David Parkin on searching for his family tree at York Races; boom and bust and blue plaques

YORK Races was as lively as ever yesterday, with grey, rainy skies failing to dampen spirits.

As ever good quality racing was on offer for a high quality crowd.

I was there again this year as a guest of Chris Booth, the main man at law firm Pinsent Masons, who sponsored one of the races, the Lowther Stakes.

Chris, a pragmatic employment lawyer, was concerned the firm’s equal opportunities policy would be breached by one of the runners, which was called Bimbo.

I had a bet on it. As I explained to Chris, I’ve wasted enough money on bimbos over the years not to be bothered about shelling out another tenner on one.

In the box was John Parkin, the chief executive of Leeds Bradford Airport and then, having been invited into the parade ring by entrepreneur Simon Chappell, who’s horse, She’s a Worldie, was running, I spotted Steve Parkin of Clipper Group, which floated on the stock market earlier this year.

What pains me the most is that despite copious research, I can find no family connection to either of these two much more successful Parkins.

I was embraced in the parade ring by Welcome to Yorkshire chief Gary Verity, still on a high from his Tour de France triumph.

I noticed race meeting sponsor Welcome to Yorkshire was selling branded gifts at the meeting. Try as I might I couldn’t find a baseball cap saying: ‘I love Gary Verity’.

They are missing a trick there.

I’m glad I made my own.

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IT was nice to catch up with Stuart Watson, the new senior partner for the Yorkshire region at accountancy firm EY this week.

Stuart’s no-nonsense approach is refreshing and he appears to have embraced the new role with the same gusto that he brought to championing the firm’s Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

He even tweeted that he was looking forward to meeting me. It made me feel even worse for being 15 minutes late.

It was good to hear Stuart’s view that the steady improvement in the economy is reflected in the regional business arena – EY’s leads dealmakers have been involved in the flotation of three Yorkshire companies in recent months.

However the challenge for the firm, he observed, is in helping its younger staff respond to the improving economy.

“We’ve had staff who have been with us for seven years who have never seen good times,” he said.

I remember people in the property sector telling me years ago that their biggest problem was they had large numbers of people in their teams who had never experienced recession and consequently were struggling to respond to falling prices in both commercial and residential markets.

Timing is everything in business and an improving economy is the one we all want to see having experienced one of the longest recessions on record.

Stuart, having seen his daughter married earlier this summer, is I’d imagine, hoping for a lengthy honeymoon period in his new role.

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SLOWLY but surely the Yorkshire Post building at the end of Wellington Street in Leeds is being demolished.

Only one corner of the concrete building remains and I’m delighted it happens to be the bit where I used to sit.

The business desk of the newspaper was situated on the far side of the newsroom and I used to sit at a desk with my back to the wall so I couldn’t be approached unexpectedly by an inquisitive editor.

I wasn’t there between the hours of 12 noon and 3pm because I was out story-gathering.

Anyway, I wondered if the final piece of the building yet to be smashed to the ground remains there because of my application for a blue plaque to be attached to the building, recognising my seven years of hard graft.

And if the building sadly doesn’t survive the wrecking ball then I’ll accept the plaque being fixed to the former home of La Grillade restaurant further up Wellington Street.

People used to think I worked there anyway.

Have a great weekend.