I’d also like to say how sad it is to lose Tim and send my condolences to Sue and the family. I first met Tim half a dozen years ago, when he was one of the guests at an FPC meeting I chaired to discuss a new Defence policy paper. An MP batting for the paper did so in rather a macho way, and FPC wasn’t entirely taken with his calls for spending on unnecessary prestige projects way over the cost that any other ‘department’ might ask for. Pressed for his expert opinion – and just this once I’ll name a speaker at FPC – Tim sat back judiciously, smiled, and said that, actually, that particular project could probably be dropped, but here were some that couldn’t and this was why.
Once he was elected to the Committee in his own right, he displayed the same careful choice on when to comment, the same wry humour, the same ability to deflate pomposity, and the same highly informed and deeply sensible level of contribution. I didn’t always agree with him, but there are very few FPC members I’ve seen in over a decade on and off the Policy Committee who’ve made me think as much as Tim did that we really, really benefited from his being there. A nice bloke, too.
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Well put, Millennium.
I’d also like to say how sad it is to lose Tim and send my condolences to Sue and the family. I first met Tim half a dozen years ago, when he was one of the guests at an FPC meeting I chaired to discuss a new Defence policy paper. An MP batting for the paper did so in rather a macho way, and FPC wasn’t entirely taken with his calls for spending on unnecessary prestige projects way over the cost that any other ‘department’ might ask for. Pressed for his expert opinion – and just this once I’ll name a speaker at FPC – Tim sat back judiciously, smiled, and said that, actually, that particular project could probably be dropped, but here were some that couldn’t and this was why.
Once he was elected to the Committee in his own right, he displayed the same careful choice on when to comment, the same wry humour, the same ability to deflate pomposity, and the same highly informed and deeply sensible level of contribution. I didn’t always agree with him, but there are very few FPC members I’ve seen in over a decade on and off the Policy Committee who’ve made me think as much as Tim did that we really, really benefited from his being there. A nice bloke, too.
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