Citizensheep. "Michael Grimes lives in Birmingham (UK). This is his blog about anything that he fancies."

In the same spirit as our friends at the Daily Mail, this poll has no balanced evidence and a clearly biased agenda. Oh, and here’s the disgusting cartoon that accompanies Littlejohn’s inflammatory article about gipsies:

I was a little angry this morning. As I was trying to catch a train from St Albans, a smiley, bouncy young lady thrust a carrier-bag into my path. “Would you like a free lunch,” she chirrupped. It wasn’t a question. She was coercing me into her sinister game of wasting resources and fattening the [...]

I wish Chiltern Trains would either get rid of their ‘quiet’ coaches or do something to make them less appealing to noisy people. There are always those who ignore the rules, which only serves to make other people indignant and angry. And let’s face it, few people are going to ask a hooded youth to [...]

Producing a consultation document that the average member of the public can understand is easy, if you really care. Birmingham itself has plenty of top class graphic communicators, journalists, copywriters and sub-editors. The Big City Plan is such a massive undertaking that there are, presumably, the financial resources to make sure the public is consulted properly. It seems that it’s just the will that isn’t there.

I sincerely hope this story isn’t true: because if it is, it shows the degree of contempt that Council Leader Mike Whitby has for the people of Birmingham. Two weeks ago a bus of council employees was scheduled to visit the Highgate area of Birmingham. The purpose was to consult local people on the Big [...]

Eventually I shall write a fuller post about this, and about my perception of how it’s being managed and communicated. In the meantime though I just want to help publicise the bus that’s doing the rounds in Birmingham. The council is seeking people’s opinions on its Big City Plan (a massive development plan for Birmingham), [...]

Everyone else seems to be writing New Year resolution blog posts so here’s mine. Blog more regularly. At least once a week. Write my ideas down. I have loads (usually rubbish), and tend to be too daunted to do anything with them. Set myself a project every month. And see it through. Watch a TED [...]

I have just made a complaint to IBM. Dominic Campbell drew my attention to the way IBM uses the term ‘social innovation’ on one of their websites and I too took exception to it. So I used their online contact form to send the following message. Let’s see if they respond. Sir/Madam, I am very [...]

These graphics can be seen on trains in the UK. The one on the left was seen on First Capital Connect, the other on London Underground. What do you think they mean?

The claim by the Advertising  Standards Authority that an iPhone advert was misleading seems confused, and sends a worrying signal.