Even I have been known to emerge from a shopping centre clutching a little green bag full of smelly things, though they haven’t usually been for me. But I can’t deny the pervasive influence of Anita Roddick. The Body Shop showed that business could be done differently. It proved it was possible to use ethics as a selling point, and to appeal simultaneously to customers’ needs for self-indulgence and righteous protest. Gordon Brown told the TUC this week that the route to success is to improve skills. He announced measures to encourage workers to undertake training and take up job opportunities.