In our latest series of leadership quotations, we hear from Gordon Ramsay on the importance of seeing your GP, Mark Asplin Whiteley on teaching crafts in school, Hayley Johnson on helping young people and Fiona Taylor on treating people with respect.
Gordon Ramsay
‘As we head into winter, it's really important that we remember that despite Covid-19, the NHS can still see us safely. I was really pleased to help reassure the public and remind them that the NHS is here for them when they need it.’ (The world-renowned chef on fronting the NHS’s Help Us to Help You campaign, which is urging people to see their GP if they are worried about a symptom that might be cancer after research revealed 48% of Britons are less likely to get checked).
Mark Asplin Whiteley
‘It is crucial for this country to realise that, by not valuing practical experience in secondary schools and engaging in vocational training at centres of excellence, our thriving creative industries could lose their pre-eminence in the world.’ (The CEO of the eponymous luxury furniture maker on the importance of teaching crafts such as woodwork and metalwork in school).
Gemma Peters
‘We welcome the fact that the government is giving clear advice to people with blood cancer, particularly if it is tailored to the risk in each individual area. But last time, the NHS did a bad job of letting people with blood cancer know they were at high risk.’ (The chief executive of Blood Cancer UK in response to news that vulnerable people will be asked to shield).
Hayley Johnson
‘The young people whom we serve – I choose the word “serve” carefully, because we provide a service that these individuals are entitled to and deserve – have in the main been overlooked by large establishments and they risk becoming faceless, misunderstood individuals who begin to rebel against society.’ (The managing director of GK Training Services on the vital importance of training young adults and teaching them valuable life skills).
Mark Drakeford
‘I’m very reluctant to say to children and young people that Halloween is cancelled in Wales but I do think there are ways in which it might be possible for a different sort of celebration to take place that doesn't cause risk to them or to others.’ (The Welsh first minister on the possibility of a socially distanced Halloween).
Fiona Taylor
‘In addition to the buildings themselves, the manner in which we run the business is intentionally different. We treat everyone that comes into contact with us as a customer. Tenants, outsourced suppliers, service providers: all are treated with respect. When using skilled local agents, we insist on the highest standards of professional trade body membership to assure us they act legally, ethically and professionally.’ (The B2B Properties managing director on the philosophy underpinning her organisation).
Anneliese Dodds
‘The Chancellor's sink-or-swim Job Support Scheme is forcing businesses to flip a coin over who stays and who goes.’ (The shadow chancellor responding to Rishi Sunak’s Job Support Scheme).
