I’m sorry if a lot of my recent blogs have been about cyber security yet it is occupying a lot of my time these days. Ever since COVID struck, the majority of my other kind of work dried up and my cyber stuff has expanded to fill the void. Nature abhors a vacuum and so … Continue reading UK Cyber Cluster Collaboration (UKC3)
Wash your hands
I learned a lot at last month’s North East Fraud Forum conference, it was a great event. One of the things that has stuck in my mind though was a simple but clever idea from the police presenter. His issue was that the word fraud somehow downgrades or sanitises what it actually is. Fraud is … Continue reading Wash your hands
More holidays than Thomas Cook
I’m going to have to stop using that joke, the one that goes ‘He has more holidays than Thomas Cook’. Perhaps I can insert the name of another travel agent, Hays would be a good fit. Not that the demise of the UK’s oldest travel company is anything to laugh about. The passing of any … Continue reading More holidays than Thomas Cook
A fair day’s pay at Brewdog
I think it is a sign of the times when I was walking down Dean Street in Newcastle to the Quayside I noticed an A board outside the Brewdog pub. On it was written ‘We are a real living wage employer’ in capital letters. I was so taken by the sign that I took a … Continue reading A fair day’s pay at Brewdog
Learn your lessons
If you have come to the end of a project it is always a good idea to have a review. Hold a meeting to see if there are any lessons that can be taken away and applied to other projects either now or in the future. The temptation however is to only do this when … Continue reading Learn your lessons
The Nolan principles
This is a new one for me. One of the local candidates for ChangeUk brought the work of the Committee on Standards in Public Life to my attention, especially the seven Nolan principles. These are there to guide people who are in public service and commit them to the highest standards. You can find them … Continue reading The Nolan principles
Building momentum
Building a consensus is hard work, building momentum is even harder. I have been developing a couple of ideas around the Dynamo cyber cluster, CyberNorth, for a few months now. I am sure I have mentioned them before. The first is to create an incubator for cyber startups in the region under the working title … Continue reading Building momentum
Free speech
I defend anyone’s right to free speech just as I defend anyone’s right to think what they like. To take the opposite approach, in my view, is to go down the road to control and totalitarianism. I accept, however, that this means that people are going to say and think things that are abhorrent, disgusting … Continue reading Free speech
Continuous blood
‘We are sorry’ said the text ‘but your session is running late.’ Great I thought as I was already parked up and walking into Morpeth Rugby Club to give blood. ‘Please allow 30 minutes extra for your donation today. Could you please still arrive at your appointment time’ the text continued helpfully. This was the … Continue reading Continuous blood
Cleaning out the garage
I don’t consider myself to be a hoarder, in fact quite the opposite. When I left my job at Durham I simply closed the lid of my laptop and walked away. Apart from some tidying of my electronic files there was nothing to take. My physical footprint was almost non-existent. I have had to reassess … Continue reading Cleaning out the garage
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 