SM, I admire your optimism but I'm more inclined to wait and see what happens, as my own view (based on the past few years) is that things are unlikely to change, though I'll be delighted if I'm proved wrong. So far, I haven't seen anything to suggest even the slightest change though.
I'm prompted to ask that, if so much has supposedly changed and everyone is running-around below the great Dr.Pleming, then why exactly is he still the "Big Cheese"? What is he doing that everybody else isn't? As you say in your own words SM, there's him and then there's the people "who actually do stuff". Strange how the one who does and says the least is the one who is taking the most money isn't it? Is anyone doing anything about this or even asking why? No. I thought not.
Sorry, but the whole set-up has been a long-running saga of obscurity, silence, misinformation, and money wasting. I'd be prepared to put all that in the past (as would others I'm sure) but simply reading comments on a forum about "how things have changed" is no indication that they actually have. I suspect quite a few people will have got excited about the mutterings concering the "major national initiative" that came yesterday - and what was it? Some guys going round museums with a collecting can. Come on, is that the best that TVOC can do when their "boss" is sitting on a huge pay cheque that we're paying for?
I'd be more inclined to think things had changed if someone (how about Pleming?) told us that they'd gone back to HLF along the lines I suggested and having being told no, they were embarking upon a national campaign (backed by MP's) to persuade HLF to change their stance. That would be a sign of TVOC doing something practical and worthwhile. Unfortunately, a group of blokes driving round with a collecting can while Pleming sits in his office admiring his bank balance, is no great sign of progress at all, in my view.
As I say, I'd like to be proved wrong but my view is the situation isn't going to change one jot until Pleming and his cronies kindly disappear and people with a better attitude get a chance to take-over. I sympathise with the people who are trying their best to raise money but until the folks at the top clear off, I think they're wasting their time.
Last edited by Tim McLelland; 31st Jan 2009 at 20:35.