On:
In: Stephen Bird

I was taught by a former Sales Manager that God gave us two eyes, two ears and only one mouth. And that we should learn to use them in proportion. “When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know; but when you listen, you may learn something new.” She was talking about learning what our customers really wanted but I was reminded of these wise words often as I watched the comedy which is the Labour Leadership elections play out. Strangely enough, it was thinking about the referendum campaign which first formed the link. There is ample evidence that the Unionist forces hadRead More →

On:
In: Stephen Bird

One thing we can say about the Labour Party, be that “New Labour”, “Old Labour” or even “Real Labour” is that they have a penchant for making themselves look foolish. Indeed it might even be described as a virus in the heart of Labour. They are tearing lumps out of each other in a way which simply demonstrates that Labour are really at least two political parties sharing a tent and they detest each other much more than the other parties, at least in England. (They unite around the policy “SNP Bad!” if nothing else.) Dave Ward, the general secretary of the Communication Workers Union,Read More →

On:
In: Stephen Bird

As the latest Greek tragedy unfolded two weeks ago in Brussels, one thing which constantly baffled me was the harsh and unbending positions adopted by some of the smaller EU members particularly Finland who seemed to be revelling in their 15 minutes of notoriety.   I could understand the Germans, who had over 56 billion euros worth of debt in the pot. I could understand that Merkel would find it difficult to sell more aid to the Bundestag. But she seemed to be playing a relatively “good cop” to Wolfgang Schauble’s “bad cop” and with some prompting from Francois Hollande it seemed that a sensibleRead More →

On:
In: Stephen Bird

We often hear media pundits talking about the advantages of public figures having what they refer to as “Hinterland”. Of having a real working life before and outside of politics. One definition of hinterland is “An area lying beyond what is visible or known: the strange hinterland where life begins and ends”. For me it is that indefinable yet unmistakable quality that someone has when they have lived life properly, lived or worked in different places and fields and among real people with real lives. Found a few paths less travelled and emerged as their own person. And in this last week this has beenRead More →