Ann: Operational Update, page-132

I agree with most of that Clyde, but my main point was acritique of the hysteria – I was going to say when there’s negative news, butpeople buying and selling shares is barely even news.

I was a Suddite before Steve turned up and don’t endorseeverything he’s done, but one helluva lot of the criticism of him has comethrough the benefit of 20-20 hindsight.

A great example of this was the regrettable sale ofWestcoast – boy did that create a hullabaloo. I didn’t like it much myself eitherbut I notice now, with the benefit of hindsight, most have gone quiet becausethey realise we’d have been cray bait without that cash.

I have no time for hindsight but I am keen on the lessons wecan learn from experience and those are two different things.

I have been, and still am, concerned about the level ofcommunication although it has improved but I’m hoping for better. In that regard,the info on the Strides payments will indeed be a bit of a litmus test. Rememberif we want to talk about accuracy, there is a limit as to the degree one can beheld to account for predicting the future. Reporting on the here and now isentirely another story and I think the two tend to get conflated. I’d like tohear more on the here and now – here and now.

When you say time is not on Steve’s side, I’m not sure whatyou mean – in practical terms that is, as everyone has their use-by date. Ifyou’re talking about an EGM to kick Steve out, as per the Twitterati, then itwon’t have my support or that of a good slice of the register.

If you mean some kind of action at the AGM, well everyonewill be up for re-election and it will depend on the story at the time. I thinkeveryone knows they’ll need to throw us a bone by then – and they will and it’llbe gift-wrapped. But I think going to the AGM as a shareholder with the idea ofgetting rid of someone is the wrong way of going about it.

We all want what’s best for the company (I hope) and onlytime will tell what that is.