My blogging "CBE" – Happy New Year

Posted by on Dec 31, 2006 in updates | 26 comments What a great end to the year, being awarded a Tory Radio “CBE” for services to blogging, a most unexpected surprise which is much appreciated. Blogging has given me tremendous fun and I have “met” some great like-minded people in blogsphere who I would never have come across any other way. (See photo gallery at the top of the page, apologies if you are not there...
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How can I stop my friend Sue from drinking herself to death?

Posted by on Dec 31, 2006 in updates | 13 comments Today my friend Sue should be celebrating her 50th birthday, she is a real party animal and had been planning a bash. Only drink got the better of her first – or should I say the worst. As a result she is in a vegetative-like state in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn, virtually comatose, unable to recognise me or to speak, simply lying flat on her back, staring up at the...
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Charles Clarke’s green dream for 2007

Posted by on Dec 30, 2006 in Uncategorized | 10 comments Maybe Charles Clarke is sucking up to Minister Miliband by declaring his green credentials and hoping for a new post. However, admitting to his previous failings will not help him much. The Norwich South MP and sacked Home Secretary was asked by his local paper about his wish list for 2007 and replied: “As Home Secretary I did have a number of ambitions for reducing crime and improving...
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Saddam hanged, what next for Iraq?

Posted by on Dec 30, 2006 in Uncategorized | 14 comments   After the car bombs and celebrations following today’s execution of Saddam Hussein, can Iraq expect a more peaceful future?  His execution was the only appropriate fate for a despotic tyrant responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people. His death marks the end of the Saddam era. I would like to think his death marks a milestone to democracy, but fear...
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Bloggers help to win votes for the American presidential campaign

Posted by on Dec 29, 2006 in Uncategorized | 15 comments It may be almost two years until the American presidential election, but I am already riveted by it, particularly the high profile given to bloggers and the impact the social media will have on this exciting campaign. Wasn’t it slick of John Edwards to announce his candidacy in New Orleans, still devastated by last year’s Hurricane Katrina (which Bush failed on big time), with an...
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Would you say no to a free laptop?

Posted by on Dec 29, 2006 in updates | 14 comments Could you write an unbiased review of the long awaited Microsoft Vista if it was sent to you – complete with a fab new laptop? Or would you feel compromised? Edelman PR and are giving away free Acer Ferrari 1000 and 5000 notebooks loaded with Microsoft’s new Vista to selected high profile bloggers. The retail value is $1899.99 – $2,299.99 for the computer, plus the cost of the...
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My seven heavenly memories of the year

Posted by on Dec 23, 2006 in updates | 14 comments I have been tagged three times with the latest meme on the seven best things I have done this year. So thanks go to Jeremy, Gracchi and Iain for bringing me out from my brief hibernation: 1. Definitely taking up blogging 2. My appearance on BBC News 24 3. Joining Cambridge Toastmasters 4. Walking lots 5. My summer holiday cruising around the Med 6. Signing up for my PR diploma 7  Becoming a...
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Merry Christmas to you all

Posted by on Dec 21, 2006 in updates | 25 comments  It’s time to break off from blogging for a while as I have to catch up with many Christmas preparations. I must also  write two academic papers for my PR diploma over the festive break, isn’t it cruel making us work hard like that over the hols! You may like to read my profile on Paul Burgin’s site (I feel very flattered to be asked). And please vote...
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Householders need more rights against burglars, say Tories

Posted by on Dec 21, 2006 in Uncategorized | 13 comments You always hope it won’t happen to you, but what would you do if you confronted burglars in your home, how far would you go to defend yourself, your loved ones and your property?  Tony Martin set the agenda on this, but it is still far from resolved. At the moment you can use “reasonable force”, but this has resulted in unfair prosecutions for acting in...
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Do we really know who and what enters and leaves our country?

Posted by on Dec 20, 2006 in Uncategorized | 15 comments It’s extraordinary beyond belief to know that a man hunted for the murder of a policewoman can flee this country by wearing his sister’s niqab and using her passport. Are Muslim women really allowed to hide behind their veils when they go through passport control? That would seem to be the case, according to The Times, which reports that British immigration...
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Cheeky Lembit intervenes over Gabriela deportation threat

Posted by on Dec 20, 2006 in Uncategorized | 11 comments If you had a Cheeky Girl to cuddle up to, you’d want to keep her by your side, wouldn’t you? That’s certainly what Lembit Opik thought, there’s no point in being an MP if you don’t have influence! So he wrote to the Cheeky Girls’ MP Michael Foster and spoke to a Home Office minister when they faced deportation threats earlier this summer. And Lib Dems are...
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Will Cherie send Foster some seasonal cheer?

Posted by on Dec 20, 2006 in Uncategorized | 3 comments What are the chances that Cherie Blair will send her old friend Peter Foster a Christmas card? After all, he did secure a great price on her Bristol properties? The conman is still striking deals, but this time with leaders of Fiji’s military coup who have granted him freedom from house arrest to stay his mother in a rented house. Still the centre of controversy, Foster has agreed to name...
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Rising poverty, what should govt do?

Posted by on Dec 19, 2006 in Uncategorized | 31 comments Christmas is a time of high expectations for excited young children whose wishes are easily fulfilled in comfortable homes. But please spare a thought for those who live in poverty, and numbers have risen sharply in Norfolk, according to new figures just published. So Jim Murphy’s blog on the welfare state and child poverty could not be more timely, he is the...
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Labour buys votes at expense of public services

Posted by on Dec 18, 2006 in Uncategorized | 11 comments It’s not just hospitals in Conservative constituencies that have been targeted by the government, our post offices are set to bear the brunt too following latest plans to close 2,500 throughout the country. The Daily Mail‘s study of government spending has discovered that astonishingly, out of 1,122 post offices in the 25 worst-hit constituencies, 608 are in Lib Dem seats and 338 in...
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Are you sympathetic towards transexuals?

Posted by on Dec 18, 2006 in updates | 22 comments Transexual Drusilla Marland has won almost £65,000 compensation for enduring ‘an atmosphere of intimidation and hostility’ while working for P&O Ferries. She worked as a repairer and suffered verbal and physical harassment from the engine room crew while undergoing gender-reassignment. It seems her managers turned a blind eye, insisting that she should use a male changing...
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What do prostitutes really want?

Posted by on Dec 17, 2006 in updates | 23 comments While the tragic murder of five prostitutes brought their terrible plight to the attention of the national media, it was a subject that aroused little interest before the murderer struck, and I’m wondering what we will learn from this, what changes will be made as a result. The Suffolk slayings will poignantly be commemorated today, the 4th International Day to End Violence Against Sex...
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How can I retrieve my lost post?

Posted by on Dec 17, 2006 in updates | 11 comments I have accidentally deleted my last post published today which I spent considerable time researching about what prostitutes want, the way forward after the horrific Ipswich murders. If anyone has any ideas about how I can retrieve it from WordPress, I would appreciate it. I hope it is not lost for ever.
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Meet the Tory bloggers

Posted by on Dec 16, 2006 in updates | 38 comments Here’s a few of the bloggers who turned up last night at Iain and Guido’s bash when it was announced that the latest juicy Labour sleaze will not be wasted, but go towards Vol 2 of The Little Red Book of New Labour Sleaze due out next spring. Let’s get writing! The room was packed – all male bloggers as Bel and I were the only female contributers and she could not...
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Questions the government won’t answer

Posted by on Dec 15, 2006 in Uncategorized | 16 comments Why doesn’t the government want to answer the following questions, would they be available under the Freedom of Information Act? The suicide rate amongst Armed Forces returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.  Visas into the UK given to preachers of hate.  The number of school leavers without any GCSE qualifications.  The level of Green Belt destruction under...
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Nancy’s profile of the Suffolk serial killer

Posted by on Dec 15, 2006 in updates | 8 comments Psychoanalyst Nancy Kubrin, who I met in Cambridge this week, has written to Suffolk police urging them to consider “the uncanny relationship between serial killing and Islamic suicide terrorism.” This is what she wrote: “I have in draft with an Israeli colleague, Dr Anat Berko, who is a leading criminologist, a scientific theoretical essay raising the question if suicide...
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Sarkovy hijacks Le Web 3 conference

Posted by on Dec 14, 2006 in Uncategorized | 7 comments A conference in Paris on Le Web 3 turned into a French farce when it was hijacked by presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkovy and used as a political platform. Even though Neville Hobson missed it, he gives a great view on the outrage felt by bloggers, and this pic by Ben Metcalfe says it all. One of the bloggers who attended, Tom Raftery describes the reasons: “The conference...
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Thresher’s underwhelming press release

Posted by on Dec 14, 2006 in updates | 5 comments Was Thresher’s viral marketing ploy a success or not? The 40% discount voucher was downloaded 1 million times by its first day. And with another 9 days for the offer to run, and sensational national media coverage , I wondered what the total figure was, it could easily have doubled. The answer is I don’t know, Thresher is very keep tight lipped about it and issued the following...
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Excommunication, Catholicism and celibacy

Posted by on Dec 13, 2006 in updates | 6 comments Like Louise, I hope the Rwandan Roman Catholic priest Father Athanase Seromba will be excommunicated for betraying 2,000 Tutsis to their deaths after they sought shelter in his church, on top of his 15 years jail sentence, which is far too lenient. It made me wonder how many excommunicated priests there are and the reasons why. And that’s how I stumbled across the free-spirited...
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Women dying to kill – the rise of female suicide bombers

Posted by on Dec 13, 2006 in updates | 12 comments Zeinab Abu Salem (left) was 18 and had passed high school graduation exams when she blew herself up, killing two Israeli police,wounding 17 others, in order to liberate Palestine. Fatima Omar Mahmud al-Najar (right) was a 57-year-old mother of 9 and grandmother of 41 when she detonated explosives around her waist, killing herself and wounding 5 Zionist soldiers, while also fighting for the same...
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Were you in a school Nativity?

Posted by on Dec 12, 2006 in updates | 19 comments One play which I enjoy so much each year is the Nativity, it’s impossible not to smile at the innocence of excited young children as they grapple with the halos, crowns or tea towels adorning their heads. But one school in Norwich is giving it a miss this year, focusing instead on multicultural celebrations like the Jewish holiday Hanukkah and the Hindu festival of...
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