Ellee Seymour

Marie Munro

Max Clifford couldn’t have done better. One of my new clients Marie Munro is a cover girl in today’s Cambridge Evening News Living & Life supplement, as well as colour coverage on two inside pages.

When we met at Cambridge Toastmasters and she told me about her work as a coach for teenagers, I knew we had to do some positive PR together.

Marie also coaches teens in a local school and was thrilled when Anglia TV went along to see her in action.

Her philiosophy is clear and simple and based around the word respect. This is a message to parents printed on the back of her business cards:

If you respect me, I will hear you.
If you listen to me, I will feel understood.
If you understand me, I will feel appreciated.
If you appreciate me, I will know your support.
If you support me as I try new things, I will become responsible.
When I am responsible, I will grow to be independent.
In my independence, I will respect you and love you all my life.

So if you have an unruly Kevin-type teen at home, look no further, just pass him over to Marie.

Why not make today World Hug Day?

It must be a fairly remote existence for those at the top. Maybe our beleaguered ministers need to take some take out for a bonding hug from time to time - and not with any floozy!

They could get some practise this weekend at the Global World Hug Day which takes place in Nottingham on Sunday, planned to be “a group embrace of epic proportions”, at which the mind boggles.

Chinese brothers Xianxian, 50, and Qiang, 44, were demonstrating it on the London South Bank this morning. The idea is to hug a stranger as a social art form which they will record and photograph.

While British people may feel uncomfortable about this, it seems the Chinese find hugging even harder; it is not part of their culture to be demonstratively affectionate, unlike our continental neighbours.

They share our English reserve and stiff upper lip and like to shake hands instead.

Nevetheless, the brothers are travelling around Europe rallying huggers together and the Nottingham event is billed as the most ambitious to date. You can later watch yourself in action on their video.

It is the first ever mass hugging to be staged in the UK and will last 15 minutes, accompanied by the music of J.S.Bach to put you in the mood.

The first ever Utopia of Hugging was held in China in September 2000. It went like this:

“We invited some 150 volunteers who were previously strangers to each other to particiapte. We aked the participants to choose a person at random for a hug, which they would then do simultaneiously with hundreds of other couples.

“We then asked everyone present to cluster into one big group hug. Since then, we personally have hugged hundreds of strangers and organised group hugs amongs strangers in different public localtioss and in different ways all across China.”

World Hug Day continues in Marseille on 9th June - I’m sure the French will need no persuading.

But if you do struggle with the etiquette of hugging, which side of the cheek to turn to and how to avoid creasing your shirt, you could pick up some valuable tips from The Art of Hugging: The world famous kissing coach offers inspiration and advice on why, where and how to hug.

Tony Blair’s mind must have been firmly fixed on his Black Wednesday. Things couldn’t possibly get worse, he probably thought.

Then along came bird flu. And right on my doorstep too, right in the heart of my MEP Robert Sturdy’s constituency in Norfolk.

Being an early bird myself, I called him in Brussels at 6.15am (7.15am his time) to tell him the bad news. He had not yet been told.

He was shocked, but his main concern was that the government should not bungle this. We issued a press release outlining the measures introduced by Robert which have been included in guidelines for dealing with bird flu; he was a rapporteur on this.

He emphasised that these measures should include the low strain pathogene too, such as H7, and not just the more virulent strains. This means a slaughtering policy, ring fencing the affected area and paying compensation.

Farmers are not a sexy subject, and they have had a nightmare week having just learnt that the government has asked the European Commission for an extension to pay their single farm payment from 30 June to 15 October.

This delay is crippling them. And sadly the news has been buried by other bunglings and misdemeanours of our government.

How many networking groups does a PR woman need to belong to?

I already belong to a couple of female only groups, plus one with men in suits, and am not a regular attender due to more pressing commitments.

So when an invitation came along to the launch of Women on Top in Cambridge today, I wondered if this group had anything different to offer to tempt me to join.

My first impression was that it doesn’t and; as someone observed, they had not done their homework about Cambridge.

There is no doubt that Angela and Linda, pictured, are committed to making networking fun for businesswomen. They already have branches in Harlow, Thurrock and Hertfordshire. A group is planned for Dublin too.

But their diary of future events does not seem to have a professional or business focus - it is based on image, tips and tricks, a summer sizzler - I think you get my drift.

Would a man want to join a networking group if that was its main focus? Most definitely not.

With pop music playing in the background, and an apparent emphasis on girlie fun, I half expected The Chippendales to burst into the room at any moment.

The Working on Top blurb says they aim “to inspire, enthuse, inform and celebrate aspiring women entrepreneurs and corporate high-fliers”.

I couldn’t possibly imagine a high-flier joining their group in Cambridge; a friend put her finger on it when she said it would appeal to hairdressers (and no disrespect is meant to that honourable profession).

But I will give credit where it is due, Angela and Linda found a great venue for the launch and meetings at Madingley Hall, a 16th century country house with stunning grounds.

I do wish them well, but maybe I take my fun more seriously.

Blogging is bound to take off in East Anglia now. Once a totally alien word, it will soon be THE buzzword as new enthusiasts sign up with blogger.com by the dozen.

Ellee and Geoff’s second blog column has appeared in tonight’s Cambridge Evening News business supplement, which attracts a wealth of readers from local entrepeneurs, the movers, shakers and go-getters. We had virtually a whole page, and in a prime spot too. It is attached to this link.

As far as we know, this is the first regional paper featuring a regular blog column, though some online papers host blogsites for readers. Unless you know differently, in which case please tell me.

I was also encouraged with an email I received today from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations., of which I am a member. I was interested to learn how they were taking this new social media on board.

Their delegate who also attended the same Business4Blogging conference earlier this month said she was very enthusiastic and that they were about to launch a blog with their president Tony Bradley.

You read it here first!

I could understand why the Russian Federation wanted to know what I was up to. Here I am writing openly about David Milliband’s new ministerial website which he has disguised as a blog, only most of us are not fooled by it. And it has cost taxpayers a whopping £6,000 too.

Then there is the headline hitting Shadow Minister (perhaps they think that means shady for other reasons too). But at least Boris’ blog gets 10,000 hits a day and he has a band of willing volunteers running it free.

So I was tickled when I checked my Stat Counter a month ago and discovered that the Russians had visited my blog site entitled and read “Two amazing facts from two ministers”.

A cursory check on my visitor paths for yesterday revealed that they had returned, they had hot footed it to my site from Iain Dale’s; we are both seemingly under their watchful gaze with our anarchistic weblogs.

I am hoping that one day they will initiate a conversation by posting a comment, perhaps invite me to Moscow as a PR blogging consultant. I certainly hope they come back. I can tell them about my trip to Moscow and Leningrad in the 1970s with Cambridge University Travellers and Explorers’ Club.

They may even cast a vote in the New Statesman New Media Awards 2006 for which both DM and BJ have been nominated in the elected representative category.

The award will go to the elected representative who best uses new media technology to communicate with the electorate. I think I will nominate Grant Shapps MP for his excellent forum.

I believe Conservatives can win this vote with a convincing majority.

Shaun and his partner Sue

Sir Robert Mayer

Never mind how some mothers do have ‘em, what about sons?

I met up with former fellow hack Shaun yesterday at a floating birthday bash on the River Cam given by our genial friend Howard.

It seems Shaun’s mother married Sir Robert Mayer, the philanthropist and major supporter of music for young people. She had been his nurse.

The distinguished Sir Robert was one of the founders of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and his 100th birthday was a national celebration which included a gala concert at The Royal Festival Hall attended by the Queen.

Only the bride was 54 and the groom was 101 and he ended up in the Guinness Book of Records for being the oldest man in the country to tie the knot.

The union lasted until his death aged 106.

Lady Jacqueline Mayer made Monaco her home so a couple of years ago Shaun and Sue jetted off to the South of France to pay her a visit.

When they arrived, the concierge rang up to her appartment, but she refused to see her son. He says there was no particular reason for the brush off. It was cruel and eccentric to say the least and draws gasps of amazement from whoever Shaun tells.

It’s a very strange and sad tale and one Shaun doesn’t mind me sharing.

What do you make of it?

Even Google has gone green today. They must have heard about Jeremy Leggett and Tony Juniper’s visit to Cambridge yesterday.

Jeremy sits on the government’s renewables advisory board. But he says nobody listens to him and he is in angry and frustrated at their lack of support.

Tony is executive director of Friends of the Earth and insists he will force through a Private Members’ Bill this year dealing with climate change unless the government gets a grip and does so.

They were speaking on The Global Energy Crisis and despair was deeply etched over their faces.

They both welcomed David Cameron’s thrusting views on environemtal issues, which is putting the urgent issue on the front pages of our newspapers.

It seems this is the lifeline they have been waiting for - and one that we all need to kickstart some belated action into plan.

When asked by me for his views on the government’s tackling of climate change, Jeremy did not hold back:

“I’m probably going to get fired for this. I am fed up to the back teeth with a culture of suppression in the DTI. There is so much which they could do, so much to do, I am sick of it, having worked with them for three years.”

Jeremy, a geologist, is very well qualified to speak about this subject. He was a former oil company employee and jumped ship to become chief scientist at Greenpeace UK. He later launched his own renewable energy company Solar Century.

He firmly believes it is possible to replace oil, gas and coal completely with a plentiful supply of renewable energy - and faster than most people think. We just need a government that believes in it. We need a government that will lead by example, which includes using cars driven by biofuels, along the same lines as in San Francisco.

But Jeremy said he had been unable to convince his advisory committee about this, he has been banging his head against a brick wall. I’m not sure of the reasons why, whether he has been dogmatic and inflexible, refusing to listen to others and compromise, but he genuinely feels his expert views have been ignored.

“There is a massive, massive problem to overcome. We have to think outside the box. In Whitehall, most of the officials I meet don’t believe this kind of thing is happening.”

His latest book Half Gone warns of the economic and environemtnal catastophe that lies ahead if global warming is not taken seriously; it reminds us that even the government’s Chief Scientific Adviser Sir David King and Sir John Houghton, the former head of the Meteorological Office, have both said that global warming is now a bigger threat than weapons of mass destruction.

Love her or hate her, that is exactly what Margaret Thatcher said back in the late 1980s. As a scientist, she could see the writing on the wall. I guess until push comes to shove, there are always seemingly more important priorities. It has been percieved as the silent, unseen threat.

But that moment of push has come now. Tony is determined to make something happen. He has been working with leading cross-party environmental politicians and plans to bring in a Climate Change Bill later this year. This will require government to cut emissions by 3% every year until 2050.

Tony insists that time is running out, that they must act now. So far 360 MPs have backed his proposed bill. When it reaches 400, he says it becomes something the government can’t oppose. He is determined and confident that he will succeed.

I asked Tony his views about David Cameron’s green leanings, will Friends of the Earth be looking towards Conservatives to introduce “green” legislation?

He replied: “We are delighted to see there is finally some opposition on this. The Conservatives could be the way forward to lead on green issues, and that it is happening I think is remarkable.”

Jeremy finds he is very confused about which political party he now supports.

“The Conservatives are doing a good job on this. It is very confusing for someone like me. I was brought up in an era when Labour were the good guys and Conservatives were bad. But now it is very confusing.

“I think I had better resign before they fire me.”

I’m not sure how serious Jeremy is about this. That’s taking the easy way out and the political momentum is now building up.

As far as political colours are concerned, blue has turned to green, and now green has a few shades of blue, so it seems inevitable that we will end up with a delicious shade of turquoise.

P.S. The visit was part of a literary festival in Cambridge which attracted many leading authors. Well done Cambridge Wordfest. Jeremy was invited to plug his book.

The pressure’s on now I have been elevated to Iain Dale’s daily reading list of blogs.

I am fairly high up too, nestled between Conservative Home Front Page and Guido’s award winning blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy, due to the letter of my first name.

Thanks Iain, I’m glad you enjoy my reports of this government’s mismanagement, as well as some musings from the miscellany of my life.