Happy Days

Well I’m back from nearly two weeks in Provence to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.

As regular readers know I have very counter-cultural tastes, so whilst I enjoyed the best beach/swimming in the Med I have ever experienced, the best visit was to a beautiful Cistercian monastery at Thoronet to attend a Gregorian Mass. The Abbey is famous for its singing because of the superb acoustics in a very beautiful, plain, stone built monastic church. So it was a time of relaxing, beaches, wine, food and a few visits out. I was very struck by the generosity and kindness of the hosts of the small hotel where we stayed and at the very smart (and expensive) hotel and Michelin starred restaurant where we spent our anniversary, which was the same Sunday as the Gregorian Mass.

I also read a lot, including two books by Michael Sandel (Harvard, and last year’s Reith lecturer) about the limits to markets and competition. I see and read a lot more than in the recent past about “the common good” as opposed to personal gain. The symbol of the latter was seeing Roman Abromovitch’s “yacht” moored between Port Grimaud and St Tropez…moored there because it’s so huge (and looks like a naval destroyer) that it doesn’t  fit into any local harbour. By contrast Bill Gates makes shedloads of money, but gives it away philanthropically. Sandel’s books are about the ethics of markets and libertarianism and he questions where does justice lie in a society, particularly in the USA, where some have huge riches and others are born into being marginalised.

Ah yes..work…Well the good news is that we have just been given  a very helpful grant from a Trust towards our Surrey Youth Enterprise support service, and have now also got our Lottery bid in for the balance of the funding. Fingers crossed…..especially as youth unemployment in Surrey has begun creeping up again. Next Tuesday evening we have our next "4x4 Meeting" , and I have several interesting meetings including with the Chief Constable, Lynne Owens, and to sign off the Woking social enterprise start up. We are also making good progress in sorting out our rather slow and ancient IT, and I hope we van have a new system in by the beginning of next year.

Went to a meeting yesterday about the new website for Surrey's young people called Surge (or “Wearesurge”). You need to know about this - it launches in November.

So all positive stuff, and Manchester United and Wasps are winning.

Happy days!

Mike