pumpkinstrokemarrow

Yesterday I was tempted to break my alcoholic fast, a fast which is now of two months duration. I decided against but the temptation was probably responsible for the two part dream about cigarettes which followed.

In part 1, I was in the buffet car of a railway train, rather scruffy and crowded.  A lady in a slightly dowdy but once smart red business suit near me lights up. Feeling busy, I take it upon myself to explain to her that while I was an ex-smoker who fully understood her position and I agreed that the present rules are a bit fierce, the rules did not, nevertheless allow of smoking in buffet cars. The lady then took it upon herself to explain to me that the rules had been changed, unbeknown to me, and that it was now possible to smoke in buffet cars and designated areas of carriage ends, designation taking the form of white lines painted on the floor. There was some jostling and shoving taking place between smokers and non-smokers across the white lines.

In part 2, as part of some subsequent sequence which I cannot now remember, I was given a packet of cheap cigarettes. After a bit I tried one and did not enjoy it. After another bit I tried another and still didn't enjoy it. Woke up rather cross with myself that I was in danger of starting smoking again, a habit which I did not even seem to enjoy any more. A rather dim bit of dreaming as I have not smoked cigarettes for a very long time, having converted to cigars, with the exception, in the olden days anyway, of Derby Day for which I bought 40 Gitaines, a brand of cigarette which I doubt is still obtainable in Epsom. Mr. Google offers the poster illustrated from https://marketplace.secondlife.com/, but the image is not mine. Not my idea of a Gitaine smoker at all: where's the grubby hat and raincoat for a start.

On to breakfast where I was interested to see an advertisement for the post of Governor of the Bank of England in the Economist, sufficiently interested to print off the 20 page application pack.

The main result of which was that I was pleased to see that this appointment had been shoehorned into the standard process for senior public appointments. That candidates actually had to fill up an application form and attend an interview. The whole thing was not done with smoke and mirrors at the back of the Carlton Club (http://www.carltonclub.co.uk/). It would be fun to be a fly on the wall and get to peek at all the applications. I wonder how many cranks, creeps and other undesirable outsiders get to apply?

Will any real bankers apply? Would they be welcome? Presumably there are bankers out there who have made a big enough pile that they can now hanker after the glory and the gong?

The selection process for this high profile post was to be led by the low profile permanent head of the Treasury. It must be odd to be selecting someone who is likely to become more important than oneself, someone who will earn a lot more than oneself and who will be in post for some time after one has retired. But the smoke and mirrors survive to the extent of the permanent head passing a list of names to the Chancellor who passes one of them to the Prime Minister who might pass it on to the Monarch for her seal of approval (usually forthcoming).

Applicants are invited to put down their race (black, brown etc) and nationality (english, welsh, mixed etc). It does not say but I don't suppose foreigners are completely excluded by the need to be security cleared. They are also invited to put down their disability status and, if reasonably disabled, to put in for the interview access scheme, a mild form of positive discrimination. Are we ready for a blind governor, the success of David Blunkett notwithstanding?

Applicants are also invited to explain why they have the seven (that magic number pops up yet again! Who says this process is scientific?) cardinal virtues of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. So interviews might be quite lengthy. But at least applicants are spared a selection center, a procedure rather like 'Big Brother' which is much loved by consulting human resources types. Might get results, but all a bit phoney and undignified. Managed to get through my career, such as it was, with just one of the things. Failed it, as it happened and British Telecom never got to know what they missed.

On the other hand, the cold war now over, applicants do not have to certify that they are not and never have been members of the Communist Party. Perhaps this survives, hidden in the security clearance which does get a mention. And one could always declare any such affiliation in the section on political activity.

The appointment is for a maximum of 8 years but I did not spot anything about probation, break points or termination for misbehaviour in a hotel room. Perhaps the appointment is, what used to be called 'at pleasure', which I believe meant that the appointment was at an end if the Monarch withdrew his or her pleasure. None of that nonsense about unfair dismissal applies. There is also the point that the more grounds for dismissal that there are the less independent the post looks: heaven forfend that the Chancellor should attempt to interfere with the Bank.

The first half of the application form is decorated, top and bottom of the page, with the interesting rubric 'PROTECT [IL1]', presumably a relic of some system for giving important documents security markings, unused in this case. A sloppy bit of template design which would not have happened on my watch, tiresome though templates can be.

And lastly, somewhere it is pointed out that this post does not fall within the scope of  OCPA, the web site for which suggests that it should. Maybe this post is just a tad too august for them: see http://publicappointmentscommissioner.independent.gov.uk/.