DIARY: Taking time out to smell the roses

Former chairman of lobbyist GPC Connect Dr Martin Smith may have been

out of the lobbying business since July but he has not been idle.

After 15 years in the business, Smith is taking a break - to ‘re-skill’,

as he puts it. As well as hooking up to the computer age, via a brand

new Olivetti, Smith has been brushing up his French. ‘I’d like to be

able to read from two texts of European Union documents,’ says Smith.

Wouldn’t we all?

As for the future, Smith tells me he intends ‘re-entering the market at

the end of the year’ and is confident he will find a job. He has yet to

decide whether it should be consultancy or in-house. But of one thing,

he is very sure: ‘it would have to be big. I’m not interested in running

the National Federation of Widget Manufacturers’.

Edited by Rebecca Dowman