Snow fun outside tonight

I'm sitting in a warm pub at the moment, with the cricket on and a pint in hand but I can't settle. For I know that out in London tonight, thousands of shivering, sodden souls will be huddling in slush-filled doorways praying for the soft release of an unbroken night's sleep that'll never come.

I know this because it's a documented fact. Not because of ten people I've passed this evening, all wanting the change from my pockets. No, the hard fact is that we all live with the knowledge that there are those outside our cosy houses in the dead of night, vulnerable to the elements and to other people.

So what do you do? What do we do? Throw some coppers? Keep your fingers tightly clasped around your wallet, afraid you might be funding another's drug habit? Well no actually, thanks to heroes like Ken Deeks and John Bird, there are real options.

John Bird is the founder of The Big Issue and Ken Deeks created the annual tech industry sponsored sleepout, Byte Night. Both are individuals who through their work have extended a ladder to those on the street, giving them the opportunity to climb back to a position of safety and respect.

John is especially interesting to me, for his utilisation of a capitalist model as part of his charity. This was bourne out in a column of his I read in The Big Issue before Christmas. In the piece John railed against the now common practice amongst consumers of paying the cover price to vendors without taking the magazine. His argument was simply that people on the street learn a a culture of dependence. Being given help and aid rather than earning it, diminishes your desire to support yourself and robs you of the self-confidence to believe that you can. By giving the money without taking the mag, you're undermining the work being done by The Big Issue. After all if you're going to do that why not just chuck some change at the guys feet instead.

This is a fairly hard line to take for someone who used be homeless himself but it makes sense. Make someone work for their money and not only will they respect themselves and the cash more but they can then take forward skills that can be applied in the future.

So this bleak mid-winter, if you want to help out those thousands on the street, I urge you to do a little research into the work being carried out by both Byte Night and The Big Issue. It's good for the soul and a a good way to make sure that your cash goes towards a solution rather than simply supporting the status quo.

Why Britain needs a re-brand

British people don't care about the UK any more. The era of national pride has passed and all that is left is a divided, self-interested populous with more loyalty to celebrities and brands than to British people.

I know this because I am one.

Over the past decade, for this is all I can talk knowledgeably about, Britain has become a fragmented state. We have experienced quasi-devolution whereby Wales and Scotland have their own parliaments but still kowtow to Westminster, leading to further anti-British fervour. We have seen a breakdown in society where communities are so transient, especially prevalent in cities, that neighbours don't know each other's names - nevermind actually communicating with each other.

In a society where the crowd is this disparate, without any common bonds, how can we expect to rise and rage against the tide of anti-social behaviour that exists in every nook and cranny? You might argue that anti-social behaviour isn't that rife but think; how many times have you been forced to listen to someone else's music because they didn't think to check whether it was audible; how many times have you seen the elderly stranded in tube carriages because no-one will move; how many times everyday do you see people queue jump, push in front or just show disinterest in the needs and well-being of others?

These minor offences happen all the time and yet each unchecked incident of anti-social behaviour erodes the commonly held values of the masses. If teenagers, children and even middle-aged bankers learn that they will not be pilloried for focusing on themselves to the detriment of others, it reduces their sense of shame. What's more every observer to that act feels more alone by the failure of a cohesive response to it, leading to fear that will harden into anger and disinterest.

So back to the main thrust of this piece, why does Britain need a 're-brand' of all things? A brand is what? A brand is a distinguishing name and/or symbol, intended to identify a product Well, I guess we have the brand but it represents an undefined product. What is it that Britain represents to you? Leave me a comment if you can think of anything positive that represents every head of populous but after ten minutes I'm still stumped.

What is Britain other than a collection of individuals tied together by mutually held - or in years gone by - enforced beliefs? Imagine if a company tried to separate itself into three divisions and each one was allowed to create its own mission statement independent of each of the others. Very soon you would have three companies with no evidence to ever suggest that they were once part of a whole. This is the situation in Britain except the divisions are smaller, sometimes to the level of individuals.

How about instead we act and create a consensus of the small, relatively inconsequential values that we all would like to adhere to, for example something as small as "always give up your seat for those more infirm or in need than yourself". These ideologies would stray away from matters of faith or creed and focus on the day to day. Each time that a citizen wanted to apply for a driving licence, National Insurance, benefit payment or passport they would be required to sign up to these basic values. Any transgression would result in suspension of the use of any and all of those items, empowering people to try to enforce them.

The benefits would be multiple. People would feel empowered to stand up against anti-social behaviour and the shoots of anarchic behaviour would be cut down by the crowd. The best thing is that it does nothing to stifle revolution or kowtow to policy, it just says that there is something powerful and beautiful in this random assortment of people. FFS let's just all be nice to one another!