Chocks away…..

I’m sitting in the Panorama Lounge at Zurich Flughafen after a very productive day trip to Zurich to work with one of my agencies. Nobody should undertake business travel without weighing up the pros and cons but some times, many times, a conference call – no matter how long and tortured – will not cut it. And so it was today – a very quick and nimble completion of the task in front of us. The sort of creativity that is only possible when humans are in the room. Together.

But back to the Lounge. And an excellent article in today’s Independent by John Walsh. He not only reviews the latest US drama series ‘Pan Am’ (due to land on BBC2 in November) but also tips a wink at that bygone age of jet travel.

If I can I will post a link to the article but meanwhile here is a great paragraph;

“Pan Am’s first transatlantic flight was on 26th October 1958: the plane was a Boeing 707 jet called Clipper America. And with it, the era of the jet-set was born : a brave new world of sophistication, power haircuts, Playboy Club membership, dry martinis, suburban adultery, golfing trousers and hotel-bar seductions, all accompanied by the manly crooning of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jnr”.

I don’t know about you but I would gladly swap today’s rather sterile execution of air travel for this – okay maybe not the suburban adultery – and one can only hope that British Airways new retrospective based advertising campaign projects some of that romanticism forward.

Meanwhile a glance at my calendar shows that I am due to fly on the 26th October from New York to Shanghai, twice the length of that first Pan Am transatlantic crossing but probably with only a fraction of the style. I’ll get Dimitri on 14th and 7th to give me the best power haircut he can and hopefully they will be able to rustle up a decent martini onboard…….who am I kidding.

Betrayal

I had intended to blog about discrimination when I got home this evening.  Not the bad kind, the good kind.   A few thoughts on luxury brand management inspired by drinks tonight with, K, one of the most discriminating (good) people I know but it’s difficult to turn my attention away from one of the most hideous betrayals I have witnessed in my adult life.   That of the lick-spittle Scottish Government who in an act of ‘compassion’ have released the only man ever convicted of the 1998 Pan Am Lockerbie terrorist bombing.  

Most people my age can remember where they were that night when 270 people were murdered in mid-air (with some dying as they hit the ground) and some dying in their own homes.  I was sitting in my friend H’s house looking forward to the Christmas break and catching up on our 2nd year university adventures.

The news flash was alarming and haunting.  When dawn came it was overwhelming.

Fast forward to 1997 and I fought a General Election as a candidate and played a role in the post election referendum campaign against the creation of a Scottish Parliament.   I lost on both counts but I’m fiercely proud of having done my part.  Today’s decision by the minority lead Scottish Nationalist Party administration was the sort of national, no global, disconnect we opponents of Scottish devolution always feared.

A Scottish Parliament was never going to be content legislating on parking restrictions in Portree or how many deep fried Mars bars it’s safe to eat.   They were always going to flex their muscles in a cack handed way.

Those who have given succor to this Parliament, and this particular heinous administration, through their toadying acquiescence are as guilty as Alex Salmond MSP and Kenny MacAskill MSP.

One can only hope that the families and friends of the victims will not hold all of Scotland responsible for this crime against humanity.