At a recent talk, Anthony Rose, a key founder of BBC iPlayer, cautioned against backing innovations which were, in effect, solutions looking for supposed problems. Conversely, there are plenty of genuine problems which we live with daily yet never seem to get fixed. One is the use of pint glasses as weapons (87,000 violent incidents in the UK per year). Even set against the 126 million pints served in the UK weekly, it’s a ghastly figure. On behalf of the dauntingly named “Design & Technology Alliance Against Crime”, the Design Council and Design Bridge have collaborated to find a solution.

The lead proposal (possibly in market within a year) being an invisible coating which keeps the glass shards together upon smashing. It will cost, of course, but this can be offset against the £100 million annually incurred in NHS and police costs dealing with the results today. Either way, Biffa-Bacon proof glassware can only be a good thing.

One question in my mind is will the new pint glass initially launch in a standardised form? Does this mean time will be called on distinctively branded glasses? Or just make them a bit more costly to produce? Surely the opportunity is there for a thought leader brand which trades on its designer credentials (Peroni for example) to step in and assist the project.