If I had my time again, I would like not to have ruined my youth. Others today throw away their youth on drugs and drink; I threw mine away with excessive religious zeal. I decided I was going to be a priest at the age of 12. For the next eight years, my whole life was worked on the principle of service to God, and, frankly, I would have been better off getting pissed and chasing girls. I'd have had a much happier time and would have been a much better prepared young man, ready to face the world. I'd come out of school obsessed with cricket and chess. I actually played chess for England once when I was 14, and my great ambition was to become a grand master. Undoubtedly, I would have got there had I gone on. So one of the big regrets of my life is that I didn't. On the business front, I'd like to have done something on a national scale, like run the whole of British Energy. I'm probably top in the crisis management world but I've never been the top in getting the prime jobs. The nearest I got to it was the Millennium Dome, but it was small fry. It didn't affect the nation, it was just an embarrassment for the Government. What would my ideal existence would have been? A test cricketer who was also a chess grand master, who ended up as prime minister!
- David James CBE is perhaps best known for crisis management, including the Millennium Dome, Central & Sheerwood, and Eagle Trust (he helped uncover the Iraqi supergun during his time at the last). He is chairman of Racecourse Holdings Trust and heads the Conservative Party Taxpayer Value Initiative.
