We managed to miss every single opportunity to see Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott when they were promoting their last album. Though not as good, the new album, “Wisdom, Laughter and Lines”, is still fantastic and we have them at Boro Town Hall tomorrow night. I am more than prepared to withstand the inevitable hour-long […]
An astonishing audit result has reached us. It involves national “celebrity” Appeals and Reviews lawyer Mark Newby of QS Jordans, Doncaster. (They are happy for me to give you my take on the case). I, as you all know, could go on for hours but I won’t, so lets cut to the chase. Following verbal […]
This is the first song released from Guy Garvey’s (Elbow) first solo project. Can’t wait for the full release and a live date in December.
I will do a more thorough reflection on this dreadful 2015 bid round when the dust has settled – sadly there remains much still to do. Thursday proved something of a rollercoaster with some fantastic highs but some very deep lows. When firms you have known for nearly 2 decades fail to secure contracts it […]
Andy suggested “I Predict a Riot”, Mrs SP “No Surprises” and I was going to go with “Rip it Up”, but I can’t settle on a Friday Song which quite captures the mood of today – caught as we are between joy for some clients and despair for others. I am ignoring Duty Contracts entirely […]
Anybody who has spoken to me on the subject of the LAA assessment of Duty Bids will read this and regard me as a prophet. As the article suggests this whistleblow is incendiary and explains why yesterday we said: Contract bid results will see no real winners and yet we want to wish everybody good […]
The Community Union is just down the corridor in our office block. Today, like many days in recent weeks, the building if full of ex-steelworkers seeking their help with job-seeking and retraining. It is obviously pretty depressing. The tale of industrial decline in the North is one with which we are all familiar, regardless of […]
For quite sometime now we have been reminding people of the need to pass an SQM/Lexcel audit as a condition of your 2015 Own Client Criminal Contract grant. We are again getting nervous that we are receiving daily phone calls of a – “Do I have to do anything for my Own Client Contract?” – […]
Once again we were proud sponsors of Middlesbrough’s multi-venue Twisterella festival on Saturday. The variety and quality were quite exceptional – here is who we saw, most of them for the first time, an absorbing and superb event. Can’t pick a favourite so you will just have to make your own mind up – if […]
He sang this on Later Live on Tuesday. (Watch the full programme tonight). Mrs SP commented “Anyone seeing him for the first time is not going to have a clue what is going on here”. It is another exciting swerve and we get to see him live twice in the next few months. I have […]