Friday Diary: David Parkin takes a look back at the week

AS I drove down the M1 to visit our office in the centre of riot hit Birmingham on Tuesday, if a bloke carrying a placard saying ‘The end of the world is nigh’ had been walking down the hard shoulder, I’d have probably pulled in and joined him.

The steady diet of radio reports about mass looting across England and the continuing meltdown of world financial markets was enough to make even Mr Happiness Ken Dodd frown.

But tough times bring out the best in the Brits and it wasn’t long before inspiring stories of community clean-ups and defiant shopkeepers vowing to battle on cheered me up.

Society might have appeared like it was breaking up on Monday and Tuesday nights but the shocking looting and rioting by a small amount of dim-witted thugs actually appears to have galvanised the so-called silent majority.

From chatting to people across the country and viewing comments on Twitter and Facebook, it is clear that rarely have so many people shared the same opinions.

So just remember: the country is not going down the pan, it’s just experienced a little local difficulty. And don’t echo Max Bygraves by saying: “Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be”.

As my parents’ pointed – in the 1950s it was Teddy Boy teenagers slashing cinema seats and rampaging through towns after watching Rock Around the Clock.

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IT’S typical. Just after two stalwarts of Yorkshire business retired, another has announced he’s stepping down.

Following in the footsteps of Ian Ward of Leeds Building Society and Peter Smart of Walker Morris, now Paul Fullerton, the Bank of England’s popular agent in Yorkshire, is the next to take a bow and exit stage right.

Newcastle-born Paul decided to announce his retirement now, even though he isn’t planning to step down until after his 60th birthday next January.

Not surprisingly, he has been besieged by goodwill messages from the many hundreds of business people he has come to know during his decade of work for the UK central bank in Yorkshire.

And given his knowledge, experience and personality, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Paul receives plenty of offers to take up non-executive roles after he leaves.

If you haven’t seen one of his presentations, then I would highly recommend you try to in the five months or so before he leaves.

He combines his undoubted deep economic and business knowledge with a straight-talking approach and a refreshing sense of humour. It is almost enough to make those black economic clouds not seem so gloomy.

Whilst I’m sure retirement from the Bank will provide a bit more time for Paul to indulge his passion for golf and Newcastle United, I hope it will also mean he will continue to play a part in the business life of Yorkshire.

He has a unique background for someone working for the Bank of England: he spent 25 years working in a variety of senior roles for Yorkshire Bank before moving into business where he was involved in consultancy for Irish telecoms group Eircom and also part of a team that raised millions of dollars for a South African sports internet venture.

I bet there aren’t many at the Bank of England who can say they have experienced things from both sides of a bank manager’s desk.

While Paul Fullerton will be missed, I’m sure the Bank’s loss will be Yorkshire business’ gain.