Horse manure, Man Ray styling chairs, teddy bears, sweets, flexible fridge magnets, non-existent mortgages...the list is as endless as it is entertaining.

Whether we are offended, amused or just curious, MPs Expenses is the best show in town. What were they thinking of? Did they not see that it all had to come to an end? ‘A bit daft’ says Gerald Kaufman about his claim for an £8000 television, ‘absolutely unrepentant’ says Tam Dalyell about his claim for a £7800 bookcase, ‘an oversight’, ‘a clerical error’, ‘within the rules and approved by the fees office’ says pretty much everyone.

And that’s where we get to haloes and devils.

There is a very good reason why SMEs are suspicious of motivational/performance training companies that say they will increase staff motivation and performance: the technical term for it is cognitive dissonance.

To you and me that means you know something is of no business benefit at all but somehow you were persuaded to pay for it and now you’re doing you’re best to convince yourself, against every last drop of your better judgement, that you made the right decision.

The Myth: In a recession people buy on price In a recession people buy on price

The Reality: In a recession people buy on confidence In a recession people buy on confidence

Here’s why… You wake up one morning with a feeling in the pit of your stomach. Fear. Not about anything specific, just a pervasive anxiety about the day ahead. The feeling follows you through the day, then about 3 o’clock you have to make a purchasing decision. What do you do? The majority of people faced with this dilemma will neither buy nor pull out. They will consult with their colleagues and the thought process they go through can teach us a lot about what to do with sales and marketing in a recession.