Concrete Pencil: There is power in a union

That's it, you see - there she goes, out into the world, out into the first of, by my reckoning, not many more than 10 institutions that she'll know throughout her life.

Nursery, junior school, secondary school, college, uni, some sort of fun going around the world association, works one to four, old folk's home.

My knee-jerk is to think this is a terrible thing, that institutions clamp personalities into place. I just want us all to be free and live in the country and grow rhubarb etc.

To see it at as one dark continuum. That, in the words of the title of a book by Irvine Welsh (I now read titles rather than novels, it saves a lot of time) - If You Liked School, You'll Love Work. But I don't think I really believe that.

There is something about the experience of institutions that is positive. As a Billy Bragg song title has it, There Is Power In A Union.

Call me institutionalised, but deep in my sleepiest, deepiest thoughts I see as much benefit in the institutional life as its alternatives.

There's bits of working for a company that are better than working for yourself. I never really have to worry about my tax bill. Or sick days. Or stuff like that.

And I've been here the best part of 10 years. I know people. It is, as one colleague so eloquently put it, a velvet rut.

There's a book out at the moment called How Many Friends Does One Person Need?, by Professor Robin Dunbar. Its theme - evolution's effect on modern life - is one in which I've always had a great interest, so I've gone as far as reading the product description on Amazon.

It's a very good title, Facebookising as it does, its proper scienceness (the prof has the chops, make no mistake).

It argues that we are hardwired to need about 150 people to be on nodding terms with - because that was the size of a clan in the evolutionary environment. We need about 150 faces we can consider Our People. 

And what better modern example of that than a large department in the modern Wharf-size company. 

I hope, if I ever get a chance to read the book, it'll go into the teams and tribes one forms within that clan.

Put me on one side of two groups of five and I'll start telling you things about those other bastards.

I'm reminded of a headline of an interview with Alastair Campbell. 'I'm tribal. I'm Labour. I'm Burnley. I'm Campbell.'

Apart from the unforgivable third-person self-reference, it's a sentiment I fully recognise.

So, you see that other nursery down the road - they've all got runny noses and can't walk for toffee.