Wednesday, 13th July.

Well, there will be one faction who will say, ‘It won’t affect my business at all’. Others may realise that the last two years have brought changes to our belief system that have changed us all significantly. We need to look beyond the issues in the media. See what you make of this argument…

The sub-editor of the Sunday Times, in Paxman’s Newsnight (BBC2) last evening, said that the British Press is the pride of the world. How ironic that he can still try and put that argument.

Love him or hate him, few would deny that Gordon Brown, as Chancellor and PM and his family have been invaded appallingly by the press. (Their baby son’s medical records? Whatever next?)

It appears that The ‘Royal Police’ have given away some of the mobile numbers of members of the Royal Family – believed to be for only £1000? A cheap trick.

Is one newspaper any more lilly white than another in its sourcing of material? How many terabytes of emails have been cleaned from hard-drives over the last week –with or without express direction from editors?

The banking crisis and MP’s expenses changed us. We believed that the bedrock of our society and pillars of the country could never behave like this, right? Now the Press and Police are under fire from House of Commons Select committees, there is about to be the most high profile Judicial Review in media history and (so far) nine are charged. More will follow as a result of the Review.

Seth Godin challenges our belief system in his book, Tribes.

People don’t believe what you tell them
They rarely believe what you show them.
They often believe what their friends tell them.
They always believe what they tell themselves
What leaders do: they give people stories they can tell themselves.
Stories about the future and about change.

So how will the Nation and our customers respond?
Many of us may just have to change the way we market our brand.