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With upcoming elections, some members of the UK Labour Party seem to be having fun spinning the latest of a long line of Sellafield financial fiascos (Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) to benefit themselves. However, they fail to discuss how Sellafield got in the state it’s in or their role in it. They also fail to discuss that a Labour government gave the contract to the NMP in the first place. And, that a now former Labour MP, Richard Caborn, still sits on the non-executive board of NMP. He starting sitting on the board as an MP.

Labour MP Richard Caborn, regarding the NMP consortium, to an undercover journalist, in 2010: “I, I, I advise, there was a bid, a consortium bid to get the contract to clean up and to look at all reprocessing of the fuel….because I’d known AMEC for many, many years and AMEC said to me,… he came to me and he said would I advise them what to do, with a consortium, so I said fine, yeah I advised them, I did it. I worked with Areva, I worked with Washington and we won it, we won the contract and it was then they said would I go on and I went on as a non-executive.“[…]
Undercover Journalist: “I think one thing that I will be certainly worth highlighting for me, is the good work you’d done for AMEC and Sellafield because obviously getting that contract is a massive thing. Was it a hard thing to get?”
Richard Caborn: “It wasn’t hard, it was well not what I think, I think it wasn’t hard…” (OPL; read in context and more below). He is no longer MP, but he was at the time; and he is one of two people who serves on the NMP non-executive board. He seems to be referring to Washington Group International, which was purchased by URS in Nov. of 2007:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Group_International They were given the contract in Nov. of 2008. http://powerbase.info/index.php/Nuclear_Management_Partners

While the current head of the Department of Energy for the UK, Ed Davey (Lib-Dem), has fraternal nuclear energy connections, so did the Labour Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, when the contract was handed to NMP, a consortium of AMEC, URS and AREVA. “Davey’s brother advised EDF on trading contracts relating to the company’s acquisition of British Energy in 2008.” The law firm has longstanding ties to EDF and has worked for AREVA. http://stopnuclearpoweruk.net/content/new-energy-secretarys-appointment-underlines-unhealthy-relationship-between-government-and http://powerbase.info/index.php/Ed_Davey
Gordon Brown, who was (Labour) Prime Minister (27 Jun 2007-11 May 2010) when NMP was given the contract to run Sellafield (Nov. 2008) has a brother who, at the same time, was working as head of media relations for EDF! “In 2004 he joined French energy firm EDF Energy, as head of media relations, where as of 2011 he held the position of director of corporate communications.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Brown_%28media_strategist%29 EDF and AREVA are French State owned nuclear siblings.

Lobbygate, however, is the story of former Labour Member of Parliament, Richard Caborn, who worked for AMEC and served on the board of Nuclear Management Partners, while serving in the House of Commons. He was Member of Parliament for Sheffield Central from 9 June 1983 to 6 May 2010. http://powerbase.info/index.php/Richard_Caborn He appears to still be on the NMP board. We don’t know if he still works for AMEC.

He may well have been instrumental in NMP getting the Sellafield contract, as implied in the transcript. He is the only politician on the board of the NMP consortium. Interestingly enough, URS was $2 billion in debt and AECOM is taking on the debt in the context of a merger. Areva is seriously in debt. AMEC seems to be doing fine and have recently purchased Swiss Foster-Wheeler. He discusses the CEO of AMEC, Samir Brikho. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samir_Brikho

Excerpted from “House of Commons – Standards and Privileges Committee – Written Evidence“, 2010:
“111. Dispatches ‘Politicians for Hire’—Transcript of Telephone Conversation with Rt Hon Richard Caborn MP on 16 February 2010
Telephone conversation between [reporter], under the name Claire Webster (“CW”) and Richard Caborn (“RC”)
(Recording starts a few seconds into the conversation)
RC: Let me tell you what my position is I—I—I’m Member of Parliament as you obviously know, you probably know my background.
CW Mmm.
RC What I’m waiting for is the Election on the 9, on the 6th of May because that will then release me er but there’s a number of things that I er, which will possibly happen then which, er I, er really have to find out before I commit myself any further, er there’s a possibility I might go to the House of Lords, for example, or things like that. So I have got to wait for that to settle down so at the moment er I really don’t want to take anything on that I would have to then either say I couldn’t do or, er, you know, would look at other opportunities.
RC So I because I am already doing a couple, I thought I would have finished as a MP some time ago because there was supposed to be an election earlier than now but obviously that didn’t happen but I am a non executive director of Nuclear Management Partners at Sellafield…
CW Yes.
RC …which is an American French and British Company and I’m also advising AMEC, the British FTSE 100 company and I just advise the Fitness Industry Association as well but that’s, besides doing other things—in fact the reason I couldn’t talk to you earlier—I’m President of the amateur boxing and things like that so…
CW Yes so you’re quite busy at the moment doing those things. So really the situation with you is that you want to see what happens with the election?
RC I’ll see what happens on the Election and then really I’ll just reassess that depending on what will, what will happen immediately after that. So, I wouldn’t, I won’t say necessarily, I wouldn’t say no. I’ll have a look at what you’re doing and that, it’s not a no, but if you want to come back at some stage after the 6th May or…
CW Yes that might be an idea, perhaps I can do that perhaps we can speak after that time and then by you’ll know whether you’re going into the House of Lords or what was it you…?
RC I mean what I shall do, there’s no doubt I shall set, I shall set a, well I’ve got a consultancy now and I shall expand that er if, you know, more than I would if I go to the other place. If I go to the other place then obviously I’d want to spend some time there doing things so er, you know so really the ball’s up in the air at the moment. Er…
CW Yes I see that. With your consultancy at the moment is that how you do your work for the other organisations—you do it via your consultancy?
RC No; two of them I do. The third one I’m a non executive director—so that’s direct. I’m a non executive director on Nuclear Management Partners which is a combination of three companies, URS Washington, US, AREVA of France and AMEC of the UK—they came together to create that consortium that made the bid that won the bid for the Sellafield—
CW Sellafield, yes.
RC …and that was the contract Sellafield which was quite a (…INAUDIBLE…) large (?) contract. So I work with them as non executive director on that. And the other two are consultancies with AMEC and with the Fitness Industry Association.
CW And what kind of consultancy work do you do for them? It just be would just be useful for me to know for later on…
RC Well I do stuff on the engineering side, at the moment I’m negotiating with forces (?)(…INAUDIBLE…) with a major deal on the largest (…INAUDIBLE…) press (?) in (…INAUDIBLE…)I’m doing a lot on the supply chain of the nuclear power industry working with the advance manufacturing party set up (…INAUDIBLE…) just outside it. I do a lot of advice in those areas. I also, obviously, was Minister for Trade so I’ve been round the world, I’ve got lot of contracts there, and I advise AMEC on our international… see I was down in South Africa, I met with the South African energy minister and their people down in South Africa, so I do that as well. So you know, I make those connections really for UK Limited.
CW It does sound like you do have very good contacts, as I’d expect really, through um, your um experience.
RC Yes well I had ten years in the as a Minister obviously (…INAUDIBLE…) I did set up the Regional Development Agencies, (…INAUDIBLE…) set up Trade and Investment which was when I was Minister for Trade and then I was six years at Sport, after that was obviously winning the Olympics but we took in Sport as well so in that sense in those are the areas you know I’ve got some expertise in or at least contacts and expertise in, so.
CW Mmm. That sounds perfect. I’ll you what I think maybe we could progress this after the election, depending on what happens but I wonder if it might be worth meeting just for an informal coffee beforehand just to touch base and say hello so you know who I am and we could really do something after May.
RC Yep, yep.
CW Are you going to be contactable by e-mail over the next couple of weeks?
RC Yes. If you, if you, there’s two things, it’s […]
CW Yes.
RC Or if you ring [name] at the House of Commons which is […] and arrange to come and have a cup of coffee. She’ll put it in the diary and you could pop into the House if that’s OK with you.
CW Yes, yes, that would be a good idea.
RC then she’ll sort a time out and you can pop in to have half an hour.
CW That would be great. That sounds great Richard.
RC (…INAUDIBLE…) I mean I don’t know much about your company either, so…
CW I can send you some information if you like.
RC If you would. I’ll have look at that. OK?
CW Nice to speak to you, thanks so much. Bye.
RC Cheers, bye.
112. Dispatches ‘Politicians for Hire’—Transcript of Rt Hon Richard Caborn MP meeting, 10 March 2010
Music and papers rustling
CW 00:27:36 Hello.
RC (on phone)
CW Yes.
RC Can you hear me?
CW Oh hello how are you I was just looking for your mobile number actually I was just going to let you know I where, where are we sitting, where are you?
RC (on phone)
CW Oh me too I’m sitting down by the erm, err by the window. Did you just walk in?
RC (on phone)
CW Thank you.
Movement and music still playing
[Dialogue about finding the correct location.]

RC 00:30:06 So you’re Anderson Perry?
CW Yeah, that’s right erm, it was just erm, great to have a chat with you, really.
RC Yeah, yeah yeah.
CW In the last… (…INAUDIBLE…)
RC Tell me a little bit about the set up.
CW Yeah yeah I will.
RC 00:30:18 I’m not quite, I think I know….
CW Yeah no problem. They’re an American company erm, and in the last month or so I’ve set up the London office, we’re based in St James’ Square.
RC Oh yeah.
CW 00:30:28 It’s a lovely building there which is really great we’re getting a whole floor … so it’s exciting erm, and the reason we’re doing it is because so many of our clients have said to us look we’ve got more and more business interests in the UK now and we really need you to kind of help us with those. So…
RC What, what you are, you are, it’s engineering in the broadest sense, service engineering?
CW 00:30:50 Well no a bit of both actually, it’s what they call it in the States is, there’s another Anderson Perry and I wondered if you’d seen their web site.
RC Yeah I’ve got the one from the States and I’ve got, that’s the other one.
CW Yes that’s us yes. Yeah but yeah that’s right.
RC 00:31:01 You’ve got a whole series (?) on err, it’s basically engineering isn’t it?
CW Well actually we’ve got some engineering clients. But actually it’s communications.
RC Is it, oh.
CW 00:31:11 What they call it in America is bespoke consultancy and what that means you basically do everything. Erm, so sometimes that’s kind of dealing with press and media enquiries and other times that’s helping people with their investments and how supporting what they’re doing erm, so just to give you an idea of some of the clients that we have, we’ve got defence clients in the states who, one of them makes their chassis for MPV vehicles…
RC 00:31:37 Oh yeah.
CW 00:32:13 So they’ve various contracts with the equivalent of the MOD there erm, and there’s, erm, a kind of health client there does elderly care. And they’ve got various contracts to kind of look after elderly people and they’re looking to expand here. And we’ve got a consortium of erm, people in the UAE who are interested in, they kind of do various investments erm but they’re interested in getting more involved in the UK especially in property erm, and kind of infrastructure. They see it erm, actually as a great opportunity erm, about what’s happening here in terms of property and seeing it as a good time to get involved erm, and to expand. So it’s quite broad what we do actually and it’s quite nice erm, And kind of the plan for the next couple of months is for me to set up an advisory board erm, and that will involve getting about 4 – 6 people together to give us strategic advice and also our clients to strategic advice when necessary. And that’s one of the things I wanted to speak to you about really.
RC 00:32:39 Oh yeah.
CW To see if that’s the kind of thing you might be interested in doing when you step down or?
RC How did you pick my name up?
CW I asked one of my researchers to kind of draw up a list of people that were, there well connected and also had a consultancy background so were used to kind of dealing with business and doing that and then your name came up so hopefully we’ve got the right kind of person?
RC 00:33:00 No, I, I I, well I’ve been in Government you know I’ve been in Government 10 years, I’ve been in Parliament 27 and my .(…INAUDIBLE…)at the end of this Parliament to be 6th May. Erm, but I’m an engineer by, background as well and I do quite a lot in the, energy industry..
CW Oh right.
RC 00:33:20 Yeah, I advise, AMEC
CW I think you mentioned them when we spoke on the phone.
RC Yeah and I’m also non executive director on err, and this is where I thought the connection had come from, a non executive director on Sellafield which is a big nuclear site erm, which because of the clean up (…INAUDIBLE…). There’s an American company, quite a big American company, who is one of the three in the consortium, URS Washington and they are err, well they’re a huge company, and the bit I’m involved in is the nuclear side and they cleaned up Savannah River which was a big nuclear site in the US. (…INAUDIBLE…) plutonium (…INAUDIBLE…) for the arms industry.
CW Yeah.
RC 00:34:05 And they came on board, with AMEC and with Areva France which are, is a big energy/nuclear company in France and those three made the bid collectively and I was at at the time but then they asked me to do it as a non executive director, I’m a non exec and that’s where I thought(…INAUDIBLE…)
CW Oh right.
RC 00:34:24 …because I looked after the US you see.
CW Well it might have been because I asked them to speak to the, the guy that I got to the work I spoke to lots of our clients in the US, just to see if they’d erm, come across people, and to be honest I just got the final list.
RC Yeah.
CW 00:34:36 I’m not particularly aware of where it all comes from.
RC It came from anywhere.
CW Yeah so it may erm, it may well be that, but I just wanted to kind of get a sense from you, with I don’t know what kind of thing you’d be interested in and what kind of things you’d done previously to get an idea of your expertise?
RC 00:34:49 Yeah well I mean, it, in part, well I’m an engineer by profession and I went into Europe in err, in the European Parliament in 1979 for the first time and I was on the economic and military committee there with Jacques Delores who was our president at the time err and so I worked quite a bit in on the European scene and particularly on the industrial side in European Parliament. I came out in 83. err and into this Parliament, and then in the early 90’s I chaired the Select Committee on Trade and Industry in a period when Michael Heseltine was the President of the Board Of Trade and I chaired that Committee through the inquiries on pit closures, on information super highway erm, the Aerospace (…INAUDIBLE…) and the international trade in South Africa (…INAUDIBLE…). And then I, then I went into Government and, and I was a Minister responsible for setting up the regional development agencies across…
CW Yeah.
RC 00:35:55 …across England. I also started planning, new planning processes, then I left there, two years after I set the IVA’s up and I went into trade and I was Trade Minister and created an organisation called UK Trade and Investment which put inward investment which was (…INAUDIBLE…) at the time (…INAUDIBLE…) together to, much more comprehensive approach to, to exporting, on a (…INAUDIBLE…) linked to the regions national and international, through UK Trade and Investment, UK TI as they called it. I did that for two years.
CW That’s interesting.
RC 00:36:31 Yeah and then I went into sport and I set up, restructured the whole sport, so on my watch was the whole Olympics as well but it, it linked a lot of that…on the health. The other thing I do advise as well is the Fitness Industry Association, the FIA.”
[…]
“CW How easy is it to kind of liaise with Government and Ministers and Civil Servants and that kind of thing, because some of my clients are going to be looking to expand in the U.K., and to get closer to Government, but I just wonder how you do it practically?
RC 00:46:21 Well practically, I mean it’s not very sophisticated, you know, like the FIA, I mean we get direct access to Ministers, particularly Health Ministers. I was a Minister when I was working with them, I was Minister of Sport and I worked with the FIA to try to encourage them to get on board much more and utilising their, you know, their (…INAUDIBLE…) capacity.
CW Yeah.
RC 00:46:45 Erm and it was from that, well there’s a number of ways in which you can, which you can influence or at least access Ministers, whether it’s a sector or an individual company, or what. And also on policy as well.
CW Yeah, well exactly.
RC Yeah that’s, obviously an important aspect of this, but obviously we’re in a changing situation. Nobody knows the—, where we’re going to be on the 7th May this year.
CW I know, well that’s one of the questions, and that’s one of the things I was wondering about the make-up of the Advisory Board, erm do you think it’s the kind of thing you’d be interested in?
RC 00:47:20 Oh maybe yeah, but I mean the only things is as I don’t, what I think I said to you before I. I don’t quite know what I’m going to be doing after the 6th May. And I mean there’s a possibility I will be in the House of Lords and, and I’m just going to have to find out exactly what I’m going to do there as well But yeah. I wouldn’t particularly want to get anything in … I think it would be wrong for you and wrong for me in, in the sense I don’t want to really commit to something I can’t do.
CW No of course.
RC 00:47:53 So I’d have to, you know, obviously we’d have a. But yeah its seems I would be interested if circumstances arise.
CW Yeah.
RC Where I’m erm in the House of Lords, I am going to be doing more, I’m going to do more energy. They’ll be a very big announcement next week, which I’ll be dealing with, about the nuclear supply chain, the nuclear power supply chain.
CW 00:48:19 Are you still invol, are you still involved with kind of nuclear stuff for Government then?
RC Well my, my, the company I used to work at is of course, it called (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW Right.
RC 00:48:32 (…INAUDIBLE…) Which is a lot of (…INAUDIBLE…) For the energy …(…INAUDIBLE…).. And one of the things (…INAUDIBLE…) Is there will be an announcement, they’re going to build the largest (…INAUDIBLE…) facility in the world.
CW Oh right.
RC Which is the start of the nuclear supply chain. And if you, in broad figures, if I tell you that broadly there are probably in this country 8 to 10 generators erm and that will be worth around the 60 billion pounds.
CW Oh my goodness.
RC 00:49:00 And that only represents 4% of the world’s order book as of today. It shows you, this press, we will be the only one in the western world, that’s including the U.S., the only other one this size is in Japan. One of the big bottlenecks of the nuclear new build, new generators that people (…INAUDIBLE…) is erm is this part of the supply chain.
CW Yeah.
RC 00:49:28 So that’s that and the other part is, I’ve been deeply involved in the setting up of the advanced manufacturing (…INAUDIBLE…) partnership (?), which is erm, something we did that 10 years ago, on the back of Aerospace (…INAUDIBLE…) that conduit with the MD (?). 9, 10 years ago now with (…INAUDIBLE…) and it was out of that discussion that they decided they wanted to come to Britain, because we did a lot of titanium, we did a lot (…INAUDIBLE…) sheet/machine (?) titanium(…INAUDIBLE…) and that’s now brought British Aerospace there, brought (…INAUDIBLE…) there, Smiths there, erm a lot of the (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW 00:50:13 Yeah.
RC And we’re moving advanced manufacturing aerospace into advanced British manufacturing for nuclear industry, so there’s a lot for them. And so I’ve got to do a lot to make sure that UK Limited gets a lead position.
CW Yeah.
RC And so that’s quite exciting.
CW 00:50:33 And what was the erm work that you were doing for erm the Sellafield people.
More coffee noise.
RC I, I, I advise, there was a bid, a consortium bid to get the contract to clean up and to look at all reprocessing of the fuel.
CW Yeah.
RC 00:50:55 Bearing in mind it was the (…INAUDIBLE…) and I was, because I’d known AMEC for many, many years and AMEC said to me, when I had finished he came to me and he said would I advise them what to do, with a consortium, so I said fine, yeah I advised them, I did it. I worked with Areva, I worked with Washington and we won it, we won the contract and it was then they said would I go on and I went on as a non-executive.
CW Oh right.
RC But I still advise.
CW 00:51:30 Erm and what kind of erm how in what way do you advise them, cause I’m just trying to.
RC On the board. Oh sorry AMEC?
CW Yes that’s right because I was just about the things.
RC Oh AMEC, I mean I, AMEC I (…INAUDIBLE…) to me, then when I go down to South Africa, I know the Minister of Energy there people there, I fix their people together and we met the Minister of Energy out there cause they’ve got one nuclear power station. (…INAUDIBLE…) And so I connect them in, if they want a reception in the House of Commons and if they want erm to get advice from Government then I get advice from Government and I introduce them to people.
CW Yeah.
Coffee machine over following section
RC 00:52:08 Erm but they also, they all said to me, (…INAUDIBLE…) nuclear and that as well (…INAUDIBLE…) so a whole series of things, you know. And then that I meet Samir Brikho who’s MD and I say come and have a chat and he’ll have some ideas you know, someone will think about those ideas, so it’s quite right (?)(…INAUDIBLE…)
CW 00:52:35 No I was just thinking about what kind of things we would be after from the Advisory Board or from our Consultants, and I suppose one of the things erm we’d be looking to try to erm develop would be our relations erm with Government and Ministers and Civil Servants. And I just didn’t know whether that was the kind of thing you’d be able to help us with?
RC 00:52:51 Oh yeah, yeah, obviously I know Ministers. But again it’ll change, it could change, it’s going to change anyway, irrespective of of—
CW Yeah.
RC 00:52:59 Cause that many of my colleagues will be leaving. so there will be erm quite a big movement of personnel, personnel, it’ll be very interesting, this new, maybe hung Parliament.
CW Yeah.
RC But that won’t last for very long in my view, hung Parliaments don’t last very long.
CW Don’t they?
RC No, they’ll be, depending on the composition. Probably a year, eighteen months and then they’ll be another election, probably you know. But increasingly, but there’s a lot in Europe you see. There’s a lot European connections, and into the Commission and the Council of Ministers.
CW 00:53:33 Yeah.
RC And in (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW 00:53:48 Well I suppose, if I just think about the kind of things that they’d be wanting to do, you know there’s the health clients, so they’ll be wanting to meet people in the Department of Health and various civil servants. Erm the guys we’ve got in the U.A.E. who are interested in developing erm going in to do kind of housing and construction erm that kind of thing, I , they’ll want to meet all kinds of people there, they’re interested in the Olympics, although I think, I don’t know if that’s too late for them. And then of course if we get erm World Cup they’d be very interested in that.
RC Well the Olympic Delivery Authority is, I mean I set up the Olympic Delivery Authority.
CW Oh did you.
RC 00:54:10 I took the Bill, I took, yeah I took the Bill through Parliament and set up the structures, and then I set up the, erm you’ve got the Olympic Board and then you’ve got effectively two structures, the ODA, which is effectively construction, the other one, which Coe Chairs, is the LOCOG, Local Organising Committee delivers the Games.
CW Yeah.
RC So you’ve got one who builds the services and infrastructure and the other one then comes in, takes that and delivers the games, I mean that’s it.. And then we’ve just set up, or they have just set up a legacy company now as well, to look at (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW 00:54:47 Oh have they?
RC (…INAUDIBLE…) games. So that, that’s now erm underway.
CW And in terms of, say if the Conservatives come in, at the next election, do you think that will affect how much you’re able to help us?
RC Well yeah, I mean to the point where I, you know, obviously the Ministers I know are in the main good friends of mine as well. But I mean a lot of the old Conservatives who are in all sorts of positions, where I can help will be. Look at Seb Coe, look at Colin Moynahan, he’s conservative, Brian Mawhinney is. You know, and I think it’s more about, at the end of it, do they trust you in the sense of your integrity and you know the subject you’re dealing with.
00:55:43
CW Yeah.
RC And that’s true of civil servants as well, you know erm so.
CW 00:55:51 So you don’t think it would be a problem setting up meetings with them.
RC Oh no. I mean I set loads of meetings up when I was Minister, with all different parties. (…INAUDIBLE…) I set them up with a lot, there’s a lot of ex-Conservative MPs | | stop tape 1| | who lost their seat and worked for all kinds of businesses who came knocking on my door.
END
AUDIO SWITCHES TO

“Caborn meeting wed 100310” from Dictaphone
TC Differ from start

CW 00:54:26 Yeah.
RC 00:54:27 And there are some very nice and some very good and some that are not and not so good and that’s their judgement at the end of the day.
CW Yes I know I suppose that’s true. But I would guess that civil servants, I would imagine there would quite a lot that might leave at the next election but equally there might be a lot that stay.
RC 00:54:44 Oh yes there will be a lot that are staying, I mean the civil service is quite a unique animal in that regard it tends to manage political change quite effectively er, so I would think this will leave not a lot
CW Yea and you still have the relationships with them, do you?
RC 00:55:03
00:55:27
Yes I do. John Prescott and I are having a little party next Thursday night for all those who have been in private secretaries since we started. People who worked, not the big high flyers you know, but people within our private office who are head of our policy units, and you’d be amazed, one’s my very first private secretary, was really, really good to me and he is number two in the Chinese Embassy now.
CW Oh really?
RC 00:55:35 So I said I will text (?) them all before, (…INAUDIBLE…) it’s that lump of people who’s (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW Yeah
RC (…INAUDIBLE…)
RC 00:55:49 And you know a lot of them, a lot of them are around the world.
CW Yeah
RC 00:55:53
00:56:24
And the other thing is, when I was Minister, for two years doing trade, and set up his clients and I did a lot of travelling, as I did with the Olympics as well. You get to know people and all of a sudden they pop up in another country than you’ve met them in. I was down at the er, at the, I was down, and I went to a state banquet last week with the president of South Africa. [Name] my wife, she went and um, and (…INAUDIBLE…) affair (?) but [wife] was sat next to a young guy who is now the private secretary (…INAUDIBLE…) to the, er, to er Prince Andrew.
CW Oh really?
RC 00:56:36
00:56:53
And he, he told her a story which I can’t recall to be quite honest, about when I went to see the (…INAUDIBLE…) and sorted out rather a rather intransigent situation by a member of staff and I gave him, and by all accounts, and I never knew this, but [wife] told me, how he was absolutely delighted. He said he had champagne corks popping when I’d left, because they had given him the biggest bollocking he’d ever had in his life (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW Oh really
RC 00:57:01 But all the guys there, and this guy was there, he must have been (…INAUDIBLE…) but he’s now become, he’s now become er, the private secretary to Prince Andrew. So he was telling [wife]. It’s a funny old world you see.
CW Yeah
RC 00:57:15 And these things come back, cos there’s not many parts of the world where you know I don’t think I will know anybody.
CW Yeah, is it easy enough to see civil servants cos I would always feel tricky just to call them up as Claire Webster and be hi ya, can I come and see you, but?
RC 00:57:31 But if you are, the real fixers in Whitehall outside the Ministers are the special advisers.
CW Oh right and do you now them?
RC 00:57:42 Yeah that’s, cos that’s politically how they operate and they are, they come and go with Ministers.
CW Right.
RC 00:57:51 They are the people that have the ear of the Ministers at the political level. They have civil servants and private secretaries (?) but you also have special advisors. And the other area that is quite good actually is the select committees.
CW Oh are they? So it’s worth knowing people that are on the select committees?
RC 00:58:15 Oh yes, very much so. cos when you give evidence, I mean I chaired a select committee for four years, Trade and Industry.
CW Oh right.
RC 00:58:20 So you bring a lot of industrialist in or experts, obviously and they draw up a report going to Parliament and have to be responded to by Government. This is the Parliamentary system which is quite, or can be quite influential.
CW Do you think you’d be able to help us with the select committees and special advisors in order to um, go and see them?
RC 00:58:44 Yeah, yeah, as long as you know how the system works that’s the main thing. These people come and they go. They’ve chaired select committees. But the whole system is still there. How you influence the decision makers, that’s the structure, that’s not going to change. The personnel will change but the system doesn’t change.
CW Yea well I’m sure that’s very true.
RC 00:59:04 And that’s not the same in Europe as well where you have a totally different system which is a consensus and you are er, the political cabinet of the er, the commissions, the European Union again depending on what area they are in. You could have, you need to er, at least have so much (…INAUDIBLE…) that, that structure as well as individual (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW Yea
RC 00:59:33 Er, what areas are they in? They’ve got health?
CW Yeah, we’ve got health, defence, um, kind of construction and engineering, they’re quite interested in transport um.
RC 00:59:46 Are they, are they into energy at all?
CW Um, a little bit, more the um, investors, they’re the people that are particularly interested in getting involved in aviation and energy, because they see it as quite kind of hot topics. Um, and they’ve got a lot of money to um, invest and they see the UK as one of the places to do it.
RC 01:00:03 I’m not a financier I’m not.
CW Nor am I.
RC I’m not happy with that, not at all, but I could, you know I’m not in with them, I’m much more er, the engineering side, the wealth creation part of that, but not necessarily the investment side (?)
CW No I think what they really looking for from us is guidance about what areas they should consider investing in, um, so you know sometimes that might mean a heads up on forthcoming policy, you know what’s coming up, what’s going to be a hot topic, um, and also introductions to people that they should be talking to.
RC 01:00:37
01:01:07
Well that’s, that’s the, relatively (…INAUDIBLE…). That’s not hard in that sense, I mean it’s when you get into… I’m a non-exec on the (…INAUDIBLE…) NFB (?), (…INAUDIBLE…) financing (…INAUDIBLE…) got to know your subject matter which, some board meetings are two days long some board meetings. and they get into some quite interesting, fairly high level, but for that you have to do a lot of reading. Every day you have to go, every other day, you know.
CW 01:01:22 Of reading yeah, I think actually I’ve got to report back to um, my board in the US in the next couple of weeks, and I think one thing that I will be certainly worth highlighting for me, is the good work you’d done for AMEC and Sellafield because obviously getting that contract is a massive thing. Was it a hard thing to get?
RC 01:01:37 It wasn’t hard, it was well not what I think, I think it wasn’t hard, it was (…INAUDIBLE…) it was a great look, what you’d one is you’ve brought three global companies, brought them together (…INAUDIBLE…) it’s just me (…INAUDIBLE…) They’ve all got different skill sets.
CW Yeah.
RC 01:02:07 And different ways of doing things. as well: You’ve got America.
CW Oh yeah, they do things differently.
RC 01:02:20 (…INAUDIBLE…) and then in a new (…INAUDIBLE…)
01:02:26 Quality of people working (…INAUDIBLE…) and is of the highest calibre it really is absolutely and it’s intellectually stimulating to be with them, I mean it’s great, it was great. The one objective when you’re moving towards, it’s a bit like (…INAUDIBLE…) in that sense, there’s a lot of similarities you know lots of er, I advised them on a lot, tactics, of how to get to that situation (…INAUDIBLE…)
RC 01:02:58 But once you’ve won it you have to start delivering that, different (…INAUDIBLE…) I had about three months of actually bringing them all together er, and it is, it is a peculiar thing because immediately you’ve won it you all go ah!
CW 01:03:17 Yes of course and it is quite scary isn’t it, because you’ve suddenly got to do it. Yea how am I going to do this.
RC (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW Yeah.
RC 01:03:31 (…INAUDIBLE…) the other interesting bit about this is their company’s credibility is on the line. It’s not the (…INAUDIBLE…) it’s the holding company and that (…INAUDIBLE…) item is there. And if anything goes wrong, it could be Areva, it could be URS, it could be AMEC…
CW 01:03:44 Of course yeah.
RC 01:03:45 Because it’s their brand name.
01:03:47 Cos they, they protect and rightly so cos they are, they are three world, you know, major world sector (?) companies so er, in that sense it’s, it is quite interesting. They come together (…INAUDIBLE…)
RC 01:04:00 And [name], well (…INAUDIBLE…) my other non executive, we have a great time and we tell, we tell them the absolute truth of what we think, sometimes it hurts.
CW [Laughing]
RC But you know its good, they took us now, oh we’ve been at it now 2½ years.
CW Oh really, oh well you must be enjoying it if you’ve stayed doing it that long.
RC 01:04:20 Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah its erm its good. I went off to the U.S. Internal Affair, to attend this erm, to meet one of their guys(…INAUDIBLE…) and I went to France (…INAUDIBLE…) for a time, to see the guys down there, so its, erm it is, its been a really interesting period, about bringing cultures together to work on a fairly complex issue.
CW Yeah.
RC 01:04:45 But we are, we’re going to, but they are in themselves very professional people, you know that is great when you’ve got people like that.
CW Yeah, one thing I wanted to get an idea from you, I know it’s always a tricky conversation, but I’m going looking to appoint some members of the board, probably over, maybe in April, so you said that you’d be interested in doing something maybe after May, but one thing I wanted to get a sense of is what you’d be expecting in terms of erm remuneration, in whether you have a normal day rate that you’d look for to be an advisory board member.
RC Well my, what they pay me, I’ll tell you what they pay, they pay me, they pay me two and a half thousand pounds a day.
CW 01:05:21 Yeah, so would that be what your looking for?
RC Yeah, that’s what I, for yeah, plus expenses obviously.
CW Yeah.
RC 01:05:51
01:06:16
Erm and that’s well we don’t pay, oh sorry AMEC pay me, they don’t pay me that, they just pay me like seventy-five thousand a year, as a board member, up to I think its 30 days, and if I do any time above that then I get extra, cause that saves all the messing about, when you’re just paid, as a non executive, being paid seventy-five thousand erm and that covers my contract, board meetings and various other activities. But to be honest I’m doing quite a lot for that. I set up the whole regeneration of the company, because they had a commitment to socioeconomic development and I did not like the structure so I revamped the whole structure and it’s become much wider (…INAUDIBLE…) Which is quite exciting from my point of view, but that’s what really erm made, made a big, big difference on that so and our, we have a (…INAUDIBLE…) relationship, cause we have a thing called the nuclear non departmental public body. We are responsible (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW Yeah.
RC On that particular subject (…INAUDIBLE…) and a lot of repositioning. but that is now, just about (…INAUDIBLE…) it’s been quite interesting, quite exciting to erm to put together.
CW 01:06:54 Yeah I bet.
RC 01:07:14 And it’s interesting how various companies have relationships with their Government. The Americans and their Department of Environment have a relationship with the American Government… Having a relationship with the French having a relationship with the French Government (…INAUDIBLE…), and now here, all different types of relationships. But when they’re Here they’ve got to have our relationship.
CW Exactly.
RC (…INAUDIBLE…)British companies.
CW Yeah, that’s what our clients are saying as well, you know, they may be used to doing business in America, or in the Gulf of wherever, but how should they be doing business here? Who should they be meeting? You know how, does it all work?
RC 01:07:31 Well that’s right, but (…INAUDIBLE…) this country, but these guys you know they’ll, they’ve probably had quite a bit of experience on it.
CW 01:07:44 Yeah, yeah they do. Erm I think what we’d be looking to for the advisory board is having erm, I think you try something for the first 6 months and see how it’s working, and then assess it. So we’re looking for a meeting every other month, erm though you might want to up that to once a month after a while, so I would expect it to be, to roughly work out to prob, maybe erm a day for the meeting and a day for kind of reading, so that’s going to be roughly.
RC 01:08:02 About 12 days a year.
CW Yeah, erm and then of course we’d be looking for erm people to do consultancy work on top of that, and that would be up to you, if you erm wanted to do that, and wanted to get erm a whole (…INAUDIBLE…) depending on your time commitments.
RC 01:08:16 Yeah well that depends a lot on what I’m going to do to be honest. And I, I, I, I my view it will become clear [pause]. The biggest decision obviously is whether I go to the Lords. I will know that probably in the next erm five weeks, four or five weeks we will know who is going to be (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW Yeah.
RC 01:08:42 That has to be announced before that, the erm the PM goes to the Palace and I shall know, and that will then really determine what I am going to do. Of course, if that doesn’t happen then I’ll continue to work on my consultancy. I will set an office up there or elsewhere and I’ll take a slightly different course, but if I’m in Parliament still, then obviously that gives me access to a lot of other things.
CW Yeah.
RC 01:09:10 That, that’s it really—
CW I was going to ask you actually erm cause I know when we spoke on the phone you mentioned that you might go to the Lords, at, what kind of further expertise do you think that would bring if you were to be in the Lords?
[14:45]
RC 01:09:23 Well access, access to people. You’re in, you’re in, you’re in the environment you’re moving around, you’re doing it all the time. That would give you a much wider view (…INAUDIBLE…) narrowness, very much into manufacturing (?), the energy sector, two directorships (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW Yeah
RC 01:09:54 Erm because that would be a base, (…INAUDIBLE…) Government (…INAUDIBLE…) access, constituency (?)(…INAUDIBLE…)
CW And by access do you mean that you’d be able to erm talk more, talk to people or?
RC 01:10:06 Yeah you you’re there all the time (…INAUDIBLE…) Got access all the time. Access to Ministers, you’ve got access to all the information that’s going around.
CW 01:10:20 Yeah, so you could just pick up information I suppose.
RC You talk to people, you stop people (?) (…INAUDIBLE…), Yeah.
Prolonged rustling on microphone on following section.
CW Very exciting for you isn’t it?
RC 01:10:46 Yeah, yeah yeah, no I mean (…INAUDIBLE…), elected cause I’ve got a number of options, irrespective of what happens, I don’t, I don’t go there I will (…INAUDIBLE…), erm, (…INAUDIBLE…), erm (…INAUDIBLE…)on the, on the manufacturing and energy side (…INAUDIBLE…)a number of people, (…INAUDIBLE…), jobs with them (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW 01:11:10 So you will decide erm about those other jobs will you, erm after your, after you know about whether your going in to the Lords.
RC Yeah, some of and as I’ve said to everybody I’m not going to make any decisions until I know, you know I, I (…INAUDIBLE…) I mean if that’s in your time scale.
CW 01:11:28 Yes, yeah it is, yeah that would be erm fine for me really.
RC Who else would you be looking to put on, what type of people?
CW Erm I definitely I’m looking for someone who has a good business background, a banking kind of background actually, someone with a legal background, erm I’m I think I should probably be talking to maybe a conservative, though I don’t know who. Erm, I was wondering about a former civil servant, erm I don’t know if you have any recommendations or thoughts.
RC 01:11:56 In civil servants, erm I think the best thing to do is to let me know what portfolios you know what, what your looking for, the banking (…INAUDIBLE…), if you just let me know what you think your portfolio’s going to be.
CW 01:12:12.
01:12:35
Yes, well at the moment it looks like health in terms of elderly care, erm it looks like defence erm in terms of getting contracts with the MoD pretty much, erm housing and infrastructure and transport, so big investment projects that the people from the Gulf can get involved with. And they are quite open, and quite interested in doing a number of things, erm but they’re looking for big projects. So for instance with cross rail coming up, not cross rail sorry, well they could do that but I did wonder about the high speed 2.
RC High speed 2.
CW That’s something else that.
RC There is a big announcement tomorrow.
CW Oh is there.
RC 01:12:46 That the high speed links, up in Manchester and Leeds possibly and (…INAUDIBLE…) to London.
CW Oh wow.
RC Would then I think (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW It would go across.
RC 01:13:02 So that, that’s going to be a big announcement. The big infrastructure developments clearly are going to be on high speed rail. The other one’s going to be on energy on a whole green energy agenda.
CW Yes.
RC Is big
CW Yeah, so renewable.
RC 01:13:17 It’s renewable, its nuclear, its carbon capture, they are the big infrastructure development. And because what we’re trying to do is position nuclear (…INAUDIBLE…) UK Limited (…INAUDIBLE…), not just supply our own (…INAUDIBLE…) but to use it as a base for international development.
CW Yeah.
RC 01:13:32 And what you’ve got with Roath (?), I’m saying (…INAUDIBLE…), you’ve then got, they want to become, as they have done in the aerospace smart (?) partner, and they want to be smart partner (?)and (…INAUDIBLE…) And (…INAUDIBLE…), What we are going to announce next week on the Rolls/Roath (?) are involved (…INAUDIBLE…) partners between the two big (…INAUDIBLE…),
CW 01:14:01 Yeah.
RC 01:14:02 And therefore we will look, cross rail, development (…INAUDIBLE…), on them so we’ve got some very good engineers. And we’ve got, and what, with Rolls/Roath (?) we’re looking at how you can take the, the aerospace manufacture or defence manufacture into the nuclear (…INAUDIBLE…) That, that area it’s huge.
CW And do you have a background in that because of your work, work? It’s obviously one of your specialist areas.
RC 01:14:52 I’m an engineer. And so that, that is, and the other big one it really is health service,”
[…]
“CW How does that work practically, does that mean they need to get contracts from the local, I don’t know PCTs or the local councils.
RC No, we’ve, we’ve, what we’re thinking of doing is putting, well I’m trying to get Liam Donaldson, Liam Donaldson is the Chief Medical Advisor.”
[…]
“CW It’s just quite interesting actually about you influence policy.
RC Well we were making, we would ask Government to (…INAUDIBLE…) to us and that we’re very high powered with Vice Chancellors of Universities, Chief Executives of Local Authorities along (…INAUDIBLE…)discuss, we, we, do it to industry as well, as well as the schools, we do it to industry,…”
[…]
“RC 01:21:15 Oh yeah, I love it, yeah, I mean, that’s why I’ve been Minister for ten years and I’ve enjoyed it all you know. And that’s, you know, it’s the sport for me, engineering, manufacturing, where I’ve got a bit of expertise, you know.
CW It’s interesting what you say about the House of Lords actually, I hadn’t, I hadn’t quite considered erm, how useful it can be to have a consultant or a Board member who’s in the Lord’s, it will be very interesting.
RC It’s, it’s. All this is all about contacts, it really is, it’s not even, not so much always about influencing things, it’s about getting information. And that, that’s absolutely key, because if you can get information that is very powerful. And it’s how do you actually operate in those circles to extract that.
CW So that you can work out where you should be expanding?
RC 01:22:06 Yeah, where you are expanding, where you’ve got policy development and the big macro picture of where do you want to be taking the nation’s policies, whether it’s on health, issues like the green energy agenda, climate change agenda. They are the big issues. And out of that comes opportunities.
CW Yes, yes for your business.
RC That’s right, that’s where it comes from and that’s where, at the moment, and I, I don’t see it changing dramatically, transport is still the big issue, green energy agenda is still a big issue, the health of the nation is a big issue. the all three big (?) and that’s what’s got to be addressed, how you address.
CW I know, just have to wait and see.
RC 01:22:49 But again, you know, you see, going back to your client, it depends what are they, you know, what are they into, you know in those areas, what type of portfolios, you know, they’re looking for. Are they all Americans?
CW No, the guys in the Gulf aren’t.
RC Oh they’re not Americans working.
CW No, no they’re not, no, one has an American wife, but no, they’re not American.
RC And how long have you worked with them then?
CW Not very long actually, my old, I used to work for a PR Company.
RC 01:23:16 Who did you work for?
CW Red Rooster?
RC Oh yeah.
CW And my old boss now works in the American office.
RC Oh I see.
CW In San Francisco, so erm, when they wanted to pull something together in London, he called me up and said oh, you know, would you do it?
RC And that’s who you’re working for, not …?
CW Yes.
RC So you’re on your own, are you working for Anderson’s now?
CW Yeah, yeah, I’m working there now and I’ve kind of just taken on three other people to be full time members of staff, erm, and I’m going to take on some other consultants and maybe some people on retainer. And as we grow, then you just hope to take erm, more full time members of staff on really.
RC 01:23:48 So you are head of office here then?
CW Yes I am, who would have thought?
RC Yeah, yeah, what, what, what was the portfolio that Red Rooster used, I know the name, but.
CW 01:24:20 It was more kind of consumer work um really. So, whether it was kind of um, I don’t know, alcoholic drinks for instance, you might have a brand like a big pub brand um, you’d be doing stuff for, so you’d be doing PR for them. And trying to think of strategies to get them some good kind of press and also manage their brand er generally. But it was largely consumer which is fun um. But I think this would be potentially far more interesting because it’s far more varied. And it won’t just be press relations um you know, I can do a number of things which is better.
RC Yeah.
CW 01:24:32 Um, I want to bring someone in who can kind of help our clients to do some due diligence in the UK. If they’re looking at doing investment, you need to know what you’re getting involved in and who you’re being involved with um. So, I’d be looking to maybe farm that work out initially and then when we’ve got enough of it in the UK, then you can bring someone in to specialise in that view.
RC 01:24:51 How big are, how big are they, Anderson, in the States?
CW Fairly big, I think we’re probably a medium size er company. They’ve got about 100 um full time members of staff, it’s quite a big office in San Francisco.
RC Is that, that’s the base, San Francisco, yeah?
CW 01:25:03 Yeah. And they’re quite er specialised. They’re quite low key actually. They’re not one of these kind of big agencies that kind of shouts about what they do, it’s more that they kind of operate effectively er without making too much noise.
RC 01:25:16 You started in 1970s, there were five that started.
CW Yeah.
RC Yeah, yeah.
CW 01:25:19 Yeah, yeah, quite a long time ago.
RC Two brothers wasn’t it?
CW Yes, it was two brothers, yeah.
RC 01:25:.23 I read up that and er are they still around?
CW Er one of them has retired but yes, one of them is
RC 01:25:31 Yeah, yeah and it’s still runs the family.
CW Not so much anymore actually, no I think it, well things start to expand don’t they? I think you can sort of start off as a family business um and then it changes.
RC 01:25:42 Yeah cause they did quite a lot on the, on the, on the local authority service industry on things like sewerage and water and at that didn’t they?
CW Yes, I think that’s when they started, they had some clients that were involved in that kind of thing.
RC Yeah, they did yeah, yeah, quite big.
CW 01:25:55 And then it expanded. And actually it’s quite interesting to do such varied work. If you can, you know, as we both probably know, getting contracts at a kind of like local Government level can be very beneficial. And also, it’s quite dependable er work um.
RC 01:26:10 Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. And I think that, and that until they decide to come into the EC.
CW Yeah, mainly because their clients, their clients said to them “look, we’ve got a number of interests here, well our interests are growing in the UK and now we need some support to do that”, so one of the, that’s why I think the board would be so important really in terms of mapping out what the strategy should be.
RC 01:26:37 And you would expect your client to come to you and say, for advice or saying “this is what we’d like to do, what do you think?”
CW Yes exactly. And also, I think they probably expect from us some ideas in what they should be doing. So, for instance, you know, look you said you were interested in kind of getting involved in big transport ….project, so why don’t you think about investing in this? Here’s some figures, this is what’s going to happen. You know, consider it and then come back to us and we can do some further work, is the kind of thing you’re up for.
RC 01:27:07 And is it, there’s not going to be anything on the energy agenda?
CW No, not at the moment. It’s largely these um gulf guys that, they’re very interested in getting involved in renewables er because they see it as a massively expanding market.
RC (…INAUDIBLE…), the Gulf is going nuclear as well now.
CW 01:28:25 Ah yes I don’t, well I don’t know very much about energy you see. I don’t deal with them very much um so, I.
RC Oil (?)(…INAUDIBLE…) is going to run out (?)(…INAUDIBLE…) problem with the (…INAUDIBLE…) without oil (…INAUDIBLE…), I mean it’s (…INAUDIBLE…), I mean (…INAUDIBLE…), slow in like Dubai they’re desperate to make it into sport, (…INAUDIBLE…) and others are truly diversifying to, to get more sustainability of the economy. But one of the other (…INAUDIBLE…) is trying to stop using oil powered generation because it’s better if it’s (…INAUDIBLE…) so they, they see (…INAUDIBLE…) so it’s er, so that part of it is very interesting, very interesting.
CW 01:28:35 Yeah, it’s certainly worth speaking to them about that actually, to see what their thoughts are. So it may be that, that’s one of the issues there um considering.
RC No it’s um, it’s er and that more and more and more is coming out of the States, out of the, out of the Gulf (…INAUDIBLE…) states, I agree with you as we will.
CW Yeah.
RC 01:28:56 But that who gets the contracts, supply chain for the (…INAUDIBLE…) is about 20 percent, it’s a bit like the Aerospace industry in that they can build a plane with money the, the, the electronics, the engine, the undercarriage, they’re, they’re the key components because that’s where the real big money is. And with the nuclear generators, it’s about 20 percent of it that is really high value. The rest of its bog standard stuff, you know, which any (…INAUDIBLE…) company can do it’s, but if you can get into the niche market, that er 20 percent of that new build that’s where the real wealth creation is and that’s what we’re looking at now.
CW Yeah.
RC 01:29:38 That’s quite an interesting (…INAUDIBLE…). But clean up is another one which we, we (…INAUDIBLE…), again, the Americans are bloody good at that (…INAUDIBLE…) so er, but my other expertise obviously is in sport.
CW Yeah. Yeah, it will be interesting to see what happens. Are you involved with the er World Cup bid?
RC 01:29:58 For (…INAUDIBLE…) 18, I’m (…INAUDIBLE…) Ambassador.
CW Oh great, well that must be interesting.
RC 01:30:02 That will only be while the Prime Minister’s there. While the Prime Minister is about, so knows, who knows, (…INAUDIBLE…) moving around like there was no tomorrow, so.
CW Yeah, I know it’s a really kind of changing time isn’t it politically?
RC 01:30:14 Oh dramatically absolutely dramatically really is. So, what, by the time we get to the 6th of May I just don’t know. It will be very, very interesting.
CW Do you think it’s too late for um people to be getting contracts for the Olympics? Or they don’t miss a vote in terms of.
RC 01:30:30 Depends what you er, if you’re talking er, there’ll be a big legacy (…INAUDIBLE…) for (…INAUDIBLE…) there’ll be a lot of reconfigurating er which they’re looking at now or started looking at um. I, I mostly do the um, the thing I set up called ‘UK School Games’.
CW Oh right.”
RC 01:31:32
01:32:03
[…] “And what we’ve, the reason I’m telling you that is because, we are looking (…INAUDIBLE…) people who are going into legacy, they are looking at how they can then change the stadium from 90,000 seats down to 25,000 seats. They’re talking about reconfigurating some of the arenas, they’re looking at landscaping the parks, seeing how that can be re-configurated into a much more er open grass areas. So, there’s a lot of work in that, you know, so.
CW Yeah.
RC But whether, that will be laid out I think in the next 12 months er. I mean, the whole facilities are ahead of schedule which is great er, we’re on budget er so that, all that really is, has now been put to bed, you know, just a matter of (…INAUDIBLE…) There will be a little, a few contracts around on the running of the games er. But no, there won’t be huge contracts, there’ll be catering contracts.
CW 01:32:35 I’m just wondering if there’s anything the um investors in the Gulf would want to get involved with.
RC I think they’ll be more after than before, if you see what I mean?
CW Yeah, in terms of reconfiguration.
RC 01:32:43 Re-configure it again, yeah, reconfiguration and there’ll be, there’ll be quite some big contracts being made in the next 12 months on the catering part, things like that but um, that’s on the consumer side, yeah, not on structural side.
CW No, okay. Well listen thank you very much for.
RC 01:33:01 What you doing? You’re reporting back to your boss.
CW Yeah, I’ll report back to him over the next week or two I think um and then they’ll be coming over from the states um and they’ll be setting out to meet with anyone that um I will be short listing. So, I don’t know if you’d be around to maybe meet up with him.
RC 01:33:14 When would that be roughly?
CW Probably sometime in April, I’d think, now.
RC Yeah, yeah well I’ll be around in April, not necessarily down here because obviously, the campaign probably will have started (…INAUDIBLE…) I think that’s when it’s starting, about 8th April.
CW 01:33:29 Okay, alright. So, that might be tricky for you then, meeting up in April, um.
RC Well I can always pop down (…INAUDIBLE…) meeting (…INAUDIBLE…) er, but it won’t be in the House cos the House will be shut completely
CW Yes, it’ll be funny won’t it? Yes.
RC 01:33:43 (…INAUDIBLE…) finished so er, if you come across before the 30th, I think the 30th of March or possibly that first week in April, we will still be sitting.
CW Oh right.
RC I think we’ll sit till about, probably about the sixth of April (…INAUDIBLE…) so I’ll be around in London all that time.
CW Oh okay, good.
RC 01:34:07 Yeah, so but after that, you’ll, well you got my numbers, you can (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW Yeah I will, well yes I’ll let you know how it’s all progressing and it would be good to um meet again.
RC Yeah, I’d like to, yeah, yeah, absolutely, I’d like to keeping touch, I’m always interested in what’s happening anyway, you know, I mean and er you know, in that (…INAUDIBLE…) I can probably just give you a bit of advice if er (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW Yeah.
RC 01:34:33 (…INAUDIBLE…) I’m open to bringing investment into the country, you know, that’s what you really want. I did that when I was in trade and industry and then er, if you can get a base here. I think that you’re right in what you’re doing, you need to have presence.
CW Yes.
RC 01:34:51 (…INAUDIBLE…) but if you really want to service your client, then, all the companies I know are (…INAUDIBLE…) London (…INAUDIBLE…) their office is here in London.
CW Yeah, well I think it’s important too. Well it shows your serious doesn’t it?
RC 01:35:08 It shows you’re serious, it shows your commitment, it’s far better for picking up intelligence, it’s (…INAUDIBLE…) you know, you can use that to set dinners up with people. If I was doing it with you I would set up a whole series of dinners up with people who I know who link up to your clientele. (…INAUDIBLE…) (…INAUDIBLE…) (…INAUDIBLE…) invite them to come and have dinner.
CW 01:35:39 Yeah and who would you think the kind of top people would be that you’d need to be talking to?
RC Well, I mean, it would depend on what level they’re at, I would speak to people like Samir Brikho (…INAUDIBLE…) AMEC and, (…INAUDIBLE…) just below him and in terms of construction (…INAUDIBLE…) if it’s on the energy agenda would be various supply chain companies then (…INAUDIBLE…) just invite(…INAUDIBLE…)because I know quite a lot (…INAUDIBLE…) I mean, I had a great, great session in the House where I had five Vice Chancellors, two Secretaries of State and six energy companies.
CW Oh really.
RC 01:36:21 It was bloody good. It wasn’t about a particular contract it was a discussion about where is UK Limited in a supply chain for Areva and Eon, British Energy were there er and then five Vice Chancellors and John Denham [?] it was a really, really good discussion.
CW How easy is it to get a Minister to go out for dinner?
RC 01:36:45 Oh I mean, it depends on who it is. I think. It depends at what level they’re at. If you are going to go in, if you’re going to go in, we had, I did it with AMEC, Samir Brikho, their MD, great guy, big profile and he was in the Sunday Times and (…INAUDIBLE…) he’s a real incredible thinker, he thinks out of the box and he said to me: Why don’t we, don’t we bring academia, producers and (…INAUDIBLE…) supply as well as (…INAUDIBLE…) producers (…INAUDIBLE…), Secretary of State for Energy and the one for Schools and so I set all that up. Now they came to that, they came to it because the quality of people sitting round the table and that’s, to some extent, what you have to do. If you’re talking policy on that level, then they’ll come, you know and the right time. If it’s all about limited contracts then, (…INAUDIBLE…) it’ll be left to underlings.
CW 01:37:55 Is it best to do that in Westminster do you think, for dinner, or to go out for dinner?
RC I’d do it at Westminster cos it’s easier for them. It’s easier for them to pop in, you see. And er, you have dinner and they’re booked after it anyway. But then it depends, you know, there after with the process, you know, they will come on certain levels, (…INAUDIBLE…) you know, senior civil servants.
CW 01:38:18 And are they alright at coming along for dinner?
RC Oh yeah, yeah, they’re alright. Well, they always, it’s all about networking. You’re feeding them as much as they’re feeding you.
CW Yeah, and would you be able to help us with that?
RC 01:38:29 Yeah, yes, oh yes, I have a lot of people coming in. I have people like Rolls Royce (…INAUDIBLE…) this week, I had a meeting with a non executive director of Sellafield and an MP together. It’s about bringing them in, but again, it depends what you’re after, depends what you’re trying to achieve.
CW Yes.
RC 01:38:54 I mean, I think, I think if you’re bringing in clients that are big hitters, then they will get in to see Secretaries of State and they will go and see Secretary of State for Climate and Energy, DECCA, off to see the Prime Minister. If Samir Brikho wants to see the Prime Minister, Samir Brikho sees the Prime Minister. He’s a FTSE 100, he’s got a huge amount of clout here, obviously, and abroad.
CW 01:39:22 And do you help him arrange that or does he do that?
RC Yes I do it, and the Minister of Energy. (…INAUDIBLE…) And they come back to me and ask me about my dates? But that’s in the present climate. What will happen after six of er, sixth of May I don’t know.
CW I know, we’ll have to see.
RC 01:39:41 We’ll have to see, yeah, that’s why I’m um, we’re trying to design a whole series of options.
CW Yeah.
RC We are where we are (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW I know, yeah.
RC 01:39:53 So, er we’ll keep in touch.
CW Yeah, let’s keep in touch and er I’ll speak to you over the next couple of weeks.
RC And if your guys come down, I can make it, I, you know, if you give me enough time, I can work around it and er…if it’s whilst House is sitting fine, if it’s not then, then I’ll look at it from (…INAUDIBLE…) and have a chat to them and see what, you know and, and yeah, yeah, kick a few ideas about.
CW 01:40:12 Yeah, I’m sure we can work something out. Okay, alright, that was really good.
RC Alright (…INAUDIBLE…)
Background noise
CW Yes, I will. Yeah, that sounds really good.
RC (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW Yeah I bet. Alright, okay. Thanks very much for your time, alright, have a good afternoon, bye.
RC (…INAUDIBLE…)
CW 01:41:40 Hi, that’s right, thank you. Thanks. That’s great, thank you very much. Bye.
[Knock at door]
Excerpted from “House of Commons – Standards and Privileges Committee – Written Evidence” http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmstnprv/654/654we09.htm © Parliamentary copyright 2010, OPL, Prepared 9 December 2010 (Emphasis our own; the original says ARETH in one spot, instead of AREVA, so we changed it to keep the reader from being confused. In the context of NMP it had to be AREVA.)

There is much more at the above link. However, it was too long to post all at once. In it one learns that he left school at age 15 and did an engineering apprenticeship. His real problem appears lack of formal education. He wanted to promote health and fitness (which we have omitted), but what good does that do if he’s promoting the nuclear industry? Where obesity is caused by damaged thyroids from the nuclear industry, exercise will not offer a solution. He and Switzerland’s Hans Killer are poster children for the need of liberal High School educations. They obviously have not studied biological science. Killer went into construction at age 15 too. Killer lives really close to nuclear reactors and wants more since it involves construction.