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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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27
FEB
I wrote this on Monday evening:   The Scottish Question   If you were de-merging a FTSE 100 company from the stock market you would have to jump through a collection of hoops and regulations with most of this action being played out in the public domain.   If you want to de-merge a country from the United Kingdom all you have to do is hold a single referendum - true it helps to have a bill passed - but after that there's nothing. No due diligence, no joint...
27
FEB
I wrote this on Monday evening: Elected representatives v Unelected Quangos   I asked a senior Tory, now in the House of Lords, why there were so many unelected quangos like the Highways Agency, the Child Support Agency and yes, the Environment Agency. His reply was instructive. "Under Mrs Thatcher we were finding as ministers that we couldn't finish our Boxes before the next ones arrived. Eventually, to save our sanity, someone came up with a half way house. Ministers would be...
23
FEB
Social Networking 2/4 17th-23rd February 2014 Monday-Tuesday Marrakesh Wednesday HRH Duchess of Cornwall @ Trinity Hospice Bump Dallas Pounds Clare Montagu Skype: John Stedman, CEO @ NISE  Thursday Daily Telegraph photography shoot @ D2K Bump James Hibbert Anthony Bird Paul Bentley @ 1 Aldwych Louise @ The Delaunay, 55 Aldwych Friday Dallas Pounds @ Trinity Hospice Clare Montagu @ Trinity Restaurant Richard Hornblow & Ian Bray @ Fullers...
23
FEB
WE launched our competition to find nine retail start ups to show their wares in the House of Fraser store in Oxford Street in Friday's Daily Telegraph (Business B8).   Go to www.thegreatretailrevival.org for all of the details as to how to enter. I am called a "Retail Expert" in the article; I chair Trinity Hospice where we have 24 charity shops....... Spread the word........... 
23
FEB
With Jack and other friends we were at Twickenham yesterday to see England play against Ireland. Having been in Paris to see us lose - right at the end a month ago - I thought the game was just slipping away from us with 15 minutes remaining. But, we just edged it. A draw might have been fairer but no-one wants a draw. I watched the Baa Baas game against NZ on television aeons ago and was at the RWC final in Oz in 2003 when we won in extra time but this game was up there, maybe...
20
FEB
A week ago we left for Marrakesh for five days and had a ball.....full report shortly.  
20
FEB
Social Networking 2/3 10-16 February 2014 Monday Physio @ Light Centre Great Retail Revival Foundation @ The Cut James Hibbert Robin Kadrnka Keata Murray Design Council Sounding Board @ Design Council Bump Ellie Runcie Tuesday Skype: Dr John Stedman @ NISE Deepak Verma @ Thomas Cubitt Al Wayne @ Goya Wednesday Skype: Dr John Stedman @ NISE James Hibbert @ D2K RIBA Gallery launch @ HQ Bump Richard Rogers Alistair Darling @ InterContinental Bump Kevin...
9
FEB
Social Networking 2/2 3-9 February 2014 Monday Allison Swann @ Physio Conference Call GRR Conference Call RWC SE Legacy sub group Ian Burt @ Fitness First The Mistress Contract @ Royal Court Theatre Tuesday Conference Call NISE Colin Herridge & Jeff Blackett @ Daley's Shelly Bancroft @ 54 The Gallery, Shepherd Market (opening party) John Hopkins & Dugald MacDonald @ Le Boudin Blanc Wednesday Dr John Stedman CEO, NISE SE & Nick Moberly, CEO, Royal
9
FEB
Yesterday's p[itch at MUrrayfield was a complete disgrace and an embarrassment to professional rugby players let alone the paying public who watched a fiasco of a match.
6
FEB
We went to see Abi Morgan's latest play at the Royal Court on Monday. It is about a man and a woman from California who sign a contract for mistress services - mainly sex -for money. It was based on a true story. The play started at a ferociously funny pace but soon tailed off and the 90 minutes could so easily have been shorter. Pity.
3
FEB
France 26-24 England at Stade Francaise on 1st February 2014 I went by Eurostar on Friday to Paris to watch England in the opening match of the 6 Nations tournament. On Friday evening, our Ambassador, having been in England with the PM and President Hollande flew back just in time to welcome us for drinks at 6pm. The "we" being The RFU Council and the respective Parliamentary XVs who have their own version of the six nations. On Saturday at 6pm the stadium was rocking to the music...
3
FEB
Social Networking 2/1 27 Jan - 2 Feb 2014 Monday Ian Burt @ Fitness First Allison Swan@ Physio Martin Short @ Dean Street James Hibbert @ D2K Bump Anthony Bird Keata Murray Crowdbnk Party @ Groucho's Bump Ian Pearson Ayan Mitra Karen Duncan Paul Stricker George Neris Tuesday Mr Speaker @ Waterloo Richard Briance & Alexander Hoare @ Thomas Cubitt Wednesday Richard and Tom Blaksly @ Boisdale Thursday Raj Manak & Geoff Hyde @ Thomas...
3
FEB
For too many years inept Mayors of Paris have spent their time doodling as other world class cities have roared ahead with new museums, galleries, transport infrastructure et al. I mean how do you spend allegedly 100 million euros on Gare du Nord - it's a shocking terminal and its Eurostar hub is appalling. However, there were signs of green shoots..... Here are five cracking restaurants to try: Le Petit Medicis 13 rue de Medicis running alongside Luxembourg Park for a...
3
FEB
I went to the second meeting of the RIBA Library Committee on Tuesday last. It was such a stimulating afternoon (two and a half hours) and we had a goodly conversation on digital. At the Gill Webber said she had been at a meeting at the British Library where they had decided to call the area North Bank something I had been trying to persuade Boris and the CEO of Camden Borough Council of for the past six years. Now for the White City area to be rebranded Left/West Bank and Shoreditch...
3
FEB
Last Monday evening, Crowdbnk held another event for sponsors and investors at the Groucho Club. It was a packed occasion.......
3
FEB
Last Wednesday evening, I went with some close family friends to Boisdale in Belgravia for jazz and a meal........another late evening......
3
FEB
It's been a couple of years since I have been to the Pompidou Centre which I thought looked a bit tired but yesterday's visit blew my mind.......I know not difficult...... First up were the two galleries - Contemporary Collections from the 1960s which was sensational and Multiple Modernities 1905-1970 which was absolutely fascinating. For once there were walls which had space left on them. For too long French curators have overwhelmed our senses by putting too much up just because there
3
FEB
November, December & January were sad months - worsened by the overnight news of the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman - for a number of creative and original people with whom I worked or partied. Tom Rosenthal, publisher and bon viveur (1935-2014) I knew Tom just as he was leaving Secker & Warburg where he built an astonishing list of poets and fine writers. it was the talk at Heinemann that his expenses were in the early 1980s a thousand pounds a week which...
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