Let us hope Stuart Rose helps make the NHS much more like M&S

Drafting in Sir Stuart sets a thought-provoking precedent why not place up Lord Kitchener-type posters in each boardroom in the land?

Maybe not with a headshot of Wellness Secretary Jeremy Hunt, nevertheless he barely appears old enough to increase a milk moustache, never ever thoughts emulate Kitchener’s luxuriant whiskers.

Instead of the normal suspects, appointed by way of the established route of old-school-tie cronyism, government departments may well really be headed by men and women who could do the occupation.

Given a choice, flooded householders would far desire a web site pay a visit to from bish-bash-bosh Pimlico Plumbers boss Charlie Mullins, who knows what he’s speaking about, than Eric Pickles wringing his hands.

The economic climate? Give it to that nice Peter Jones of Dragon’s Den. Rural affairs? Cath Kidston, your nation needs you. Justice would be Judge John Deed, Wales can have Gavin and Stacey, Andy Murray can armwrestle Alex Salmond for Scotland and, for every little thing else, there’s John Lewis, who isn’t a man or woman but ought to be.

Never ever knowingly undersold on the globe stage, we could all be stakeholders, a buzzword that as soon as on a time was continuously utilised in connection with the NHS, but looks, like providing sufferers adequate water to drink and treating the elderly with dignity, to have slipped off the agenda.

But I have large hopes for Sir Stuart, who has constantly struck me as a can-do type of chap. He started on the shop floor and worked his way up swept the warehouse, folded the pyjamas, emptied tills and served customers.

The enterprise of bringing the NHS back to complete well being will be a special challenge, but the truth he didn’t go to school with the PM is a vote-winner in my guide.

Given his hands-on strategy, ahead of he begins employing and firing the generals, it may be an thought for him to go undercover – join the infantry as a well being-care assistant and uncover what’s truly taking place on the wards and why standards of care are nosediving in as well many hospitals.

Of program, the NHS is not about profit margins, even though fees are essential in identifying the top quality and extent of care people are at its heart. But as executive chairman of M&ampS, Sir Stuart’s achievements have been exceptional, and he is really significantly a men and women individual.

I wish him luck – lives depend on him. In distinct, the lives of people inside an ambulance trip of Colchester Hospital University, Sherwood Hospital, Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals or any of the other failing trusts, the place, by way of bitter irony, trust is just about the last issue sufferers come to feel when they are wheeled in the front door.

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Stars make us all want to have a go in the snow

_{Winter Olympics medal-winner Jenny Jones}

Haven’t we come a prolonged way because Eddie the Eagle symbolised our comical inadequacies when it comes to winter sports activities? Sochi, which I previously considered was some kind of martial art, is proving to be a actual revelation.

Britain’s female competitors, in particular, glow with overall health, emanate strength and radiate this kind of rosy-cheeked enthusiasm that they ought to be on the reverse of our banknotes.

These are precisely the type of role models our daughters are crying out for in 21st culture of pneumatic physique-conning celebrities and half-dressed starlets who resemble harlots.

There’s also one thing egalitarian about possessing a go in snow, even if Jenny Jones, who bagged a bronze on her snowboard, did a lot more odd jobs than Del Boy in order to pay her way on the slopes.

Lizzy Yarnold, whose glittering smile outshone the Olympic gold she won in the skeleton yesterday, received to the top by dint of hard work, application and her faithful sled, Mervyn.

Sochi runs until February 23 and I’m loving every minute of it, even however I’ve in no way ski-ed or skated or snowboarded.

I’m off with my loved ones to Scotland next week for the half-term vacation, where there is snow. We’ll be packing the normal thick socks and boots and pullovers, and, if there is room I may slip a tea tray into the roof box – just in case the mood will take me.

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He’s spared me a bunch of worries

_{Say it with flowers… or save yourself the needless cost}

So women, just how hearts-and-flowers wonderful was Valentine’s Day for you?

Yeah, me also my husband handed me a card made by our eleven-12 months-previous but did not really get round to signing it. I gave him a shop-purchased 1 but did not very get round to getting rid of the wrapper. Nonetheless, they’ll be excellent for following 12 months.

And, offered the new research revealing that an income of £50,000 almost ensures that you will discover really like, then the cash we saved could be construed as an astute investment rather than a tragic indictment.

Funds, of course, cannot get enjoy, but it absolutely generates the circumstances for fondness to flourish. All the same, I’m not certain the super-rich are any happier than the £50k brigade. Definitely a straw poll of Lottery winners would recommend they aren’t.

As Mr Micawber so succinctly place it: “Annual revenue twenty pounds, yearly expenditure nineteen, nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual revenue twenty lbs, annual expenditure twenty lbs ought and six, result misery”.

So, would I have wished my husband or wife to fritter his sixpence on flowers? No. Yes. Really, no, since they are so evident. Or am I just becoming a cynic and a sourpuss? Yes. Or no.

Anyway, it is academic, actually, as my husband has spared me the horrible cognitive dissonance by not presenting me with a huge bouquet to agonise above. Now that is what I get in touch with the best gift of all.

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My pension is going to pot

_{The middle lessons have been pushed into buying poorly performing annuities}

As if there weren’t sufficient to fret about in life, now we find out that, getting shopped close to for auto insurance and house insurance coverage and mortgage loan prices and utility suppliers, we must include pensions to our ever-lengthening checklist.

In accordance to sector watchdog, the Economic Conduct Authority, the middle classes are being fleeced by unscrupulous pension companies that push them into getting poorly executing annuities. And because an annuity – do pay out focus at the back, even if you are beneath thirty and thus immortal – can’t be modified, retirees locate themselves locked into dismal returns for the rest of their daily life.

Shedding £10,000 of cash flow on a £100,000 pension fund is scandalous, but the excellent news is it is avoidable – if you place the hours in by investigating the industry and buying around.

I’m hoping by the time I attain retirement I will not only have one thing resembling a pension pot, but that there will be a whizzy annuities comparison web site to do the challenging graft for me.

Then once again, it’s most likely only a matter of time just before the comparison internet site sector watchdog blows the whistle on nefarious practices in that discipline, also, so exactly where does that depart us? Apart from duped and broke, certainly.

I concern the single lesson we can discover from all this is deceptively straightforward: believe in no one.

Let us hope Stuart Rose helps make the NHS much more like M&S