TudoRama

Send us Fan Mail My story goes back to 2015. I arrived early for the Executive Business Course at what was then the Manchester Business school. One of the executives had already arrived and was quietly working at a place he had chosen towards the back of the room, I started to arrange my notes for the course on leadership and change management. It was part of the induction period for a new cohort...

Send us Fan Mail This podcast is written for use as a mini-case in creative leadership.  The news headlines for the past week have been dominated by a dispute between the BBC superstar football broadcaster Gary Lineker and his employers. To be more precise,  Gary is a contracted freelance broadcaster not a permanent member of staff. This is a detail which may have added a complication to what is a...

Send us Fan Mail March 2023 The death was announced this week of Dick Fosbury an American athlete who changed the  ways an entire sport is conducted and as a result wrote his name for ever into sporting history. Fosbury used his new technique to win the gold medal from the High Jump at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, setting a new Games record of 2.24 metres in the process. His revolutionar...

Send us Fan Mail My thought for the day begins with verses from the Book of Proverbs, Chapter 15 verses 1 and 18. A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife. Like all good thoughts for the day, mine is about something unexpected that happened to me recently. I was returning home from an appoin...

Send us Fan Mail The government has made stopping the small boats crossing the channel one of its five pledges on which to fight the next election. With opinion polls showing a continuing slump in support, will this turn out to be a political masterstroke, or a further blunder from a doomed administration? I seek the advice of Mandy, the hairdresser.  Wednesday 8 March 9.00am Seems to me this is a...

Send us Fan Mail Red side of Manchester in mourning after Liverpool mauling Sunday 5 March, 2023 The darkest of night is descending on Manchester United supporters. A few yours ago a great humiliation to its team took place at Anfield, home of its greatest rivals, Liverpool. The run up had been spectacularly successful. In the space of two weeks the team had won a tight European knockout match aga...

Send us Fan Mail This podcast is from The Double Houdini, a book about chess, but written for players of all strengths and for non chess players. The story is a lightly fictionalised one about the struggles of a chess club, The East Cheadle Chess Club to survive relegation of both its teams in the East Cheshire Chess League. The author and relator of the story has had a run of games in which he ma...

Send us Fan Mail Wednesday March 1st 2023 Two different stories this week seem to have overlapping messages. I have been reading the thriller Whistle Blower by TV journalist Robert Peston. Then today  a media scoop arrives from journalist Isobel Oakeshott, and published in the Daily Telegraph. Peston describes the grubby world of the political journalist in a fictionalised way which clearly draws...

Send us Fan Mail At 30.30 in the afternoon of February, 27 Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stands alongside Ursula van der Leyden, the EU President at a hotel in Windsor. He announces a political breakthrough of historic importance to assembled journalists and a worldwide television audience.  I retain my audio notes and immediate reactions without editing. The PM introduces the arrival of a replacemen...

Send us Fan Mail The political and twitter talking point of the week was the result of a statement in the House of Commons by environmental secretary, Terese Coffey. She was dealing with a shortage of fresh fruit and particularly of tomatoes in many English supermarkets. Photographs of empty shelves in supermarkets appeared on Twitter, various explanations being offered.  Curiously, the BBC carefu...

Send us Fan Mail William Thompson has coached and played sports to the highest levels, from fencing to football. He is interviewed shortly after a strenuous  tennis session in the luxurious players lounge at the Northern Tennis Club, Didsbury where he is always willing to share his wisdom. TR Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to o...

Send us Fan Mail This is a dark day. Outside, grey Manchester skies loom over damp pavements. Inside, my own mood is equally dark. Yesterday evening, I was preparing to eat a meal whipped up from an ancient can of beans and a residual piece of gammon I discovered lurking at the back of the freezer. A phone call from acting captain John, Reed, of East Cheshire chess Club. Are you playing tonight? h...

Send us Fan Mail Guardian journalist Phillipa Kelly carried out interviews with 100 centenarians. The summary of her results reported recently offers excellent material for a research study.  Her article has the title  ‘100 tips for a life well-lived’ https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/feb/18/100-centenarians-100-tips-for-a-life-well-lived Shortly after I started reading the article, I had t...

Send us Fan Mail I am recovering my composure after a close encounter I had with an angry man this morning. It took place outside the deli in Lapwing Lane, where the Didsbury, philosophical and literary society meets, to discuss such issues as the nature of time, the doubts cast on string theory, and the ethics of pulling off a single banana, leaving an incomplete hand for other fresh-fruit purcha...

Send us Fan Mail I could see Dr Glycol was in a good mood. His eyes shone behind his prescription glasses as he was leaving  the fresh fruit shop. Progress he said. Progress for all consumers of fresh fruit.  My  experiments are confined to raspberries and blueberries at present, but they seem likely to apply other soft fruit as well. I was impressed. This year, raspberries in particular seem to t...

Send us Fan Mail I started collecting puns from Twitter  some months ago and discovered a disproportionate number were being produced by a few punsters. One such goes under the Twitter label Tolly TB who describes himself as a bacon butty munching ex-rugby player older than the pyramids' application order . He adds that oval balls are harder to juggle. I’ve recently found myself in Twitter co...

Send us Fan Mail I watch the Wales Scotland rugby match being played at Murrayfield which is not named after Andy Murray. I am watching out of duty rather than for pleasure.  It is the second round of the six Nations international competition. In the first round Wales playing in their fortress at the millennium Stadium Cardiff which is named after the Millenium date not after the Milennium Dome. T...

Send us Fan Mail Saturday 11th of February 2023. The Welsh rugby team heads for Scotland after a traumatic beating in Cardiff by Ireland last week.  There was a time when Scotland were Wales’s  bunnies.  And there was a time when Wales reigned supreme as the Northern Hemisphere champion rugby players. This was  the era when competition was for the Triple Crown. The four teams competing were Scotla...

Send us Fan Mail Wednesday 8 February 2023 Volodymyr Zelensky The Ukrainian President arrives to London with a clear and simple message to the assembled politicians and the nation. Give us your fighter jets.. It was a speech that will be studied and which will enter the history books. Partly for its rhetoric and manner of presentation. But partly because it may eventually prove to mark a dramatic...

Send us Fan Mail Book lovers on social media have drawn attention to the rise in numbers books banned from American schools as a result of what seems to be a growing and orchestrated movement.  The Banned Books Week is  an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. It is sponsored by a wide range of literary organisations.   The campaign began in 1982 to celebrate the first amendment (specifica...

Send us Fan Mail Johnathan Escoffery is a young black American author who has published his debut work, a collected series of short stories. The Guardian book reviewer Ian Williams examines the book, and the impact of the author's ignoring the advice from 'writing instructors' about writing in the second person (the 'you' in the title) to explore the nature of the first pe...

Send us Fan Mail This was the story sounding like a headline from the Star.  It was told me earlier today by my scientific friend Dr Glycol.  "It’s an example of giantism", he explained. "I’m driving over to witness the site for myself.  More evidence is required before we can say how worms the size of a metro train are able to produce young. Even a normal-sized earthworm possesses...

Send us Fan Mail This is a true story, but I am explaining it as a teaser for those who enjoy puzzles. Background My closest family and friends will agree that my social life is not one of glittering highlights. I enjoy lumbering about a tennis court in what is certainly more social than highly skilled tennis. I travel to my chess club once a week for the pulsating pleasure of more competitive and...

Send us Fan Mail Rugby Union has announced plans for dealing with head injuries and permanent brain damage among players at all levels. The move follows high profile cases in football. Studies have identified Rugby as among the most violent games in which impact injuries lead to permanent damage and eventually contributing to mortalities. Such cases have drawn attention to the victims as well as t...

Send us Fan Mail The East Cheshire social chess evening has become a feast of blitz chess, blitz heroes, Cordon Bleu snacks, vintage wines, all in the luxury venue of the Cheadle Hulme Instutute (Valet parking for overflow competitors). Or maybe I have been a little carried away by the promotional drive which has resulted into a flood of new members into the club. On this day, the tournament regis...