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Many of us over 60 are counted out when part-time jobs come up despite our collective wisdom and abilities.

To counter some of this prejudice I have dispensed with sending my CV and have instead created The Complete Picture, an animated ninety second overview of my life to date @ https://vimeo.com/223960456.

 

 

 

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31
MAY
Well, well, well, three weeks in and we have our first casualty of the Coalition....David Laws, the Chief Secretary of the Treasury, has had to resign because he had submitted bills for over £40,000 for his second home even though the address which he gave was the same as his lover's. This has been outlawed since 2006. You have to ask, notwithstanding his abject apologies, how he thought it was legal in the first place. Imagine any MP (man or woman) living with their...
28
MAY
I spent three days in Madrid this week with the Family Online Safety Institute www.fosi.org at a conference on internet matters sponsored by Telefónica, the owners of 02.   Spain and the UK has become much closer economically during the past decade with BA’s “purchase” of Iberian Airlines, Banco Santander’s buyout of Abbey National, which has just been rebranded in the UK High Street, Aviva the new-ish owners of Norwich Union and a few years back, Ferrovial who bought...
27
MAY
There are very few managers in any sport who come to dominate it irrespective of the teams they coach.   In soccer the great managers – Matt Busby (Man Utd), Bill Nicholson (Spurs), Bill Shankly (Liverpool) and Sir Alex Ferguson (Man Utd) – did so with one club. Few of England’s managers had continued success at club level which may go some way to explain why so few have been successful. Look at cricket or rugby and the same applies: continuous success has been elusive.   So when
25
MAY
It is a rare event for any UK newspaper, especially one as old as The Observer (www.observer.co.uk), to dedicate most of its Editorial to the subject of Privacy and for much of that to online privacy.   I wrote to The Editor on Monday asking if The Observer would begin a national campaign to change the law but as yet I have had no response.   My view is clear, it is wrong of Facebook and Google and all the other online companies - though these two seem to be in danger of becoming...
24
MAY
With Europe proudly promoting two versions of itself – the Euro zone and the non-Euro zone countries – where is its leadership?   It seems as if the bankers are doing the work trying to save the Euro – pilloried last week by none other than Joseph Stieglitz - and demanding new rules on Budgets et al. This is not the way to run an association of 27 countries.   There has to be a root and branch reform of the inner workings of the EU and an insistence that MEPs must also be...
21
MAY
Let's go through the hoops. The Eurozone countries hope Greece is the only bail out and that though the Spanish and Portuguese economies are in a difficult place the measures that have been taken this week should see the euro through to a safe haven. Meanwhile, as David Cameron continues his coronation across Europe - looking decidely ill at ease in Paris with President Sarkozy yesterday even though they are both right wing leaders - he might ponder whither the £ if it needs a bail...
19
MAY
Fair minded people might just pause and ask themselves which side the Mail on Sunday is on. Silly me, of course it is on the Mail on Sunday’s side.   So let’s at least give three cheers for Gary Lineker who did the right thing, rarer these days, by resigning from the newspaper as a columnist after they had exposed Lord Triesman’s comments which had been recorded during a private meeting with a former colleague. Lord Triesman was the Chairman of the Football Association and Chairman of...
18
MAY
The BBC was founded as the British Broadcasting Company in 1922 and was renamed the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1926 once it had obtained its royal charter; it was delivered through the General Post Office both resident inside the Home Office. It was essentially a radio (wireless) service with naturally the Home Service (now Radio4), the quaintly named Light Programme (Radio2) and the Third Programme (Radio3). Today, the BBC receives over £3.5 billion a year for its increasingly...
17
MAY
In these era of 24 Hour News Channels coupled with the immediacy of Facebook groups and Twitter, the one thing the political class has not resolved is how to cope with their demands.   There are two ways to respond. The first is not to respond at all. The second is to use the new media as your own versions of Sky News, or Nick Robinson Must Go or Alastair Campbell for Pope. In some ways the No.10 web site was moving in that direction but under the new Posh & Clegg regime who knows....
14
MAY
William Hague, struggling to find his voice in Washington, DC today, went on and on about our so-called Special Relationship with the USA. There isn't one. There isn't a special relationship. It 's bogus.   Just look at events since WW2 - and remember they took some time to come into both WW1 and WW2: 1956 Suez - the US Navy shot across one of our ships; President Eisenhower was absolutely livid at the Anglo-French plans to invade Suez 1961 Vietnam - we failed (rightly) to...
12
MAY
Whatever the result tonight in Hamburg - given the resources at Fulham's disposal you have to hand it to the management, the players and the supporters because they are defintely my team of the year.
11
MAY
I find it hard to reflect on copyright without also examining its brothers and sisters which include intellectual property, digital rights and patent law. I no longer think you can discuss copyright in isolation. I have been a huge fan of the work of Larry Lessig at Harvard University; he has successfully sought to add a very substantial formalisation of copyright under a creative commons licence. I hope he can hear my standing ovation for his magnificent efforts. I regret we have such...
10
MAY
What a conundrum now faces Nick Clegg and his Lib Dem MPs (let alone his own party members). If they support the Tories for a minimum of 2 years – the idea that it can go any longer is clever selling by David Cameron – and then are wiped out at the next election without reforms to the voting system then they will be signing their own death warrants: nothing more: nothing less.   If they do not persuade Cameron of the need for STV or Proportional Representation but agree to the Economic...
7
MAY
It is important as part of Joseph Nye's school of "Soft Diplomacy" to ensure that English remains the number one language of the world (about 90% of everything currently on the net is in English). I shall be asking the new UK Government shortly to make sure that English dominates on every learning platform in the world. Watch this space.
5
MAY
Last week, HE Juan Samaranch, once the President of the IOC passed away. This week Sepp Blatter, the President of FIFA gave vent to a number of issues in an article by Mihir Bose in the Evening Standard. Between them they had led or lead the largest televised sporting competitions in the world.   Samaranch’s death produced the inevitable obituaries which said he saved the modern Olympic movement and included comments from around the world of people who hope one day to succeed him. Only...
4
MAY
The world needs a place to foster more informed debate on Internet policy and regulation.     1. Why is it needed?   A number of events have coalesced over the past year or so to make me think that the world – its politicians, its governments, its businesses, its charities, its academics and free thinkers, its people - needs a place to identify and discuss best practice:   Google in China Digital Economy Bill in UK France’s three strikes and out for illegal...
3
MAY
It’s not possible that a single 90 minute television programme could alter the next 20 years of UK politics because if it is, the opposition will request them on a monthly basis. That’s how it seemed, um, only two weeks ago when Clegg legged it.   Since then Team Cameron has tried a number of different strands. It has given up on policy. We have no idea how they will save £70 billion or more. And the rather creepy Tory newspapers – Sunday Times, Sun, Mail, Telegraph and Express – have...
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