death of the town centre

I was walking through Swindon the other day when I noticed a sign in the window of a printer ink reseller. The sign said "Relocating to Internet" and that got me thinking about people who don't have or don't want Internet access and about the very real danger of their disenfranchisement from society and whether this will have a negative impact on their quality of living and the impact on the general population.

This pattern of thought was driven by the fact that economic reality will force more and more businesses to trade exclusively online as more and more customers demonstrate their preference for shopping online, or simply shop online because there is little alternative.

This will lead to an increase in empty shops in town centres, and elsewhere. The lease owner will still be responsible for Council Tax and Business Rates so will have expenditure but no income which means that the lease owner will let the lease lapse at the end and the business owner, who still has to pay local taxes even though the property is empty, may simply demolish their premises,

This means that the local authorities will see a decline in revenue and so they will have to increase the rent on the properties they own and increase local taxes which may have the knock on effect of pushing more businesses either soley online or in to liquidation.

This would lead to more revenue loss for local authorities which leads to higher taxes and rents, higher prices to the consumer as businesses struggle to meet their running costs which leads to more migration to the Internet or business liquidation which leads to more empty shops which increases the disenfranchisement of those who choose not to use the Internet or simply can't.

Phew, made it to Bush House, Bristol via Templemeads and Bristol IT. Saw lots of rain thru windows but dodged the drops whilst walking

Off to The Red Lion in Salisbury later - presenting on Social Media for businesses - http://ping.fm/qAGws if you're looking for something to do

Just tweaking my presentation for this afternoon's "Wiltshire - Open for Business" event in Devizes http://bit.ly/mrXeqs

Do you know the World's top 10 brands? Well, have a guess then see ow close you are http://ping.fm/3oJxr

13 tips on writing better copy http://ping.fm/rEUrM The 14th is to employ a copy writer

Have a few minutes to spare but left your Rubik's cube at home? Don't worry, you can DL a virtual one http://ping.fm/vOhRc

RIP Poly Styrene
Isn't it incredible how sad memories trigger happier ones.

When i read about the sad death of Poly Styrene yesterday at the very young age of 53 I remembered that they played in Swindon in 1977 or 1978 at The Affair, a great club that was opposite the Wyvern Theatre and used to book great bands from that era.

Before we ever went to a gig, we always used to stop off at The Rifleman's, a pub just down from the Town Hall. That night, when we popped in for a pre-gig beer, we were surprised to see the whole band also having a pre-gig beer [or 2] including Laura Logic, the band's v under age Sax player.

We asked if we could joint them and had a really nice chat before they had to go and get ready.

As I said, a happy memory that was triggered by a very sad one