Finito World Issue 16

Issue 16 Christmas 2025

AMAL CLOONEY PEACE ON EARTH

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2732-5180

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INTRODUCTION Editor: Christopher Jackson Editor-at-large: Claire Coe

FOUNDER’S LETTER the completion documents and effect draw down.

Contributing Editors: Emily Prescott, Meredith Taylor, Lord Ranger, Liz Brewer, Dr Paul Hokemeyer

Advisory Board: Sir John Griffin (Chairman), Dame Mary Richardson, Sir Anthony Seldon, Elizabeth Diaferia, Ty Goddard, Neil Carmichael Management: Ronel Lehmann (Founder & CEO), Colin Hudson, Tom Pauk, Professor Robert Campbell Christopher Jackson, Julia Carrick OBE, Gaynor Goodliffe, Nick Pelekanos

Mentors: Derek Walker, Andrew Inman, Chloë Garland, Alejandra Arteta, Angelina Giovani, Christopher Clark, Robin Rose, Sophia Petrides, Dana JamesEdwards, Iain Smith, Jeremy Cordrey, Martin Israel, Iandra Tchoudnowsky, Tim Levy, Peter Ibbetson, Claire Orlic, Judith Cocking, Sandra Hermitage, Claire Ashley, Dr Richard Davis, Sir David Lidington, Coco Stevenson, Talan Skeels-Piggins, Edward Short, David Hogan, Susan Hunt, Divyesh Kamdar, Julia Glenn, Neil Lancaster, Dr David Moffat, Jonathan Lander, Kirsty Bell, Simon Bell, Paul Brannigan, Kate King, Paul Aplin, Professor Andrew Eder, Derek Bell, Graham Turner, Matthew Thompson, Douglas Pryde, Pervin Shaikh, Adam Mitcheson, Ross Power, Caroline Roberts, Sue Harkness, Andy Tait, Mike Donoghue, Tony Mallin, Patrick Chapman, Amanda Brown, Tom Pauk, Daniel Barres, Patrick Chapman, Merrill Powell, Kate Glick, Lord Mott, Dr Susan Doering, Raghav Parkash, Marcus Day, Sheridan Mangal, Mark Thistlethwaite, Madhu Palmar, Margaret Stephens, John Cottrell, Victoria Anstey, Stephen Goldman, Patrick Timms, James Meek, Dominique Rollo, Tracey Jones, Alan Urmston, Duncan Palmer, James Slater, Charles Hamilton-Stubber, Catherine Wood, Guy Beresford, Paul Glanville, Richard Manners, Nigel Dicker Maeve Walsh, Kathie Knell, Tamsin Aston, Robert Goldsmith Business Development: Rara Plumptre

Design and Digital: Nick Pelekanos, Phil Verney Photography: Sam Pearce, Will Purcell, Gemma Levine Public Relations: Pedroza Communications Website Development: Eprefix Media Buying: Virtual Campaign Management Print Production: Marcus Dobbs

Printers: Micropress Printers Ltd Circulation: Templar Global

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We cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited submissions, manuscripts and photographs. All prices and details are correct at time of going to press, but subject to change. We take no responsibility for omissions or errors. Reproduction in whole or in part without the publisher’s written permission is strictly

"It's a funny old world!" said Margaret Thatcher upon being forced to stand

down in November 1990, even though

she claimed to have never lost an election in her life. As we marked last month the

centennial of her birth on 13th October, I

reflected on her phrase as I thought about all my own Christmases which came at once earlier this year.

Firstly, the Founder of a competitor

accepted an offer for us to acquire certain

assets from his business. Sadly, he had lost his wife from a brain tumour at the end

of last year and he himself was diagnosed with early-stage pancreatic cancer.

Succession planning was forced upon

him in the cruellest of ways, although

thankfully, he has been recovering well.

The effect on us would have been to more than double our turnover and increase

the number of new candidates seeking meaningful careers. Unfortunately,

when we had raised the funds from

our shareholders for the transaction,

he invited a greater consideration than we had originally agreed, which I was unprepared to countenance.

Secondly, in March I signed Heads of

Terms to sell a stake in the business at a significant valuation and predicated on the strong belief that we have a

Over the years, I have learned to be patient. Nothing happens when you expect, and everything happens when you least expect. The one thing that made me roar with laughter was the news from our IP lawyer that we had been successful in registering the competitor trademark now owned by us, even though the transaction never completed.

In this festive issue we celebrate Amal Clooney, a barrister specialising in international law and human rights and a Professor of Practice in International

Law at Oxford University. Her contributions have been recognised by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the American Society of International Law, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the Kings Trust and Time Magazine. She won the Legal 500 Award in 2024 for international lawyer of the year. She is co-founder, along with her husband George, of the Clooney Foundation for Justice.

The jobs market, especially for new graduates or those seeking entry-level positions, is very tough right now.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show the UK has 39 months of declining job vacancies in the economy - not something we've ever seen before, even in the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 or the Covid pandemic.

Tis’ the season of goodwill. We wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. Peace on earth.

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ISSUE 16

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LEADERS

TRADING PLACES

A

s the festive lights blink across the London skyline, and office

parties briefly distract us from the

harder business of modern life, one

question persists beneath the surface

cheer: what kind of world of work are we entering in 2026? That question,

increasingly, is shaped not just by AI

or climate or war – but by trade policy.

And at the heart of that lies Donald

Trump’s attempt to rewrite the global economic rules.

Trump’s second presidency has

been marked by an audacious trade

agenda: the sweeping tariffs of 2025 are not tinkering at the edges, but a

frontal assault on the architecture of globalisation. A 10 percent across-

the-board tariff, followed by targeted increases against countries seen as

‘cheaters’ – notably China, Germany and South Korea – has signalled the end of America’s role as global freetrade cheerleader. These are not idle

threats: they have been implemented by executive order, and enforced with real

teeth. He has succeeded, in other words,

in shifting the Overton window on trade permanently.

To give the president credit, he has never disguised what he wants. He sees trade not as a mutually beneficial exchange but as a competition – one America

was, in his view, duped into losing. He has tapped into a reservoir of genuine grievance in hollowed-out towns and ex-industrial states, where promises

of retraining never quite arrived, and

where the “knowledge economy” feels like someone else’s gain. For these

voters, Trump’s trade stance offers a

kind of moral redress. The symbolism is

powerful: America standing up for itself again.

8

Yet symbolism does not always create outcomes. For all the headlines and tariffs, the promised industrial renaissance remains uneven, and many still point out – with some justification – that Trumponomics is inherently inflationary. Some domestic manufacturing has picked up, but these jobs are neither as plentiful nor as secure as advertised. For every reopened steel mill, there are price increases across consumer goods, supply-chain delays, and jittery employers postponing hiring decisions. Apple, Amazon, and Ford all warn of margin pressure. The effects are visible not just on stock tickers, but in interview rooms: fewer internships, less appetite for apprenticeships, and a mounting nervousness about futureproofing.

for employability. Companies that

More interesting still is the way the rest of the world has responded—not with panic, but adaptation. The EU has inked new trade pacts with India and Brazil.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN has deepened integration.

China is rerouting its exports through third countries. Globalisation, it turns out, is more resilient than Trump may have hoped. What has emerged is not a world deglobalised, but one in which America has less influence over the flows that matter. In trying to restore control, Trump may have accelerated the formation of trade networks that deliberately bypass the US.

becomes an afterthought.

And so, while the president’s strategy has succeeded in refocusing domestic attention on the costs of globalisation, it has yet to deliver a coherent framework for prosperity in its place. Protectionism, like salt, must be used sparingly. As an organising principle for a whole economy, it risks becoming sour. Worse, it breeds uncertainty, which is kryptonite

and the rhetoric of separation grows

cannot plan, cannot hire. Graduates facing an incoherent labour market are not liberated by tariffs – they’re stranded by them.

For workers, the implications are both economic and psychological. Stability underpins ambition. When you don’t know whether your sector will be taxed into retreat, or if the cost of components will make your job redundant, it is harder to invest in yourself. Employers, likewise, grow cautious. The long-term training programme gets deferred. That international secondment is suddenly off the table. Human capital, once the great hope of post-industrial renewal,

And yet, the reality is that Trump has changed the terms of debate. Both parties now speak the language of managed trade. The free-trade consensus that reigned for decades is broken, and unlikely to return in its original form. In that sense, his revolution is real.

So as we look ahead to 2026, the task is not to wish away this shift, but to respond intelligently to it. This is the Christmas message we might carry into the new year: that even as barriers rise louder, it is the open-minded, the agile, and the skilled who will prevail. For all Trump’s efforts to recast the economy in nationalist terms, the global labour market remains irrepressibly human – and it still rewards those who learn, who adjust, and who persevere.

LEADERS

THE SILENT SKILL A

s wars grind on in Ukraine and Gaza, and new flashpoints emerge from Ethiopia to the Taiwan Strait, peace – once the lofty domain of idealists and diplomats – has come to feel less like a historical given, and more like an endangered skill. The return of war to Europe, the retreat of multilateralism, and the weaponisation of international law have exposed something uncomfortable: that peace, like employability, requires sustained effort. And we have, in many quarters, forgotten how to do it.

It is fitting, then, that Amal Clooney graces this issue’s cover. Hers is not merely a story of courtroom glamour, but one of moral tenacity: a belief that the rule of law can still be a shield for the vulnerable, even when the world’s attention span shortens. Her work on behalf of Yazidi women, victims of Russian aggression, and journalists held under bogus charges, reminds us that peace is not just the absence of bombs – it is the presence of justice.

E

This matters not only in the Hague, but in the workplace. Employers, too, are now caught in geopolitical crosswinds.

Conflict reshapes energy markets, disrupts supply chains, and sparks refugee flows that change the labour map of entire continents. Humanitarian law is no longer something distant – it sets the conditions for prosperity.

Where peace prevails, investment follows. Where it breaks down, career dreams are halted by fear, instability, or exile.

We must also broaden our definition of the peacemaker. It is the teacher keeping hope alive in a war zone; the mediator defusing local violence before it spreads; the employer willing to hire someone displaced by war. Peacebuilding is no longer a niche pursuit, but an everyday act. It is a skill – a soft one, perhaps, but no less vital than code, finance, or design.

In this way, the modern peace advocate has something in common with today’s jobseeker. Both must operate across borders, navigate complexity, and

find voice amid clamour. Both need resilience. And both, crucially, must know how to listen.

There’s a temptation, in our loudest era, to believe that force always wins.

But look closer, and you’ll find that the world’s most hopeful movements – those for women’s rights, press freedom, anti-corruption – are led not by the shouters, but by the calm and well-prepared. These are not merely advocates. They are practitioners of peace.

So, as we close the year, let us reject the idea that peace is naive. Let us treat it as a capability to be developed, defended, and deployed. Like employability, it requires investment— intellectually, emotionally, politically.

Amal Clooney reminds us that law can still speak louder than weapons, and that the voice of conscience, if trained and focused, can still carry across borders.

In a season of reflection, that may be the most employable skill of all.

THE GIFT OF A START

very Christmas issue, we ask our readers to do something a little radical: to believe in potential. Not the headline-grabbing kind, but the quiet, often overlooked talent found in young people up and down the country—who lack not ability, but access.

Our Finito bursary programme exists to change that. With your support, we help young people—often from challenging backgrounds—get a foothold in the world of work.

Sometimes it’s about coaching; other times, it’s interview clothes, train fares, or the quiet encouragement no algorithm can provide. We step in at

exactly the point where confidence wavers and opportunity feels just out of reach.

In a year where the world has shouted louder than ever, Finito Education has continued to do what it was founded to do: listen. We’ve listened to candidates trying to navigate a complex job market, to employers searching for character as much as credentials, and to educators wondering how best to prepare the next generation for a world they barely recognise.

This magazine is many things – a platform, a provocation, a community

– but at its core, it is a statement of belief: that work is not just about

money, but about dignity, purpose, and becoming the person you were meant to be.

So if you’ve found value in these

pages – if something here has made

you think differently or feel hopeful –

please consider giving to our Christmas Bursary Appeal. It could be the

moment someone else’s journey begins.

Because the greatest gift you can give isn’t advice, or insight, or even a job – it’s a start.

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ISSUE 16

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CONTENTS

THIS ISSUE 3 FOUNDER'S LETTER

Wikipedia

Alamy

p26 Sir Ed Davey MP

p110 Mariah Carey

6 LEADERS 12 DIARY Kiki McDonough 14 MEET THE MENTOR James Slater on legal careers

COLUMNS

FEATURES

20 T HE NOVELIST

46 AMAL CLOONEY EXCLUSIVE

Zadie Smith on literary universality 21 THE INSURGENT Nigel Farage on sclerotic Britain 24 THE SLEEP SCIENTIST Sophie Bostock on the need for sleep 26 THE OPPOSITION LEADER Sir Ed Davey MP on the care sector 28 THE POLYMATH Sarah Tucker’s multifaceted career

How the human rights lawyer is changing the world

58 CHRISTMAS PEACE Will war ever be over?

66 THATCHER AT 100 Where’s the Right going?

76 BURSARY REFLECTIONS Ronel Lehmann on seasonal giving

82 SECRET ECONOMY The jobs of Christmas 88 EDTECH Redesigning for a digital age 92 PERSONAL SHOPPING Design Centre Chelsea Harbour 96 THE FLOWING FUTURE The River Wye Lawsuit

78 THE HARRODS TOUCH An interview with Tracy Fin

30 A QUESTION OF DEGREE Tom Pauk on law qualifications 32 RELATIVELY SPEAKING Ayesha Vardag on family influence 34 10,000 HOURS Georgina Wood on earned mastery

Unsplash

Unsplash

p83 The Christmas Job Rush

p86 Christmas Careers

36 TOMORROW’S LEADERS ARE BUSY TONIGHT Max Liebmann’s journey to Slaughter and May 38 THOSE ARE MY PRINCIPLES Naomi Klein on personal branding 40 LATEST EVENTS Tim Clark Schools Report 10

CONTENTS Alamy

p46

When Hollywood Meets Law: The Inside Story of the World’s Greatest Power Couple.

ART, CULTURE & BOOKS 102 CATHEDRAL TIME Building for the future

110 MARIAH ET AL.

A look at Christmas music

116 IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE The ultimate career film 122 CHARLES DICKENS Patron Saint of Christmas

128 BOOK REVIEWS From Smartphone Nation to ADHD

144 CLASS DISMISSED Rufus Norris

132 W INTER OLYMPICS Prelude to Milan 2026 138 SWEDEN NOTES Sarah Tucker abroad 140 COSTEAU The Great Christmas Grocery Wars

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

p116 It's a Wonderful Life

p144 Rufus Norris

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DIARY

KIKI MCDONOUGH

THE HOUSEHOLD NAME JEWELLER ON THE CHRISTMAS RUSH

I

love the atmosphere in my store just

one did? Like the last Budget, this one

Everybody comes in in such a positive

of tax rises across the board. Everyone

off Sloane Square at Christmas time.

mood, looking for special presents for

loved ones or something pretty to wear.

I

t's always our busiest time of year, and

this year, the stone of the season seems

to be the fire opal. It's full of drama

and colour, a deep red-orange hue that is perfect to wear this season if you are looking to make a statement.

A

s the year comes to an end, I'm

reflecting on my 40th anniversary

was presaged by doom-mongering talk I know in business has been concerned in the run-up, and naturally consumer confidence is affected. This is the last

thing business needed in the busy pre-

Christmas period, which is so crucial to retail.

I

am a huge patron of the ballet and this year I am looking forward to

The Nutcracker at Covent Garden.

The ballet debuted in December 1892

in business which has made 2025 very

in St. Petersburg, firmly tying it to the

that I sat down with a blank piece of

festive family gathering, with a Christmas

my first design and wondering what on

dreamlike winter wonderland. During

was hugely exciting, with Margaret

Stahlbaum children excitedly await

impacted footfall for retailers across the

take risks and go for it – it felt like there

moment, which always reminds me of

thoroughly fed up with it, and desperate

has been the most wonderful, rewarding

to open their presents with a sense of

international brand, and I couldn't be

I

special. It hardly seems like 40 years ago

Christmas season. The story unfolds at a

paper and a pencil in hand contemplating

tree at its centre, and expands into a

earth I had let myself in for. That period

the opening Christmas Eve party, the

Thatcher encouraging entrepreneurs to

and then participate in the gift-giving

was nothing that couldn’t be achieved. It

when my children were young and used

four decades since then, building an

wonder (once at 3am).

more grateful to every client that has supported me along the way.

I

’ve always been a fan of Boxing Day.

As a devoted football fan, it’s usually

the highlight of the festive season in

rarely indulge in puddings, except

terms of sport. So I’m quite disappointed

Christmas pudding has a charm I cannot

traditionally packed Boxing Day calendar

during this one magical season.

resist. Once a year, its heady blend of

dried fruit, spices, and rich brandy draws me in, and I’ll seize every opportunity

for a helping. The moment it’s lit, blue

fire dancing across its surface, feels like a

comforting ritual. I savour every fragrant,

boozy, sticky mouthful, and it’s always the highlight of my festivities.

W

hat government in their right

mind would schedule a Budget

as late as November 26th, as our current 12

that the Premier League has scrapped the this year. My lifelong loyalty lies with

Kiki McDonough

last three years. There's no doubt it's area. Everybody in my part of town is for a break.

O

ne of the things I'm proudest of this year is publishing my first

book, Kiki McDonough: A Life of Colour.

It's a celebration of everything I have built over four decades and features over 200 of my designs. It has been great fun to put together over a couple of years. I'm

Liverpool, and whether they’re playing on

not usually one for looking back, only

festive period, I’ll be cheering them on

to do quite a lot of the former. Over the

the 26th, the 27th, or whenever over the with my usual passion.

W

ouldn't it be wonderful if the authorities in London could

make a firm New Year's resolution: no

roadworks for 2026? In Sloane Square, the sound of drilling has been more familiar than anything else for the

forward, but this process meant I had lifetime of my business, I've negotiated two recessions, a pandemic and ten prime ministers. But what I'm most proud of is doing it all on my own – with no directors, investors or, apart from very early on, loans from the bank.

DIARY

Harrods hampers

Nothing spreads festive cheer quite like a luxury hamper filled with irresistible seasonal delicacies – especially when it’s from Harrods.

‘Tis the season for the perfect gift and our expert team at Harrods Corporate Service is here to help you find yours.

Please email corporate.service@harrods.com to discuss your requirements. www.harrodscorporateservice.com

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ISSUE 16

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MENTORING

Meet the Mentor:

JAMES SLATER

THE FINITO MENTOR AND READER IN LAW AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BUCKINGHAM ON THE INS AND OUTS OF A LEGAL CAREER You were raised across France, Spain,

inquiry and reading are my greatest

international upbringing influenced

the art of communication. A career

and the United States. How has that your understanding of legal systems and enabled you to connect with

students from diverse backgrounds?

A cosmopolitan upbringing and

learning two languages on top of my native English provided excellent

preparation for meeting new people

and engaging positively with cultures

different to my own. Living in various countries and frequent travel also

taught me that differences between people are often matters of style

not substance, enabling me to find

common ground with colleagues and

students. This means I have embraced a mindset that absorbs difference to

create a more nuanced understanding of my fellow humans and their ways

passions. I also realised that I loved that reflected what I loved doing,

was intellectually challenging and

which suited my temperament was

my path to personal fulfilment. This lesson has proven an invaluable tool in my mentoring of students over

the years, as I am able to recognise

the temperament and skill set of my students and guide them towards

career choices that maximise their chances of success and fulfilment.

Having worked extensively with

mature learners and those switching careers, what key traits have you

observed that help such students flourish in pursuing legal or professional paths?

of doing things. This extends to

A strong work ethic, perseverance,

was able to study EU law in French

such students. Mature learners are

Brussels successfully during the year

including demanding full-time work

despite the difference between my

day’s work requires single-mindedness

civilian ethos of EU law.

mature learners have excellent work

legal culture as well. For example, I

and courage are the key traits for

at L’Institut d’Etudes Europeens in

juggling multiple responsibilities,

abroad of my undergraduate degree,

and family life. Studying after a hard

common law background and the

and fortitude. It is for this reason that

After training at Clifford Chance, what motivated you to transition

into academia, and how does your practical legal experience inform your approach to teaching?

ethics and time management. The

other key trait is the recognition that the skill set acquired in one career

can be transferred to another, often

with an element of re-imagining. For example, I have seen many police

James Slater

time distance learning or hybrid course excellent recruitment material.

What advice do you offer someone

entering law “late” or switching from another field—especially in terms of

leveraging life experience to succeed?

Don’t imagine that you are an impostor, or that you will have to be lucky, or that someone is hiring for unconventional

reasons. The workplace belongs to the best candidate at whatever stage they

enter a profession. Those entering late

and from another field have enormous virtues and capacities, not least

experience, wisdom and huge suite of soft skills. I always say to those who come

to the profession later and from another field: ‘You deserve to feel confident and to have faith in your ability!’.

At the heart of any good career

officers transfer their police experience

Supporting international students

personality and skill set. I realised

and not necessarily in criminal justice.

for domestic ones. What are the most

university for a good reason: academic

those who have studied on a part-

decision is understanding your

and skills to a successful career in law,

that I had enjoyed school and

If I was hiring, I would consider

14

often requires different guidance than common career-planning distinctions you help them navigate?

MENTORING

Understand the jurisdiction they will

structural and cultural form. Greater

the development of these workplace

to that jurisdiction and culture. The

has alleviated the impact of these

responsibility for their own learning,

return to and cater your guidance

path to qualification after an English law degree takes many different

forms when students return to the

various jurisdictions that share our common law legal culture: I have

made it my business to understand

those differences and provide support and encouragement to international

students who are pursuing this path.

With an LLM from Harvard and

a PhD from Birmingham, how did each academic environment shape your view on employability and professional readiness?

Harvard Law School is a highly

challenging environment academically and, as Scott Turow describes so

vividly in his memoir ‘One L’, it is

personally very demanding and often intimidating! The Harvard JDs are

incredibly motivated and hardworking, and it brings home to need for the

and wider access to higher education barriers considerably. I encountered a part-time law student who lacked formal academic qualifications at

secondary level for various structural

skills empowers students to take

no longer merely passive recipients

of knowledge but active pursuers of knowledge.

and cultural reasons but proved an

As law becomes increasingly digital

this person to contemplate a career

lawyers develop truly portable skills

outstanding law student. I encouraged in law in City law firm, providing

practical and emotional support. This

and cross-border, how should young that can span jurisdictions?

person qualified with a top City law

To be honest technology is a learning

determination and overcoming

However, I always encourage my

unconventional academic path. This

as much as possible. Also, universities

firm by demonstrating single-minded

curve for me as much as my students!

inhibitions created by their

students to engage with technology

success story was a powerful testament

to the social mobility higher education can provide.

will have to face the challenge of

incorporating AI into teaching and assessment in a way that maintains

Where do you see the largest

academic standards and integrity and

teach and the competencies legal

AI is revolutionising legal practice,

bridge that gap?

consumed significant man hours to

disconnect between what universities

prepares students for the workplace.

employers expect—and how do you

enabling mundane tasks that formerly be executed in a fraction of the time.

strongest of work ethics and the

The gap should be closed but not

intelligence to succeed professionally

in higher education for traditional

to leverage this power: technology

exclusive focus on academic inquiry

who understand technology will have

for the workplace. The solution is

not.

highest standards of diligence and

in the legal profession. A PhD sets the foundations in the main for an

academic career and brings home to the need for thorough research and

intellectual imagination and rigour. I am constantly using the soft skills I

acquired during my PhD. I was also

lucky to have a supportive supervisor, who can make all the difference.

Can you share a mentoring success

story—someone you guided into an unexpected but fulfilling legal or policy role?

I believe the core goal of Higher Education (HE) is to bring the

most talented people together with the career that both requires and

harnesses their talents. The barriers to this happening generally take

entirely bridged: there remains a place

The best lawyers will understand how

academic inquiry. However, an

will not replace lawyers, but lawyers

will only prepare students indirectly

a significant edge over those who do

to make the rigours of academic

inquiry work symbiotically with the development of workplace skills.

In an age dominated by AI,

surveillance debates, and global

For example, the use of authentic

power shifts, how important is an

executed in a practical way, makes

today?

assessment, where academic ideas are academic ideas come alive through the exercise of workplace skills. Similarly, researching and referencing for the

purposes of an academic essay not only

ethical foundation in legal practice More important than ever. Technology is both a tremendous opportunity but also a tremendous threat. Above all

deepens knowledge but also fosters the

client privacy and privacy generally

by accurate following of an academic

ensure that AI remains a tool under

the use of word processing skills

of the client remain paramount and

workplace skill of attention to detail,

must be maintained. Also, we must

stylesheet, and digital literacy, through

human control. The interests and goals

and electronic databases. In turn,

must be served by AI.

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COLUMNS Our regular writers on employability in 2025 38 | NAOMI KLEIN ON BRANDING We’re all Instagrammers now

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32

AYESHA VARDAG The divorce law queen on her upbringing

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ISSUE 16

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COLUMNS

The Novelist

ZADIE SMITH THE GREAT WRITER ON WHY THE DIALOGUE AROUND UNIVERSALITY HAS SHIFTED

F

or the past few years, I've been reading about Simone Weil with

the idea of writing a novel about her – a great ethical thinker, a socialist, and,

of course, a Catholic. There's an essay

I return to yearly, Human Personality,

in which Simone considers what a truly afflicted person might cry out in their affliction. Not someone suffering a

microaggression or merely offended, but someone truly afflicted.

She notes that one possible cry is: “You have no right to do this to me.” Weil is interested in this sentence because

the Second World War. We might ask

what kind of disaster it takes for people to rediscover the human, to speak of humanity again.

The third place is literature. Here, the

particular is used to express the universal.

As a young reader, I spent all my time

in this realm, in that belief system. You could say: “I too am Madame Bovary” or “I too am Leopold Bloom.” But for someone like me, the complication

arises: I could joyfully participate in that universal, but could someone like me be the universal for someone else?

it draws on the discourse of rights, a

That became my project when I was

law – usus, utendi et abutendi – the right

people like me could be universal, too.

concept she traces to Roman property

to use and abuse what is yours. That very discourse, she reminds us, was once used to defend slavery among the Romans.

But Weil is searching for a different

language—one not rooted in property or entitlement. She argues that the true cry

twenty-three: to write novels in which I'm a comic novelist. I write funny books, mostly. In them, people meet across

borders and build friendships. When I

The first is faith. In this space, we hold that human beings are sacred because

God created them. But of course, that language is often abused. Think of

someone like JD Vance, who seems to

suggest that the sacredness of the human increases with their Americanness or proximity to his own identity.

The second is the language of human

rights, formalised after the disaster of 20

role: it promised us a total indexing of

human experience. Everything became

categorised, including people. Literature, in many ways, surrendered to this

system – like the indigenous people lying down when Columbus came ashore. It submitted to this taxonomy.

Yes, many extraordinary novels have

emerged from this period. But now the

question remains: is there still a language for the universal? I don't think it can be

the language of the 19th century. There's

no point resurrecting that novelistic form.

That human subject is gone for most people.

a new foundation for the human – one

each other across lines, I no longer do

of three traditional places.

He notes how technology plays a

and performers. That’s how I grew up.

the voices – I’m from a family of actors

not individualistic. It is universal.

does that language still live? I can think

The late Pope Francis saw this clearly.

So the challenge is: what kind of novel

But 25 years later, although I still write

So one question worth asking is: where

vanish.

used to read those novels aloud, I did all

of the afflicted is: “What you are doing to

me is not just.” That cry, unlike the first, is

that allows for solidarity – has started to

novels about people encountering

might yet speak anew? How do we find that avoids nostalgia, and instead creates

a space for solidarity, for the universal cry: “What you are doing to me is not just”?

the voices aloud. And why? Because the discourse around particularity

and universality has changed. To do all the voices now is to risk being

accused of erasing them, owning them, speaking over them. The entire literary conversation has, in many ways, been

submitted to the framework of rights.

Each novel, one way or another, has

become an expression of the rights of

a particular group. That’s not a critique – because to get rights in a democracy,

you often must first appear as a specific

group. But the other language – the one

Zadie Smith (Wikipedia.org)

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The Insurgent

NIGEL FARAGE THE REFORM LEADER ISN’T GOING AWAY ANY TIME SOON. HERE HE OUTLINES WHY BRITAIN NEEDS A MAJOR SHIFT

T

here’s a saying I’ve always liked: the road to hell is paved with good

intentions. And right now, it feels like we’ve been walking that road barefoot for the past decade.

I didn’t plan to come back into politics.

Ugandan Asians fleeing Idi Amin,

I set up my first business in 1993. Not

Nazis. We’ve bent over backwards to give

completely unemployable. I know what

Germans and Austrians escaping the

people a better life here. But what’s the

point if we don’t even believe in our own values anymore?

I’d done my bit. I’d stood on stages, in

Take crime. You can now steal £200

Parliament telling unelected bureaucrats

prosecution. Law and order is crumbling.

was done – or so we thought – and like

than patrols. Communities are fractured.

studios, and on the floor of the European

worth of goods and walk away without

what I thought of their pet project. Brexit

Police are more focused on pronouns

many, I imagined a quieter life. But here we are. Why? Because this country is going to the dogs.

We have a leadership class that believes in absolutely nothing. Nothing. No

conviction, no backbone, no principles

beyond pleasing whatever lobby group

shouts loudest on social media. And that, fundamentally, is what drove me back into the political arena.

It wasn’t ambition. It wasn’t ego. It was disgust.

We are watching the slow collapse of

everything Britain has stood for – fairness, hard work, decency, responsibility. The march of the woke Left through our

institutions is a cultural revolution in all

but name. We’ve reached the point where a man can self-identify as a woman,

commit a violent crime, and be sent to a female prison. Meanwhile, our children

are being taught to hate their own country – that Britain was always evil, that the

Empire was uniquely bad, and that our nation is irredeemably racist.

Rubbish. Britain is the most tolerant,

open society on Earth. Always has been.

We welcomed Jews fleeing Tsarist Russia,

because I was clever, but because I was

it’s like to pay your staff more than you

pay yourself. I know what it’s like to stay

up worrying about payroll. That’s the real economy. That’s where growth comes from – not Whitehall.

Government doesn’t create wealth. Never has, never will. Its job is to clear the way

In some parts of our major cities,

for people to succeed. That’s what built

language – and worse, they don’t know or

on with it. Reward success. Encourage

culture, of cohesion. And yes, of courage.

to do well. The more you try to engineer

neighbours don’t even speak the same

places like Hong Kong. Let people get

care about one another. It’s a collapse of

effort. Stop punishing those who want

Because courage is what we desperately

equality of outcome, the more you

what it stands for, and has the guts to say

We’ve forgotten how to work. We’ve

lack in public life. Leadership that knows it out loud. When I look at the leaders of the main parties, I see cowards. Not statesmen. Not even managers. Just

hollow shells mouthing safe words they don’t understand.

We’re being run by people who have

never worked in the real world. Just look

at the Labour front bench – 24 out of 25 members have never worked in private

destroy equality of opportunity.

bought into this nonsense of hybrid

working, four-day weeks, and remote

learning. It’s cobblers. Young people learn nothing sitting in their bedrooms on

Zoom. Productivity is in the toilet. And

no one even checks whether public sector workers are logging in, meanwhile, the taxpayers foot the bill.

business. The one who did went bust.

“Rachel from accounts,” the would-be Chancellor, wasn’t an economist. She

wasn’t even from accounts. She worked in complaints. You couldn’t make it up.

And meanwhile, small businesses are being bled dry. National Insurance

up. Minimum wage up. Business rates

through the roof. Regulations meant for multinational giants being forced onto

sole traders and corner shops. No wonder the high street is dying.

Nigel Farage (Wikipedia.org) www.finito.org.uk

ISSUE 16

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ET, LONDON SWIX 8JA

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ISSUE 16

23

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The Sleep Scientist

SOPHIE BOSTOCK SHOULD BUSINESSES SPEND MORE TIME THINKING ABOUT THEIR EMPLOYEES’ SHUT-EYE? ALMOST CERTAINLY, ARGUES AN EXPERT

W

e used to think that insomnia increased with age. That as

the evidence suggests that what you’re

clock change, when we lose an hour of

more fragmented, more elusive. But

performance.”

in the market,” Bostock says. “When

She’s seen this first-hand, working with

people are well rested, they’re able to

sectors. “There has been a step change

judgments. When they’re tired, the brain

performance-enhancing tool. But when

It’s not just decision-making that

brain is in stress mode all the time.

communication – these are all impacted

people got older, their sleep became

that’s no longer the case. According to the latest NHS data, sleep problems

are now striking hardest not at the end of life – but at its beginning.

“In 2023, 64.9% of young people

aged 17 to 23 had a problem with

sleep three or more times over the

really adapting to is a lower level of

CEOs and leadership teams across

take in the full context and make better

– people are starting to see sleep as a

just gets lazy.”

you’re in sleep-deprived mode, your

suffers. Creativity, leadership,

You’re wired. And you don’t realise the

previous seven nights,” says Dr Sophie

impact it’s having on you – until you get

and performance coach. “The figure is

feel the difference.”

Bostock, a behavioural sleep scientist

even higher for young women – 74.7% - compared with 55.6% for young

men. And of those with a probable

mental health disorder, 91% had a sleep problem three or more times in that week.”

The numbers are alarming. But they

also reflect a broader shift in the world of work and wellbeing – especially for

young professionals trying to find their

place in what often feels like an alwayson economy.

“I would absolutely suggest that this

tendency to be always available – 24/7, bombarded by new information and

able to connect with people at all times –is putting more pressure on sleep,”

Bostock says. “There’s a lot at play, but the link between poor mental health and poor sleep is undeniable.”

So why do so many of us still treat sleep like a negotiable extra?

“One of the biggest misconceptions,” Bostock says, “is that people think

they can adapt to short sleep. But all 24

sleep, there’s actually more turbulence

a proper night’s sleep. Then you really

“PEOPLE THINK THEY CAN ADAPT TO SHORT SLEEP. BUT ALL THE EVIDENCE SUGGESTS THAT WHAT YOU’RE REALLY ADAPTING TO IS A LOWER LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE.” Her message to leaders is clear: don’t just demand more productivity from

your teams –create the conditions for

them to perform. The benefits of good sleep extend across every aspect of

by sleep, or the lack of it. Bostock adds: “REM sleep – what we get more of in the early morning hours – is critical

for innovative thinking. That’s when

your brain makes those ‘out of the box’

connections. Miss out on that, and your creativity drops.”

For leaders, the stakes are even higher.

“Sleep-deprived leaders are more prone

to bullying,” Bostock notes. “They’re less patient, more authoritarian. But when they’re well rested, they show more

charisma, more empathy. That links

directly to communication. It’s a huge difference.”

Not all sleep deprivation is chosen.

Sometimes, it’s baked into the working day –especially for younger staff.

“There’s research suggesting that early birds – people who are naturally up and alert in the morning—tend to

discriminate against night owls,” says Bostock. “They expect everyone to be

productive at 8 or 9am. But for many

performance: “In decision-making, for

people in their late teens or early

that investment professionals are more

delayed. Their body clocks are two hours

they’re sleep-deprived. After the spring

In other words, what looks like laziness

example, we’ve seen studies showing

twenties, their natural chronotype is

prone to irrational decisions when

behind the average working adult.”

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might actually be physiology. “Younger people are often much more alert later in the day – but they’re being forced

to perform in the early morning, when their brains aren’t at their best.”

Changing this isn’t just about individual habits. It’s about organisational culture.

Bostock breaks it down into three areas: education, culture, and clinical support.

“I often start with education,” she says.

“Even a one-hour webinar can have an impact on people’s sleep patterns. But

it’s much more effective when supported

by a workplace culture that values sleep.”

That starts with leadership. “What do your managers do? Are they sending

emails out of hours? If so, their teams

will, too. There’s research suggesting that sleep-deprived leaders create sleep-

deprived teams – and those teams are less engaged.”

Even small changes can make a

difference. “If you’re working late,

that’s fine. But don’t send the email at

midnight – schedule it to go out at 8am.

And don’t expect people to check in on holiday. Some companies even delete emails sent to staff on leave.”

Respect for time zones is another underestimated issue. “So many

meetings are booked without thinking

about where the other person is. Asking someone to join a Zoom call at 7am or

9pm might be practical for you – but it’s a form of sleep theft for them.”

The result is a culture of chronic burnout.

If that sounds overwhelming, start small.

“Just choose one day a week where

but also self-compassion. If you worry

time – say 6pm –and structure your day

get worse. So give yourself some slack.

can manage one day, build from there.”

the time, and accept that sometimes it

you’re going to switch off at a fixed

too much about your sleep, it’s going to

around protecting that time. Once you

Aim for doing the right things 80% of

It’s also about creating white space.

won’t go to plan.”

“Don’t schedule meetings back to back

Bostock’s own wake-up call came the

rest. The more you practise relaxing

“SLEEP IS NOT JUST ABOUT RECOVERING FROM THE DAY – IT’S ABOUT PREPARING FOR SUCCESS.”

from 9 to 6. Build in rest. Go, rest, go,

during the day, the better you’ll sleep at night.”

One of the paradoxes of sleep is that

knowing how important it is can make things worse.

“SLEEP-DEPRIVED LEADERS ARE MORE PRONE TO BULLYING. THEY’RE LESS PATIENT, MORE AUTHORITARIAN. BUT WHEN THEY’RE WELL RESTED, THEY SHOW MORE CHARISMA, MORE EMPATHY.” “There’s more phone addiction among young people, yes – but there’s also

more awareness of the importance of

hard way.

“I fooled myself into thinking I was

functioning fine on little sleep. I used

to work late until something was done.

And then one day, I had a climbing

accident – because I was sleep deprived.”

That moment changed everything.

“I realised that if I wanted to finish

something, I needed to go to sleep. Then I’d have the cognitive power to actually

do it. Now, I have a sleep-first mentality.

Sleep is not just about recovering

from the day – it’s about preparing for success.”

Her message is simple, but powerful:

“Start with sleep. Then perform. Then recover. And repeat.”

sleep. And that sometimes leads to sleep anxiety. People worry about not getting enough sleep, and that anxiety fuels

For individuals, especially those in high-

insomnia.”

“The ones who do it successfully are

Z and Millennials, many of whom

What’s your norm – and what are

mental health conditions. “It becomes

Because if you say, ‘I finish work at five,’

leads to poor sleep, which then worsens

nights, then that’s your real norm.”

So what’s the answer?

pressure roles, boundaries are essential.

“It’s about education and empowerment,

This is particularly challenging for Gen

really strict. Aim for that 80/20 rule.

already face higher levels of anxiety and

the rare exceptions where you flex it?

a vicious cycle: poor mental health

but you’re working until eight most

mental health.”

Sophie Bostock

www.finito.org.uk

ISSUE 16

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COLUMNS

The Opposition Leader

SIR ED DAVEY MP THE LIBERAL DEMOCRAT LEADER ON HIS PASSION FOR THE CARE SECTOR – AND HOW TO FIX IT

W

hen I speak about care, I speak not just as a politician, but as

someone whose life has been shaped, repeatedly and profoundly, by the

experience of caring. It’s something

that touches every family in one way

or another – but for too long, it’s been treated as peripheral in our politics, instead of central to how we build a fairer and more resilient society.

The reality is that we have a care system that too often fails the very people it is meant to support – whether that’s elderly people, disabled children,

or the unpaid family members who

hold everything together behind the

scenes. And yet despite endless reviews, commissions, and promises of reform, we remain stuck.

the support they need. It’s a loss not just of income, but of talent, experience, and independence.

There’s a moral case for change, but

there’s also a compelling economic one.

Investing in care doesn’t just support the vulnerable – it strengthens the labour market, reduces NHS pressure, and boosts productivity.

One of the most powerful things I’ve done as an MP is spend time with

carers – especially those looking after someone with dementia. I remember a particular session with a group of

carers who were simply exhausted. One woman said to me, “It’s not just the

caring – it’s the fact that no one listens

to you.” That stuck with me. Because the

Sir Ed Davey MP (Wikipedia)

as an afterthought, not as a budget line to be managed, but as central to the success of care delivery.

truth is, carers often know more about

I’m always struck by the impact of

any professional. But they’re left out of

I visited, a local dementia group had

they feel invisible.

stay in touch. No huge funding, no

each other. It made a huge difference

£193 billion to the economy every

“WE NEED TO MOVE FROM TALKING ABOUT CARE AS A COST TO RECOGNISING IT AS AN INVESTMENT – NOT JUST FINANCIALLY, BUT MORALLY AND SOCIALLY.”

budget. Yet many carers are forced to

That’s why we need a system that

I believe we need to move from talking about care as a cost to recognising it as

an investment – not just financially, but

morally and socially. That means creating a new politics of care. Not a sticking plaster. A transformation.

There’s a tendency in Westminster to

silo care – to see it as a health issue, or a welfare issue, or a local government

issue. But it’s all of those and more. It’s about how we work, how we age, how we live. And it needs to be integrated across everything from housing to transport to digital services.

When we talk about economic growth,

for instance, we rarely acknowledge that unpaid carers contribute an estimated

year. That’s more than the entire NHS give up paid work because they can’t get 26

the person they’re looking after than

small interventions. In one community

decisions. Their expertise is ignored. And

started a simple WhatsApp chat to

recognises family carers as partners – not

formal programme – just people helping to isolation, to mental health, to

confidence. Sometimes, the solutions

aren’t about more bureaucracy. They’re about better connection.

That principle should guide how we think about reform. Yes, we need

resources—but we also need to rebuild a culture of empathy, where people

feel seen and supported. That means investing in digital tools that work,

yes – but also in community spaces,

intergenerational living, and meaningful social contact.

One of the most heartbreaking

conversations I’ve had was with a father

COLUMNS

who told me his daughter, a severely

want recognition. We want to be part

one temporary care setting to another.

voices count.

disabled teenager, had been moved from She didn’t have the stability she needed.

And he didn’t have the information, or the power, to stop it. That is not how a decent society should treat people.

Care should be rooted in dignity. But

too often, it’s rooted in delay, confusion, and crisis.

“CARERS OFTEN KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PERSON THEY’RE LOOKING AFTER THAN ANY PROFESSIONAL. BUT THEY’RE LEFT OUT OF DECISIONS. THEIR EXPERTISE IS IGNORED. AND THEY FEEL INVISIBLE.” When care breaks down, the pressure

shifts to A&E departments, to schools,

to the police. And none of those services are equipped to fill the gap. So we end

up spending more, not less—and getting worse outcomes along the way.

I don’t speak about care in the abstract.

My own life has been profoundly

shaped by it. I cared for my mother

as a teenager. My wife and I now care for our disabled son. We have lived

through the gaps in the system – the

of the team. We want to know that our There’s a philosophical aspect to all

this, too. The anthropologist Marcel Mauss once wrote about the idea of

the gift – not just as a transaction, but as a relationship, a moral bond. That’s

how I see care. It’s not something you do out of obligation, or to tick a box.

It’s something that binds us as human beings.

And yet, in our politics, we’ve lost

that sense of reciprocal obligation.

We treat care as a commodity to be

commissioned, not a relationship to be nurtured.

It’s time we built a system that doesn’t wait for someone to hit breaking point before offering help.

As leader of the Liberal Democrats, I’ve made care one of our central priorities.

We’re calling for a new, comprehensive Carer’s Minimum Income – recognising that caring is work, and deserves to be supported. We want a legal right to

or a career-ending decision – but as

funded and delivered with the same

something that is honoured, supported,

seriousness we give to the NHS.

and made sustainable.

We need to put care at the centre of

our infrastructure planning. That means

We also believe in raising the Carer’s Allowance and ensuring that local

designing housing with accessibility

authorities are funded to deliver care

transport so that disabled and elderly

any single policy, we need a cultural shift

in mind. It means rethinking public

people can travel easily and with dignity.

It means providing respite for carers so that they can keep going without

with decency and dignity. But more than – a recognition that the way we treat the vulnerable, and those who care for them,

breaking down.

is a measure of who we are as a country.

We also need to rethink education. We

I know that some of this can sound

need schools to be places where young carers are recognised, supported, and

given flexibility. We need to train health

professionals to understand the reality of life for family carers.

bleak. But I remain hopeful. Because I’ve seen, again and again, the difference that care can make when it’s done right.

I’ve seen communities step up, families persevere, and professionals go above

We should expect flexible work policies,

and beyond. We just need our politics

support – not penalise – those with

people it serves.

caring responsibilities.

professionals where my wife and I

We’ve spent decades patching up the

partners. That mindset has to change.

of addressing the causes. The result is

We don’t want special treatment. We

improves lives.

a national care strategy that is properly

paid carers’ leave, and cultures that

were treated as obstacles rather than

proactive, not reactive, saves money and

for someone isn’t treated as a burden

make sure someone has done what they I’ve sat in meetings with medical

intervention works. Support that is

respite for unpaid carers. We want to see

And employers have a role to play too.

promised.

But prevention works. Early

I want to see a society where caring

missed handovers, the forms that never get read, the endless follow-ups to

reacting, rarely planning.

symptoms of a broken system instead that we lurch from crisis to crisis, always

to catch up with the compassion of the It’s time to stop managing decline and start designing a better future – one where no one who gives care, or needs it, is left behind. www.finito.org.uk

ISSUE 16

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The Polymath

SARAH TUCKER THE BIOGRAPHER OF EDWARD DE BONO ON THE NEED FOR SOME CROSSOVER DISCIPLINE IN LIFE AND IN OUR CAREERS

T

he idea that accountancy and art could meaningfully shake hands

I have worked in both worlds, the City,

promise of shaking up the status quo. In

joke, but increasingly, the punchline is

motto but a mantra, and the arts, where the very act of following money can be

followed by the phrase “let’s circle back to

may sound like the setup for a bad

changing. The meeting of linear logic and lateral genius is no longer just a

novelty, it is an urgent necessity. Enter

the Boardroom Bard, not a mythic figure, but a very real one, and as it happens,

where following the money is not just a

interpreted as treason. The city gave me

spreadsheets, bottom lines and bonuses,

the arts gave me metaphors, meaning and the vague hope of a grant. Somewhere between these extremes, I learned that

me, whose mission is to insert a little

what each side mocks in the other is often

poetry into performance reviews, and a

Creatives frequently harbour a quiet, or

metaphor into margin sheets, a little

great deal of sense into the nonsense of siloed thinking.

what they need most.

sometimes not-so-quiet, contempt for

commercial logic. The idea of shareholder

The problem is rarely talent or intelligence,

value makes them shudder. Meanwhile,

corporate leaders attempt conversation,

lovely but economically illiterate, fabulous

a translator. Words become walls, not

partners. Neither is entirely wrong, and

shortcut, limits not just understanding

When I married a City trader, my barrister

'stakeholder alignment', or 'leveraging

trades every day, you write books, I trade

it is language. When creative thinkers and

many in the corporate world view artists as

it is like two tribes meeting without

dinner guests but unreliable business

bridges. Jargon, a seemingly harmless

both are entirely limited in that view.

but imagination. Words like 'bandwidth',

offered this piece of worldly wisdom, 'He

synergies' become mental choke points, phrases designed more for signalling

fluency than encouraging insight. The

irony is delicious, the more jargon we use, the less we understand each other.

too, I know the game.' The implication was clear, beware the values mismatch,

the game might be the same, but the rules are not. The marriage did not last, but the lesson did.

finance, it’s code for “budget risk,” swiftly

that.” Rory Sutherland famously reminds us that context is king; words only have power if you agree on what they mean,

which explains why meetings often feel

like an episode of Lost in Translation with fewer subtitles.

Here are ten everyday examples where

language trips up collaboration: “Vision”

for creatives means a bold, perhaps fuzzy, picture of the future; for corporates it’s a quarterly target. “Pivot” in the arts is

a fluid change of direction; in business

it’s an awkward excuse for a failed plan.

“Engagement” in marketing is emotional connection; in HR it’s compliance

with mandatory training. “Innovation” to creatives is a radical experiment; to

accountants it’s an expense line that needs

justifying. “Scalability” might mean artistic impact expanding; to bankers, it means

doubling revenue. “Storytelling” delights

artists as craft; to executives, it’s a polished sales pitch. “Brand” conjures identity

and values for creatives; in commercial circles it’s “market share.” “Culture” for

Edward de Bono, the father of lateral

One of the biggest hurdles in the creative-

artists is a way of life; for corporates, a

a term he coined to describe systems

values. Creatives tend to prize originality,

creatives is an essential ingredient; to

a neat portmanteau of lunacy and

the corporate world worships efficiency,

is a creative nightmare, but to business

arts and the corporate world, in the arts

line. This isn’t just a philosophical gap –

common ground is real, but as Rory

of starving creatives who refuse to sell

words get twisted into entirely different

obsessive chase for profit, regardless of

them.

survive it.

In marketing, it’s a badge of honour, the

thinking, called this phenomenon 'ludecy',

commercial tango is the sheer difference in

neatly crafted internal memo. “Risk” to

that exist solely to perpetuate themselves,

risk, and emotional resonance, while

finance it’s a red flag. And finally, “ROI”

bureaucracy. Ludecy thrives in both the

predictability, and, of course, the bottom

it’s the Holy Grail. The struggle to find

it appears in the romantic self-sabotage

it’s a linguistic minefield. The very same

Sutherland often argues, understanding

out, and in commerce it is found in the

meanings depending on who’s saying

whether the product, people or planet

Take the word “disruptive,” for example.

28

the psychology behind these differences is

the first step to bridging them. After all, if you can’t agree on what words mean, how on earth can you agree on anything else?

The question remains, how do these

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worlds merge, not just co-exist at awkward networking events. The answer lies in acknowledging their differences and

creating new shared frameworks. Lateral

thinking, as de Bono insisted, is not about

being different for the sake of it, but about

seeing differently to produce better results.

Dave Trott, the legendary ad man, said at

the launch of my de Bono biography that the revelation was not in how creativity

works, but in how and why it impacts the

bottom line. That, he noted, got corporate thinkers finally listening.

The best partnerships are not between those who speak the same language

but those who are willing to learn each

other’s dialects. It requires humility, and a shared sense that neither linear nor

lateral thinking is enough on its own. The imagination needs structure to flourish,

and structure needs imagination to evolve.

We live in a moment when industries are collapsing and reinventing faster than we can rename them. The arts need to stop

sneering at strategy, and business needs to

stop fearing beauty, subtlety and metaphor.

The truth is, creative minds can revitalise

tired systems, and commercial minds can protect and scale brilliant ideas.

It can work. I’ve seen it work. I’ve worked with hedge funds who now start their

board meetings with a poem, not because it is quaint, but because it reorients

thinking. I’ve worked with artists who now understand how to protect their IP and

build sustainable revenue without selling their souls. What it takes is courage,

mutual curiosity, and a willingness to get lost in translation before finding fluency.

So yes, the arts and commerce can marry, but only if both parties understand

the terms. Until then, I remain The

Boardroom Bard, happily wandering

between the gallery and the boardroom, lost in metaphor, found in balance,

reminding each side that they’re not as different as they think.

TEN EXAMPLES WHERE SEEMINGLY INCOMPATIBLE INDUSTRIES FOUND COMMON GROUND: 1. Accountancy meets choreography: Ernst & Young funded a residency where dancers worked alongside auditors to develop body language workshops to improve client communication. The accountants gained empathy, the dancers gained income.

2. Banking meets visual art: Deutsche Bank’s long-standing commitment to contemporary art is not about decoration, but about creating environments that challenge conventional thinking, inspiring employees and clients alike.

3. Property development meets immersive theatre: Developers in London have collaborated with theatre groups like Punchdrunk to stage events in derelict buildings, increasing the cultural cachet and market value of the site.

4. Law meets literature: Clifford Chance hosts literary salons and creative writing workshops, training junior solicitors to think narratively, to consider motive and structure, to write with clarity and even beauty.

just function, engaging authors and scriptwriters early in the concept process.

7. F inance meets jazz: A Wall Street mentoring programme uses jazz improvisation to train traders in adaptive thinking and listening, rather than knee-jerk analysis.

8. Healthcare meets theatre: Medical schools now use professional actors in role-play scenarios to train doctors in empathy, ambiguity and reading between the lines.

9. AI development meets visual art: OpenAI’s DALL·E collaboration with artists allowed engineers to better understand not just aesthetics, but the ethics of creative representation.

10. M arketing meets sculpture: A soft-drinks brand commissioned a sculptor to reinterpret their bottle shape, not for packaging, but to rethink the product’s emotional impact in physical form.

Sarah Tucker is a writer and the Boardroom Bard (https://www. theboardroombard.com), known for using poetry to challenge corporate thinking and foster creativity in business. She is the author of Love Laterally, the authorised biography of Edward de Bono, the pioneer of lateral thinking and creative problem-solving.

5. Tech meets poetry: Google’s Creative Lab has a poet-inresidence. Yes, really. And she has helped engineers consider language, nuance and the emotional resonance of their designs.

6. Architecture meets storytelling: Firms like Heatherwick Studio approach design as narrative, not

Sarah Tucker (Wikipedia) www.finito.org.uk

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Question of Degree

TOM PAUK FINITO’S SENIOR MENTOR GIVES A BROAD PERSPECTIVE ON THE POSSIBILITIES OF A LEGAL CAREER Take it from me: becoming a solicitor is one of the most rewarding professional choices you can make. It is also one of the most demanding, and the journey into the profession can feel labyrinthine. Over the years, as a mentor at Finito, I have spoken to countless students and career changers about what it really takes. The truth is, there is no single route and no single type of solicitor. Instead, there is a spectrum of opportunities — and challenges — which you need to understand before you embark on a career in law.

and defamation, among many other

specialisations. Larger firms specialise

in complex, often international, matters.

A commercial solicitor in a Magic

Circle or US firm might be advising

on corporate finance, capital markets,

property development or employment

law. Others work in areas like intellectual

property, technology and data protection, aviation finance, shipping, or tax. Many transactions are cross-border, requiring

you to work alongside colleagues in New York, Hong Kong or Frankfurt. If you

enjoy fast-paced, international work, the

Tom Pauk

The answer depends on where and how

you practise. Salaries in large City firms

Solicitors are everywhere in modern

commercial route may suit you; if your

are high, often starting well above what

which simply means law firms, ranging

individuals through life’s challenges —

to earn after several years. But there is a

your local town to the huge multinational

practice might be more fitting.

weekend work, and high stress. Smaller may offer a healthier balance between

everyday but vital matters: conveyancing,

“THERE IS NO SINGLE ROUTE AND NO SINGLE TYPE OF SOLICITOR. INSTEAD, THERE IS A SPECTRUM OF OPPORTUNITIES — AND CHALLENGES — WHICH YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND BEFORE YOU EMBARK ON A CAREER IN LAW.”

claims, consumer disputes. There

Naturally, money is part of the picture.

rights, housing, environmental law

earn?” is one of the most common I hear.

society. Many work in private practice,

motivation is more personal — helping

graduates in other professions could hope

from the small high-street practice in

then a high-street, regional or specialised

trade-off: longer hours, billing targets,

players in the City of London. A majority of solicitors still fall into this category, but an increasing number are employed “inhouse,” working directly for companies, banks, charities or public bodies.

Others are found in local authorities,

the Government Legal Profession, the

Crown Prosecution Service, law centres

and NGOs. It’s worth appreciating that

there isn’t a single solicitor “type” — the profession encompasses everything

from a family lawyer on the high street helping a client through a divorce to a

commercial lawyer structuring a multibillion-pound merger.

The variety of work reflects that spread.

In smaller firms, solicitors handle

wills, probate, divorce, personal injury are firms with a focus on human

30

The question “How much does a solicitor

firms and the public sector pay less, but work and personal life. You need to ask yourself what matters more — the pay cheque or the lifestyle.

The next question is usually about

specialisation. If you are still at university

or even beginning your training contract, you don’t need to decide yet. Large law firms typically use the “seat system,”

where you spend six months in different

departments before choosing your focus.

This is one of the best features of the

training contract: it lets you discover what you actually enjoy and where you perform best. For those drawn to international

work, many firms offer overseas seats —

in New York, Singapore, Brussels, Sydney or Tokyo — or secondments within the

legal departments of major clients. These experiences are invaluable, broadening your skills and network.

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The formal route to qualification

firms want candidates who think

journeys begin with a LinkedIn profile,

decade. Today, the Solicitors Regulation

complex information quickly, and

that platform can be. We guide our

has changed significantly in the last

Authority sets out a standard pathway.

Depending on your background, you may need to complete a conversion course such as the PGDL. Everyone must

pass the Solicitors Qualifying Exam, a rigorous assessment that tests legal

knowledge and skills. You then complete two years of qualifying work experience, often through a training contract but

also possible via in-house placements or

government service. During this period, you also finish the Professional Skills

Course. Finally, you must meet the SRA’s character and suitability requirements.

There are alternatives: solicitor

apprenticeships, which blend study and work, or qualifying through CILEX,

clearly under pressure, who can analyse who communicate well. They are not

testing your legal knowledge so much as your judgment, interpersonal skills

and temperament. At Finito, we spend significant time preparing candidates for these assessments. We run mock

interviews and case study exercises to

simulate what you will face. Confidence

comes from practice, and practice is what gives you the edge.

One of the biggest misconceptions I

encounter is that more applications equal better chances. Some students send out

dozens, even hundreds, of near-identical applications. In reality, firms are looking for quality, not quantity. Recruiters can instantly spot copy-paste answers or

and many underestimate how powerful students in creating a profile that is

professional, compelling and networkbuilding. Used well, LinkedIn can

connect you with mentors, alumni and firms long before you send your first application.

And what if you are already a solicitor?

Many of the people I work with are

looking to move from private practice into in-house roles, or from in-house

back into firms. Others want to progress to partnership or leave law altogether, transferring their skills into business, policy or non-profit work. The skills

solicitors develop — analytical thinking, negotiation, precision — are valued in

generic phrases such as “I am a team

many sectors. The key is to identify and

Worse still are applications that simply

In the end, the journey to becoming a

Securing a training contract at a large

itself — “I want to work for you because

requires planning, diligence, resilience and

challenges. The competition is fiercer

no value. What firms want to hear is

for a handful of places. The process

and how your skills and experiences

university, when firms expect applications

requires research, thought and above all

placements that act as an extended

At Finito, we won’t write your

candidates may be invited to assessment

both unethical and ineffective. What we

which can be attractive to those without

a university degree. The key point is that

there is more flexibility than there used to be — but no shortcut.

player” or “I thrive under pressure.”

present them effectively.

regurgitate information about the firm

solicitor is not a sprint but a marathon. It

firm remains one of the toughest

you have a global presence.” These add

than ever, with thousands of applications

why you, specifically, are drawn to them,

often begins in your second year of

demonstrate a genuine fit. That

for vacation schemes — short work

authenticity.

interview. From there, successful

applications for you — that would be

centres, which combine reasoning

tests, group exercises, written tasks and interviews. One of the most daunting hurdles is the Watson Glaser critical reasoning test, which measures logic

rather than legal knowledge. It is not a test you can bluff or “wing”; it requires

weeks of practice. Law firms set deadlines for completion, and applicants who

underestimate the preparation involved often fall at this stage.

Even once you have the interview,

success is far from guaranteed. Law

do is push you to refine your story, to use concrete examples of problem-solving or teamwork, and to highlight challenges

you have overcome. We help you connect your personal motivations with the

qualities firms are seeking. Authenticity

is what shines through. As one law firm

recruiter put it to me recently: “We want

candidates who genuinely sound invested in us.”

Of course, applications and interviews are not the whole story. Today, your online

presence matters too. Most candidates’

self-knowledge. Every application must

be thoroughly proofread, every interview rehearsed, every firm researched. But the rewards are significant: not just in salary

or status, but in the satisfaction of solving problems, protecting rights, and shaping the world around you. With the right

guidance and a clear sense of purpose, it is a career within your reach.

Useful Resources:

Solicitors Regulation Authority: sra.org.uk/become-solicitor/ Salary comparisons: ten-percent.co.uk

Student insights: chambersstudent.co.uk legalcheek.com littlelaw.co.uk Practice tests: thelawyerportal.com

Training contracts & vacation schemes: allaboutlaw.co.uk Clifford Chance global virtual internship: jobs.cliffordchance.com/ gvi-global www.finito.org.uk

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Relatively Speaking

AYESHA VARDAG THE FAMOUS DIVORCE LAWYER ON HER UPBRINGING AND HOW IT AFFECTED HER CAREER CHOICES

P

eople often ask where my drive comes from. I don’t usually talk

Ayesha Vardag (vardags.com)

about it, but the truth is: my family made me. Not in the way people

usually mean that – legacy, inheritance, connections—but through the hunger that comes from absence, and the

strength you develop when you have to build everything yourself.

My mother is an English country girl

from Northumberland. She was the one who held everything together. When

we were completely broke, she was the

one who made sure I got the education I needed. She helped me win a bursary to a good school and instilled in me a

fierce focus on achievement. She worked relentlessly to support me, with little

more than grit and unconditional love.

My father was a very different story. He was a senator in Pakistan. He met my mother at Oxford. Their relationship was always unconventional, their

cultures and expectations worlds apart.

But while he had a fascinating life on

absorbing the unstated message that you

much of a role in mine. He contributed

“ABSENCE CAN SHAPE YOU AS MUCH AS PRESENCE.”

the international stage, he didn’t play nothing to my upbringing – nothing practical, nothing emotional – but

still seems interested in basking in the glow of my success. It’s one of those

paradoxes you just learn to live with.

are somehow “other.”

room, to second-guess. But it also leaves you emotionally ravenous. That’s where the hunger comes in.

In many ways, I think that hunger forged my career. It made me

determined to prove myself, to carve

out a place on my own terms. But more importantly, it made me deeply attuned to the emotional landscapes of other

Growing up mixed-race in the UK in

That feeling of dislocation was

anywhere. I was ethnically unplaceable

I’ve come to believe does real damage

spoke to me. It’s not just legal work

in another. The racism I experienced

about – when there are unanswered

case involves navigating grief, betrayal,

you’re not allowed to ask about – it

These days, I see echoes of my own story

anxiety. You learn to adapt, to read the

doors. Women navigating the fallout

the 70s and 80s, I never quite fitted

compounded by secrecy – something

people’s lives. That’s why family law

– too foreign in one context, too British

in families. When things aren’t talked

– it’s emotional archaeology. Every

was subtle at times, blunt at others, and

questions, vanished presences, stories

identity, and sometimes redemption.

leaves you filling in the blanks with

in the clients who walk through our

always isolating. There’s a particular psychological toll that comes with

never feeling like you belong, and with 32

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of abandonment. Children caught

help, and he sent over his team of Italian

they become targets for headhunters

they may never get. And sometimes –

within two weeks, they’d built out the

demands. But what they can’t offer is

between cultures. People seeking closure sometimes – it’s about finding strength in the wreckage. That’s something I know intimately.

I’m grateful for the life I’ve built, but

I’ll never pretend it came easy. It didn’t.

It came through late nights, long odds,

and a refusal to be defined by what was missing. My mother deserves all the credit for giving me the foundation

to build on. My father? He gave me

something too, though perhaps not in

the way he intended. Absence can shape you as much as presence.

Families are complicated. Always have been. Always will be. But the one I’ve

built at Vardags – with my team, with

my clients, with the community we’ve

created – is one I’m proud of. And this one, at least, I got to choose.

“FAMILY LAW ISN’T JUST LEGAL WORK – IT’S EMOTIONAL ARCHAEOLOGY.” When we moved into our current

office space, I wanted something that

would feel deeply personal, even a little

craftsmen. They stayed in our house, and office like a film set. I was after warmth

and elegance. Something timeless. It had to reflect who we are: rigorous, creative, a little bit romantic.

That’s the feel I try to bring to the whole firm – not just the decor, but the energy,

the culture. I’ve never been one for clubs or cliques. I didn’t join the International

Academy of Family Lawyers – not because

I don’t respect it, but simply because I’m not

a joiner. I’m allergic to gossip and bitchiness.

It bores me. What drives me is the work. The clients. The cases. And creating a place where brilliant people can thrive.

Hiring has been one of our greatest challenges – and our greatest

opportunities. Early on, we made some mistakes. We were expanding so fast, and we brought in lawyers who were stars elsewhere but didn’t align with

how we think or work. Being good on

paper isn’t enough. What matters to me is quality, creativity, and drive. It’s not a matter of compromise. If someone isn’t applying rigorous, original thinking to

a case, I’m not interested. It’s not fair to the client – or to our team.

theatrical. Initially, we thought: let’s

That’s why I’ve always stayed close

something City firms might expect. But

we’re overwhelmed, I take on the cases

cold. Sterile. So I changed tack. I wanted

and slowly distribute the work in a

Somewhere clients would feel safe and

exhausting, yes, but it means the team

go for sleek and modern, minimalist –

to the substance of our work. When

as the rooms came together, it all felt

others can’t manage, shape them myself,

it to feel like a beautiful period home.

way that maintains our standards. It’s

welcome. Somewhere we would enjoy

works alongside me, absorbing how I do

being.

things. It keeps our ethos alive.

I found antique panelling from old

We’ve invested heavily in our graduate

makers no longer seemed to have the

exceptional young people straight out

houses up north. But English cabinet-

trainee programme, bringing in

skills to install it with the intricacy I

of top universities. We pay their fees,

needed. Then, almost serendipitously, I

remembered our neighbour in rural Italy

– a production designer who had worked on La Vita è Bella. I asked if he could

give them real work from the start, and immerse them in how we do

things. That’s where our future lies. The challenge is holding onto them when

– offered inflated salaries with fewer

this culture, this level of exposure and responsibility, this mission.

“ULTIMATELY, WHAT I’M BUILDING IS A PLACE WHERE EXCELLENCE AND INDIVIDUALITY ARE NOT AT ODDS.” Some people resist coming back to the

office, but I’ve made it clear: we’re a fiveday-a-week, in-person firm. I’ve seen

too many people struggle in isolation.

Community is what gets you through

tough cases, difficult clients, long hours.

You need someone to laugh with,

someone to share the pressure. You can’t replicate that over Zoom.

That same belief – community,

expression, presence – is why I changed

our dress code too. The much-publicised “cardigan memo” – where I reportedly

discouraged woolly layers and suggested more elegant alternatives – has evolved.

Now, elegance trumps orthodoxy. One of our partners turned up in leather trousers and apologised. I thought

she looked fabulous. So now the dress code is simple: think Annabel’s or a

smart London club. Elegant, expressive, respectful. You can wear a suit, or gold lamé. Just own it.

Ultimately, what I’m building is a place where excellence and individuality are not at odds. I want people who are

resilient, intellectually electric, charming, and curious. I want them to care about the work and about each other. That’s

the alchemy. That’s what makes Vardags

different. We’re not soft or fluffy – we’re hard-driving, passionate, and deeply

human. And that, I think, is our greatest strength.

www.finito.org.uk

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Ten Thousand Hours

GEORGINA WOOD THE FOUNDER OF STUDIO CLEMENTINE CHARTS HER FASCINATING CAREER PATH

W

hat does it mean to reach the top? Is there even a top to begin with? Some say the sky’s the limit, others claim our only boundaries exist in our own minds. In creative industries, where human imagination collides with human collaboration, the question becomes even trickier. Is the goal to scale a mountain, plant a flag, and call yourself an expert? Or is it to keep climbing without ever really expecting a summit?

For years we’ve been told that mastery is just a matter of time — the famous

idea that 10,000 hours of practice makes anyone an expert. I have to say, I believe

that’s a load of gobbledygook. Experience

isn’t an equation, and expertise isn’t earned on a stopwatch. In design — as in any

creative pursuit — there are simply too

many variables: the clients you meet, the chances you take, the mistakes you learn

from, and the people who shape your path.

My own journey proves the point. As a

child, I was steered toward the world of dance. From the time I could walk, my Mum had enrolled me in every ballet,

Astrid Templier

tap, and modern class possible. By twelve,

What no one saw then, except my father

quickly realised that my formal education

performing arts school, with the clear

loved art. I loved sketching, colour, and

of interiors. Suddenly, in a real job, I was

I was attending ArtsEd, a prestigious

intention that I should become a dancer.

The trouble was, I was shy, unable to count beats properly, and though I was talented, I knew deep down that thousands of

hours of practice were never going to

make me the expert she imagined. At

sixteen, ArtsEd offered me a place in their musical theatre programme. Apparently, I could sing as well as dance, but school

itself was a struggle for me. I left with only four GCSEs above a C, carrying a sense

of inadequacy that would follow me into adulthood.

34

who quietly encouraged me, was that I

hadn’t prepared me for the technical side

clothes, and I had a natural sense for space

expected to understand building control,

spatial design at Bournemouth, where I

had featured heavily in my degree. My first

and composition. That led me to study

materials, and regulations, none of which

discovered that I truly loved learning when

job was designing Harvester restaurants. I

it was hands-on, creative, and practical.

Still, the self-doubt lingered. Presenting

my work left me physically sick. Even at Middlesex University, where I studied

Interior Design and spent a formative year in Copenhagen, I worked hard but carried the shadow of insecurity with me.

When I finally entered the workforce, I

hated it. But those unglamorous projects gave me the foundation to move on to

slightly better work designing pubs. They

were fast-paced and unforgiving, but they taught me more in a year than I’d learned in six years of study. That became the

pattern of my career: learning not through pre-set hours, but through mistakes, repetition, and necessity.

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Over the decades, I’ve worked through the dot-com bubble, the crash of 2008, Brexit, and the upheaval of Covid. Each chapter tested whether I had the stamina to stay in this field. I’m still here, not because I followed some formula, but because I adapted, built a network of trusted

colleagues, and worked hard enough to prove myself again and again. I often

said yes when others might have said no.

If a client wanted me to jump, I asked

how high. And while that meant long

hours and burnout at times, it also meant I was learning, absorbing, and slowly

gathering the courage to consider running something of my own.

Of course, I doubted myself constantly.

Back in the 1980s, no one recognised dyscalculia, a learning difference that

made numbers a nightmare for me. To this day, my nephews laugh at how I

struggle with basic sums. That weakness

haunted me as I advanced into roles where budgeting and resource management were key. At one point, as Design Director of Residential projects for a well-known

studio, I was responsible for budgets and resourcing. The clients loved the work.

They were happy with the service. But the numbers didn’t add up, and ultimately, I felt I had failed. It nearly broke me. Yet

even then, I realised: the designs mattered, the relationships mattered, the creativity mattered. The rest could be learned, delegated, or managed differently.

Astrid Templier

And yet, I don’t consider Studio

apprenticeships and hands-on work can

It’s simply another chapter. Michelangelo

yourself in the professional world by

Clementine the pinnacle of my career.

once said, “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we

reach it.” That resonates deeply with me.

I never want to set my sights so modestly that I stop striving. My studio gives me

the freedom to reach higher — to design the kind of interiors I once only dreamt

about — but it doesn’t mark the top of any mountain. It’s just a ledge on the way up,

a place to pause, take in the view, and then

Leaving full-time employment without

keep climbing.

also the beginning of Studio Clementine.

just beginning their careers, it’s this: be

a single client was terrifying, but it was

If there is one thing I would tell those

At first, I consulted to make ends meet,

humble. Don’t fear failure; it will be your

overseeing interiors for an architectural firm on a major London hotel project.

Simultaneously, I took on a shop design for free, just to have something of

my own to show and gain PR for the

studio. Slowly, my studio grew. Slowly,

Clementine — my alter ego, my middle

name, and my force of creativity — came into her own.

greatest teacher. Surround yourself with

people who are smarter than you, kinder than you, or better at something than

you. They will stretch you. Stay curious — travel widely, ask endless questions,

listen carefully, and never stop sketching

teach you more than any exam. Protect putting things in writing, but don’t let

cynicism harden you. Keep helping others and keep being generous with your ideas.

In the end, expertise isn’t a medal to be

won or a title to be claimed. It’s a journey that never ends. The 10,000-hour rule

imagines that mastery is finite, that once

you’ve hit a number, you’ve arrived. But the truth is, experts never stop learning. They

evolve, adapt, fail, and start again. The real measure of a career isn’t the hours you’ve

logged but the integrity, joy, and creativity you bring to the work each day.

As for me, my goal remains what it was from the beginning: to create interiors

that are personal, imaginative, and well crafted. But more than that, my goal is

to be happy doing it, to keep running my

ideas, even if they aren’t “practical.” Don’t

small but mighty studio with pride, and to

limits; if academics aren’t your strength,

summit waiting at the top.

let the education system define your

never stop climbing — even if there is no

www.finito.org.uk

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TOMORROW'S LEADERS

WITH THE FINITO BURSARY CANDIDATE MAX LIEBMANN WE TALK TO THE FINITO BURSARY CANDIDATE ABOUT HIS JOURNEY ALL THE WAY TOWARDS THE HEIGHTS OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION

Max Liebmann

Congratulations on your training

The first thing I did after receiving

The hardest part of the application

How did it feel to receive the offer,

and friends to let them know the good

mainly because I am incredibly slow at

contract with Slaughter and May.

and what was the first thing you did

the phone call was to call my family news.

after finding out?

What was the most challenging part

wasn’t expecting anything.

did you overcome it?

36

typing, and it seemed that Slaughter

and May were expecting quite a lot in a

Obviously, it was a great feeling. I knew that my interview had gone well, but I

process was the written assessment,

of the application process, and how

short period of time.

I made a joke about this at the start of my interview (as well as some

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other jokes), and I think this set the

spent more time on applications, and this

Looking back, how do you think

Slaughter and May is known for its

interview on a good footing.

ultimately led to my training contract.

your time with Finito helped you in

unique approach to training. What

securing this role?

excites you most about starting there?

Finito ensured that I felt confident for

I am excited to be working on some big

with my mentor, and Finito helped me

the law, and it will be great to finally be

Finito was also valuable for holding me

I think their multi-specialist approach

some progress on my applications and

excited and always learning new areas/

my interview. I had a mock interview

deals. I have spent a lot of time learning

with a mock written assessment.

able to put this into practice.

to account and ensuring that I made

will really suit me, since it will keep me

preparations.

bits of law.

Finito also helped me get into the correct

“I THINK THEIR

mindset.

Was there a particular piece of advice or support you received from your

Finito mentor that stayed with you

MULTI-SPECIALIST APPROACH WILL REALLY SUIT ME,

during the process?

SINCE IT WILL KEEP

Term time at Cambridge is relentless,

ME EXCITED AND

and I had little time to progress with my applications and preparations without falling behind on university work.

ALWAYS LEARNING.”

Tom Pauk appreciated this and never

Have your long-term career goals

session, however, he asked me what I

If so, how?

pressured me during term time. In one wanted from my degree.

“FROM THEN ON, I SPENT MORE TIME ON APPLICATIONS, AND THIS ULTIMATELY LED TO MY TRAINING CONTRACT.” I told him that (among other things) I wanted a training contract afterwards.

He then told me that I needed to put

things into perspective and spend more time on applications and preparations and then catch up on university work

when I had the chance. From then on, I

shifted or evolved since we last spoke?

Not really – I am still looking to become a solicitor and will see where that takes

me (whether that be remaining a solicitor

May truly valued my time. I was less fond of the other firms which required several

application questions, psychometric tests, and multiple stages of interviews, since I did not get the impression that they valued my time.

“TRY AND LEARN FROM YOUR REJECTIONS, AND COME BACK EVEN HARDER.” Don’t give up – it’s easy to feel

disheartened when you receive rejections, but that is just part of the process. Try

and learn from your rejections, and come back even harder.

or becoming a barrister or a politician).

Finally, what does success mean to

What advice would you give to other

It’s great to have a training contract

a similar path?

privileged, since the job market (in

students or graduates hoping to follow Use the application process and all

your interactions with a firm as a way

of seeing whether the firm fits for you.

For example, I particularly liked the fact that Slaughter and May had a simple

you at this stage of your career? as I leave university – I feel very

particular for law) is very competitive.

I am very excited to be starting my

SQE this September and look forward to starting at Slaughter and May in September 2026.

two-stage process, which involved only

Max would like to thank The Stewarts

me the impression that Slaughter and

journey.

a cover letter and an interview. This gave

Foundation for its generous support of his

www.finito.org.uk

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Those Are My Principles

NAOMI KLEIN THE LEGENDARY THINKER ON THE RISE AND RISE – AND SHEER STRANGENESS – OF PERSONAL BRANDING

I

t’s hard to overstate the weirdness of watching an idea go from laughable

to inevitable. When I published No

Logo in 2000, the idea that an ordinary

person could or should become a brand was something we laughed at. At the time, personal branding was mostly reserved for celebrities – Michael Jordan could be a brand, maybe

Richard Branson – but for the rest of us, it sounded absurd. Who had the

time, the team, the resources? What would it even mean?

But then came the iPhone. Then

Facebook. Then Twitter. And suddenly, we all had ad agencies in our pockets.

Social media handed us tools that had

previously been the exclusive domain of corporations and marketing firms. They

were “free,” we were told. But of course, nothing is ever really free. These tools began to shape us in their image.

What followed was more than just a technological shift – it was the logic

of the corporation entering the soul.

The rigid disciplines of branding –

consistency, repetition, simplicity, and emotional clarity – migrated from

the domain of sneakers and soda to

the terrain of selfhood. And that shift has changed not just how we present ourselves, but how we organise, how

we resist, how we dream. When I look back at No Logo, it was an attempt to

Naomi Klein (Wikipedia.org)

products, eat the same food. It was a

instantly legible, unchanging, digestible.

about the way branding flattens

perform well.

warning about the creeping sameness, difference. But what I didn’t fully

grasp back then was how quickly that flattening would fold inward.

We must be on-message. We must And yet, none of this really was inevitable.

The rise of personal branding didn’t

understand the rise of lifestyle branding

Now, a generation later, we see

culture. It emerged from a moment

global homogenisation, but internal

economic desperation. It came on the

no, expected – to distil ourselves into

dismantling of stable employment. In the

Apple, our personal brands must be

restructured themselves to be leaner, more

and the early stages of global consumer when travel was becoming eerily

homogenised – when you could land in any airport in the world and hear

the same song playing, buy the same 38

something even more intimate: not just

happen in a vacuum. It emerged out of

homogenisation. We are encouraged –

heels of outsourcing, of mass layoffs, of the

fixed, static icons. Like Coca-Cola or

late 1990s and early 2000s, corporations

COLUMNS

flexible. They sold off physical assets, fired

the spotlight, asked to speak for a

And yet, I don’t think the answer is

with contractors and temp staff. The old

built, and wasn’t elected to represent.

back to some imagined golden age of

full-time workers, and replaced them

promises – of pensions, of lifelong careers – were broken.

movement I hadn’t organised, hadn’t

It felt awkward then, and even more so

now, because there were no mechanisms

In this context, personal branding wasn’t

of accountability. I was just a person

"Don’t worry," management consultants

needed a face, and I was convenient.

You didn’t need a job – you just needed

exaggerated. The structure of social

just a novelty; it was a survival strategy.

who had written a book. But the media

chirped, "you can be your own brand!"

Today, that process is even more

hustle. It was the gig economy’s

media means that visibility becomes

founding myth: reinvention through

performance. And to be clear, this wasn’t about self-expression. This was about

monetisation. It was never really about authenticity. It was about survival.

power. The people with the biggest followings become the presumed

leaders—regardless of their organising work or their relationship to the

community. A movement can be

a retreat into nostalgia. We can’t go

organising. But we can interrogate the terms of our engagement. We can ask

harder questions about the infrastructure we rely on. We can be more conscious of the ways in which corporate logic

infiltrates our thinking, our movements, our sense of self.

“WE BRAND OURSELVES AGAINST BRANDING. WE SELL RESISTANCE.”

“HUMANS ARE NOT

reduced to a hashtag. Organising

Ultimately, Doppelganger – my most

BRANDS. WE GROW,

begins to resemble influencer marketing.

to these same questions, but from a

becomes branding. And collective action

recent book – is in many ways a return

This isn’t to say that these platforms

different angle. It explores what happens

visibility is inherently bad. But when our

when we see ourselves split and refracted

That’s the part that often gets left out

they were meant to challenge, we have

life. If No Logo was about the rise of

streamers or online creators. We frame

replicating? What are we internalising?

psychic toll of living inside the brand.

avatars of empowerment. But when I

sameness. It’s about stability. A good

– a time when one world is ending

familiar, repeatable. But humans are

branding of the self, the algorithmic

ourselves, we make mistakes. Real

monetisation of personality – it all feels

the space to be messy, to be wrong,

what comes next.

curating and controlling our image,

a return to a different kind of knowing.

WE CONTRADICT OURSELVES, WE

can’t be used strategically, or that

when identity is consumed by distortion,

MAKE MISTAKES.”

movements start to mimic the very logic

through the funhouse mirror of digital

when we talk about influencers or

to pause. We have to ask: what are we

branding, Doppelganger is about the

them as self-made digital entrepreneurs,

Because at its core, branding is about

We are, I think, in a fin de siècle moment

talk to my students – many of whom are

brand doesn’t change too much. It stays

but the next has not yet emerged. The

not brands. We grow, we contradict

shaping of the public sphere, the

solidarity – real politics – requires

untenable. And yet, we don’t yet know

to change. But when we are all busy

What I hope for, in this liminal space, is

And this logic hasn’t only colonised

how much room is left for actual

A politics that isn’t driven by spectacle,

movements.

What frightens me most is how

actively engaged in this world—I hear a different story. They aren't building brands because they want to; they’re

doing it because they feel like it’s the only viable path to stability. They’re

performing not because they’re free, but because they’re afraid.

individuals. It’s reshaped our

When No Logo came out, the antiglobalisation movement was just

beginning to crest. The Seattle WTO protests, the mobilisations in Genoa

– these were organic eruptions against corporate rule. And because I had

just written a book on anti-corporate resistance, I was suddenly thrust into

transformation?

but by substance. A self that isn’t

flattened for profit, but expansive in its

totalising this logic has become. Even

contradictions. A movement that doesn’t

capitalist projects, can become mirrors

We may not be able to un-invent

ourselves against branding. We sell

into brands. But we can reclaim our

oppositional movements, even antiof the system they fight. We brand

resistance. We trade in radical aesthetics while the underlying economic structures remain untouched.

seek to go viral, but to go deep.

the technologies that turned us all

humanity from their grip. And that, I

believe, begins with remembering: we are not products. We are people. www.finito.org.uk

ISSUE 16

39

EVENTS

Latest Event

TIM CLARK LAUNCHES HIS FIFTH SCHOOL REPORT AT MANSION HOUSE

The Rt Hon Sir Ed Davey MP Tim Clark

D

oes England have a world-class school system? Sadly, the answer

is a resounding “no”. The purpose of this report is not to be negative nor to apportion blame, but if we are to

genuinely improve schools, we must be

honest. What is the evidence? Previous ministers will applaud the most recent

national average, meaning that any

over time, but our actual performance

results with those of other countries is

a country where less than one half of

attempt to compare England’s inflated simply worthless.

Despite this skewed, academically

brighter sample, however, some of the

performance data is shocking: in science,

international comparative assessments,

for example, England’s actual results

results, however, are barely worth

international ranking has improved).

the Department for Education's own

focus on “ranking” but, crucially, there

the sample of pupils used in England

and real terms performance. In maths

PISA and PIRLS. England’s PISA

have dropped every year (although our

the paper on which they are written:

Interestingly, former ministers always

official analysis clearly admits that

is no link between comparative ranking

was academically brighter than the

for example, our ranking has improved

40

was higher in 2006. We now live in

10-year-olds feel confident in reading (it used to be more than half ) – the very key to accessing the rest of the curriculum – and less than a third

now actually like reading. And what of non-academic performance – are we producing resilient, ambitious,

hardworking and law-abiding young adults? Almost one in five pupils is

still “persistently absent” [truant] and

exclusions and suspensions, especially for persistent disruptive behaviour

and violence, remain at an all-time

EVENTS

Jamilia Robertson in conversation

Angelina Giovani and Johanna Mitchell

Michael Buckmaster-Brown

Elizabeth Frolova and Simon Harris

Henry Boston-Crayfourd and Keya Prasad

www.finito.org.uk

ISSUE 16

41

EVENTS

Sarah Coe and Ross Waterman

Joanna Thomas

Sally Friend MBE and Tim Clark

Tim Clark with Ronel Lehmann

42

Johanna Mitchell with Anita Goyal MBE

EVENTS

The Old Ballroom

high. Recent DfE figures suggest that

“empower teachers to teach and pupils

these new teachers are to be found

very poor in 7% (pre-COVID figures

school leadership and a curriculum that

years in opposition to come up with

behaviour is poor in 20% of schools and were 4% and 1% respectively). None of this is evidence of a world-class school system.

So, what is the answer? More academies or a return to local authority control?

More big Multi-Academy Trust

(MATS) or stand-alone academies?

More grammar schools or more

comprehensive schools? More modern

to learn”, ie strong discipline, strong

is suitable for all. Other factors such as

the role of parents, early years education

(as opposed to childcare) and inspection are all crucially important but get these two fundamental ingredients right and any type of school can flourish; get

has not yet been explained, despite 14 solutions.) The growing recruitment and

retention problem is nothing new: it has been highlighted for almost 20 years

but, despite various ineffective attempts, no government has seriously seized the issue by the roots and resolved it. This

them wrong, and any type of school

is criminal, especially as the answers

comprehensive, state or private) will fail.

implement, without massive expenditure

(academy or local authority, grammar or

are fairly obvious and relatively easy to on the part of the taxpayer.

or traditional teaching methods? Raising

So what is the problem? It is the

finishing age? All may have an impact,

retention crisis. Last year, over

concept of “empowering teachers to

profession, quit for reasons other than

on simple policies [highlighted in the

50% of teacher training places were

the government that finally gives this

the current government’s promise to

View the latest report here: https://issuu.

drop in the ocean. (How and from where

report_-_no_more_rhetoric

or lowering the school starting or

but in the grand scheme of things, all are largely irrelevant. The real answer is much simpler: (1) We need an

adequate supply of highly trained, highly motivated, effective classroom teachers and (2) we need a school environment

in which teachers, and therefore pupils, can flourish. The mantra must be to

ongoing teacher recruitment and

The government that embraces the

40,000 teachers, more than 9% of the

teach and pupils to learn” and focuses

retirement while, at the same time, only

report] which make it a reality, will be

filled. This is simply unsustainable and

country a world-class school system.

create 6,500 new teachers is simply a

com/finitoworld/docs/better_schools_

www.finito.org.uk

ISSUE 16

43

FEATURES Deep dives into the issues that matter 66 | THATCHER AT 100 Where’s the right going

Nationaal Archief

44

Un s p las

h.c o

m

58 A CANDLE AT CHRISTMAS Is peace possible?

Un s p las

h.c o

m

76 THE PERFECT GIFT Ronel Lehmann on the Finito bursary scheme

78 YULETIDE JOBS Seasonal gigs

COVER STORY

EXCLUSIVE:

HOW AMAL CLOONEY IS RESHAPING INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE CHRISTOPHER JACKSON

Amal Clooney speaking during the United Nations Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters in New York City. (Alamy.com)

46

COVER STORY

I

t is the Global Conference for Media Freedom in London, July

2019. Amal Clooney approaches the podium, her presence commanding the attention of government

ministers, diplomats, and journalists from around the world. When she

speaks, her voice carries the weight of years spent in the world’s most challenging courtrooms.

“I am a human rights lawyer,” she

begins, her tone steady but urgent, “and my work has shown me that advocacy for human rights is often a fight for

the next generation. It is not just about the here and now – it is about whether the people who come after us will live in freer, safer societies, or whether we

will allow those freedoms to be eroded under our watch.”

“ADVOCACY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IS A FIGHT FOR THE NEXT GENERATION.” Her tone sharpens as she pivots to the heart of her address. “In many

countries, journalists are being jailed,

harassed, or even killed for doing their jobs,” she says, scanning the room.

“Without a free press, there can be no

democracy, no accountability, no lasting peace. Without truth, the powerful will never be held to account, and injustice will spread – quietly, efficiently, and often irreversibly.”

The hall is silent. These are not the

platitudes of a politician; they are the

convictions of someone who has stood beside the accused, the exiled, and the

silenced, and argued for their freedom

in front of the world’s most formidable legal bodies.

Amal Clooney and George Clooney, Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, Alamy.com)

and fought for the release of political

of superficial scrutiny that might derail

otherwise never know. There’s a strong

megaphone powerful enough to influence

prisoners whose names the world might case for her being the most famous

lawyer alive – though she is not famous only, or even predominantly, for being a lawyer.

international conversations. In her hands, fame becomes a vehicle – not an end in

itself – to advance causes that dwarf the allure of any Hollywood premiere.

Hers is a complex story about fame

As she concluded that day in London,

up the paradox at the Golden Globes:

its force. “If we do not stand up for

and substance. Tina Fey once summed “Amal is a human rights lawyer who worked on the Enron case, was an adviser to Kofi Annan on Syria,

and served on a UN commission

investigating violations of the rules of

war in Gaza—so tonight her husband is getting a lifetime achievement

award.” The line worked because it

inverted the usual celebrity dynamic,

making George the “plus-one” to his far more globally consequential spouse.

But the paradox runs deeper. Amal Clooney’s work is rooted in moral

seriousness, yet she inhabits a public sphere that thrives on glamour,

fashion spreads, and red carpets. The

psychology of this is intricate: she must carry the weight of defending those

whose lives hang in the balance while

existing in an industry space that can,

At 47, Amal Clooney has argued before

at times, feel shallow by comparison.

challenged dictators in global tribunals,

and a weapon. It subjects her to a level

the International Court of Justice,

a lesser figure, but it also grants her a

For Clooney, celebrity is both a burden

her voice softened but lost none of

journalists today, we will lose the battle for truth tomorrow. And once truth is

gone – when facts are drowned out by propaganda – there is no way back.”

The applause that followed was long

and loud, but her expression remained

steady, even solemn. Clooney is one of those people both ubiquitous and in

some way mysterious. She is known of far more than she is really known. So who is she really?

Displacement and Upbringing Let’s start with the facts. She was

born Amal Alamuddin in Beirut in

1978, her earliest years were shaped by war and the disorienting experience

of displacement. When she was just two, her family fled the escalating

violence of the Lebanese Civil War,

leaving behind their home, extended family, and the life they had built in www.finito.org.uk

ISSUE 16

47

COVER STORY

Chrystia Freeland and Amal Clooney at the Global Conference for Media Freedom in London. (Wikipedia.org)

Lebanon. They resettled in Gerrards

live globally while rooted in a place that

someone who knew the stakes were

Buckinghamshire. Compared with the

not simply wealth. Her advocacy for

death. She wrote unflinchingly about

Cross, a well-heeled suburb of

chaos they had left behind, their new

life offered comfort and stability – her father, Ramzi, was an academic, and

her mother, Baria, a respected political journalist. The family’s home was a

far cry from the refugee experience of poverty and uncertainty that so many others endured.

In some sense it was a lucky escape.

But this relative privilege did not shield Amal from the emotional reality of

being uprooted. Her parents’ decision to leave was born from necessity, not

choice, and Amal grew up aware that the safety and prosperity of their

British home came at the cost of the

loss of a homeland. Cousins recall that she adapted quickly, throwing herself

into school and excelling academically, but also that she carried an early curiosity about the wider world.

Her later life in Britain alongside

George Clooney, in another quiet and affluent village, echoed those early

years in Gerrards Cross. There was a

certain continuity: safe surroundings,

a measure of privacy, and the ability to 48

offered calm. But the through-line was press freedom, in particular, carries a

personal dimension. Growing up as the

daughter of a journalist, Amal saw firsthand both the value and vulnerability of those who pursue the truth. Her

mother’s career meant she understood the courage it takes to challenge

powerful narratives. When she stands

before ministers and diplomats calling for the protection of reporters, she is not speaking in the abstract.

“WITHOUT A FREE PRESS, THERE CAN BE NO DEMOCRACY OR ACCOUNTABILITY.” It’s clear that in the Alamuddin

household, ideas were currency and

debate was a daily ritual. Baria, Amal’s

not academic – they were life and

Hezbollah’s stranglehold on Lebanon (‘should be banished from politics

altogether’), the way its corruption

and parallel systems bled the country dry while ordinary people went

without medicine. In other essays she railed against the erosion of secular democracy in places like India, and

was highly critical of the recent 2024 election under Narendra Modi.

All of this meant that, even as a child in the quiet safety of Gerrards Cross,

she grew up in a home where the news

was not background noise but the pulse of daily life. It was a household in

which the world’s conflicts were never comfortably “elsewhere” – and where

the duty to confront them was assumed, not exceptional.

mother, was not the kind of journalist

Early Education

her audience: this is fearless street-

School, a selective girls’ grammar

who softened her opinions to please

Amal attended Dr Challoner’s High

fighting journalism. Her columns took

school in Buckinghamshire known for

aim at corruption, sectarianism, and

authoritarianism with the precision of

its high academic standards. People

we spoke to for this piece remember

COVER STORY

her as exceptionally bright, combining natural intelligence with a disciplined

work ethic. Former classmates describe

someone who excelled in the classroom but also had an instinctive ease in front of an audience – whether delivering a

debate or stepping onto the stage for a

school production. One recalls a play in which Amal, with just a subtle gesture, seemed to draw every eye in the hall; another notes that she had a way of

asking questions that cut to the heart of the issue, even as a teenager.

“IF WE DON’T STAND UP FOR JOURNALISTS TODAY, WE’LL Alamy.com LOSE THE BATTLE FOR TRUTH TOMORROW.” From there, she progressed to St Hugh’s College, Oxford, to read

jurisprudence. Friends from those years tell us she was equally at home buried in case law or in lively conversation over coffee, her charm and quick

St Hugh's College Oxford Gardens (Wikipedia.org)

most prestigious law firms. It was

Speaking there in 2019, she emphasised

prestigious New York firm – an

systematic monitoring: “We measure

a rare associate position at a highly uncommon feat for a foreign LLM

graduate. At the time, this firm was at the forefront of white-collar criminal

wit making her a natural connector

defence, and for Clooney, it quickly

learning the law but testing it – asking

a turning point. One partner there,

it could be made better.

closely with her on the high-profile

of people. Tutors recall her not just

became both a proving ground and

how it applied to real lives, and whether

Samuel Seymour, recalls working

After Oxford, she crossed the Atlantic

to New York University School of Law for her Master of Laws degree, serving as editor of the NYU Law Review.

In New York, she came under the

Enron and Arthur Andersen cases,

including representing David Duncan, an Arthur Andersen partner and

government witness in the Enron prosecutions.

mentorship of leading figures including

After that she moved to the

U.S. Court of Appeals) and Judge

Hague as a judicial assistant – an

Judge Sonia Sotomayor (then on the

International Court of Justice in The

Gerard Lynch, experiences that would

experience that would prove crucial to

help shape her approach to the most

complex and high-stakes cases of her later career.

Her early career took her to Sullivan & Cromwell, one of New York's

her understanding of how international law could be used as a tool for justice.

Now, decades later, she returns to that educational foundation as a visiting

professor at Columbia Law School.

her belief that systemic change requires corruption by governments, but not courts.”

“WE MEASURE CORRUPTION BY GOVERNMENTS, BUT NOT COURTS.” To understand Amal Clooney's

approach to international human

rights law, it's essential to understand the institution that has been her

professional home for over a decade since she joined in 2010: Doughty

Street Chambers. Founded in 1990,

Doughty Street has established itself as one of the world's leading human

rights chambers, with barristers who

have appeared in landmark cases before courts around the globe.

The chambers' approach to human

rights law is distinctive. Rather than www.finito.org.uk

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COVER STORY

simply representing individual

clients, Doughty Street barristers

see themselves as part of a broader

movement to strengthen international legal frameworks and expand

access to justice. This institutional philosophy has shaped Clooney's

career and enabled her to take on

cases that other lawyers might avoid.

Meeting George

“MY AGENT SAID, ‘I MET THIS WOMAN WHO’S COMING TO YOUR HOUSE, WHO YOU’RE GOING TO MARRY.’”

the urgency of fighting for those whose Alamy.com

He painted the scene vividly: “The

Conference for Media Freedom paint

funniest thing was my mum and dad were visiting, so my parents were

But no matter how successful Amal

there, and we just talked—and we

prepare her for the impact of meeting

tabloid whirlwind so much as a quiet

George Clooney was not simply

it was clear from the start that this was

recognisable men on the planet,

That night marked the beginning of a

actor, a director, a producer, and a

into a scale of fame unlike anything she

was, nothing, one suspects, could

stayed up all night talking.” It wasn’t a

her future husband. At the time,

inevitability. Those who know them say

famous – he was one of the most

not going to be a passing flirtation.

as he still is. An Oscar-winning

relationship that would thrust Amal

committed humanitarian, he had

been a leading man in Hollywood for decades, named “Sexiest Man Alive” twice by People magazine, and was

known from Los Angeles to Lagos, from Tokyo to Turin. His face was

synonymous with blockbuster films, his name shorthand for charm and

wit. For years, he had been the gold standard of the global bachelor – until Amal walked into his life.

Here’s how it happened. In July

2013, she was passing through Lake

Como when a mutual friend casually called: “‘I’m stopping by,’” George

had known. Friends say she met the

spotlight with characteristic strategy and grace. Invitations now came

not just from legal circles and UN

institutions, but to galas and premieres, where whispers followed her into every

room. Yet where some might have been consumed by the glare, she turned it outward – using it to illuminate her

work. Her messaging became sharper, the causes more visible. And while

celebrity brought scrutiny – with a

sort of wearisome predictability to her

wardrobe, her speeches, her pauses – it also undeniably magnified her voice.

lives lie at the opposite end of the spectrum.

The Dark Reality At the centre of her career is the

importance of press freedom. The

statistics she shared at the Global

a stark picture of the current global

landscape for press freedom. "In the

last 18 months, over 100 journalists and media workers have been killed. India and Brazil, two of the world's largest

democracies, have some of the highest

murder rates. And the vast majority of

these murders have gone unpunished."

Her words carry particular weight because they come from direct

experience. "I am a witness in my

legal practice to the challenges faced by journalists. I have represented journalists targeted by their

governments for reporting corruption and human rights abuses from

Azerbaijan to the Maldives, to Cairo."

“SHE NEVER LET GLAMOUR OVERSHADOW HER WORK – SHE MADE IT SERVE IT.” The urgency in her voice becomes

later recalled, “‘and can I bring my

Colleagues would later reflect that the

evident as she describes the broader

course.” What felt at first like an

opportunity to bring legal arguments

under attack like never before. They are

lives casually converging over wine

rooms that would never notice a law

but because they are being targeted for

into something unforgettable. “The

dilute substance: “She never allowed

“my agent called me beforehand and

an associate observes. “Instead, she

to your house, who you’re going to

Perhaps Amal is the sort of person for

friend?’” And he simply thought, “Of

marriage gave her an extraordinary

implications: "Yet today, journalists are

ordinary evening – two professional

and human rights narratives into living

dying not only while covering wars –

and conversation – quickly turned

journal. But she never let glamour

exposing crimes committed in war and

wildest thing,” George would say,

the glamour to overshadow her work,”

said, ‘I met this woman who’s coming

made the glamour serve it.”

marry.’”

whom a privileged life only increases

50

for speaking the truth about abuses of power in peacetime."

One case that exemplifies both the challenges facing journalists and

Clooney's approach to international

advocacy is her work starting in 2018

COVER STORY

George Clooney and Amal Clooney in October 2015. (Photo Jeffrey Mayer, Alamy.com)

www.finito.org.uk

ISSUE 16

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COVER STORY

representing Reuters journalists Wa

Rohingya report, offering to drop the

She joined the case in 2018, after the

Clooney continues.

Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo in Myanmar. two journalists had been arrested in December 2017 and charged under the Official Secrets Act. The case, as she described it at the Global

Conference, revealed the extent to

which authoritarian governments will go to silence critical reporting.

"Over the past year I have also spent hundreds of hours working on the defence of Reuters journalists Wa

Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, heroic young reporters imprisoned in Myanmar for

allegedly violating the Official Secrets Act after they wrote an article about

the execution of 10 Rohingya men by security forces."

“OVER 100 JOURNALISTS HAVE BEEN KILLED IN THE LAST 18 MONTHS, MOST WITH IMPUNITY.” The circumstances of their arrest, as

Clooney detailed, read like something from a spy thriller, except the

consequences were devastatingly real: "The government's treatment of the

journalists was so outrageous it is hard

to believe: the phone rings one evening at the Reuters office; a police officer

asks the journalists to meet at a café;

when they walk into the café the officer

hands them rolled-up documents; when they walk out they are arrested for espionage."

What followed revealed the true

nature of the government's intentions:

"When the journalists were in custody the police did not even pretend to be interested in supposedly secret

documents they were carrying; they

asked only about the sources for their 52

charges if Reuters dropped the story," The case’s resolution highlighted both the persistence required in

human rights work and the ultimate vindication that can come from

sustained advocacy: "It took over a year to secure a pardon for the journalists.

But on the 6th of May, they walked out of the prison gates to be reunited with their wives and baby daughters, one of whom had been born while her father was in prison. And six weeks ago they

went to New York to collect a Pulitzer Prize for that Rohingya report."

It's important to note that in this instance, Clooney was part of an

international team of lawyers working on the defence, collaborating with

Myanmar counsel and Reuters’ inhouse legal team. While she did

not work alone, she played a visible,

strategic role – coordinating the legal

arguments for their appeal, liaising with diplomatic channels, and using her

profile to keep the case in the global spotlight.

Those close to the case describe

her as combining the precision of a

seasoned barrister with the instincts

of a campaigner; she could pore over legal minutiae one moment and, in

the next, deliver a compelling public

statement that cut through the noise of

“I’VE REPRESENTED JOURNALISTS TARGETED FOR EXPOSING CORRUPTION AND ABUSE.” For young lawyers, cases of this kind show the many possible entry points into human rights advocacy. Some

start in corporate law before pivoting

to pro bono or NGO work; others go

directly into international organisations or press-freedom groups. Clooney

herself has said that opportunities exist not just for barristers and solicitors, but for those skilled in research,

documentation, diplomacy, and media strategy – all of which can be decisive

in winning justice in politically charged cases. The lesson from Myanmar is that success can require both the

patience to work within the system and the creativity to pressure it from the outside.

The Case of Maria Ressa Clooney’s more recent work

representing Filipino journalist

Maria Ressa – a case she joined in

2019 – demonstrates her continued commitment to defending press

freedom in increasingly challenging circumstances.

international politics. Legal directories

Ressa’s case exemplifies how award-

mind” and “in a league of her own at

practitioners targets for government

have described her as “a brilliant legal

the Bar,” with advocacy that is “crystal clear in focus and highly persuasive.”

One review summed her up as “a leader on every case she is involved in, and a master strategist and compassionate

advocate for the most vulnerable.” It is

true of course that the legal directories always such things, but even so –

nobody has ever doubted her capacity and skill.

winning journalism can make

persecution: “More recently I have

been appointed as counsel for another award-winning journalist, Maria

Ressa.” So what were the facts of that case? “Ms Ressa was CNN’s bureau

chief in Jakarta and Manila before she teamed up with three other women to

set up an independent news site. Their site, Rappler.com, quickly became one of the leading online news portals in

COVER STORY

cfj.org

the Philippines, known for its hardhitting stories about human rights

abuses under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.”

The government’s response to Ressa’s

journalism reveals the lengths to which authoritarian leaders will go to silence criticism: “Last year, Ms Ressa was

one of four journalists named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for

taking ‘great risks in pursuit of greater truth’. The government’s response has been to arrest her and initiate a series

of civil and criminal cases that expose

her to a maximum sentence of 63 years in prison.”

This case illustrates what Clooney identified as a cruel irony of

contemporary human rights work: “The Maria Ressa case in the Philippines, like the Reuters case in Myanmar,

with impunity.”

As with the Reuters case, the legal

battle stretched on for years, spanning multiple charges designed to keep

Ressa and Rappler under constant pressure. Amal Clooney’s role was

both strategic and public – assembling an international legal team, working with press-freedom organisations,

and keeping the case in the headlines through high-profile advocacy at the UN and in media interviews.

“THOSE WHO EXPOSE ABUSES FACE ARREST; THOSE WHO COMMIT THEM GO FREE.”

exposes a cruel irony that I see time

In January 2023, the first major

who expose abuses face arrest, while

Court of Appeals acquitted Ressa

and time again in my work: journalists those who commit the abuses do so

breakthrough came: the Philippine and Rappler of tax evasion charges,

eliminating the possibility of a lengthy

prison sentence in that case. Later that

year, in September 2023, another court dismissed the final remaining tax case,

marking a decisive legal victory. While some politically motivated cases –

most notably a cyber-libel conviction – remain under appeal, the collapse

of the tax cases was widely seen as a vindication of Ressa’s defence and a

rebuke to the government’s campaign against her.

Ressa herself credited her legal team and the global coalition supporting

her for helping to secure those wins, saying the rulings sent “a message not just to the Philippines but to

the world that journalists will not

be silenced.” It is also fair to say that Amal’s marriage to George Clooney and the name recognition it brings

have played a role in building the kind of visible, international coalition that can sway outcomes in cases like this.

Her profile meant the Ressa case could www.finito.org.uk

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AMAL CLOONEY: EDUCAT 1978

2000–2001

1980s–1990s

Born in Beirut, Lebanon; family fled war to settle in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, when she is two.

Attends Dr Challoner’s High School; excelling academically, developed passion for debate, politics, and human rights issues.

Earns LLM at NYU; editor of NYU Law Review; mentored by Sonia Sotomayor and Gerard Lynch.

Green Line, Beirut, 1982 (Wikipedia.org)

1996–2000

Oxford. Studies Jurisprudence at St Hugh’s College, Oxford; exploring law’s real-world impact alongside academic excellence.

(Wikipedia.org)

1978

1982

leap from legal filings into front-

page headlines, drawing attention

from world leaders, diplomats, and celebrities who might otherwise

never engage with press-freedom

issues. Colleagues note that she has been careful to use that spotlight

deliberately – ensuring that when

the cameras turn toward her, they

illuminate her clients’ stories first.

In this way, the “Clooney” name has become not a distraction from her work, but a force multiplier for it.

54

1986

1990

The Clooney Foundation for Justice Amal’s work in Myanmar and the

Philippines showed what could be

achieved when a single case is fought

with persistence and global attention.

But for Clooney, those high-profile

cases were also reminders of the limits of a case-by-case approach. For every journalist whose name reached the

headlines, there were countless others

tried and silenced without ever making the news.

1994

1998

2002

It was in part to address that imbalance that she and her husband George

established the Clooney Foundation for Justice in 2016. From the outset, it was

positioned not as a vanity project but as a serious, strategic organisation aimed at tackling systemic human rights abuses. The foundation’s approach

combines legal intervention, strategic litigation, and public advocacy, with

an emphasis on sustainable, structural change rather than one-off victories.

One of its most ambitious undertakings

COVER STORY

TION & CAREER TIMELINE 2004–2005

2015–Present

ICJ -judicial assistant at the International Court of Justice, deepening expertise in public international law and diplomacy.

Visiting Professor at Columbia Law; recipient of honorary degrees from American University of Beirut and School of Oriental and African Studies for human rights work.

2010 (Alamy)

Doughty Street Chambers - Joins leading human rights set, specialising in international law, political prisoners, and press freedom cases worldwide.

(Alamy)

2001–2004

Sullivan & Cromwell Associate in New York, working on Enron and Arthur Andersen cases while pursuing pro bono human rights work.

(Alamy)

2006

2010

2014

2018

2022

2024

2026

is TrialWatch, a programme that

Zambia, TrialWatch monitored the

groups to demand accountability from

local lawyers or NGO partners – to

Hakainde Hichilema on charges of

reported on mass terrorism trials where

document proceedings that may violate

the presidential motorcade. Observers

sends trained monitors – often

prosecution of opposition leader

courtrooms around the world to

treason after a traffic incident involving

international fair-trial standards. These

found serious breaches of due process,

monitors file detailed reports which are then reviewed by expert legal panels.

The findings are used both to challenge unjust convictions and to build a

database identifying patterns of abuse.

Some cases are small in scale but emblematic of wider failings. In

and international attention helped

ensure the charges were dropped. In

the government. In Egypt, TrialWatch

hundreds of defendants were convicted

on identical charges in proceedings that fell far short of international standards.

The foundation also runs a Waging

Cameroon, TrialWatch documented the

Justice for Women initiative, which

was arrested for reporting on separatist

discriminatory laws – ranging from

and the monitoring reports became part

make it harder to prosecute gender-

trial of journalist Samuel Wazizi, who

supports strategic litigation to reform

unrest. Wazizi died in military custody,

child marriage statutes to laws that

of the evidence used by press-freedom

based violence. In Malawi, for example, www.finito.org.uk

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COVER STORY

the foundation’s legal support has been

success. Her path demonstrates that

professionals – even those outside the

enabling child marriage, leading to

doesn’t come from charisma alone, but

for ego, but for impact:

part of successful challenges to laws

stronger statutory protections for girls.

Education is another pillar: the

making a difference on a global stage

from a deep and deliberate investment in competence, culture, and courage.

foundation funds scholarships, training

Equally critical to Clooney’s impact

lawyers in regions where human rights

been international in every sense,

workshops, and mentorship for young

expertise is scarce. In partnership with universities and local bar associations, these programmes aim to create a

pipeline of advocates who can sustain reform long after international attention has moved on.

is her global fluency. Her career has

requiring her to operate across legal

systems, languages, and cultures. Fluent in English, French, and Arabic, and

trained in both common law and civil

law traditions, Clooney exemplifies the kind of multicultural and multilingual

The impact has been tangible, but not

competence increasingly required

noted that high-profile cases backed

Her ability to move fluidly between

disproportionate resources compared

expanded her reach but enhanced her

question whether the Clooney name,

Another hallmark of Clooney’s success

attention, risks overshadowing the work

her career, she has cultivated

legal field – can harness visibility not Clooney explains: "With

authoritarianism, isolationism and nationalism gaining ground, the

relevance of international institutions

and respect for international norms are seriously in question. I believe it is this crisis of the international rule of law

that makes this initiative compelling.

It is compelling not because the

international system works; but because it is broken."

share her values – barristers, activists,

“THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM ISN’T COMPELLING BECAUSE IT WORKS – IT’S COMPELLING BECAUSE IT’S BROKEN.”

leaders – creating a broad and deep

So what does she advocate as the way

In its short lifespan, the Clooney

alliances have not been accidental;

to think outside the box. We need

track record that is unusually robust

collaboration on complex, global issues

move forward on one issue, even if they

– combining star power with the kind

Clooney has also shown a willingness

work more often associated with long-

cases that defined her career involved

without criticism. Some observers have

in today’s interconnected world.

by the foundation tend to attract

jurisdictions and cultures has not only

to less-publicised abuses. Others

credibility in diverse contexts.

while undeniably useful in drawing

is her strategic networking. Throughout

of local activists. Amal has responded by emphasising that the foundation’s model is built on partnerships with grassroots organisations, and that

relationships with professionals who journalists, academics, and political support system for her work. These

forward for young people: "So we need

Foundation for Justice has built a

they have been carefully built to enable

groups of like-minded states that will

for a celebrity-founded organisation

that no one can tackle alone.

are paralysed on others. That is why I

of rigorous, technical human rights

to take calculated risks. Many of the

visibility is a tool, not a goal in itself.

established NGOs. In this sense, the arc from Myanmar to Manila to the global

monitoring of TrialWatch is not a change in mission but a widening of scope: from defending individuals to confronting the systems that threaten them.

Building a Career of Impact For young professionals aspiring to

build careers that combine excellence

with impact, Amal Clooney’s journey offers a model of purpose-driven 56

am supporting this campaign, and I

look forward to working with many of you here to see what we can achieve."

uncertain outcomes and significant

Amal Clooney’s legacy is still being

also morally urgent. Perhaps most

clear: a career that has advanced

professional jeopardy. But they were

written, but its outlines are already

notably, Clooney has demonstrated

international justice, strengthened

how to use platforms wisely. In an age where media visibility is often

conflated with vanity, she has used her

profile with uncommon discipline. She doesn’t chase the spotlight for its own sake. Instead, she leverages attention to spotlight others: the victims, the forgotten, the vulnerable. In doing so, she offers a masterclass in how

legal frameworks for protecting human rights, and inspired a new generation of advocates to take up the work. In a world where justice often seems

elusive and progress uncertain, she has demonstrated that committed

individuals can make a difference – one case, one client, one victory for justice at a time.

COVER STORY

Amal Clooney at the United Nations Headquarters (Photo by John Angelillo/UPI Credit: UPI/Alamy Live News)

www.finito.org.uk

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PEACE IN OUR TIME: WHY WE CHOOSE WAR AND HOW WE MIGHT FINALLY CHOOSE PEACE IRIS SPARK

58

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A

s Christmas 2025 approaches, we are once again surrounded by

rituals and words that invoke peace. We sing carols about goodwill to all men, we light candles that symbolise hope,

we gather in family groups to celebrate traditions that at their best speak of reconciliation.

And yet, beyond the rituals, the

reality is one of violence and fracture.

Wars burn in Ukraine and Gaza,

political violence has risen sharply

across multiple continents, and global

military spending has surged past $2.7 trillion – more than triple the cost of

eliminating extreme poverty worldwide.

Few phrases therefore feel as loaded with irony as “peace in our time.”

When Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich in 1938, clutching his

agreement with Hitler, he announced

those words with conviction. Within a year Europe was devouring itself in its most devastating war. Chamberlain’s confidence was recast as naivety, his name became shorthand for

appeasement, and the very phrase that had been intended as reassurance was immortalised as a warning.

The paradox Chamberlain illustrates endures. Humanity proclaims its

History’s Repetitions The history of human civilisation

gives little reassurance. From the very

beginning, war was not presented as a

deviation from the human story but as its most dramatic enactment. Homer’s Iliad is not a warning against violence

but an epic celebrating it. The heroes of

Troy are remembered not for diplomacy or compromise but for feats of valour

and cunning. Achilles roars that he will “fight until the gods themselves fall

silent,” a line that reverberates across centuries as both boast and curse.

Centuries later, Thucydides records

moments when conflict is not merely self-generated but thrust upon us by

the existence of genuine aggression. The task of our age is to hold both truths in tension: that war is our addiction, but that sometimes resistance is

necessary. Only by acknowledging both can we face the still-open question:

is peace ever truly possible, or are we

condemned to repeat the cycle endlessly until necessity forces us to change?

on it later, called it “the most prodigious bloodletting in history.” And it did

not end war but taught nations how to mechanise it more efficiently. World War II was more devastating still,

culminating in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where a single weapon could incinerate a city in seconds. The Cold War

institutionalised conflict itself, ensuring a state of permanent rivalry through

proxy wars fought in Korea, Vietnam,

bereaved by declaring, “The whole

War as a State of Mind

though death in battle itself guaranteed

The persistence of war cannot be

report to the Senate – “Veni, vidi, vici,” I

psychological needs. War provides

down to its essence, reducing slaughter

knowing who “they” are. It provides

a form of autobiography. Napoleon

like the presence of a common foe. It

and blood, declared, “Glory is fleeting,

choices simplify. And it provides

war would remain the favoured means of

defeats, all stitched into national

earth is the tomb of famous men,” as

immortality. Julius Caesar, in his laconic

explained by strategy alone. It meets

came, I saw, I conquered – stripped war

identity: we know who “we” are by

to a slogan and turning conquest into

belonging: nothing bonds a community

Bonaparte, redrawing Europe with fire

provides clarity: moral lines harden,

but obscurity is forever,” ensuring that

narrative: heroes, martyrs, victories,

self-advertisement for ambitious leaders.

memory. Winston Churchill is not voted

there were the casualties to prove it.

our species. At the same time, there are

became routine. Simone Weil, reflecting

the Athenian statesman consoles the

geopolitical calculation but something the psychological and cultural fabric of

in the trenches, where industrial killing

Afghanistan, Angola, and beyond.

From the Middle Ages through

far deeper: conflict seems woven into

“the war to end all wars,” left millions

Pericles’ Funeral Oration, in which

longing for peace, but it appears to need war. The reason is not simply

the sword.” World War I, trumpeted as

modernity, the cycle never broke – and

over and over again our most revered

Briton because of what he achieved in peacetime.

The Hundred Years’ War dragged on

If we look to why all this might be,

less a series of battles than a way of

answers. Sigmund Freud, in Civilization

through generations, conflict becoming life. The Thirty Years’ War, nominally

fought over religion, consumed central

Europe, killing a third of its population, and only ended when exhaustion forced compromise. The American Civil War

revealed the paradox of a republic that

proclaimed liberty but slaughtered itself over slavery, with Abraham Lincoln’s

Second Inaugural Address noting grimly

that “every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with

psychology provides some useful and Its Discontents, argued that

aggression is not a deviation but a

permanent part of the human psyche, always seeking expression. He is not the only thinker to have observed a

certain inevitability about war. Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan imagined a state of nature in which life was “solitary,

poor, nasty, brutish, and short,” with

only the Leviathan of sovereign power to restrain it. Rousseau countered that www.finito.org.uk

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war is not innate but the product of

corrupted institutions – but this doesn’t get us very far since it seems likely that

those institutions are merely a reflection of innate tendencies.

“WAR IS NOT AN EXCEPTION; IT IS THE BACKGROUND HUM OF HUMAN AFFAIRS.”

accidental to the human condition but a constant temptation.

Our own century, now about to

enter its second quarter, has given us no reprieve. The campaigns in

Afghanistan and Iraq stretched across decades, their aims shifting, their

outcomes ambiguous, their human costs staggering. Syria’s civil war

remains unresolved, displacing millions and drawing in multiple powers.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022

Into the 20th century, war has

reintroduced industrial slaughter to

life. The greatest war philosopher of

and frontlines recalling the frozen

“the continuation of politics by other

descended into cycles of rocket fire

expression of ordinary rivalry. Hannah

the price. Across the Sahel, armed

continued to seem a necessary part of

Europe, with cities reduced to rubble

them all, Clausewitz described war as

stalemates of the past. Gaza has again

means,” making it the most brutal

and reprisal, with civilians paying

Arendt, watching the twentieth

century’s eruptions, warned that the

glorification of violence as a shortcut to political results was itself a temptation

humanity never outgrows. These voices, diverse though they are, converge on a

sober recognition: conflict is not merely 60

groups exploit weak states. Ethiopia

has convulsed in civil war, Sudan has fractured, and the South China Sea

bristles with militarisation. Taiwan lives under constant threat. War is not an

exception; it is the background hum of human affairs.

Back To The Trenches Yet there has also for a while been an increasing sense that this isn’t how it

should be. World War I deserves more attention, for it marked the moment

when the romantic myths of combat collided with industrial modernity.

Soldiers went to the front singing of

glory, but the reality was mud, gas, and machine guns. The “lost generation” returned traumatized, and yet even

the horror of the trenches could be reinterpreted as sacrifice. Siegfried

Sassoon and Wilfred Owen tried to capture the pity of war in verse, but politicians erected cenotaphs and

monuments that transmuted the carnage into a story of endurance and honour.

“Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” – the old lie, as Owen called it – survived even Verdun and the Somme. War

had proved its resilience as a source

of meaning – and yet people still read

Wilfred Owen. It is the beginning of a

kind of hopeful counter-narrative – that perhaps it needn’t be this way.

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As the 20th century unfolded,

not all responses to violence were

fatalistic. Mahatma Gandhi developed

satyagraha, “truth-force,” the discipline of nonviolent resistance that proved remarkably successful. Martin

Luther King Jr., inspired by Gandhi and by Jesus, spoke of the “beloved community,” in which justice and

reconciliation would coexist. Desmond Tutu, presiding over South Africa’s

Truth and Reconciliation Commission,

declared that “there is no future without forgiveness.” Nelson Mandela, after 27 years in prison, emerged not to wage revenge but to pursue reconciliation,

showing that even after generations of oppression it was possible to choose peace. These figures proved that

conflict is not inevitable, that spiritual

discipline can channel aggression toward transformation.

Of course, you could say that their

stories are remembered partly because they are exceptions – and yet they are remembered.

The lesson, then, is complex. Humans

do appear drawn to war psychologically, finding identity and belonging in

Dwight D. Eisenhower (Wikipedia.org)

partly by the existence of real enemies, it

exceeds $2.7 trillion annually, with

to disaster. Chamberlain misjudged

war has always paid. The empires of

built around bases, contractors and

persuading, FDR, saw the matter more

plunder and tribute. Colonialism

between psychology and morality but

civilisation while extracting wealth

conflicts we invent and the conflicts we

age made war an economic system in

we oscillate between cynicism and

factories and supply chains. In our own

least begin to imagine the conditions of

the “military-industrial complex,” an

conflict. But some enemies are real,

and refusing to recognise them leads

is also shaped by economics. Put bluntly,

Hitler; Churchill, and, after some

antiquity enriched themselves through

clearly. The challenge is not choosing

cloaked conquest in the rhetoric of

learning how to distinguish between the

from conquered lands. The industrial

must fight. Without that distinction,

its own right, employing millions in

self-righteousness. With it, we may at

time, Dwight Eisenhower warned of

peace.

Machines Of War If the persistence of war can be

explained partly by psychology and

ecosystem of defence industries, political patrons, and military establishments whose profitability depends on

permanent readiness. That ecosystem has not shrunk; it has metastasised.

Global military expenditure now

entire communities and economies research. The costs of peace are diffuse

and invisible, but the profits of war are concentrated and immediate.

And yet the arithmetic is an illusion.

The Institute for Economics and Peace estimates that the global economic

impact of violence in 2023 was $19.1 trillion, equivalent to more than 13

percent of world GDP. This includes

not only direct military spending but

also the broader effects of refugee flows,

destroyed infrastructure, lost investment, and psychological trauma. The resources devoted to sustaining militaries could

eradicate extreme poverty, fund universal education, and provide clean water and www.finito.org.uk

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man is not the one who can overpower

others, but the one who controls himself when angry.”

“PEACE REQUIRES MORE THAN TREATIES — IT DEMANDS TRANSFORMATION.” These traditions recognise that peace is not simply a political arrangement but a transformation of the heart.

From Gandhi to Martin Luther King, to Nelson Mandela and many others,

all of these examples reveal that peace requires inner change. And yet, in

much of the modern world, religion no longer functions as an inhabited moral framework. Matthew Arnold once

described Christianity as “a beautiful but lifeless relic.” In Europe, weekly church attendance has dropped into the single digits; in America, it has fallen from

42 percent in the 1990s to around 30

percent today. Without daily discipline, the moral muscles these traditions

Nelson Mandela (Wikipedia.org)

sanitation. And still we persist. We

non-hatred alone is hatred appeased.”

tried to cultivate have atrophied. Their

like insurance, even when it creates

tension between duty and detachment,

monuments, but rarely in practice.

without hatred or greed: “Be free from

ideology, and economics. Nationalism

persist because defence spending feels the very insecurity it claims to prevent.

We persist because it generates jobs in

districts, dividends in portfolios, research funding in universities. In short, we

persist because the incentives are stacked in favour of conflict.

“Peace requires more than treaties — it demands transformation.”

Religion once provided a counterweight.

The world’s great traditions have all insisted that peace is more than the

absence of war – it is the cultivation of justice, compassion, reconciliation. The

Dhammapada declares: “Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By 62

The Bhagavad Gita wrestles with the

teachings remain inscribed in texts and

with Krishna advising Arjuna to act

The vacuum is filled by nationalism,

attachment, and be ever engaged in the

offers belonging. Ideology offers

performance of your duty without any desire for reward.” Jesus taught in the

Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called

the children of God,” and commanded

forgiveness “seventy times seven” times.

The Hebrew prophets envisioned swords beaten into plowshares, and shalom as

wholeness, not mere truce. The Qur’an

counsels: “And if they incline to peace, then incline to it also and trust in

Allah,” while the Prophet Muhammad reminded his followers: “The strong

certainty. Economics offers material reward. The result is a world where

the restraining voice of religion has

weakened and the accelerants of conflict have intensified. Niall Ferguson has

argued that wars are rarely fought for

ideals alone but are sustained because they redistribute resources, create

industrial demand, and consolidate

power. The correlation between defence budgets and campaign donations,

between arms sales and foreign policy, is evidence enough.

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Carol M. Highsmith, photographer. Barber Shop located in Ninth Ward, New Orleans, Louisiana, damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. April 13, 2006. Carol M. Highsmith Archive. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division.

PeaceTech Technology complicates the picture further. The digital age has given us

unprecedented connectivity and equally unprecedented fragmentation. Social media platforms allow individuals

to connect across the globe, but they also amplify conspiracy theories,

disinformation, and hate speech. The

same networks that could foster dialogue have become accelerants of division.

At the same time, technology provides tools for conflict prevention that no

previous generation possessed. Artificial intelligence can sift through vast data

sets to identify emerging risks. Satellite imagery can detect troop movements,

refugee flows, and environmental stress.

Social media monitoring can pick up spikes in hate speech that precede violence.

Already, initiatives like the Sentinel

Project’s Hatebase platform monitor

inflammatory language across multiple languages to identify potential

flashpoints. Anadyr Horizon has built

AI “digital twins” to simulate leaders’

insights into diplomatic action. The

Estonia’s SensusQ develops systems to

international organisations like the

responses to geopolitical moves.

integrate battlefield intelligence and disinformation analysis in real time.

Meanwhile, Munich-based Helsing builds AI-enabled defence systems,

while the African Union is weaving machine-learning early warning

systems into its conflict prevention

architecture. The UN itself has begun integrating predictive analytics into

its crisis response. The sector known

as “PeaceTech” is now a multi-billion-

dollar industry, producing both startups and institutional projects.

This convergence of moral urgency and technological innovation is

creating career pathways that did

not exist a decade ago. The sector

needs data scientists who can build

predictive models, policy analysts who

understand both conflict dynamics and machine learning, software engineers

comfortable working with NGOs and governments, and crisis-intervention

specialists who can translate algorithmic

work spans venture-backed startups, UN, defence contractors, and civil

society organisations. For graduates

torn between idealism and pragmatism, between tech careers and humanitarian work, PeaceTech represents a rare

synthesis. It is a field where coding, policy, ethics, and human empathy intersect.

The promise is genuine: early warning systems can buy time for diplomacy,

verification tools can make agreements credible, translation software can

dissolve barriers, blockchain ledgers can secure compliance. Former diplomat David Landsman, reflecting on the

importance of language learning, tells

us that “languages are an excellent way to understand quite how differently

it’s possible to think.” Nelson Mandela observed that “if you talk to a man in a language he understands, that

goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

Technology can expand this possibility www.finito.org.uk

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Unsplash.com

exponentially. But it cannot supply

versus them” narrative—with the

more costly and peace more rewarding.

voyeurism. Tools without institutions

but the destabilisation of planetary

implications: climate adaptation will

the will. Prediction without action is

capable of acting on them are wasted.

adversary being not another people systems—we may redirect our appetite for conflict toward cooperation.

Climate Contingency

The economic incentives are powerful.

Which brings us to climate change,

renewable energy could reshape

perhaps the most decisive factor in

humanity’s future relationship with peace. Climate disruption makes

cooperation not a choice but a necessity.

Rising seas will not respect borders.

Droughts will drive migration across boundaries. Extreme weather will

destroy infrastructure indiscriminately.

No nation can solve these challenges

alone. The Syrian civil war, analysts note, was preceded by drought that displaced

rural populations and heightened urban unrest. Similar patterns are emerging

elsewhere: environmental stress interacts with political grievance, turning scarcity into violence. But climate disruption also offers the possibility of shared

purpose. If we can frame the struggle against climate breakdown as an “us 64

And this, too, has employability

require engineers, policy experts,

negotiators and sustainability officers working across borders.

Transitioning from fossil fuels to

geopolitics by reducing reliance on

A Species Back At School

concentrated resources. Oil and gas

But since none of this is straightforward,

but solar and wind are diffuse, widely

be the hinge. Today’s youth are the first

and rare earths will present their own

digital networks. They can speak to peers

could manage them better than the

collaborate on projects across borders.

Ukraine minerals deal, struck by the

justice. But traditional education systems

controversial though it has been, offers

competitive models, and zero-sum

have fuelled wars for generations,

or even widely known, education will

distributed. Critical minerals like lithium

generation raised in a world of global

challenges, but cooperative frameworks

across continents in real time. They can

cutthroat competition of the past. The

They are already leading on climate and

Trump administration earlier this year,

often reinforce nationalist narratives,

a glimpse of how economic interests

definitions of success. Military history is

can be aligned with reconstruction and sustainability rather than conquest.

Regional power grids, cross-border

water management, cooperative disaster response – all these things can foster interdependence that makes conflict

taught more often than peacebuilding.

Competition is emphasised more than cooperation. If we are serious about

peace, education must change. It must

cultivate global citizenship, collaborative problem-solving, long-term thinking. It

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must equip young people to find meaning not only in rivalry but in cooperation.

Language education could play a central role. Landsman’s observation about

languages teaching us “how differently it is possible to think” is not trivial; it

is a curriculum for empathy. Mandela’s reminder about speaking to the heart

in someone else’s tongue captures why.

If we could foster empathy through

education as intentionally as we foster competitiveness, we might shift the

cultural balance. But schools cannot

do it alone. Young people learn most

from adult example. If adults continue to choose war, children will conclude

that war is the natural state of humanity.

If adults model cooperation, the next

generation may begin to believe another world is possible. When it comes to the question of employability, the question becomes: what skills will tomorrow’s peacebuilders need? Cross-cultural

literacy, systems thinking, negotiation, empathy, climate literacy and the

ability to integrate technology into

humanitarian contexts. These are the

attributes employers in this emerging sector will prize.

Unsplash.com

designed around cooperation: global

ability to find meaning in cooperation

and technology, legal systems with real

from creation rather than opposition.

governance mechanisms for climate

enforcement capacity, economic structures that reward collaboration over rivalry,

exchange programs that build cultural understanding. The European Union

represents one successful experiment, as atrophied as it may sometimes appear today, institutionalising peace among states that had fought each other for

centuries. Yet even it is under pressure from nationalist movements that prefer conflict to cooperation. For graduates looking

“PEACE IN OUR TIME WILL NOT BE DELIVERED BY WISHFUL THINKING, BUT BY SKILLED HUMAN BEINGS WILLING TO MAKE CAREERS OUT OF COOPERATION.”

toward careers, this means opportunity

Institutions must adapt as well. The

United Nations was built to prevent another world war, not to govern

artificial intelligence, climate change or economic inequality. Peace in our time would require new institutions

not only in traditional diplomatic channels

rather than destruction, to draw identity Christmas reminds us of this possibility.

The Christ child in the manger,

vulnerable and small, represents not

triumph but transformation. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” said Jesus, “for they shall be called the children of

God.” Chamberlain’s “peace in our time” became a byword for folly because it

was built on illusion. But peace in our

time could yet be realised if it is built on courage, judgment and transformation.

If we learn to distinguish between

but in new institutional spaces: climate

enemies we invent and enemies we

verification agencies, AI governance boards.

for meaning toward cooperation, if we

finance bodies, transnational NGOs, peace In the end, the challenge is spiritual

as much as political. Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, tell me that the

must resist, if we redirect our hunger

construct institutions that reward peace

as much as war, then perhaps the phrase will finally be redeemed.

most important thing he does each

The choice is ours. We have the tools,

foundation and heart of my day.”

precedents. The question is whether we

as “both an art and a science, requiring

train and inspire the next generation

unwavering commitment to peace.” Both

wisdom into practice. Peace in our time

day is to say his prayers: “That is the

we have the warnings, we have the

Baroness Ashton describes diplomacy

have the wisdom – and whether we can

patience, pragmatism, and, above all, an

of professionals capable of turning that

testify that peace requires discipline and intentionality, a daily practice as much

as a policy. Perhaps peace demands what might be called spiritual maturity: the

will not be delivered by wishful thinking but by skilled human beings, willing to make careers out of cooperation rather than conflict.

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THE IRON LADY AT 100

WHERE NEXT FOR BRITAIN'S FRACTURED RIGHT? CHRISTOPHER JACKSON

M

y grandfather died just before Christmas 2013 and so I often find myself thinking of him at this time of year. A gentle soul, who would probably wish to erase this reference to himself if he could, nobody ever thought of him as iron-like, and yet he springs to mind as I consider the ghost of Margaret Thatcher, who would have been a hundred on October 13th 2025.

The reason is this: my grandfather had an interesting legal career and became president of the Westminster Law Society. One evening in the 1980s, the society was hosting Margaret Thatcher, who came along the reception line of waiting lawyers, as prime ministers do on these occasions. She was about to vote on an important bill – my grandfather couldn't remember which – but it was a sticky issue and she wasn't quite sure how to vote. What struck him was that she asked him, there in the line, what she should do. It seemed humble, but also as not at all what he would have expected of her, given her media image.

On another occasion, he was at Chequers and, as the evening drew to a close, the assembled company was told to head off upstairs to bed as the Prime Minister needed to work. He remembered forgetting his glasses and coming back downstairs to find her curled up asleep on the sofa – not quite the three-hours-a-night PM we're told about today, but a more human one.

More human than we sometimes imagine perhaps – but undoubtedly still one of the very few who one feels was really up to the job of PM. Sir Anthony Seldon famously called the prime ministership The Impossible Office – but it never seemed quite so impossible

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to Margaret Thatcher – or at least

not until the very end. Even then, the

dismay she plainly felt at her departure seemed to have something to do with

not wanting to leave the one job which she felt matched her capacities.

But my grandfather’s memories,

sketchy though they were, show that

Thatcher was often different to know

than her image suggested. The same could be said of many political figures – Dominic Cummings, for instance, comes across as far more thoughtful and strategic in person than his scowling public persona might suggest. But Thatcher's towering legacy casts both an inspiring and troubling shadow over Britain's conservative movement today. The woman who transformed

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Britain in the 1980s left a blueprint that shaped Conservative thinking for decades, yet that blueprint now lies in tatters, torn apart by Brexit, economic mismanagement, and the rise of populist challengers who claim her mantle while, in some cases, arguably abandoning her principles.

“MORE HUMAN THAN WE SOMETIMES IMAGINE PERHAPS – BUT UNDOUBTEDLY STILL ONE OF THE VERY FEW WHO ONE FEELS WAS REALLY UP TO THE JOB OF PRIME MINISTER.” Two female prime ministers and seven male prime ministers have come since her tearful exit from Downing Street.

What a strange procession they can sometimes seem. One sometimes wonders what she would have thought of Prime Minister May and Prime Minister Truss.

The Thatcher Template

Why was her premiership so important?

Some of it can be told in statistics.

Even there, before we even get to her symbolism and style, Thatcher's impact on British political and economic life cannot be overstated. Let’s start with the economic statistics. Her governments created 2.8 million jobs between 19831990, fundamentally reshaping the UK's economic landscape from heavy industry to services. She spearheaded the privatisation of state-owned industries, from British Telecom to British Gas, transforming the UK into a predominantly private-sector economy.

By the time she left office in 1990,

around 50 major state-owned industries had been privatised, collectively worth billions of pounds. This move not only revolutionised the economy but also established a new class of shareholders and consumers, further cementing the nation's financial future.

Thatcher championed entrepreneurship with an almost evangelical fervour, declaring that "there is no such thing as society" while simultaneously creating conditions where individual ambition could flourish. Her policies transformed Britain into Europe's financial capital, attracting global talent and creating lucrative career paths in banking, finance, and professional services. This development alone was democratising.

It was Sir Martin Amis who, in his memoir Experience (2000), observes that it was the nail in the coffin for the old boys’ network: "Whatever else she did, Margaret Thatcher helped weaken all that. Mrs. Thatcher, with her Cecils, with her Normans, with her Keiths."

She also pursued aggressive tax cuts, reducing the top rate of income tax from 83% to 60%, and then to 40%, which encouraged both foreign investment and domestic entrepreneurship. In addition, her controversial but transformative policies on housing – allowing council tenants to buy their homes under the "Right to Buy" scheme – empowered millions of people to become homeowners, a key shift in Britain’s social fabric.

Her foreign policy, while often overshadowed by domestic issues, also left a lasting impact. Thatcher’s resolute stance during the Falklands War in 1982 helped restore Britain's global reputation and reaffirmed her reputation for political courage and determination.

Her relationship with Ronald Reagan strengthened the West’s resolve during the Cold War, and her role in promoting the European single market reshaped the contours of European integration.

It was said that she would go into the Reagan White House and tell him what

she thought – and then tell him what he thought. Nobody has done that since, or at the moment seems likely to again.

It was perhaps the inverse of Starmer’s fawning relationship with President Trump.

Those who worked with her recall not just her legendary work ethic – despite my grandfather's anecdote, she genuinely was capable of surviving on remarkably little sleep as any reader of Charles Moore’s great trilogy of biographies on her will know – but also her unexpected moments of vulnerability and kindness to staff. She could be funny, self-deprecating, and surprisingly willing to listen to advice from unexpected quarters. These human touches made her formidable political persona all the more effective.

“HER POLICIES TRANSFORMED BRITAIN INTO EUROPE’S FINANCIAL CAPITAL, ATTRACTING GLOBAL TALENT AND CREATING LUCRATIVE CAREER PATHS IN BANKING, FINANCE, AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICES.” For all the human qualities that made Thatcher an iconic figure, her impact on the Conservative Party and the wider political landscape was not just personal – it was profoundly institutional. Successive leaders of the Conservative Party, whether in power or in opposition, have had to grapple with her legacy, navigating its complexities and contradictions while trying to carve out their own political identities. Some www.finito.org.uk

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but proved inadequate for the retail politics required to maintain an electoral coalition. He made some simple slips. I remember at the time how upset his backbenchers were about him being photographed next to Lord Cameron: Sunak looked both literally and figuratively smaller than his more confident predecessor. One told me: “About 70 per cent of the job is foreign affairs and Rishi left that largely to Cameron. He then proceeded to micromanage the other 30 per cent going down as far as junior ministerial level on matters he should have left alone.”

Rishi Sunak (Wikipedia.org)

admired her, others sought to distance themselves, yet all have been shaped by the framework she created. Tony Blair, for instance, recognised her economic reforms and, while ideologically opposed to much of what she represented, acknowledged her role in transforming Britain. Gordon Brown, despite their many disagreements, invited her to 10 Downing Street when she was still alive, demonstrating a respect for her place in British history.

The Iron Chancellor eventually had to tip his hat to the Iron Lady.

David Cameron, though often characterised as a moderniser, sought to channel Thatcher’s ethos in his Big Society project, blending freemarket ideas with an appeal to social responsibility. Theresa May, too, found herself within Thatcher’s shadow, wrestling with questions of national identity and the country’s place in the world post-Brexit: it can sometimes seem as though Thatcher’s own complicated relationship with Europe rippled out somehow to become the Party’s predicament.

Boris Johnson’s administration invoked Thatcher's spirit in the rhetoric of “levelling up,” even as his policies often diverged from hers. In fact, the common complaint from the Brexiteers that the UK no longer makes things, can be seen as a sort of direct rebuke to 68

The Sunak Paradox

“RISHI SUNAK COULD NEVER SOLVE THE PARTY’S CENTRAL CONTRADICTION: HOW TO BE SIMULTANEOUSLY PRO-BUSINESS AND PRO-BREXIT, GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE YET DOMESTICALLY PROTECTED.”

His approach was hampered by an essentially transactional nature that worked well in financial services

But this was to some extent style, and nobody really doubted that Sunak was up to what Richard Nixon called ‘the work’. The problem was that under Sunak, the Conservatives failed to articulate how modern Britain could create the kind of secure, well-paid jobs that had sustained their electoral appeal since Thatcher. He also balked at the idea of tax cuts, as did his Chancellor, the otherwise competent Sir Jeremy Hunt. Once at a Finito breakfast, I floated the idea of abolishing stamp duty or council tax as a way to change the narrative, and he dismissed this as bribery of the electorate. I remember

Thatcher’s legacy – even if it was made in a Thatcherite tone of voice. Liz Truss, in her brief tenure, took a more direct approach to Thatcherism, promising to reignite the economic dynamism she championed, only to face a turbulent end to her premiership.

These figures, in their own ways, continued to grapple with Thatcher’s influence. Yet, as the Conservative Party moved further away from her core tenets, the stark challenge for her successors became clear: how to reconcile her vision with the changing political, economic, and social landscape of modern Britain.

Rishi Sunak's thumping defeat in July 2024's election – ending 14 years of Conservative-led rule – represents more than a typical change of government.

It marked the failure of technocratic competence to address deeper structural problems. Despite his Goldman Sachs credentials and hedge fund experience, Sunak could never solve the party's central contradiction: how to be simultaneously pro-business and pro-Brexit, globally competitive yet domestically protected.

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Donald Trump with Nigel Farage at a White House meeting on 2 March to discuss the merits of a no-deal Brexit. Photograph: Tia Dufour/The White House/PA

thinking how many of the electorate wouldn’t mind being bribed if it meant they could afford their household bills.

In acting like this, Sunak and Hunt were, though they would likely resist the label, anti-Thatcherite while also professing to espouse her legacy.

Sunak’s super-deduction on capital allowances—a key pro-business measure—was mysteriously allowed to expire in March 2023. This reluctance to embrace traditional Conservative economics left the party without its most potent electoral weapon and abandoned the field to more radical alternatives. It was a gift to Nigel Farage who has never really looked back.

Fractured Movement

Kemi Badenoch's historic election as the first Black woman to lead a major British political party in November 2024 therefore came with an impossible inheritance. As Business Secretary she had presided over very few memorable developments. Even today, despite a

year as leader, she is mainly known for one anti-woke speech in the House of Commons. This might have its upsides, but her problem is that Farage can – and does – make those too – and he knows better than she does how to speak to the solar plexus.

Badenoch was tasked with leading a right-wing movement while reuniting a divided and weakened party that had been emphatically removed from power. As “a self-proclaimed enemy of wokeness” who “has suggested that maternity pay in the U.K. is “excessive,’” she represents a harder edge than her predecessors. Yet her background as a software engineer offers potential appeal to the knowledge economy workers the Conservatives desperately need to win back.

The thing is it’s not really working.

Labour is highly unpopular since it has done what it always does and snookered itself into tax rises which people can’t afford, but the Conservatives haven’t been forgiven yet for the Truss debacle

and the perception of malaise under Sunak – and in any case Farage has easily outflanked her. Rumours persist also about her personal style, especially with her immediate team. Andrew Pierce, at a recent Finito breakfast, said she had managed to be rude to a major political donor and The Sunday Times – and he was talking about that previous week. I wonder if this is a misunderstanding about Thatcher: the recent Steve Coogan drama Brian and Maggie shows how skilled Thatcher was at precisely the relationships which Badenoch seems to deem beneath her.

Still, she has her good points. When she was a minister under Sunak, Badenoch displayed the kind of optimism that Conservative politics demands, arguing that “we're doing better than Germany, which hasn't left the EU.” She insisted that "we need to not just prove them wrong but to communicate what we're doing," recognising that the party's fundamental challenge was one of messaging and narrative. But with Reform UK now breathing down the www.finito.org.uk

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Conservatives' necks, such messaging may prove insufficient.

Farage's Ascendancy However, surely the most striking development in British politics has been the meteoric rise of Reform UK under Nigel Farage. In the 2024 general election, Reform UK secured more than 4 million votes—14.3 percent of the total votes cast—winning five seats in the process. More remarkably, recent polling suggests that if a general election were held tomorrow, 25 percent of British voters would choose Reform UK, potentially making them the largest party. Reform UK has even claimed to have overtaken the Conservatives to become the UK's second-largest party, behind Labour, in terms of size. Today when people talk of Nigel Farage as the next PM, nobody’s joking – and this is the case even though he doesn’t have an economic policy.

“FARAGE’S RISE REPRESENTS THE FINAL STAGE IN A WIDER CONSERVATIVE RECKONING, AS THE PARTY CONFRONTS ITS THATCHERITE LEGACY WHILE NAVIGATING AN INCREASINGLY FRACTIOUS POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT.” Does he need one? As with Trump in 2016 in the US, it may be that he needs only the implications of his tone to succeed. Farage’s success represents a fundamental challenge to the traditional 70

Conservative electoral strategy. While Thatcher’s Conservatives attracted aspirational workers with promises of home ownership, social mobility, and the expansion of free-market principles, Reform appeals to a different constituency: those who feel left behind by globalisation. Farage’s policies blend his longstanding political stances – such as advocating for strong borders and curbing immigration –with ideas reminiscent of US President Donald Trump’s administration. Farage tells us: “The most important thing we need to focus on is restoring the values that made Britain great—values of hard work, family and prosperity.”

This shift presents a particularly acute problem for Conservative messaging.

The traditional Conservative base – comprising small business owners, skilled tradespeople, and middle management – now increasingly views immigration not as an economic necessity but as direct competition for jobs and housing. Farage’s pledge to “dramatically reduce immigration while investing in British workers” resonates deeply with voters who feel sidelined by the government's complex and inconsistent approach to labour market policies. “Government itself doesn’t promote growth,” Farage explains. “What government does best is clear away the barriers to allow individuals to get on with it, make money, and succeed.” His vision calls for a dramatic overhaul of government regulations, advocating for deregulation to spur entrepreneurship and remove bureaucratic obstacles.

Farage’s populist rhetoric taps into the frustrations felt by many Britons who believe their nation’s prosperity has been compromised by globalism.

“We’ve let foreign companies take over our industries, we’ve allowed unchecked immigration to drive down wages, and we’ve allowed our communities to disintegrate,” Farage explains. “It’s time to take back control, not just over our borders, but over our future.”

Farage’s rise poses a direct challenge to the Conservative Party, especially as the country faces issues that echo Thatcher’s own era of economic discontent. Much like in the 1980s, Britain now finds itself at a crossroads, with questions about national identity, economic strategy, and the role of government in supporting entrepreneurship at the forefront of political discourse.

This challenge is especially evident with Sir Keir Starmer, who finds himself unable to address the deep divides within his own party and between the party and the electorate. Despite his virtues, Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership has failed to resolve the contradictions at the heart of Britain. “The truth is, we’re being led by people who believe in nothing,” Farage continues. “We need a fresh start, a leadership that understands the real problems people face, not one that gets lost in the minutiae of policy.”

Farage’s growing influence underscores a shift in the political landscape, one that requires a different approach to addressing Britain’s economic and cultural challenges – one that taps into the populist energy that Thatcher harnessed so effectively during her time in office, but with a sharper focus on identity borders, and the protection of national interests. For many, Farage’s rise represents the final stage in a wider Conservative reckoning, as the party confronts its Thatcherite legacy while navigating an increasingly fractious and uncertain political environment.

The Blair Shadow

The Conservative Party's current crisis has deeper roots than Brexit or recent leadership failures. Tony Blair's New Labour project didn't just defeat the Conservatives electorally in 1997 – it stole their ideological clothes. By embracing business-friendly policies, financial services expansion and aspirational messaging, Blair made the Conservatives redundant for a generation of voters.

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Starmer hasn’t necessarily repeated this: his tax rises are enough to show that.

But it did mean in 2024 that by seeming to be close to Blair – and therefore at one remove, Thatcher – he was able to convince swathes of the country that he wasn’t a frightening notion as PM. In a way this meant that he wouldn’t do precisely what he has done: exponentially raise taxes. This, too, plays directly into Farage’s hands.

One suspects too that if Boris Johnson were still around it would play into his.

Johnson tells us: “Today you have got an absolutely appalling situation – a classic situation engendered entirely by this Labour government – in which the bond markets are starting to demand ever higher yields on British gilts because they can see no clear economic plan from the Labour government."

Michael Gove, reflecting on this challenge during his time in government, explains that: "Sometimes the preoccupation of the detail of a policy and the willingness to trade this or that statistic in order to prove that things are working means that people’s eyes glaze over because politics is ultimately a crusade." The party had become, in his words, "administrators and not evangelists." You could say the same of Labour today.

Is it possible then that Blair’s appropriation of Thatcherism left the Conservatives somehow without substance? That they didn’t know what they stood for anymore – other than being in power.

This turns out to be a difficult question to answer. Gove and President Obama, who uses a similar argument to explain the decline of the Democrats in the US, seem to argue in effect that politics is so boring that you lose popularity by being good at it. The argument runs that the detail leaves people cold, and that it’s essentially a thankless business where nobody realises the scale of what you’ve secretly achieved.

But it’s only partially true – and when

Tony Blair (Wikipedia.org)

the argument is being made by people who have been in government for a long while it can feel even less convincing.

That’s partly why it’s critiqued from both sides. In the US, the Bernie Sanders lobby will say Obama wasn’t left-wing enough; in the UK, Farage will say Gove wasn’t right wing enough.

Francis Fukuyama would say we’re at the end of history. Obama and Gove would sort of agree insofar as they’d say the problems are difficult and likely to continue to be so, and that ideology won’t get you far.

But there are two main examples running in the opposite direction.

One is Trump. The other is Thatcher.

Both seem to be examples of energetic political action where things really seem to happen whether one agrees with them or not. Going back into history we’d have to add FDR, Alexander Hamilton, Robert Peel and William Pitt as examples of leaders who really did change things.

This was what made Blair’s borrowing of Thatcher so significant: it meant that a consensus was arrived at between the two main parties, and that seemed to work for a while. But when the consensus wasn’t felt anymore, it began to atrophy until it became sclerotic www.finito.org.uk

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Nigel Farage addressing Reform UK rally at Trago Mills, Devon (Wikipedia.org)

and then it spread into the whole of society. There was no real energy behind Thatcherism, but the memory of her example meant her ghost was continually invoked as if her prime ministership still held all the answers.

In reality, the world had moved on, as it always does. This theft was so complete that even during the Cameron years, the Conservatives struggled to differentiate themselves meaningfully from Blairite centrism. The employment implications were profound. Blair's Labour attracted the university-educated professionals who had been natural Conservative voters, while also maintaining workingclass support through public sector expansion. But something bigger was on the way – and that was Europe.

Fault Line

Brexit represents both Thatcher's greatest vindication and her legacy's greatest contradiction. Her Euroscepticism provided intellectual cover for leaving the EU, but her 72

commitment to free markets and global trade made the protectionist reality of Brexit almost impossible to reconcile with Conservative principles.

James Cleverly, when serving as Foreign Secretary, embodied this contradiction perfectly. He championed Britain's "openness" as the first pillar of economic policy, boasting of the UK's "particular strength in financial services" while simultaneously defending a Brexit that had made international trade more difficult. His travels to 53 countries in 12 months represented a frantic attempt to rebuild relationships that European Union membership had previously made automatic.

There was always something likeable about Cleverly and there is always the sense that he would have made a better leader in some ways than Badenoch.

But the reality is he would likely have lost with the membership against either Badenoch or Jenrick had he made it to the final two. Though Thatcher could be kind in person, as I mentioned earlier,

there is that Thatcherite note which simply must be sounded today and which Cleverly may have been too nice to convey. This is another aspect of the Thatcher legacy: everybody lives in a sort of simplified shadow.

I remember when writing the Europe sections of my biography on Theresa May being shocked to read in Charles Moore’s biography that Thatcher had signed the Single European Act without even reading it properly. It struck me as uncharacteristic then, and still does. In a way we are all living in the aftermath of that omission on her part.

The employment consequences of this contradiction have been severe. British businesses face increased regulatory burden, skilled worker shortages, and reduced access to European markets.

Meanwhile, the promised "Brexit dividend" of increased sovereignty has delivered little tangible benefit to workers whose jobs depend on international trade.

This is why Britain's conservative

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movement faces a fundamental employment paradox. The economy needs high-skilled immigration to fill critical roles in healthcare, technology, and finance. Yet their voting base increasingly opposes immigration of any kind. Similarly, the knowledge economy that drives growth in London and the South East operates on principles – diversity, globalisation, cultural liberalism – that contradict much of conservative messaging.

At a 2024 Finito event just before the general election, the then transport minister Guy Opperman, reflecting on his time in government, recognised this challenge acutely. As Opperman noted, “we have got a million job vacancies in this country and we have also got millions of people on benefits.” The skills gap remains acute. Britain needs millions of workers trained in green technologies, digital skills and advanced manufacturing. Yet the Conservative approach to education – focused on traditional subjects and market-based reforms – struggled to deliver the technical education required for modern employment.

Boris Johnson, looking back on his time in office, sees this challenge in characteristically grand terms. His "levelling up" agenda was explicitly designed to "unleash the potential of every human being in Britain," recognising that "the concentration of wealth, power, talent, productivity is overwhelmingly still in the London and the south east." But the practical delivery of this vision foundered on the same contradictions that bedevil British conservatism today.

Michael Gove's perspective on these challenges offers perhaps the clearest articulation of what modern conservatism should become. Speaking about his colleague Lee Rowley, Gove emphasised that effective conservative politics requires "a bias in favour of liberty" combined with being "extremely careful with every penny of public

money" and always asking "how can we make the market work better." This wasn't just about economics – it was about "giving people more control over their lives."

Gove recognised that after 13 years in government, the party needed to move beyond administrative competence to something more inspiring. Politicians, he tells us, must "have an idea of the country that they want to lead and the need to have a vision of how individuals can flourish in it."

This vision extended to practical policy areas like housing, where Gove championed the importance of place and beauty in development. Drawing on examples like Poundbury – "houses in Poundbury fetch more on the open market than houses in Dorchester itself " – he argued for development that created "something which is attractive as a destination and aspirational."

It is that word ‘aspirational’ which really brings Thatcher’s ghost into the room.

It is hard to imagine in the mouth of Macmillan, Churchill or Baldwin or any of the other great Conservative prime ministers. The fact that the word ‘aspirational’ comes in in such a rote and expected way, while meeting no naysayers in the room, is a subtle measure of her achievement. For better or worse, she is utterly a part of the way everyone sees things.

Reform's Jobs Policies As 2025 has gone, it would be avoidant to pretend nothing has changed. Reform UK – once a political footnote, now a growing presence – is no longer simply a repository for Brexit nostalgia or protest votes. With five MPs and a regional mayor under its belt, the party is becoming a more durable part of the conversation. And as it stakes out its identity, a central question emerges: what does Reform UK actually offer the country in terms of work, jobs, and employability?

At first glance, the answer appears simple. Reform’s policies centre on the idea that work should be encouraged, rewarded and protected. That means tax cuts – big ones. The party proposes raising the income tax threshold to £20,000, which would lift many low earners out of tax altogether, and reducing corporation tax to 15 per cent, a stark drop from the current 25 per cent. In this, Reform pitches itself as the friend of both the small business owner and the self-employed contractor, particularly with its call to scrap IR35 rules that have long frustrated freelance workers.

There is a philosophical clarity here, however blunt its expression: a belief that the state should do less, tax less, and step back so that enterprise can step forward. For Richard Tice and Nigel Farage prosperity is something unleashed with the sort of dramatic strokes of the pen we saw in Donald Trump’s first 100 days. As Farage recently put it: “Britain is groaning under the weight of over-regulation and punitive taxation. Let’s give people their freedom back.”

It might not seem so effective if the Conservatives didn’t currently seem so hesitant and directionless. Since replacing Rishi Sunak, Kemi Badenoch has struggled to define a clear platform or steady the ship.

Where Badenoch’s Conservatives have dithered, Reform has made its pitch boldly. On welfare, the party proposes a four-month limit on unemployment benefits. Miss two job offers, and support is withdrawn. This is a sharper, more disciplinarian system than that currently in place, reflecting a clear moral judgement: that work is not just economically necessary but socially virtuous. Critics, however, worry that it risks punishing people who fall between the cracks – those with caring responsibilities, patchy mental health, or who live in regions where decent jobs are simply hard to find. www.finito.org.uk

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The Institute for Fiscal Studies has cast doubt on whether these policies are financially viable. According to their analysis, the cost of Reform’s tax cuts would be so significant that public spending elsewhere would need to be slashed – by as much as £50 billion, the IFS estimates. In practice, that would likely mean cuts to services on which many workers rely: transport, childcare, training schemes, and the very Jobcentres that would be enforcing these stricter rules.

And yet, in one area, Reform may be onto something that deserves closer attention: vocational training.

The party has voiced strong support for apprenticeships, promising tax incentives for companies who take them on. It has also emphasised the importance of re-skilling workers aged 16 to 34, particularly in trades and technical roles. In a country where the university route has dominated and too many young people leave education unprepared for the job market, this feels like a constructive intervention. This might be said to evoke Thatcher’s own interest in the polytechnics and her backing of the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI).

Here again, the contrast with the Conservatives is instructive. While previous governments have introduced schemes like T-Levels and pledged more funding for further education, progress has been slow and often underfunded. Under Badenoch, the Conservatives can sometimes seem as though they have stalled altogether.

Reform’s framing is clearer: the country needs skills – not just degrees – and work should be rooted in training that has purpose.

The Trouble with Nigel

Still, clarity of intent does not equal clarity of delivery: there remain serious doubts as to whether Farage could function as a Prime Minister. His appetite for policy detail is not great to 74

put it mildly, and scaling from five MPs to the hundreds needed for government is a huge challenge, especially in the UK system: we do not, or so we thought, do Emmanuel Macron in this country.

The most trenchant critique I’ve heard of Reform UK comes from Dominic Cummings who tells me: “On the one hand, Nigel says the right things. He’s long been consistent on borders and energy. On the other hand, Reform is not a serious political party. It’s a limited company in which Farage is the sole shareholder. There’s no structure. No candidates. No strategy. It’s not a party, it’s a protest vehicle. Can it help topple the establishment? Probably. Can it run a government? No.” Even those who like Nigel Farage will tell you privately that he has no interest whatsoever in policy detail. One insider reports Farage as saying: “How many times do I have to tell you? I’m not a details man!” when pressed on his jobs agenda.

“HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU? I’M NOT A DETAILS MAN!” For a party without a full costed plan, without the machinery of Whitehall behind it, and without the moderating structures of a large political operation, questions remain about how Reform would implement any of this. And beyond policy lies the deeper cultural question: do people want the state to do less, or do they want it to do better?

Reform is betting on the former. Its rise reflects a broader impatience with managed decline and cautious governance. Voters sense that work isn’t working – for them, their children, or their communities. Pay has stagnated, insecurity has grown, and for too many, effort no longer leads to reward. In that climate, a party promising simple solutions – lower taxes, less red tape,

more jobs – has its appeal.

Of course simplification always carries risk. Real economies are not ideological constructs; they are messy, interdependent systems. You can cut taxes and still shrink the workforce if you also cut childcare. You can tighten welfare, but people need realistic paths into work. And you can praise apprenticeships, but without proper funding and employer engagement, few will follow.

In the end, Reform UK has done something important: it has placed work at the centre of political debate. It may not yet have the answers – though at the moment all it needs is Farage’s presence to make in-roads. But it has asked a question that resonates more deeply than many would like to admit— what has happened to the promise of work, and who, if anyone, is prepared to rebuild it?

Three Possible Paths So what will happen? British conservatism is currently at a crossroads, with three potential futures emerging.

The first path involves a ConservativeReform merger, either formal or informal, which could unite the right under a populist, nationalist platform.

The one to watch here is Robert Jenrick.

This would mark a departure from much of Thatcher's economic liberalism, embracing instead protectionist policies aimed at appealing to working-class voters. The focus on employment would centre around reviving manufacturing, enforcing stricter immigration controls, and improving public sector efficiency. It might have a Thatcherite tone of voice but it would represent a sharp shift, similar to Trump’s dramatic reinvention of the Republican Party in the US. The second potential future is a Liberal Conservative restoration. In this scenario, the Conservatives double down on Thatcherite economics, fully embracing globalisation, high-

POLITICS 10 Downing Street (Wikipedia.org)

skilled immigration and market-based solutions. While this approach would likely lead to electoral defeat in the short term, the goal would be to build a coalition of educated urban professionals and business owners. Employment messaging would emphasise entrepreneurship, innovation, and global competitiveness. At the moment, the main obstacle to this is Farage’s success, and the sense that the country needs something radically different to what it has had for the last 30 years.

The third path, perhaps the most likely, is one of managed decline.

In this scenario, the Conservatives find themselves stuck between these alternatives, losing votes to Reform while failing to win back liberal professionals from Labour and the Liberal Democrats. This path would lead to the party’s long-term irrelevance, with the Conservatives shrinking into a rump that represents rural England, while Reform rises to become the main opposition. All the momentum seems to be heading in that direction. The only thing at the moment likely to arrest that course is the emergence of a highly charismatic leader following Badenoch

in the Conservative Party. Scanning the limited pool of talent among the small number of remaining Conservative MPs this seems more unlikely than ever.

Thatcher’s Ghost

As Margaret Thatcher would have reached her centenary this October, the human touches that those who knew her remember—her willingness to seek advice from unexpected quarters, her moments of vulnerability, her humour— remind us that effective leadership requires both vision and humanity. Her political heirs today possess neither in sufficient measure.

The party she led to three election victories has become a byword for economic incompetence and political chaos. The free-market principles she championed are blamed for inequality and social fragmentation.

The aspirational society she envisioned has given way to one where many feel locked out of prosperity.

Perhaps most telling is Gove's observation that the party now suffers from the perception that its leaders are merely "administrators and not

evangelists," lacking the crusading spirit that politics demands. The employment implications of this crisis extend far beyond politics. Britain needs a functioning conservative movement that can articulate how market economics, individual opportunity and collective prosperity can coexist in the modern world.

Whether Badenoch can succeed where Sunak failed, or whether the future belongs to Farage's populist alternative, will determine not just the fate of British conservatism but the career prospects of millions of workers whose livelihoods depend on getting this choice right. The Iron Lady's centenary thus becomes not just a moment for historical reflection but an urgent reminder of what British conservatism has lost – and what it must recover if it hopes to remain relevant in the decades ahead.

The woman who once asked a stranger in a receiving line for advice on how to vote might have recognised that genuine leadership requires both confidence and humility, vision and pragmatism. Today's conservative leaders would do well to remember both sides of her complex legacy. www.finito.org.uk

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BURSARY

THE SECRET ECONOMY OF KINDNESS

A CHRISTMAS REFLECTION RONEL LEHMANN

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A

s the year draws to a close and we gather with loved ones around

cheerful tables, there's an unspoken

magic in the air – not just in fairy lights and festive songs, but in the quiet acts of giving that ripple far beyond the moment. At Christmas, generosity

often comes into sharper focus. Yet the stories behind that generosity – the

reasons people give, the hidden impact of kindness – deserve a closer look.

In the year just gone, the Finito Bursary Scheme has revealed something

"the ladder of opportunity." He spoke

not just as a policymaker but as a human being who believes in transformation

through support. That ladder isn’t built from public funds alone; it is formed by the outstretched hands of donors,

mentors, and quiet supporters — people like you.

We often think of giving as charity, but it is much more. According to

research from Indiana University’s

Lilly Family School of Philanthropy,

profound about how generosity moves

charitable giving in the UK contributes

scheme, designed to help young people

each year. This is not a side note – it’s

mentorship and job opportunities, is a

over, helping to reduce inequality and

through society: it builds futures. Our

an estimated £20 billion to the economy

from less advantaged backgrounds gain

an economic engine, quietly turning

case study in how compassion, when

drive productivity. When you support

intelligently applied, becomes a lever of economic empowerment.

As former Minister for Skills Robert

Halfon has said, what matters most is 76

someone's education or help them into work, you don't just change one life; you shift the trajectory of an entire community.

“IT WAS AS IF I WAS BEING SEEN FOR THE FIRST TIME.” The Finito report is filled with stories that make this point tangible. Leah Houston, a mentee from Northern

Ireland, put it best: “It was as if I was being seen for the first time.” Her

words cut to the core of what giving

does – it confers visibility, agency, and

belief. In economic terms, it translates into capability and confidence – two undervalued assets in any economy.

Another bursary recipient, Yassen

Ahmad, captured this transformation when he said: “Finito mentoring has

meant a lot more than just becoming employable… it has also helped me

grow and develop beyond the confines

of my limited perception of the world.”

His journey – from financial struggle to

BURSARY

remarked: “The social and welfare challenges I faced in mentoring stretched me. It made me better.” This echoes a growing body of psychological evidence showing that giving increases happiness, reduces stress, and even extends lifespan.

Kindness, then, is not just emotional currency – it is societal infrastructure.

It connects aspiration to opportunity. It transforms isolation into inclusion. It breaks the cycle of poverty and replaces it with one of progress.

Leah Houston

a career in software engineering – was

made possible by a simple act: someone choosing to care.

“FINITO MENTORING HAS MEANT A LOT MORE THAN JUST BECOMING EMPLOYABLE… IT HAS ALSO HELPED ME GROW AND DEVELOP BEYOND THE CONFINES OF MY LIMITED PERCEPTION OF THE WORLD.”

donor told us: “All it took was one brief

telephone call and I felt compelled to help.

I did not wish for anything in return.” In

that sentence lies the heart of Christmas: giving without expectation.

This instinct isn’t just moral—it’s

vital. Economist Mariana Mazzucato has written persuasively about the

As we reflect this Christmas, I am reminded of Tolkien’s Bilbo Baggins, who said, “It’s a dangerous business… stepping out your door.” Indeed it is. I happen to know, because he keeps telling me, that Tolkein is Robert Halfon’s favourite author. And Robert would agree that when we step out not just with caution, but with compassion – when we build ladders for others – we start a journey that redefines our society.

people who invest in others, not for return,

In the pages of our forthcoming report, and in every mentee we support, we find proof that kindness is not just a virtue – it is a policy. It is a strategy. It is an economy in its own right.

angel investors in the human spirit.

And at this time of year, perhaps more than ever, it is also a reason for hope.

“entrepreneurial state,” but there is another actor in her thesis we too often overlook: the entrepreneurial citizen. These are the

but for regeneration. They are, in essence, We must also note the unexpected

benefits to the givers themselves. One Finito mentor, a senior executive,

Ronel Lehmann is the Founder and CEO of Finito Education.

And care multiplies. Research from

Oxford University has shown that early intervention in the form of mentoring

and education increases future income by as much as 20 per cent. More

importantly, it reduces the social costs of

unemployment, mental health challenges,

and disengagement. The cost of not giving is, quite literally, poverty.

The reasons people give are many and

varied. Some are repaying their own debt of gratitude, others are paying forward a

kindness they once received. As one Finito

Yaseen Ahmed

www.finito.org.uk

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CORPORATE SERVICE

THE HARRODS TOUCH AN INTERVIEW WITH TRACY FINN, HEAD OF HARRODS CORPORATE SERVICE You’ve seen the world of corporate

gifting evolve significantly over your

time at Harrods. What’s been the most surprising shift in how companies now choose to express appreciation?

Over the years, the most remarkable transformation has been how much

more considered and personal corporate gifting has become. As the boundaries between work and life have evolved, so too has the nature of gifting - it’s no longer purely transactional or

tradition-bound. Companies now seek

to merge the corporate world with that of lifestyle - curating gifts influenced

by wellbeing, creativity and experience from indulgent pampering moments to

contemporary design, fashion, technology and wellness.

“TODAY, CORPORATE GIFTING IS ABOUT RESONANCE,

clients place immense trust in Harrods

Harrods is a unique institution. What

with the discretion, creativity and polish

corporate gifting from other brands in

CONNECTION

Corporate Service to execute their gifting

AND CREATING

that define our brand. Whether marking

MOMENTS

a global milestone, honouring long

THAT ARE BOTH

strive to make the experience the best it

MEMORABLE AND MEANINGFUL.” Today, corporate gifting is about

resonance, connection and creating moments that are both memorable

and meaningful. A thoughtful gift can

strengthen a business relationship, reward loyalty, or celebrate a milestone in a way that feels timeless and personal. Our 78

service or celebrating a retirement, we can be.

is it that particularly differentiates your the space?

At Harrods, we are the curators of the extraordinary. Our heritage, authority

and unrivalled access across every aspect of luxury - from fine food and fragrance

Our dedicated Account Managers are at

to couture, beauty, watches and design

knowledge, exclusive access to limited

match. We bring together the finest

to tailor each request down to every

ensuring that every gift tells a story of

and a privilege to create gifts that have

We act as trusted experts and guides,

with the recipient.

that are thoughtful, distinctive and

the heart of this service, offering expert

- give us a global perspective few can

editions and pre-launches, and the ability

craftsmanship, artistry and innovation,

single detail. It’s a constant evolution

taste, integrity and imagination.

meaning and leave a lasting impression

helping our clients make inspired choices

CORPORATE SERVICE

beautifully executed. Every detail - from

retail, and this heritage means we’re

service, is done with thoughtfulness and

can be. Today, that means embracing

our signature wrapping to the level of care.

“AT HARRODS, WE ARE THE CURATORS OF THE EXTRAORDINARY.” Harrods is also a stage, a living

constantly reimagining what gifting innovation, personalisation and

sustainability because true luxury must

“IN A WORLD WHERE SO MANY INTERACTIONS NOW

also be responsible.

HAPPEN THROUGH

In your experience, what role does

A SCREEN, THE

thoughtful gifting play in strengthening professional relationships – and can it

still stand out in an increasingly digital

POWER OF A TANGIBLE GESTURE

and remote world of work?

HAS NEVER BEEN

of discovery. The same theatricality and

In a world where so many interactions

GREATER.”

store infuses the experience of our

of a tangible gesture has never been

performance that celebrates the wonder magic that defines our Knightsbridge corporate service.

now happen through a screen, the power greater. A well-chosen gift can bridge

Our difference lies in the depth of

physical distance, creating a moment of

experience of over 175 years in luxury

heartfelt.

our offering. We’re lucky to have the

connection that feels human and even

For remote and hybrid teams, these

gestures are touchpoints of belonging -

reminders that they are seen, valued and part of something meaningful. When done with sincerity and imagination, gifting becomes a language of www.finito.org.uk

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CORPORATE SERVICE

appreciation that transcends formality

will exceed expectations. In doing so,

moment such as dining, wellbeing or

You’ve spoken before about how

Looking ahead, how do you see

and integrity.

especially during busy seasons.

to meet the demands of the next

and resonates on a deeply personal level. your team supports PAs and EAs, What have you learned about how

professionals thrive under pressure – and how do you see your work empowering them?

we hope we help them to shine.

discovery, the focus is on thoughtfulness

Harrods Corporate Service adapting

“FOR GEN Z,

generation of clients and employees

LUXURY IS NOT

– especially Gen Z professionals

DEFINED BY

ethics and experience over traditional

EXCESS BUT BY

who often prioritise personalisation,

PAs and EAs are the unsung heroes

luxury?

extraordinary pace, orchestrating

approach luxury through a new

MEANING.”

of corporate life — multitasking at

The next generation of professionals

countless details and always striving

lens - one that prizes authenticity,

we are leading responsibly — from

Z, luxury is not defined by excess but

design to empowering our people and

craftsmanship and ethical provenance;

Managing Director, says, “True luxury

By curating bespoke gifting

company’s brand and values, we give

quiet luxury - gifts that celebrate

from what Harrods stands for but

it’s a beautifully crafted Moleskine for

believed that anything is possible; now,

Our sustainability commitments ensure

sustainability and experience. For Gen

responsible sourcing and circular

by meaning. They seek personalisation,

communities. As Michael Ward, our

they value brands that share their

must not only be beautiful and timeless

principles and purpose.

but responsible and sustainable.”

programmes that are reflective of each

We’re seeing a growing interest in

For us, this evolution isn’t a departure

them the confidence to deliver with

simplicity, skill and longevity. Whether

a continuation of it. We’ve always

for perfection. At Harrods Corporate

Service, our role is to make their lives

easier, to be the steady hand behind the scenes that ensures everything unfolds flawlessly.

pride. When they present Harrods to

their teams or clients, they know every element - from concept to wrapping 80

journaling, a piece of timeless travel design or an experiential Harrods

we’re ensuring that everything we do is purposeful, too.

CORPORATE SERVICE

www.finito.org.uk

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WORKPLACE

THE CHRISTMAS JOB RUSH

WHEN BRITAIN GOES SEASONAL A LOOK AT HOW THE FESTIVE SEASON TRANSFORMS THE UK JOBS MARKET, FOR BETTER AND WORSE

C

hristmas is coming, and with it arrives the annual ritual of

seasonal employment that reveals more about Britain's economic health than most government statistics. While

families argue over who's cooking the

turkey, employers across the country are making their own festive calculations: how many temporary workers do they need to survive the December rush?

The numbers tell an interesting story.

In 2024, on job site Adzuna alone,

around 23,000 Christmas jobs were

advertised across retail, hospitality, trade

and construction – a modest recovery to

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pre-pandemic levels, though employers

chains like Young's and Greene King,

the majority return to the job hunt come

a careful dance between meeting seasonal

are bracing for higher costs and potential

necessarily security.

remain notably cautious about hiring. It's demand and avoiding the commitments that come with permanent staff.

according to the FT, but the same venues closures.

January, having gained experience but not

“THE FESTIVE RUSH MAY CUSHION THE BLOW, BUT STRUCTURAL FRAGILITY REMAINS.”

The Regional Reality Check

announcing their recruitment of 20,000

"The festive rush may cushion the blow,

VIP events create short-term hiring spurts

corporate optimism that seasonal workers

industry analysis. It’s a melancholy

The Hospitality Surge "Joining us during this busy time is

a fantastic opportunity to meet great

people and acquire skills that will stay

with you long after the festive season," says a Sainsbury's spokesperson,

Christmas workers. It's the kind of

either embrace or learn to translate.

but structural fragility remains," notes

thought, and unfortunately backed up by

The statistics are compelling. The British

the data. About 1,200 pubs could shut

cent surge in staffing demand during the

potentially their last hurrah.

baristas, kitchen hands and event support

around 23 per cent of seasonal workers

Hospitality Association projects a 30 per

next year, making this Christmas season

festive season, particularly for waitstaff,

What's particularly revealing is that

roles. For many establishments, it's

earn permanent job offers based on

make-or-break time. Christmas bookings are up 9-30 per cent for major pub

performance, according to Institute for Employment Studies data. That means

The contrast between different parts of

the UK is stark. While London postings overall dropped about 20 per cent yearon-year in areas like Birmingham and inner-city London, flagship locations

like Bond Street still see concentrated

demand. Holiday window launches and even as the broader market contracts.

Meanwhile, in Cornwall – where

tourism supports about one in five jobs and overall economic output remains well below the national average – the Christmas surge plays a vital role in

communities otherwise starved of yearround opportunity. Here, seasonal work

at attractions, accommodation and food producers isn't just extra income; it's economic lifeline.

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WORKPLACE

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“FOR REGIONS WITH LIMITED YEAR-ROUND OPPORTUNITY, THE CHRISTMAS RUSH REMAINS LIFEBLOOD. IT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COMMUNITIES SURVIVING THE WINTER OR NOT.” A tourism industry insider explains:

“For regions with limited year-round

opportunity, the Christmas rush remains lifeblood. It's the difference between

communities surviving the winter or not.”

The Job Seeker's Perspective Despite postings lagging behind 84

demand, job seeker interest in Christmas roles remains remarkably strong. Indeed data shows searches for holiday jobs rising as a share of all job searches –

from 0.7 per cent, up 24 per cent on

the previous year – suggesting many are turning to seasonal work amid cost-ofliving pressures.

“People are more interested than ever in seasonal work,” notes Indeed's analysis,

The Legislative Challenge Enter Labour's Employment Rights Bill, which promises holiday pay, sick pay,

and unfair dismissal protections from

day one—even for zero-hours workers.

It's legislation designed to protect

workers, but critics warn it could make hiring temporary, flexible staff more burdensome.

work starts looking like a sensible option.

“PEOPLE ARE MORE INTERESTED THAN EVER IN SEASONAL WORK.”

The broader context is sobering: UK

Of course there’s a real danger here:

and are down 16.5 per cent year-on-

zero-hours seasonal roles altogether.

“as demand for those roles returns to

pre-pandemic norms.” It’s a polite way

of saying that when regular employment feels increasingly precarious, temporary

vacancies fell 7.2 per cent in Q2 2025 year, according to Office for National

Statistics data. The ratio of unemployed people per vacancy has risen from 2.0

to 2.3, indicating a looser labour market overall. In this environment, seasonal work becomes more competitive and more necessary.

that the new legislation could rule out Employers are likely to worry about legal complexity beyond Christmas peaks –

and many may shrink from hiring. Many businesses will take the view that due to the nature of temporary work, conflicts can arise between employers and their employees. The new legislation adds

WORKPLACE

another layer of complexity for businesses already operating on thin margins.

The Logistics Boom One clear winner in the seasonal

employment stakes is logistics. With

over 104,000 job postings in November alone – a 2 per cent month-on-month

rise – delivery and warehouse roles remain

vital as online orders spike. These positions

offer something that traditional retail often can't: predictable hours and less customer interaction.

In fact, it could be argued that the growth in e-commerce means logistics roles

are becoming the backbone of seasonal employment. While high street retail

struggles, warehouses and delivery services are expanding rapidly.

But strip away the corporate cheerleading and government statistics, and the picture becomes clearer. Seasonal employment in

2025 Britain is serving multiple functions: it's a pressure valve for unemployment,

a survival mechanism for struggling

businesses, and a reflection of an economy that's learned to manage uncertainty by making flexibility the default.

For workers, it offers something between opportunity and exploitation. Students

and those needing extra income can find

short-term earnings and potentially useful experience. But for those hoping seasonal work might lead somewhere permanent, the odds aren't encouraging.

Christmas jobs can offer you a chance to try something new, but realistic

expectations are essential. It's advice that could apply to much of modern employment.

Looking Ahead As 2025 progresses, seasonal employment remains what economists diplomatically call "a double-edged sword." It provides

The smart money suggests that those who succeed – whether job seekers or employers – will be those who use seasonal hiring strategically rather than desperately.

For individuals, that might mean treating Christmas work as skills development rather than just income. For businesses, it could mean using seasonal roles as genuine trial periods for permanent positions.

But the broader lesson is harder to ignore: in a job market where flexibility has become code for insecurity, seasonal work isn't just about Christmas anymore. It's becoming a permanent feature of how Britain works.

Whether that's liberating flexibility or structured precarity probably depends on which side of the employment equation you're on. But either way, come January,

necessary income and experience for many,

most of us will be back where we

of much full-time employment.

navigating uncertainty.

while highlighting the underlying fragility

started, just with a bit more experience

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WORKPLACE

THE CAREERS THAT COME ALIVE AT CHRISTMAS

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E

ach year, as December approaches, something extraordinary happens

in the world of work. While many

sectors wind down or shift focus, others suddenly find themselves at the very centre of the season. The Christmas

period is not only a time of celebration

demanding, or more meaningful than

A recent survey found that 75 per cent of

roles, the festive period isn't a break – it’s

enough festive staff, and 65 per cent plan

at any other point in the year. In these showtime.

Here are 10 careers that truly come alive at Christmas:

businesses are concerned about recruiting to hire more than last Christmas. As one HR analyst put it: “Three‑quarters of

businesses are concerned about finding enough extra staff for Christmas.”

and reflection – it’s also a time of

1. Retail Managers & Sales Assistants

and emotional impact across a

break for retailers, and staffing levels

2. Delivery Drivers & Logistics

From the frontline of retail to the

employment in retail typically grows

E‑commerce and postal demand

reorders the rhythms of employment.

the year, with over 300,000 temporary

companies like Royal Mail, Amazon, and

intense labour, logistical coordination, surprising range of professions. intimacy of family care, Christmas

Some jobs become more visible, more 86

The Christmas period is make-or-

rise sharply to meet demand. Seasonal

Workers

by 15–20 per cent in the last quarter of

skyrocket in December. Major

holiday roles created across the UK.

Yodel collectively hire tens of thousands

WORKPLACE

of seasonal delivery staff to keep up.

expect over 800 people to call for

Job postings for delivery drivers often

support on the day itself,” a clear

November. As one industry observer

responsibility the season brings.

rise by over 100% between October and

sign of the emotional intensity and

put it: “Delivery driver role postings

rose 101 per cent between October and

November,” highlighting how urgent the need becomes during peak season.

3. Hospitality & Event Staff

9. Charity Workers, Fundraisers & Volunteers

Christmas is the most generous time of

the year – but also the time when need is highest. Fundraising peaks in December,

6. Visual Merchandisers & Set

and food banks, shelters, and helplines

Christmas windows, immersive grotto

Volunteer rates go up by 50 per cent

flair – and fast hands. Temporary roles

charities report a 35 per cent increase in

Designers

scenes, and festive décor call for creative

Hotels, restaurants, bars, and events all

like “Christmas Tree Decorator” or

the run-up to Christmas, hospitality job

and £18 per hour.

a single month.

on eye-catching visuals. One retailer

see record usage.

during the festive period, yet some

demand compared to other seasons. One

fill up fast during the holiday period. In

“Grotto Designer” often pay between £12

postings typically exceed 90,000 roles in

The festive experience economy depends

One recruiter notes: “Hospitality and

noted that roles such as “Reindeer

vacancies in November alone,” showing

become available exclusively in

Few roles say “Christmas” like donning

reinforcements to serve Christmas

commerce in this short, busy season.

and support staff are hired by shopping

catering roles posted over 93,000

Handler and Christmas Tree Decorator

how the industry depends on seasonal

December,” showing how creativity meets

parties and New Year’s crowds.

7. Toy Designers & Product 4. Musicians & Choir Performers

Developers

Christmas concerts, carol services, and

While product development is a year-

throughout December. Musicians often

goes live. Toy retailers and manufacturers

and emotionally rewarding periods of

staff, testers, and packagers to meet final

festive performances are in full swing

round job, December is when everything

report this as one of the most lucrative

often need last-minute promotional

the year.

demand.

A volunteer for a Christmas Day charity

Retailers have been known to pay

can underestimate how valuable giving

time roles, especially in high-demand

service summed up the ethos well: “We our time is.” Whether performing professionally or in a community

setting, music becomes essential to the atmosphere of the season.

5. Clergy & Religious Leaders For religious leaders, Christmas is not a

holiday – it’s their high season. Midnight Masses, nativity plays, community vigils, and increased pastoral support mean round-the-clock work.

As one chaplain noted during a

Christmas Day outreach event: “We

seasonal staff up to £480 a week for fullsectors like toys, books, and electronics.

organiser put it simply: “Volunteer needs increase by 35 percent as winter arrives.”

10. Santa Claus Actors & Grotto Teams

the red suit. Professional Santas, elves, centres, attractions, and private events across the country.

These are short-term, immersive jobs

that come with real emotional weight

for children and families. One casting agency noted: “Roles like Santa,

Reindeer Handler, or Grotto Host

appear exclusively for the December

run,” showing how this niche industry becomes vital during the holidays.

So what does this all tell us?

That work doesn't stop for Christmas – in many ways, it starts to mean

8. Actors & Pantomime Performers

more. These roles show how the festive

Christmas pantomimes and seasonal

season is powered by a wide variety of

bring with them a surge in performance

full view, or deep in service. For some,

builders and backstage crews, the entire

about compassion. For many, it’s about

shows are a beloved tradition, and they

people working behind the scenes, in

roles. From actors and dancers to set

it’s about commerce. For others, it’s

ecosystem springs to life in December.

connection.

With nightly performances and full

At Christmas, the labour force doesn’t

depend on this season to make a large

delivers joy, memory, and meaning. And

houses, many freelance performers

just deliver products and services – it

portion of their annual income.

that’s work worth celebrating. www.finito.org.uk

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EDTECH

REDESIGNING BRITISH EDUCATION FOR A DIGITAL AGE

BY MARTIN HOSZOWSKI

Photo by stockcake.com

T

echnology is advancing faster than education can adapt.

While policymakers in Westminster

debate curriculum hours and grading scales, a quiet digital revolution is

reshaping Europe’s classrooms. From

Helsinki to Tallinn, schools across the continent are building systems fit for

the century we live in: digitally fluent, inclusive, and adaptable.

The question is not whether Britain can match these reforms, but whether it dares to do so.

to a printed worksheet. The problem

isn’t a lack of enthusiasm; it’s a lack of infrastructure.

For years, ‘Digital Britain’ promised to

deliver a ‘Universal Service’ - broadband access for everyone, everywhere. Yet, by

late 2023, Ofcom reported that gigabitcapable networks reached most UK

premises, but real-world performance remained uneven. Median broadband

patchy and inconsistent, not much will change.

'WE HAVE A 21ST-CENTURY AMBITION CONSTRAINED BY 20TH-CENTURY

speeds of approximately 85 Mbps still

INFRASTRUCTURE

peers such as the Netherlands

AND A 19TH-

lagged behind those of key European (approximately 178 Mbps), Portugal

CENTURY

(approximately 133 Mbps).

OBSESSION WITH

Picture a secondary school in northern

When classrooms depend on fragile

TERMINAL EXAMS.'

the cloud tools buffer, and the Year

not an opportunity.

preparing an interactive lesson, reverts

delivery model that left our broadband

A system at a crossroads

(approximately 150 Mbps) and Poland

England. The connection flickers,

connections, innovation becomes a risk,

10 teacher, who spent the weekend

If we fix education with the same

88

The gravity of assessment Every British headteacher understands

EDTECH

the phrase 'assessment gravity', the unseen pull of GCSEs that shapes every decision in the system.

Timetables, curriculum choices, and

even well-being policies orbit around

a handful of high-stakes papers taken at sixteen. It is a model that rewards discipline but punishes risk.

Across Europe, the centre of gravity is shifting.

In Ireland, the Junior Cycle Profile of

Achievement complements final exams with Classroom-Based Assessments

and an Assessment Task worth 10 per

cent of the exam grade (in subjects such as history), which recognises progress

over time as well as exam performance.

In Portugal, university application

scores typically combine national exam results with overall school grades,

often in a 50:50 ratio, rewarding both consistency and exam success.

In Estonia, teacher autonomy is

closely tied to national trust, as digital portfolios, moderated projects, and

cross-disciplinary tasks have become

integral to the mainstream educational approach.

None of these systems is perfect, but all

distribute risk more fairly. They measure learning as a journey, not an event.

Inclusion by design, not adjustment A system’s quality is revealed by how it treats its most vulnerable learners.

Britain’s Equality Act rightly protects students with disabilities through

'reasonable adjustments'. Yet it remains that reactive support arrives only when requested.

Across the European Union, the principle is different.

The European Accessibility Act

(Directive 2019/882), which comes fully into force in June 2025, sets

Freepik

binding accessibility requirements for

'THE

including e-books and learning

PHILOSOPHICAL

many digital products and services, platforms. Through public-sector

GAP IS CLEAR:

301 549, it also applies to the learning

REASONABLE

procurement standards, such as EN

platforms used in schools. Captioning, contrast tools, and screen-reader

compatibility become defaults rather

ADJUSTMENTS TREAT

than add-ons.

INCLUSION AS A

This isn’t bureaucracy; it’s strategy. A

COMPLIANCE TASK;

a child learning English, and a pupil

ACCESSIBILITY-BY-

captioned video helps a deaf student, revising on a noisy bus. Universal

DESIGN TREATS IT

everyone.

AS INNOVATION.'

design improves the experience for

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EDTECH

Technology, trust and the pace of change The UK has the ambition to be an

edtech superpower, but ambition without delivery is noise.

Estonia offers a counterpoint: a nation that treats connectivity as public

infrastructure, incorporates digital

literacy into teacher training and remains steadfast in its long-term plan. Its latest

‘AI Leap’ programme trains educators to

use adaptive learning tools, not fear them.

Europe’s strategic advantage is also financial - coordinated, multi-year

investments, such as the European Social Fund+, create stable environments for

innovation. This stability enables schools, governments, and technology partners

to collaborate towards shared outcomes rather than focusing on short-term funding cycles.

In Poland, for example, the government’s long-term digital-competence strategy spans the entire education system,

from early years to adult learning. By

combining EU frameworks with national reform, countries such as Poland and Lithuania are showing how smaller

systems can move quickly and decisively.

headlines, but small, well-designed pilots

time to adapt and grow. A national

ministerial plan will not decide the future

for professional development in digital

change systems. Another review or

of British education; it will be built by

schools trusted to test, adapt, and share what works.

entitlement of around 30 hours per year pedagogy and inclusive practice, similar

to the CPD frameworks in Estonia and the Netherlands, would have a greater

Change should begin where it is safest

impact on long-term capacity than

- regional clusters of primary and

in teachers is the single most effective

flexible timetables, blended assessment,

Across much of Europe, targeted

to innovate within Educational Zones

another short-term initiative. Investment

secondary schools supported to trial

investment in reform.

and digital-first teaching without fear of punitive inspection. Evidence from

pilot regions in Finland, Portugal, and Scotland indicates that autonomy,

when combined with accountability,

fosters sustained improvement in pupil outcomes and staff confidence.

Yet freedom must be matched by

reliability. Connectivity should be

treated as essential infrastructure, not an optional upgrade. Every school should

have a measurable digital baseline with symmetrical upload and download

speeds, low latency, rapid repair times, and transparent service reporting.

According to Ofcom (2023) and the

Department for Education’s Technology in Schools Survey (2022-23), over half

of UK primary school leaders and nearly

public funding tied to measurable

outcomes has helped drive educational innovation while maintaining a focus on equity and social justice. Where

policy, funding, and purpose are aligned from Brussels’ strategic frameworks

to national initiatives in Finland and

Poland, progress tends to be steady and sustainable. It is a model of strategic

patience that Britain could study with

interest, particularly as the UK no longer benefits from EU structural funds that once co-financed digital infrastructure and skills projects in schools.

Procurement must also evolve. Schools should not adopt technology because

it is new, but because it demonstrably

improves accessibility, interoperability

and learning outcomes. Public spending

Contrast that with the British pattern of

half of secondary leaders cite unreliable

retreat - bursts of innovation that rarely

barrier to digital learning. When

standards and inclusive design, rather

disrupted, and innovation stalls before it

Ultimately, inclusion must become a

Assessment, too, requires recalibration.

often-overlooked sectors, including

monolithic. A modest share of marks,

small rural schools, and hospital-home

moderated project work or sustained

compliant devices, reliable connectivity,

and aspects of Portugal’s continuous

those at the margins are fully included,

If we want classrooms that match

skills modern workplaces value most:

None of this is radical; it is pragmatic.

from declarations to disciplined

critical thinking.

should drive the adoption of open

short pilots followed by headlines and

Wi-Fi or broadband as a significant

survive beyond the news cycle.

connections fail, continuity of learning is

than vendor lock-in or fleeting trends.

can begin.

structural, not situational, reality. The

Our challenge is not capacity but

continuity. True transformation doesn’t

come from another round of strategies; it comes from setting clear service

standards and meeting them relentlessly,

just as we once built railways, telephones and the NHS.

What needs to change

GCSEs should remain rigorous but not

SEND provision, alternative education,

perhaps 10 to 15 per cent, could reward

learners, require ring-fenced funding for

enquiry, similar to Ireland’s Junior Cycle

and accessible digital content. When

assessment. This would recognise the

the entire system benefits.

our rhetoric, reform must move

collaboration, research, creativity, and

experimentation. Major reforms make

Teachers must also be given the

90

But sustained pragmatism, applied

consistently, is what turns ambition into progress.

EDTECH

Unsplash

Leadership that delivers Change in education rarely begins with

to distinguish fact from fabrication and truth from noise.

policy papers. It starts when people build,

At 21C, we have seen what’s possible

one teacher, one connected classroom

Working with schools and governments

the small things brilliantly: maintaining

principles into practice, our work, from

assessments and designing solutions that

SEND-ready content, is founded on a

test, and prove what works, one lesson,

when innovation and inclusion align.

at a time. Progress comes from doing

across the UK and Europe to turn these

consistent connectivity, providing fair

adaptive teaching tools to fully localised,

include everyone.

single belief: that technology should not

Britain already has the ingenuity, the

divide education, but democratise it.

creatively, critically, and responsibly.

For me, that starts with reflection. I’ve learned that meaningful change in

education begins when leaders continue to learn, a belief reinforced by my work and ongoing study through initiatives

such as ‘Teaching with Purpose’, powered

by Harvard Business Impact. Growth, after all, is the first act of leadership.

That is what a digital-first nation looks like: one that treats technology not as a threat to

teachers and the will. What it needs

It’s often said that some things will never

measurable outcomes. But ingenuity

change the work, not just the language.

We cannot grow teachers on trees, and

be written not in strategy papers, but in

ARGUMENT AND

rather than distracts; where reliable

STARTS BEING A

now is the discipline to turn vision into

change. But they can when we decide to

alone will not solve the challenge ahead.

The next chapter of British education will

even if we could, adding more people

classrooms where technology empowers

to a system running on outdated tools

would not solve the problem. A hospital cannot deliver twenty-first-century

care with Victorian-era equipment;

education, too, needs modern tools, data, and applications that enable teachers

to perform at their full potential. True progress lies in giving educators the

tools, training and confidence to work with intelligent systems, not against

them. In an era shaped by generative AI,

knowledge alone is no longer enough; the essential skill is discernment - the ability

internet access and equal opportunity mean every pupil can participate.

Our challenge isn’t that young people

control, but as a language to master.

‘WHEN EDUCATION STOPS BEING AN

STRATEGY - THE RESULTS CAN BE

misuse technology, but that we fear

ASTONISHING.’

Too often, we try to ban what we don’t

It’s time to move from potential to

future were to turn off the light because

Martin Hoszowski is the CEO of 21C, a

has never come from fear. The task before

powered teaching and learning platforms for

it - and, in doing so, fail to teach it.

understand, as though the answer to the

purpose - and this time, to mean it.

electricity can be dangerous. But progress

UK-based company that develops AI-

us is to teach wisdom, not avoidance: to

guide young people in using technology

schools in the UK and Europe. Learn more at www.21c.digital.

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DESIGN

THE ART OF SOURCING FINE CHINA AND GLASS AT DESIGN CENTRE, CHELSEA HARBOUR

Vista Alegre, Amazonia, Vista Lifestyle

D

esign Centre, Chelsea is home to 130+ showrooms and more

than 600 international brands. It is the largest of its kind in Europe; a

destination synonymous with luxury interiors and creative excellence. At it's heart lies a hidden gem that is

quietly transforming the way we shop for tableware: Source at Personal

Shopping. Situated on the second floor of Design Centre East, this dedicated suite is a curated haven for china,

glass, silverware, linens and decorative 92

ceramics, offering a bespoke experience

Moser sparkles alongside silverware by

contemporary flair.

from Gayle Warwick and Loretta Caponi

that blends heritage craftsmanship with

Buccellati and Sambonet, while linens

With over 40 exceptional brands

add a tactile layer of luxury to any setting.

is a celebration of artistry and refinement.

the breadth of its offering, but the

represented, Source at Personal Shopping

What sets Source apart is not just

From the delicate porcelain of Raynaud

personalised service that accompanies it.

and the timeless elegance of Meissen to

the bold modernity of Richard Brendon and the whimsical charm of Jo Deakin, the collection spans centuries of design tradition and innovation. Glassware

from Lalique, Cumbria Crystal, and

The complimentary Personal Shopping service is tailored to both seasoned

designers and enthusiastic homemakers, providing expert guidance through the myriad of choices available. Whether

you're sourcing for a grand dining room

DESIGN

Cristallerie Montbronn

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DESIGN

or selecting a gift with a personal touch,

the team is on hand to help you navigate styles, colours, and finishes with ease.

Personalisation is a cornerstone of the experience. Clients can select trims,

colours and even commission bespoke pieces that reflect their interiors and

tastes. This is particularly appealing for those seeking to create a cohesive look across their home or to mark a special

occasion with something truly unique.

The service also caters to professional designers working on residential or

hospitality projects, offering insider

access to rare finds and emerging talent.

During the Design Centre’s seasonal interiors shows - London Design

Week (March), and Focus on Design

(September) - visitors were invited to take part in the much-loved Fantasy Dinner Party Design Masterclasses.

These immersive sessions offered a rare opportunity to learn from renowned designers such as Studio Vero and

Victoria Davar of Maison Artefact.

In one memorable session, legendary

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dinner party of his dreams. Drawing on his celebrated work, he demonstrated stylish ways to dress the table by layering china and glassware, and revealed the secret

ingredients to hosting a night to remember.

Beyond tableware, Source at Personal

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To explore the collections or book a consultation, visit dcch.co.uk/personal-shopping.

94

JL Coquet, Song Ocre, Lifestyle

DESIGN

Vista Alegre, Amazonia, Lifestyle

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SUSTAINABILITY

THE FLOWING FUTURE WHAT THE RIVER WYE LAWSUIT MEANS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE GREEN ECONOMY

The River Wye (Alamy)

T

he River Wye has long been a symbol of natural beauty – a place

of peace, leisure, and the good life. Now, it has become a symbol of something else: a reckoning. With nearly 4,000

people joining the UK’s largest-ever

environmental lawsuit against poultry

processors and a water utility, the story is no longer just about pollution. It’s about the kind of economy the next generation will inherit, and the skills they’ll need to fix it.

renewable energy economy supported

the poultry industry employs around

But the UK Climate Change Committee

over £200 million annually across

247,000 full-time equivalent jobs in 2023. has said that to reach net zero by 2050, that number must triple by 2035.

“FROM ENGINEERING TO FINANCE, LAW TO LOGISTICS, NEARLY EVERY INDUSTRY IS BEING RESHAPED

BY SUSTAINABILITY

A Generational Crisis

GOALS AND

Environmental degradation is no longer

REGULATORY

a remote concern for young people. It is

shaping the job market they are entering.

According to the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS), the low-carbon and 96

PRESSURE.” Meanwhile, traditional rural sectors face mounting pressure. In the Wye Valley,

1,500 people, while tourism contributes Herefordshire and Monmouthshire. But Cardiff University found that pollution

in the Wye has already reduced regional tourism income by £73 million since

2018, with further losses predicted if ecological degradation continues.

Across the UK, water pollution alone is

estimated to cost the economy over £1.3 billion a year through lost biodiversity,

agricultural productivity, and tourism. For local businesses and workers, the risks are real — and growing.

A New Kind of Employability This case signals a clear shift:

environmental literacy is now a core

skill. From engineering to finance, law to

SUSTAINABILITY

logistics, nearly every industry is being reshaped by sustainability goals and regulatory pressure.

“WHEN RIVERS ARE POISONED, THAT ISN’T JUST AN ECOLOGICAL TRAGEDY — IT’S AN EMPLOYABILITY CRISIS.” According to LinkedIn’s 2025 Green Jobs Report, the number of UK job

Freepik

postings requiring environmental

green transition, according to a 2024 CBI

For young people starting out, the

overall labour market last year. Roles in

pathways for young people into fields like

shape industries. Environmental and

skills grew 23 percent faster than the

sustainability consulting, environmental law, waste reduction, biodiversity

monitoring, and green finance are all seeing steady demand.

It’s not just about working in the green economy — it’s about greening the economy we already have.

Lessons for Employers and Educators The River Wye lawsuit also reveals

the fragility of trust in corporate and

survey. Bridging that gap means creating environmental engineering, agroecology, data-driven pollution analysis, and sustainable agriculture.

Toward a Skills Revolution Government policy is starting to shift.

The Department for Education’s 2024 Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy calls for green skills to be

embedded in all post-16 pathways by

2027. However, delivery remains uneven, particularly in rural areas.

challenge is not just to find jobs, but to ethical responsibility will be a standard

expectation for employers in the coming years — not a niche priority.

The good news is that this shift opens up

new kinds of work. Whether it’s restoring ecosystems, developing sustainable

packaging, rethinking farming methods, or enforcing environmental law, the

green transition offers the chance for

meaningful employment at every level — from vocational careers to research roles.

The bad news is that we’ve waited too long to make this mainstream.

institutional stewardship. The case brings

Apprenticeships and work placements

entire communities — from guest house

sectors remain undersubscribed. In

is this: short-term growth without

— who rely on a functioning natural

people started apprenticeships in land,

destructive — it is unsustainable in the

— compared to over 100,000 in business

“A GREEN ECONOMY IS NO LONGER AN ASPIRATION. IT IS AN IMPERATIVE.”

in environmental and conservation

If there is a lesson from the Wye, it

owners to outdoor education leaders

England in 2023, fewer than 4,000 young

environmental governance is not only

environment.

agriculture or environmental industries

most literal, economic sense.

together not only individual claimants but

In Herefordshire alone, outdoor recreation supports over 6,000 jobs. Meanwhile,

across the UK, the natural environment

is estimated to underpin one in 10 jobs,

either directly or indirectly. When rivers

administration and retail. That imbalance

will need to be addressed if the workforce is to meet future needs.

tragedy — it’s an employability crisis.

A Moral and Practical Awakening

This is where training and education must

Ultimately, the River Wye case is about

currently feel their workforce is “very well

kind of economy we want to build — and

are poisoned, that isn’t just an ecological

step in. Only 19 percent of employers

equipped” to respond to the demands of a

more than water quality. It is about what who we expect to do the building.

A green economy is no longer an

aspiration. It is an imperative. And for

the next generation, the future of work

will be defined by whether we treat cases like this as isolated tragedies — or a turning point.

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Source at Personal Shopping, Second Floor, Design Centre East, Chelsea Harbour, Lots Road, London SW10 0XF

Scan to find out more

98

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www.finito.org.uk

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CULTURE The lighter side of employability 132 | ICE KINGDOM:

Careers in the snow

Alamy Martin Amis (Alamy.com)

100

Alam y

110 MARIAH IN THE HIGHEST What’s the best Christmas song?

Wiki

pe d ia. or g

116 IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE Capra’s masterpiece

Wiki

pe d ia. or g

122 SCROOGENESS How Charles Dickens invented Christmas

ARCHITECTURE Alamy

St Paul's Cathedral (Unsplash.com)

102

ARCHITECTURE

CATHEDRALS AT CHRISTMAS WHAT THE GREAT BUILDINGS SAY ABOUT WORK, REST AND TIME ITSELF

BY GEORGE ACHEBE

I

n our current moment, there is an increasing suspicion that meaningful

work isn't really possible at all. If we ask why this might be, we can alight on management consultancy and

productivity culture as explanations –

and the now that cathedrals whisper

to serve their original purpose seven

about the work we do –and how pitifully

average office building, designed for

to us something profoundly subversive little of it we truly finish.

but only partially. It is no coincidence

Patient Capital

become increasingly atomised and

of the Fens." Its octagonal lantern tower

that at the same time that work has

Take Ely Cathedral, known as the "Ship

measured, we have lost our capacity

– a masterpiece of medieval engineering

to imagine labour that transcends the

immediate, the profitable, the trackable.

Yet every December, something

remarkable happens. Cities across Britain and Europe experience a quiet alchemy

as cathedrals – those ancient monuments to impossible ambition – step gently into

the limelight. Whether you're in Durham or Ely, Salisbury or St Paul's, the

that modern architects still struggle to

comprehend – was begun in 1322 after the collapse of the original Norman

tower. The men who started this project would have been dead for decades

before the first light filtered through its completed windows. This was labour

offered upwards, not outcomes measured downwards.

Christmas season belongs to these old

One might legitimately ask: what kind

backdrop, cathedrals offer a devastating

monuments? The answer is troubling for

buildings. But more than just a seasonal critique of contemporary work culture,

one that becomes particularly acute when contrasted with our modern Christmas frenzy of deliverables and deadlines.

This is the paradox of the cathedral at

Christmas: they feel timeless, but they're

of economic system produces such

anyone wedded to quarterly reporting

cycles. Cathedral construction operated

on what we might call "sacred time" – a

temporal framework that made patience not just a virtue but a fundamental

requirement. The stained glass in York

really time machines. They were built

Minster took generations to complete,

they'd never see the finished product.

apprentice across lifespans. Durham's

of the most time-sensitive events in the

experimental architecture conducted at

and Carols. The final descent into the

And here's the thing – they're still

morning. It's in this collision of eternity

Paul Joyce, Banana Study

over lifetimes, by labourers who knew

with techniques passed from master to

Yet at Christmas, cathedrals host some

revolutionary ribbed vaulting was

calendar. Midnight Mass. Nine Lessons

geological pace.

Gregorian crescendo of Christmas

standing. Not as museum pieces, but

as functioning buildings that continue

centuries later. Compare this to the

obsolescence within 30 years, and you

begin to see the critique embedded in every Gothic arch.

Within the world of project

management, cathedral construction

represents something close to heresy.

Modern business culture has taught us that time is money, that delay is waste, that everything must be optimised for speed and efficiency. But cathedral

builders understood something we've

forgotten: that the most enduring work is often the slowest work, and that true craftsmanship requires submission to rhythms that transcend human impatience.

The Visionary Paradox But here we encounter something troubling for our narrative of

collective, transgenerational labour:

the uncomfortable reality of individual

genius. Consider Abbot Suger of Saint-

Denis, whose revolutionary architectural vision in the 1140s essentially invented Gothic architecture and changed the trajectory of European building for

centuries. Suger wasn't a master mason

or an engineer. He was an administrator, a politician, even – by some accounts

– a social climber who had risen from peasant origins to become one of the most powerful men in France. Yet

his personal aesthetic obsession with www.finito.org.uk

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ARCHITECTURE

Salisbury Cathedral (Unsplash.com)

light –what he called "the wonderful

and uninterrupted light" – transformed how an entire civilisation thought

about sacred space. His innovations at

Saint-Denis, just outside Paris, created the template that would be copied at

Chartres, at Notre-Dame, at virtually every great Gothic cathedral that followed.

This presents a paradox that modern management theory struggles to

accommodate. On one hand, cathedral construction embodies everything we've celebrated about collective

work: multigenerational collaboration,

shared purpose, labour that transcends individual contribution. On the other

hand, the Gothic revolution began with one man's intensely personal vision of

what divine light should look like when filtered through stone and glass.

Suger's own writings reveal someone

who was simultaneously mystical and

pragmatic, a monk who understood both spiritual transcendence and political

power. He wrote extensively about his architectural innovations, describing

them not as practical solutions but as

theological arguments made in stone: "The dull mind rises to truth through

that which is material." His vision was

deeply individual, even idiosyncratic – yet 104

it required thousands of craftsmen across centuries to realise.

What makes Suger's story particularly unsettling for contemporary work culture is how it refuses our usual categories. We're comfortable with individual genius in creative industries, and we're comfortable with collective labour in manufacturing. But Suger represents something more complex: visionary leadership that acknowledges its own dependence on collaborative implementation, personal inspiration that can only be realised through communal effort spanning generations.

Perhaps this is what we've lost in our atomised work culture: not just the capacity for collective labour, but the ability to hold individual vision and collaborative realisation in productive tension. Suger couldn't have built SaintDenis alone – but without his particular obsession with light, the Gothic cathedral as we know it might never have existed.

The Liturgy of Labour Work and rest weren't always in mortal combat. In cathedral culture, particularly during Advent and Christmas, rest wasn't absence from work – it was a different kind of work entirely. The monks who

built and staffed these cathedrals were far from idle. Their days were governed by the Divine Office, a regimented series of prayers and chants from matins to compline that would make a modern productivity guru weep with envy.

But their Christmas celebrations – sometimes spanning 12 days or more – represented what the medievals called jubilatio, meaning to shout with joy. At Winchester Cathedral, one of the largest in Europe, the medieval

Christmas included elaborate liturgies, communal feasts and musical traditions that continue to this day. As historian Eamon Duffy observes, "In the medieval imagination, Christmas was a time when the boundaries between heaven and earth blurred – and work became worship."

“THE MOST ENDURING WORK IS OFTEN THE SLOWEST WORK, AND TRUE CRAFTSMANSHIP REQUIRES SUBMISSION TO RHYTHMS THAT TRANSCEND HUMAN IMPATIENCE.”

York Minster (unsplash.com)

ARCHITECTURE

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This is a concept almost impossible to

square with the inbox-zero mentality that defines December 2025. We've created a culture where Christmas becomes another project to manage, another

deadline to meet, another performance to optimise. The cathedral offers a

different model: work as devotion, labour as liturgy, rest as active participation in something larger than individual productivity.

Creative Collaboration We often think of Christmas as a time

to step away from work – but cathedrals remind us that some kinds of work

only happen in December, and that this seasonal labour reveals truths about

collaboration that modern management theory can barely comprehend.

Just ask the vergers at St Paul's

Cathedral, who must transform a space

designed for contemplation into a venue capable of hosting dozens of carol

services for thousands of worshippers. Or

consider the organists at Wells Cathedral, who spend months rehearsing intricate settings of Vaughan Williams and

Britten, their work invisible until that

moment when voice and stone unite in

perfect acoustics. Or the stonemasons at Lincoln Cathedral, still doing essential

restoration work every winter, 950 years

after construction began – their labour a continuation of conversations begun by medieval craftsmen whose names we'll never know.

"The work never really stops," says one

Lincoln archivist. "You're not preserving

location serves the remarkable dual

about sound that we're still discovering.

management as medieval theology: work

seat, so seasonal labour becomes

fog, their work invisible to Christmas

labour that serves purposes larger than

floors that have been walked by eight

At Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford

rehearse descants in acoustics designed

a monument – you're participating

in a living building." This is project

function of college chapel and diocesan

that transcends individual contribution,

particularly visible. Porters polish marble

personal advancement.

centuries of worshippers. Choristers

– one of my favourite buildings – the 106

by architects who understood something

Gardeners tend rose beds in December congregations but essential to the

cathedral's year-round beauty. There

are no performance reviews, no KPIs,

no productivity metrics. Yet somehow, miraculously, it works.

ARCHITECTURE

Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford (unsplash.com)

Cross-Functional Teams In our current business culture,

facilitation and carefully managed stakeholder alignment sessions.

specialisation has become synonymous

But cathedrals resist this logic entirely.

a UX designer, or a product manager.

don't just converge – they become

with expertise. You're a data analyst, or

They are places where disciplines

We've created professional identities

indistinguishable. Architecture serves

so narrow that cross-departmental collaboration requires dedicated

theology, which serves music, which serves community, which serves the

ineffable. To enter a cathedral is to walk into a space where collaboration isn't

a methodology implemented through

Slack channels and stand-up meetings – it's the fundamental condition of existence.

This becomes most evident at Salisbury Cathedral, home to Britain's tallest

spire and one of the most audacious www.finito.org.uk

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engineering projects of the medieval

period. The original builders, working

slightly and requires constant monitoring through digital laser surveys and a full-

without computer modelling or stress

time team of craftspeople whose skills

with hundreds of tons of stone and

conservation science.

analysis, simply filled the foundations

bridge medieval stonework and modern

gravel, hoping it would absorb the

The spire becomes, in this sense, a perfect

enormous vertical load. It worked – just – and the spire still stands, though it leans 108

metaphor for contemporary work:

elegant and inspiring above ground, but

stable only because of unglamorous, persistent, collaborative labour that most people never see.

Liturgical Rebellion In our age of managed Christmas experiences – corporate holiday parties

ARCHITECTURE

know about work, time, and value. At

Christmas, when this critique becomes most pointed, they help us remember

that not all labour must be measured in

productivity metrics, and not all rest must be earned through exhaustion.

“CATHEDRALS ARE THE ORIGINAL SLOW ARCHITECTURE, AND THEY OFFER A DEVASTATING CRITIQUE OF EVERYTHING WE THINK WE KNOW ABOUT WORK, TIME, AND VALUE.” Most subversively of all, they suggest that the ultimate rebellion against

contemporary work culture might not be finding better work-life balance or more

flexible schedules, but rediscovering work that serves purposes beyond the self –

work organized around what we might call sacred rather than secular time.

This December, as we rush to close out

another year of managed outcomes and optimised deliverables, the cathedrals stand as monuments to a different

possibility: that good work takes time,

that beautiful work requires collaboration across generations, and that the most Notre-Dame de Paris (unsplash.com)

enduring work of all might be the kind

that no one person ever finishes, but that

with carefully calibrated diversity and

to be managed, but as an interruption. A

somehow, miraculously, gets completed

begin in October, family gatherings

for wonder, for reflection, for the kind of

Perhaps that's the real Christmas

inclusion messaging, retail seasons that choreographed around travel logistics

and dietary restrictions – cathedrals offer something genuinely radical: Christmas as it was meant to be experienced.

Not as a deadline to be met or a project

pause in ordinary time that creates space

rest that isn't just absence from work but presence to mystery.

Cathedrals are the original slow

architecture, and they offer a devastating critique of everything we think we

anyway.

miracle – not that these impossible

buildings were ever completed, but that they continue to teach us, century after century, what work looks like when it

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CHRISTMAS PLAYLIST WHAT HOLIDAY SONGS REALLY SAY ABOUT WORK AND REST

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Mariah Carey (Alamy)

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very December, the same musical workforce clocks in for duty. Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" has sold over 50 million copies worldwide, making it not just the best-selling Christmas single but the best-selling single of all time.

Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" hit one billion Spotify streams, while Wham!'s "Last Christmas" achieved the same milestone.

These aren't just songs—they're annual revenue generators, artistic temp workers who show up reliably each winter to perform the same emotional labour.

Of course, it can sometimes be a little difficult to get excited about the same songs – especially as one hits middle age. And yet there is a sort of justice about the calendar whereby each year as 1st December rolls round I am ready to hear the Pogues again, ready for Noddy Holder’s gigantic shout of ‘It’s Christmas’ and prepared also to consider again the Band Aid single.

Over the years, I’ve begun to sense something a little more interesting beneath the clutch of favourites which make up our Christmas music playlist.

Beneath the sleigh bells and seasonal sentiment lies something more complex: a catalogue of attitudes toward work, rest, and the promise of temporary escape from ordinary life. Christmas songs, it turns out, are workplace psychology disguised as holiday cheer.

The Economics of Nostalgia The numbers tell a fascinating story about artistic longevity versus contemporary relevance. According to Nielsen data, just 35% of holiday songs played on radio in 2016 were recorded before 1990, suggesting that despite our attachment to "classics," the Christmas music economy is more dynamic than commonly believed. Yet the biggest earners remain songs that traffic in very specific fantasies about leisure and abundance.

Bing Crosby (Wikipedia.org)

"White Christmas" represents perhaps the ultimate work-avoidance anthem.

Irving Berlin's creation doesn't just dream of a white Christmas – it dreams of escape from wherever the singer currently finds themselves. The Christmases the singer used to know seem to predate all the little plans we make – to relocate real life in a realm before, and therefore beyond, ambition, at a time when the thought of being sidetracked by such things as mortgages and return on investment was plain absurd.

The song was written in Beverly Hills and first performed by Bing Crosby in the film "Holiday Inn," establishing a template that would endure: Christmas music as aspirational geography, promising a future which somehow contains the best bits of the past. Paul Simon called it the perfect song, and it’s difficult to disagree with that: its melody

feels sweet and elegiac but it also comes off an edgy chromatic scale – the syllables of the word Christmas are on the chord F sharp and G. But it never loses its casual looping smoothness and its ability to convince you that there might be the day when you open your curtains and everything you’d hoped for suddenly turns out to be the case.

The song's enduring appeal might be that it captures something essential about modern work: the feeling of being displaced, of longing for a "home" that exists more in memory than geography. For Berlin, a Russian Jewish immigrant, and for millions of listeners since, Christmas becomes shorthand for belonging somewhere you're not currently stuck.

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would be complete without examining the holiday's most prominent employer.

Santa Claus represents the ultimate seasonal business model: a massive global operation that employs elves year-round for a single night's delivery schedule. It's either inspiring entrepreneurship or a logistical nightmare, depending on your perspective.

“THESE AREN'T JUST SONGS—THEY'RE ANNUAL REVENUE GENERATORS, ARTISTIC TEMP WORKERS WHO SHOW UP RELIABLY EACH WINTER TO PERFORM THE SAME EMOTIONAL LABOUR.” At the risk of sounding suddenly like The Guardian, the traditional Santa narrative could be said to gloss over some uncomfortable workplace realities. The elves work for no apparent wages, living in company housing in conditions that would violate numerous employment laws. Santa himself operates as the kind of CEO who maintains personal oversight of every operation while somehow also serving as the primary delivery driver – a model that sounds suspiciously like modern gig economy thinking. He is a little like Jeff Bezos in his early Amazon days, only with much more hair.

Understandably, the songs about Santa generally avoid these labour questions, instead focusing on his magical efficiency.

But they reveal our ambivalence about work itself: we celebrate Santa's operation precisely because it appears to function without the friction, politics and inequality that characterise most actual workplaces.

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never relocates operations overseas, and somehow maintains employee loyalty despite offering no career advancement opportunities.

The Mariah Carey Industrial Complex Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" recently reached 1 billion streams, making it not just a song but a financial ecosystem.

It’s one of those songs whose melody sounds unrecognisable if you try to sing it yourself – it depends entirely on vocal acrobatics which it is definitely not a good idea to attempt by oneself at a piano.

What's particularly interesting about Carey's Christmas dominance is how the song functions as both labour and leisure. For Carey, it's become her most reliable income source – a single recording that generates millions annually with no additional effort required.

For listeners, the song promises the opposite: freedom from want, the reduction of desire to its simplest form.

The title itself is anti-materialist, anti-

commercial, positioning love as the alternative to the consumer frenzy that Christmas has become. Yet this anticommercial message has generated more commercial success than almost any other Christmas song. Carey has found a way not to have to work again – while seeming to tout the message that love is all she wants.

The irony would be perfect if it weren't so common. Modern Christmas music often protests against commercialisation while participating enthusiastically in it.

The songs that make the most money are frequently the ones that claim money doesn't matter – a contradiction that feels very contemporary. It’s also, for the unlucky majority who haven’t had a Christmas hit, who find we must somehow set aside a grand or so, while humming the tunes of multimillionaires for whom that’s a paltry amount of money.

On the other hand, we don’t really mind because someone has to write the songs, and it would be mad to suppose there’d be no reward for doing so.

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The Work-Life Balance Crisis

Christmas songs reveal a particular anxiety about leisure that speaks to modern workplace culture. Many classic holiday songs aren't really about Christmas – they're about the promise of time off.

"Silver Bells" celebrates city Christmas specifically because it represents a break from urban work routine. "Let It Snow" isn't about winter weather—it's about having an excuse to stay home from whatever you're supposed to be doing.

“CHRISTMAS MUSIC AS ASPIRATIONAL GEOGRAPHY, PROMISING A FUTURE WHICH SOMEHOW CONTAINS THE BEST BITS OF THE PAST.” This theme has intensified in recent decades as work-life boundaries have blurred. Contemporary Christmas songs increasingly focus on the difficulty of achieving the domestic harmony that older Christmas music took for granted. The challenge isn't just finding time for family – it's finding mental space for the kind of presence that Christmas is supposed to represent.

top 25 and 19 in the top 50 on recent Billboard Hot 100 charts, representing a fascinating example of seasonal productivity. These songs perform virtually no labour for 11 months of the year, then generate massive engagement and revenue in December – the ultimate example of seasonal employment.

For the music industry, Christmas songs represent the perfect product: content that audiences reliably consume annually with minimal marketing required. It's the artistic equivalent of subscription revenue, providing predictable income that subsidises riskier creative investments throughout the year.

But this reliability creates its own pressures. Musicians face the challenge of creating "new Christmas classics" that can compete with songs that have had decades to embed themselves in cultural memory. As economist Jadrian Wooten notes, this raises the question: "Why aren't musicians churning out new holiday tunes each year?" The answer reveals something about both artistic economics and cultural attachment:

breaking into the Christmas rotation requires not just a good song but a song that can compete with decades of nostalgic association. It’s difficult to think of a real Christmas classic over the past decade or so: perhaps those who could deliver it – one thinks of McCartney, or Elton John – have already more or less done it and so don’t need to do so again.

The Global Workplace Christmas

Social media analysis shows that "Last Christmas" remains popular even in markets like Czech Republic, suggesting that Christmas music has become part of a global emotional economy. Research data supports this widespread appeal: 32 percent of Americans say that listening to Christmas music is "great," with just eight percent calling Christmas songs "terrible". However, studies reveal regional variations in tolerance, with 17% of US shoppers and 25% of British shoppers "actively" disliking Christmas music when played in retail environments.

"Last Christmas" by Wham! exemplifies this shift. Rather than promising seasonal joy, it's explicitly about romantic and emotional labour that extends across calendar years. The song acknowledges that Christmas doesn't actually pause normal life – it just provides a backdrop for the same relationships, disappointments, and complications that exist all year. It's Christmas realism disguised as Christmas pop – and it made of George Michael a sort of modern patron saint of Christmas before he even died on Christmas Day – his solitude an image of real poignancy.

The Productivity Paradox

Holiday songs dominate streaming charts each December, with 13 in the

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These songs cross cultural and linguistic boundaries, creating shared seasonal experiences for workers worldwide. The psychological impact is measurable: workplace music research shows that 73% of warehouse workers were more productive when there was background music playing, and 65% of businesses thought music made them more productive. Yet Christmas music specifically can have the opposite effect when overplayed, with studies indicating that hearing Christmas songs too many times increases stress, and retail research finding that shoppers reported being over 20% less likely to shop at stores when Christmas music was playing.

But this globalisation reveals some interesting contradictions. Christmas music spreads workplace culture more effectively than workplace rights. Harvard Business Review research highlights how cultural differences and divergent expectations around workplace norms can be sources of friction for multinational companies, while employment law experts note that different cultures have unique expectations around work-life balance, management styles and career paths. The same companies that maintain different employment standards in different countries will play the same Christmas playlist in all their locations, creating the illusion of shared values while maintaining very different employment practices.

This disparity is particularly stark when considering global engagement metrics.

Global employee engagement fell to 21% in 2024, with lost productivity costing the global economy $438 billion, yet companies continue investing in uniform cultural symbols like seasonal music rather than addressing fundamental workplace inequality across their international operations. Employment law specialists observe that HR teams must navigate varying compensation, benefits, tax rates, and labour regulations, which may conflict with corporate policies, creating a system where the soundtrack remains consistent while the substance of worker experience varies dramatically by geography.

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The January Problem Perhaps the most telling aspect of Christmas music is what happens when it stops. The same songs that generate billions of streams in December become virtually unlistenable in January – not because they're bad songs, but because they've served their emotional function and now represent obligation rather than pleasure.

“CHRISTMAS SONGS ENDURE BECAUSE THEY OFFER WHAT MOST WORKPLACE CULTURE CANNOT: THE PROMISE OF TIME WHEN DIFFERENT VALUES MIGHT APPLY, WHEN EFFICIENCY AND PRODUCTIVITY TAKE SECOND PLACE TO CONNECTION AND CELEBRATION.” This seasonal cycle mirrors many workplace dynamics: the intense engagement followed by equally intense disengagement, the way activities that generate genuine enthusiasm can become oppressive through repetition and requirement. Christmas music embodies the modern work challenge of maintaining authentic engagement with activities that have been systematised and commercialised.

Not all Christmas music accepts its assigned emotional labour gracefully.

Songs like "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues or "Christmas Time Is Here"

by Vince Guaraldi offer different models: Christmas music that acknowledges complexity, disappointment, and the gap between seasonal aspiration and daily reality. The Pogues song is by far the

greatest – and I’ll never forget the joy of Shane McGowan’s funeral and the sense that it’s the only song to transcend the season: it’s still a great song in July.

These songs suggest alternative approaches to both holiday celebration and work culture: the possibility of engagement that doesn't require false enthusiasm, community that accommodates disagreement, and seasonal observance that doesn't demand uniform emotional response.

Christmas songs endure because they offer what most workplace culture cannot: the promise of time when different values might apply, when efficiency and productivity take second place to connection and celebration.

Music experts note what makes holiday hits timeless often relates to their ability to capture universal experiences of longing, belonging, and temporary escape from routine obligations. In a world where work increasingly colonises personal time and mental space, Christmas music provides a sanctioned break – even if that break has become another form of work.

The real insight might be that Christmas songs succeed not despite their contradictions but because of them.

They acknowledge what most workplace culture cannot: that the promise of balance between employment and leisure, obligation and joy, individual success and community belonging, remains mostly unfulfilled. They don't resolve these tensions – they just provide a seasonal soundtrack for living with them.

In the end, Christmas music functions like the holidays themselves: a systematic break from systematic thinking, a commercialised protest against commercialisation, a collective agreement to temporarily prioritise values that we struggle to maintain year-round.

Whether that makes it the ultimate workplace perk or the ultimate workplace manipulation probably depends on which side of the playlist you're on.

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George Michael (Alamy)

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THE WONDERFUL LIFE PARADOX WHY CAPRA'S CHRISTMAS MASTERPIECE REMAINS OUR GREATEST CAREER COUNSELLOR

BY CHRISTOPHER JACKSON

© 1946 Liberty Films/RKO Radio Pictures Inc.

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friend of mine has a ritual every Christmas Eve. As the rest of the family wrap last-minute presents and fuss over turkey preparations, he is for some reason permitted to disappear into the living room with a glass of something warming and settles into his armchair for what he calls "the Bailey appointment." For two hours and 11 minutes, he becomes completely unavailable, absorbed in Frank Capra's 1946 masterpiece "It's a Wonderful Life." When pressed about this seemingly selfish Christmas Eve abandonment, he will simply say, "This is the film – the one that makes the year make sense."

Years on since I first heard about this appointment, I vaguely imagine I keep to something like that ritual but I’m not sure I’m a tidy enough person to make it a definitely annual thing: let’s say instead that it’s part of my yearly Christmas reference point.

“THIS IS THE FILM – THE ONE THAT MAKES THE YEAR MAKE SENSE.” Besides, I have to understand what he means. George Bailey's journey from small-town dreams to suicidal despair to profound awakening isn't just cinema – it's the most sophisticated meditation on career, purpose, and the meaning of success ever committed to film. In an age where LinkedIn influencers peddle hollow optimism and career coaches promise six-figure transformations, Capra's 78-year-old film remains our most honest and useful guide to navigating the gap between ambition and reality, between what we thought we wanted and what we actually built.

Critical Consensus

The film's enduring power isn't mere nostalgia. In 2008, the American Film Institute acknowledged It's a Wonderful Life as the third-best film in the fantasy

genre, although I think it’s probably in many respects a far more realistic film than most people understand. Meanwhile Channel 4 airs the film to British viewers annually on Christmas Eve, treating it less as entertainment than as seasonal sacrament. Critics continue to marvel at how "Jimmy Stewart's central performance has lost absolutely none of its magic" nearly 80 years after its release.

Interestingly, a dip into the archives shows that the film's reputation wasn't always secure. Film critic Manny Farber, writing in The New Republic in 1947, complained that "To make his points, [Capra] always takes an easy, simple approach" – a critique that misses the sophisticated psychological territory the film actually explores. What Farber saw as simplicity, modern audiences recognise as surgical precision in dissecting the anatomy of middle-class disappointment and the subtle violence of unfulfilled dreams. It’s a reminder perhaps that for a certain kind of film critic, no film is quite good enough because nothing can quite fill the gap of not having made a film oneself.

Empire magazine captures something essential when it describes the film as "the kind of experience movies were invented for" – not because it offers easy answers, but because it asks the questions that matter most: What constitutes a successful life? How do we measure our impact on the world? And what happens when the gap between our dreams and our reality becomes unbearably wide?

The Bailey Trajectory

George Bailey's professional journey reads like a case study in how careers actually develop, as opposed to how career guidance suggests they should. At 18, he's full of plans: college, travel, architecture, building magnificent structures that will change the world. "I'm gonna do big things," he declares with the confidence that only comes from never having tried to do anything significant.

But life, as it tends to do, intervenes. His father's death chains him to the family's

Bailey Building & Loan – not through coercion, but through the more subtle pressure of responsibility and the needs of others. Each compromise feels reasonable in isolation: staying to help his brother Harry through college, postponing his own education, marrying Mary, taking over the business to prevent the rapacious Mr. Potter from swallowing the town whole.

“GEORGE BAILEY'S PROFESSIONAL JOURNEY READS LIKE A CASE STUDY IN HOW CAREERS ACTUALLY DEVELOP, AS OPPOSED TO HOW CAREER GUIDANCE SUGGESTS THEY SHOULD.” By middle age, George has become something he never intended: a smalltown savings and loan manager, married with children, living in a drafty old house, perpetually worried about money. From the outside, his trajectory looks like failure – a series of dreams deferred until they became dreams abandoned. Yet Capra's genius lies in revealing how this "failure" actually represents something more complex and ultimately more valuable.

The Potter Problem The film's lasting relevance lies partly in its prophetic understanding of how unchecked capitalism can hollow out communities. Mr. Potter, wonderfully played by Lionel Barrymore as a plutocrat who views human misery as investment opportunity, represents everything George could become if he prioritised personal wealth over social responsibility.

Potter's wealth is real – his success measurable in dollars and property holdings. But his prosperity depends on others' failure, his profits extracted from community desperation. The film suggests www.finito.org.uk

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George Bailey ( James Stewart), Mary Bailey (Donna Reed), and their youngest daughter Zuzu (Karolyn Grimes) (Wikipedia)

that some forms of success are actually sophisticated forms of parasitism, creating wealth by concentrating rather than generating it.

George's Building & Loan, by contrast, operates on what we might now call stakeholder capitalism – serving community needs while generating modest profits. His "failure" to accumulate significant personal wealth reflects his success at creating distributed prosperity.

When his depositors face foreclosure, George uses his honeymoon money to keep them afloat. When they need decent housing, he develops Bailey Park, trading potential profit for social impact.

This tension between individual advancement and collective welfare runs through every career decision we make.

The contemporary gig economy, with its promise of entrepreneurial freedom and its reality of economic precarity, represents the Potter model scaled to encompass 118

entire industries. George Bailey's approach – building institutions that serve broader purposes while providing personal meaning – offers an alternative framework that feels increasingly relevant.

The Clarence Intervention The film's supernatural element – Clarence the angel showing George what Bedford Falls would look like without him – functions as the ultimate thought experiment in professional impact assessment. Stripped of sentiment, this becomes a rigorous exercise in understanding how individual careers connect to broader social outcomes.

Without George, Bedford Falls becomes Pottersville – a town of rentals, nightclubs, and economic desperation. The Building & Loan never existed, so working families never achieved homeownership. Harry Bailey drowned as a child because George wasn't there to save him, meaning Harry couldn't later save a transport ship during

the war. Violet Bick, without George's loan and encouragement, turned to prostitution. Mr. Gower, the pharmacist, went to prison for accidentally poisoning a child because young George wasn't there to prevent the mistake.

This isn't sentimental fantasy – it's sophisticated systems thinking applied to career evaluation. As one contemporary critic notes, the film shows "how a person can forget all of the good in their life in a moment of despair", but more than that, it demonstrates how we systematically undervalue the indirect effects of our work and choices.

Modern career advice focuses obsessively on personal brand, individual achievement, and measurable outcomes. But most meaningful work operates through what economists call positive externalities – benefits that ripple outward beyond immediate transactions. George Bailey's career generated enormous positive

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externalities: stable housing for working families, preserved community character, economic opportunity for local businesses, and countless small interventions that prevented larger disasters.

The Measurement Problem Clarence's final message to George – "No man is a failure who has friends" –initially sounds like greeting card philosophy.

But examined more closely, it reveals sophisticated thinking about how to evaluate professional and personal success.

“GEORGE'S 'NET WORTH' IN TRADITIONAL TERMS WAS MINIMAL, BUT HIS ACTUAL IMPACT – MEASURED THROUGH RELATIONSHIPS, COMMUNITY STABILITY AND LIVES IMPROVED – WAS ENORMOUS.” Friendship, in the film's terms, represents something more than social connection – it's evidence of trust, reciprocity and value creation that transcends monetary exchange. When George faces financial ruin, his friends' spontaneous fundraising isn't charity – it's return on decades of investment in social capital. George's "net worth" in traditional terms was minimal, but his actual impact – measured through relationships, community stability, and lives improved – was enormous.

This alternative success metric feels particularly relevant in an economy where traditional career paths have fragmented.

The gig economy promises entrepreneurial freedom but often delivers economic insecurity. Corporate employment offers stability but frequently at the cost of meaningful impact. Public sector work provides purpose but typically with significant financial sacrifice.

George Bailey's model suggests a different approach: optimising for positive impact while maintaining financial sustainability, building social capital alongside human capital, and measuring success through contribution to others' flourishing rather than personal accumulation.

The Christmas Eve Crisis The film's central crisis – George's suicidal despair on Christmas Eve – emerges not from external failure but from the gap between aspiration and reality. By conventional measures, George has achieved considerable success: stable marriage, healthy children, respected position in the community and the satisfaction of having helped hundreds of families achieve homeownership.

Yet his despair is genuine and profound.

The dreams of travel, architecture and grand achievement haven't disappeared – they've simply been postponed so long they've become sources of daily pain.

Every morning brings fresh awareness of paths not taken, opportunities missed, and ambitions abandoned for the sake of others' needs.

This psychological territory – the suffocation that can come from success achieved through self-sacrifice – remains remarkably under-explored in contemporary career discourse. We celebrate entrepreneurs who build unicorns and executives who climb corporate hierarchies, but we rarely examine the emotional costs of careers built around service to others, or the particular loneliness that comes from being indispensable to many while feeling invisible to yourself.

George's crisis isn't ultimately about money or status – it's about meaning and agency. He has spent decades responding to others' needs while his own desires atrophied. The Building & Loan succeeded, but George Bailey the individual dreamer has been slowly disappearing behind George Bailey the community servant.

Purpose Versus Prosperity Today's knowledge workers face a version of George's dilemma scaled across entire industries. The most socially valuable work – teaching, social work, journalism, not-for-profit management, public service – typically offers personal satisfaction at the cost of financial security. The most financially rewarding work – finance, consulting, technology, law – often requires compromising social impact for personal advancement.

This isn't accidental. Market mechanisms systematically undervalue work that generates broad social benefits while over-rewarding activities that concentrate wealth. A hedge fund manager who extracts value from companies can earn more in a year than a teacher makes in a lifetime, despite the teacher's much greater contribution to human flourishing.

The film suggests that this trade-off isn't inevitable – that it's possible to build careers that generate both personal satisfaction and broader social value. But doing so requires rejecting the conventional success metrics that dominate career guidance and social media. It means optimising for impact over income, relationships over recognition, and community welfare over individual advancement.

The Pottersville Alternative The film's vision of Pottersville – Bedford Falls transformed by unchecked greed – offers a prophetic glimpse of what happens when communities lose institutions dedicated to broad-based prosperity. Pottersville has nightlife, neon signs and commercial energy, but it lacks the social infrastructure that makes places liveable: affordable housing, local ownership and institutions that serve residents rather than extract from them.

It isn’t really all that dissimilar to contemporary London. In fact most contemporary cities increasingly resemble Pottersville more than Bedford Falls.

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“THE WONDERFUL LIFE, IN CAPRA'S TERMS, ISN'T THE LIFE THAT ACHIEVES THE MOST BY CONVENTIONAL METRICS – IT'S THE LIFE THAT CONTRIBUTES MOST TO OTHERS' FLOURISHING WHILE MAINTAINING PERSONAL INTEGRITY AND FINDING DAILY SATISFACTION IN WORK THAT MATTERS.”

Frank Capra (Wikipedia)

banking, private equity has hollowed out local businesses, and housing has become an investment vehicle rather than a social good. The result is places that generate significant wealth while failing to provide the social stability that makes communities functional.

George Bailey's approach – building institutions that serve long-term community needs while generating modest profits – offers an alternative model that's finding new expression in benefit corporations, community land trusts, and cooperative enterprises. These models prioritise stakeholder value over shareholder value, seeking to build sustainable prosperity rather than extract maximum short-term returns.

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The Performance of Ordinariness Perhaps the film's most radical argument is that ordinary lives, properly understood, aren't ordinary at all. George Bailey appears to live a small life – same town, same job, same routine for decades.

But Clarence's intervention reveals the extraordinary complexity hidden within apparent simplicity.

Each seemingly minor interaction – lending money to Violet, preventing Mr. Gower's mistake, saving Harry from drowning – creates cascading effects that ripple across decades and continents.

George's ordinariness is actually a performance of deep social engagement, a daily choice to prioritise others' welfare over personal ambition.

The Bailey Building & Loan operates on principles that seem almost quaint by contemporary standards: local ownership, community accountability, modest profits and long-term relationship building.

Yet these principles generate remarkable results: stable housing for working families, economic development that serves residents rather than extracting from them, and social capital that sustains the community through multiple crises.

George Bailey's real innovation wasn't financial – it was social. He created technology for community building that operated through personal relationships, local knowledge and long-term thinking.

The Building & Loan succeeded because George understood his neighbours' needs, circumstances and capabilities in ways that distant capital markets never could.

LinkedIn culture promotes constant self-optimisation, personal branding, and network expansion as keys to career success.

But George Bailey's career trajectory suggests different priorities: deep local

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engagement, consistent service delivery and relationship building that prioritises others' success alongside your own.

This isn't anti-ambition – it's sophisticated thinking about how professional advancement actually works over decades rather than quarters. George's influence in Bedford Falls grew not through selfpromotion but through demonstrated competence and genuine care for others' welfare. His "network" consisted of people he had actually helped, creating loyalty based on performance rather than positioning.

The film suggests that sustainable career success requires what we might call "relational capital" – the trust, goodwill, and mutual obligation that develop through repeated positive interactions over time. This capital can't be manufactured through networking events or social media engagement; it emerges only through consistent delivery of value to others.

A Wonderful Framework Clarence's gift to George – and Capra's gift to audiences – is a framework for evaluating life satisfaction that transcends conventional success metrics. Instead of measuring achievement through wealth accumulation, status advancement, or individual recognition, the film proposes evaluating impact through relationships, community contribution and positive influence on others' opportunities.

This framework offers practical guidance for career decision-making: when choosing between opportunities, consider not just personal advancement but broader social impact. When evaluating professional satisfaction, measure not just individual achievement but contribution to others' success. When planning long-term career development, prioritise building capabilities that serve community needs alongside personal goals.

Applied consistently, this framework might lead to different career choices than pure self-interest would suggest: choosing teaching over finance, staying local rather

than following opportunities elsewhere, building institutions rather than extracting from them, prioritising relationships over recognition.

Integration Versus Sacrifice

So what really happens to George? He undergoes an internal transformation.

George doesn't receive external vindication for his choices; instead, he achieves internal reconciliation between his sacrificed dreams and his actual achievements. The money donated by his friends matters less than his recognition that his life has been meaningful despite – or perhaps because of – its apparent limitations.

This integration represents sophisticated thinking about how to manage the gap between ambition and reality that characterises most careers. Rather than perpetually mourning paths not taken, George learns to appreciate the path actually travelled. Rather than measuring his life against external standards of success, he develops internal metrics based on contribution and relationships.

It was John Updike who wrote in his slightly ornate way: “Actuality is a running impoverishment of possibility.” What he meant was that at the age of two, it’s possible to be so many things: it’s just about doable, say, to be born in London and by 50 to be President of Egypt. At 35, if you haven’t moved to Egypt that won’t happen.

But lots of things will – and these are things we tend to forget. This psychological work – learning to value what you've built rather than lamenting what you've missed – represents perhaps the most important career skill rarely taught in business schools or career development programs. Most professionals spend decades building competence and achievements while simultaneously harbouring disappointment about alternatives foregone.

Enduring Gift

As one contemporary viewer notes, "George Bailey is a version of myself"

– recognition that Capra's character represents not just 1940s small-town America but the universal experience of navigating between personal dreams and social responsibilities, individual ambition and collective welfare.

The film endures because it addresses questions that remain central to professional life. How do we measure career success when market mechanisms systematically undervalue socially beneficial work? How do we build lives that generate both personal satisfaction and community benefit? How do we integrate our individual dreams with our responsibilities to others?

George Bailey's life offers no easy answers, but it provides a framework for thinking about these questions that feels increasingly relevant as traditional career paths fragment and economic inequality widens.

The wonderful life, in Capra's terms, isn't the life that achieves the most by conventional metrics – it's the life that contributes most to others' flourishing while maintaining personal integrity and finding daily satisfaction in work that matters. In an age of LinkedIn optimisation and personal branding, this might be the most radical career advice of all: that success might be measured not by what you accumulate but by what you enable others to achieve, not by how high you climb but by how many people you lift along the way.

Every Christmas Eve, as my friend understood, we need Clarence's reminder that our impact on the world is larger and more complex than we imagine, that apparent failure might actually represent profound success, and that the most wonderful lives are often the ones that look most ordinary from the outside. In a world increasingly dominated by Potter's values, George Bailey's example remains our most sophisticated guide to building careers that matter – not just to ourselves, but to the communities we have the open opportunity to serve. www.finito.org.uk

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THE DICKENS PARADOX HOW THE PATRON SAINT OF CHRISTMAS CREATED MODERN WORKPLACE GUILT

Portrait of Dickens, c. 1850, National Library of Wales (Wikipedia)

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very December, Charles Dickens haunts the modern workplace:

he is Scrooge, and he is Marley, he is

Tiny Tim and he is Bob Cratchit. Like Shakespeare, our greatest novelist

has all bases cover. His A Christmas

Carol, published in 1843, didn't just give us a seasonal story – it created the template for every corporate

social responsibility initiative, every workplace wellness program, and

every CEO's year-end message about "values-driven leadership." Dickens essentially invented the idea that

capitalism could have a conscience, that businesses could transform

overnight, and that moral awakening could solve systemic economic problems.

Of course, Christmas can sometimes seem to unfold quickly and we don’t always have time to observe the

uncomfortable truth that Dickens,

literature's patron saint of Christmas compassion, was himself a deeply problematic figure of personal contradictions.

The Dickens Industrial Complex Dickens didn't just write A Christmas Carol – he performed it. For decades,

he toured Britain and America giving dramatic readings that earned him

enormous fees while promoting the

story's message of social responsibility.

The irony was palpable: Britain's most famous advocate for the working poor

had become a one-man entertainment

corporation, charging premium prices to

deliver moral instruction to middle-class audiences.

Simon Callow, who has performed

Dickens' work for decades, understands this dynamic intimately. In his

Christmas Carol performances, Callow notes that "the narrator of Christmas

Carol in our version is a conjurer and that makes sense" – acknowledging

the theatrical manipulation inherent in Dickens' moral storytelling. The author wasn't just writing about

transformation; he was engineering it as a consumable experience.

"DICKENS CREATED WHAT WE MIGHT NOW RECOGNISE AS THE FIRST 'IMPACT BRAND' – USING SOCIAL CONSCIENCE AS A MARKETING STRATEGY WHILE BUILDING PERSONAL WEALTH THROUGH THE COMMODIFICATION OF COMPASSION." This contradiction runs deeper than simple hypocrisy. Dickens created

what we might now recognise as the first "impact brand" – using social

conscience as a marketing strategy

while building personal wealth through the commodification of compassion. It is sometimes said that his Christmas

readings were theatrical spectacles that

allowed affluent audiences to experience moral catharsis without requiring actual behavioural change.

comes to learning from his great work.

A Christmas Carol's publishing history has an interesting financial history.

Dickens expected the book to earn

him £1,000 but received only £230 – proving that stories about workplace

transformation face market realities. His response wasn't to question the system but to tour more aggressively, turning Scrooge's redemption into a product that could be consumed repeatedly

without losing its emotional impact. He was helped in this by being a superb

actor and entertainer. Callow tells me: “Dickens was using music hall gags,

basically stuff from the variety stage,

which he transmuted into something so life enhancing and generous.”

The Domestic Dictator That generosity is something we

must hold to ourselves, while we

consider with another part of our

brain that it wasn’t so present at home.

While Dickens portrayed Scrooge's

transformation from workplace tyrant

to compassionate employer as a moral ideal, his own approach to managing

domestic staff reflected the hierarchical

norms of Victorian society. He expected punctuality, formality, and dedication

from his servants—standards common for the time. Though their working

conditions were demanding and their pay modest, they enabled the stable

home environment that allowed Dickens

I think this view is somewhat hard on

to write passionately about social justice.

to be promulgated by people who didn’t,

complexities and contradictions between

Especially it underestimates the real

historical figures.

the reader: Scrooge really is awful at the

treatment of his wife, Catherine. Over

Dickens – and we must remember tends

This contrast invites reflection on the

and couldn’t, write David Copperfield.

personal practice and public advocacy in

impact reading his story can have on

More troubling, perhaps, was Dickens’s

beginning, and he really has changed by

time, he appears to have increasingly

the end – and so might we. The fact that Dickens didn’t is a pity, as we shall see,

but it doesn’t let us off the hook when it

side-lined her within their domestic life, culminating in their separation in 1858.

In the aftermath, Dickens used his www.finito.org.uk

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LITERATURE

illusion of respectability. In her words, “he had everything to lose by being

found out.” The biography tells, with

empathy and forensic care, the story that

Dickens himself “would never have cared, or indeed dared, to write” – not just a

tale of love and secrecy, but of the social and moral pressures that allowed one of

Victorian England’s most powerful voices to silence another’s completely.

“THIS WAS INDEED DICKENS’S GENIUS: TO REMOVE HIS PRIVATE CONCERNS INTO A LARGER SYMBOLIC WORLD SO THAT THEY BECAME THE VERY IMAGE OF HIS OWN TIME.” Dickens’s personal papers suggest a man who valued order and influence in his

domestic life, sometimes exercising a firm hand over his children's correspondence, education, and social circles. While such

behaviour may seem heavy-handed today,

Catherine Dickens c. 1847 by Daniel Maclise (Wikipedia)

considerable public influence to shape

the extent of Dickens's deception

ways that damaged her reputation –

young actress Ellen Ternan. Tomalin

the narrative, portraying Catherine in

suggesting she was emotionally unstable and unfit as a mother. He retained

custody of their children and maintained a close connection with Ellen Ternan, a much younger actress, whose presence near his home raised questions about

the nature of their relationship. While Dickens wrote movingly about love,

redemption, and empathy, his private

actions in this case suggest – to the put the matter somewhat mildly – a more complex and contradictory emotional landscape.

Claire Tomalin’s ground-breaking

biography The Invisible Woman revealed 124

regarding his relationship with the

uncovers how Dickens, in protecting his own reputation, systematically

erased Ternan from the public record.

“This is the story of someone who – almost – wasn’t there; who vanished

into thin air,” Tomalin has said. Ternan, she explains, “played a central part in the life of Charles Dickens at a time

when he was perhaps the best-known man in Britain,” yet her presence was

deliberately concealed. Tomalin argues that Dickens went to great lengths

to maintain secrecy, even destroying

correspondence and distancing himself

from people who might compromise the

it reflected both the norms of Victorian patriarchy and Dickens's own restless

energy and sense of responsibility. The same man who created Bob Cratchit as a symbol of patient dignity under

oppressive management could, in his private life, adopt a managerial role

that others experienced as overbearing.

Yet this tension between control and

compassion, authority and empathy, fed directly into his art. As Peter Ackroyd observes in his biography, “This was

indeed Dickens’s genius: to remove his private concerns into a larger symbolic

world so that they became the very image of his own time” – transforming his

personal anxieties and contradictions into stories that spoke to the social realities of an entire age.

LITERATURE

The Charity Performance

Reproduced from a c.1870s photographer frontispiece to Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol (Wikipedia)

Dickens’s philanthropic work was

driven by a sincere desire to alleviate

suffering, particularly among the poor

and marginalised, but it was also deeply intertwined with his sense of self and public identity. His involvement in

projects like Urania Cottage showed

real commitment – he helped write the

rules, selected residents, and envisioned

it as a place of moral restoration. At the same time, Dickens’s public readings

for charity, often emotionally charged and heavily promoted, reinforced

his reputation as the conscience of

Victorian England. As Tomalin notes, these performances allowed him to

present an “ideal self ” to the world.

While the money raised was often

modest in comparison to the scale of

poverty, the events functioned as much as moral spectacle as they did relief work. In this way, Dickens helped

pioneer a model of philanthropy that

served both public good and personal brand – an approach not unfamiliar in today’s world of media-savvy humanitarianism.

The Impossible Standard The lasting influence of A Christmas

Carol lies not in a flaw, but in a paradox:

scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner,”

newly awakened to compassion. When

is both emotionally profound and

from the world and warmth of others.

Yet to Come, “Assure me that I yet may

conversion – brought about by memory,

as good a master, and as good a man as

a literal model for structural reform, but

just a moral U-turn – it’s a resurrection.

its central message of transformation

one who keeps himself locked away

socially idealistic. Scrooge’s overnight

But by the end, he is “as good a friend,

fear, regret, and hope – is not meant as

the good old city ever knew.” This is not

as a moral parable. Dickens presents

Scrooge emerges from his long night

the possibility that a single awakened

conscience can radically change not only a man’s life but the lives of everyone around him.

of the soul with a new vision of what

matters: “I am not the man I was,” he

says. “I will not be the man I must have been.”

The power of the story lies in how

This is the kind of change that, Dickens

At the start, Scrooge is described as

– not through policy or protest, but

complete that transformation feels. “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping,

suggests, truly transforms the world

through the beating of a human heart

Scrooge asks the Ghost of Christmas

change these shadows you have shown

me,” he is articulating the central hope of the story: that it is never too late to begin again.

While it’s true that modern institutions have sometimes adopted the language

of transformation without committing

to deeper change, it would be unfair to

fault Dickens for that. He wasn’t writing a manual for corporate responsibility; he was giving voice to the longing

for redemption. As Tomalin observes,

Dickens “could not cure the world’s ills, www.finito.org.uk

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LITERATURE

but he could make people feel them

programs often echo the emotional

him “too sentimental,” yet even she

fear, love, and joy – is what gives A

sentiment and symbolic kindness to

of his characters. Dickens was not

more sharply.” That feeling – of empathy, Christmas Carol its enduring force.

pattern of A Christmas Carol — using humanise work, while leaving deeper

recognised the extraordinary vitality a theorist of class or labour, but a

dramatist of the human heart, and in

Ultimately, Dickens proposes that

issues like pay equity, job security and

person’s world is the person themselves.

This raises important questions about

of personal moral growth rather than

precisely because it arises from within.

characters: Bob Cratchit. Cratchit is not

heroic. He does not resist or protest his

“KINDNESS MATTERS, EVEN IF IT MUST ONE DAY BE JOINED BY JUSTICE.”

within them. For Dickens, this was

Still, the story’s influence endures,

goodness can survive hardship, and that

how we express care within systems

even under strain.

patience, Scrooge’s transformation,

the only thing that can truly change a

autonomy largely untouched.

Scrooge’s transformation is so powerful

one of Dickens' most compelling

“Spirit!” he cries near the end, “hear me! I am not the man I was. I will

honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” The promise is

not that society will change overnight – but that the human soul, given the right vision, can.

The Seasonal Solution Dickens' decision to set his story of

personal and workplace transformation at Christmas was no accident – it

was deeply intentional. The season, in

Victorian culture and beyond, represents a time when ordinary hierarchies are

softened by goodwill, when generosity

is both expected and permitted. Within this temporary suspension of strict

economic roles, Scrooge is able to offer

Bob Cratchit a turkey and a raise—not

as a systemic overhaul, but as a heartfelt gesture of personal redemption.

This seasonal framing has echoed

through time, shaping the modern

tradition of Christmas in the workplace – holiday bonuses, parties, and small tokens of appreciation that offer a

momentary sense of warmth without shifting the underlying structure of

employer-employee power. Dickens

did not invent this logic, but he gave it emotional clarity and enduring symbolism.

Contemporary workplace culture has

extended this logic year-round, in the

form of “employee appreciation days,” wellness initiatives and recognition campaigns. These well-meaning 126

merely a victim; he is a moral anchor

of the story. His dignity, gratitude and

deep love for his family are portrayed as conditions, but instead finds meaning

A Christmas Carol, he offered a vision collective social revolution.

a powerful moral statement: that

shaping both how we see work and

the human spirit can remain generous

that don’t always reciprocate. Cratchit’s

“IN A CHRISTMAS CAROL, HE OFFERED A VISION OF PERSONAL MORAL GROWTH RATHER THAN COLLECTIVE SOCIAL REVOLUTION.” And yet, Cratchit’s silence and loyalty have come to define the ideal of the “good worker” – one who remains cheerful, loyal, and hardworking

regardless of conditions. It’s a portrait that modern culture has sometimes

taken literally, encouraging resilience and positivity while overlooking the

structural causes of workplace stress.

This is not necessarily a flaw in Dickens’ writing, but a reflection of how his work has been interpreted.

The literary establishment has long

debated these tensions in Dickens’s

vision. Simon Callow praises his “sense of social justice” and “comic genius,” while acknowledging his occasional blind spots. Virginia Woolf found

and the warmth of the Christmas table

continue to inspire—reminding us that

kindness matters, even if it must one day be joined by justice.

Beyond the Carol Understanding Dickens not as a flawless moral authority but as a profoundly

human and often contradictory figure may be one of the most meaningful

ways to honour his legacy. His personal struggles – with money, power, family, and reputation – don’t undermine

the social vision in his work. Rather, they reflect the very tensions he was

trying to navigate: how to live ethically within systems that reward selfishness, hierarchy, and exploitation.

The enduring lesson of A Christmas Carol isn’t that workplaces can be

transformed overnight through sheer

goodwill. It’s that the gap between our values and our behaviours is real and

persistent – and that closing that gap,

even partially, demands continual effort, reflection, and imagination. Scrooge’s

transformation, while dramatic, is not

a blueprint but a fable. It reminds us of what is possible, not what is typical.

LITERATURE

Dickens at his desk, 1858 (Wikipedia)

In this sense, modern readers might find more strength in Dickens’s

contradictions than in idealising his

moral clarity. He used his writing to elevate conscience, and at times that

also enhanced his reputation – but that tension isn’t evidence of hypocrisy. It’s evidence of a person wrestling with

the same dilemmas we face now: how

to work with integrity in systems that often reward its absence.

Rather than viewing Dickens as the patron saint of holiday generosity,

we might instead recognise him as

someone whose imperfections make

his vision more powerful, not less. His

own life bore the marks of compromise, ambition, and emotional complexity –

but also of compassion, empathy and a

lifelong effort to awaken those qualities in others.

Perhaps the real ghost haunting

modern workplaces is not the fantasy of Scrooge’s overnight redemption,

but the unresolved tension Dickens

himself lived with: the gap between

The Christmas spirit Dickens helped shape continues to enchant because it holds out the promise that goodwill, generosity and redemption are always possible. That hope matters. But so does the harder truth – that these things are not easy, not guaranteed, and not solved by sentiment alone. Acknowledging that truth doesn’t diminish Dickens – it deepens our understanding of both his

moral aspiration and practical reality.

legacy and our ongoing task: to imagine,

a world where many still hope to align

serve human dignity not just for one day

That tension remains deeply relevant in

and to build, lives and workplaces that

their values with their labour.

a year, but all the year. www.finito.org.uk

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BOOK REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS

UPLIFTING BOOKS FOR CHALLENGING TIMES whether we need another book telling us that smartphones are problematic.

After all, most of us already know this. But Regehr's achievement is to move beyond the usual handwringing about screen time to offer something rarer: genuinely practical advice for families struggling with digital boundaries. She understands what's difficult – not just identifying the problem, but actually living differently in a world where opting out entirely isn't realistic.

SMARTPHONE NATION

BY DR. KAITLYN REGEHR In our current moment, there is an increasing suspicion that genuine human connection isn't really that popular a pursuit at all. If we ask why this might be, we can alight on smartphones and social media as explanations – but only partially. It is no coincidence that at the same time that face-to-face conversation has declined, many of us are in thrall to the notion that constant connectivity equals progress.

Dr. Kaitlyn Regehr's "Smartphone Nation: Why We're All Addicted to Our Screens and What You and Your Family Can Do About It" arrives as a timely intervention against this orthodoxy.

As one of the UK's leading experts on digital literacy, Regehr positions herself as "The Digital Nutritionist" – a moniker that might make some wince, but which accurately captures her practical approach to what has become a genuinely serious problem.

One might legitimately question 128

"REGEHR'S ACHIEVEMENT IS TO MOVE BEYOND THE USUAL HANDWRINGING ABOUT SCREEN TIME TO OFFER SOMETHING RARER: GENUINELY PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR FAMILIES STRUGGLING WITH DIGITAL BOUNDARIES." Within the world of self-help books, the hardest genre of all may well be digital wellness. The main reason for this is that you're writing for an audience largely made up of people who are simultaneously aware of the problems technology creates and utterly dependent on it. They're a tough crowd. In addition to this, you have to work within severe constraints – you cannot simply advocate for digital monasticism, nor can you pretend that concerns about smartphone addiction are overblown.

Regehr's central thesis revolves around helping readers "set thoughtful, sustainable boundaries and reshape your family's relationship with devices." This is refreshingly free of the apocalyptic rhetoric that characterises much writing about technology. Rather than positioning herself as a digital Cassandra, she offers what she calls "invaluable advice on how to build a healthier, safer and less all-consuming relationship with our smartphones."

"SHE OFFERS WHAT SHE CALLS 'INVALUABLE ADVICE ON HOW TO BUILD A HEALTHIER, SAFER AND LESS ALL-CONSUMING RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR SMARTPHONES." The book has been described as suitable "for readers of The Anxious Generation who want to know what to do next" – and this positioning tells us something important about Regehr's approach.

Where Jonathan Haidt diagnoses the problem, she attempts to provide solutions. This is admirable, though it comes with risks. Solutions tend to be less intellectually satisfying than diagnoses, and more prone to seeming obvious or simplistic.

Indeed, the book faces some notable criticisms along these lines. One reader described it as "essentially a fluffed up article," noting it "coming in hot at 160 pages in massive font and double spacing." This is a damning assessment, suggesting that while the content may

BOOK REVIEWS

approach to understanding ADHD as a different way of processing the world rather than a deficit to be managed.

be valuable, the presentation feels insubstantial for readers expecting serious engagement with complex issues.

Michalski's approach centres on helping readers "accept the disowned parts of yourself through shadow work, reframing techniques, mindset shifts, and selflove." This therapeutic language might make some readers wince – there's something distinctly Californian about promising to help people "find their unique magic" – but it reflects a genuine attempt to address the shame that often accompanies ADHD diagnosis.

But perhaps this criticism misses the point. Sometimes what we need isn't more analysis but clearer action. The pervasive nature of smartphone use and its impact on family dynamics, mental health, and personal productivity makes practical guidance genuinely valuable – even if, or perhaps especially if, that guidance can be absorbed quickly and implemented immediately.

What is good about Regehr's conception is that it reminds us not to approach digital wellness with the same all-or-nothing thinking that characterises our relationship with technology itself. She knows that smartphones are here to stay, but she also knows that our current patterns of use are often compulsive rather than intentional. The book promises to help readers "keep the advantages of the internet whilst identifying often hidden dangers and stepping away when you're over-reliant."

This balanced perspective may frustrate readers looking for more radical critiques of digital capitalism or deeper philosophical engagement with questions of attention and distraction.

But there's wisdom in Regehr's moderation. For most families, the goal isn't to smash their phones but to use them more thoughtfully.

Naturally, we mustn't go too far.

Regehr isn't offering profound insights into the nature of human attention or the political economy of surveillance capitalism. But the practical help she provides may be far better than what we're all too often faced with in digital criticism today: brilliant analysis coupled with complete impracticality.

Sometimes the most useful book is the one that actually helps you live a little differently tomorrow. IS

THE ADHD RESET

BY CLAIRE MICHALSKI In our current moment, there is an increasing suspicion that neurodivergence isn't really that accepted a condition at all. If we ask why this might be, we can alight on outdated educational systems and workplace cultures as explanations – but only partially. It is no coincidence that at the same time that ADHD diagnoses have increased, many of us are in thrall to the notion that there is something essentially wrong with minds that work differently.

Claire Michalski's "The ADHD Reset: Shift Your Mindset. Find Clarity. Unlock Your Magic" arrives as a counterargument to this pathologising orthodoxy. As an ADHD coach, Michalski "shows you how to reset your mindset and approach to living with ADHD" with the provocative central question: "What if what you need to succeed and manifest your goals is what you have been trying to overcome—your ADHD?" Here then we have another book promising to transform limitation into liberation. It is fair to note that the selfhelp industrial complex has been mining this territory for decades. But Michalski's achievement is to move beyond the usual platitudes about embracing difference to offer something rarer: a systematic

The book promises "dozens of practical tools and strategies" delivered through "coaching, interactive journal practices, and a step-by-step approach." This is refreshingly concrete compared to much neurodivergence literature, which tends toward either dry clinical analysis or inspirational memoir. Michalski seems to understand that what many people want is not more theory about ADHD but actual techniques for living with it more successfully.

"MICHALSKI'S ACHIEVEMENT IS TO MOVE BEYOND THE USUAL PLATITUDES ABOUT EMBRACING DIFFERENCE TO OFFER SOMETHING RARER: A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING ADHD AS A DIFFERENT WAY OF PROCESSING THE WORLD RATHER THAN A DEFICIT TO BE MANAGED." www.finito.org.uk

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BOOK REVIEWS

This is not a book for people who have spent decades managing their ADHD, but rather for those still coming to terms with their diagnosis and looking for a framework to understand their experiences differently. A central aspect of Michalski's conception is to remind us that the medical model of ADHD, while useful for securing accommodations and treatment, can inadvertently pathologise ways of thinking that have their own strengths.

Her promise to help readers "live your dream life with ADHD—not in spite of it" represents a fundamental shift from deficit-based thinking to what we might call neurodivergent pride.

exposition. If the techniques work – if

But there are risks inherent in this approach. The emphasis on "shadow work" and "manifesting goals" locates the book uncomfortably close to the wellness industrial complex, with its tendency to individualise problems that often have structural dimensions.

ADHD brains may indeed have unique strengths, but they're still operating in educational and professional systems designed for neurotypical processing patterns.

ADHD LITERATURE

"MICHALSKI SEEMS TO UNDERSTAND THAT WHAT MANY PEOPLE WANT IS NOT MORE THEORY ABOUT ADHD BUT ACTUAL TECHNIQUES FOR LIVING WITH IT MORE SUCCESSFULLY."

prioritise hope over complexity,

The book's strength lies precisely in its practical focus. The combination of "interactive journal practices" and "step-by-step approach" suggests that Michalski understands that ADHD brains often need structured, engaging formats rather than purely theoretical

detachment that treats the condition

130

they genuinely help people develop better self-understanding and coping strategies – then the slightly breathless wellness language may be a price worth paying.

"THE PRACTICAL HELP SHE PROVIDES MAY BE FAR BETTER THAN WHAT WE'RE ALL TOO OFTEN FACED WITH IN TODAY." The book's promise to "transform living with ADHD from limiting to liberating" may frustrate readers looking for more nuanced engagement with the genuine challenges that neurodivergence presents. But there's something to be said for books that particularly for readers who may have spent years internalising negative messages about their cognitive differences.

Michalski isn't offering profound insights into the neuroscience of attention or the politics of psychiatric diagnosis. But the practical help she provides may be far better than what we're all too often faced with in ADHD literature today: either clinical as pure pathology, or inspirational messaging that ignores real difficulties.

Sometimes the most useful book is the one that helps you think about your brain a little more kindly tomorrow. GA

Christmas, London

By Lucy Wright

As lights radiate the street, It all tends to depend On what the year becameHow we greet this end.

For some, brightness is sadness: All they didn’t quite do.

For others, it’s simply more bliss.

Drinkers raise their cups, Songs thread through the squareEliciting vague reactions, Split by the quiet factions: The lucky, the not-so.

Some always deem life a doddle: Pop stars with their singles, Tech giants with valuations.

Others must intermingle, Faces quietly brave About the harder facts.

They too watch the year’s last hours.

And yet, perhaps they feel itIn their vulnerable heartsThat life is, on balance, good.

That someone, somewhere, Is always being born.

One who might, one day, Change things By what they give away.

www.finito.org.uk

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WINTER OLYMPICS 2026

MILANO CORTINA 2026 AND THE MYSTICAL THEATRE OF WINTER IRIS SPARK

Unsplash.com

Alamy

I

’m beginning to get quite excited.

There is something fundamentally different about the Winter Olympics that sets them apart from their summer siblings –something almost mystical in how they unfold against landscapes of ice and snow, where athletes become temporary gods dancing on the edge of the possible. While Summer Games celebrate human achievement in controlled environments, Winter Olympics thrust competitors into an

132

ancient dialogue with the elements themselves, where victory and defeat are measured not just against other humans, but against the raw forces of nature.

As we approach Milano Cortina 2026, scheduled to unfold from February 6-22 across the stunning Alpine amphitheatre of Northern Italy, we stand witness to more than mere sport. Roughly 2,900 of the top winter athletes on the planet will compete for 114 sets of the most

prestigious medals in sports, but beneath the statistics lies something more primal: the human impulse to master ice, snow, and mountain – elements that have both nurtured and threatened our species since we first gazed upward at snow-capped peaks.

The Winter Games possess an almost shamanic quality, transforming ordinary mortals into figures of myth. Consider how Eddie the Eagle became not just a ski jumper, but a folk hero precisely

INTERNATIONAL

because he dared to leap into the void despite his obvious limitations. Or how Torvill and Dean transcended sport entirely, becoming vessels for something approaching the sacred through their perfect communion with ice and music.

Elemental Theatre Perhaps the Winter Olympics can even bear some light philosophising.

Ice represents stillness and clarity. It invites you to explore deeper truths within yourself and connect with nature, spiritual traditions tell us, and perhaps this explains why Winter Olympic moments lodge so deeply in our collective memory. There's something about the crystalline perfection of a figure skating routine, the balletic grace of a ski jumper suspended against mountain backdrop, or the raw courage of a luge rider hurtling down an ice track at 90 mph that speaks to something older than sport.

"WINTER OLYMPICS THRUST COMPETITORS INTO AN ANCIENT DIALOGUE WITH THE ELEMENTS THEMSELVES, WHERE VICTORY AND DEFEAT ARE MEASURED NOT JUST AGAINST OTHER HUMANS, BUT AGAINST THE RAW FORCES OF NATURE." Really the Winter Olympics, appropriately perhaps for our vexed species, open up onto the question of survival. Ice has long been associated with resilience and purity in many spiritual belief systems. Its ability to

melt and transform represents the impermanence of life and the importance of adaptability in the face of adversity.

This transformation becomes literal in winter sport, where athletes must constantly adapt to changing snow conditions, shifting winds, and the capricious moods of mountain weather.

The Summer Olympics, for all their grandeur, seem by comparison to unfold in human-built arenas where conditions can be controlled, temperatures regulated, and variables minimised. Winter Olympics, by contrast, are staged in nature's own amphitheatre, where wind can destroy a ski jumper's perfect takeoff, where a sudden snow squall can transform a downhill course, where ice conditions change by the hour. Athletes become meteorologists, philosophers of snow density, and students of mountain moods.

Mountain Mystics Perhaps no addition to the 2026 program better captures this elemental quality than ski mountaineering – or "SkiMo" as practitioners call it – which will make its Olympic debut in the very mountains where the sport was born. Ski mountaineering was part of the programme of the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympics and will be part of the programme at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. Italy is one of the leading nations in this sport, with several international wins in major competitions over the last 10 years.

It is, like all these new sports, is splendidly odd and it is often curious to be invited to imagine the dedication people have had towards the sport before an Olympic performance was even an option. The sprint discipline is comprised of three distinct phases: running uphill from the start with skis on an athlete's back, attaching them, and then navigating technical terrain that would challenge even experienced mountaineers.

It might be viewed as a sort of conversation with the mountain itself.

As it turns out, ski mountaineering has a vast history in the Alps of northern Italy, so it's fitting that the sport will make its Olympic debut in Milano and Cortina.

The athletes who will compete in these events are descendants of Alpine guides and mountain mystics who first learned to read snow like scripture, to understand avalanche danger like a native language, to move through vertical terrain with the fluid grace of water finding its way downhill.

There will be two types of ski mountaineering races at Milano Cortina 2026 – sprint events for men and women, as well as a mixed team relay. Sprint races can be thought of as having four sections to them, three on the ascent and one on the descent, with transition zones between them. But describing SkiMo in purely technical terms misses its deeper significance: this is the Olympics returning to its roots in human struggle against natural forces.

The Eagle's Courage Michael "Eddie the Eagle" Edwards understood something profound about the Winter Olympics that many miss: they're not really about winning, but about the audacity to attempt. His story resonates not because he succeeded in conventional terms—he finished dead last in both his events at Calgary 1988 – but because he embodied something essential about the winter sport spirit: the willingness to hurl yourself into the void and trust that courage, preparation, and a kind of faithful recklessness will see you through.

Edwards's journey to Calgary was archetypal in its structure: the unlikely hero, the impossible quest, the moment of truth on the mountain – and the delightful comedy of failure taken lightly.

Ice creates frozen landscapes that show elemental energies, and Eddie's ski jumps became something like performance www.finito.org.uk

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art, a middle-class plasterer from Cheltenham transforming himself into a humorous deity of flight, if only for the few seconds between takeoff and landing.

His legacy isn't really about ski jumping technique or athletic achievement.

It's about the democratic possibility that Winter Olympics represent: that anyone, regardless of background or natural talent, can enter into this ancient dialogue with ice and mountain and discover something about themselves that conventional life never reveals. Eddie's jumps were acts of faith as much as sport, leaps into literal and metaphorical voids that remind us why humans first looked at snow-covered hills and thought, "I wonder if I could slide down that."

Eddie the Eagle feels also a reminder of something mild about the British: our winters aren’t all that harsh, our mountains not that high, our snow not all that deep. But since at least Chaucer we’ve been laughing at ourselves – and Eddie the Eagle is a reminder we still do.

The Alchemy of Perfection If Eddie the Eagle represented the democratic accessibility of winter sport dreams, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean embodied its aristocratic potential – not in terms of class or privilege, but in the sense of what becomes possible when human beings dedicate themselves completely to mastering an elemental art form.

Their 1984 Sarajevo performance to Ravel's "Boléro" remains perhaps the most transcendent moment in Olympic history precisely because it achieved something beyond sport: the complete fusion of human intention with natural element. Ice became their medium in the way stone becomes a sculptor's, and their movements across its surface created something that felt less like athletic performance than like witnessing the physical laws of the universe bend themselves to human will and artistic Unsplash.com vision.

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The perfect 6.0 scores they received from all nine judges weren't really about technical skating – they were acknowledgments that something had occurred that transcended the normal categories of evaluation. Each glistening ice formation whispers stories of nature's harmony, reminding us of the delicate balance that sustains life, and Torvill and Dean had somehow joined that conversation, adding their own whispers to ice's ancient vocabulary.

Their partnership illustrates another dimension of Winter Olympics that distinguishes them from summer competition: the profound interdependence required to succeed in environments where individual error can mean collective failure. Ice dancing demands not just technical mastery, but a kind of telepathic unity that allows two separate beings to move as one across a surface that offers no forgiveness for mistimed steps or misread intentions.

The Numbers Behind the Magic The statistical reality of Milano Cortina 2026 tells its own story about human ambition and the democratic reach of Olympic dreams. The Games will feature 16 disciplines across eight sports, unfolding across venues that stretch from Milan’s architectural elegance to Cortina’s dramatic Alpine landscapes –sites that reflect not just geographical diversity, but humanity’s evolving relationship with snow, ice, and mountains.

Behind every number – every hundredthof-a-second victory, every technical score, every medal table – lies a personal journey of obsession, grit, and precision.

These are athletes who rise before dawn to train on frozen lakes, who study snowpack and wind patterns with the analytical sharpness of scientists, and who spend years chasing the perfect edge, arc, or landing. Their sacrifices and discipline defy the superficial glamour of medals, revealing a deeper story about the human condition in extreme conditions.

Historically, the Winter Olympics have been dominated by countries where winter itself is a way of life. Norway sits at the top of the all-time medal table with over 400 medals, including 148 golds – an astonishing number for a country of just over five million people. The United States and Germany follow closely, each excelling in different disciplines: the U.S. in snowboarding, alpine skiing and speed skating; Germany in luge, bobsleigh and biathlon.

This numerical supremacy reflects not just climate, but also deeply embedded cultural investments in winter sport, infrastructure and talent development.

"ATHLETES BECOME TEMPORARY GODS DANCING ON THE EDGE OF THE POSSIBLE." On an individual level, names like Marit Bjørgen and Ole Einar Bjørndalen represent the absolute pinnacle of winter achievement. Bjørgen, the Norwegian cross-country skier, is the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time with 15 medals – eight of them gold. Her compatriot Bjørndalen, known as the King of Biathlon, amassed 13 medals over a two-decade career, combining endurance, marksmanship, and icy calm under pressure. In speed skating, Dutch athlete Ireen Wüst has etched her name into history with 13 medals, becoming the most decorated speed skater ever and winning golds in five different Olympics – a feat unmatched in any sport, winter or summer.

Yet the magic of the Games does not reside only in dominance, but in surprise.

Few will forget Australia’s Steven Bradbury gliding into gold in the 2002 short track speed skating final after all his rivals crashed spectacularly just metres from the finish. His improbable win became a symbol of persistence and being ready when fortune strikes.

Similarly, 15-year-old Tara Lipinski’s

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figure skating triumph in 1998 captivated a global audience, her youthful elegance and competitive nerve redefining what was thought possible at such a young age.

The economic and geographic realities of winter sport create unique barriers – snow, altitude, and costly equipment are not available to everyone. Yet the Games continue to produce stories that challenge those constraints, proving that the Winter Olympics are as much about ingenuity and resilience as they are about wealth or geography. As the Olympic torch prepares to move to Italy, Milano Cortina 2026 promises to build on that legacy, combining architectural grandeur with Alpine purity, and welcoming a new generation of athletes who have shaped their lives around mastering the frozen elements.

In the end, the numbers are only half the story. The rest is written in sweat, snow, silence and the singular pursuit of greatness.

The Technology of Transcendence Modern winter sport represents a remarkable fusion of ancient human impulse and precision engineering. The skis that now carry SkiMo athletes up the jagged Alpine faces are built using aerospace-grade carbon fibre and nano-reinforced polymers – materials and design innovations that would seem almost supernatural to the Norwegian farmers who first lashed pine planks to their feet to cross frozen fields. In figure skating, ice surfaces are maintained to thermal tolerances within 0.1°C, regulated by advanced refrigeration systems from companies like Trane Technologies and Engo Ice Arena Equipment, ensuring conditions more stable than any natural lake could offer.

On that synthetic clarity, skaters launch into rotations that push the boundaries of human balance and motion.

Yet despite this dazzling technological scaffolding, the Winter Olympics remain rooted in something fundamentally human: the raw capacity for balance, nerve, and moment-to-moment adaptation. A luge rider may ride a sled designed by TobogganTech, which uses computational fluid dynamics to shave milliseconds from a run, but what ultimately matters is the rider’s proprioception—their ability to feel shifts in texture and tilt through ice and steel. The aerodynamic ski suits worn by jumpers, designed by companies like Craft Sportswear and Descente, offer optimal drag coefficients, but they are powerless without the athlete's willingness to leap into space with nothing but air beneath them and conviction within.

This precarious equilibrium between high technology and primal instinct creates what might be called the technological sublime – moments where material www.finito.org.uk

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INTERNATIONAL

science, biomechanics, psychology, and artistry converge into something greater than the sum of their parts. When Yuzuru Hanyu landed a nearly flawless quadruple loop, he was not merely executing a move; he was navigating a complex choreography of angular momentum, muscle memory and ice friction, assisted invisibly by Jackson Ultima blades and Edea skates, whose microstructure is optimised for torque absorption and rotational stability.

"OUR TASK IS TO DISAPPEAR. IF AN ATHLETE THINKS ABOUT THEIR EQUIPMENT WHILE COMPETING, WE’VE FAILED." The companies behind these feats represent a quiet but powerful ecosystem.

Fischer Sports, a leader in cross-country and alpine ski manufacturing, employs over 1,500 people globally, exporting to more than 60 countries, and has partnerships with over 80 Olympic athletes. CEO Franz Föttinger described their role succinctly: “Our task is to disappear. If an athlete thinks about their equipment while competing, we’ve failed.” Similarly, Burton, long dominant in snowboarding tech, has invested heavily in AI-powered design tools to tailor boards to individual athlete biomechanics – a collaboration that helped Shaun White and others maintain competitive advantage across multiple Games.

Even arena technology reflects this arms race. Engo, an Italian firm specialising in ice maintenance systems, now builds smart resurfacers that adapt blade pressure based on humidity and usage patterns – part of a broader industry shift toward climate-conscious infrastructure.

According to their managing director, “Perfect ice is not a surface. It’s an Unsplash.com algorithm.”

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Meanwhile, Descente – with its roots in Osaka and its innovation centre in the Alps – reported over $700 million USD in revenue in 2024, driven largely

by Olympic partnerships. Its CEO, Shunsuke Nakatake, put it best: “We’re not just making uniforms. We’re engineering confidence under pressure.”

reveals is not just how far human beings can push their bodies — but how far we can push the materials, machines, and minds that carry us into air, down mountains and across ice.

In Milano Cortina 2026, these innovations will once again act as silent partners to the human drama.

Cameras will capture the arcs, spirals and descents—but not the microengineered carbon lattices in a ski boot, nor the predictive friction models coded into bobsleigh runners. What the world will see is the moment of transcendence: a twist, a landing, a clean carve through powder. What it won’t see is the extraordinary web of companies, engineers, scientists and designers whose work underpins that fleeting magic.

What do these winter stories teach us about ourselves and our place in the world? First, they remind us that some of life's most profound experiences come from accepting rather than avoiding risk.

Eddie the Eagle's ski jumps and Torvill and Dean's perfect synchronisation both required complete commitment to uncertainty, the willingness to enter situations where failure was not just possible but likely.

Because in the end, what winter sport

The Lessons of Ice and Stone

Second, they illustrate the unique satisfactions that come from developing mastery over natural elements rather than artificial environments. The athlete

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who learns to read snow conditions, to understand how wind affects trajectory, to feel ice texture through their equipment, develops a kind of literacy in the natural world that has become increasingly rare in modern life.

Third, Winter Olympics demonstrate that some achievements can only emerge from long-term dedication to practices that offer no guarantee of external reward. The thousands of hours of training required to compete at Olympic level in winter sports often take place in conditions of solitude, cold and discomfort that would drive most people indoors. Yet athletes continue because the process itself – the gradual development of intimate relationship with ice and mountain – provides satisfactions that transcend any external validation.

Fire on Ice As Milano Cortina 2026 approaches, we

prepare to witness another chapter in humanity's ongoing conversation with winter. The athletes who will compete carry forward traditions that stretch back to the first humans who looked at snowy slopes and icy surfaces and saw not obstacles but opportunities – chances to discover what becomes possible when human ingenuity meets natural challenge.

our potential for transcendence through the patient development of skill applied to natural challenges. The flame that will burn in Milan and Cortina will illuminate not just Olympic competition, but the endless human capacity for transformation through dialogue with the elemental forces that shaped our world and continue to shape our souls.

The stories we'll witness in Milano Cortina – new Eddie Edwards finding courage to attempt the impossible, new Torvill and Dean partnerships discovering perfect synchronisation, SkiMo pioneers writing the first chapters of their sport's Olympic story – will remind us that winter offers unique lessons about resilience, adaptation, and the rewards that come to those willing to embrace rather than avoid challenge.

The Winter Olympics remain humanity's most beautiful argument for the value of difficulty voluntarily embraced, of skills developed not for practical necessity but for the pure satisfaction of mastery, of dreams pursued not because they're easy or profitable but because they call to something essential in human nature.

As Milano Cortina 2026 unfolds across Italy's winter landscape, it will offer yet another opportunity to witness what becomes possible when humans decide to dance with mountains, to find their own poetry in ice, and to discover what lies beyond the edge of the possible.

In watching these Games, we don't just witness sport – we see reflected our own capacity for growth through adversity, our ability to find grace under pressure,

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TRAVEL

A MEDITATION ON SLOW TRAVEL, LIFE, AND THE OCCASIONAL WINDOW EXIT SARAH TUCKER ON WEST SWEDEN, BETWEEN LAKES AND LAGOM

Unsplash.com

Borås, Sweden (Unsplash)

O

ver recent weeks, I found myself somewhat reluctantly enchanted

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by West Sweden, a place where time

seems to ambush you by moving slower than expected, and where patience

is less a virtue and more a necessity.

Driving there, as someone uninitiated in the labyrinthine Swedish road

as ‘just right,’ but really a state of

I met Linnea from Catxalot, a seaweed

survive, or better yet, thrive.

desk for salty shores and the occasional

existential balance, is the only way to This region doesn’t so much invite you to slow down as it quietly forces you

to reconsider your entire relationship

with urgency. The forests stretch on in

laws, quickly becomes a test of

patient indifference to your schedule;

suggestions from the universe, mostly

of creatures who have nowhere to be.

rather than your engine revving. I

philosophers, reminding you that it’s

lagom, a concept roughly translated

grazing and still feel accomplished.

foraging guide who traded a librarian’s unexpected kelp salad. Her story is an

elegant defiance of the corporate grind – proof that sometimes the best career pivot is to embrace the wild, briny

unknown. She radiates the kind of calm that makes you question if your own

humility. Speed limits feel like polite

lakes sparkle with the smug serenity

set to keep your heart rate in check

Cows and horses wander like casual

Then there were Elisabeth and

quickly learned that surrendering to

entirely possible to spend your day

suffocating comfort of corporate life for

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ambitions have gotten a bit... hectic.

Katarina, two sisters who swapped the the transparent walls of a glasshouse

TRAVEL

retreat nestled in pine forests. Sleeping beneath the stars, in a house you can

see right through, was oddly humbling, until I realised my clumsy fumbling

with the door meant my only escape

route was through a window. Here’s a

travel tip: inventing a hotel where the

only entrance is via windows would be a booming niche market.

“THIS REGION DOESN’T SO MUCH INVITE YOU TO SLOW DOWN AS QUIETLY FORCES YOU TO RECONSIDER YOUR ENTIRE RELATIONSHIP WITH URGENCY.” Borås caught me off guard. The city

is less “quiet Swedish town” and more

“open-air art gallery on a creative sugar rush.” Street art appears in places you wouldn’t expect, on riverbanks, on

walls, balanced precariously on stacks of chairs. This is art that demands you think sideways, to tilt your

head and question perspective. The

Borås Konstmuseum was running an exhibition on lines, loops and layers,

clever metaphors for sustainability, time and the dizzying overlap of ideas. It’s

the kind of place that makes you wonder whether your life has been an endless

series of repetitive patterns begging for disruption.

And then there’s fika, the twice-daily, officially mandated coffee break.

This isn’t just an excuse to snack on

cake; it’s a ritualised rebellion against the tyranny of productivity. In West Sweden, you don’t just drink coffee,

you declare your allegiance to presence, community, and the delicate art of doing very little very well.

Borås, Sweden (Unsplash)

The region is peppered with reminders that creativity and tradition can coexist in joyful tension. At Ekelund’s linen mill, ancient threads are woven with

modern flair. In Limmared’s Glasets Hus, molten glass is shaped with a precision that borders on the mystical. Gunnebo Estate’s gardens show how nature

of a perfect cup of coffee shared with strangers who are suddenly friends.

If travel teaches anything, it’s that the unexpected is inevitable and often

delightful. And if you find yourself

needing to exit your hotel room via a window, take it as a metaphor:

flourishes when humans mind their step,

sometimes, you have to break the

the curious personality of lawnmowers

In a world hell-bent on faster, further,

and Lydde Gård guesthouse charms with that probably have more free time than you.

West Sweden is a place designed for

travellers who don’t want their journey to end. It asks, quite audaciously, for you to

reconsider your assumptions about speed, success, and satisfaction. It invites you to find joy in the unexpected, a riverbank

miniature sculpture, a forgotten art piece under a bench, or the simple pleasure

pattern to truly arrive.

better, West Sweden whispers a radical alternative: slow down, think deeply, laugh quietly at your mistakes, and savour the art of simply being.

Direct flights to Gothenburg from the UK

start at £43 one way with British Airways and £44.90 with Norwegian.

More information at westsweden.com and visitsweden.com

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COSTEAU

COSTEAU

THE GREAT CHRISTMAS GROCERY WARS

T

here's something magnificently British about the way our

supermarkets approach Christmas.

While other nations might focus

on the spiritual or familial aspects

of the season, we've turned it into a gladiatorial contest between retail 140

giants, each determined to out-discount

weeks to Christmas as retailers slashed

runs out of carrots to sell at 8p.

activity to woo shoppers. This wasn't

the other until someone cries uncle – or Christmas 2024 proved to be the most

deliciously vicious grocery war in recent memory. Sales performance reached

a record high of £14.6bn in the three

prices and ramped up promotional

just commerce; this was theatre with shopping trolleys.

The clear winner of this festive bloodbath was Tesco, which managed something

COSTEAU

remarkable: increasing grocery sales by

shopping habits. Lidl was the fastest

speak for "sell everything cheaply but

growing its market share to 28.5%. More

mortar presence for the 15th period in

roughly as feasible as it sounds.

6.8% year-on-year over December and

tellingly, more than 18 million customers bought Tesco's Finest range, driving a 16.7% sales increase, resulting from a

net switching from premium retailers.

In other words, Tesco didn't just win

the bargain hunters—they convinced middle-class shoppers to abandon

Waitrose for their posher offerings. That's not just victory; it's colonisation.

growing retailer with a bricks and

a row, continuing this run into a second year. Meanwhile, Ocado topped the

growth table, boosting its sales by 9.5%, proving that even in a cost-of-living

crisis, there are enough people willing to pay premium prices for the privilege of not having to enter an actual shop.

What made Christmas 2024 particularly fascinating was the way it exposed the

"THIS WASN'T JUST COMMERCE; THIS WAS THEATRE WITH SHOPPING TROLLEYS."

strange psychology of British shopping.

But the real story wasn't in market share

the cost-of-living crisis isn't quite as

highest market share since December

Christmas shopping represents such

the bottom that characterised the season.

that we'll do it regardless of economic

to a new low of 8p last Christmas. This

"TESCO DIDN'T JUST WIN THE BARGAIN HUNTERS—THEY CONVINCED MIDDLECLASS SHOPPERS TO ABANDON WAITROSE FOR THEIR POSHER OFFERINGS. THAT'S NOT JUST VICTORY; IT'S COLONISATION."

Despite all the hand-wringing about

household budgets, consumers seemed positively eager to spend. Record

numbers hit the shops as supermarkets experienced their busiest Christmas since 2019, suggesting that either

percentages – though Tesco achieved its

crippling as we've been told, or that

2017 – it was in the spectacular race to

a fundamental part of British identity

Supermarkets took the cheap veg battle

circumstances.

for vegetables that presumably cost more

than that to transport from farm to shelf.

The promotional madness reached

genuinely absurd levels. Spending on deals now makes up 28.6% of all sales, and

more than a quarter of all fast-moving consumer goods sales were purchased on promotion over Christmas, as the

UK grocery sector hit its highest level of

promotions for three years. We've reached the point where buying something at full price feels like a moral failing.

Tesco's strategy was particularly cunning:

price cuts on nearly 2,700 products helped attract shoppers, offering a full Christmas dinner for just £2.09 per person. This is either remarkable value or a sign that

we've completely lost our collective minds about what food should cost.

The German discounters continued

their relentless march through British

The industry analysts tried to make

sense of it all with their usual mixture of jargon and genuine insight. One

noted that a successful peak for 2024

hinged on achieving a delicate balance:

driving value-led activity to attract costconscious shoppers, whilst safeguarding profit margins. This is consultant-

somehow still make money," which is Perhaps the most telling detail came

from Tesco's post-Christmas analysis:

their boss described January as "intensely competitive" as consumers "tightened" their belts after the festive splurge.

So we moved from a Christmas of reckless abundance to a January of

enforced austerity, mediated entirely by supermarket pricing strategies. There's something almost medieval about this

cycle of feast and famine, except instead of depending on harvest cycles, we're

dependent on whether Sainsbury's decides to match Tesco's deal on Brussels sprouts.

"WE'VE REACHED THE POINT WHERE BUYING SOMETHING AT FULL PRICE FEELS LIKE A MORAL FAILING." Perhaps in the end the real winner in all

this wasn't any particular supermarket – it was the British consumer, who managed

to extract remarkable value from retailers engaged in what can only be described

as mutually assured destruction through discounting. Eight pence vegetables

and £2.09 Christmas dinners represent a kind of economic madness that

benefits everyone except, presumably, the supermarkets' shareholders and the poor farmers growing eight-penny carrots.

As we head into Christmas 2025,

one wonders whether this level of

promotional warfare is sustainable. But knowing the British grocery sector,

they'll probably find a way to make this Christmas even more magnificently,

absurdly competitive. After all, we've turned Christmas shopping into a

contact sport—and frankly, we wouldn't have it any other way.

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PREVIEW OF COMING ATTRACTIONS

NEXT ISSUE 1 LEADERS

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p12 Gordon Brown

p25 Sabrina Dhowre Elba

4 FOUNDER'S LETTER 7 DIARY David Walliams 8 MEET THE MENTOR Sam Pearce

COLUMNS

FEATURES

12 THE FORMER PM

30 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

74 A LITTLE CHEESY Bulletin from the camembert sector

54 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF

80 BACK TO MANCHESTER

Gordon Brown 13 THE NOVELIST Jonathan Coe on class, satire, and belonging

Pope Leo XIV

PURPOSE What gives work real meaning?

60 CAN’T GET NO SLEEP

Our latest bursary update

88 LETTER FROM IRAQ Tobias Elwood

How does shut-eye change careers?

14 T HE POLYMATH Tom Holland on history, belief and

65 THE FORGOTTEN SECTOR

Why hospitality deserves more respect

Britain 15 THE COMEDIAN Victoria Coren-Mitchell on poker and life 19 QUESTION OF DEGREE With Adam Conn 20 RELATIVELY SPEAKING

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Stanley Johnson on families and foreign policy 25 TOMORROW’S LEADERS Sabrina Dhowre Elba on youth, enterprise and equity 27 THOSE ARE MY PRINCIPLES Rory Stewart on truth in public life 142

p15 Victoria Coren-Mitchell

p27 Rory Stewart

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After Francis: In which direction will the new pontiff take the church?

ART, CULTURE & BOOKS 96 THE BUILDER PHILOSOPHER A tribute to Richard Rogers 98 MELODY AND MEMORY Brian Eno on sound, silence and creativity

130 BOOK REVIEWS The latest education tomes 134 PARIS DISPATCH Bulletin from the Left Bank

121 JMW TURNER

140 COSTEAU

126 RUGBY CAREERS

144 CLASS DISMISSED

How did the British icon become great?

Careers with an odd bounce

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CLASS DISMISSED

RUFUS NORRIS THE FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL THEATRE ON HIS TIME IN CHARGE – AND THE PECULIAR RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CRITIC AND ACTOR WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO FINISH YOUR TENURE AT THE NATIONAL THEATRE? It was strangely poetic, looking back.

I remember that final day so clearly — walking out of the building knowing it was the end of a chapter I’d been living for a decade. It wasn’t sadness exactly, more a mix of gratitude and disbelief that it was all done.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY NOW TO THE PEOPLE YOU WORKED WITH ALONG THE WAY?

DID BAD REVIEWS EVER WOUND YOU?

WHY DO THE CRITICS’ CIRCLE THEATRE AWARDS MATTER?

Thank you. To the teams onstage and backstage, to the audiences, to everyone who made the place what it was — I was lucky to be part of it. There were cheers, there were doubts, but there was always passion. That’s what kept it alive.

Of course. Vulnerability works both ways. I’ve had a show called “a crime against theatre” and “brilliantly imaginative” — the same show, in fact. You can guess which one I preferred.

Because they come from people who see more theatre than anyone else and aren’t swayed by politics or PR. It’s about recognising craft, dedication and achievement. That matters.

WHAT’S IT REALLY LIKE BEING AT THE MERCY OF THEATRE CRITICS?

DO THE BAD ONES STAY WITH YOU?

It’s a dance. Artists and critics — we’re stuck with each other, in the best possible way. We put the work out there, they respond. If it connects, that’s wonderful.

If it doesn’t, you still have to respect the engagement.

Yes, some word for word. It’s odd, but I think it shows a kind of respect — critics think hard about what they write, just as we think hard about what we make. It’s an ongoing conversation, even when it’s uncomfortable.

AND WHAT’S THE ONE THING YOU HOPED AUDIENCES FELT?

SO YOU NEVER FELT BITTER?

Not awe or admiration so much — those are nice, but they’re not the heart of it. It’s vulnerability. That flicker of hope in the middle of fear. That’s what moves people.

(Laughs) No. There’s always a bit of thunder in the relationship, but the goal is the same: keeping theatre alive, relevant, ambitious.

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IS THERE A REVIEW YOU’LL NEVER QUITE FORGIVE? One from my acting days in the 90s — I was described as “a charmless…” something-or-other. I’ll let time do the rest of the healing.

AND NOW, SIX MONTHS ON FROM LEAVING THE JOB? I’ve had time to let it settle. Whether the critics lifted us up or gave us a hard knock, I’m grateful for the conversation.

That back-and-forth is part of what keeps theatre vital.

Rufus Norris was speaking at the Critic’s Circle Theatre Awards, for which Finito Education is a sponsor

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