logo

Not only have they grown like topsy in size and number but their editors are among this country's most important opinion-formers with the

Posted by admin   ·     ·   Jump to comments

Not only have they grown like topsy in size and number, but their editors are among this country's most important opinion-formers, with the ability to influence a million rockeries, not to mention expenditure estimated to reach £3.6bn a year.For just as fish is the new meat, and Jamie the new Delia, so is gardening the new DIY, and clematis the new MDF The evidence for this is overwhelming. Newly released figures show that over the past six months the circulation of gardening magazines has rocketed, in one instance by an incredible 35 per cent. In the same period, sales of home-improvement magazines have withered.Here I should declare my indifference toward both hobbies. On the DIY front, I am the sort of person who, when my children ask me to play Mousetrap with them, considers calling in a plumber to help with the installation of that tricky plastic bathtub. Yet that does not stop me bursting with pleasure at the sight of a blazing hanging-basket or a lush, even lawn.

In fact, I am horrified by the current vogue hereabouts for paving over front gardens to provide off-street parking. Have these people no pride? Don't they watch Ground Force?Still, they had their come-uppance at our street party earlier this summer, when a woman from the local horticultural society judged the best front-garden competition and evidently decided that the most aesthetically pleasing spaces were those without the Ford Mondeo centrepiece. Not that I was in wholehearted agreement with her choice of winner. To me, the rabbit-shaped topiary seemed a little over the top. But then anything goes in horticulture these days.I can even think of one tiny London garden that boasts a tree-house (but no tree), raised flowerbeds, a pergola, a hammock, a herb garden and a camomile lawn It cost me all of two grand but was worth every penny. Moreover, it is an eloquent expression of my individuality yet didn't cause me a second's backache Now that's Blairite Britain for you..

You read constantly that there is a new economy in operation and a new economics is required in order to deal with it. You read constantly that there is a new economy in operation and a new economics is required in order to deal with it. Well, is it? The new economy is very much an invention of journalists. The phrase seems to come from, or was certainly popularised in, the United States by the editors of Business Week. And of course, the idea that there is a new economy, and in particular the idea that all the old rules of economics are no longer valid, is one which is immensely popular, immensely appealing.It is very appealing for students.

readers comments

Comments are closed.

NBA

NBA

MLB

MLB

NFL

NFL

NHL

NHL

WWE

WWE

Your sideblock text goes here