THE AGENDA Letters Dear Spear’s... Readers have their say on the state of the World


Economic Forum, home buying in lockdown, cancel culture, and the nature of disagreement


Forum reforms SIR – Since Klaus Schwab launched the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 1971, the event has grown in scope and stature. It has also lost its way. Famous rich men arriving in Davos on private planes to discuss climate change, sexism and inequality has


Exclusive Featuring


Anna Friel Andy Coulson


WEALTH| BUSINESS | CULTURE | LIFE


Meet the billionaire activist planning to shake up Wall St


Plus


Why you haven’t made it, until you own an Hermès tie Q1, 2021 £5.95


increasingly hampered the WEF from asserting its relevance or justifying its existence. It needs to be a world economic forum worthy of the name. World: come down from the Swiss mountains to where the planet’s future is really being shaped. Whether the Europeans who have so far dominated the WEF discussion like it or not, the driving force today is Asia. Make this year’s foray to Singapore (Spear’s issue 78) the fi rst of a series of global destinations – each being an opportunity to showcase a region and its trends. Economic: with hindsight, ceding the stage to Kevin Spacey in 2016 was a low point. In a bid for stature, the Forum strayed from its topical roots, featuring not just business leaders but celebrities – and the distracting media circus that follows them. Scaling the event down to refocus on stakeholder capitalism would be a signifi cant step to clawing back its credibility. Forum: as the event has grown in scope, so its ability to get participants to reach agreement on cooperation and commit to tangible action has dissipated. The WEF’s virtual event, Davos Agenda Week, is a start. Now use technology to record and track progress against agreed actions. Return with vigour to the WEF’s original mission: positive change. Andrew Carrier andrewcarrier.com


How Singapore’s vision of the future is bringing Davos to the Lion City


COVID: 2021


Flexible living SIR – The desire to create a strong family base, in light of the pandemic lockdown, is more popular than ever. There is a real focus on work-life-family balance and what that should provide in the new world as we emerge from lockdown. With many buyers looking for the quintessential edge-of- village Georgian house in a few acres where everyone can be under one roof, the smarter money is looking in the lesser- known fringes of geography


for properties that can be adapted accordingly. The ‘concertina house’, which can expand and contract according to the number of its occupants, is a growing request of late among my client searches, when looking for a home across Oxfordshire & Gloucestershire. Disrupting the conventional model for how we live and operate around the property, providing connectivity between spaces, for diff erent generations and purpose, I believe is the way forward to future-proof the desirability of the homes we create. Adam Buxton Buxton Property Consultancy Limited


Calling out cancel culture SIR – In response to your article ‘Reputation management in the time of cancel culture’ (Issue 78), I did agree in most part with the content of the article, and in particular the comments made by Mark Borkowski, a mentor, colleague and friend of mine. However, I did feel that it missed an important takeaway. The inexorable rise of social media, allied with the infl uence of Gen Z, has changed the game of reputation


management. PRs such as myself, whose clients are household names, are acutely aware that reputation damage can happen. People should be accountable for


their actions: Harvey Weinstein is a prime example. Cancel culture has been created by


Gen Z. Their view is that if they play a part in giving someone fame and attention, and they slip up, they have the right to take their stardom away. It is especially prominent when someone shows racist, homophobic, misogynistic or transphobic traits. However, increasing number of Gen Zs now believe it has become too extreme. The right thing in this digital day and age is not to be quick to judge. It is up to reputation managers, allied with sensible Gen Zs like my daughters, to push back against the extreme nature of cancel culture and create a more forgiving call-out culture. Anthony Burr CEO, Burr Media


On view SIR – I read the interview with Professor Sunetra Gupta (issue 78) on the subject of the Great Barrington Declaration and her personal experiences around being a contributor to it. It highlights a growing concern that I have, which is the growth of ad hominem responses to, and the construction of non sequiturs from, viewpoints that are not in line with one’s own beliefs. In a landscape where the evidence on which we make decisions is changing fast, we must show epistemic humility. Also, we ought to recognise that when


experts voice arguments and interpretations that are not aligned with our own, sometimes disagreement is not founded on reason. As Ali Almossawi said in An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments, ‘Logic does not generate new truths, but rather allows one to evaluate existing chains of thought for consistency and coherence. It is precisely for that reason that it proves an eff ective tool for the analysis and communication of ideas and arguments.’ Dr Magda Osman Queen Mary University of London


To submit a letter for publication in Spear’s, email arun.kakar@spearswms.com. All correspondence will be considered for publication unless otherwise stated.


13


7765 7 8 > 9 772054 776019


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100