I am very much an outsider. I look on, mostly.

At one point in my life I was on the inside but I was uncomfortable with that position.

I have found by observing, listening, and allowing my nose to twitch I am more qualified to come up with a correct opinion than “being in the know”. In the latter it is what people want you to know. Your gut feeling is a much better source and then you ask the questions.

Having been involved in the news media now for 25 years plus and before that a building surveyor, playwright, actor, et al. and on numerous committees I can say I have a certain amount of “experience”.

I have intentionally dropped out of the “social scene” and “given myself to our Lord” that has surprised some people, probably because my actions did not always add up to one’s perception of a “Christian”. None of us are perfect nor have I ever claimed to be.

“Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.” From Desiderata.

I love reading “Opinions” and after a while I can obtain a very good idea of the personality of the opinion writer after only just a few of the person’s writings.

I have never met Sir Ronald Sanders but he is a prolific writer and iNews Cayman has republished many of his “opinions”. There is also a host of news articles written about his work and other “opinions” of him with a tiny few not so flattering. I have deduced Sir Ronald is a man of great integrity and wisdom.

I have met Baroness Scotland, once, and it was at a social gathering (when I was on the inside) and my nose twitched and not for the right reasons. I watched her, listened to her, was introduced to her, and immediately formed an opinion that wasn’t favourable.

When I read various press reports she became even less favourable in my head.

I was therefore shocked when, despite Sir Ronald having the highest credentials to take the top job of the Commonwealth Secretary-General, he was eliminated at the very first round.

I found it incredible and that shows how naïve I am at times. I have over the years become a cynic so I shouldn’t have been.

I was surprised that Baroness Scotland was even considered a suitable candidate and her name was put forward and eventually won.

You see, it doesn’t matter to the inside crowd that someone serving as UK’s once Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Attorney General (chief legal officer) “employed an illegal immigrant from Tonga called Loloahi Tapui as a cleaner, on a paltry wage of £6 an hour”. (See iNews Cayman story today “UK’s Daily Maul says new boss of Commonwealth is “Baroness Hypocrite”. It didn’t dawn on the people that voted for her and put her name forward that she obviously did not have a RIGHT sense of judgement. That person was Baroness Scotland.

If one was a computer and the qualifications of Sir Ronald and Baroness Scotland were fed in Sir Ronald would have come out on top by a wide margin.

It is suggested by many that one day computers will make all these decisions but unfortunately computers at the moment rely on humans to feed them all the correct data – the good and the bad.

This time around on reading the Daily Mail article I was not shocked.

You see, I am on the outside now.