Biography
Biography
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It all started in Preston Royal Infirmary, in August 1976. My dad, Bill, was a lecturer at Preston Polytechnic (now the University of Central Lancashire) and my mum had just given up teaching to have me. It hadn't been the greatest experience given 1976 is said by everyone to have been the hottest summer ever.
I spent the first six years of my life in a small village called Walmer Bridge, in Lancashire south-west of Preston. I can't say much exciting happened; growing up, visiting grandparents (in Pudsey, near Leeds and in Belfast) and starting school (at Little Hoole County Primary) and getting a little brother, Matthew (who may one day develop his own site here).
In 1983 the family moved to Lytham St. Annes, on the coast just south of Blackpool. I went to 2 junior schools - firstly King Edward VII where I learnt the public school environment wasn't for me the St. Thomas's CoE.
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For much of my childhood there I
owned a dog named Frisky. A mongrel - half collie and the rest a
complete mixture. Not the most intelligent dog ever but very friendly.
She died in 2000, aged 16. In 1987 I started secondary school at Lytham St Annes High School. Here was where I started to perform academically and also took up playing drums and percussion with the school band and later co-forming a jazz trio. |
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Time passed, along with GCSEs and A-Levels (in maths, French, chemistry and general studies). These led to my getting a place to study law at Sheffield University, so in 1994 I left home and moved into Ranmoor House, one of the university halls of residence which was incorrectly rumoured to have been based on the design of a Swedish women's prison.
University was great, certainly the most fun time of my life and I spent both second- and third- year holidays working for the hall of residence during conference season. I enjoyed the social life and was a member of the film society and Ranmoor ents, organising discos, gigs and other events. I also collected for RAG, including doing the 50-mile SpiderWalk round Sheffield and the nearby Peak District.
Too much socialising got in the way of work, and I graduated with a 2:2. Realising I needed to bulk up my academic qualifications I applied to do a Masters' in European Business Law at Anglia Polytechnic University in Cambridge. This did the trick and I was successful in getting into the Civil Service Fast Stream, starting at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in 1999.
My first post was in the national minimum wage team, followed in due course by working on structural funds, the insolvency provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002 and sponsoring low-carbon vehicles.
I lived in a shared-house in Walthamstow, in East London. Much of my social time was spent with friends and watching films. During this time I managed an ill-fated holiday, flying into New York on the evening of 10 September 2001. Deciding to wait until after rush hour to head downtown was probably the best decision of my life.
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In 2005 I got a promotion to the post of "Assistant Director: Competition in Markets". The work involved responding to Government responses to market studies on competition but more importantly enabled me to buy a flat in Walthamstow as well as a car. The additional mobility enabled me to reconnect with university friends and start walking up in the peak district near Sheffield and the length of the river Thames as well as other places. I also became owner of a pet goldfish, uninspiringly named "Fish". |
In 2008 an opportunity to take a secondment to the European Commission. By now the DTI had been renamed the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, or BERR. This sounds like the slow readers' club so getting out made sense. I moved to Brussels, in Belgium and took up a post in the Consumer Liaison Unit in the Directorate General for Competition. Brussels is an amazing city with good restaurants and great beer. I lasted two years before being dragged back to BERR, which had by now been renamed BIS which stands for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Which nearly brings us up to date. I started a project dealing with reform of consumer enforcement, took a once-in-a-lifetime trip on the trans-Mongolian express. And now it's 2011 and I'm writing this.
It will be updated at some point, but I can't say when.
