It was third time lucky for Radio Merseyside to book BBC director general Mark Thompson for the official opening of their new Liverpool studios. Up on his feet to utter the usual pleasantries, The DG hastily explained that he had been asked to remove his tie for a television interview - presumably so more smartly dressed guests would not thinking he was letting the side down. But was he? Old Greg Dyke might have sounded rougher than a cinder being crunched under a doormat but he never looked like a doormat, or as if he needed the assistance of a dresser for public appearances.

This dressing down craze, started by the bearded Branson, has now gripped huge sections of business and commerce, with some managers looking more like navvies.
The psychological subtext is interesting and runs thus: "I am very important, but look, I no longer have to be conventional, and, despite my seniority, I am not bound by the rules which still govern building society flunkeys and lesser wannabe managers."
But who's kidding whom?
A smart appearance assists smart work. It is part of a mind-set, which also results in slovenly appearance leading to a slovenly work. I know of someone who works from home, but still dresses 'properly' , refusing to shuffle around looking like a forecourt attendant.
But in some offices, there is a benefit to dressing down: it at least allows those with only one set of decent working clothes to visit the 24-hour cleaners.

* I recently needed directory inquiries for the number of the Royal Mint, situated in some unpronounceable suburb of Cardiff.
No longer suprisingly, my quest was dealt with in India.
"I have no Royal Mint - what is it?" said the voice.
I pointed out that it was the institution which had put the images of Queen Victoria, Edward V111,George V and George V1 on the coinage of that particular sub-continent continent over a period of three generations.
Suddenly, the number was forthcoming.

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