This week I was lucky enough to attend the Master Innholders' General Managers' Conference at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower in London. In fact, they even allowed me to "chair" the second day which involved introducing a series of expert contributors and trying to keep to the timetable without anyone losing the will to live.
What struck me was the apparently effortless organisation. Food and drink simply appeared when required; big hitters were on hand to inform, educate and entertain; general managers from many of the UK's finest hotels attended; capacity was reached well ahead of the date. It must have taken months of detailed planning, all of which paid off handsomely over the 24 hours of the event. They even managed to broadcast the whole thing to hotel students on 5 continents!
What a great example this is of hoteliers working together to achieve something useful for everybody.
So, "Tories call on restaurants to reduce food portions to curb obesity". I should have thought the incoming government would be too busy grappling with our trillion pound deficit to bother with telling us how many sausages an adult is allowed for breakfast. Yet it appears they are deadly serious. What next? Are they going to close all sweet shops, bring back WW2 butter rationing and fit a gastric band to Nicholas Soames MP?
Democatic governments exist to serve, not manage, the citizens who elect them.