Warren Buffett

The BBC documentary on Monday this week about Warren Buffett was so good, I watched the whole repeat again on Tuesday. Evan Davis pretty much let the story tell itself, and Mr Buffett shone through. He is an amazing man, but incredibly endearing and self-effacing at the same time. However, at 75, and with his main co-director being 85, you have to hope that the Berkshire Hathaway corporation has a succession plan sorted out!

Without a hint of sycophancy, I think Evan Davis has grown into the Today Programme role as if he has always been there. However, his regular appearances on TV, and on Dragon's Den in particular, are equally impressive.

More like that please.

Martin

Will the G20 meeting make a difference?

It would be great to think that the G20 meeting next week will pressage a global recovery. But is that likely? Probably not, unfortunately. Those major economies who believed that pumping millions of their Dollars/Pounds/Yen into their banks/markets/car manufacturers have done so by now. We need to wait to see if it made a difference, but second and third attempts have been needed already in some cases, and sceptics think it has been a failure. The resultant sovereign debts are almost incomprehensible, and repaying them will blight a generation.

Why would governments do more? They say that the alternative, of allowing banks and others to fail, would unleash financial disaster, but are the measures we are taking not leading to the same outcome, just more slowly?

Communiques at the end of summit meetings will never have been more closely watched than this one, but sadly it is not very likely to change the world for the better. In the meantime, there will be riots and civil unrest. Politicians will be boo-ed and hissed at, or worse, and the circus will move to another place. The unemployed will still be out of work, and the banks will still not want to lend to anyone.

My middle name is Jeremiah.

Where has our moral backbone gone?

The Press is possibly making too much of the "scandal" surrounding Tony McNulty's claim for second home allowances, but the issue is not about whether the Minister broke the rules. (It appears that he did not). What has happened to MPs' sense of propriety? Where is their moral backbone? It is clear to anyone posed the question "is it right to claim second home allowance only twelve miles from Westminster, and for a home owned and lived in by my parents?", that the answer is no.

It looks obvious to me that Mr McNulty had second thoughts when the Home Secretary got herself into political hot water in similar circumstances, but he has moved too late.

The Opposition would make more of this, but sadly this misuse of the expenses rules is a cross-party matter.

Credit Crunch Explained

There is a funny and extremely clever explanation of the Credit Crunch on the blog http://yourehavingalaughseriously.blogspot.com/ and linked in the blogs that I follow below. I suggest you have a read, and forward it to your friends.

Assisted Suicide

Patricia Hewitt, the former Health Secretary, weighed into the assisted suicide debate today. Ms Hewitt, who was a frequent visitor to Cumberland Lodge until she resigned from the Cabinet, has tabled an amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill. The BBC reports that her amendment to allow people to take terminally ill patients abroad for assisted suicide is likely to fail, but if so she plans to introduce a private members' bill.



It seems to me that public opinion is changing quietly but substantially towards accepting the right of individuals with terminal or degenerative illnesses to choose their time to depart. Recent cases have taken a liberal view of the actions of family or friends involved in helping the sick patient, and the sense of outrage is diminshing with each new case. Humanity and common sense win in the end.



If it ever happens to me, I hope that I have the courage, and the support of my family, to make the choice. By then, maybe, it will not be necessary to go to Switzerland.

Welcome to South by Southwest 2009 | SXSW.com

Welcome to South by Southwest 2009 SXSW.com

My son Rob is in Austin with Coca Cola's brand Relentless talking music and bands. There are so many bands!!

Another day, another dollar....

Two Government departments are paying our wages this week. We spent some time talking with our finance trustees today about how the credit crunch might affect Cumberland Lodge, and when. The "when" is the problem - planning for an unknowable downturn is so difficult. Maybe our bookings will be (largely) unaffected. Or maybe not!

We make our money here by working hard. Nobody has made any bonuses in recent times, nor are we likely to. Like most ordinary mortals, our staff are incredulous that failed bankers are still making millions. However, are politicians, including Obama, risking their reputations too much by swearing that they will prevent bonuses being paid by RBS or AIG? If they rush through new laws to overcome the contract argument, they will be bad laws. Will Sir Fred Goodwin volunteer to forego his amazing pension? I don't think so. He is not likely to get another job, or one paid so well, ever again. Why would he put his morals before survival? There is a good leader in the Economist today, "East does it". Have a look online.

There must be a conference for us in this.....

Stepping into the blogosphere

Well, here goes, with the first blog from Cumberland Lodge on a chilly sunny morning in Windsor Great Park. The place is just waking up - guests are wandering around looking for breakfast, staff gulping their first coffees to kick-start the day, builders already arrived to put the final touches to the refurbishment of Studio Cottage.

A new era starts today, with the arrival of Sir Stephen Wall to lead his first Executive Committee meeting as Chairman of our charity, succeeding Sir Eric Anderson (see photo) who retired at the end of January. That adds a little frisson, not knowing how Sir Stephen will approach his role and how the dynamics of the committee will change as a result. He was a career diplomat, so that bodes well. He has joined Cumberland Lodge at an interesting time, with all the anxiety about the state of the economy and its potential effect on the charity's business and core activities. A Government department just yesterday renegotiated the terms of a visit in August because of a steep funding reduction, costing us 25% of the value of a four-day meeting. Who knows where and when it will end?

Our own conference department is as busy as ever, and the only obvious negative there is the drying-up of sponsorship. The recent colloquium on Arts funding was a great success and we will have a full house for our imminent and very topical "Freedom from Fear: Public Perceptions of Crime and Justice". More on that soon.