Summer is drawing to a close and what crazy times we seem to be living in. I watched Chris Mason of the BBC interview Ed Davey of the Lib-Dems at their party conference. Mason was clearly affronted that the BBC have been called out for giving Farridge and Reform an almost uncritical platform for much of

It was the summer of 1985 - I'd scraped some underwhelming A level results and managed to blag a place at Brighton Polytechnic. Didn't really have a plan - and spent the first year sleeping on a friends floor in Coldean wondering what on earth I'd let myself in for. Managed to get to

Right - plans to have the July and August off were rudely interrupted by a former colleague asking me to help out with a governance review of a charity they chair. Given that it fell into my work priority of category of 'people I like and projects that are interesting' - I couldn't say no.

Blimey - it has now been 5 years since I entered the world of freelancing / consultancy. Not a clue at the time what that meant really but knew it was time for a change. 10 years left to make a difference and whilst still enjoying my time at CGL - i needed something knew.

"news of my death are greatly exaggerated" - as Mark Twain once said. A phrase that unexpectedly entered my life over the last few weeks. It transpired that someone with a very similar name to me (indeed also often referred to as Mike P) had died playing squash. We had both played at the same

As spring (or dotage) approaches I realise increasingly that I seem to live in a world that I no longer understand. But every single time I have turned on the radio, tried to watch the news or opened a paper it is dominated by men obsessing about toilets, and who should go where. Or in

I promise I'm not just going to wang about President Dump - but jeez. Deliberately raising prices for your 'own people' when you promised to bring them down seems as reckless a piece of economic self-harm for the US as Brexit was for us. As ever - it'll be the poorest who suffer the most,

Welcome to the March offering of stuff that's currently in my head. It'll touch on work, music and life in general - but like almost every other civilised sentient being it would be impossible to pretend that global politics is also not dominating much of my brainpower. Other people have written at great length about

Or a new moon rises - been enjoying some quite stunning moon / venus and saturn combinations as dusk sets each evening. Not much else has changed since the January blog then - apart from the unrelenting screech of the US Uber Rich Men of the People taking back control from the woke classes. Or

After extensive polling and public feedback here comes the first blog of 2025. Going to free myself from the constraints of 'weekly' and probably from many of the conventions of good manners. So here as usual is a presentation of life inside my head right now. Work - just getting ready for the final submission of