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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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25
NOV
The RFU's naivety continues. The wretchedness of a year ago on and off the field may have ended but actually what has changed? Why was there such a rush to appoint Stuart Lancaster as coach for three years? Why wasn't he given this year to prove himself? As it we lost a three test series away to South Africa by 2-0 with a draw in the Summer and after three matches we have beaten Fiji and somehow conspired to lose against Australia nd South Africa and no-one would bet on us beating New...
25
NOV
It is really quite extraordinary that the right wing press - some of the worst perpetrators of bugging and hacking al - have lined up to oppose some kind of press regulator dressing it up as Government interference. And worse Michael Gove (The Times) and Boris Johnson (The Telegraph) line up on their side. Where is their independence? Worse, the PM seems to be having second thoughts about a regulator. As television has an Ofcom so the press should have an Ofreg: no ifs no...
21
NOV
The Church of England went against the laws of the UK by not allowing women Bishops. It is a church which matters less and less in our society.......small wonder.
18
NOV
I was on the bench for England v Australia in 1975 at Twickenham and then again in Brisbane later in the year. On New Year's eve in 1975 I received a telegram to go straight to Twickenham as I would be playing on New Year's day v Oz as David Duckham had failed a fitness test. I went home to bed and drove down at six the next morning only to be told at our Richmond hotel he might play afterall. He did and so I drove up to Bedford to play for them instead. So, I have a soft spot for...
18
NOV
Roger and Christine Truelove, friends from Sittingbourne dropped by to see the new flat and we then went onto to have lunch at the LooseBox in Horseferry Road.
17
NOV
Israel's intentions in the Mid East are blindingly obvious. She will either try and destroy Hamas in Gaza and seek some kind of authority over it or push it back into the hands of a compliant Egypt. This would end the White House and Quartet's view of a two state solution for Palestine and Israel which has been a daft idea from the outset.  The Brits are good and backing the wrong horse all over the Middle East and greater India. We  fell for the West and East Pakistan...
17
NOV
I had a couple of pints of Adnams (the greatest bitter) last night in the Nag's Head in Belgravia with Andrew Bibby, the CEO of Grosvenor, North America. Andrew was a post-graduate with me at St Catz, Oxford in 1981 and we played together in the Centenary Varsity Match. We have maintained our friendship through the years partly because as half my family hails from Vancouver, where he lives, I have usually popped in to see him on one of my many visits.  We will be at the game...
15
NOV
We went to the Children's Proms which have been happening since 1970. Once again they were stunning showing a range of primary and secondary school talent which just showed how fortunate we are in our next but one generation. Over three nights there were 3000 performers!!
15
NOV
Yesterday, I was back at Oxford for our annual Major Stanley's Trustees meeting. I played for Stanley's in 1976, 1977 and 1980 and should have played against them in 1981 whilst up at Oxford but I was injured. I selected the Stanley's XV from 1984 till 1992 and was then appointed a trustee. I missed most of the meetings between 1997-2009 because it clashed with Prime Minister's Question Time! But it is good to return to one of my passions - university rugby.... As for the game, Oxford...
15
NOV
We were invited to Clarence House last night to shop at a special Highgrove fayre which was great fun except for my wallet. We later had supper at the RAC.
15
NOV
I had a drink with Paul Vaughan who was stood down from his role as CEO of RWC 2015. Before that he had a very successful era as Marketing Director of the RFU. It was good to catch up on his news.
15
NOV
I had lunch at RIBA with Gill Webber at RIBA today. We first met up at the British Library when she was head of Comms a role she now has at RIBA. It is such a beautiful building which I guess is just as well!
13
NOV
Average attendance of home fans who bought tickets via London2012 web site Cycling 47% Opening and Closing ceremonies 52% Swimming 53% Gymnastics 59% Athletics 68% Hockey 78% Boxing 81% Equestrian 82.2% Soccer 91%
13
NOV
On Sunday afternoon, I went with Daisy to the Pre Raphaelites at Tate Britain. This was a large show well curated which has gathered plenty of critical acclaim and a growing number of visitors (it closes on 13th January 2013). We have had a kind of infatuation for Morris, Holman Hunt, Ruskin, Rossetti et al and yet it was essentially a backward looking movement.........
12
NOV
Does any one at the BBC or BBC Trust understand how the media works? Was there any reason for Entwistle's redundancy pay to be made public or was it a leaked within?? I expect the latter. There doesn't need to be an appointment for a new DG from a soiled list of has-beens over the next few weeks. Let them publish all the evidence of all the reports first; let the BBC Trust members offer their resignations for being so inept. Can anyone name them? Then let a new Chairman of the Trust...
11
NOV
There's not another entity in the media world which has so many useless bureaucrats as the BBC with titles which makes you weep......they breed.....it needs a non BBC DG to come in and revitalise its journalism which by the by is pretty good but most of all he/she needs to take out swathes and swathes of high salaried people who cannot make decisions and who will not take responsibility for their actions. I expect 3-4 more resignations.
11
NOV
We spent most of Saturday at Twickenham. We parked up at Richmond and then took the special bus (50p) before encamping to a rather lonely ERIC room for lunch. The first Autumn international isn't usually a sell out but a special offer for children has ensured a sell out crowd of 84k+. We chatted to David Trick, Brian Moore, Ian Robertson and Colin Herridge.  As for the game, I just couldn't find much to excite me. The Fijian front row was so technically inept that the scrums were a
11
NOV
Last Sunday I was on a sports panel chaired by Mihir Bose which discussed the lack of achievement by south Asian men and women in sport. I said they had been pretty good at squash and hockey. Actually there is a lot of soccer played although you could be forgiven in thinking their new religion was cricket. It was part of the South Asian Literary festival in Shepherd's Bush.
11
NOV
I went to an excellent evening at the Oxford and Cambridge club organised by our Oxford Alumni office on Wednesday. Three speakers talked about the changes in the work place where already 1:6 are working either part time or choosing to have more than one job and that this is going to become much more the norm.....
11
NOV
I put a small table together for this first London Labour Party supper party at Zizzi's in Tower Hill. It was a very enjoyable evening though most of out talk was on Obama... 
7
NOV
It is extraordinary how the GOP cannot find a decent candidate. McCain won the nomination in 2008 when he should have won it in 2000. Romney flip-flopped so many times on policy plus he hadn't a clue on foreign policy that the world would have been worse had he won. Imagine a worse President than George W. Bush......The Republicans are fast becoming an older, white populated party and no longer represent modern America. It is true Obama has more work to do in...
7
NOV
I went with Daisy, my daughter, to hear Dianne Reeves at Ronnie Scott's last night. There was a packed house for her second night. She has won four grammy awards the last in 2006 and has recorded over 19 albums........and she was simply wonderful..... 
7
NOV
On the first Monday of each month, former Labour MPs meet to chew the fat. Numbers vary from six to thirty-odd and on Monday I put in an appearance.......we talked about the inquiry into the north Wales children's home and the fact that a high Tory might be involved. We thought it might be someone in the Lords.
3
NOV
I had a catch up lunch with Simon Halliday on Tuesday - he was my centre at Oxford in the Centenary Varsity match in 1981 and went on to play for Bath and England. We then caught up with him again on Thursday evening at a cocktail party at Canning House where I also met Jeff Blackett, Colin Herridge and Richard Luddington. 
3
NOV
I met Paul Farrelly MP with Richard Gorman and Kate  Kiln of CSC to discuss our fourth awards dinner in January, 2013. 
3
NOV
My next door neighbour when I lived in Westminster was Douglas Smith. We both were at different times Chairs of Ally Pally when we were councillors at Haringey. Douglas represented the Tories in Crouch End Ward whilst I represented Archway. Doug hosts a wonderful annual cricket lunch in the House of Lords which he has kindly invited me to.....and so yesterday I treated him to a thank you lunch at the RAC. Earlier his year he left the Tory party to join UKIP.  He had worked at Central
1
NOV
It's simple really the rules of the game should be that like every other public organisations, the EU should have to find between 3-5% savings from its budget every year. The vote last night was to embolden the PM to fight for this on our behalf. You cannot impose austerity on Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Greece without also imposing it on the EU bureaucracy at the same time. It is not rocket science. 
1
NOV
The San Francisco Giants took their second world series in three years on Monday whilst NY and other major seaboard cities on the east coast hunkered down for Hurricane Sandy. You couldn't have had two more contrasting sets of photographs in their respective local newspapers on Tuesday morning. 
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