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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
AUG
Having been quoted in an Andrew Rawnsley book* I thought my chances of further fame were decidely limited until today when Amazon delivered me Chris Mullins' Volume 2 Decline & Fall where I make four lines about the 2007 fiasco over the General Election that wasn't. * Andrew Rawnsley The End of the Party 
30
AUG
I suggested in my Blog for 26th August (Take 5) that the three "picks" for the European team for the Ryder Cup should be: Padraig Harrington, Edoardo Molinari & Luke Donald Colin Montgomerie selected for his three "picks" Padraig Harrington, Edoardo Molinari & Luke Donald
30
AUG
I said on 23rd August on a piece about the BBC that the Licence Fee should be able to be accessed by C4. At the GMEITF in Edinburgh yesterday Michael Grade commented: "The BBC should compete for a share of the licence fee with Channel 4."
30
AUG
There's no real surprise that the media has a story about Mandelson supporting David M only that he cannot quite come out and say that - unusually for him. Of course, Blair's book is released on Wednesday the day we all receive our ballot slips for the leadership of the Party. He is bound to use the event to support David Miliband. It is hardly surprising that the two people responsible for New Labour and all its faults want to keep themselves and their ideology going so...
30
AUG
Has our own cricket administration, the ECB, lost all sight of sports' morality? They refused to suspend Zimbabwe when their own players wore armbands complaining about Mugabe's regime. Now. there is an inquiry into betting allegations (released in the News of the World yesterday) and all we hear is that the One Day internationals with Pakistan should be allowed to go on later this week if the three Pakistani cricketers named in the newspaper are suspended and sent home (not a good idea...
30
AUG
Last November, a few of us, at a delightful dinner, had a small wager on the Six Nations tournament 2010 as to who would win and who would win the wooden spoon; the winner? Step forward........ Here's the somewhat late email announcing it last week... Chaps   I do hope you are all well and soaking up the best that only our English summer can offer. I am off on holiday tomorrow (not again, I hear you all cry), and have been doing some tidying up and, lo and behold, I...
29
AUG
It was one of the most unforgiving deals in recent history when the Pope signed a contract with Mussolini which gave him his own papal state so long as he made no derisory comments about Mussolini's henchmen and their appalling activities. Now we are expected as UK citizens to endorse that deal by allowing him a State Visit so that we contribute our own taxes to pay for his security. We would never invite any of the other world religious leaders on a state visit so...
29
AUG
Ed Miliband was in brilliant form on Friday lunchtime when he addressed a full house at the Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre. It is becoming clearer by the day that he is the only change candidate of the five standing for the Labour leadership and I sense the only one who can really take on Cameron. When the PM's private conversations are leaked telling us he fears David Miliband it shows you that actually he fears his brother more. It was the same in 2005 when Cameron...
24
AUG
The General Election in Australia is close, maybe one, maybe two, seats in it. The strangest part of the whole operation is seeing Tony "Abbo" Abott's name up there as the next possible PM for Oz. Tony came to Queen's College, Oxford in 1981 and played in the Blues XV against Australia (3 Ella Brothers to boot) where we lost 19-11 but were ahead at half time. He played at prop, I think at lose head and must have thought he was destined for a Blue in the Centenary Varsity match...
23
AUG
NO matter how appallingly organised FIFA is, no matter its lack of transparency as an organisation; no matter how many alleged rumours constantly surround Sepp Blatter and his committee about ticket sales, no matter it still cannot work out when a goal is a goal (a minor detail), England deserves to win the rights to hold the FIFA World Cup in 2018: notwithstanding its ability to score own goals on a regular basis. England is the home of soccer and we should host it; FIFA
23
AUG
On Friday, the great and the good from the television world will gather again for the Edinburgh International Television Festival sponsored by The Guardian. Because it is sponsored by that newspaper, other media have become more reluctant to report it and as a result it has become less important in the television year for the "Suits" to attend. This year, the head honcho at the BBC, Mark Thompson will explain why his salary is three times larger than the PM's and why his Pensions and...
22
AUG
1. Visit London Everyone but everyone is on holiday; you hardly notice the tourists; hire a Bike  (free for first 30 minutes) and pedal around the centre; check out www.toptable.com for deals in the best restaurants (about £20 a head with a glass of champagne); visit all of our national treasures (museums and galleries) for free but don't forget the British Library part of the North Bank close to Euston and King's X. 2. Eat at www.pescatori.co.uk 11 Dover...
22
AUG
Wednesday 6th October 2010 9.00am to 4.00pm Venue: Rich Mix. 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA Digital Unite are sponsors and delivery partners in a Government event called See IT in Action. Places at this event are free for representatives of local authorities and their civil society partners. We are also presenting one of the workshops, so if you register please come along and see us. It is a must-attend day for all those who commission or manage local public services,...
22
AUG
The Quartet (USA, Russia, UNO and EU) rarely plays a symphony but it has again appealed for more noise as it calls for Peace Talks Number 3001 between the fractured Palestinian leadership and the ever so right wing current Israeli leadership. Hillary Clinton has given them a year to settle their differences. www.quartetrep.org www.consilium.europa.eu www.un.org www.meforum.org
17
AUG
According to the new sports minister, Hugh Robertson MP (who shadowed this area for 5 years when in opposition) we will have to wait two more years before we change UK sport. Um, what is wrong with doing that now? We're surely not in hock to the London Olympics are we? We have several sports bodies: ** UK Sport ** England Institute of Sport ** Four national sports ministers ** Sport England and three other national bodies (Post 16) ** Youth Sports Trust (5-16) Underneath them we...
17
AUG
I shall be voting for Ed Miliband in the Labour Candidate Elections. I believe like Neil Kinnock and a host of others that he will provide the best opposition to the ConDem coalition and help us rebuild the party. He is also the only real CHANGE candidate. At the moment it is a straight race between Ed and his brother David. The other three may struggle: Ed Balls has Gordon Brown in his DNA and would be blamed for ever and a day by the opposition for the state of the...
13
AUG
I'm a 100% Europe fan. I do not want my children or their children to suffer as my grandfather and father did in two world wars which both had their origins in Europe. NATO has worked very well in keeping Europe at peace though whether it should be in Afghanistan is another matter. It would make sense to bring NATO closer to the EU: maybe even a part of it. I'm a 100% supporter of the idea of the EU but I do not support it as it stands. It is woefully managed and organised. It is...
11
AUG
We have been assailed for the past fortnight by images of people in Pakistan without homes, food, water, sanitation and medicines. Millions of people, maybe as many as 12 million, are helpless as the infrasctructure around them has been destroyed with no major roads or bridges left to deliver much needed supplies, only Chinook helicopters. This is a major human tragedy with Aid organisations comparing it to Haiti's earthquake and the Tsunami. In these...
10
AUG
I have been writing and speaking about the need for an Internet Policy Institute since April, 2010. Subsequently, I have had a number of companies and individuals who have offered to help me in thinking this through. This afternoon, I am meeting another group who represent major clients in the internet space and I am hoping we can move forward to a meeting of Internet interested organisations in the academic, business, political and consumer space within the next six weeks. If you
9
AUG
Apple iPhone 4 executive quits Mark Papermaster is no more - well, no more at Apple. He was Apple's senior vice-president of, wait for it, devices hardware engineeering............
9
AUG
Over the past three months I have bumped into a number of retired MPs and former Ministers. To a man and a woman they have said they do not miss the place and are grateful to have found some kind of work even if it is only one or two days (16 hours) a week. Some have said that for this they are being paid more than their £65k p.a. salary as an MP (80-100 hours a week). Pay and Conditions are simply dreadful for MPs and becoming worse (no sane person could have...
6
AUG
Presidents and Prime Ministers love the fact that they can travel around the world speaking on our behalf. Their counterparts much prefer to meet one another than the miserly Foreign Secretary or heaven forbid, a deputy PM.......By the way the same goes for our Ambassadors who live for that hand shake with the President or PM of the country they are in. Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown and Cameron had done little travelling as backbench MPs. They were so engrossed in their shadow cabinet...
4
AUG
Between 2001-2003 four UK sporting organisations were world class - Rowing, Cycling, Sailing and Rugby Union (England). Between 2004-2010 Rowing, Cycling and Sailing still led UK sport by the proverbial mile but there were signs of progress at: ** Swimming (Beijing 2008) ** Cricket (20/20 World Champions, 2010), ** Track & Field (Record medal haul at the European Championships, Barcelona 2010 though only a handful of UK athletes...
3
AUG
RIM, the makers of the Blackberry, have caused a desert cloud in the UAE if not beyond. When it was formed back in the mid-1990s, RIM created a Network Operations Centre (NoC). These are hosted in Canada for the Americas and one in Europe to cover Europe and Asia. Any company that wants to use the Blackberry has to install its software which can then communicate with one of its NoCs. Consequently, RIM's security is better than anyone else's especially when it comes to email with...
2
AUG
Political watchers have at least, in my memory, taken a keen interest in the first 100 days of any new Administration. The first I can recall was JFK's in 1960 where his inauguration speech set out his hopes, dreams and aspirations for the free world aka the United States of America. Blair had a 100 Days in 1997 but not in 2001 or 2005. Brown, having copied much of JFK, including writing a book on Courage, had his 100 days taken away from him by what Macmillan called "Events, Dear Boy"...
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