Odds 'n Ends

After almost 16 years, I had a surprise visit from my boss and was told I was being made redundant. I had half expected this a year ago, yet it was still a surprise to be hit yesterday. I have much to be thankful for, having had steady employment since graduating and as far as I can see I am being treated fairly...however it is a sobering time to be thrown onto the jobs market.

...ho humm.

O.

I first got to know St Pancras station in 1979 when I went for my first job interviews at the end of my B.Sc (Eng) at Glasgow University. I recall taking the sleeper from Glasgow Central to London Euston then taking the train from St Pancras to Bedford for an interview at Texas Instruments. My impression then of St Pancras was a very mixed one - on the one hand it was incredibly drab and stank from the diesel exhaust from the multiple units that took the short term traffic to Bedford, on the other hand there was this enormous arched roof that was larger than any other London terminus or major railway station in Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, York, etc.

There was the terrible story about selling off the antique clock (and destroying it when taking it down!). With the electification of the "Bedpan" line in the early 1980s there was the sensible development of electic traction and the Thameslink local service. However, St Pancras remained a fairly grim and neglected terminal compared with the others serving northward destnations e.g. Euston or Kings Cross.

 

I was happy to hear that St Pancras would be redeveloped as the Eurostar terminus. The arch over the train shed had tremendous potential. On my previous Eurostar trips from Waterloo station, I was very impressed by the redevelopment of the Gare du Nord from drab terminus to modern TGV terminal (including French TGV, international Thalys trains to Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, and Eurostar to the UK). There was a lot of use of glass and the whole station seemed much lighter than decades ago.

 

The huge William Barlow train shed is a very fitting London Terminus for the Eurostar service. I am delighted that this much neglected building is now pivotal to London's international connections. This is a worthy complement to the redeveloped Gare du Nord. I recall the Barlow shed as being so dingy and yet the glass panels and the blue metalwork come across very well.

 

When I first read of the new terminal and the bronze statue of an embracing couple, I was quite moved. I understand that the sculptor is British and that he had a long term relationship with his French wife. This brought back strong memories of my long-distance relationship with my wife over 20 years ago when I was in London and she was in the Netherlands. Despite that I found the scale of the sculputure overbearing. To my surprise I much preferred the life size status of John Betjeman.

The development of the lower level - former brewery storage - was very good.

 

The retail and restaurant spaces in the old beer storage looked generally well-architected. It seemed like an imaginative combination of old and new.

I have not yet made a Eurostar journey from St Pancras but think that it is a very fitting terminal for international train services.

What a shame that the "regional EuroStar" services going from Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh to Paris and Brussels were dropped! What a shame that there are no services from St Pancras to say Amsterdam, Köln or Lyon. What a poverty of vision!

I was greatly saddened yesterday to read of the assisted suicide of Daniel James in the Independent. Daniel had been an outstanding rugby player who had played for England Under-16s and for his University team. In early 2007 he had an accident in training which left him quadriplegic. It is not surprising if he was in despair following this shock. However I am disturbed with the reason given for his suicide.

Yesterday afternoon Daniel James's family issued a statement through their lawyers. It told of how he refused to live a second-class existence, and concluded: "This is the last way that the family wanted Dan's life to end but he was, as those who know him are aware, an intelligent, strong-willed and some say determined young man."

Having only a few months ago seen the Paralympics I am amazed at what disabled people can do even in sport; we saw some of our medal winners in the parade in London on Thursday. My wife works at a school with children having severe physical and mental disabilities but is so happy to see children reach their potential.

When I read that Daniel was quadriplegic I recalled a book I had borrowed some 3 decades ago about a young woman - Joni Eareckson who was very successful in sport but was paralysed from the neck downward in a diving accident (Joni ISBN: 0553115723). This book tells of her struggles and suffering in hospital initially; a time of total despair. She ends up only being able to move her head but finds meaning though her faith in God and as she developed new skills as an artist.

It is sad that Daniel's condition was not as bad as this.

Yesterday, his physio, who asked not to be named, told The Independent that she believed Daniel could have gone on to live a "worthwhile life". She added: "I heard that Dan had died last month and I was totally shocked. He was improving and, despite technically being a quadriplegic he still had the use of his arms and hands. He could feed and dress himself and was able to push himself around in his wheelchair. Most quadriplegics do improve over time; these improvements come perhaps two or three years after the accident. It was early days for Daniel."

In the same newspaper there is a story of another young quadriplegic rugby player - Matt Hampson - also aged 23. He had a long recovery but is active in the rugby scene as a journalist and business.

My passion for rugby has never diminished, in fact it's probably stronger than it ever has been. The support I've had from the rugby community has been amazing, it is one big family and I'm proud to be part of it. I still watch the Leicester Tigers, in fact I'm probably one of their harshest critics....Life is busy and a lot of fun. I have my own website and memorabilia company and I'm in the process of writing a book with sports writer Paul Kimmage. I have regular physiotherapy sessions which are a great help. Although physically I'm not an athlete, mentally I always will be, and I need to be pushed.

While there are gut-wrenching stories of people who are terminally ill and want to die, the flip side if assisted suicide is legalised people who are ill or severely disabled may feel under pressure to commit suicide to avoid being a "burden".

It is important that our society values disabled people as having real and meaningful lives as fellow-citizens and not as having "second class lives".

Daniel was not terminally ill and his treatment was showing great promise. Given another two years of treatment he might have been like Matt Hampson and found a new "first class life". The poor guy was obviously in despair but did he get help to cope with the shock and depression of his condition?

I hope that the investigation will look into whether we do enough to help people like Daniel cope with their condition and rebuild their lives. A life at 23 with use of arms and hands ought to be a life of opportunity not despair. We need to learn to help future accident victims - suicide should not be the answer. Measures to help those close to a victim - such as families and friends - are also needed.

Well, I would never be any good as a financial adviser! A month or so ago I thought that the stock market might recover sometime this year. With the recent crashes....I clearly need to eat my words. The markets are absolutely fearful and banking is still in a big crisis.

This morning I looked at the market capitalisation of my company and it is now $2.4B. This valuation seems crazy given that the company has no debt and $1B cash in the bank and has orders from multi-year deals covering most of the revenue forecast for the next fiscal year.

I am currently on a business trip to Munich (München) and just read some of the local newspapers while I ate my dinner alone. When I lived in Glasgow from 1975-1982 I occasionally read the Daily Record. When I lived in the Munich area from 1987-1998 I occasionally read the Tageszeitung. I have always been convinced that they both reflect a similar mentality.

Both are strong on local traditions - be it Trachten or kilts - yet are not so conservative that they are against modern developments. Both represent the local nation without being nationalistic.

I also feel that people in both München and Glasgow exhibit a real honesty (no bullshit) yet with warmth. Despite being brought up in Southern England I resent the coldness from some (but not all) places - especially those with lots of money.

Investments such as property and shares have widely varying prices that can rise and fall. Right now we have a slump in both property and share prices. Many ordinary people lose money because they get caught up with popularly held views at the wrong time. I have been no exception having bought my first property shortly before the crash in London in the late 1980s.

Investment decisions are sometimes influenced by "greed". If you hear that people have invested in a sort of asset before you and see that asset rise in value you may feel you are being left out and try to do the same. If you are say in the early part of an upswing this may be profitable but if it is late in the cycle you may simply pay too much for an asset. (or it it is a property borrow too much too!). When hearing of other people who have massively appreciated investments remember that it is a "paper gain" until the asset is sold when it becomes a "real profit".

Conversely, some people lose money through fear. If you are holding stocks now and the value has plummeted you may fear a further loss. On the other hand selling now may simply mean that you turn your paper loss into a real loss.

Nobody can tell when a market will hit a peak or a trough but Warren Buffet  - one of the world's most successful investors - has some prudent advice.

We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.

 
He seems to be putting this advice rigorously into practice in today's fearful markets. On 22 September he made a significant investment in Goldman Sachs at a knockdown price. Today he has made a similar investment in General Electric.

A galling aspect of recent bank rescues on both sides of the Atlantic is that those bank executives and traders whose irresponsible risk taking has taken their banks to their knees, have profited greatly in recent years from huge bonuses when their bets paid off. However, the people who pay for "toxic" assets and for bailouts are the poor taxpayers - most of whom are paid modestly. Many observers have pointed out to "socialist solutons" to capitalism but this is far more ironic. It is nationalisation of losses (and therefore risk) despite privatisation of gain.

Today's Independent provides the following quote from the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi

Let's get this straight. We have a situation where on Wall Street people are flying high, they are making unconscionable amounts of money. They make a lot of money, they privatise the gain; the minute things go tough, they nationalise the risk. They get a golden parachute as they drive their firm into the ground, and the American people have to pick up the tab. Something is very, very wrong with this picture.

Apt words indeed, and inevitably an excuse to blame the Republicans. But weren't the Democrats in a majority in the House? What have they done to prevent this situation? Or did that sort of news simply not make it across the Atlantic?

Of course it is no better here. The risk takers who borrowed too heavily on wholesale money markets at Northern Rock doubtless earned big money in the good days. Similarly those at Bradford and Bingley who offered self-certified ("liar"-) mortgages.

I hope that the current mess will result in some proper regulation. Certainly the current rescues to avoid a collapse of the banking system should not be allowed to give the impression that the next lot of bank managers can take irresponsible risks without consequences.