SOMETHING'S COMING (I'M NOT SURE WHAT)

I admit to being an incurable optimist. Whilst I constantly hear mutterings about this “broken society” or “the entitlement class” I reflect on a high electoral turnout, the end of youthful apathy and the prospect of cross-party collaboration in Brexit discussions. Democracy flexing its collaborative muscles as opposed to the self-interested hegemony that political parties adore.

Yet some see it differently and more pessimistically  - here was one response I saw recently:
“Mayhem rules. Democracy teeters. Mobocracy right upper cuts. Millennials stir.”

I suspect this is from a disgruntled Tory because there seems a general sense that the allure of strong and stable leadership has been betrayed in favour of a rather feeble nil-all draw.

The “teetering, stirring and mayhem” of the malcontent above reflect the lines of WB Yeats’ “Second Coming” I’ve been reciting in my mind this week:

“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
  Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”

Yet are things really falling apart? If you’re a right wing Tory they may seem to be but for most the liberal centre created by people like Blair, Cameron and Clegg seems to be in reasonable shape. What was missing until now has been a Plan B, a bit of angry debate about inequality, about incompetence and opposition to antiquated thinking. But picking up from last week there is a rustling in the undergrowth, a sense of change and a feeling that there has to be a better and a fairer way.

If like me you feel ashamed and dismayed every time you see someone who’s homeless in the street, you want it changed. If like me your horror about the Grenfell Tower tragedy is despair about this having been an accident waiting to happen, you want a radical review of all suspect supported housing and the way we help all disadvantaged people.

Ken Clarke, usually the most sensible of spokesmen, said on Any Questions that party politics was being made out of Grenfell. Yet the victims, homeless, hopeless, in grief and sitting together in misery are generating understandable and increasing rage about the iniquity, inequality and hopelessness of their plight.  You’d better believe this is a political problem not just a tragedy.

Mine is not a complacent optimism. Rather it’s a wrathful optimism, wrathful that this wealthy country with improving health, intelligence and nice socially-minded people manages so readily to screw things up.

I’m optimistic because human beings are a resourceful and tolerant bunch capable of unravelling the threads that need unravelling. The problem is the politicians who are currently in hiding or plotting or in fear of their political lives and don’t know what to do, are not going to easily be part of the solution.

We need to put together the best we have from all parties and beyond those parties and create a platform for action - not left, nor right just right-minded and optimistic.

It also seems like a good time to start listening.

THE TROUBLE WITH DEMOCRACY IS THAT YOU HAVE TO LISTEN

I recommended the power of lunch a few weeks ago. I didn’t mention dinner.

Over dinners during the past week I’ve had two altercations which have slightly surprised me. Not the altercations but their demonstration of the glue which binds Britain fast and makes progress so hard. The first was at an event where in a Tory stronghold I knew certain views would be cherished but where my own brand of optimism about the future was decried as a betrayal of the past. The second was with someone who despite his middle class background has an old Labour slant on life – “don’t knock unambitious mediocrity son, it’s got us where we are today.”  Here my own brand of optimism about the future was decried as a betrayal of the past.

The past should never be forgotten and it can teach us lessons and give us a perspective on life. Companies that ignore their roots often amputate their most precious brand assets. But the words of Henry Ford ring in my ears:- “We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history that we make today.” I love change. I love progress. I love experiments. I relish thoughts of the future. The changing face of high-rise London is I think wonderful and old London can take it. What it can’t take (no more can any other city) are slums, decay and sink estates.

Given free reign I’d modernise great chunks of Britain – “you mean gentrification” says the man on my left; “you mean popularisation” says the man on my right. The revolver itches in my revolutionary pocket but we live in a democracy so I have, I suppose, to listen. This is not a story about our own generation, I try to explain, eventually. If we want to sprawl on a deckchair or a sofa and dream of 42 inch TVs or St. Tropez that honestly is fine.

Me? I want to dream of glass and diversity and quality and children being taught to work harder and better and clean, new buildings and beauty. Bloody fascist! Bloody social engineer! Yes guys I hear you but louder still I hear the voices of those who want a better life and a better way.

And it doesn’t lie in hunting country or a sink estate.

www.colourfulthinkers.com

WHAT GRANDPARENTS DO

My grandsons are 5 and 3; my great nieces are 6 and 2. I’ve learned more from them than from most of my colleagues at work. Mostly it’s to do with the speed at which they learn, their refusal to be patronised and their need to be amused.  But bad jokes don’t get asked back.

The job of mentor is not so different.

The task is unconditional support, help and the provision of sunshine when it all gets too much. CEOs have tears before bedtime too. So it was with interest I saw young David Cameron had appointed Lords Young and Heseltine both old Tory stalwarts (when I say old I mean both are approaching 80 – great grand-dad age) to do some work for him in revving up the economy.

I think he needs the comfort of two guys who’d done a lot but also made mistakes. A mentor’s biggest contribution can often be a laughing admission that in a similar dilemma to those currently encountered by their mentee they’d done ‘x’ which didn’t work…”wished I’d done ‘y’ instead…still no point in crying over spilt Petrus.”

The balance of youthful energy and excitement in young executives sprinkled with a wonderful sense of naivety – much like seeing my grandsons or great nieces crashing to earth by taking risks on a bicycle no one sane would take; then followed by the energy blended with judgement – sort of 40-50 year old senior executive but still untrained in skating on corporate black ice. Then we have the mentor who’s been there, seen plenty and is covered in scars but if he or she is any good has three qualities

Good at listening and better still hearing
Brilliant at empathising
Full of good humour and a sense of perspective

It’s when I see young Sarkozy getting so incredibly grumpy and I think that none of the current players are likely to be in power for much longer I feel impelled to say “take a longer view of things. Be strategic rather than fixated on the next quarter which when you think about it is a rather childish habit”.

Mentoring is rewarding because you get to see so much talent flowering and surviving winds of change. So I hope Lords Young and Heseltine persuade David Cameron to lighten up a little. With Sarkozy the other side of a table things can’t be that bad.