Let’s remember our women in Africa

Posted by Ellee on Mar 8, 2007 in updates | 21 comments We rarely hear of AIDS in the UK today, even though newly diagnosed cases doubled in 2005 to more than 7,500 compared to 2000. It’s even harder to imagine what it must be like for sufferers in Africa.  By the end of 2005, there were five and a half million people living with HIV in South Africa, with almost 1,000 AIDS deaths occurring every day. And 74% of ...
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American blogger in longest contempt case

Posted by Ellee on Mar 8, 2007 in updates | 9 comments More new from America, where a blogger has spent more than six months behind  bars in California for refusing to hand over video footage of a violent San Francisco demo a a G8 summit meeting. It is the longest contempt of court sentence served by someone in the media. A “mediation session” will today try and break the impasse, else he will stay locked up until July. It is...
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Washington’s latest sex scandal

Posted by Ellee on Mar 8, 2007 in updates | 9 comments Dick Morris, the man credited with Bill Clinton’s presidential victory and UKIP’s outstanding success in the 2004 Euro Election, is named   as a client of a former Washington madam who  prosecutors want to gag. Deborah Palfrey has threatened to go public with details of her 10,000 former clients. She has been indicted on racketeering and money laundering...
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An evening at the American Embassy

Posted by Ellee on Mar 7, 2007 in updates | 17 comments   There was a time when most of my invites were for those dull parties where household products and jewellery were sold. I now seem to have been elevated on to another list. Totally out of the blue, I have this evening been invited to the American Embassy by the Ambassador and his wife, Robert and Maria Tuttle. I’m taking my mother Loula with me to share the...
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The small man can win too

Posted by Ellee on Mar 7, 2007 in updates | 10 comments I do admire the small man who stands up to the giants of industry after suffering an injustice, those David and Goliath stories, like motorist David Bond who sent the bailiffs to Tesco when they refused to compensate him fully for damage to his van after buying contaminated fuel from them. This could not be more embarrassing for the superstore, hot on the heels...
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Lord Levy and press reports

Posted by Ellee on Mar 6, 2007 in Uncategorized | 13 comments I asked barrister and parliamentary hopeful James Tumbridge to give me his professional insights on the latest Lord Levy revelations in today’s Guardian. It’s really dramatic, eye-popping stuff. He wonders if these awesome revelations could backfire in a legal quagmire and prevent justice running its normal course, exactly what Labour wants. This is what...
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Does Second Life help politics?

Posted by Ellee on Mar 6, 2007 in updates | 11 comments I’m not an expert on this subject, but I’m fascinated to watch how Second Life is developing and making a niche in politics. This is an internet-based virtual world where “residents” can interact with each other and buy virtual property and services from each other. It is something that Sweden has joined, as well as French presidential...
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Meeting up with my blogging buddies

Posted by Ellee on Mar 5, 2007 in updates | 19 comments I’m looking forward to meeting up with my blogging buddies – and a few more – later today at the Adam Smith Institute event “The Impact of the New Media“. I know this blogger is going to be there, as well as Croydonian, and I shall be able to meet Tim Worstall who is chairing the session, as well as speakers Stephan Shakespeare, founder of YouGov and 18 Doughty...
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What is the plastic bag answer?

Posted by Ellee on Mar 5, 2007 in updates | 23 comments Should our supermarkets follow the example set by our European neighbours and stop giving out free flimsy plastic bags? How quickly could you adapt to taking your own reusable bags? I reckon fairly quickly, that was the experience in the Republic of Ireland after a levy was introduced on plastic bags, with the proceeds going towards an environmental fund. As a result of Minister Miliband’s...
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What was your best pitch?

Posted by Ellee on Mar 4, 2007 in updates | 12 comments I’m not sure we could all get away with it, storming off from a business meeting in a huff and then being pursued to return and make a presentation – and still end up winning the contract. Roger Mavity did this, it’s one of the anecdotes included in a book he has co-written with Stephen Bayley, called Lif’e's A Pitch, highlighted in the chapter on the...
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Meet my namesake

Posted by Ellee on Mar 4, 2007 in updates | 18 comments I did a Google alert yesterday, typed in my name and came up with a namesake in California – here she is the blonde version, whose name is spelt Elle Seymour. Elle is a real estate broker and breeds horses. She appears to be quite dynamic, having won an Humanitarian of the Year Award. Her husband’s name is David, the same as my eldest son’s. She is also a “Blue...
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Why James moved to the Russian Federation

Posted by Ellee on Mar 3, 2007 in updates | 23 comments James Higham is my guest author today and describes his life in Russia, the reasons why he enjoys living there – he reckons the girls are peaches, that’s one attraction. Is it somewhere you would want to move to? It seems they are rapidly catching up with our Western lifestyle, but talking politics is still a bit tricky, so I might not be welcome with my naturally enquiring...
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Jury to decide Diana and Dodi’s cause of deaths

Posted by Ellee on Mar 2, 2007 in updates | 27 comments I think it is right that a jury should sit at an inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi al Fayed. While I do not subscribe to any conspiracy theories on what I have heard so far, I can understand why, as a father, Mohamed al  Fayed wants the full facts to be heard openly and decided by a jury made up of ordinary people. I am pleased for him that he won his...
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Italians can "shame" adulterers

Posted by Ellee on Mar 1, 2007 in updates | 11 comments Welschcakes Limoncello portrays a vivid account of Sicilian life on her blog, including this recent judgement from Italy’s Supreme Court of Appeal which has decided that no time limit can be put on a betrayed spouse’s hurt and anger. It is the case of a man who in 1999 discovered while reading his wife’s diary that she was having an affair with her brother-in-law and planned a...
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Will country lover Robin head for Brussels?

Posted by Ellee on Mar 1, 2007 in Uncategorized | 5 comments   The European Parliament won’t know what’s hit it if outspoken Robin Page – former One Man and his Dog presenter – is asked to step into the shoes of UKIP’s MEP Tom Wise, currently suspended over allegations of financial irregularities. Last November Robin threw in the towel as a South Cambridgeshire councillor after 35 years, blaming political...
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Why does our 1966 World Cup football have the initials YG on it?

Posted by Ellee on Mar 1, 2007 in updates | 27 comments   Shouldn’t our winning 1966 World Cup football be regarded as a national treasure? You would surely not expect that anyone would be allowed to scribble on it. Well according to Ed Vaizey, that is exactly what happened, and the culprit was Yuri Geller. Cultural vandalism or what? he asks. Ed describes how the football was brought to the House of Commons, along with other...
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