“Oi, Rowan! No!” Or why the Panel of Reference went the way of the plastic electric bicycle

http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/?p=2043

[Anglican Mainstream] 4 Sep 2007--Sinclair was the darling of the British entrepreneurial world, having invented and then marketed the first mass-produced pocket calculator. This was topped by a phenomenally successful series of small personal computers, which for many of us were the first such machines we owned.

It is hard, though, to imagine what possessed Sir Clive to produce the C5. One look at the catalogue, showing a man in a business suit smiling at what may be his wife, whilst seated in what looked like a grey plastic mobility-chair, convinced me this was never going to work. And not just me — only about 15,000 were ever sold. But of course, who was going to say to the great entrepreneur, “Oi! Sir Clive! No!”

And who was going to say to the Archbishop of Canterbury, when the Panel of Reference was proposed, “Oi, Rowan! No!