IT has been an eventful last few days – delivering a first big live event for more than two years, witnessing history being made…and being called “vile” by an MP.
Let’s start with the positives.
Last week I was at Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester organising and hosting a ‘town hall’ event for transport group Stagecoach.
It was wonderful to experience the energy and enthusiasm of the attendees.
Stagecoach managing director Carla Stockton-Jones told the audience that the event, on Ash Wednesday, was the anniversary of her joining the company from Sky two years ago.
Within days the country was in lockdown and the event was the first opportunity she had had to bring her team together since she started at Stagecoach.
My role was pretty straightforward – introducing speakers and chairing a panel discussion involving the senior leadership team including Carla and Stagecoach CEO Martin Griffiths.
Stagecoach is responsible for all the public transport at this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and so we invited Team GB boxer Niall Farrell to speak to the audience.
Niall was still a teenager when he became British amateur champion and won a silver medal for Great Britain in the World Championships.
But a serious injury nearly ended his career and kept him out of the sport for three years when he missed the chance to compete in the Olympic Games.
But instead of moping around, the 24-year-old used his time out of the ring for good.
He started working as an ambassador for a homeless charity, as well as helping to set up and run Support Futures – a non-profit organisation that helps rehabilitate and educate young people through sport.
But now, fully recovered, he is focused on winning a medal representing England at featherweight in this summer’s Commonwealth Games which take place in his hometown of Birmingham.
He was fascinating, funny, emotionally mature and gave the audience a unique insight into the life of an elite amateur boxer who has kept his feet on the ground by investing his time and energy in his local community.
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IN my introduction at the Stagecoach event at Emirates Old Trafford I welcomed the audience and told them it was a place where plenty of history has been made.
Cricket aside,the ground has played host to concerts by music megastars including David Bowie, Beyonce, Oasis, Coldplay and Bruce Springsteen.
The cricket ground has been home to Lancashire County Cricket Club since 1864 and is England’s second oldest Test venue after The Oval and it hosted the first Ashes Test in England in 1884.
It was here where in 1956 England bowler Jim Laker achieved the first ever 10-wicket haul in a single innings.
In 1990 a 17-year-old Sachin Tendulkar scored the first of his 100 international centuries.
And it is where in 1993, in an Ashes Test, Shane Warne bowled Mike Gatting with what became known as “The Ball of the Century”.
Who would have believed that just two days later the death would be announced of cricketing legend Shane Warne at the age of just 52?
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ON Tuesday I was in London for the first time since last year visiting the Houses of Parliament for the annual CBI and Barclays Westminster Reception.
I say annual, this event hasn’t taken place for two years and so it was great to be there to hear from Yorkshire politicians Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate & Knaresborough;
Graham Stuart, Conservative MP for Beverley & Holderness; the Rt Hon Hilary Benn, Labour MP for Leeds Central and Naz Shah, Labour MP for Bradford West.
Hosted by Beckie Hart, the regional director of the CBI for Yorkshire and the Humber and Lee Collinson, the experienced head of manufacturing for Barclays, the event attracts a varied and interesting audience of business people from the Yorkshire region who all have the chance to put their questions to the panel of politicians.
I invited Claire Holt a Yorkshire-born strategic communications and change consultant who is based in Surrey.
Impressive but approachable, Claire works with board directors at global organisations and is also a qualified executive coach.
We have spoken several times but had never met before this week.
Claire sent me a very kind message last year after I wrote a piece in this blog paying tribute to her late father, the respected and successful Yorkshire seafood entrepreneur Chris Ramus.
I never set foot in the Palace of Westminster without feeling like I am walking in the footsteps of history.
This week I actually witnessed history being made when the President of Ukraine marked an historic first when he addressed the House of Commons via video link to explain how his citizens had suffered from a conflict, they “did not want.”
MPs, peers and House staff gave President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a standing ovation after Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said he had agreed to suspend formal business to allow the request because of “the exceptional and grave situation” in Ukraine.
“We have watched the situation unfolding in your country with increasing concern, but also with increasing admiration for the courage and fortitude displayed by you and your fellow Ukrainians,” he said.
“Mr President, you are welcome to address Members of the House of Commons and the Lords. You now have the floor.”
MPs, peers and House staff fell silent as President Zelenskyy spoke in muted tones about the experiences of his citizens during “13 days of war.”
I watched this historic occasion just a few feet away from the chamber of the House of Commons on a screen in the Strangers Bar overlooking the River Thames.
We were able to enter the bar thanks to former Bradford MP and former Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe who retains his contacts, and, more importantly, his popularity in the Houses of Parliament several years after he chose to step down from politics.
I was also present to witness another historic occasion.
It was the reunion of Yorkshire business duo Caroline Pullich and Karen Swainston.
The pair were a dynamic double act at events across Yorkshire so I dubbed them “Cagney and Lacey”.
But that came to an end last year when Caroline left Barclays as its head of SME in Yorkshire and she has since joined NFU Mutual as managing partner in the region.
But the duo were reunited at Parliament this week and I was fortunate enough to be there to see it.
And to ask them to buy me a drink to mark this historic occasion.
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I’VE been called plenty of things in my time, but never “vile”.
That milestone was ticked off on Tuesday evening in the convivial surroundings of Joe Allen’s restaurant just off The Strand.
A group who had attended the event at Westminster headed off for a bite to eat at the restaurant which, in its former basement home near Covent Garden, was a popular dining spot for those in theatre and show business.
I found myself sitting next to Craig Whittaker, who has been the Conservative MP for Calder Valley in West Yorkshire for the last 12 years.
I’d met Craig on a previous visit to Parliament and found him interesting and entertaining company.
The mistake I made this time was talking politics.
Early on in our conversation he predicted that the Conservatives would easily win the next election.
I suggested that that was a rather bold forecast given their recent challenges and that Boris Johnson would not be facing Jeremy Corbyn as the Labour leader in the future General Election.
But he disagreed and asked me why I thought he was wrong.
I said because Boris Johnson has told lies to the British public.
Craig challenged me to back up that statement.
Trying to defuse things, I said there were plenty of well publicised examples.
But he persisted and asked me to back up my claim.
I said, OK, I’d give him two.
One, Boris Johnson’s denial of a relationship with the US technology entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri and, on a much bigger scale, breaking lockdown rules at Downing Street during the pandemic.
Craig flatly refused to accept that any rules had been broken at events in Downing Street during lockdown.
He said it was a place where people lived and where 400 people worked and they had abided by the rules.
He went on to ask if I had sat in my garden and drunk wine during the lockdowns.
I said I had, which he seemed to think won him the argument.
I said it was a completely different situation because I didn’t invite anyone else from outside my household to join me for a drink when the restrictions were in place.
Whereas what appears to have happened in Downing Street is that those responsible for the lockdown rules seemed to think that they didn’t apply to them.
How anyone would even attempt to defend such behaviour while the majority of the rest of the population abided by the strict rules in place is beyond my comprehension.
But Craig didn’t accept my argument and I certainly didn’t understand or accept his either.
At which point, it is fair to say, tempers frayed.
And I will admit, as my old Yorkshire Post colleague, Brendan Carlin, the paper’s ex-political editor, once said when asked in a radio interview about a fracas he had witnessed between two rival MPs in a House of Commons bar: “Drink had been taken.”
Our politicians are often accused of living in a bubble or operating in an “echo chamber” but I cannot for the life of me think that Craig Whittaker hasn’t been asked to defend the outlandish actions of his Prime Minister before I chucked in my two penn’orth.
But given his reaction was to describe me as “vile”, I do wonder.
I told him I have been called plenty of things in my life but that was a first and, after he said it several more times, I demanded he take it back.
He refused and, at this point, I would like to say that I handled the situation with maturity, good grace and gravitas.
Instead, I told him he was a w**ker.
Have a great weekend.
Thought you would have finished him off with a cheeky upper-cut and a straight right, DP!