In March, 2024, I'd meet a man, and not just any man. This was a man of thought, of technology and of creativity. This man visualised a world of endless possibilities and looked more to the future than the past. A Torbay native and resident for many years, this man's journey through life culminated in time spent in Asia where he established and ran a successful tech company. Returning to Torbay twenty-five years later, he brought with him a knowledge of management, technology, business, politics and people infused with a ruthless dose of Asian efficiency. Dismayed with what had become of his beloved Torbay, he couldn't bear to stand by and witness its continued decay. Just like me, this man felt a burning desire to be part of the solution, and following a stroke of serendipity, our paths would eventually cross.

For the first thirty years of my life, like a lot of people, I had no interest in politics. Furthermore, I had no real understanding of political ideology or the difference between left and right or of the workings of Westminster. However, that soon changed once I began working in the public sector. Not until then did I come to understand the role politics plays in the continued running of public sector services and the impact on services of decisions taken both centrally and locally. Consequently, I came to recognise the inconsistency in my thinking between a desire to be a part of a service both efficient and fit for purpose while continuing to dismiss politicians as corrupt, all the same and only in it for themselves. No longer could I be content to decry the state of our public services while remaining disinterested in the activities of those responsible for their management.

With the aim of gaining a better understanding of how politics, government and the law operates, I embarked on two courses of action. The first was to absorb as much information from as many different sources as possible. For this I looked to texts on political history, economics and social mobility in addition to online interviews and podcasts. Having retained a keen interest in law from my time in the police, the second course of action involved my enrolling with the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives and completing a diploma in law and practice. While I've no doubt that an understanding of law is of some benefit to being a member of parliament, I suspect that an understanding of people and their individual and collective needs is of greater value. So, with that in mind, I kept reading, listening and watching until one particular day I stumbled upon a podcast that enabled me to begin piecing things together.

While I don't fully understand exactly how algorithms work, I'm aware that based on an individual's search history, similar types of videos are then suggested. I'm unsure what I'd viewed beforehand, however, my attention was drawn this one particular day to a ninety minute interview on economics and wealth inequality by a former city trader named Gary Stevenson. Despite my ignorance of both, the apparent contradiction of a wealthy former city trader discussing wealth inequality roused my curiosity and so I listened intently to everything he had to say.

Without realising at that point the path down which the algorithm would take me, I began watching similar interviews with figures aligned with what would be considered left wing politics. Setting aside any preconceived ideas about their views while remaining conscious of my own biases, I listened and learned as much about what they believed as I could. Whether I'd see the merit of their ideas was another matter and for that I needed to hear more. Fortuitously, I stumbled across another interview around this time promoting a new left-wing party by the name of Transform.

Of all the interviews I watched during this time, this particular interview stood out for the candour and confidence of the interviewee. A spokesperson for Transform, this young lady spoke commandingly as she dismissed criticism of the left for perpetual infighting and a failure to agree. Having first laid out the problem, she presented Transform as a means to “unite the left”. Roused by her stirring words, I jumped at the chance to be involved in something which, on the face of it had the potential to make a difference and improve the quality of people's lives. That appeared to me to be a cause worthy of anyone's support. After having joined I then set about establishing a local chapter of Transform in Torbay. However, my dalliance with left-wing politics would be of extremely short duration as I came to see how the criticisms of the left as expressed so articulately by Transform's spokesperson were not entirely unjustified.

In order to progress this part of the story, we must go back forty-six years to the summer of 1979. Sitting in the middle of the living room floor of our south-east London home one day in early May, my sister Dee and I were embroiled in a fierce battle of the table-top football game, Striker. While the portable Sony Trinitron played to itself in the background, my attention suddenly shifted from the game to the woman appearing on the screen in a blue jacket and hair similar to those of my great aunts. While men gathered around her, she mentioned something about bringing harmony where there's discord, truth where there's error, faith where there's doubt and hope where there's despair, or words to that effect. This lady spoke about adult things the meaning of which at that time I did not understand. However, my brain had a tendency to retain images and words I couldn't immediately comprehend for some future decoding. While I didn't know then who this lady was, her commanding presence and forthright manner left the same impression on me as the domineering females in my extended family. My impression of this woman would grow stronger each time I saw Margaret Thatcher speak on television over the eleven years that followed.

Given such strong impressions, I've often found myself comparing the leadership style and the way in which the public in general responded to Margaret Thatcher to every other subsequent leader. Regardless of her politics or the way in which she implemented policy, Mrs. Thatcher fashioned an image of strong leadership like no other prime minister who came after her. Consequently, I feel it safe to conclude that the public both expects and respects strong leadership, competence and decisive action. Arriving as a police officer to deal with a bar fight or, for that matter, any crime in progress, brought me to the realisation of public expectation. Therefore, I learned early on to conceal my doubts and fears and exhibit the kind of confidence and self-assuredness the public expected to see. It is an awareness of those individual and collective needs that has led me so often to ask myself what a situation requires me to be and whether what's required is within my capabilities.

Within our collective needs I recognise my own need for strong and competent leadership and decisive action. I suspect the lack of it in my work life explains why I have so often clashed with my managers. Furthermore, I've sought to embody the kind of strength and reliability that I've sought and so rarely found in my own life, with one notable exception that I shall come to shortly. So, how this relates to Transform, and left-wing politics as a whole if Transform is any example of it, is that I didn't find what I needed there. Instead, what I found in Transform was a distinct lack of leadership and cohesion, characteristic infighting and a strong aversion to decisions being made in a top down way or by any other methods except via a committee. While I'd be among the first to decry the damage top down management has wrought on the front line of the public sector, that is not as much a criticism of the top down structure as it is the incompetence of the actual decision makers. Indeed, many a sound decision can be made within a top down structure as long as the front line is made part of the brainstorming and consultation process, rather than being involved solely at the implementation stage.

In addition to the innate distrust of the top down model I observed among the left a similar aversion to any one person being responsible for leading and decision making. If replete with competent management and good communication, the top down model can and does indeed work. On the other hand, the greater the number of people involved in decision making, the greater the opportunity for disagreement and discord. Moreover, leaving everything to be decided by committee does not lend itself to dynamic decision making especially where people cannot meet at any other time than as part of a committee.

In sum, I suspect that most members of the general public, myself included, expect to be able to go about their daily lives without hindrance, unconcerned by what does not directly affect us. In addition, I suspect they expect a certain level of competence among both their elected officials and managers within the workplace. Furthermore, I should imagine that any number of people look especially to those in public life for someone to respect, for someone upon whom they feel they can rely, someone whom they can trust and someone whom they feel they know. While I do not consider myself an ardent royalist, over my lifetime, the person in public life for whom I've reserved the most respect is Queen Elizabeth II. Where there is competence among those in authority, trust, confidence and respect naturally follows.

So, were it not for my brief association with Transform, I would not have crossed paths with the man to whom I referred at the beginning of this chapter. His aforementioned credentials and experience coupled with his character, vision, drive and honest intentions inspire my confidence in him and, consequently, my respect. This man first came to my intention during an online meeting of Transform's Torbay chapter. Amid a lengthy group discussion as to how to get our message out there, this man, who had hitherto remained silent, suddenly put his hand up and asked “what about AI”? Following his suggestion, the meeting fell silent for a moment while my co-facilitator and I thought of an appropriate response. Beyond the kind of humanoid robots featured in Hollywood blockbusters I knew very little of Artificial Intelligence and its capabilities. Furthermore, I knew even less about the mystery man hiding behind a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles and sporting a fisherman's cap in manner of Tevye, the protagonist from musical 'Fiddler on the Roof.' However, his bombshell suggestion and enigmatic appearance intrigued me sufficiently to want to know what he knew about AI, and thereby learn more about this intriguing man.

Therefore, one dull and dreary day in late March, 2024, I headed over to somewhere I'd rarely ventured, to the centre of Paignton. Having visited Paignton's main thoroughfare of Torbay Road only once before at night, I had no idea where I should park. After eventually finding a space a few streets away, I headed in the direction of Torbay Road, conscious that by now it was 10am, the time we'd agreed to meet.

With no idea of the location of our meeting point, a coffee house by the name of Caffé Tutto, as I turned from the side street into Torbay Road, I looked somewhat frantically left and right. Just a few doors down on my left, a rather gaudy looking shop front caught my eye. As I ventured nearer, three weather beaten cast iron pillars came into view above which hung a large red sign displaying the name of the café. Peering in, I spotted a man in his mid sixties wearing a black and orange American college style varsity jacket, wire rimmed spectacles and a fiddler cap sitting directly behind the window.

Opening the door, I approached the table where he sat looking down. Pulling the chair opposite him towards me I removed my coat and sat down. While his eyes remained firmly fixed on an iPad resting on his leg, I took the opportunity to study the peculiar looking character before me. The white hair splaying out at the sides from under a brown corduroy cap contrasted sharply with his neatly trimmed yet equally white goatee. Blending hipness with eccentricity, the most prominent feature of this enigmatic character rested against the wall behind him. No sooner had I fixed my gaze on the brass eagle's head atop his walking stick than, with eyes remaining firmly focussed on his iPad, he muttered in a tone of mild disgust that I was, in fact, late. What for, I wondered. I was about to find out.