About Me
I am a local man interested in the politics of Beverley, the East Riding and Britain. I think there is a lot which could be done to better manage this already great town, region and country.
Origins
I was born in Scotland in 1960. Father was in the Royal Navy. Mother worked on the support staff of Lossiemouth military base. We moved to Lincolnshire when I was a child and I grew up there.
CV
On leaving school after 'A' levels I worked for a few years as a benefits interviewing officer for the old DHSS. It was at a time when British industry was facing tough international competition, and the local fishing industry in Lincolnshire was declining due to the Icelandic fishing limits. I saw first hand the effects of loss of livelihoods and how poverty set in.
Seeing university graduates join the civil service on a much higher grade than me I decided that if you cannot beat them then try to join them. I attended the University of Leeds and graduated with a degree in Politics and Social Sciences. At university I did some computer programming and found that it was quite straightforward if logic was applied.
After university I worked in personnel or Human Resources as it is now called, but in the mid 1980s everything was being computerised so I found myself working more and more with computers, and I began to understand how the systems worked. I slowly moved into computer programming and then into software engineering.
I spent almost 40 years programming computers and lived through several revolutions. I started off on IBM mainframes. I then programmed UNIX machines as smaller computers began to supplant the huge and expensive mainframes. Then I moved onto Windows PCs as the personal computer revolution happened. Then I wrote web systems as the Internet exploded. I missed the app revolution that was kicked off by Apple's iPhone. I also retired just as the AI revolution started, which may make many computer programmers redundant, as AI can now write software.
In my time as a computer programmer or software engineer I worked for huge global corporations, local government, eCommerce, financial services, banking, logistics, defence and music streaming. I have few regrets.
Interests
Politics
Beverley Town Council
I was elected to Beverley Town Council in a by-election in July 2021 with more than 50% of the vote.
Since then I have sat on the Planning Committee, which makes recommendations to East Riding Council, and the Policy and Finance Committee which decides matters pertaining to strategy and the council's finances.
Activities in the community
I am a steward in Toll Gavel Church, Beverley
I am involved in local arts societies
On request I provide technical support to a number of local community organisations