Take a stroll down Londons Saville Row or ramble around Northampton and you will have no shortage of evidence that Britain leads the world when it comes to dashing bespoke attire and the finest handmade footwear to hit pavements. But that is just the tip of the toecap when it comes to superior quality design and manufacturing on British shores.
Taking the stage for a Karaoke solo and clearing the dance floor with my dad moves to Slade's Merry Christmas Everybody are frolics that I have succumbed to during the festive season, much to the amusement of my daughters and friends.
Last year they showed the world what a small but resolute team of great Olympians could do when they harnessed their spirit of self-determination to scoop eight gold medals at London 2012.
When Time Lord Dr Who chose him as his companion on two occasions, he must have known that the famous storyteller Bernard Cribbins, the man behind all the voices of the Wombles (the multinational entrepreneurial immigrants who turned their local recycling business into a global brand) was more than just a very funny guy.
When you are nearing 90, will you still have the miraculous glint that you see in the piercing blue eyes of war hero John Bosley and will you be able to mesmerise an audience as you recount events from long ago with precise detail? The warmth in his voice; the articulate use of words; and the modesty intersected by humour and a smile that is childlike in its innocence disguise the horrors that John witnessed sixty nine years ago.
David Clarke is Today Translations' Translation Security Assurance Officer and a trustee of the UK's independent fraud watchdog, the Fraud Advisory Panel (FAP). For a down to earth view on what the economic downturn means for you as a potential victim of fraud, take a look at the annual review published by the FAP. Let us be clear, we are living in a period of great uncertainty and face dangers that rival those of the 1930s and the Great Depression.
A major initiative Ive worked on with the Fraud Advisory Panel for the past 18 months revealed how awfully difficult and distressing it is for victims to recover their losses following a fraud. Hope is now to be found in a series of 16 recommendations that were published today. Having spent most of my life trying to protect citizens and businesses from the cruel, cunning actions of criminals it is not something I could drop when the time came to surrender my police powers.
