// Paul Miller offline.//

Paul Miller fills us in on his latest offline experiences. This time round he steals Diet Coke. Yes, you heard me right.

(Source: theverge.com)

// Closer than you think.//

As it says on the tin, ryanleetaylor.com is a receptacle for my thoughts. It’s basically somewhere where I can advertise to the world the crazy things that are trapped inside my head. It’s often the case that creative types, people with a calling, or simply those bored in their jobs, need somewhere to let it all out, and so this is it for me.

As any of you from the Twitter will know though, I have a main focus too, DYHAMB?, which is a new podcast and blog centred on finding out how different people live their lives. And, I’ve had a few people ask when it’s going to be released, if ever.

Well, to answer that question, we are a lot closer than you might think. I’m currently out of the country and so things have been delayed a little, however once I’m back in a couple of weeks, I’ll be completing the last of the episode recordings that I wish to have ready when DYHAMB? launches and then it’s just a case of putting the finishing touches to the site itself before hey presto!

(For those of you that have been canny enough to notice that dyhamb.com has gone down, you’re not wrong. I have recently changed hosting providers to better suit the needs of my podcast, and, as soon as DYHAMB? launches, the site will be back up.)

If you want to be the first to hear when it’s ready, just follow DYHAMB? on the Twitter.

// Hold back the dogs.//

So, Britain has been to the polls. On the face of it, the Tories have taken a beating after effectively being forced to govern with one hand tied behind their back for the past two years, and Labour has stolen their thunder in what many are proclaiming to be a sympathy vote against the out-of-touch coalition.

In the shadow of Boris’s superb victory, ‘Cameron is the next Major’, many tell me. ‘He has had his two years, but it’s now going to be another three of absolute pain.’ This may be the case, but I have my reasons for not writing off Cameron quite yet.

The Golden Goose

When Cameron and Clegg came to power, they were effectively handed a golden goose. Sure, things were going to be tough, they said, but here were two parties that could join ‘in the national interest’ against the incumbent Labourites, those people that, they said, had left them with the biggest financial crisis of our times. Gordon Brown couldn’t have packaged up this succession any better had he taken the biggest red bow he could find and tie it around the door of Number 10.

The country was on its knees, and to all intents and purposes, still is. And all the while, Cameron can keep up the diatribe that he has sought to sow from the outset: that Labour put us here and, should Labour have succeeded at the last General Election, then things would ultimately have been far worse than they are now.

The best of this strategy of course, is that Labour just has to take the drubbing. Listen to any recent Prime Minister’s Questions (or any since the beginning of Cameron’s term, to be honest) and you’ll be stung with a deafly silence from the Labour benches as Cameron beats them to a pulp with his recession rhetoric. Last night on Newsnight, every candidate for the red corner was mute when Kirsty called the financial crisis of yesteryear into question.

Cameron has an opportunity here that he can revisit any number of times whilst the economy is flatlining by bringing into question Labour’s responsibility (either rightly or wrongly) for putting us here in the first place. He would be foolhardy to ever turn his back on this one constant.

International Backing

Osborne chose an economic policy hellbent on reducing the country’s deficit by raising taxes and reducing public spending. VAT has increased and billions have been shaved from the public spending pot since Osborne took the helm. The deficit is steadily on the decline and the UK’s debt burden by GDP % has decreased in every quarter since the beginning of this government. There is still a long way to go.

All the while, Miliband and Balls fall over themselves to pull off-the-shelf rhetoric from the depths of their Labour instruction manuals. ‘Same old Tories’, ‘cutting too far, too fast’ they proclaim each Wednesday, their backbenchers rising to the occasion like some amateur church choir of a bygone era.

And, every time, Miliband falls into the same trap. It’s as if somebody laid out a huge mousetrap with a massive, neon-lit sign above, the word ‘Cheese’ flashing away in a miasma of colour, alongside a downwards arrow, pointing directly at a huge piece of Edam. And every time, Miliband doesn’t just investigate the cheese, take a sniff and carefully lift it, perhaps while Balls and Harman hold onto the trap, oh no, he simply piles on, all guns blazing, and, like every time before it, the trap snaps shut on his beady little eyes.

Miliband needs to understand that Cameron is quicker than he’ll ever be. As soon as ‘Same old…’ has left his lips, Cameron pounces. ‘Where is Labour’s economic policy?’ he cajoles. ‘Who does the IMF back?’ ‘Who does the ICBR back?’ ‘Which country has retained its AAA credit rating directly because of Tory economic policy?’ The trap swings into view, and before Miliband understands what has happened, the damn thing is round his neck.

A Toff A Day…

The recent issues for the Tories have brought to light the supposed fact that Cameron is out of touch with the real world, that he has spent that much time surrounding himself with the upper crust that he has absolutely no idea what ‘genuine’, ‘honest’ folk are all about.

Question: who the hell are these genuine and honest people anyway? And why the hell is being rich immediately an indication that you have absolutely no synergy with ‘working’ people? Growing up, my mother was not a rich woman, but she’s voted Tory since before I was born. Her father was a pitman, and the President of the local Working Men’s Club, however it was my mother that voted for Thatcher. Not having money does not immediately mean that you vote Labour. And not having money does not immediately mean that the Tories are a beacon of unaccountability and mistrust.

What Cameron faces is two-fold, the first part of which is a supposed image problem. Bear in mind, if you will, that Cameron’s image has changed not one single iota since he took power. In fact, I would say he has done more in recent times to verify his persona than any other PM bar Blair. If Cameron can continue to spout rhetoric about the Labour-made financial crisis, then sure to hell he can continue to look, act and speak the same as he did at the beginning. Image is not the problem here, however it is always useful to package it together with any other blunders that are floating in the air at the time, and let’s be honest, Cameron’s team has faced plenty of those just lately.

Secondly, is perception, or even one step further, downright lies. If I refer back to my mother’s case, are you trying to tell me that she would want for her children what she had as a child? When you look out across the green lands of the United Kingdom, are you seriously trying to tell me that those less fortunate are not all dreaming of being as filthy rich as Rupert Murdoch? As a parent, it would simply be impossible to not want the best for your children. And yet, you hear day-in-day-out that Cameron is out of touch, not a man of the people, away with the rather rich fairies of Westminster. I’m sorry, but Cameron’s wealth is not his problem, it’s his asset.

The last thing Cameron needs to do right now is fall into the media trap of changing his image. He should play it for its worth, as a beacon of what those less fortunate than he is should be aspiring to become. And any person who tells you that this is not the case, simply cannot bring themselves to tell the truth.

So, apparently it’s over for Cameron. The deal is done, the ship has been sunk, and goodness knows what other turgid metaphors you can recite from memory. But I say hold on just a second, because there’s plenty left should Cameron choose to take it, for it seems it is all there to take.

// Apples and pears.//

Marco Arment points to the fact that Apple Geniuses are still getting it wrong:

I don’t know why Apple hasn’t yet explicitly told all retail employees that “killing apps” in the multitasking tray is unnecessary, unlikely to solve any problem, and actually unlikely to have any effect at all due to the way iOS multitasks.

It’s one thing to hear this myth from the idiots at AT&T and Verizon stores, but it’s just embarrassing for Apple’s own retail employees to be peddling placebos that imply that iOS can’t multitask without constant babysitting and manual maintenance.

(Source: marco.org)

// Rogue’s gallery.//

Horace Dediu of Asymco.com reports on the latest growth figures for the biggest players in the mobile space:

Of all the participants, only three brands enjoyed growth this last quarter: Apple, Samsung and ZTE. ZTE, like Apple, is noteworthy for its late entry. The others are in a mess: Motorola -4%, Nokia -24%, RIM -26%, HTC -29%, LG -44% in terms of unit growth y/y.

Wow. It amazes me that such a huge industry can be compiled of so many companies having such a bad time. RIM was simply expected. What businesses that still use BlackBerries think they will do when the company disappears into the ether, I’ve no idea. Nokia is also disconcerting. It would appear that their newest bedfellow is not serving them well.

(Source: asymco.com)