don't read the menu options and go directly to the page content 
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.

 

 

 

Blog

You are here: Home / Blog
31
MAR
On Saturday afternoon I was at Richmond to watch them play and destroy Fylde by 36-0 to put them sixth in National League 1 (Fylde are still 4th). I caught up with Humfrey Malins, a former MP, and bumped into a number of old Richmond supporters. It must be one of the friendliest clubs in the world!
31
MAR
Six of us started to think about the future of Bath Rec and its rugby club in September, 2012. The six were: Ken Loach, President of Bath AFC David Taylor. MCC member and former Bath FC (rugby) player Joe Downey, Bath FC supporter and local cricketer David Dolman, former Sport England David Gay, former Bath FC & England and myself, former Bath FC & England We met irregularly but entertained Don Foster MP who was resolutely behind the plans of Bath FC which...
30
MAR
Social Networking 2/9 24th-31st March 2014 Monday Great Retail Revival @ D2K Anthony Bird James Hibbert Keata Murray Prem Goyal @ Cinnamon Richard Briance @ Edmund Rothschild Andy Bibby @ Ronnie Scott's Bump James Pearson, Music Director Tuesday NISE SE @ Harwell RWC 2015 Legacy SE Group @ Twickenham Bump Vic Luck Richard Hornblow Eddie Keen Wednesday CRGS Travel Scholarship 2014 interviews @ CRGS Ken Jenkinson Chloe Bates Tom Ellis Abbie Main Rebecca...
30
MAR
A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney at The National We went to see this performance at The National on Saturday evening. There were brilliant performances from Lesley Sharp and Kate O'Flynn and an excellent cameo support from Dean Lennox Kelly but in essence the play was an hour too long and should have been hacked back. The set was sensational but the play though radical in 1958 has not stood the test of time.
29
MAR
On Monday, I took Andrew Bibby and his two daughters Emily and Sarah to Ronnie's on Monday evening to hear Trilok Gurtu and the RS All Stars. It was a sell out concert though I struggled with the fusion of Indian and Western jazz.... On Thursday, we were back to hear a celebration of the legendary Stan Tracey led by his son Clark.
29
MAR
I attended my first staff meeting with NISE SE on Tuesday leaving early to be at Harwell by 0900. We had a long discussion about the options available to us over the next fifteen months. 
29
MAR
I drove back from Harwell at lunch time to attend the SE Legacy group's meeting. We are beginning to work up our Club15 offer. Interestingly the Midlands group has borrowed my idea! 
29
MAR
On Wednesday, I limped eventually to Colchester (my Volvo C70's engine developed a rasping noise to it...) to interview four CRGS students for this year's travel scholarship (I started it last year). Chloe Bates was the clear winner. She had already raised £4000 for her stay in a Cape Town townships where she will support abused young girls. She needs £5600 in total so I awarded her £400. Ben Rowe was the runner up. He will be trekking and studying in the...
29
MAR
I was a guest of Damian Hopley on Wednesday evening at the Rugby Players' Association's (he is their CEO) post Six Nations dinner where Stuart lancaster was the guest speaker. I had been invited because of the work I am doing with the European Brain Council on concussion.   
29
MAR
I went to see Andrew Hammond at Royal Mail on Friday afternoon to chat (given I am keen stamp collector) about the RWC 2015 stamps.
29
MAR
I sent a short and pithy note to the Clerk late last year: As a result of the failure to agree policy on Syria by both the UK Govt and its counterpart in America, hard power has failed as a foreign policy objective. We have some brilliant global soft power players - the British Council, BBC World Service, our great national museums and galleries and four or five world class universities. There is one area where there is a need for UKplc to take a bold step and we have an...
23
MAR
We went to see the great DB's work at the NPG which was simply fab; we stayed on to see the smaller and lesser WW1 exhibit which was messy and incoherent.   We then indulged ourselves at the Portrait restaurant for a late lunch and counted over 20 cranes at work from the panoramic view. They say there are more cranes at work in London than the rest of the UK......
23
MAR
The Great Retail Revival Foundation's competition for ten places in a pop up at House of Fraser's Oxford Street store closed at midnight on Thursday; we have been stunned by the interest and this weekend we've all been busy shortlisting the entries.
23
MAR
Social Networking 2/8 17-23 March 2014 Monday Ayan Mitra, CEO, Crowdbnk @ HQ Angela Bowland @ Pimlico Bump Philip Bernie Paul Farrelly Caroline Dalmeny @ Pimlico Tuesday Dr John Stedman @ Portcullis House Bump John Denham MP Jon Cruddas MP Jack Dromey MP Hoffman Open Evening @ Regent's Park Wednesday Florence Panel-Coates @ Queen's Hospital, Romford Bump Dr John Stedman Keith & Rosemary White @ Portcullis House Bump John Bercow MP, Speaker Sir Menzies...
17
MAR
I went up to Oxford to see the Cezanne exhibition and later have lunch there outdoors and in the sun. The exhibition is part of the Henry Pearlman (1895-1974) collection. He began late in 1945 and so the Cezanne's are frankly pretty thin and not his best work. There were others from his collection also on show including Manet, Degas, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Modigliani and Lipchitz which were better.  There was a goodly crowd at the exhibition which continues to 22nd June. The...
17
MAR
A forward pass in the dying seconds of the French v Ireland game denied England the Six Nations championship (they did win the Triple crown), had it been accurate France and not Ireland would have won (Ireland nicked it 22-20) and then England would have been champions. Rugby romantics would have wanted Ireland to win as it was the great Brian O'Driscoll's final game. An interception and some ragged play in the last fifteen minutes meant England fell short of the sixty points they needed...
17
MAR
Social Networking 2/7 10-16 March 2014 Monday GRRF Board @ D2K Bump James Hibbert Anthony Barry Keata Murray Dominic Wright Gurshinder Liddar Tuesday Dr John Stedman, CEO, NISE SE Skype call Wednesday: English Cricket Needs a Miracle David Taylor @ Lords Cricket Ground Bump Hugh Robertson MP Mike Gatting, President MCC Thursday Crowdbnk Board @ Kensington Bump Ian Pearson Ayan Mitra Christopher Humphry Barry Parr Sunil Aggarwal Rupert Stevenson @...
17
MAR
The Great Retail Revival Foundation's Pop @ HoF competition is going extremely well. Entries are coming in every day (cut off is this Thursday) and we have a wide range of retailers wanting to win one of the ten slots in the pop-up.
17
MAR
I was a giest at Lord's last Wednesday evening to hear Mike Gatting and Hugh Robertson speak.   The MCC allows its members a couple of dinners a year in the Long Room. I wish they'd do something about the standard of the cricket portraits some of which were dire.
10
MAR
I took James Hibbert, CEO of Dress 2 Kill. to watch the game yesterday. We had lunch in the ERIC club under the West Stand and caught up with John Horton and other former internationals before going upstairs to watch the game of the season. England were simply immense and over powered the Welsh in every area of the game not least in the critical part - tactics. This is a team in development but worth an outside bet for the rugby world cup final. The crowd - sensing the occasion...
10
MAR
Social Networking 2/6 3-9 March 2014 Monday Ian @ Fitness First Allison @ Physio Tom Levitt @ Labour Former MPs Bump John Austin Sylvia Heal Gillian Merron Tuesday Legacy Group @ RFU bump Vic Luck Richard Hornblow Jason McMahon Tom Levitt @ Duck House, Vaudeville Theatre Wednesday Trinity Away Day @ Sage Publications Bump Richard Gluckman James Thellusson Iain McGourty Adrian Williams David Clarson Julia Robertson Katharine Jackson Dallas Pounds Paul
10
MAR
On Saturday, at my instigation, Bedford Blues rugby club asked the widows, children and grandchildren of Peter Green and Brian Arthur, both former players, to come to a memorial lunch to celebrate their lives. It was forty years ago that they lost their lives in the Paris air disaster.   Brian came form Bury St Edmunds whilst Peter was a farmer from Bottisham.
5
MAR
I went last night to see the play about MPs expenses called The Duck House which at times had me rolling in the aisles. At the end I thought it no more than a series of quite funny sketches stitched together but it was still enjoyable and reminded me a little of the old Brian Rix farces. www.the-duck-house.co.uk  
5
MAR
Four us met yesterday afternoon at Twickenham for a discussion about our next moves. We have five or six potential sponsors which is not bad given we have been going for less than a year.
3
MAR
Social Networking 2/5 24 Feb - 2 March 2014 Monday The Great Retail Revival @ D2K James Hibbert Keata Murray Anthony Barry Robin Kadmka Ronnie Lamb @ RSA Tuesday Richard Gorman @ The Cut Simon Halliday @ Portcullis Bump Gareth Thomas MP James Arbuthnot MP @ Portcullis Bump HH Jeff Blackett Colin Herridge David & Liz Clarson Mihir & Caroline Bose Karen Duncan Roger Truelove Wednesday Dr John Stedman @ Oxford OURFC v Penguins International @ Iffley...
1
MAR
At today's special conference at the ExCel centre in the Royal Docks, the Labour Party voted to accept the recommendations of the Collins Report (overwhelmingly by 86% to 14%). It was a good natured morning with lots of humour and a little discord but that's why we are the Labour Party! The best speech was by Ian McCartney but there was lots of others as thoughtful but not so powerfully delivered. There must have been over two thousand delegates which was most encouraging. 
1
MAR
On Wednesday evening, I popped up to Oxford to watch Jack, my son, play for the Penguins International XV against the Dark Blues.  Oxford were on top for the first 20 minutes racing to a 21-0 lead but by half time the team were levels. Thereafter, it was one way traffic with the Penguins winning 40-28. Jack played in the back row. 
website by Hudson Berkley Reinhart Ltd