Shepherd on Climate is now set up in draft form as a cesc publication in Adobe pdf format. It begins with the 9000-word Tavern Talk on Climate (50 pages) and ends with the 3000-word Energy Wars (16 pages).

Between Tavern Talk and Energy Wars are the 32 web-postings on the Shepherd on Climate website arranged into two volumes…the 8000-words More Talk on Climate (38 pages) and the 12000-word Carry On Talking (52 pages).

At 32000-words Shepherd on Climate (156 pages) is four times the size of the 7000-word Politics of the English Pound (36 pages) published in 2003 and eight times the size of the 20-page England’s Landed Property set up in draft form in 2001 with the 40-page Landed Thoughts section as a one-page list of contents.

Climate is also 44% longer than the 22000-word (100 page) Rise & Fall of the Swedish Green Party (1982-1997) published in 1989.

My daughter had her first taste of the publishing business at the tender age of sixteen when she had the task of seeing the Swedish Green Party book through typesetting…as it was called then…and book-making. She remembers her business trip to Glastonbury from Stockholm to pick up the books…they were not ready of course…as a nightmare and her performance as Editor and Project Supervisor as a failure. But she did much better than she realises.

The Sink or Swim approach is rather brutal. But it sorts the sheep out from the goats and can be the quickest way to learn. The Apprenticeship System is gentler but who is willing to stick at their trade for seven years and then spend the rest of their life practising the crafts they have mastered? Does each Polish Plumber bring a mate with him?

First jobs are invariably nightmares and often perceived as embarrassments at the time and…with hindsight…as failures. Newcomers to the world of work are never prepared for the reality of the world of jobs and tasks, goals and objectives, agendas and procedures.

Confusion is normal in most firms with everyone muddling through and trying to keep up appearances. It can take several years…with much bumping of self-esteem along the way…before the newcomer develops a modus operandi for surviving…and dare I suggest prospering…in the world of work.

Sitting in a classroom and taking written examinations can never prepare anyone for the real world. The world of work is not like school with preset questions and right and wrong…or multiple choice…answers to each question.

There are things that need doing, problems to solve and people around you that need managing. Managing your boss for instance is a crucial skill that comes with practise on several different bosses but few get to be very proficient.

But at least the school playground and the journey to school teach something about the psychology of a workforce and the sociology of a workplace.

Schooling has two principal functions in society. It provides childcare so women can undermine union wages by competing for jobs and adding to unemployment. And it provides supervised incarceration to keep young people from running wild on the streets and irritating the idle old and the idle rich.

The clocks go back in two weeks, there is a nip in the air most mornings and the nights are drawing in with sunrise at quarter past seven and sunset eleven hours later. Seventy-five shopping days to Christmas, PC-Hut has closed down and Vodafone keeps phoning me with offers of credit on my phone bills and an upgrade on my mobile phone if I renew my contract…so I cancelled my Monthly Direct Debit, signed on for Business Online Billing and collected October copies of Vodafone Autumn and Vodafone Business to help me get my head round it all. Life goes on.