When I am not doing my consumer work, I sometimes act as a Support Trainer with a training consultancy called Lamont Associates.
This is run by a remarkable woman called Georgeanne Lamont who wrote the book "The Spirited Business" [my review here].
I'm off now for a few days to run a course for a group of managers who work for QinetiQ which used to be the research arm of the Ministry of Defence.
For no less than 453 weeks now, I have circulated by e-mail a Thought For The Week to a growing number of friends and contacts around the world (the current circulation is around 1,200). You can check out all these thoughts here.
Now this week's thought is:
“Remember – a statue has never been set up in honour of a critic.”
Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
One of the recipients of the thought points out to me that this is not technically true. But then Ian does nit pick!
If you would like to be put on the circulation list for these thoughts e-mail me.
There are different estimates of the delegate count secured by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but most now suggest that Obama has just acquired more super delegate votes than her - adding to his long-term lead in the pledged delegate tally.
The 2008 Democratic Convention Watch gives their calculations and some others. The trend is very clear: Obama has effectively won the nomination and Clinton needs to find an early and dignified exit strategy.
From the age of eight, I was brought up in a single-parent household led by my mother and I was the oldest of the three children. Although I saw my father regularly, it was not a happy relationship - so altogether I was short of a respected father figure and tended to find one where I could.
The first was my headmaster at the Roman Catholic direct grant grammar school in south Manchester where I studied from 1959 to 1966. The school was called the Xaverian College, it was run by a religious order of brothers, and the headmaster was a guy called Brother Cyril. I saw a lot more of him than most pupils because he chose me as School Captain for my final year and he allowed me to nominate my own prefects and to establish a School Council.
Everyone found Brother Cyril a formidable, even scary, figure. Although short and very quiet, he commanded immense respect and even fear. So often when I visited him in his study, he would fall silent for what seemed an eternity. At first, I nervously rushed to fill the silence. But then I learned to stay silent myself and give him time to think. This silence technique is one I have subsequently used countless times to assist me in negotiations or encourage people to talk about their problems.
Now Brother Cyril seemed old to me at the time (I was aged 11-18) and, if I ever thought about him these days, I assumed that he was long dead. So imagine my surprise to receive an e-mail directing me to a web site run by another former student at the school which carries a recent interview with Brother Cyril. I learn that amazingly he was headmaster from 1962 to 1989 and that he is now living in retirement in the USA aged 83.
I wish him long and happy retirement.
I've been tagged for a meme by my American cyber friend Dana Huff. I won't follow all the rules but I'll go with the flow and answer the questions.
What were you doing ten years ago?
I've checked my diary.
I was Head of Research for the Communications Workers Union (CWU) which represents staff in the postal and telecommunications industries. The Union had just elected a new General Secretary Derek Hodgson and one of his very first meetinga - on which I accompanied him - was to meet the then Chancellor of the Exchequer (now Prime Minister) Gordon Brown and the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury (now Chancellor of the Exchequer) Alistair Darling. The sole subject of the meeting was Derek's fear that the Government was considering privatisation of the Post Office (now called Royal Mail). We were assured that this was not the case. But today - ten years on - there is a Government-commissioned review of the postal industry being led by Richard Hooper that will certainly be revisiting this immensely controversial issue.
What are five things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order)
What are some snacks I enjoy?
What would I do if I were a billionaire?
Tell as few people as possible, give each family member enough to pay off debts and have a holiday, and give away the rest to various charities as soon as I could.
What are three of my bad habits?
What are five places where you have lived?
What are five jobs I have had?
My good friend Andy has directed me to a great web site that enables one to create a personal map showing all the countries one has visited. I've eagerly done this and posted the map on my web site.
Now on my web site, I list the 49 countries that I reckon I have visited. But, creating the map on the World66 site, I clicked on a total of 52 countries. Two of the extra countries are the Channel islands and Vatican City. Should I count these for my web site calculation. The third extra country is my own: the United Kingdom. Do I count this on my web site list?
Help me out here, guys. I need your advice.
By the way, the World66 map misses out an entire continent: Antarctica.
Last night, I watched Barack Obama being interviewed on CNN's "The Situation Room". He was thoughtful and articulate and, if I was an American, he would certainly have my vote.
Now Obama is going to be the Democratic Presidential candidate - it's just going to take a little more time for Hillary Clinton to accept that and withdraw. So he must now be thinking of his Vice Presidential running mate.
Conventional wisdom states that the Presidential candidate should chose a running mate that complements him. So maybe Obama should be looking for someone who is a woman, white, able to connect with blue collar workers, from a state that is not in the north-west, and whom he respects and admires.
Clinton scores on the first three but fails hopelessly on the last two. So there will be no so-called 'dream ticket'. In the CNN interview, Obama said that she "would be on anybody's shortlist" - but I don't see any chance of him choosing her.
Another option - one favoured by my good American friend Eric Lee - is John Edwards [see his case here]. Edwards scores on everything except gender and his selection would work for me - but I can see two problems.
First, Edwards withdrew from the Presidential race suddenly and surprisingly. The assumption is that he wanted to be with his wife who has cancer. If that's the case, would he want to run as Obama's number two?
Second, the Republicans are trying to paint Obama as too liberal to win the general election. But Edwards is more liberal than Obama on many economic issues. This seems bizarre to us in Britain but it could rule out an Obama-Edwards ticket in the USA. I don't think it will happen.
Today is the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the state of Israel.
Among the many media pieces marking the event, I thought that this article was a good assessment of the situation.
You can read my review of a book on the Arab-Israeli conflict here.
A year ago, I visited Israel and you can read my account of the trip here. I concluded my narrative as follows:
"Israel is a country of great contrasts and contradictions. It has biblical and archaeological sites dating back 4,000 years and yet it is the most modern state in the Middle East by far. Its citizens come from all over the world and consist of the fanatically religious and the totally secular and everything in between. There is desert in the south but green hills in the north with the beautiful Sea of Galilee and the saline Dead Sea in between. It has a city (Jerusalem) that is especially holy to three major world religions and a church (the Holy Sepulchre) that is contested by six denominations. There is quite simply no country like it.One has to hope that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict can be resolved soon and, if it is, the basis may well be a version of the Geneva Accord of December 2003. Israel has been a great success as a nation state, creating a dynamic economy and a vibrant democracy with a free media. It is not the apartheid state that some of its critics charge. But equally too it does not treat its Jewish and Arab citizens equally and the behaviour towards Arabs in the occupied territories is often shameful. Security for Israel and land for the Palestinians cannot come soon enough"
It really depends on the categorisation one uses
Seven areas are commonly regarded as continents. They are (from largest in size to smallest): Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. On this basis, I've visited five - not having been to Antarctica or Australia.
As you'll see from this analysis, however, there are at least six different ways of categorising continents with numbers ranging from four to seven.
In all the categorisations, one continent is Australia, but this continent is not always called Australia, sometimes being known as Australasia or Oceania.
I think that I have some understanding of what it is like to be a senior politician. I worked full-time for one in the 1970s, two years in the House of Commons, two years in the Northern Ireland Office and two years in the Home Office. Since those days, I have met many Members of Parliament and a lot of Ministers.
When I read about the set-backs facing figures like Gordon Brown in the UK and Barack Obama in the USA, I wonder how these politicians manage to cope with the pressures, especially today with 24/7 media coverage. In some walks of life, one can lie low for a while and recover one's confidence. In politics, there is no time and no space to suffer privately. It's amazing that more politicians do not resign or suffer mental illness or even commit suicide.
I guess that politicians survive by being emotionally tough and resilient. In part, this involves the capacity to create an alternative reality so that, however bad things look to others, the politician can battle through pressured times. I spoke recently to someone who worked very closely with Tony Blair in his final years as Prime Minister and he told me that Blair was amazingly up-beat and confident throughout his tribulations.
Yet, if the ability to create an alternative reality is essential to political survival, it can also have dramatic consequences. For many months, Gordon Brown was in total denial about the impact of abolishing the lower 10p tax rate. In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, Tony Blair convinced himself that there were weapons of mass destruction in the country and, for months after the invasion, maintained that stance in the face of clear evidence to the contrary.
So, how can a top politician hold out against all the day-to-day criticisms but maintain a clear view of the essential reality of the situation? I think that part of the answer is to have some trusted advisers who can tell it as it really is. I worked as a national trade union official for no less than seven different General Secretaries, many of whom were tough operators. Part of my task, especially in my last seven years as Head of Research, was to say to the GS: "Look, I know you don't want to hear this, but ..." It was uncomfortable for him and for me.
Our recent visit to Cuba [my narrative here] has stimulated my interest in Cuban music. We bought a couple of CDs during the trip and, since we returned from the holiday, we've purchased and watched the 1999 film "Buena Vista Social Club" [my review here].
So we were excited at the opportunity to hear some Buena Vista Social Club stalwarts live in London and attend a concert last night at the Hammersmith Apollo. Vee and I were joined by her twin sister Mari and brother-in-law Derek plus two of our special friends from the Cuba trip, Juan-Jose and Joanne.
Now the Apollo is an unimpressive venue with poor facilities, but the concert was wonderful. It began with a group from Los Angeles called Very Be Careful. Then we had the Buena Vista Social Club for almost two hours (there was no formal interval all evening).
As well as an 11-piece band from Havana, we had the four stars: Cachaíto Lopez on double bass, Manuel ‘Guajiro’ Mirabal on trumpet, Jesús ‘Aguaje’ Ramos on trombone, and Manuel Galbán on guitar and organ [biographical summaries here].
What I love most about Cuban music is its sheer joy and exuberance. However, I also delight in the ensemble nature of the playing with each main instrumentalist and singer having a chance to take the lead and show his or her virtuoso talent.
It was a terrific evening and, for the last number, we were all dancing in the rows. If anything, that was all that was really missing to make the evening perfect. Cuban music and dancing are simply inextricable and, in Cuba itself, the best concerts feature professionals dancers and the restaurants and clubs positively invite customers to swing their hips.
Vee and I usually finish the day sitting on the couch together watching television. Most of what we watch is recorded on Sky+. That way, we never miss a programme we really want to watch, we can stop the programme if we missed some dialogue, and we can skip the adverts.
At the core of our viewing is the American series. In fact, we follow three: "Desperate Housewives" (we've just started series 4), "Brothers And Sisters" (we've just commenced series 2) and "Heroes" (again series 2 has just begun). I also watch "Lost" (we're on series four here) but Vee thinks this is silly.
We're both keen on news and current affairs, so we always watch BBC's "News At Ten" and we usually watch CNN's "The Situation Room" (to get the latest on the US primaries).
We like some entertainment, so we generally watch "Friday Night With Jonathan Ross" and we loved "Gavin & Stacey".
Vee watches more television than me. She likes programmes on property and gardening, so she's never sort of something to view, and she's also strong on nature programmes and historical documentaries. My extras tend to be programmes on science, especially cosmology and physics.
Neither of us is remotely interested in sports programmes.
What you you like to watch?
Two days ago, I did a posting about the London elections. In the event, Ken Livingstone did not come that close to holding on to the post of London Mayor and now we have at least four years of Boris Johnston in the top seat. It will take some getting used to - but he may surprise us. I liked his statement: "I was elected as new Boris and I will govern as new Boris, or whatever the phrase is".
Although there was an encouraging turnout in London of over 45%, appallingly the British National Party (BNP) still managed to win a seat on the Greater London Assembly (GLA) because they exceeded the 5% threshold. The only good news for Labour in London was the winning of the Assembly seat for Harrow and Brent by Navin Shah. That's my seat and of course I voted for him.
Nationally the result has been a disaster for Labour. I joined the party in 1969 and have been a member continuously ever since. Thursday's results were the worst for Labour since 1968 with a mere 24% of the poll putting the party behind the Lib Dems. I guess it means that we won't have a General Election now until 2009. Meanwhile a lot of thinking and rebuilding needs to come from the Labour side.
Part of the defeat is the consequence of being so long in power; part of it is the result of the global downturn in economic conditions; but an important element is self-made and Labour clearly needs to reconnect with its core voters while not forgetting the middle class vote. It won't be easy and there is not much time - but it can be done.
The organisation Compass has been quick off the mark with its analysis of what went wrong and what needs to be done.
Australia is one of the largest countries in the world - but most of it is desert - and constitutes the overwhelming mass of the smallest continent on the globe (Australasia). The population is just over 21 million with approximately 60% of the population concentrated in and around the mainland state capitals of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.
Australia has a prosperous, Western-style mixed economy, with a per capita GDP slightly lower than that of the UK, but higher than those of Germany and France in terms of purchasing power parity. The country was ranked third in the United Nations' 2007 Human Development Index and sixth in The Economist worldwide quality-of-life index 2005.
The country tends not to make the world's media unless there is an election or there is regional crisis.
There are two major political groups that form governments: the Australian Labour Party and the Coalition which is a grouping of two parties: the Liberal Party and its minor partner, the National Party. Currently the Labour Party is in power.Voting is compulsory for all enrolled citizens 18 years and over, in each state and territory and at the federal level.
Australia has mediated between warring groups in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and deployed thousands of peacekeepers in newly-independent East Timor.
Ever since I obtained the right to vote at the age of 18 - almost 42 years ago - I have never failed to vote in an election and I have never failed to vote Labour. This may make me predictable and old-fashioned but, if (as I do) one supports a fairer and more equal redistribution of power and wealth in our society, I don't see that one needs to change one's vote from election to election.
Today I voted four times: my first choice for Mayor of London, my second choice for Mayor, my choice of constituency candidate for the Greater London Assembly, and my choice of political party for the GLA.
It seems to be touch and go whether the new Mayor will be the incumbent Ken Livingstone for Labour or the main challenger Boris Johnson for the Conservatives. I have long believed that essentially there are only two election slogans: one is "It's experience that counts" (used by the incumbent or Establishment figure) or "It's time for change" (used by the challenger or outsider). So it has proved in the London Mayoral election.
I believe that Livingstone is a flawed candidate who supports some odd causes and places too much faith and power in his friends, but he has helped to make London effectively the capital of the world, he has been brave and right in introducing the congestion charge, and he has by far the best policies for our multicultural and dynamic capital.
However, I believe that he has made a mistake is attempting to portray Johnson as a buffoon and a fool. Johnson is certainly colourful and idiosyncratic, but he is intelligent and shrewd and he has run a disciplined and effective campaign. It would have been better for Livingstone to treat Johnson with more respect and focus on the weaknesses of his polices compared to those of the Labour leader.
We'll see soon what the electors of London have decided ...
Formerly called Upper Volta and a French colony until 1960, Burkina Faso (which translates as "land of honest men") is a country of 15 million which has spent many of its post-independence years under military rule with repeated coups, especially during the 1980s. Coup leader Blaise Compaore won a new five-year term in 2005 after 18 years at the helm.
A poor country even by West African standards, landlocked Burkina Faso has suffered from recurring droughts. The country has significant reserves of gold, but cotton production - an industry vulnerable to changes in world prices - is the economic mainstay for many Burkinabes. The UN rates Burkina Faso as the world's third poorest country.
Burkina Faso has been linked to conflicts within the region, notably Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.
The standing of Libya in the international community has been transformed in recent years. Once shunned by much of the world over the 1988 bombing of a PanAm plane above the Scottish town of Lockerbie, the country formally took responsibility for the incident in 2003. This move, part of a deal to compensate families of the 270 victims, heralded the lifting of UN sanctions. Months later, Libya renounced weapons of mass destruction, paving the way for a further blossoming of relations with the West.
Since the king was overthrown in a coup in 1969, Libya has been led by the idiosyncratic Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. He introduced a new political system called jamahiriya, loosely translated as a "state of the masses", in which in theory power is held by various people's committees, while in practice Gaddafi rules over 6.2 million unopposed.
The Libyan economy depends primarily upon revenues from the oil sector, which constitute practically all export earnings and about one-quarter of gross domestic product. These oil revenues and a small population give Libya one of the highest GDPs per person in Africa and have allowed the Libyan state to provide an extensive and impressive level of social security, particularly in the fields of housing and education.
If - like me - you are a non-American following the primary elections in the USA, you have to learn a lot of new terminology. In the current stage of the race, two terms are of particular strangeness.
One term is "a Hoosier" This is a word used to describe a resident of the state of Indiana - which votes next - but nobody is sure of the origin of the term. More information here.
Another term is "a NASCAR voter". This is a reference to the kind of white, male, working class voter than Obama is finding hard to reach and the term comes from the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing - web site here - which these voters are assumed to support.