Thursday, February 14, 2008

Guto Gone from the Beeb.

I learn from Iain Dale's blog that the great Guto Harri is leaving the BBC for a job in public relations. Iain also posts that Guto was in line for the job taken by Andy Coulson. Well I never. I knew he was a good journalist, and he was great for the image of Wales - but I didn't know he was a Conservative sympathiser, which I suppose he must have been to have been considered for the Coulson job. Whatever, his departure from the world of political reporting will be a loss to the BBC and a loss to Wales. Best wishes Guto. Perhaps we'll see you around the fringes, flashing your Fleishman Hillard business card.

7 comments:

Dr. Christopher Wood said...

"Guto, but not forgotten."


*ducks for cover*

Dr. Christopher Wood said...

Talking about news - anyone heard about the shooting at NIU? Three dead and quite a few injured. Northern Illinois University is a large campus about 65 miles west of Chicago. My former father-in-law did a history degree there, and my in-laws and family lived in nearby Sycamore and Genoa. DeKalb (the nearest town to NIU) is one of those old fashioned small Midwest towns with a main street 'running through it' (not called "Main Street", might be Lincoln Highway on the map. Great breakfast at the diner on main street. The campus is surrounded by 'corn fields'. Very flat land. Since were visiting my wife's family I set up an interview with a research Prof, and visited his lab and we talked about me doing a post-doc there, and I took a quick look at NIU's law school (on paper), and decided not to apply to NIU's law school, I needed to work through law school (what with a new American wife and a mortgage to pay on a house back in Rhiwbina, Wales) and there were no decent paying law clerk jobs in nearby DeKalb. Funny thing, one weekend in DeKalb I went to DeKalb's "First Baptist Church" and somehow got volunteered by my in-laws to help out with putting up tents on a nearby farm (farms out here tend to be very big and very flat). My in-laws told me that the farmer had his own small plane to get about in - I guess he flew to Chicago's former Meigs (pronounced "Migs") airfield on Chicago's lakefront.

Anyway, the farmer's wife (Mrs. Walker) was there and seeing this big strong laddie from "England" asked me to help her fill a truck with tents (turned out to be one of those six or eight wheeler ATVs) with a hitch. She drove it and I sat shotgun - we hauled a load of tents to a field. My mother-in-law told me that I had just helped Cindy Crawford's step-mum.

I was taken a bit back - I did notice a small swimming pool next to a rather large farmer's house and asked how big the farm was (I think someone said 3,000 acres, but I could have heard wrong, but they grew corn and soy).

Turned out that this was Cindy's father’s farm, Cindy is from DeKalb, near NIU, but didn't go to NIU, Cindy and her sister, who my mother-in-law told me was the more attractive of the two, were very smart. I knew a Professor (from the UK) at Northwestern University in Chicago/Evanston (I figured Evanston is a derivative of Evanstown, there were/are some Welsh street/place names in/around Chicago) and he told me that there was a lot of competition among first year female students to get Cindy's dorm room.

I have a few "Cindy Crawford" stories - naturally, as my then mother-in-law was Cindy's Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church DeKalb. (All very wholesome stories, so no redneck or in poor taste stories). Cindy's mum worked in a local bank. I refrained from opening a bank account there. Yes, her former hubby visited the farm (once I think someone said). They made a fine couple. Pity they divorced. Cindy has since married a Chicago business guy. Lucky guy; I think someone told me he has some restaurants in Chicago.

Anyway, bad news from NIU near DeKalb.

David said...

why should he be a tory because he is working for a PR firm? doesn't follow at all.

Glyn Davies said...

David - I suppose I was reacting to Iain's suggestion that Guto had been tipped for the job Andy Coulson is doing now. Of course perhaps Iain was wrong - but he usually seems to be right about these things.

Anonymous said...

Glyn, stick to your patch.
you are going to cause a few problems if you do not.
Think, Think ,Think before you open your beak!

Glyn Davies said...

anon - just don't understand what you are trying to say here.

Southpaw Grammar said...

In all fairness, Guto Hari was tipped for the tory spin job at for ages...

Coulson i think has done a good job thus far...