Dress down Tuesday, hurrah, courtesy of the TUC!

Pity I’m normally fairly lax on this front anyway. I tend to start a new job looking fairly dapper (I invariably have to buy proper trousers and shoes for the first time in ages), but then as I start spotting more and more colleagues in elements of mufti, the appearance slips. My excuse for today’s work outfit of jeans is that they’re smart (they have less holes than most of my jeans), and my shirt does have a collar, even if it’s otherwise a bit raggedy and tent-like.

Anyway this story is about unions calling for British bosses to do like Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi. Last year, he took off his tie and urged his country’s famously formal workforce to leave their formalwear at home so firms could turn down the air conditioning, and save a little bit of the environment. I like the idea of a PM who’s that flexible and practical in his look – I imagine he would be top of my list of world leaders to sing karaoke with. Of course it’s not bad either to have one who likes to parade the little details of good British design, and if Mr Tony were to start unbuttoning his sleeves too, we’d all see the Paul Smith pinups on the inside!