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The BBC report today that the Pakistan Government is saying that the cost of rebuilding as a result of the devastation caused by flooding could be as much as £10 billion. That is the cost for restoring essential services to around 20% of the country and millions of people.

The budget for the Olympic Games in London in 2012 was set at £9.3 billion in 2007 and has no doubt crept north ever since. When compared to the impact that similar sums could have in Pakistan it is hard not to conclude that the Olympics are a severe waste of money that could be spent on far better causes.

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I went to the Royal Welsh Agricultual Show in Llanelwedd on Monday, I’d been before many years ago, but had forgotten how good, seriously good, it all is.

I’m a city man, definitely not a country man even though like many I enjoy the so-called country sports.

But I’m not really into farming/agriculture/livestock etc. And my reason for attending the show was business related as I was attending a QUANGO meeting on a subject close to my employer’s heart.

Despite my narrow business/professional interest I did spend a lot of time walking the show ground and seeing the sites, the truly fantastic sites of animals, no, make that “Beasts”, reared to perfection and ready for display. I don’t know much about cows or pigs or sheep or goats, but I do know that I saw some great examples on Monday. And then of course there was the Welsh Food pavillion: Magic, pure foodie bliss,

But it wasn’t the quality of the produce that hit me, it was the people: people who had prepared for months or more, people who were excited at the opportunity, people that were so VERY proud of what they had made or had to show. It hit me harder than anything has for many a year. Here I was, surrounded by people who cared, REALLY CARED about what they do and were showing extreme pride in what they had produced. And that pride hit me: hugely.

How I would love to transport that pride into the world of business, the world where companies hide behind smoke-screens and Quangos claim not to have powers. If either had as much pride as the farming community who were proudly strutting their stuff, there probably would not have been a need for the meeting I was attending in the first place.

Just as you can’t make an omlette without breaking eggs, so you can’t form a new team without a few pre-ordained steps. So the current noise around the LibDem-Conserative coalition is entirely to be expected and is to some degree a very good sign.

Whenever there is some change in and amongst a group of people there is always a degree of resistance, and of course that degree can be small, large or huge. The formation of the coalition government is no exception and we are seeing and hearing much about the dissatisfaction from members of each party concerned and even from others not directly involved.

This is all following a pattern: a pattern that goes under the rather quaint American label of Formin’, Stormin’, Normin’ and Performin’.

All new teams will need to follow this route to success and whilst the motives of any change may be questionable, the Stormin’ is essential. It’s only at this stage that those in the lead can take real control and find out where the real supporters and doubters sit. More importantly it will also help to deselect some from the challenges ahead. And those party members who are “leaving in droves” to join other parties are helping the cause. Because once they’ve gone the important step of Normin’ can take place, after which the results will come as the team is built, with committed members and clarity of purpose. Then and only then can it start Performin’.

So if those people who are complaining and arguing think that they are going to have any influence on the outcome, they are both wrong and right. They are wrong because their voices do not matter but they are right because Stormin’ this early allows for earlier progress to be achieved. It really is a case of the Storm before the calm.

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That’s it, the election’s over for me, my vote has been cast.

Marvellous things these postal votes and so easy to arrange.

All I had to do was go online, fill in a form which included an option to send the postal vote forms to any address I wanted to and a few days later, the forms arrived. So easy!

And of course it is so easy to defraud. Any address can be used as the mailing address for the forms, there was no check that I was who I said I was when I registered and there is obviously no limit to the number of times I could have done this, if I’d wanted to secure (or s iit steal?) another person’s votes.

Maybe this is taking the concept of Open Government a bit too far.

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Watching the footie on the tele tonight I was struck by 2 strange ways of supporters showing their support to their team.

First: when a Man United player was sent off the crowd applauded as he left the field. How can they possibly support someone who created such pressure for his team? And it was United supporters showing support, not the opposition showing relief or having a laugh.

A little later, when ManU were winning on the night, yet losing overall, the crowd offered no sign of support, no encouragement and certainly no “extra man” to lift the team. The ground was almost silent. In times of adversity the support evaporated.

Strange behaviour indeed. Never seen anything like it at a rugby match.

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History has a habit of repeating itself and I can’t help but remember how it was in 1982 when the last Argentine threat to the Falkland Islands materialised.

We faced a Defence Review, or certainly serious discussions about the role of the Royal Navy in particular, and we had a Prime Minister who was definitely  ”under pressure” in terms of relationship with the country.

There can be little doubt that the 1982 invasion of the Falklands by Argentina helped transform the popularity of Margaret Thatcher and it also saved efforts to cut the Navy. Please let us not see a repeat of either again this year.

“You’ve got to have surprise, and it’s binary: you’ve either surprised your enemy or he knows you’re coming. You can’t have a little bit of surprise.”

That was a key message during my early training in the Army: so why oh why have we heard all this week about the impending massive assault by Allied troops in Afghanistan? Surely the Taleban read the Telegraph and watch News 24 and might just have got an inkling we were on our way.

The world of war fighting has changed. Gen McCrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan has recognised that to win in Afghanistan it is probably better not to fight as that endangers innocent by-standers. Instead we are seeing a war that is being fought to win the ground and then through having enough local troops to stay on that ground, win the hearts and minds of the population.

The warnings of the build up to the attacks were, in my opinion, an attempt to avoid any fighting, they were designed to encourage the Taleban, or some of them anyway, to withdraw. This avoided civilian casualties as the territory was won, but it will also have given two critical additional benefits.

First: the Taleban were forced to move. This is disruptive and whilst in itself not critical will have lead to the second benefit which was opportunity for ambush of withdrawing enemy. It would be very surprising if there were no attacks on withdrawing fighters as they sought refuge elsewhere. Don’t however expect to hear much about these operations as they would have been conducted by elements of the military who don’t want to be in the papers.

In this new era of war fighting, it is clear that the old rules don’t apply It is to McCrystal’s credit that he sees the value of peaceful operations in order to generate peace in the long term. The locals are more likely to talk to you if you’ve not been shooting at them.

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I stayed in a nice hotel in Swansea last night, city centre, 4 star, amazing old building done up to a very high standard etc etc. But when  you get into the experience it’s not all that it might be.

Yes of course; it looked great. But it was the small things that were irritating: the nice bathroom that had a modern toilet that was so low that my arthritic hips made it very difficult to get up and down on it. Looked pretty though.

A modern shower unit that could not be turned on without me getting soaked with cold water first, because the controls were in the wrong place.

A luxury double bed, made of two singles joined together with a dip in the centre so that I slept rolling down a hill.

The heating system was probably the best that money could buy – but I couldn’t work out how to use the controls. So we were cold. And when we did turn it on it laucnhed some jet engines that could have woken the dead.

So on the surface and onf first impression, it was great – indeed good enough to get its tourism awards. But would I really want to stay there again? No. Sorry, but the focus on modern minimalism at the expense of true utility and comfort showed that the designers were more taken with form rather than function. That for me is the wrong focus.

Some years ago it was illegal to broadcast Gerry Adams speeches on the TV or radio, as he spouted his version of the truth of life in Northern Ireland. So voice over artists were used instead to speak his words. This generated an uplift in the number of people who heard his message as they were now interested in the way the broadcasters were getting around the ban. Read more »

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I’m a bit of a philistine when it comes to the arts, never quite “getting it” when it comes to telling a story through song. But last night I went to see Les Miserables in the Wales Millennium Centre and it was truly fantastic.

Story telling through song is a bit beyond me, but some of the well known numbers were beautifully delivered and quite moving. But I was blown away by the lighting and scenery. They were fantastic, the only word I can use for them, truly fantastic.

The overall effect was also pretty amazing as I spotted many people wiping away tears at the end of the performance, and I was one of them. I might be a philistine but I know when I’ve seen something good.