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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.

 

 

 

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30
JAN
30th January 1649 King Charles 1 lost his head 1948 Gandhi was assassinated 1965 Sir Winston Churchill died 1972 Bloody Sunday - the Bogside massacres - in Derry
29
JAN
The All Party Parliamentary Rugby Union awards were held for a fifth time on Friday evening and for the third time they were sponsored by CSC. The BBC again filmed the evening and interviewed the players and some of this will appear next Saturday on the prelude to the opening Six Nations matches. The Rugby Heroes were: John Eales, Australia Francois Pienaar, South Africa Jonny Wilkinson, England and Shane Williams, Wales The players were presented with bespoke blue...
29
JAN
On Wednesday of last week I went to see the colourful funeral cars exhibition at the Festival Hall. They were good but not quite as good as the ones I last saw three years ago in Seattle!
29
JAN
Mark Seddon, the former Editor of The Tribune, had a launch party for his new book: Standing for Something at his publishers on Wednesday evening. Simon Hoggart briefly mentioned it in his diary piece in The Guardian yesterday. I taught Mark Economic History when I was a teacher (actually I was even head of history) two thousand years ago..........
29
JAN
Richmond stayed top of English National league 2S with a 26-10 win against Clifton whilst Charlton won away at Exeter 1-0 to stay top of the old third division (now Division One of the Championship). The two rugby teams I played for and am still a member of through their Old Players Associations - Bath and Bedford - had mixed fortunes yesterday. Bath won 46-14 against a poor Northampton side whilst Bedford had a week off!!
25
JAN
I went to Toulon via Marseilles on Sunday. In Toulon the weather was so agreeable we were able to sit by the marina and eat out till past 10pm then we stepped inside to sup the odd glass of Armagnac..... On Monday we took some stills and video of the Rugby Club Toulon and the city itself and then waited for the maestro to appear. His agent back in England kept us up to speed as to his training regime and as ever he was late as he wanted to do just a little more. We did about 15...
25
JAN
I was an invited guest last night to the unveiling of a new commission by Antony Williams of Margaret Beckett MP, the first Labour woman MP to hold one of the three premier offices of state (Foreign Office). The event was held in the Attlee Suite by the Works of Art Committee of which I was a member and deputy chairman for 8 years so this was a commission under the old watch! Catch it at www.parliament.uk/art
21
JAN
Finally, I managed to see The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep. It was an excellent film with a number of outstanding performances but like many others I was saddened at the way she was portrayed.....notwithstanding that she was one of the reasons I entered politics. 
19
JAN
"This is to Certify that Mr Derek Wyatt a Freeman of The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists was admitted and Invested with the Livery this eighteenth day of January, two thousand and twelve" And so it came to pass......
19
JAN
I joined Alan Johnson MP and Chuka Ummana MP at a fund raising dinner last night for Val Shawcross, London Assembly Member, who is up for re-election in May. 
19
JAN
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/913043d4-d221-11e0-9137-00144feab49a.html#axzz1juD5pjWo
18
JAN
CAABU (originally the Council for the Advancement of Arab British Understanding) founded just after the Six Day war in 1967 is in danger of closure. At last night's board meeting we planned a major fund raising venture to see if we could find £200k+ to stave off having to wind the organisation up.
17
JAN
There was a goodly turn out for Mihir Bose's launch party for his 25th book: The Spirit of The Game - How Sport Made the Modern World last night at Daunt's bookshop in Marylebone High Street. I spotted newly enobled Sir John Armitt, Tessa Jowell, Dick Caborn, Simon Lewis, Mark and Barry Davies, Mark Streatfeild, Tim Crow, Edward Griffiths and that arch book editor, Richard Heller. I bought the book. In a previous life I commisisoned three of Mihir's books - one on Indian cricket -
17
JAN
Her Excellency Dr Norah Al Fayez, Deputy Minister for Girls in Saudi Arabia, visited the King Fahad Academy yesterday and spent an hour or so meeting staff and students. (I was there in my capacity as a Board member of the school).
17
JAN
I have been asked by the Ditchley Foundation to spend three days in March looking at the issues around Cultural Diplomacy. I have been a fan of Joe Nye's work on Soft Power and I am really looking forward to the event.  
15
JAN
I'm a member at the V&A and one day I shall walk all eight miles of their galleries!!  Today, I saw the Al Weiwei exhibition which was uncomfortable as he was destroying ancient artefacts and replenishing them in a contemporary environment. Anne Lennox's House was next and I saw her great costumes, awards, photos, charitable work and naturally her music. She tries almost too hard to want to be recognised but that essential hunger is what has made her great. I then dipped
15
JAN
I am also a member at the National Portrait Gallery and this morning I went first to see the Taylor Wessing Photographic competition winners. This has been an annual exhibition for some time - I am little hazy as to how long.  I also tried to have a look at the newest commissions but the NPG is busy putting its Lucien Freud exhibition together so sadly the area was closed. But hey, Lucien Freud? 
15
JAN
Yesterday, I went to Richmond to watch the boys play Taunton and they just snatched a win - 53-14 to stay top. Meanwhile, at Sheffield Wednesday, Charlton won away 1-0 to stay top..... A goodly day....
14
JAN
I was the first MP to ask for a debate in Parliament on the Barnett Formula for 23 years: 18/12/2001, Westminister Hall Mr. Derek Wyatt (Sittingbourne and Sheppey): First, I want to thank Timothy Edmonds, who did a prodigious amount of work and produced an excellent Library research paper on the Barnett formula, which I am sure that many hon. Members will quote. I also thank Professor Iain McLean—a Scot—of Nuffield college, Oxford, who is currently working at Yale, and who helped me with
14
JAN
For the past two years BSAC - the British Screen Advisory Committee - has given me free membership. As they put it to me "You have a different way at looking at things and we need that voice"...... Yesterday, I attended a Q&A chaired by Richard Hooper who has been charged with examining the feasibility of a Digital Copyright Exchange and has called for Evidence. So our session was to see what exactly he wanted from our members. I spent much of the two hours just...
13
JAN
I went to see Margin Call at a private showing at Somerset House last night (it has been well reviewed today in The Guardian). The film is about the close call "collapse" of a NY bank in the first crisis in 2008. It's edgy and frightening realistic but may have come too late to influence the Oscars. There were very strong performances by Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons and Zachary Quiinto. It feels like the bookend to Wall Street.
11
JAN
The HS2 rail link announced yesterday which is likely to be built not by 2026 but frankly much later. Without Government pump priming and tax support for construction companies it is virtually a non-starter. The original idea by Ove Arup was to create a hub at Heathrow and then link into Crosssrail which is due to be completed in 2015-ish. If the notion of HS2 is to help the economies of the major Midland and Northern cities like Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester then build those
11
JAN
When I suggested at a DCMS Select committee press session in 2004 that newspapers should have a yellow card and red card scheme if they misbehaved (the red card meant that they would not be allowed to be published the next day) I was given the roughest ride by journos present especially those from the Daily Mirror (Editor: Piers Morgan). Indeed, immediately after the session closed Mirror journos were dispatched to my constituency and the village I lived in. They tried to find as much gossip as
11
JAN
Dennis Skinner MP was our guest at my local Labour party ward meeting last night which we held in Parliament (thanks to Dennis).   He spoke about his time in the mines and his subsequent elevation to a local councillor and then as the MP for Bolsover (42 years man and boy). He lamented the state of modern politics where so many MPs come from Think Tanks or Policy groups and not from a "proper" job. He lamented much else as well.
10
JAN
There was a crackingly good debate and discussion at an FT-ie breakfast this morning. For one, the event was a sell out and for two, the panel was outstanding.  Lionel Barber, the FT's editor introduced the panel before making his way to the Leveson Inquiry to give evidence. They were: Guy Elliott, Chief Financial Officer, Rio Tinto Loretta Napoleoni, Economist & Bestselling Author, ‘Rogue Economics’, ‘Terror Incorporated’ & ‘Maonomics’ Ambassador Louis Susman, United...
8
JAN
I went to see The Artist this afternoon which has had a lot of wind lately in the media and that's partly because it is a black and white silent movie. The last one I saw was Abel Gance's Napoleon epic  - which then lasted five and a half hours - at the Barbican back in 1982.... The Artist is slightly drawn out but the ending is quite amusing. It might just score at The Oscars. 
8
JAN
The Leonardo at the National has drawn record crowds and till receipts for the Exhibition and subsequent purchases in the book shops have topped £60k a day so at this rate the overall income from it will be around £5.5m plus sponsorship from Credit Suisse. As to the exhibition itself, I found it disappointing. The sketches are so hard to see (and so small) and the bigger portraits such as Christ as Salvator Mundi and The Madonna of the Yarnwinder seem to be less by him and more by other...
4
JAN
I went with Colin Herridge and Tom Levitt to see Charlton beat Brentford 2-0 at The Valley on Monday. We weren't at our best but fortunately nor was Brentford who hardly troubled us. A goodly crowd of just on 18,000 cheared us on.
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