Digby Jones, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, was all shirtsleeves and passion as he strutted around the stage at the Association of Colleges’ annual conference last week, banging the drum about skills and productivity.
But let’s hope his prediction that there won’t be any unskilled jobs in years to come, isn’t true, at least as far as navigational skills go.
He stayed at the Hyatt Hotel in Birmingham the night before his speech. The hotel is next door to the conference centre used by the AoC. Alas, this point was clearly lost on poor old Digby.
A mole reports seeing him rush out of the hotel to a cab, asking the driver to take him to the National Exhibition Centre - several miles away (and actually in Solihull).
At least Digby had his clothes on, which was more than can be said for one delegate whose conference proved even more chaotic.
He found himself hunting in a store cupboard for something to cover himself up with after ending up in a corridor, naked, in the early hours, locked out of his room. After extensive enquiries, I can assure readers he had merely been sleepwalking.
