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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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29
JUN
If the LTA was a FTSE 100 company and year after year failed to provide any players of substance, its shareholders would remove the board. We are nowhere near finding even half a dozen world class women tennis players despite over £100m of investment and as for the men (Murray remember withdrew from the LTA because his family thought them second rate) it is just as bad. Why do we tolerate third world achievement when we have first world funding? It's time for a complete overhaul...
29
JUN
Andy Murray wore green lining to his Adidas short today at Wimbledon but donned blue for the after game televison interview. If he is to beat Nadal tomorrow he has to win the first set.
29
JUN
When Greece won the Olympic bid I went - before the Games and after them - to find out how on earth they could have funded the whole shebang. It was all smoke and mirrors. Even Stock Exchange fund managers couldn't tell me. The Olympics was small beer when compared to how on earth Greece managed to find itself inside the Eurozone. Politics came ahead of economics both inside Greece and the European Council of Ministers.   Greece has been run by three or four very...
28
JUN
How does this happen? I attended St George's Hospital, Tooting three weeks ago; the Consultant said I would be telephoned the next day for an out-patient session on how to dress my poor old legs; three weeks later and I've still heard nothing; I have left messages on the ansafone in the department but no-one has had the grace to respond......... We are all the biggest fans of the NHS but who manages it? I waited over four months for an appointment for a leg which has given my trouble
28
JUN
I am the proud Dad of two cracking children. Last week whilst in NY, my daughter calls, she has gained a First in her degree..............fantastic, must take after her mother.
23
JUN
Editorial Intelligence's Names Not Numbers - www.namesnotnumbers.com - two day fest described by Mrs Moneypenny in the Financial Times as "intellectual Viagra" finished late Tuesday at BBC.com's NY offices. Indeed, it was Mrs Moneypenny who brought the curtain down with her own one woman show which was a sell out at Edinburgh last year. The range of speakers was stunning and included Seth Godin Pat Mitchell Abigail Disney John Gapper Steve Bratt P.J.Crowley Nina Planck Ken...
23
JUN
For the Names Not Numbers two day conference in Manhattan earlier this week, I stayed at the relatively new Mondrian Hotel in Crosby Street, SoHo (it was opened in February). It's a curious mix of boutique meets muddle. Downstairs the breakfast room which doubles up for lunch and dinner is a light, thoughtful space but clearly was an after thought as the "bar" and overspill dining facilities were small. noisy (not even ear plugs could diminish the sound) and poorly lit. In the lifts...
23
JUN
I have been in NY this week and have missed the furore over Greece, the EU and the future of the euro debates in Parliament. This morning I was reading my FT and saw in The Letters page that 10 newly elected 2010 Tory MPs had signed a letter which is headlined "An opportunity for the UK to shape Europe's post-crisis order". Knowing that Gordon Henderson, also elected in 2010, and avowedly anti-European, I looked for his signature. But alas, it was missing. Why? Is he not connected...
23
JUN
I flew Virgin Atlantic to Newark Airport in New Jersey (a first) using my air miles. Air Miles are of the great deceits of our age. You fly with an airline, you collect their reward points and then you hope some day to have enough to maybe give your children a "free" flight or even yourself. That's where the fun starts. You cannot book any flight: indeed you cannot book most flights; you then have to book at least two or three months ahead to benefit as if anyone knows their...
19
JUN
Paul Allen is the lesser known co-founder of Microsoft (the name is derived from microprocessor/and software) who has had poor health on a couple of occasions and in the first instance it led him eventually to a parting of the waves with his schoolboy friend Bill G. Most of the first half of the book has been documented by Bill G so it was good to read the other side. The second half of the book is as illuminating. Paul gradually some of his stock in Microsoft and has probably stopped...
19
JUN
The last minute bail out by Germany of Greece has saved the euro for the moment. Standard & Poors comments about the state of the French and Italian economies should not surprise us; no-one quite knows what their debts are as their accountancy practices are hardly transparent especially in Government. Greece, Portugal, Ireland and maybe Spain but an Italy or a France and the euro is dead; how then does it keep its value? Who is buying or hedging?
19
JUN
Editorial Intelligence's Names Not Numbers two day conference hits New York tomorrow. The English board members are meeting this morning for breakfast then I will pop in to the Apple shop in Greenwich Village before brunching with old friends. Here in SoHo the sun is smiling.
19
JUN
He's 22; he led The Open after the first round at St Andrew's last year; he led three rounds of The Masters this year; he's leading by 8 shots as he enters the final round today at the US Open at The Congressional.......so it's time he did it and won a Major. The world is rooting for Rory Mcllroy from Nothern Ireland today.
11
JUN
Former PM Blair said earlier this week that we need a President for Europe, no doubt still hoping it would be him (though surely Peter Mandelson would want to stand against him - that's if he has time after running the World Bank before breakfast). Europe is bankrupt; not financially, not morally, not socially but politically so Blair has a point. Worse, there is a crisis of corporate confidence in where growth in any of our economies is going to come from as India and China steam on...
11
JUN
Last weekend's coverage of the French Tennis Open was pretty awful; I willl turn off Wimbledon if we have the same commentary team. Former second-rate tennis players do not necessarily make the best commentators and that goes for sport generally. Please BBC spare us more of the same.   
11
JUN
Bob Marshall-Andrews, former MP for Medway, actor, rugby player and QC, was in fine fettle at the launch of his book: Off Message (Profile) on Thursday evening. I caught up with Wendy and her son Dillon Woods (from Cry Freedom fame) though that was 14 years ago, a couple or recovering MPs and some old soaks (I wonder what they call me?). The Publishers failed to have enough books on hand so I have ordered mine from Amazon and much look forward to reading it. On his day he can be the...
11
JUN
I have had a soft spot for Mihir Bose ever since I published A Maidan View in 1984 - about cricket in India. It is a cracker of a read. I subsequently commissioned him to write another cricket book Cricket Around the Boundary about the people who make up a first X1 - touts, ground staff, media players et al. I was trying to see if we could make some inroads into CRL James' epic Beyond the Boundary which I thought we did. He also did a biography of Michael Grade for me. Mihir hails from...
11
JUN
BSAC organised what could almost be described as a "private viewing" of Stephen Carter, now resident in Paris. The former head of NTL and Ofcom before taking a peerage and writing the Digital Britain report which was then embarrassingly pasted by his own government in the wash-up just before the May, 2010 general election. Stephen was in outstanding form.
5
JUN
I have been reading The Guardian for over forty years but I am beginning to wonder if it is worth my while renewing my subscription. Where has the photojournalism gone now that Eamon McCabe is no longer its picture editor? Where are the real stories in their Comment pages which in themselves are becoming too predictable? Has the change in newspaper format to a Le Monde style restricted it somehow? Has the editorial team been there too...
3
JUN
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/VP6EHT/ FX9QHQ/ZV5JW4/KCKYNP/H0PYL/OS/h  John Edwards's indictment brings to mind the quote "Power Corrupts, Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely". Here is its origins: It arose as a quotation by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902). The historian and moralist, who was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton: he expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887: "Power tends to...
3
JUN
Hot on the heals of the corruption at the heart of FIFA comes the astonishing decision that F1 is going to hold its postponed event in Bahrain. What planet are they on? The Sunni minority has killed innocent people in their version of the Arab Spring; has tortured innocent men and women and possibly children; has no separate legal system; has stopped people who have been shot receiving treatment in hospitals - I could go on. F1 has no morality except the love of lucre. It should be ashamed...
2
JUN
Why do so many countries waste so much money buying space in Venice to show their art when they could run their own Biennales? Why haven't the UK Art aficionados done just that? It can't be because they all want to spend a few days in Venice at inflated prices both in the hotels and in the restaurants? It must be because they are all on expenses as Joe Citizen simply couldn't afford the costs. Mind you hardly any Joe Citizens actually go to the Venice Biennale. Q. How many paying...
2
JUN
Football has descended into farce. First the FA's bid to win the rights to the 2018 World Cup was a shambles though the bid document itself was sound. Over the past 25 years, maybe as far back as Sir Stanley Rous's days as President of FIFA, the FA has known FA about soccer politics. It had learned nothing from its last bid in 1999 (for 2006) which went to Germany. Successive Governments and Select Committees have called on the FA to reform. The FA has turned a deaf ear for
1
JUN
Today's London newspapers End of life care Daily Mail: How do you want to die? GP charter offers seven pledges to the terminally ill The Guardian: Royal colleges create charter for terminally ill patients NHS reforms   The Guardian (NHS blog): Dying people need integrated services, not open competition, says Help the Hospices   The Guardian: GP consortiums ‘may not be accountable’ for £60bn NHS spend Elderly care BBC News: Letter warns over long term care...
1
JUN
Royal College of GPs End of Life Care Patient Charter A charter for the care of people who are nearing the end of their life "You matter because you are you, you matter to the last moment of your life and we will do all we can, not only to let you die peacefully, but to help you live until you die" Dame Cicely Saunders. We want to offer people who are nearing the end of their life the highest quality of care and support. We wish to help you live as well as you can, for as long as
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