Cathy Dobbs: Boss must learn that brands aren't bigger than their customers

It now seems that Wickes is having its Bud Light Moment after their chief operating officer Fraser Longden offended millions.

Speaking as part of an online event he branded gender-critical shoppers as “bigots” who are “not welcome in our stores”. This is after the company attended Brighton Pride last year with huge signs saying “No LGB without the T” which managed to infuriate the lesbian, gay and bisexual communities.

Longden clearly could take on some advice on public relations, as annoying the vast majority of the population isn’t the best way to increase sales. This is a battle that is set to continue, but brands need to realise that they aren’t bigger than their customers. And here’s a little lesson for Wickes – the person making decisions over paint colour is usually the woman, and I’m talking about the ones without a penis. ***

Function Fanatics – not heard of them? They are the consumers that will part with hundreds, even thousands, of pounds to buy a product with functions they will never use. Let’s take air fryers as an example. The price starts at around £60 but for those who don’t just want an air fryer they can blow £300 on one with multi-functions such as steam, grill, slow cook and pressure cook.

This is all well and good but other functions include saute, yogurt and dehydrate – which will probably only get used once at best. This isn’t just limited to air fryers, you see it on everything from cars to microwaves. That’s why my favourite device is the kettle – just one switch, you know exactly what it does and it’s used several times a day.

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If we want to improve education and retain teachers there’s one simple thing we can do – scrap Ofsted.

You’d think Ofsted was there to offer advice, assist schools in improvements and make life better for both teachers and children. Sadly, its sole purpose seems to be to stand in judgement and create fear among teachers across the country.

The former chief inspector has said that its one-word judgements are “damning” and “unfair”. This follows the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry after learning that her school would be downgraded from “outstanding” to “inadequate”.

It’s such a shame that a headteacher has had to die to show us all how brutal the Ofsted bullies are.