Ian Middleton
Oxford
1975 - 1979 Part time holiday and Saturday work CES Harry Fentons Lewisham/Bromley/Croydon and central London
1979 - 1983 Studied Psychology University of East London
1983 -1984 MSc Applied Psychology and Technology Assessment Cranfield Institute of Technology
1984 Certificate of membership of CIT
1984 Membership of the convocation of CIT
1985 - 1989 Musician
1988 - 1994 Ran market stalls at Covent Garden, Greenwich and Camden lock
1994 - Present MD of Argenteus Jewellery Ltd
Find me on Twitter @IanMiddletonX
Recent activity
Comments (791)
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Comment on: Snuggle up with an Asda snuggie
Bit confused here. Is this some sort of advertising feature?
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Comment on: January retail sales like-for-like drop 'sobering'
So sales down, void rates climbing, several retailers already bust and a few others looking wobbly. Just the right time for the government to land us all with a huge rates increase! If these cost escalations in the face of falling revenue and competition from online aren't dealt with soon, we could be looking at a perfect storm on the high street. I don't agree with everything that Phil Wrigley said about a death spiral just yet, but it's not going to take too much more pressure to push things past a tipping point from where there may well be no return. Government better start taking this seriously soon if they want to avoid a social catastrophe that may well go down in history as their legacy.
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Comment on: Government launches Portas pilot to revive high street
Nice idea Anon. But it wouldn't help those already tied to high street leases and extortionate rates demands. That, I assumed, was the purpose of the Portas initiatives. If it was just a matter of inventing new retailing concepts I'm sure there would be many other ideas that would work. A moveable high street that councils would court seems to assume that at that point they'd no longer have a functioning high street retail offer in their locale.
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Comment on: Government launches Portas pilot to revive high street
Thanks for the compliment Cargobox. I do always try to say what I really think, rather than what I think would be good for me to be heard saying. Sometimes I wonder if that's a disadvantage to me so it's nice to hear responses like yours. Clare - I hope I haven't come across as negative to your point of view either here or on your blog. I think, judging by what you say above, that we're in almost total agreement, especially on the matter of Willy and his flame haired Oompah Loompah. I was just a little concerned that in your initial comment there seemed to be the belief that the huge sums we pay in rates to central government (even though it's paid via local councils) went entirely towards local services. It doesn't, as I'm sure you're aware. Not even half of it does which frankly is deplorable. I certainly agree that if this is the kind of response we're going to see from government over the plight of retailers, both in city centres and even in the mega malls, we may all need to look for a new profession in the coming years. The pressures faced by all of us are growing daily. Yet Mr Shapps and our glorious leader who's wife, as a retailer herself we were led to believe would give focus on the industry, seem to feel they have time enough to play games and dream up competitions with TV personalities, rather than get down to the serious job of being statesmen or stateswomen. We all know that the situation is much more urgent than that. High Street retail as one of the UK's major income earners for the exchequer is slipping away. It may be too late soon for anyone to change that once the tipping point is reached, least of all a government with the kind of clouded vision and lack of engagement that we seem to have now. If the recent demise of numerous high street names and the huge job losses they have triggered are not enough for them to realise that the time for silly stunts like this is well past, I too think we may as well not count on any of them for support.
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Comment on: Government launches Portas pilot to revive high street
Clare, the point about rates is that the valuations are all skewed. The current levels were set in 2008 at the height of the boom in property prices so there's effectively a windfall premium in the first place. This year the multiplier has also been set using inflation figures from what was an abnormal period in September. The months either side were very different. Yet the government continue to plough ahead with a 5.3% increase using atypical data in the face of what is fast becoming a bloodbath on the high street. That's what most retailers care about. The ability to afford to pay a tax that has absolutely no connection to that ability. Unlike most other tax systems. Very little of our rates payments go towards the upkeep of roads etc so the issue of cleanliness has little bearing on where I see my money going. You're labouring under a misapprehension that has been prevalent for some time. The old idea that your rates were solely going to pay for the upkeep of your local environment went out the window when UBR was brought in. Even if it did, having clean streets and empty bins wouldn't help me find the money to pay an ever increasing rates bill if customers are still put off coming into the town due to extortionate car parking charges. Or the fact that another mall has just been built a few miles away (probably with free parking) or that the economy is being depressed by government policy and/or wider economic issues. As for this Portas/Schapps competition, I'm currently trying to calm down about it enough to write a coherent piece on it myself. The idea that towns should now enter into some kind of reality TV style race to 'win' a share of a paltry handout is frankly demeaning. It certainly shows that the government has very little grasp of the plight of retailers or the need for urgency in properly targeted initiatives on issues such as rates bills. I've tried hard not to criticise Mary for her review. I think she was placed in a difficult position in being asked to carry it out. The fact that the government seemed to think that someone off the telly was qualified to deal with the serious problems building up in a key area of the economy was not really her fault. However if this charade is now going to be extended into these sorts of PR stunt initiatives while people watch their jobs and businesses evaporate, I for one won't feel like being magnanimous about it for much longer. By referring to this initiative as a 'Golden Ticket' Schapps presumably sees himself as Willy Wonka with retailers cast as eager schoolchildren tearing open chocolate bars in the hope that they might still have a livelihood by Christmas. In which case I can only assume Mary Portas is an Oopah Loompah.
