This document was prepared as a response to the 2002 House Of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Report on Private Military Companies. I originally ordered a copy of the Report as a source of political humour. It rapidly became apparent that I was dealing with an absolutely first-class job done by people who really knew their stuff.
The original version of this Commentary (I later changed some jokey/topical references) was submitted to my local MP (who just happened to be the Chairman of the House of Commons Defence Committee), so it was circulated within the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. The testimonials I received from the Secretary of State for the Armed Forces and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the FCO (in effect, the PMC Minister) were surprisingly complimentary.
I have therefore no hesitation in putting this document foward as a piece of work this represents what I can achieve 'from a standing start'; i.e, with no prior knowledge of the subject, for a very senior audience.
While working for the Gala Coral Group as the Group Technical Author, I was assigned to draft the Group's eGaming response to the Anti-Money Laundering/ Countering the Funding of Terrorism (AML/CFT) policy guidelines issued by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) - the regulator for Gala Coral's eGaming offering. This gave me several months' intensive exposure to AML/CFT as an emerging specialisation, with which I retain both a professional and personal interest.
I have therefore returned to the subject, as a sample document, from a generic point of view, including an overview of the UN Security Council Resolutions 1267 and 1373 and the Financial Action Task Force network.
This document shows something of what I can achieve in detailed resesrch in a subject witrh which I am already familiar. I do, however, recognise that I will need to tailor any future documents to the client's and regulator's requirements
The list of railway history doccuments listed below were originally published in early issues of the Midland Record magazine (Wild Swan Publications), and were the first pieces of written work I had published in a magazine (albeit a very specialised one) on a semi-professional or professional basis.
The background is that I received as a Christmas present in 1987 a copy of 'Midland Carriages' Volums 1, by Lacy & Dow (Wild Swan Publications), and I took it upon myself, initially for personal amusement and gratification, to check out the source material, in what is now the National Archives at Kew, for the first two chapters of this work. The material I unearthed surprised me, and was of sufficuient standard to merit publication. This list of documents was the result, and was taken from the Minutes of the Midland Railway Committee of Management, Traffic Committee and Locomotive Committee for the years 1844 to 1873 inclusive.
This shows that I am able to handle even the most obscure and esoteric sources for a writing assignment, and I am able to meet even the most stringent standards.
As well as professional writing assigments and an interest in 19th Century railway history (which covers a variety of the companies in existence at the time) I have developed a deep interest in Britain's constitutional history and likely future. This grew out of reading a long series of articles in the Guardian on regional economic development starting about April 1986. As someone who had lived 'Up North' (between 1979 and 1983) it was apparent that these articles were an example of a situation first described, I believe, by the late George Orwell - where the facts and the rhetoric do not logically connect!
The resulting curiosity on my part has led to me to collect since then as much factual material as I am able on the subject of British constitutional reform - and my conclusions do not fit the accepted wisdom at all!
The most interesting aspect of Conservative devolution policy (a story in itself!) is that all such aspects of this policy have been settled for about the last 20 years, except 'defence'. I have always found this very strange, given the effort put into, for example, foreign policy.
However, since it appears that the advanced status of the campaign for Scottish independence is a result of the final and irrecoverable loss of confidence in HM Government by international investors, most notably the oil companies, perhaps the time has come to start a debate.
I make no claims to the valdity of the following manuscript, given the disquieting, and as such things go, unique lack of good quality source material, but it will serve both to start a debate, and serve as an indicator of the level of research I will currently undertake on a given subject.
