Man：Remember that working practices, systems, the management structure, the whole culture of the company have changed a great deal just in the last five years. Then there's been all the pressure and worry of the takeover, and the longer working day we've had since that time. It was a shock when I first heard he'd handed his notice in, but then when I think about it I'm not really surprised.

I don't really know, but I should think he now regrets not taking early retirement when it was a possibility. And don’t forget there’s the issue of his wife’s health too, so I think John wants to sort of bring forward some of the plans he'd made for retirement, like travelling to South America and China. The immediate consequence will be quite a few late evenings for his two deputies plus a lot of weekend work, because the annual report has got to be sorted out by the end of the month and there are quite a few other outstanding matters on the contract side.