Grombles

So it's all unfolding as expected. The UK has declared itself in competition with the EU who can't afford for us to succeed. Obvious and predicted. Here . Here . Here . And here . Now we're faced with a compromise that is neither in nor out - and with none of the benefits of either - and kicking the same can down the road regarding issues that can't be resolved today, so will never be resolved (Irish border, Gibraltar, Cyprus even, etc), or a hard exit where we trade under WTO terms and citizens outside their country of origin (Brits in the EU and EUs in the UK) will have to rely on compassion (or more likely incompetence) to remain where they are. The likely scenario is that parliament rejects the 'deal', Brussels refuses to change any of it, and we're left with a hard exit or... a People's Vote to end this madness... or will it? Ignoring for the moment that we are a very divided nation that being either in or out won't resolve, what are the pos...

Most of us lead pretty complicated lives. We juggle work, social, play, relaxation and panic as best we can to achieve successes ranging from survival (ideally) to ecstatic amazement at our achievements – and all points between. Rarely does everything neatly fall into place precisely when it’s meant to. My life is no different from most, a chaotic combination of serendipity and attempts at using structures and disciplines to prevent me becoming overwhelmed. I muddle through. When I had a proper job, I had tasks assigned to me, I developed To-Do lists and I adopted the Urgent/Important prioritisation matrix to decide which tasks to tackle first: … which you can read more about here . But there was a catch. My lists and prioritisation techniques were defined by time . When should I do what? And in order to do most of the stuff in my lists, I needed information… and a lot of that information was in handwritten notes, recorded in the most haphazard way possible – sequentially. ...

Somehow, about 45 years ago, I was accepted into University College London (UCL) to study Mechanical Engineering. My A Levels were Maths, Physics and Chemistry, because I was less worse at these subjects than I would have been had I chosen others. Put them into a subject mincer, sprinkle on single-minded paternal advice (my dad was a great engineer), and out popped Mech Eng as my passport to a career. It wasn't long before I realised that I was never going to be a career engineer, but I persevered and scraped into my final year where I encountered two novel features of the UCL course. Firstly that I could choose to add subjects that had little to do with engineering - so I studied stuff like Law, Psychology and the History of Technology. And secondly I had to do a dissertation on a project proposed by one of my professors. The project I chose was titled "Steam injection into an internal combustion (IC) engine to suppress the onset of pre-detonation with unleaded fuel". ...

The British bulldog himself, Winston Churchill, is universally regarded as our national hero. The embodiment all things British. It might therefore surprise the nationalists who voted for us to leave the EU that Churchill argued strongly for its creation. On 19th September 1946, he made a speech at Zurich University. The corrected full text is below (amazingly whoever made the original transcript, included a number of mistakes). You can listen to the original recording here . Any highlighting is mine. So if you don't want to plough through all 17 minutes, you can get the gist from the bold text. " I wish to speak to you today about the tragedy of Europe. This noble continent, comprising on the whole the fairest and the most cultivated regions of the earth; enjoying a temperate and equable climate, is the home of all the great parent races of the western world. It is the fountain of Christian faith and Christian ethics. It is the origin of most of the culture, arts, ph...

We're all familiar with Dragons Den, the popular TV series where all manner of weird and wonderful ideas are pitched to a panel of wealthy self-made business men and women in the hope of attracting investment. Well Dragons are not mythical beasts who only exist on TV for our entertainment. All over the UK there are clubs of relatively wealthy people known as angels, not dragons, where businesses pitch their ideas in much the same way as you see on TV (usually 5 or 10 minute Powerpoint presentations). The better ones attract angels to invest typically £10,000 to £20,000 each, or occasionally more, in exchange for shares in their companies. It's fun, and it's vital for the economy. It's also immensely satisfying for those of us who were fortunate enough in our day to have had help to build our own wealth, to assist younger men and women to do the same - hopefully. I'm a member of an angel group called The Surrey 100 Club. It operates under the auspices of Surrey Uni...

I'm a member of a local angel investment group known as the S100 Club . It's part of SETsquared , the world's largest university incubator network. We meet every other month to see half a dozen pitches from businesses seeking funding in the £200k-£1m bracket. Banks won't lend to high risk start-ups, and investment funds tend to only be interested in established companies needing upwards of £2m to accelerate their already proven potential for growth. So angels are a vital source of funding between Family, Friends and Fools risking their savings and mortgages on their homes, and the larger, more risk-averse venture funds. About 2 years ago the club had a pitch from a company which was then called Playcaddy. Basically it was a website that managed sports activities like leagues, competitions, teams and other group events for clubs. Impressively their system was already being used by several high profile clubs, especially tennis (the founder is a keen player who built ...

Have you realised how excessive almost everything has become? Today we are literally overwhelmed by choices and by stuff. What to watch Which app to use Phone to buy Tweets to follow and read News Transport Clothes Food Education Holidays, flights, hotels Careers Sports Friends Choice choice choice Reading, buying, watching, doing, meeting, exploring, finding etc etc. So much more to do, to own, to use, or to waste our money on than any generation has ever experienced - and it's relentlessly getting worse (or better if you relish excess). The global marketplace has only just begun to assail us with all its offerings, and it's limitless. So how do we control this overload of decision making? And it's not just individuals who need to become better organised to manage this deluge. Organisations are called this for a reason too. We assign values to each and every element trying to impinge on our lives. Will it resolve a problem? Will it look good on me? Can...