OK – so I am an elephant
It would be true to say that I was quite disappointed when Nigel Risner told me I'm an elephant, as he, Jackie Murphy and I struggled through Malaga Airport in the closing hours of last Tuesday week, after RDO8 finished in Marbella. There had been an Air Traffic Controllers’ strike in France (where else) and of course flights were delayed and re-directed etc. Ok, I always suspected that there was a central element of elephant in my character but I had always hoped there was a bit of monkey or lion as well – not dolphin (see Nigel’s book “It’s a...
“Oh what a tangled web we weave…”
Of course the quote "Oh what a tangled web we weave...
Brexit – What has happened to us?
We have a close neighbour who lives some three doors down from us. She is Austrian by birth but has lived here with her husband for some thirty years. She is probably in her early 70’s but last week, was clearly worried as she asked me if I thought she would have to leave the country once the Brexit negotiations were concluded. I did my best to reassure her that after all this time she would most certainly be welcome to stay I was listening to BBC Radio 4’s news programme at 10.00 last night (such a British thing to do whilst...
Notice to Quit – Chief Executive Blog
So 29th March will go down as the day we officially told Brussels that the UK was leaving the EU. It also happened to be the same day that Scotland’s First Minister told Theresa May, that Scotland wanted to have a second Independence Referendum - now who could have seen that coming I wonder? Sarcasm apart – the day was one of mixed emotions, we had the euphoria of the “Brexiteers” alongside what can probably be described as the muted despair of the “Remoaners”. Ironically we now have the prospect of “The Great Repeal Bill,” which first surfaced in 1539 in...
The question I wished I had asked – Chief Executive Blog
Last Saturday I was at the TATOC Conference in Warrington giving a summary of the work RDO has been doing since last year’s conference. Rivetingly entitled “RDO Update” – my fault I should have submitted a better title - but at least Robin Mills changed it on the day to something more appropriate – “Annus Horribilis” as quoted by Her Majesty of the year various Royal Marriages came unstuck – Prince Charles, Princess Anne and Prince Andrew as I recall it. In contrast Howard Nusbaum President and CEO of ARDA, gave a round-up of the US Market later in the day and the...
Trexit – RDO leads the way
You heard it here first. Trexit, which I believe you classify as an acronym, was buzzing around the Conference hall at RDO7 last month, and coined by a number of our American delegates. Admittedly tongue in cheek, it was defined as what may happen after the US Presidential elections in November if Donald Trump wins the election. It is the reverse of Brexit in that individual Americans leave the country as a result of his election to office. Good news for estate agents in Central London, looking to sell some of the apartments the Chinese and Russians are no longer interested in! There...
Brexit: “ The long-term ghastliness of the legal complications are unimaginable”
So said Sir David Edward KCMG, QC, PC, FRSE, Former Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Union, in giving evidence to the European Union Committee of the House of Lords. The Committee produced a little publicised report on Brexit on 4 May 2016 entitled “The process of withdrawing from the European Union”. (HL Paper 138) in which the Committee took evidence not only from Sir David Edward, but also from Professor Derrick Wyatt QC, Emeritus Professor of Law, Oxford University. I am surprised it has received so little publicity as it provides an insight into the enormity...
The UK referendum – ‘a week is a long time in politics…….’
This was said by Prime Minister Harold Wilson back in the 1960s /70s, but could not have been more applicable to the events of the last days here in the UK, when we woke up on Friday 24th June after the referendum to find out that the UK (or rather Wales and England, not Scotland nor Northern Ireland), had voted by 54% to 49% to come out of the EU. I make no apologies for concentrating on this event in this blog as let’s face it, all other events pale into insignificance compared with the domestic and dare I say - geo-political significance...
The UK’s EU referendum – are we In our Out?
With the UK's EU referendum bearing down fast on us here, I decided to use this blog to set out my own personal views on the upcoming decision. Aware of the fact that some weeks ago the Head of the Chambers of Commerce in the UK had to resign after coming out in favour of exit , I approached this decision with a degree of caution, nevertheless emboldened by the fact that RDO has already made it clear that it supports remaining and indeed we added our name to another 200 organisations supporting this position – published in the FT...
On BBC bias woes and timeshare
I like to think that I have always been a firm defender of the BBC and its independence and objectivity. But I must say I’m having second thoughts after my experience when I was asked to go on its “BBC5 Live Investigates” on the morning of Sunday 13th March. Admittedly the previous item overran its time slot and our scheduled 30 minute piece on the “- problems of timeshare perpetuity (sic) contracts and owners’ inability to exit” was reduced to about 20 minutes. But I still don’t believe this entitled the producer and presenter to devote some 17 of those 20 minutes...
