However, I must accept all responsibility for the comments made and the errors committed. It would also be appropriate to send my best wishes to my successor, Tony Scholl. First a diary of the November council meeting.
Some themes return and keep returning.
One is the need to persuade politicians that mathematics is not just about counting. This is a problem in Britain and probably in the rest of the world. The LMS is trying to impress upon the government the importance of mathematics teaching and members could help by approaching their local Members of Parliament. Perhaps at the forthcoming ICM in Berlin national associations could get together to see how these issues could be addressed globally. There is much discussion of the 'global economy' and mathematics is a global discipline.