers are fast becoming today's heretics.  Anyone arguing against the now accepted media-backed government opinion, that we humans are solely to blame for the rise in global temperatures, sets themselves up for vilification.

The problem is that all the evidence that apparently points to humans as being the culprits in the climate change debate has, until recently, been locked down by the media and the green lobby.  Politicians of all political persuasions are constantly trying to "out green" each other to score political points over each other and yet recent surveys show a high proportion of the UK electorate has still to be convinced that human activity is a problem for the planet.

We shouldn't be surprised that half of the population doubt the "facts" because everywhere they look they are likely to see inconsistencies.  If we take motoring, for example, we can see how these inconsistencies manifest themselves.  Motorists are heavily taxed in this country, providing the Exchequer with a regular supply of much-needed income.  The government earns money from the tax, excise and VAT that we pay for our petrol (a litre of petrol would actually cost a fraction of its pump price were it no so heaviliy taxed), it is there when we pay for our road tax (ironically little of that money actually ends up financing the roads) and unless you park your car on your own drive then you're also paying for when you park anywhere and trying to do your best to shop locally (out of town shopping centres have no parking charges). Then, of course, there is the tax on the sale of cars and VAT on every garage bill.  

Whilst governments won't even open up new rail routes for fear of a drop in car-generated tax revenues they are, at the same time, doing all they can to encourage motorists to drive their vehicles less often, and this is a major inconsistency.  If governments really were concerned that road transport was a cause of increasing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere they would be reversing Beeching's rail closure programme, actively welcoming us on board fleets of new trains and they would not be widening motorways that will encourage more people on to the roads.  But no, there is a network of cycle lanes and bridle ways that were once arterial transport routes whilst the motorist has to struggle along increasingly congested roads,

In the real world of having to make family budgets go as far as they can, drivers of modest 2-litre family estate cars must be wondering why the road tax on their vehicles will soon be £400.00 a year, which is double what they were paying until recently.  The argument is that the drivers of "gas guzzlers" must be forced to pay for the damage they inflict on the environment.  However, until relatively recently the term "gas guzzler" was only ever applied to big American vehicles powered by huge V8 engines; they truly deserved to be labelled thus, because they did about 10 miles to the gallon.  Using the term today is politically-motivated spin that automatically sets the politician up as the saviour of the planet by taxing these so-called irresponsible drivers off the road.

The whole climate change agenda needs balance and requires both sides of the argument to be properly heard; the media should not be taking sides in the argument but simply presenting each side of the debate dispassionately and fairly.

It is no good getting scientists to harp on about their "robust" data, or how 2010 will be the hottest year since records began.  Such records only go back about 100 years, compared to the planet that is about 4.5 billion years old that has, in its recent history, gone through periods of cooling and warming millions of years before mankind appeared.

Scientists, of course, have a role to play in the debate but we should not forget that as recently as the 1850s it was scientific fact that miasma (airborne pollution) was the cause of the diseases such as cholera, a theory that dated back to the Middle Ages.  Such theories were eventually rejected as medical science advanced.

For the sake of balance and fairness we need to open up the debate so that all opinions can be heard so that the right decisions can be made based on information that is not politically driven or biased by interest groups.

Until that time many people are going to remain understandably unconvinced.

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The owners of Sugnall Hall have appointed Opera PR to create a new brand identity for this historic house and to design their first ever website.  

The appointment also includes publicising the historic walled kitchen garden and the new restaurant that will be located in the reinstated vinery, which is within the walled garden.

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Hathersage-based digital agency Hammer Design has appointed Opera PR (September 2009) to promote their new Hammer Design e-Awards, where up to £20,000 of matched funding is available to create stunning new online and web-based projects.

Every three months one individual, company organisation will be the winner of this new stream of funding.

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