He had done much to improve the performance of the company and there was an air of excitement about his return. Sure enough, Eddie was quick to streamline the company once more and we were soon back in profit.Eddie would be the first to agree he is not easy to work for and I would sometimes have to take the flack when people could not get hold of him. A lot of his work, like the acquisition of Norweb retail, was confidential and I couldn't mention it to a soul. Yet his ability to involve one in things, as he is doing now with his new venture, is one of his strengths. He often shares his thoughts with me, as well as asking for my own.

If he likes someone he doesn't care what level they are at and he also has a very sharp sense of humour. When one of his directors once tried to put me down, Eddie quickly replied with a quip, which made the director look stupid.Eddie left Comet in January 1999 and I moved to human resources. From then on we saw little of each other but, a couple of months ago he called out of the blue to say he had started up an online shopping company via the internet and a call centre, offering electrical goods with a free, three-year warranty and would I like to join? When I asked "why me?" I was flattered to hear "because we want someone with common sense who can help pull everything together".Of course Eddie had no guarantee I would keep his plans confidential and I was touched by the trust he placed in me. While it was difficult for me to decide whether or not to join Eddie's new venture, I knew that I had missed not knowing what was going on in the heart of a company and here was the chance to be at the centre of things again. I also liked Eddie's idea of offering a simplified means of buying electrical goods, particularly when sales techniques on the high street are getting more aggressive. I was recently irritated when, while buying an £89 microwave from a well known retailer, the salesman tried to persuade me that buying a three year warranty, costing £30, was in my best interest.On moving here I sometimes missed the framework of a big company, as although the business infrastructure was well underway, our head office was still an empty space and instead of having the 250 colleagues I had at Comet, there were now just a few of us. Costs are kept to a minimum at head office, while a systems team works out of house operating the website and our call centre takes all customer enquiries and orders via the internet and the phone It's the streamlined retail system of the future.

Having come from a hierarchical company, I also had to accept my new role wasn't at all defined, indeed it still changes on a daily basis.Everyone does a bit of everything and my first task was to get office furniture. It is still strange seeing Eddie outside the corporate environment, I remember how odd it was to see him in the office kitchen, for example But he has clearly enjoyed starting up his own company. He has a constant level of enthusiasm, as well as his wide experience, and likes to include us in all developments. Soon after I joined we visited the advertisers and agencies, and most days we get together and discuss the matter of the day, whether it's an ad campaign, a product's selling price or checking the website.It was thrilling to see Eddie's picture in the paper after we launched last week. I realised the respect he commands and saw how much he's managed to stir things up on the high street. In fact, his offering me this job was the turning point in my career for, as my husband who works for a software company in e-commerce points out, the experience I'm gaining will stand me in very good stead for the future, as well as bringing a lot of fun along the way..

Rail unions threatened yesterday to bring the network to a halt if the Government and railway companies insist on introducing what they say are cheaper and inferior safety system for trains. Rail unions threatened yesterday to bring the network to a halt if the Government and railway companies insist on introducing what they say are cheaper and inferior safety system for trains. As the inquiry into the Paddington disaster entered its 29th day, the industry's biggest union gave ministers and senior managers until August to agree to fit the fail-safe automatic train protection (ATP) system or face a damaging dispute.The RMT union's annual conference argued that the train protection warning system (TPWS), which the Government and Railtrack intend to introduce throughout the network by 2002, would not give sufficient protection to employees and passengers. The Government has received a similar ultimatum from the train drivers' union, Aslef.Drivers' representatives have told ministers that there will be a ballot on industrial action if the industry fails to introduce ATP by summer 2004. Both unions said they were confident of winning public support for any industrial action.A resolution passed by the RMT conference in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk yesterday declared that the industry's acceptance of a cheaper system was "an affront" to those bereaved in a series of crashes including Paddington where 31 died, Southall and Clapham.

The hearing into the Clapham tragedy was the first of a series of inquiries at which there was a call for the universal introduction of ATP.The RMT motion said: "The repeated failure to fit ATP or equivalent or superior systems to Britain's railways is one of the most important rail safety issues of our generation - we cannot be silent on this issue."Mick Rix, general secretary of Aslef, said the Government's favoured option was "a cheap, shoddy and inferior system" and did not include a fail-safe mechanism.He pointed out that the device did not protect any train travelling faster than 70mph, a speed nearly all services exceeded "There are pots of money to fund ATP. It can be obtained through the train operating companies and Railtrack, but there's no one working on the project," he said."Plans to introduce an inferior system that does not give proper safety protection to our members and the travelling public should be rejected."A spokeswoman for Railtrack pointed out that an inquiry by the rail engineering specialist Sir David Davies had recently suggested TPWS as the most practical means of enhancing safety. "It can be fitted quickly and bring safety benefits much sooner," she said. The company was committed to installing ATP "on all major high-speed lines".Key recommendations arising from an earlier train collision in west London were not put in place by Railtrack, the inquiry into the Paddington rail crash was told yesterday.Railtrack managers judged that an "important" recommendation that there should be a feasibility study into the misreading of track signals had "no merit".. Tony Blair conceded yesterday that Labour would fail in its mission to transform Britain during his first term and admitted the Government needed to move "further, faster, quicker".