BLT’s home is in Chancery Lane, London. So when we open our Australian office we can save some printing costs by locating it in Chancery Lane, Bendigo (Victoria).

We thank JC, one of our newsletter subscribers, for sending us the picture. And if you see a Quality Court or a Chancery Lane on your travels, please let us know -and send us the snap.

Is Simon Cowell right to be worried about the threat from ‘The Voice’?

I think he is; ‘Britain's Got Talent’ is tired and out-dated.

The BBC has not only captured The Voice, it’s captured the nation’s voice or, more importantly, its mood. As I watched last weekend’s showings of The Voice I was struck not only of course by the huge talent of everyone competing but - and competing is the key word - they were competing together; the contestants had to share the floor and work with each other to be their best, proving that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Similarly the judges had to share the glory and the pain. Turning over to Britain’s Got Talent, the contrast was clear. Simon had done his best to keep up and wisely ensured that a great young talent would be the first act the channel-hopping audience saw. However, it wasn’t long before a counterpoint appeared and I was faced with the usual embarrassment of watching TV that is simply cruel and voyeuristic. The Voice is reflective a new collaborative culture; Britain’s Got Talent is the equivalent of the worst of the last decade of ruthless “every man for himself” and “laugh at the losers” style of commercial exploitation. I turned over again and found The 1970s: How did the mood of that decade compare? Who can remember?

Channel Four’s Peep Show has a clip 3 minutes into the programme which might amuse you about management consultancy. Here’s the conversation:

Johnson: Here's my pitch: New Management Consultancy, you and me. I'm the face, you're the, uh, tendons and the grisly shit under the surface. Whaddaya say?

Mark Corrigan: Oh my God... I don't know. Really?

Johnson: Look at you! You're like the fat girl who's just been asked to the school disco.

Mark Corrigan: Well, yeah... my only hesitation is that I don't have any actual experience of management consulting...

[Johnson shuts Mark's lips with his fingers]

Johnson: In, fire 30% of the workforce, new logo, boom! Out. You are now a fully trained management consultant.

This comes on top of the US dark comedy House of Lies, which has lines like:
"We're here to open wallets, not minds," and, "Still don't know what it is we do? Then I guess we're doing it well."

Are there any more TV references to consulting out there? Let us know.

Johnson: Here's my pitch: New Management Consultancy, you and me. I'm the face, you're the, uh, tendons and the grisly s**t under the surface. Whaddaya say?

Mark Corrigan: Oh my God... I don't know. Really?

Johnson: Look at you! You're like the fat girl who's just been asked to the school disco.

Mark Corrigan: Well, yeah... my only hesitation is that I don't have any actual experience of management consulting...

[Johnson shuts Mark's lips with his fingers]

Johnson: In, fire 30% of the workforce, new logo, boom! Out. You are now a fully trained management consultant.

Just as I typed the title above, a small sigh of weariness escaped me over the inescapable buzzword of ‘social media’. Despite the impressive leaps and bounds that have been made in social media to project it to its global (and lucrative) stage, I cannot help but think one too many tech-savvy entrepreneurs are jumping on the digital bandwagon.

As a ‘consumer’ of social media and networking sites, I’m not entirely convinced on whether I’d benefit from syncing my LinkedIn profile to my Twitter account that connects to my Pinterest page which links to my Facebook that features my blog that’s connected to Foursquare. If someone were to subscribe to all of these at once, they’d know where I’m working, what I’m doing, what I’m looking at, who my friends are, what I’m thinking and where I physically am ALL HOURS OF THE DAY.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is…is it all really necessary?

In some instances, I like the way in which new modes of social media is targeted to specific needs and has directed some traffic away from the likes of Facebook. For example, I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling irritated and bored when my Facebook friends forget to make their statuses interesting, and instead I receive hourly updates on their daily routine. ‘Walking the dog’, ‘Stubbed my toe. Ow’, ‘Excited for the weekend!’ have, thankfully, largely now made a shift to the Twitter-sphere. Likewise, I can’t say I care to have my Facebook feed bombarded with pictures of kittens showcasing a variety of fancy dress, sat in cardboard boxes. Pinterest came to the rescue and now obsessive cat-lovers can seek each other out and collectively indulge in cute, feline fluffiness. Foursqaure escapes me still. I don’t personally see the appeal in constantly alerting followers of my exact whereabouts. And as for Google +, I can’t even figure out how to use it, let alone understand what it’s for.

Perhaps my disillusion with social media stems from where I am now in my life. Having graduated only last year, it was not long ago that I fled to Facebook in the face of essay deadlines. Other forms of procrastination such as FitFinder (I still mourn its abrupt end) were very much welcomed. As a student, Facebook was an excellent way to organise events, tag photos from fancy dress socials and share our desperation as we updated each other on the position of the rising sun in relation to our word counts, the morning of deadline day.

Back then, I was less concerned with an apparent need to ‘cover all bases’. But now, as a consumer, I feel a sense of information overload from all directions and a little resentment over the increasing necessity to connect one form of social media to another. I’m not contesting the effectiveness of social media (not on this occasion anyway), I just wonder how alone I am in feeling that the novelty may be wearing off.

By the way, if any of the above mentioned names went over your head, here’s social media explained: http://s3-ak.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/terminal01/2011/3/16/10/social-media-explained-2911-1300286039-2.jpg

Look out for links to this blog via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and maybe even a viral version on Youtube!