These boots were made for walking ….

Posted by on Mar 30, 2007 in updates | 18 comments It’s time to put my walking boots on again and have a change of scenery from the flat Fenland landscape, so I’m heading for the lush Forest of Dean. I’m off with the Ramblers again for a loooooong weekend, only this time I will be able to rest my aching feet in the comfort of a former hunting lodge of Charles II instead of a youth hostel. And we’ll be...
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Former gangster Ronnie Knight retires to Cambridge

Posted by on Mar 30, 2007 in updates | 17 comments I wonder how many pensioners have knocked on their new neighbour’s door to borrow a cup of sugar. Ronnie Knight, now 73, the former East End gangster once married to Barbara Windsor, has moved into a very modest one-bed pensioners’ housing block in Cambridge where he pays £360 a month rent. He has chatted with fellow pensioners about his life of crime and marriage to Babs, who...
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Will Sir Alan Sugar’s judgement be better this time round?

Posted by on Mar 29, 2007 in updates | 32 comments  I like Sir Alan Sugar’s tough no-nonsense approach. I like the fact that he is not obsessed by youth, that his anchorman and woman are respected for their skills and experience, it doesn’t matter that they have grey hair. Still, he can make mistakes like anyone else, as his choice on last year’s The Apprentice proved with Michelle Dewberry walking out on her £100,000...
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Charles Clarke calls for media restraints

Posted by on Mar 29, 2007 in Uncategorized | 20 comments What an amazing coincidence. The very same evening that Guido accuses political hacks of being restrained, Charles Clarke blames the mainstream media for creating “a lack of national self-confidence” about Britain – and suggests that legislation might be necessary for them to toe the line. Strong stuff. And ironically, the sacked Home Secretary vented his anger...
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Death threats forces blogger to stop

Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 in updates | 14 comments Blogging for me has been 99% fun one with just the odd nutter and one cyber bully. For Kathy Sierra, a respected American blogger, it has turned into the most horrific nightmare after she was issued with in a series of death threats which have forced her to stop writing. The threats resulted in a picture of her next to a noose, you can read Kathy’s nightmare story...
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An away day

Posted by on Mar 28, 2007 in updates | 23 comments I have appointments in London today, which includes dropping into 18 Doughty Street to pick up my camcorder to be a citizen journalist. I’m really looking forward to being a roving reporter again and filing some reports; you can be one too if you are a registered member of 18 Doughty Street. I hope to also use these reports on my site once I get the hang of it. I was hoping to find...
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Love on the buses

Posted by on Mar 27, 2007 in updates | 19 comments Here’s one good reason to forsake your car and use public transport – you could buy a ticket to romance as a survey has shown that 1 in 30 people fall in love on a coach. These don’t seem particularly high odds to me, but I like the two other results which showed that one in 10 passengers had a life-changing idea while travelling in a coach and one in 15 people made a...
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So where is Bona Mugabe?

Posted by on Mar 27, 2007 in Uncategorized | 15 comments Does anyone know the whereabouts of Bona Mugabe? Our government thought she was studying at the LSE, but this has been hotly denied by the university. So is she in the UK or isn’t she? Regardless of her whereabouts, the Foreign Office is pressing ahead with a travel ban against Robert Mugabe’s family . I wonder why a similar ban was not imposed against Stalin‘s...
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Sir Alex and climate change

Posted by on Mar 26, 2007 in updates | 43 comments   There were two major events in  Cambridge last night, a sell-out concert featuring Lemar and just across the  road, the even more pulsating Al Gore himself presenting his Oscar winning film An Inconvenient Truth to another packed house.  I naturally headed for the latter, having been invited by Cambridge University’s Programme for...
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Duty calls

Posted by on Mar 19, 2007 in updates | 52 comments I’m afraid I need to take a blogging break for a week to spend quality time preparing my next project for my CIPR PR diploma, as well as keeping on top of my work. Blogging is immensely distracting, as well as pleasurable, and my assignment requires much time and commitment. I have to research and write a PR campaign for a fictitious local authority which has been accused of...
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Wishing Janice the very best of luck

Posted by on Mar 17, 2007 in Uncategorized | 26 comments I’m giving Janice Small a plug in her bid to win the Calder Valley selection. I know it means the world to her. We met when we both worked as regional press officers during the 2005 general election and her driving passion and commitment to the Conservative Party is second to none. On the same subject, Tory Radio has the latest insights from Deputy Chairman John Maples on candidate...
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Jeremy, out in Africa

Posted by on Mar 17, 2007 in updates | 9 comments Guest blogger today is Jeremy Jacobs writing about his cathartic trek in the Maasai foothills to boost funds for the breast cancer campaign following the tragic young death of his sister Jackie. How have you marked the death of someone close? My family bought a wooden bench in memory of my father and added a plaque with his name. It is in the grounds of Walsingham shrine in...
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Zero tolerance for Ipswich prostitutes

Posted by on Mar 16, 2007 in updates | 9 comments Three months on from the terrible murders of the five Ipswich prostitutes, police and council chiefs are planning the biggest ever crackdown aimed at ridding the town of its red-light district. Plans being drawn up include stricter use of Asbos against prostitutes and a more focused law enforcement against kerb crawlers. Women will be offered help to tackle the cause of their problems as...
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Dear Sally, if only we could turn the clock back

Posted by on Mar 16, 2007 in updates | 21 comments A letter to Sally Clark, whose death at her home has just been announced. Dear Sally, I can’t imagine there is one mother in the country who didn’t share your sense of anguish, your feeling of abandonment and utter bewilderment, as well as the deep grief you experienced following the loss of your two dear little baby boys who died inexplicable only a few weeks old. That alone is...
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Robert Sturdy’s View from Strasbourg

Posted by on Mar 16, 2007 in Uncategorized | 16 comments Each month, I issue a report for MEP Robert Sturdy following the extortionate and costly monthly sitting of the European Parliament in  Strasbourg  which is sent to the local press, I thought you might like to see the latest one.  View from Strasbourg – March 2007 “A funny thing happened to me on Tuesday.  I was on my way to the Parliament building...
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Do you also think this is a rubbish idea?

Posted by on Mar 16, 2007 in updates | 29 comments One subject certain to arouse anger among householders is the fortnightly rubbish collection and fears over the vermin it attracts. Local newspapers have filled their letters and news pages several times over on this topic. Yet in spite of these very real concerns, government seems to be in favour of ending the weekly bin collection, saying there would be no hygiene problems...
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Meet "the sexiest man in Finland"

Posted by on Mar 15, 2007 in updates | 16 comments Do you recognise this smooth haired man with a certain je ne sais quoi mousy greyness? Does he strike you as the sexiest man in Finland, which is how   Jacques Chirac once famously described him? He is Matti Vanhanen, the Finnish Prime Minister, who is said to have parted from a lover he met on the internet by sending her a curt text message...
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Is Russia everyone’s best friend now?

Posted by on Mar 15, 2007 in Uncategorized | 11 comments Is Russia everyone’s best friend today? Will we notice the difference if our oil comes from Russia now it has secured a pipeline through to Greece? It wasn’t so long ago that it halted oil supplies to Belarus after imposing hefty price rises. At its height, the dispute hit Russian oil supplies to Germany, Poland, Ukraine and other European countries. The closure...
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Who swindled who?

Posted by on Mar 14, 2007 in updates | 53 comments   A guest post by William Connolley.   There has been a vast amount of back and forth about the recent propaganda film “The Great Global Warming Swindle“. Two things have distressed me: that Channel 4 clearly have no interest in whether they broadcast truth or not; and the number of people prepared to fall for this tripe. It’s possible to go through and analyse why...
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Ambramovich, footloose and fancy free

Posted by on Mar 14, 2007 in updates | 19 comments So billionaire Roman Abramovich is now footloose and fancy free following his costly divorce, which we could be hearing much more about from his ex-wife. I wonder which country they divorced in, how many zeros are on the end of the cheque. I also wonder if he is the Russian football club owner who has just given away a yacht to a friend as he is having an even bigger one built. This...
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Nuclear power stations risk being flooded

Posted by on Mar 13, 2007 in updates | 15 comments Greenpeace could have something here, nuclear power stations built along the coast in East Anglia are at risk of being flooded if sea levels rise as predicted. These are the findings of a study by the Flood Hazard Research Centre at Middlesex University and concludes that the cost of defending the sites from significant sea level rises and storm surges would make them...
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Why is my blog banned in China?

Posted by on Mar 12, 2007 in updates | 42 comments I have never considered myself a rebel, but it appears that by blog has been banned in China, according to this test. Why not try it yourself and see if you will join me in isolation. So why do you think I have been banned? Nobody swears on my blog, we have great debates, what could I possibly have said to upset the Chinese authorities?  Will this add to my kudos? Can their...
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Gordon Brown kills off private investment for environmental projects and new start-ups

Posted by on Mar 12, 2007 in updates | 19 comments Environmental research projects in the UK are under threat thanks to new tax laws which could signal the death of private investment in science and small high risk businesses, forcing companies to consider moving overseas. On the day that Gordon Brown seeks to establish his green credentials,  one wonders why environmental projects have been singled out for the brunt of the the HMRC new...
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Welshcake Limoncello’s Letter from Sicily

Posted by on Mar 10, 2007 in updates | 37 comments One of my daily reads is Sicily Scene penned by linguist teacher Welshcakes Limoncello who left her Cardiff home after retiring young enough to enjoy the irresistible charms of the Italian island. She has no plans to return. She waxes lyrical about its cuisine and describes their close family life, where students return home at weekends. And mighty giants McDonalds were not made welcome there,...
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Why so few women councillors?

Posted by on Mar 9, 2007 in Uncategorized | 34 comments This year is the centenary of legislation which stated that women should not  be disqualified by sex or marriage for election as a councillor. Yet after 100 years, there are only 29% of women councillors, with only 14% serving as women council leaders last year. We are reminded of this by Baroness Shephard in today’s Eastern Daily Press (no link) who welcomes the...
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