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Articles by William Byford

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About William Byford

A partner in an international firm of loss adjusters, William is a keen blogger and member of the internet community. More Posts

Waiting for the tide of political correctness to go out

This week we learn that the BBC Trust has ordered its programme commissioners and makers to increase female representation on comedy show panels and the like – see today here, on the website of THE GUARDIAN Please pardon me for being male, old and set in my ways, but this sort of [...]

February 9, 2014 // 0 Comments

Another one leaves the stage

Having awoken at my usual ungodly hour this morning – not to tune in to live coverage of the Super Bowl but simply because I went to bed at 8.30pm last night – I dressed, made my jug of coffee and came to the computer, where Radio Five Live was awash with the ‘breaking’ news of the [...]

February 3, 2014 // 0 Comments

Just getting back to it gives a boost

For reasons which not detain us here, I began my New Year’s fitness campaign on Tuesday 7th January 2014, i.e. instead of upon New Year’s Day, as originally intended. Following my practice of previous years, I did so by purchasing a bog-standard desk diary from WH Smith’s, in which I began my [...]

January 21, 2014 // 0 Comments

Something For The Weekend

I should like to make it crystal clear from the outset that – except for weekly missives sent to the three main party leaders during General Elections campaigns – I do not make a habit of sending excrement through the post via the Royal Mail. Nevertheless, it is a fact that mass ‘screening’ [...]

January 9, 2014 // 0 Comments

Keeping it all to yourself is not necessarily best

Just over a decade ago, I worked for a media company that had been built from nothing by a single-minded, not to say singular, lady. I was hired specifically to improve its profitability – indeed revive it from just having lost a significant amount in its most recent set of accounts – and [...]

January 6, 2014 // 0 Comments

John Fortune – a talented and amusing satirist

Sad news this week that satirist John Fortune – frequent collaborator with John Bird – died over the festive period at the age of 74. For me, obituaries are a bitter-sweet opportunity to review the life and influence of a person even though – in far too many cases – by the [...]

January 2, 2014 // 0 Comments

Board game shock

Spotted today on the website of The Independent, a piece on the allegation that one of the rising stars of chess may have been cheating. I suppose that after the advent of chess-playing computers – and now expert chess-playing apps for smart-phones – suspicions relating to top players [...]

December 23, 2013 // 0 Comments

The role of genetics in education

Today’s news media contains reports upon research recently conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, which suggests that genetics plays a greater part in determining the differences in GCSE exam results than either the influence of a pupil’s educational experience or [...]

December 12, 2013 // 0 Comments

Battening down the hatches

The news that the UK’s Environment Agency and Met Office have issued warnings about a blast of windy arctic conditions that will sweep the country today and tomorrow (Friday), causing widespread severe flooding on the east coast is naturally causing alarm amongst those who might become affected. [...]

December 5, 2013 // 0 Comments

HOW DID IT GO AGAIN …?

We learned this week that the older generation can maintain a brighter outlook on life in general by wallowing in nostalgia. A study by researchers at the University of Southampton, published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, has concluded that those who are encouraged, for [...]

November 14, 2013 // 0 Comments

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