Forums

[john yates @john-yates Participant]

@Mick-ward

many thanks for the reply. I share your pessimism at times. It’s why I asked Ian Jack to come up and see us at the AMRC. His piece is here:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/25/british-industry-uk-economy-productivity-orgreave

There is hope. I won’t go into a point by point commentary but have to say that when I left daily journalism one of the first accidental jobs I got was with a work winning team in Carillion. I was working with a team of theirs the day before the liquidation. I have to say it is one of the most progressive companies I have ever worked with. Their annual sustainability report was not some bolt on extra, but central to its people’s behaviour. Jonathan Portia and others have been advisers down the years. Ironically their downfall probs began with the purchase of green energy company Eaga. The deal cost in excess of 400 m and it never made a penny as it was dependent on tariff subsidies that were removed. I think the company grew too big, too many acquisitions. I’ve worked on scores of big bids and it has always puzzled me how so complex a process doesn’t result in greater failures. It’s not a binary thing for me. State good/private bad. I’ve advised local councils and am appalled at the basic lack skills, drive and competence we have st this level.

[john yates @john-yates Participant]

@mick ward Full of people being paid by the taxpayer to doss around. I loved it. Simple life. Open air. Great company. Didn’t even have to sign on in person. It was a great music scene. Punk and politics and passion. Back then I spent most of my time trying to pull coppers off horses in trafalgar square.. Thatcher was a hate figure. But I admire her now. Despite her courage and conviction, she never did change the U.K. into a broad based economic powerhouse. Privatisation was the right thing. But the focus on the city at the expense of manufacturing was a grave mistake. Bing bang brought in big bucks to the Treasury. Something Blair and Brown encouraged further, allowing all sorts of excesses and ignoring all the warning signs. For me, the Blair and Brown decades were the dark ages. There was a promise of Kennedy. What we got was comedy and tragedy – Iraq and Afghanistan to name but two wars. This was an era of spin and party machines. The horrible cult of celebrity. Cool Britannia. Public Services built in tick. The personal pager keeping MPs on message. Dull men in grey suits spouting bromides. All those lies about the end of boom and bust. Nothing Lady T ever did was as disastrous as New Labour. The 70s and 80s were an era of characters in climbing and in politics. The nineties and noughties became bland – You know Mick, I bet you loved the seventies and eighties really.

[Author]

Posts