Cambridge UK Leads - An Opportunity in 2015

Hi all

For centuries Cambridge and its University have been at the front edge of thought and deed. 

Challenge and courage are in the fenland air.

The 21st century is providing a new challenges.  Mature learning and young talent are still here amongst us.  As is courage

Alan Turing presented his mathematical and philosophical paper in Cambridge in 1936.   That paper led us to the new digital computerised knowledge world which 7.5 billion people now inhabit. 

In 1936 Alan Turing was twenty four.  As another Michaelmas Term commences youth is in that fenland air.

An inter-generational, inter-disciplinary, international dialogue is being proposed for Spring 2015.  Cambridge could be at its centre.

Judge for yourself.  Complete a short survey.  Read the Proposal letter and Briefing Notes. below.

Clarkson and Wilberforce - St John's College Cambridge

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Silent too long

nor all thy piety nor all thy wit can 

Hi

Well it has been a long time.  Too long.

Jock died in July 2012.  In February 2013 specialists diagnosed my oesophageal cancer, YPT3 YPN1 MO CRM positive.  Chemotherapy and Ivor Lewis Oesophagectomy followed.

I am now marching up the road to recovery.   It is time to start hitting the keyboard again.  

However first things first.

Thank you Addenbrookes Hospital.

Thank you oncology team.

Thank you surgery team.

Thank you all, friends who have been so wonderful.

Thank you for your thoughts, help, wishes and prayers.

You, and they, have made a difference.  Hilary and I are truly grateful.

Once again it is

Paws4Now

Bill Papworth, Cambridge, England.

M & J  at 8W  They were lovely and pleasant in their lives and 

Synod - Thirty Two Days to Christmas

Is the Synod vote an ending or a beginning?   Can we, can our church and our political leaders, seize the opportunity for progress? 

My voice, other voices, will have little impact.

Together, our actions will.  Join with me:

Review your will and charitable giving.

Do not step inside any C of E cathedral, church or chapel.

It is a tough call.  But that first Advent did not have grand buildings either. 

The leaders of Church and of State are lost sheep.  They need our clear heads, our warm hearts, the shepherd dogs of action to help them.

Together we can move Church and State by Christmas Day.

Bill Papworth

Now Onward

Hi all

‘Paws4Now’ was part of Jock’s Scottie Enlightenment message. 

‘Paws4Ever’ was not.  So now it is back to a lonely keyboard.

There are no ‘big’ stories or ‘little’ stories.  They all connect.  It is the flap of that butterfly’s wing.   

Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah fly.  The refracted light from their iridescent wings shines on us all, coaches, family, athletes, organisers, volunteers, T.V. millions.  Twelve years in, the third millennium, the twenty first century has really started.  This is us; be glad; I am part of it.

There is another Jessica.  Jessica Harper, a middle-aged woman in Britain, worked in the Online Fraud Unit of Lloyds Bank.  She was paid about £70,000 a year.  She was significant but not senior.  It seems that over a period of about four years, she fraudulently obtained £2,400,000 from the bank.  That is some £12,000 each week for two hundred weeks.

It is reported that she submitted false invoices claiming, and receiving, payment to herself.  There seems to be none of the usual trail of fabricated supplier and bogus company names, just Jessica Harper.

Jessica does not seem to have been profligate or a gambler; she bought a house and helped her mother in France.  She has now lost her job, her house, her savings, and faces criminal charges.  Well done Mr Plod, case solved.

A silly, perhaps unwell, butterfly is crushed.  Jessica is no longer a part of Lloyds Bank, but others are.

Who* is the Purchasing Buyer who issued all those repeat purchase orders over four years?  Who* is the Chief Buyer who checked and signed them off?  Who* runs the Accounts Payable Section that should authorise payments only when an invoice is matched both to a valid purchase order and to an inspected proof of the receipt of the goods or services in question?  Who* is the line manager who should have been sensitive to Jessica’s troubles?  Where are the Directors*? How many main board directors* drop by the computer centre at 3.00 a.m. when the nightshift desperately tries to patch and run decrepit software code written back in the 1970’s?

“Well, this is not a senior management issue.  We at Lloyds have an HR department and computer systems that handle such routine stuff.  We have a big business to run.  But we are reviewing our back office structures and systems.”

Yes just like Lehman, Barings, Societe Generale, Knight Capital, et al. 

OK, stress tested algorithms, structures and systems are necessary and useful but they are secondary.   Committed, competent and caring people are the vital primary factor.  Yet surely workers, managers and directors are not the only people responsible?  Well, no, customers and owners have a responsibility also.

Whoops, I have an account at Lloyds Bank and, yes, now you remind me, I own it too.  And so do you.

Jessica, I am sorry.  What* should I and all of us do?

Paws4Now

Bill Papworth, Cambridge, England.

P.S. One thing to do* is to support a proposal from John Fisher Burns, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter from the New York Times.

John gave the Ashby lecture in the University of Cambridge, England, in May 2012. 

He proposed that more of the prestigious universities in the world, including the University of Cambridge, England, should provide undergraduate and post graduate courses in journalism.

We live in; we depend on a globalised world of communication and media.  Who do we trust?  Twitter?  Facebook?  Declining printed daily papers?  Partisan radio and television broadcasters?  Bloggers?  Jock Bytes?

Jessica Harper, Arab Spring, 30th Olympiad, London 2012, all of us need a Fourth Estate we can trust and respect.   We need many many more men and women of the calibre and training of John Fisher Burns.

We need an educated, ethical, skilful, respected, trusted Global Profession of journalist communicators, valiant for truth.   They are our only safeguard from and searchlight into the world of politicians and bankers, systems and structures, fundamentalisms and fundamentalists, and all the  other ......isms and ......ists..

Jock – July 1999 to 2 July 2012

M & J

Hi all

By the time you read this I shall be running and hunting again with R Moll.

Stomach cancer and lymphoma have moved fast but easily.  Well done Gloria and all the good people at Village Vet and of course Him and Her.  Thank you.

My Advance Directive helped.  I hope you all have one. If not, download and complete it today.

Twelve years in Cambridge have been good.  So many exceptional people, especially the young, clever and beautiful, so much to hear and learn, I have been fortunate.  Thank you all. 

And now the bad news.  Over those twelve years I have made notes, tapes and drafts.  He has promised to sort out my filing and plod on.  I trust you all to keep Him up to the mark.

ThankUGoodLuck&Paws4Ward2AGreatFuture

Jock

Jock at home in Cambridge 

David Cameron IV

Dear David

Do not buckle at the slings and arrows.  One by one they are wounding you. Just catch them.  Bundle them together.  Coolly turn them into your big bazooka. 

There is only one issue:

It’s the economy stupid.

There is only one valid opinion poll:

May 2015

You are the Queen’s Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury in Whitehall.  I, all of us, need to respect you.  You must lead. 

Westminster and St Stephen’s Green, like the poor, are always there.  Get yourself a Willy.to handle them.

As Prime Minister you have no friends, just alliances and interests, and almost no power.  You have the power of persuasion, but it is indirect.  Your only direct power is the power of appointment.  It is the Prime Minister’s bazooka.  Use it.

Relieve Jeremy Hunt of his current office.  He can then deal properly with Leveson and the Ministerial Code.

Retire Vince “Mr Has Been” Cable.  The white paper on growth scheduled for November 2010 is now eighteen months overdue.

Appoint David Laws as Minister for Balanced Growth.  Give him ninety days to present a plan to cabinet and to parliament. 

Schedule two weeks of Growth Debate in August.  Call the Westminster claque and their “groupies” back off holiday.  To have any chance of survival, they all need you. 

Are you worried about A vote of confidence?  Tory Turkeys won’t vote for Christmas.  Nick is not going to commit suicide.  The Logger Eds have no money for an election and would not want to be in government.  Six months of the 2 Eds in power now would destroy the Labour Party forever.

Empower competent people in Whitehall and go to it.

Paws4Now

Jock

P.S.  Keep up the good work with the Boundary Commission and with that other real politician, Alec Salmond.

P.P.S.  Think Housing.   Think Level Playing Field.  Think Octavia Hill.  Re-read what I wrote to you on  7 October last year. 

The Idea of the University - Update. 2

Hi

I had a dream.  I was asleep under a big table in a large room.  The smell was 16^th century Cambridge.  There were lots of shoes. 

First Shoes     Dr Thornton, please sum up the case against Mr Holland.

Second Shoes     Thank you chairman. 

The events that occurred on the evening of 22^nd November 2011 in and around the Lady Mitchell Hall lecture theatre are essentially undisputed.  Mr Owen Holland, a member of this university, led an action that prevented Mr David Willetts, a government minister, from delivering a lecture.

His action recklessly and/or intentionally impeded free speech within the Precincts of the University.

Mr Holland chose to act as leader and spokesman.  It is appropriate that he be rusticated for one term.

First Shoes   Thank you. 

Dr Mackenzie, your final statement on behalf of Mr Holland.

Third Shoes      As Dr Thornton said, the events are essentially undisputed.  However Mr Holland was perhaps more chorus leader than spokesman.

Mr Holland, and many others, held and hold principled objections to certain legislative changes.  Mr Willetts came to Cambridge on 22^nd November last as a politician, a government minister and a proponent of those changes.   Robust demonstration of political views and anger is an expected and important part of democracy.  Mr Holland played his part in what he believed, and still believes, was legitimate political demonstration.

By inviting Mr Willetts to take part, at that time, in that lecture series, the University had indicated that it accepted that The Idea of the University has a political facet.

Whilst maintaining his position on the issue of principle, Mr Holland wishes me to express his regrets concerning the tactical planning and implementation of the protest that evening.   

He and his associates failed to extend courtesy and consideration to the many in the audience who had given up an evening to hear and to question Mr Willetts.   He, and his chorus, bored and alienated the audience with an overlong dirge.   

The actions were humourless, threatening and counter-productive.  Mr Holland wishes that he had written and delivered a short and witty piece on the lines of:

You are rich father Willetts, the young man ......................

If he and his colleagues had then remained silent, the audience would have laughed, and possibly applauded.   Mr Willetts would have spoken.  Questions would have been sharp.

Mr Holland has learned that skill and wit and good manners need to be added to conviction and energy.

First Shoes   Thank you.  Mr Holland, Dr Thornton has presented a convincing case and has recommended rustication for one term.

However, Dr Mackenzie, on your behalf, has raised and conceded a probably more significant point.  On 22^nd November last, you acted without courtesy, consideration and commonsense.  You also failed to use the intellectual skills, the wisdom and the good humour that is required from and expected of a person of your ability at the University of Cambridge.

Mr Holland, you are rusticated for two terms, namely Lent Term and Easter Term 2012.  We look forward to seeing you in October 2012.

I woke up.  So it was only a dream.

Breakfast calls.

Paws4Now