Farewell to M.J.K. Smith, the Harborough District's England captain

The former England cricket captain M.J.K. "Mike" Smith died yesterday at the age of 92. He was a middle-order batsman with Leicestershire and then Warwickshire, and also a rugby union player. He won a single England cap was at fly half against Wales in 1956, making him the last man to play both sports for England.

His Guardian obituary says:

His even-tempered approach was one of the keys to his success as a skipper not just with England, whom he led between 1964 and 1966, but with his county, which he captained from 1957 to 1967. 

Although the product of a traditional public school and Oxbridge background, he was unusual for the time in having a classless accent, an egalitarian outlook and a relaxed attitude to convention. Rank and file players loved him for it, and would do anything to support his cause.

The Guardian also reveals that Smith was the son of a Leicestershire hosiery manufacturer and grew up in Broughton Astley, a village in the Harborough District.

I would say that Smith's test career was before my time, but when I was a boy the England selectors loved their recalls. So, six years after his last cap, Smith was picked to play in the first three tests of the 1972 home Ashes series.

His batting made no impression on me, but I do remember a catch he took on the boundary. It was on the second day of the series and dismissed the Australian captain Ian Chappell first ball off a bouncer from Tony Greig. You can see the catch in the video above.

Later. There are some nice tributes in Smith's Cricinfo obituary – he was the England manager on Atherton's 1994-5 Ashes tour:

Mike Atherton, who captained that tour, paid tribute to Smith in The Times. "MJK's good humour and easygoing demeanour was a wonderful antidote to the occasional stress and pressure I felt as captain," he wrote. "He was utterly unpretentious and saw cricket for what it was – which is to say not a matter of life and death."

Geoffrey Boycott, England's former opener who played alongside Smith in 18 Tests between 1964 and 1972, wrote in the Telegraph that he had "a great sense of humour, no edge and was never officious. He was just a good man, a good gentle guy and you wanted him to do well. He gave you freedom to play and was not a martinet."

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Writing in the wake of the Gorton and Denton by-election, Hannah White says our political institutions are dangerously underprepared for a multi-party future.

Jane Green and Marta Miori argue that the electoral challenge Reform represents to Labour is widely misunderstood: "Focusing on Labour voters misses the much bigger threats to Labour from Reform, which is Reform overtaking the party in Labour councils and constituencies by continuing to capture Conservative voters and 2024 non-voters – the latter small in proportion, but currently larger in size than for other parties. This is made likelier if Labour’s vote continues to splinter broadly, to ‘undecided’ and to the left, and is a threat to the party in the many seats they won on lower vote shares in 2024 due to fragmentation on the right."

"Cambridge and Oxford are often spoken about as a pair – two high-achieving university towns with highly educated populations, cutting-edge firms and high average incomes. Both are prosperous, yet both struggle with tight housing supply. But beneath these similarities, differences are emerging." Xuanru Lin finds that Cambridge has pulled ahead of Oxford on jobs, productivity and housing.

"Historically, the psychogeographer became associated with the 'flaneur', a lone male wanderer who is able to move unheeded through the city. This romantic idyll doesn’t reflect the reality for many of us, and there are many barriers stopping folk." Morag Rose on exploring cities as a disabled woman.

Clare Bucknell visits the Joseph Wright of Derby exhibition at the National Gallery: "Tenebrism, the 17th-century Caravaggist method of illuminating figures and details against a deeply shadowed background, was admired by connoisseurs, but little practised or understood by Wright’s British contemporaries. Mastering nocturne painting, being able to replicate the way skin glowed in warm or cool light or colours changed in the dark, was a means for the young artist to distinguish himself."

"The club whose sustained excellence made the argument for change most powerfully will now discover that the goalposts have been replaced entirely, swapped for financial sustainability assessments, commercial strength metrics, governance frameworks and geographic strategic value criteria that Ealing were never given the opportunity to meet." James White reacts to the Rugby Football Union's decision to end promotion to and relegation from the Premiership.

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"Left to her own devices, Reeves would not be contemplating potentially highly damaging tax increases when the economy is weak. Likewise, she would be cutting interest rates more quickly than the Bank of England has been doing. But those decisions are not in her hands." Larry Elliott argues that the UK’s economic policy isn’t decided by politicians, but by the OBR and the Bank of England.

Adam Bienkov suggests the Caerphilly by-election result shows that Reform UK is much weaker than it looks.

Peter Apps wonders if Zurich’s housing cooperatives be the solution to the rest of Europe’s housing crisis,

"Wilson refused to infantilise her readers. She spoke to us as the mature, curious consumers of culture that we were. Wilson tackled the hard stuff – the intensity of first loves, body shame, grooming and survival – with humour and empathy from the point of view of complicated girls and the women who raised them." Liv Little says Jacqueline Wilson transformed British girlhood.

"Take Ron Cowan, a key player for his home side of Selkirk and the Scotland squad of the early 1960s. By 18 he became the youngest Scot to ever tour with the British and Irish lions. Any border rugby town would celebrate a career like this for generations to come. But instead, switching to play rugby league for Leeds was seen as betrayal, and meant his accolades were understated. In fact, they were overwritten. Discarded altogether." Lucy Anderson asks if rugby union owe rugby league an apology.

Mike Gibson tells the story of Fever-Tree and how the gin-and-tonic boom made it the UK's most valuable soft-drinks company.

Llandow, 1950: The worst air disaster the world had seen

The national anthems at the Wales vs England rugby international in Cardiff today were preceded by a silence for the victims of the Llandow air disaster of 1950.

The disaster involved a plane - an Avro Tudor - that had been chartered to take Welsh fans to and from the Five Nations game against Ireland, which was played at the Ravenhill Stadium in Belfast. The Avro crashed at Llandow aerodrome when attempting to land after its return flight.

Eighty people died in the crash - 75 rugby fans and all 5 of the crew. At the time it was the worst air disaster the world had seen.

An inquiry found that the probable cause of the accident was the loading of the aircraft, which had moved its centre of gravity considerably aft of where it should have been.

You can read more in the Wikipedia article on the Llandow Air Disaster. The photo above is taken from The Sphere, 18 March 1950.

"England are like a Mars bar in the chippy: getting battered"

We've already heard the legend that is Allaster McKallaster commentating on Seventies football at its finest, but it turns out he's just as much at home with rugby union.

Before their coverage of the Calcutta Cup on Saturday, ITV screened a highlights reel from McKallaster's commentaries on Scotland's four consecutive victories in the contest.

We may at last have found a worthy successor to Bill McLaren.

Max Wilkinson launches campaign to keep Six Nations free to air

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Tom Kiernan. Delme Thomas. Peter Brown. Stack Stevens. Jean Gachassin.

Somewhere in my heart, it is always a winter Saturday and there is a Five Nations (as it then was) international on television. England are probably losing - in those days you did not so much support them as suffer with them. And if Wales are playing Ireland, it's impossible to tell the players apart in black and white.

So I was pleased to hear that Max Wilkinson, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for culture, media and sport has launched a campaign to keep the Six Nations on terrestrial television channels. He told the Independent:

"I’m personally deeply concerned by the news that the tournament could be behind a paywall as soon as next year - and I’m sure many rugby fans up and down the country feel the same.

"It would be a travesty if the public were deprived of the right to see their countries compete. That’s why it’s essential that the government acts now to protect free-to-air coverage and save our Six Nations."

If does act, the government will be saving the rugby authorities from themselves. As cricket has learnt, if people can no longer see the sport, it is in danger of losing its standing in our national culture.

I shall watch Ireland vs England later this afternoon, though in Eddie Jones's last years England became really dull to watch.

One problem with the game is that those authorities are constantly tinkering with the laws. This year, I read, scrum halves will be given more protection.

As my pet gripe in recent years is that they are allowed to spend an age, free from challenge, rolling the ball about with a boot before they play it, I can't see how that is going to improve the game.

In truth, the game has never been the same since Bill McLaren died. Artificial Intelligence should be harnessed to bring him back, complete with his favourite phrases: "As the game enters its final quarter," "As the referee blows for no side" and "playing together for the nineteenth time in a major international."

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Gaby Hinsliff reviews Tom Baldwin's biography of Keir Starmer: "The kind of overly simplistic working-boy-made-good stories politicians are coached to tell about themselves on the campaign trail invariably hide complicated subplots, in this case about those who will always be vulnerable or left behind in the most upwardly mobile families. If Keir Starmer still seems frustratingly hard to pigeonhole, maybe that’s ultimately our problem, not his."

"In almost every recent by-election, Reform have underperformed compared to what the Brexit Party's vote share in 2019 and current national voting intention would predict," say Paula Surridge and Sophie Stowers.

"Benefit sanctions imposed by the Department for Work and Pensions have become harsher amid the cost of living crisis, according to newly released government data - with the average penalty lasting a week longer in 2023 than in 2019," reports Chaminda Jayanetti.

Anthony Broxton on how middle-class voters fell out of love with Clement Attlee's Labour Party after 1945.

Polly Pullar celebrates the revival of the pine marten: "From a once detested varmint that polarised people’s perceptions, to an ambassador for an ecologically richer Scotland, the pine marten offers a glimpse into what else might be possible with a change in our attitudes."

"For two long decades, Australian rugby has rotted from its head office to its heartland. The once-proud and powerful code is fractured in so many places, in so many ways, few believe it can be rebuilt." Angus Fontaine dissects the crisis in Australian rugby union.

Photo by Dani Kropivnik

England v Wales at Twickenham, 1970

I was nine when this game was played and can't claim to remember it, though I think I remember Keith Jarrett's match in 1967 - as an 18-year-old debutant he scored 19 of Wales's 34 points against England.

What I do recall about the 1970 game is the press coverage beforehand, as there was excitement that England had picked a new winger called Novak. And as far as my memories go. he was universally known as "Kim" Novak after the actress and film star.

And you can see here what the fuss was about. As England built a lead he first flattened J.P.R. Williams in the tackle and then scored a try. But this was the England rugby team of the Seventies, so it was bound to end in disappointment. You didn't so much support them as suffer with them.

One unusual incident early in the game was that the referee had to be replaced after colliding with Gareth Edwards. Edwards himself didn't last the game, which is why, according to Rugby World, J.P.R. is taking the kicks and Bill McLaren is being indulgent about his misses.

I was surprised Barry John didn't take the penalties, as he was known for popularising place kicking with the instep rather than the toe of the boot.

John does appear mortal in these highlights, but it is his drop goal that makes sure of Wales's comeback victory.

There are noticeable differences with the way the game is played today, and not just in the physique of the players, who in 1970 were all amateurs.

The blindside winger throws into the line out, no lifting is allowed in those line outs and the scrums form much more quickly than they do today.

And Nigel Starmer-Smith is even penalised for a crooked feed. As Brian Moore frequently complains, that is a law the referees appear to have agreed among themselves to stop enforcing.

1n 1970 Kim Novak was a dental student. Not long after he qualified, he moved to North America and became a professor of periodontics.

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Timothy Garton Ash says Poland is learning that restoring democracy is even harder than creating it.

"The Tories are in arguably the worst state we’ve ever seen a major party in. They lead on just one major policy area, defence, and even then Labour came within a 1 per cent lead here in December. Dylan Difford has shown just how much worse the Tory position is than 1997 when they at least led on three major policy questions ahead of the election." James Austin explains why a Conservative wipe-out at the next election is becoming more of a possibility...

...which is an outcome for which Matt Carr, itemising the strange death of Tory England, yearns.

"When we were taking players from union – Jonathan Davies, Offiah – it was a real psychological body blow that forced them to change. We gutted Welsh rugby union. They fined Davies for saying he wanted to be paid so he could get a mortgage! Now it’s completely flipped." Anthony Broxton is interviewed about his book Hope and Glory: Rugby League in Thatcher's Britain.

Richard Williams reviews an album that celebrates Les Cousins, the Soho folk and blues club that flourished between 1964 and 1972: "It is, as you’d expect, a splendidly varied selection, starting and ending with big names — Bert Jansch and the Strawbs — and containing both even bigger ones (Paul Simon, Al Stewart, Ralph McTell, Nick Drake, Roy Harper and Cat Stevens) as well as many more of those whose reputations never really escaped the folk world, like the brilliant guitarists Davy Graham, Mike Cooper, John James, Sam Mitchell and Dave Evans."

"A good place to start is by acknowledging the snobbery - and misogyny - inherent in this question. Christie’s success tends to be viewed as a phenomenon, a freak of literature, which rarely happens with more highbrow writers, especially when they’re male. How often do people ask why the heck we still read F. Scott Fitzgerald? Or about the secret to Raymond Chandler’s continuing popularity?" Kemper Donovan responds to those who ask why Agatha Christie has sold so many books.

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Matthew Pennell uncovers the roots of the Post Office Horizon scandal: "The political origins for Horizon date back to 1994, with the idea of computerising payments and moving away from Girocheques being proposed by Social Security Minister Peter Lilley. It needs to be understood, however, that a brand new IT system for the Post Office and DSS fitted in perfectly with the New Labour ethos of using tech to transform anything and everything."

"The thing is ... this is not a new story. It’s a fairly old one, and in 2019, [Epstein victim Sarah] Ransome told New Yorker writer Connie Bruck that not only did she not have the tapes, but that she invented their existence." Robyn Pennacchia refuses to be excited by the dump of Epstein files.

"It is unclear whether pints were ever available on the shelves of British shops, as opposed to direct supply, and, however supplied, it seems as if they had disappeared well before Britain joined the EU." Those near-mythical pint bottles of champagne are a good symbol of the wholly nonsensical and imaginary idea of sovereignty, itself predicated on a nineteenth century view of Britain and the world, that is shared by Brexit supporters, argues Chris Grey.

Vince Cable warns us not to underestimate the threat posed by Nigel Farage.

A report from Foundation for Common Land describes the results of heritage work carried out with volunteers on the Stiperstones during Autumn 2023. It focussed on Bronze Age cairns in the south of the site and the remains of post-Medieval smallholdings in the north.

Sarah Bertram presents a video obituary of the great JPR Williams.

News and gossip from Peter Bone's Wellingborough

All political eyes are turning to Wellingborough, so here are the latest reports.

Peter Bone, you may recall, is currently facing a recall petition following his suspension from the Commons for six weeks when the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards upheld five allegations of bullying and one of sexual misconduct against him.

Today's Sunday Times alleges that Bone offered to resign his seat immediately, provided the Conservative Party would guarantee his girlfriend, already an approved candidate, a place on the shortlist for the ensuing by-election.

If they failed to do so, the story also says, then Bone would stand as an Independent to split the Conservative vote.

Bone denies these allegations, saying that the plan was put to him by others, and he turned it down. But the report does say that he is expected to stand against the Conservatives if there is a by-election following the recall petition.

To force a by-election, that petition needs 7940 signatures, but the Northamptonshire Telegraph has reported local disquiet with the arrangements for signing it.

Marion Turner-Hawes, an Independent member of Wellingborough Town Council, says:

“I plan to make a complaint on the basis that it is completely inappropriate where they have assigned people. The biggest concern is that 7,000 to 8,000 people in Wellingborough are being sent to Finedon – four miles away. You could walk it but imagine if you’re elderly or disabled trying to get there under your own steam. There is a bus but it’s not easy."

She added:

"I know people can do a postal vote but they should not be forced to do that, it should be a choice.

"If we want democracy to work, it needs to be close to where people live. It’s not just in my ward. I’ve heard of people living near Redwell Leisure Centre having to go to Wellingborough Rugby Club in Cut Throat Lane."

The paper quotes North Northamptonshire Council, which is running the petition, as saying that some of the venues it normally uses as polling stations have Christmas events planned and are unwilling to make themselves available for the whole of the petition period.

On a happier note, Wellingborough Rugby Club wins our Name of the Day Award for having a ground called Cut Throat Lane. Their welcome sign must strike fear into arriving teams.

Does professional rugby union have a future?

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This summer London Irish followed Worcester and Wasps to become the third Premiership to drop out of the league because of financial problems.

Last week Jersey Reds, who play in the second tier and are one of the English game's success stories of recent years, announced they had 'ceased trading' and that liquidation is inevitable unless new funding can be found.

Yet this financial crisis may not be the most serious threat rugby union faces. It may be that professionalism has made the game too dangerous.

Gavin Francis has reviewed Sam Peters' Concussed: Sport's Uncomfortable Truth in the London Review of Books.

Francis begins by reminding us how fragile the human brain is:

The human brain​ is softer than tofu, squishier than a jellyfish, slightly more robust than toothpaste. Brain surgeons tend not to use scalpels because the substance they work on is too delicate; instead they use ultrasound and suction probes, using breaths of air to suck away diseased bits of matter.

He then describes how the professionalisation of the game in 1995 has changed the size and speed of international players in the men's game. In the late 1980s the average player in the New Zealand rugby union squad weighed around 92kg. By 2019, South Africa’s national team weighed in at an average of 102 kg, and its forwards at an average of 118kg.

The former England team doctor Phil Batty is quoted:

"Rugby is a collision sport and you cannot deny there has been an increase in injuries. It used to be that the forwards wouldn’t be quick enough to catch the backs but now, with greater emphasis on fitness training, they are and then you can get serious collisions. That, in very simple terms, is what has happened to club rugby."

Sam Peters worked for many years at the Mail on Sunday, where he started a campaign to change the game’s rules to give players better protection from concussion. Concussed is the story of that campaign, as well as an account of the transformation of professional men’s rugby from a contact sport played by big men into a collision sport played by giants.

Let's leave the last word to Chris Nowinski, a former wrestler and  neuroscientist, who is the co-founder of Boston University’s centre for the study of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy - a condition first diagnosed in boxers in the 1930s).

He too has mounted a sustained campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of repeated concussions, and he says:

"The only people in the world who reject our findings are medics employed by sports bodies."

The game has begun to change, though Gavin Francis says the safeguards in rugby are not as strong as in boxing. And it's noticeable at this rugby world cup that whenever a player is punished after a striking an opponent's head, the pundits always take his part.

So does professional rugby union have a future? Even if its current financial problems are overcome, is it just too dangerous for the players?

Cuts to arts education cast a shadow over the future of our culture

Sir John Eliot Gardiner, on the BBC, is not afraid to tell it how it is. Bravo! @thoroughlygood @nfmusic @mrjamesob @nicholascollon pic.twitter.com/PxrFi3Smud

— David Coronel (@King_Ouf_I) May 6, 2023

The wonderful music at the Coronation gave rise to pride at this country's achievements in the field, but also to foreboding.

As Britain becomes more unequal, there are fears that musicmaking - both pop and classical - may follow the theatre, cricket and rugby union in becoming largely a preserve of the products of wealthy families.

And cuts to BBC arts funding mean there will be fewer career prospects even for them.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner, as you can see above, took the opportunity of the BBC's Coronation coverage to express his concerns.

A debate held by the BBC Radio 4 arts programme Front Row at a Leicester comprehensive four years ago provided good coverage of the issues here.

The fear is expressed that knowledge of the arts will become what knowledge of Classics is now: a mark of an exclusive education.

But musical education goes beyond formal teaching in schools or organised through them. And I have noticed that many of the pop and rock musicians of the Sixties shared two more forms of it.

They had fathers who played in jazz bands, so they grew up familiar with black American music. And they sang in church choirs as boys.

Both these forms of education have dwindled to nothing or close to it in the years since.

David Duckham 1946-2023

Sad news. The England rugby union player David Duckham has died at the age of 76.

When I was a boy you did not support England so much as suffer with them. There always seemed to be four new caps, and the they always seemed to lose.

Just about the only constant in those days was David Duckham, by some way our best player. Even the Welsh honoured him by calling him "Dai Duckham".

Duckham had played on the wing for the British Lions team that won in New Zealand in 1970/1, but England generally played him in the centre in the hope that he would see more of the ball there.

The video above gives you an idea of his abilities.

It's also worth noting that Duckham played for Coventry, who were the best club side in England in the Sixties and early Seventies.

Martin Cooper and England rugby in the 1970s

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I used to love watching the Five Nations, as it then was, as a boy, even in the days when we had a black-and-white television and you couldn't tell the teams apart when Wales played Ireland.

My great disappointment was how badly England did. I did not see them win the title until I was 20.

Some explanations for England's repeated failure when they had more players than any other country can be found in an interview with Martin Cooper, who played fly half for them in the early 1970s:

My one regret on having got to the top was that I never fulfilled my potential while playing for England. I know I could have played an awful lot better. Confidence was definitely an issue. You were always on edge and worrying that one mistake might cost you your place.

The selectors back then chopped and changed things a lot and that didn’t do anyone much good. Also, I was a ball-playing back for Moseley but with England I had to adopt different tactics and became known as a kicking fly-half. We’d made a few mistakes while trying to run inside our own 25-yard line and the selectors decided to adopt safety-first tactics.

As I remember it, Cooper was talked up by the press as a creative player who would allow England to play a more attacking game. If they wanted to play in this less suitable way, there was a more suitable fly half to hand.

Alan Old, the brother of the England cricketer Chris, would have won them many games with his place kicking in an era when a try was worth only four points. (Until 1971 it was worth three.)

But maybe skill at rugby wasn't the only factor in getting picked for England:

I was at work when I got a phone call from Air Commodore Weighill, the RFU secretary, informing me of my first call-up – as a replacement for the Wales v England game in Cardiff in the 1973 Five Nations. 

His first words were, ‘Cooper, have you got a dinner jacket?’ Once I replied no, he said ‘have you got a club blazer?’ Again I replied in the negative, before he asked, ‘have you got a suit’. Finally, I said yes and I was on my way to Porthcawl to join the rest of the players.

The best summing up of England rugby in the 1970s remains that by the Ireland hooker Ken Kennedy:

"England have got the players. What they have to do is find the selectors who will pick them."

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"This is a time to proclaim centre-left values, and to try to unite the anti-Tory vote in key seats for a Liberal Democrat surge in 2024." Will Barter says the Liberal Democrats should forget about equidistance.

Paul Pettinger argues that concentrating on trying to win soft Conservative votes will always lead the Liberal Democrats to failure.

Dan Jackson explains why the Labour voters of North East England are different: "What made the unions of the Great Northern Coalfield so distinctive was how cautious and non-confrontational they were – in sharp contrast to other areas, notably South Wales and Yorkshire."

"South Africa’s extraordinary scrum-half, the bottle-blonde Faf de Klerk - out of Miss Piggy by former teen idol David van Day - may be only 5ft 6ins but he weighs 14 stone and isn’t scared to kick the sand back in the bigger boys’ faces." Team spirit leaves Jonathan Meades cold.

Adam Scovell visits W.G. Sebald's grave.

"Diana Dors simply excels as the horrific Mrs Wickens, in just one of many demonstrations of how Swindon’s first sex symbol embraced unflattering character roles once she shed her blonde bombshell status." James Gent introduces The Amazing Mr Blunden, which Talking Pictures TV is showing at Christmas.

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David Warren complains that the Liberal Democrats have become an establishment party.

"The North of England is set to receive £2,389 less per person than London on transport, according to a new study which has stoked concern that the North is 'held back by government underinvestment'." Richard Kemp wants to see the North get a fair share of government spending.

Chloe Coleman on the work of Henryk Ross, a photographer who documented the Lodz Ghetto in Poland under Nazi rule.

"The night before I remember being on my hands and knees on my hotel room floor just crying and crying. I still felt terrible the following morning, then went out and played probably my best game of the season." Robert Kitson conducts a remarkable interview with the rugby player Kearnan Myall.

Like 'like' is just a lazy linguistic filler. Rebecca Woods on the many uses of a simple word.

Tish Farrell takes us to Heath Chapel in Shropshire.

Conservative-run Northamptonshire splashed out on luxuries as its finances collapsed

Rushton Hall

Sarah Ward reports in the Northamptonshire Telegraph:

Northamptonshire County Council spent huge sums on corporate hospitality, string quartets and lavish events as it was heading towards its financial crisis. 

During 2015 when the state of the finances was becoming increasingly serious, the authority paid for a number of luxuries including £2,700 on a heritage dinner at Rushton Hall, £3,624 on a flypast at the Grafton Underwood memorial event and £4,500 on a marquee for an occasion at Boughton House, Kettering. 

It also spent £80,000 with Northampton Saints rugby club, which included the cost of a stadium hospitality box. 

The payments were made through NCC-owned company NEA Properties, which an internal council investigation has found had ‘minimal’ governance and documentation.

She goes on to explain that the money came from the sale of property to the University of Northampton. The bulk of the proceeds was returned to the council, but £120,000 was retained by NEA Properties.

The report quotes the Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Stanbra:

"There is some serious explaining that needs to be done here.

"I knew the company existed but I made the assumption that it was managing the resources properly and that all funds were coming back to the county council. 

"I certainly didn’t think they were spending money on hospitality boxes and on fly pasts at Grafton Underwood. 

"The money should not have spent on these things and of course I expect that minutes of the company meetings would have been taken and properly documented. 

"It is public money at the end of the day and it is completely wrong."

Digby Jones is a lawyer not an industrialist

Its worth remembering that everytime Lord Digby Jones is wheeled out as one of the very few "voices of industry" in favour of #brexit...

...he was never actually in Industry. He was a Lawyer, then joined CBI as a administrateor & spokesperson when he couldnt get higher in law.

— Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺 (@nicktolhurst) June 2, 2018

I saw this tweet the other day and it turns out to be true.

Over to Wikipedia and its entry for Digby Jones, Baron Jones of Birmingham:

Born in Birmingham, Jones was educated at Bromsgrove School where he was Head Boy, and read Law at University College London as a Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Navy on a University Cadetship, graduating with upper second class honours. After graduation, Jones worked for 20 years at Edge & Ellison, a firm of lawyers based in Birmingham, culminating in serving as Senior Partner from 1995-1998. 

Jones was Chairman of the CBI's West Midlands Regional Council and became the first serving regional chairman to be appointed Director-General. He was Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) between 1 January 2000 and 30 June 2006. 

After he left the CBI Jones did act as adviser to some big companies, but his most intimate involvement in business in this period appears to have been with iSOFT.

Back to Wikipedia:

Following the collapse in the value of iSOFT and investigations into its accountancy practices, Jones said "there is a limit to what a non-executive can know... They have to rely on what advisers tell them and what the executive team tells them. It is important that people understand this."

Jones is currently a non-executive director of Leicester Tigers, which may explain their disappointing recent. form

Alan Shearer: Football, Dementia and Me

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He is a bit awkward, doesn’t have Gary Lineker’s ease and wit. But he’s serious, engaged and engaging, and proves he can make the step up from Match of the Day punditry and go it alone.

Sam Wollaston gives a fair verdict on Alan Shearer's presentation of the documentary Dementia, Football and Me.

The dangers of brain damage posed by boxing have long been known, and in recent years more attention has been paid to football, rugby and American football.

These have been highlighted by the news that several members of England's 1966 World Cup team are suffering from forms of dementia.

More research is needed - more research is always needed - but the pattern emerging in football is deeply worrying.

And if Shearer's documentary had a weakness it was that he rather backed away from the conclusions to which his investigations were leading him.

One of the saddest things in the programme was Shearer's meeting with Chris Nicholl, the former Northern Ireland centre back. Nicholl is clearly having serious memory problems.

When I lived in Sutton Coldfield for a year after university, I played for the town's chess club in the Birmingham league.

I was always being told how Nicholl had done the same when he played for Aston Villa between 1972 and 1977. In those days all the Villa players lived in Four Oaks, which is the expensive end of Sutton.