The week ended on a perfect high, a phone call from my old friend and former boss, Angelos Frangopoulos, CEO of GB News. He was just asking how I was, and that meant the world to me.
He also mentioned that he had recently been to the GB News studios at Westminster, which are named in my honour. His idea, my honour.
He said he enjoyed seeing my smiling picture on the wall and urged me to drop by next time I am in London.I tend to avoid London since my diagnosis with vascular dementia.
The hustle and bustle can be difficult, and Sal has to accompany me so I don’t get lost or put myself in danger near traffic.
Angelos is that rare thing – a caring, thoughtful, and loyal TV boss. I liked him from the moment he recruited me after ITN washed their hands of me.
As my illness became evident, he was kind and supportive, making my early retirement as easy as possible. He has kept in touch ever since.
My daughter, a senior educationalist and manager, says he is one of the best people she has ever met, and they continue to correspond.
Another joyful blast from the past was an invitation to lunch in the House of Lords from Charles Allen, who sits in the Lords and takes the Labour Whip.
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| GB NEWSSo, London beckons soon, lunch will be for me, Sally, and Charles’ husband, Michael, a brilliant architect and interior decorator.
Charles, who ran Granada TV for many years with his late business partner Gerry Robinson, so it will be interesting to hear what he thinks the company has become.
We also enjoy candid conversations about Labour in government, and he often asks for my thoughts. Angelos asked me about Greenland, which continues to dominate world headlines.
I told him that, despite my dementia, it reminded me of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Kuwait. Saddam invaded and occupied the oil-rich Gulf state in 1990; it was liberated a year later, and I was the first British TV reporter to broadcast from a liberated Kuwait following my four-month coverage of the first Gulf War.
Saddam’s public reason for the invasion was Iraq’s strategic interests, but the reality was that he wanted the oil and a Red Sea port.
The United States correctly observed this was a breach of the UN Charter. The UK, under Blair, agreed and joined the coalition that eventually removed Saddam, who was caught, tried, and executed. I’m relieved to say the memories flooded back with total clarity.
The Greenland debacle rang many bells. Trump, like Saddam, invokes strategic imperatives for wanting control of the Danish territory, by force or diplomacy.
At Davos, Trump had no followers for this ploy. He sang his own praises and catalogued America’s economic might. As Bob Dylan sang, ‘money doesn’t talk, it swears.’ For Trump, US economic preeminence meant always getting its own way.
The world, and other European NATO members, begged to differ. If Trump had invaded Greenland, allies would have been obliged to come to Denmark, as would Canada, whose clever leader Mark Carney has long believed the US sees Canada as an amuse-bouche in Trump’s Western Hemisphere vision. Observed Canada wasn’t at the table, but on the menu.
Trump has now let it be known that force is off the menu, and a deal has been done. We will see what happens next.
At home, inflation rose while government borrowing slowed. Elsewhere, the government continues to wrestle with young people’s access to social media. It reminded me of my daughter Clem telling me how many children arrive at school unable to read, and when confronted with a book, try to swipe the page.
Many cannot even turn the page. I am relieved, delighted, but not surprised that this is not the case with Jim or Tommy, for whom turning the page is part of the pleasure of being read to.
Good parenting, along with supportive uncles, aunts, and grandparents, plays a huge role. The boys share a basket of books in our kitchen, and choosing a book is a simple but important pleasure. Playing with sand, cars, and trucks is also popular.
Development in balance is evident too – Tom loves dragging a chair to the sink to do the washing up. A report from the children’s charity Kindred Squared found a growing number of children not ready for school, either in the classroom or even the toilet.
Not so with our two older grandchildren, who, with their new nephew, remain my best therapy as depression continues to grow as my biggest dementia challenge.
I also got an email from Three saying my contract was up for renewal. Alex took me to the Winchester branch, where we discovered I had two contracts, which annoyed us.
He is sorting it out and seeking a refund. So frustrating, and I simply could not have sorted it myself. Alex also sorted my Spotify accounts and Anna’s generous Christmas gift to me, and showed me how to use it. I’ll keep you posted!