Updated 5:49am 17 May 2012

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Bill Midgley

Bill Midgley

Far too many rules - is it any wonder so few want to play?

In what now seems the dim and distant past, I used to enjoy playing rugby. It was a simple game, really, until the introduction of a whole range of rules which made the game so complicated, that unless one had played it from birth, it became almost impossible to understand.Read

Bill Midgley column

About 40 years or so ago steam radio, as it was then known, appeared to be in its death throws with television, albeit on only two stations, attracting huge audiences and replacing radio as the nation's favourite entertainment medium.Read

Our region will hardly thrive on mediocrity

I have been troubled by mediocrity in recent weeks. Not my own for once, but the issue has been prompted partly by questions put to me in my travels and by my experiences from the heart of the North-East.Read

Will the Higgs report do its job?

It would appear we are about to go through one of our periodic reviews of corporate governance for companies with the publication this week of a new report, on the role of non-executive directors, instigated by the Trade and Industry Secretary, Patricia Hewitt.Read

One solution would be an increase in taxation

In what must now seem - at least by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his Treasury officials - like the good old days of the 1980s it was somewhat easier to control levels of personal borrowing.Read

Why 2003 must be the year that transport finds a new gear

I had the pleasure of being in Keswick on the Monday before Christmas, and was delighted to see the bustling activity of that town.Read

Quality comes at a price

In my naivety I am missing what must be one of the most obvious problems thrown up by the Government's attempt to solve the pensions crisis.Read

Give me a rounded graduate - but one with the right degree

I was taken to task last week by a group of bright young minds when I queried the value of some of our university degrees.Read

A tip for the staff party

The way in which the forecourts of our major railway stations have been developed into something akin to shopping malls is an excellent example of how to best use the assets an organisation has available.Read

We still need our heroes and role-models

We are in the middle of the awards season, the time of the year when individuals and companies are given recognition for what they or their organisations have achieved.Read

Manufacturing businesses hit by insurance problems

To say that we are becoming ever more litigious as a nation is perhaps stating the patently obvious, but nevertheless this is the case. Yet what is often overlooked is that there is a price, and a heavy price, to pay for this accelerating trend.Read

Why forgetting a mobile let training course down

A friend of mine was recounting recently her experiences on a training course to which she had been summoned at her organisation's head office in London.Read

Forget culture, our economy is keeping us buzzing

At a lunch in Norwich, held on the same day that the shortlist of candidates for the European City of Culture was announced, the principal speaker questioned whether Newcastle-Gateshead should be included in that list.Read

Doc Marten's boots follow a well-worn road

Another British icon leaves these shores, with the departure of the manufacturing of Doc Marten's boots to the Far-East.Read

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, all of you

Many will be pleased to hear that the chimes on the church clock at Totnes in Devon, can be heard again, although there will be a few who do not subscribe to that view; those being the people who objected that the noise was keeping them awake.Read

It's sharpened practices - not sharp practices - business needs

There is often a similarity between what we face in our personal lives and experiences that businesses - and particularly the small or micro businesses - face in their day-to-day operations.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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