{"id":1423,"date":"2025-12-23T12:19:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T12:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpdev.perceptionsystem.in\/shapa\/?p=1423"},"modified":"2025-12-23T12:19:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T12:19:24","slug":"shapa-general-meeting-agenda-02-11-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpdev.perceptionsystem.in\/shapa\/shapa-general-meeting-agenda-02-11-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Shapa General Meeting Agenda 02\/11\/2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Message from the SHAPA Chairman<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good Morning All<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m writing this to you today having just returned from holiday.  I\u2019m sure you are all as saddened as I was to hear of the passing of The Queen last week, even if not entirely surprised.  The Monarchy is not something that we think about every day in business, but I do think Queen Elizabeth has been an enduring, recognisable symbol of our country around the world for all of our lifetimes.  Prime Minsters come and go, and most people abroad wouldn\u2019t know the name of our current PM if you asked them \u2013 but almost everyone in the world knew who The Queen was.  She performed well in acting as a focus for national identity, unity and pride, giving a sense of stability and continuity above the revolving door of political leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I\u2019ve been lucky enough to travel to many parts of the world, and for all our faults, I usually find that Britain and the Brits are generally mostly held in good regard wherever I go.  Brits at home often have doubts about the value of our monarchy, and I\u2019m sure many of you will have been as appalled as I have been by the antics of some of the junior members of the Royal Family, but thankfully these seem to be below the horizon of the wider world.  I was travelling in the Republic of Ireland last week – people there always ask \u201cwhere are you from?\u201d and after saying \u201cEngland\u201d, several times people expressed their condolences for our loss.  This struck me as a sharp contrast to the disdain in which the British political class are mostly still held in Ireland, due to the difficult history of British rule even though it ended a hundred years ago on most of the island. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The freedom from political involvement gives our monarch an advantage as a head of state abroad, representing our country in a way that\u2019s not tainted by the politics of wrangling over home or foreign policy.  It gives a \u201cbrand awareness\u201d that should not be undervalued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current difficulties we face are perhaps the worst we have seen in our lifetime \u2013 soaring inflation, energy shortage, rock-bottom confidence in the future, severe damage to trade and labour by our badly conceived and unfinished Brexit, and an unpredictable war in Europe, to say nothing of the worsening crisis of climate change.  Getting through these will stretch our politicians and all of us as business people; but as we do our best to lead our companies through the tough times, we\u2019ll have a new monarch who I am confident will do his best to show the world that Britain is still open for business, communication and culture.  Charles III has a tough act to follow, but in spite of his failings he does have a lifetime track record of service to community, charity and worthwhile causes, so I think his heart is in the right place, and he has a sound foundation on which to build \u2013 so I think he\u2019ll be an asset to our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I say to you all \u2013 God rest The Queen.  And God save The King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Bradley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Message from the SHAPA Chairman Good Morning All I\u2019m writing this to you today having just returned from holiday.  I\u2019m…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpdev.perceptionsystem.in\/shapa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpdev.perceptionsystem.in\/shapa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpdev.perceptionsystem.in\/shapa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpdev.perceptionsystem.in\/shapa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpdev.perceptionsystem.in\/shapa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1423"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wpdev.perceptionsystem.in\/shapa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1426,"href":"https:\/\/wpdev.perceptionsystem.in\/shapa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions\/1426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpdev.perceptionsystem.in\/shapa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpdev.perceptionsystem.in\/shapa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpdev.perceptionsystem.in\/shapa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}