It was hugely encouraging to be invited to be part of a panel discussion for Young Entrepreneurs in Property last Friday morning at law firm Nabarro.
We were all there to give a verdict on the government, six months in.
I was mightily impressed by the event, even though it made me (and my fellow panel members) feel very very (very very) old.
The audience was not only young (ridiculously so, muttered one of m'learned friends), they were good looking, bright, feisty, informed, and roughly 50/50 men to women with a good showing from minority ethnic groups.
The quality of the questions was unbelievably high and they really put us on the spot. Damian Wild of EG in the chair was seriously infused with optimism; it made you feel proud to be part of the property industry and convinced we have a vibrant and vital future.
Sophie Eastwood of Holistic, who chairs YEP, and Liz Russell of Nabarro are to be hugely congratulated on facilitating an event in which the "old guard" felt proud to invest: this is the future, and thank the good gawd for it! A "feel good event" and no mistake.
Liz Peace was her normal authoritative self, and I did my usual combative and impassioned plea for urban regeneration. No surprises there then.
Poor Chris Luck (so admirably named) from Nabarro was stepped up from the subs bench at the last minute but did a splendid job (straight in from the train from Clapham Junction) by covering off crucial aspects of property tax and the economy in an expert way.
David Partridge of Argent, ever the grafter, had taken it all very seriously and had prepared properly: he was most forensic in his analysis, giving marks out of ten in various areas of government performance.
This prompted Damian to ask the rest of the panel to give an overall mark out of ten. Chris gave a six and Liz gave a seven.
I gave an eight; for a host of reasons including my innate optimism about the world and because (as regular readers will know) I have decided to give the government the benefit of the doubt on Big Society; and in small part because I respond to the calm demeanour of Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg, after the hurly-burly of Mr Brown.
As a floating voter, I could be characterised as a supporter. And, in working hard with the government on aspects of policy for growth, I think I've been rather a keen supporter; I like to think: a valued supporter.
However, be aware that I now revise my score to a two.
This is since, like the rest of the country over the weekend, I read the reports of Mr Cameron's intention to employ five people (at least! Some reports seem to think more) from the public purse to manage various aspects of Cameron's personal image.
And, like the rest of the country, I am simply appalled. I don't know what Mr Cameron can be thinking of. In this climate! Has he taken leave of his senses?
When you are talking day-in-day-out to unemployed people about pitching in under Big Society in more-for-less Britain, it is wholly demotivating to receive messages of this sort from our leadership.
We in UKR are gearing up to welly in the entire future effort of our operation to help the government create the right conditions to see real uplift in private sector employment in the development and regeneration process; are we wasting our time?
I don't know how Mr Cameron or his government think they can implore representatives of the private sector to pick up the baton of shifting the economy away from the public sector, now that he has done this crass thing.
What possesses these people do you think? I, like millions of others I would guess, feel bitterly let down and disappointed. How utterly depressing.
And it's raining.
"And its raining" - BRILLIANT.
Really enjoyed this article and I couldnt agree more with your point of view about David Cameron's recent decision to employ five personal brand consultants.
I get a sneaky suspision the UK is going to get an apology for this decision sometime soon. That, or a really poor bending of the truth.