Fancy Dress

I can never resist an opportunity to dress up, so the chance to make a video for the Jewish festival of Purim in a fancy dress shop was too good to miss.

David Rubinger interview

Watch my interview with legendary Israeli photographer David Rubinger on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel.

Des Browne interview

Watch an interview I conducted for the Jewish News with Des Browne when he was Defence Secretary.

Sky's the limit!

Read my views below or on the Sky News website on the affect of bad weather on small businesses.

The summer was the seventh wettest since 1956, with a total of 317mm of rain falling between June and August.

This was well above the average of 226mm.

Marc Shoffman, from the Federation of Small Businesses, said extreme weather can prove extremely costly for small businesses. He explained: "Bad weather can cause damages to businesses totalling hundreds of millions of pounds.

"Small businesses rely on passing trade and without this are suffering as a result. The poor weather also presents a wider problem including the burden of paying for ever-increasing energy prices, increased congestion and in general coping with staff morale."
Those most affected are garden centres, stately homes and coastal resorts.

In Nottinghamshire, the White Post Farm was one of the hotspots to have been affected by the weather woes.

Site director at the farm, Simon Rouse, said: "We are losing 300-400 visitors a day with bad weather."

Andy Evans, from the Ruxley Manor Garden Centre in Kent, said the summer had been a struggle.

He explained: "It hasn't been the best year. August was horrendous. Our monthly figures show a loss of business and we have lost about £50,000."

He added: "All the hard work we have put in over the summer to make profits has now been eclipsed by this one dreadful month".

Many will be hoping a change in season brings a change in weather fortunes but forecasters say to expect much of the same.

Paul Knightley, from MeteoGroup, said: "With the particularly bad weather spell we had in August, it takes a lot to change it.

"For September we expect much of the same, remaining unsettled, with quite a lot of rain on the way but with a few sunny days expected."

Director magazine

I was recently featured in the Institute of Directors' magazine on the issue of small businesses and energy efficiency. Read the article below or on the IoD website.

The government is keen to lead on climate change, but has discovered an unlikely ally in big business. Is this a cynical marketing ploy or a measured response to a global crisis?

October was a decisive month for Gordon Brown. Having led from the front during the bail-out of the world's financial system, he then put together a similarly bold strategy to bail out the planet. The government's plan, announced by Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, is now to reduce carbon emissions by a massive 80 per cent by 2050. It's a far more severe reduction than the previous target of 60 per cent. Referring to new competition for resources and an urgent need to reduce emissions, Miliband said the UK requires an energy market "that secures future supply, including investment in nuclear power, and carbon capture and storage... that incentivises cuts in emissions and does more to help homes and businesses."

Many small businesses say they could do with some of that extra help. They worry that cutting carbon emissions will add to fuel bills. And, as David Boomer, the IoD's head of energy efficiency and climate change, says, "it seems that these targets are put in place irrespective of the cost both to business and the consumer." But Brown and Miliband have unearthed some unlikely allies. A September 19 letter from UK business leaders to the prime minister called on him to beef up the speed and scope of the government's climate-change strategy. Do much more, the letter begged, and do it much faster. The request, which also went to leaders of the other main political parties, came from the Prince of Wales's UK Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change (CLG), set up in 2005. It was signed by 18 business leaders, from companies as diverse as Anglian Water, Lloyds TSB, Sun Microsystems and Unilever.

Giving the message added spice, its signatories also included some pretty heavyweight carbon emitters, such as E.ON, Shell UK and—by association—BAA.Anyone who imagines the global economic downturn limits the UK's scope for dramatic initiatives is, it seems, mistaken. In fact, suggest the signatories, recession should be a spur, not a brake. "We believe that action cannot be delayed. Decisive action will stimulate economic activity and job creation in certain key sectors, as well as reducing costs in the medium to long term."

But for some the cry rings hollow. Environmental activist group Greenpeace was quick to describe the participation of E.ON and BAA as "hypocrisy of the purest strain"—the first because it wants to build coal-fired power stations and the second because of its airport expansion plans. So was the letter little more than a PR ploy? On the face of it, there is every reason for big corporates to prove their ecological credentials. For a year or more, their marketing consultants have assured them that UK consumers will punish any businesses not perceived to be green. But CLG co-director Craig Bennett says that green policies rest on a more fundamental realisation.

"Once you realise that it is inevitably going to happen, that the only future is a low-carbon future, then you want to get on with it sooner rather than later," he says.But companies can't do it on their own and need government to draw up a transformational plan for the economy as a whole. "The Government has to demonstrate leadership to match the rhetoric by providing incentives and support to encourage business to commercialise new green technologies and open up the green market," says Boomer."The worst thing would be for the government to do nothing or very little for a decade, and then completely change its policy—or for some future government to act in a draconian way," says Bennet.

The CLG is firmly behind the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme, supporting the auction of allowances, and the inclusion of aviation from 2012 (aviation and shipping have been left out of the 80 per cent pledge). The CLG wants much bolder green specification in public procurement, which, it says, would boost future markets for low-carbon goods and services. The group thinks Britain could gain "huge competitive advantage" by being first to produce the kind of low-carbon goods and services the world will demand this century. Small businesses, on the other hand, are catching on to the savings that can be had from good green practice.

A recent survey by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) found that a quarter of SMEs are environmentally responsible because of the amount of money they can save. "Small businesses are already taking action on energy efficiency, such as investing in low-energy lighting and reducing the temperature in offices," says FSB spokesman Marc Shoffman.

The spiralling cost of fuel is having a positive effect, agrees the Forum of Private Business (FPB) . But it notes that, on environmental issues, the public sector is better at receiving than at giving. "Businesses have seen patchy performance from councils in waste management and recycling," says FPB research manager Thomas Parry. "In some areas, there is not the infrastructure for recycling cardboard or plastics, let alone electrical items or batteries.

"The environmental tax take has risen by nine per cent in 2008 to an estimated £29.2bn, according to accountants UHY Hacker Young. "That compares to just £607m spent on incentives," Parry says. "This highlights what many of our members have told us—that climate change seems to be more about stealth taxation than improving the environment."

Restaurant reviews

Another string to my bow is restaurant reviews. My most recent was for the Jewish News at a well-frequented Turkish establishment called Ozer.

FSB Podcast

Subscribe and listen to the latest Federation of Small Businesses Podcast including a package by me on the recent Pre-Budget Report