My Uncle Kenneth, father of cousin Jackie, with whom I spent a lot of time when I was growing up, was the oldest of my grandparents’ children. His aspirations were lofty and his first wife was Alice Katherine Dundas, daughter of John Charles Dundas, M.P for Richmond, Magistrate, Lord Lieutenant Orkney and Shetland. Charles Dundas’s…
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Torsten Bell, Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation, began his powerful Financial Times article on 13Mar23 by saying: “The UK has lost the habit of thinking strategically”. I do not wish to correct Mr Bell, rather to add to his timely observation. The whole world seems to have lost the habit of thinking strategically. Indeed,…
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It has been suggested that a few of the tales in my book of short stories might provide a light relief, from time to time, from the world’s wearisome worries. This is the first of such stories. Cousin Jackie, my Uncle Kenneth’s child, married a witty, lovely, lazy but energetic man called Roger Burness. They…
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The days get shorter as you get older. That is why the old think they still have so much to do. If you’re having a great life, it is true, you do – and you can rejoice at your good fortune. If you’re in pain, the days get longer again and the protracted nights push…
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The urgency of munitions for Ukraine is well defined in Martin Wolf’s column in the Financial Times of 01Mar23. In this latest struggle for the survival of democracy the USA has been by far the largest donor to date. Promises made by others have been only half fulfilled and there is a lag in the…
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Covid allowed working from home on a scale never before seen. For a few people the lack of office contacts was a diminution of their day. The absence of the lunchtime gossip and the chat round the cooler point left them with fewer and less interesting contacts. Those from unhappy homes looked forward to Monday…
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Are we asking the right questions? It is widely accepted that we have entered a stage of humanity’s development in which our ability to influence the future is formidable but the future we perhaps ought to want is obscure. All our upbringing and most of our education and training has consisted of those who know…
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They want to demonstrate that they are in control. What do they mean by control? The decision as to whether their opponents survive and prosper – and perhaps live or die. ‘They’ presumably don’t want to die – whoever ’they’ are – and maybe they don’t especially want their citizens to die either. ‘They’ in…
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Being interviewed for a job has changed, not just over the last decade but over the last thirty months. What lands you a job with one company will get you shown the door at another. How modern high-tech business bosses see a potential colleague is quite different from what a traditional employer in a long-established…
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Stephen Hawking Ability to adapt is the reason the human race has developed ahead of other life species. For most of its history humanity has been able to change slowly. The pace has increased from somewhat lugubrious to hysterically frenetic in just my lifetime. Now it is in danger of getting so out of control…
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