Week 26 since UK government lockdown on 16 March – Covid-19 has meant that my Brother Sheriff Christopher Hayward and I, instead of serving one year from September 2019, have been asked to serve two, ending September 2021. We believe this is the first time in almost 800 years (1228 AD?) this has happened. So a summary?
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It was a dark and stormy afternoon…
I’ve always enjoyed Edward Bulwer-Lytton‘s works (honest). Interestingly, while he did provoke opprobrium for the phrase “it was a dark and stormy night“, he equally garnered admiration, leading to a lovely Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for “the funniest opening sentences from the worst novels never written”. How can one express the delight (?) of reading winners such as, “Dawn Esterbrooke looked lovingly upon the gifts which her lifelong childhood friends brought to her wedding shower, but inside her guts churned like an overripe peach in a blender because only two hours earlier she had left a motel with her best friend’s homosexual father.”
by Steve Garman of Pensacola, Florida.
Well, the cat, or snail (see below), rather ‘puffin’, is truly out of the bag (pipe). As I mentioned in my Shrieval Chain Presentation, Puffin On Pipes:
“imagine your entire family have no idea of your favourite animal, the puffin. Just because you’ve never gone soppy and bought a gaudy plastic tourist souvenir on a puffin island tour – as part of the puffarazzi – doesn’t mean you haven’t spent 60 years trying to justify smelting a small puffin statue.”
My brother Sheriff, Chris Hayward CC, and I were delighted to agree to extend our Shrieval year by 12 months till September 2021 in order to “ensure continuity of leadership”. Equally, this will give us more time, in turbulent times, to deliver our shrieval theme of “Primacy Of The Rule Of Law”. We very much look forward to working with all of the Old Bailey team over the next 17 months. And now no one is, as Pádraig Belton put it, “Sans Sheriff”.
I lived in Brixton in the mid-1980s and love reggae, so you couldn’t expect a two-year term to go by without reference to a great tune by Bob Marley. A number of people have been asking for some decent shots, so I set out four below, two serious, two fun(ny).
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Sponsored by the Financial Services
Livery Companies (FSG) and administered by the Worshipful Company of Educators
The Sheriffs’ Challenge is an inspiring initiative begun by our predecessors, a transformational experience for Year 12 students from 12 London schools to compete on delivering presentations with the final at the Old Bailey in Court Number One. Aldermen Peter Estlin and William Russell started this in their shrieval year of 2016/2017. Brother Sheriff Chris Hayward and I set a two-part question and judged the fourth, Sheriff’s Challenge 2020.
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Remarks to:
Livery Education Conference – Preparing Young People For The Future
Alderman & Sheriff Professor Michael Mainelli MStJ FCCA FCSI(Hon) FBCS, Tuesday, 3 March 2020, Merchant Taylors’ Hall, London
“The Frontiers Of Education – Some Musings”
Masters, Wardens, Headteachers, ladies and gentlemen:
I have been asked to talk about education of the future, so I’ll start from the past. Exodus 2:22, King James’s Version, says: “And she bare him [Moses] a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, ‘I have been a stranger in a strange land’.”
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Remarks to:
Worshipful Company Of Wax Chandlers
Alderman & Sheriff Professor Michael Mainelli FCCA FCSI(Hon) FBCS, Wednesday, 8 January 2020, Wax Chandlers’ Hall
“Bees Repaired”
Master, Wardens, Liverymen, Fellow Guests:
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I had the delight today of speaking and presenting awards for the Kids’ Lit Quiz National Finals held at City of London School. The amazing author, Cressida Cowell, Waterstones Children’s Laureate, she of “How To Tame Your Dragon” and “The Wizards Of Once” fame, also spoke and awarded the prizes. The prize? An all-expenses paid trip to New Zealand for five to compete in the World Final https://www.kidslitquiz.com/world-final.php.
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