Cricket & Retrospective Racism
As a cricket chairman, one of the most thought-provoking events of the last few weeks, has been the racism scandal at Yorkshire. Is there an inherent racism problem in the game and can people be forgiven for remarks allegedly made a decade ago? My opinion, which is not necessary the right one, is that if someone can see what they were in the past and have learnt from it, they should be able to move on. We are evolving all the time and many ...
The Pros & Cons of Moving Home
If you are in your 50’s and thinking of moving, think seriously. It is physically and emotionally exhausting. It makes you realise your back, elbows and knees are entering the last phase of being fit for purpose. Our reason for moving was simple. We couldn’t continue running two houses. Moving into mine long-term would not have been wise as we might have killed each other. We didn’t want to stay at Jennifer’s as she had neighbours ...
Giving Our Rivers a Bit of Wiggle Room
I was watching ‘The Lakes’ with Simon Reeve last night, and I was struck by some of the programme’s content. On one section of the programme, Reeve was talking to a couple of geomorphologists. I will confess that I had never heard of this profession before. However, I quickly realised what a future role they will play in the natural environment. Increased Flooding In layman’s terms, they explained many of the ...
Corruption is the Issue, Not Second Jobs
I keep hearing MP’s and journalists debating what should happen to stop sleaze in parliament. This of course, is after the recent row over the Tories trying to ringfence Owen Paterson. Paterson was getting paid by two companies who were winning government contracts. This was clearly wrong, and he should have been sacked. In the end, he resigned, deciding that the cruel world of politics was too much. Then, shortly after, it was revealed that ...
Billy Bragg – Looking for another New England
About 20 years ago, I was having a debate with an elder friend of mine and I ended up quoting Clash frontman, Joe Strummer. He replied by saying, “That’s all and well Bob, but life isn’t the gospel according to Joe Strummer”. I can’t remember what the argument was about, but I did feel a bit of a twat. He was right of course and from that day onwards, I have refused to live a life with rules set by Joe Strummer, Paul Weller, or ...