don't read the menu options and go directly to the page content 
Welcome to my new website

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.

 

 

 

Blog

You are here: Home / Blog
23
JUN
Since 1972, I have missed going to Wimbledon a handful of times, last year was sadly one of them. In 2008, I managed to find tickets on five different days including that final between Messrs Federer and Nadal. I've noticed how I quickly I've adopted players and followed them year after year - always Nastase (the greatest player on grass I have ever seen), McEnroe (even through his adolescent years), Martina Navratilova (simply the greatest) Pete Sampras and now Roger Federer.  It may...
22
JUN
The news that the Chinese currency might float - there appear to be slight nuances in interpretation between the Mandarin version and its English translation of the press release - augurs well if this leads to a re-evaluation of what the Yuan is worth. Most western commentators reckon that the currency has been held down artificially to make Chinese exports even cheaper.  However, given that the Central Bank of China holds $3 trillion in reserve, it is unlikely that the Yuan will move
22
JUN
Sometime on Tuesday afternoon the implications of George Osborne's first Budget will be known. There has already been much leakage but not yet on a BP scale. The Budget will have to be taken as a five year effort to right the deficit. Thus we are in for the long haul. If George's gets it right the Tories will be re-elected in 2015. If he doesn't then the Coalition will be over much sooner than we could have expected. The arguments have been well rehearsed. J.M.Keynes would have...
22
JUN
Cloud Computing has been with us for five or so years; its the computer's world equivalent of off-shoring. First we had the call centres (a lot of which have since returned to mainland Europe from India); then we had people off-shoring with companies relocating to where they could gain a competitive tax advantage like Dubai, Dublin or Delhi and now we have the whole infrastructure on the move with servers and their ilk physically moving "off-shore". This is happening without much public...
16
JUN
(Apologies for the delay in posting but I was in such pain from Thursday-Sunday with dreadful arthritis in my knees that I could hardly walk and eventually an ambulance came to take me to hospital early on Sunday morning). There has been more interest in South Africa beyond the World Cup from the various sports teams representing BBC and ITV than I can previously recall. But there has been little or no enthusiasm from the rest of the commissioning editors especially at the Beeb for all...
16
JUN
The Tory-Lib Dem coalition has settled down after its first five weeks in power. Tory grandees who could have been expected to have been Ministers are still seething but have so far kept their powder dry. As ever "Events" will move in their favour at some time in the next 2 years.  Into this mix come two unknowns.  The first is election reform which may lead to some kind of proportional representation though the electorate will have a chance to vote first on which - if any -
16
JUN
Steve Jobs meets Jonathan Ive, the main designer at Apple, at least twice a day. I wonder how many FTSE 500 company CEOs do the same. Though Steve Jobs is a stickler for design, he is so lucky that he has as his co-partner, the slightly shier Jonathan Ive. They couldn't be more difficult. In 2006, I asked the Cabinet Office to give Jonathan a knighthood. In the dying days of Brown's premiership, I tried to persuade No.10 to award an honorary one to Steve Jobs. I failed on both counts.
16
JUN
The best way to win the highest honours in the land is to make sure you are on the committee which awards them. Under Blair, we lost the plot on honours and introduced the dreaded committee for all seasons and subjects. Sport was chaired by Sir Ian McClaurin. (more soon)
16
JUN
Guardian: Comment is free  (Please do share and add your comments on the Guardian Website) Off the hook: Israel's own Widgery inquiry into Bloody Monday Israel cannot be trusted to investigate its military over the Gaza flotilla raid. Only an...
11
JUN
Given the oil industry is the major employer outside of Dell, Texas Industries, tourism and the service industries in the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, it is no surprise that Obama's team has taken on a rather feebly led BP. There are mid-term elections on 2nd November for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 or 34 up for grabs in the Senate and these will give the President an indication of where he stands for 2012.  BP has not been...
9
JUN
Here are the rules: ** watch the major matches with your friends ** take it in turns to host the "watching" in your own home on a rota basis ** cook a meal from the two sides you are watching viz: on Friday there are two games South Africa v Mexico and Uruguay v France - so you would find a recipe from either South Africa or Uruguay for starters and a main course from Mexico or France. You would check to see who the referee was and then go in search on the day for alcohol...
8
JUN
The Family Online Safety Institute (www.fosi.org) had a couple of previous incarnations before it moved from the UK to Washington, DC four years ago. Its current CEO is Stephen Balkam and he and his staff here in London and in DC have done a pretty fine job in raising the profile of matters to do with child safety on the internet. They've run three excellent conferences in DC, two in Madrid, two in Paris and one more recently in Bahrain. More are mooted with the next European conference...
7
JUN
There is much inevitable criticism of any oil company when something catastrophic happens such as a giant oil leak. BP has been in the daily news for so long you begin to fear for its Communications team who must be up all the UK hours of work and then have to stay at their phones for when Texas and Louisiana wakes up. I expect they are sleeping at HQ. And naturally, Tony Hayward, the head honcho at BP takes the flak. There has though been a deafening silence from the US...
4
JUN
Qatar is one of a number of small Arab kingdoms which border the southern part of the Persian (Iranian) Gulf. Like Bahrain and Kuwait upstream and the Emirates (Trucial States) and Oman downstream, it is one in which the UK had a vested interest but as ever strangled its growth and development for a century or so. Coastal kingdoms depended on the sea for their livelihoods - fishing, trade and pearls - and the desert for their recreation - camel racing...
2
JUN
In 2008 and 2009 I visited South Africa and spent time in Cape Town & Durban, Joburg. I visited the sites of the World Cup in all three cities. In Cape Town, the stadium will be a white elephant. In Durban, the new stadium is next door to the Natal Sharks rugby ground. The soccer stadium will be a another white elephant. In the townships around Joburg there are training stadia which will not have sufficent funding to survive once the World Cup is over. In Soweto,...
1
JUN
Financial Times Global 30 Computing, Media & Technology Companies 2010                   1 Microsoft USA      2. Apple USA   3. China Mobile Hong Kong   4. IBM USA   5. Cisco USA   6. Google USA   7. Oracle USA   8. HP USA   9. Intel USA   10. Vodafone UK       11. Samsung South Korea   12....
website by Hudson Berkley Reinhart Ltd