User:Robinhowell

Born in Cheltenham in 1941. Turned out to be the oldest of three and grew up in Africa. Came back to London in 1958. Finished school. Went to University in Bristol. Failed and left to get a proper job and grow up. Got married, had four great kids, dog, car, mortgage, and some friends. Really enjoyed being a Dad and was reasonably good at it. Obviously not so good at being a husband. Now very happy to be married to Claire since 1984, and between them have lots of grown up children from previous lives. Was a Bristol City Councillor from 1979 to 1991 and is now an Alderman which is a sort of honorary elder.

Began his work career by failing to become a vet, became a poultry management specialist, and then made a lot more money selling office equipment. Had a great time teaching management communication skills at Rolls Royce Technical College, before starting his own stunningly mediocre company providing microfilm services in 1972. All good training for becoming a sort of builder in 1983. Well, that and having grown up on building sites in Africa where his Dad was an architect, and having spent all his spare time as a grown up doing up houses and making stuff. When he retired in 2006 he was delighted to discover what exciting things people would let him build if he didn’t ask for any money for doing it. Has renovated Burtle Village Hall with 1000 straw bales, 4000 wine bottles and 1500 sheep fleece. Built a visitor centre at the Red Brick Project in Glastonbury with 5000 Argos catalogues and a mile of old guttering, and in the Spring of 2014 is going to build a classroom out of old pallets and rubbish. All this stuff is on his Robinhowell.org website or the individual projects' websites. He feels that society is generally going to the dogs and is inclined to blame Thatcher for the latest slide into self centred and corrupt greed at almost every level. Doesn't blame Thatcher for the fact that no government has the balls to do anything about saving the planet except for saying how important it is. Also cares about affordable housing and regards it as criminal negligence that the arguably fifth or six richest nation on the planet contributes little but crocodile tears to providing adequate affordable homes for its own population. He blames every government since the end of the Second World War including Thatcher. He insists the problem could be solved in a single generation and knows how to do it.

Got his hindsight in early over the illegal invasion of Iraq, pointing out that it was the wrong way to solve the problem, and thinks Blair should now be prosecuted. In fact devised a strategy by which Saddam Hussein could have won, not because Hussein was anything other than a tyrant but because someone has got to teach the West in general and the USA in particular that you can't just go round bombing countries into your kind of democracy. Claire persuaded him not to send the plan to Iraq because it might be treason! Currently thinks dishonest bankers and politicians should be banged up in prison like anyone else who steals, and sentences doubled since they don't even have the excuse of being hungry or cold. Exactly the same thing should apply to those who make profit in the UK out of UK taxpayers and don't pay UK tax. He is completely at a loss to understand why the government chose to give all the billions of quantitative easing money to precisely the people who "stole" it in the first place. Instead the government could have "guaranteed" domestic high street customers, ie us, and used the money for public spending on infrastructure such as houses schools and hospitals. This would have been a good thing and given us lots of jobs and money to spend and pay taxes. He is happy to offer a prize of £1000 to the first person who can prove that this would have been a silly idea. He would like to claim credit for the saying that it is easier to be a saint if you are dead. He would also like to claim the credit for proposing "The Corporate Idiot Theory". This states that once any organisation reaches a certain size it is capable of making decisions that no individual in the organisation thinks is a good idea. Creative but fairly grumpy.

(c) Robin Howell   updated October 2013