We’ll miss you. I think...

All good things come to an end. The good thing in this case is the editorship of CM. Rod Sweet is leaving London for the wilds of the North Wales coast. It’s four years he’s been in the post and during that time he and his small, dedicated team have made a tremendous impact on, and with, the magazine.

He made many friends and a few enemies. That’s because he asked a few simple questions, like the boy at the parade asking why the emperor is naked.

The Death of a Degree issue was very unpopular in certain quarters but it put fire into the debate about higher education and in truth said little different from Bob Wilkie’s research at Northumbria University, which led to the Presidential Commission on Higher Education. I think Kristina Smith’s articles on corruption helped focus the spotlight on practices which, up to now, have been considered acceptable. And Peter Farrell’s piece last month about succeeding despite disabilities struck me as another example of CM challenging received perspectives. People with disabilities have abilities, it’s just a question of removing the “d” from “disabled” and seeing what’s left.

From a personal point of view he has given me the freedom to write my columns and say what I think, and then published the less than complementary letters about me as a result. I can live with that if it means people read what you write. When he has interviewed me, he has been terrier-like and uncompromising. His gentle Nova Scotian accent is one of his most effective tools for prising out information.

While writing this I learned that CM came a close second to the RIBA Journal, another fine magazine, at the International Business Press Magazine of the Year Awards. I believe the judges commented that RIBA Journal excelled in photography and graphics, while CM excelled in the writing and breadth of coverage. This is a satisfying conclusion to an excellent period of stewardship of our magazine.

On behalf of all the readers and contributors I would like to wish Rod and his family a great future in North Wales and thank him for what he has done for CM.