Updated 6:48pm 24 May 2013

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Bill Midgley

Bill Midgley

Firms must attract the best brains

THOSE surveys showing which companies are the most attractive to work for always intrigue me.Read

An extra day off for the leap year?

THERE is one small crumb of comfort that may help the UK economy in the first quarter of this year in that February has an extra day.Read

Short-term thinking has let us down

IT would appear that hairstyles are in the news at the moment with the banks, in particular, preparing for a haircut on their loans to Greece and possibly other eurozone members.Read

The future of business depends on change

A LARGE part of the scientific fraternity is getting itself into quite a state over the possibility that Einstein’s theory may be under challenge.Read

We should grasp high-speed rail opportunity

THE response of Newcastle Airport to the news that the possibility of a fast rail link to the region may turn into something more positive was a disappointment.Read

Riverside industries promise a new industrial revolution, says Bill Midgley

LAST week I was fortunate enough to be driven along the north bank of the Tyne from Byker into North Tyneside.Read

Time for UK to follow the French lead

AS with many people in this country, I have somewhat mixed feelings about the French. Our nearest neighbours were our enemies for the best part of the last millennium, although, throughout the last century, we were allies against a common foe.Read

Young have creativity to sustain our economy

OUR young students are often criticised for a lack of initiative and an inability to demonstrate the levels of entrepreneurial flair that will be required to create and sustain the economy of the future.Read

A new public enemy

THE bankers must be feeling a little easier at the moment as their position as public enemy number one has been usurped, perhaps only temporarily, by the venture capital industry.Read

Spread a little happiness and it will pay

BY any comparison the banks have an unenviable reputation, unloved at best and evoking somewhat stronger emotions from many.Read

We must be honest and tell it as it is

IN the news last week were details of the first grants from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund, the replacement, at a somewhat lower level than previously, of state aid to stimulate our economy.Read

Inflation issue must be tackled

AT long last the authorities seem to have awakened to the fact we are suffering a bout of inflation, the disease that has bedevilled our economy for far too many of the past fifty years.Read

Businesses are funded by families

IA M still having some difficulty in forming a view as to how effective our Coalition Government is going to be in its support of business – particularly in the way it will prompt business growth among smaller and medium-sized companies and business start-ups.Read

Vital charities need support at this time

THE decision by Northern Rock to reduce the percentage of its profits that it donates to its charitable foundation needs to be looked at in the light of what other organisations are doing to support the community in these times of austerity.Read

Great pity of wasted opportunity

DURING my youth as a grammar school boy in the 1950s modern inventions such as ball point pens were strictly banned.Read

Toothless watchdogs need bite

THE recently announced increases in gas prices will do little for our personal finances but the effect on business should not be underestimated.Read

Let’s not tinker with our time

THE additional hour gained when the clocks changed back to Greenwich Mean Time on Sunday last was more than taken up by the work involved in changing the various clocks and appliances.Read

No thought of vocational training now

WHILE the debate regarding university fees and the fallout from the new charging system will undoubtedly go on for some time, there is one sector of education that appears to have gone unnoticed.Read

Spend call will benefit competitors

THE hierarchy of the Bank of England do not receive the best press in our region. It is just over a decade ago that the then governor expressed the view that job losses in the North East were a price worth paying if the economy was to recover.Read

No substitute for speaking plain English

LISTENING to national radio at some unearthly hour in the morning does little for my blood pressure, particularly when I have to listen to some of the comments by so-called business experts on particular areas of the economy.Read

Author Profile

Bill Midgley is a Cumbrian-born businessman, who spent most of the first 30 years of his life in Yorkshire, has long been a high-profile figure in the North East business community. His career in financial services began as a 16-year-old with the Midland Bank in Huddersfield and eventually led to him spending two decades with the Newcastle Building Society where he was chief executive and latterly executive vice chairman, before retiring in 1998. He has continued to expand his business and charity interests both regionally and nationally and is a high-profile media commentator.

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