Andy Coulson tipped for top Tory comms role

Posted by on May 31, 2007 in Uncategorized | 20 comments I await with much interest for this afternoon’s announcement about Andy Coulson, former editor of the News of the World, being appointed the Director of Communications for the Conservative Party, whispers which were disclosed on Iain’s blog. If true, there will naturally be associations made between him and spin doctoring which the public – and hopefully...
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The missing – Shawn Hornbeck (found)

Posted by on May 31, 2007 in updates | 7 comments I stumbled across this tragic story and later discovered it had a happy ending. I hope it will help other families of missing children to maintain their faith during their ordeal. Shawn Hornbeck was riding his bike in October 2002 in Missouri when he vanished without trace. He was only 11. Vigils were held to mark his birthday and anniversary of his disappearance. His story...
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Who can argue against the Inuits on climate change?

Posted by on May 30, 2007 in updates | 28 comments How can anyone argue against the heartfelt case of Inuit leader Aqqaluk Lynge, pleading for an end to the expansion of Stansted Airport to help save villages and hunting grounds across the Arctic? A public inquiry was launched today to boost passenger numbers by another 10 million a year to 35 million. The plan had been rejected by the local authority on grounds of climate change,...
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Patricia Cornwell sues cyber bully

Posted by on May 30, 2007 in updates | 7 comments Best selling crime writer Patricia Cornwell is suing another author for libel claiming his internet smear campaign is destroying her reputation and has stifled her creative flow. Lots of bloggers may sail close to the wind, but are  hopefully aware of the laws regarding online defamation. However, it seems Leslie R Sachs has repeatedly overstepped the mark. The whole case is...
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The missing – Kevin Hicks

Posted by on May 30, 2007 in updates | 10 comments Kevin Hicks was 16 when he popped out to buy some eggs from the local  shops one bitterly cold evening. He never returned home. That was in March 1986 – 21 years ago. He is now aged 37; the age progression pic shows him at 33. It is the ordinariness of the situations leading up to many disappearances that I find so harrowing. Kevin had earlier enjoyed a Sunday lunch with his family...
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Can Post Offices be saved?

Posted by on May 29, 2007 in Uncategorized | 11 comments Can anything be done to save the future of thousands of post offices doomed to close? Charles Hendry, Shadow Minister responsible for Post Offices, makes a convincing case about how they can survive financially, with more support from government and business.  You can find out more from his frank interview on Tory...
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Alcohol labels don’t measure up

Posted by on May 29, 2007 in updates | 19 comments How clear are you about the size of alcohol units if they don’t measure up in pints? What about alcopops? And surely I can drink more cider as it is not as strong as wine? I’m confused already. Veronica Callanan also thinks the governmment’s plans about labelling alcohol is not workable. She says: I have yet to meet anyone who counts there alcohol units, have you? I...
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The missing – Leo Balley

Posted by on May 29, 2007 in updates | 5 comments Leo Balley vanished while on a camping holiday with his father and friends  near the idyllic Lake Fourchu in the Taillefere Mountains in France nine years ago. The men were putting up the tent when the six-years-old disappeared. Amazingly, the colour of Leo’s eyes are not known. The lakes and forests were thoroughly searched for signs of Leo, who...
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Let’s help Rachel catch this cyberstalker

Posted by on May 26, 2007 in updates | 25 comments Could you guess that the woman in this pic is a deranged cyberstalker who has been posting hateful messages to Rachel from North London over the last year? She looks so friendly. She is Felicity Jane Lowde and has been convicted of harassing Rachel by repeatedly posting malicious comments on her blog and making other libelous statements. Rachel asked me if I had had problems with any...
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Have a nice, wet weekend

Posted by on May 25, 2007 in updates | 12 comments Although I dislike swearing, I do like the sentiment behind Hugh’s wacky cartoon  business card,  it’s what we should all aspire to in our own way. And it’s certainly one way of being memorable. What’s the most unusual business card you have ever had?  I collect so many cards on my networking rounds, most of them are pretty ordinary, my own included. Maybe...
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The missing – Leung Wan-wah

Posted by on May 25, 2007 in updates | 3 comments Despite the fact that my blog is banned in China, I would like to highlight the mysterious disappearance of a young Chinese girl, Leung Wan-wah. She vanished in August 1998 at the age of nine. A substantial reward of $100,000 was offered for information. Leung Wan-wah went to play at a friend’s house in Mongkok and she later left to visit another friend, but never...
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Conservatives plan to protect young foreign brides

Posted by on May 25, 2007 in Uncategorized | 6 comments My mother Loula (pic) was a wartime bride from Greece when she married my English father at 16, he was eight years older and stationed there as a soldier. She arrived in the UK alone  on a ship and couldn’t speak English following their very brief courtship and hastily arranged marriage. It had been love at first sight.  She was one of only a few that remained...
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Conservative women and pensions

Posted by on May 24, 2007 in updates | 17 comments I’m kicking myself that I shall be away next month when this important pension summit is held by the Conservative Women’s Organisation. It is such an important subject, one which fills me with dread if I think about it very long. In fact, I tend to shrug it off and leave to my husband to sort out because the fact is that I have very little pension to look forward to. I...
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The missing – Sarah Benford

Posted by on May 24, 2007 in updates | 3 comments Police have launched a murder hunt following the disappearance of Sarah Benford, even though her body has never been discovered. Her story was also re-enacted on Crimewatch. Sarah went missing from a children’s home in Northampton in April 2000, when she was 14 years old.  Her mother saw her in Kettering three days later but none of her family have seen or heard from her...
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Can journalists converse online too?

Posted by on May 24, 2007 in updates | 12 comments Continuous rail delays and a fire on the underground, followed by a snail’s pace taxi crawl in bumper to bumper rush hour traffic, meant that I arrived breathless and late and missed half the seminar on the politics of online journalism yesterday. The debate that I heard centered around whether quality mainstream journalists can write successfully online and...
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The politics of online journalism

Posted by on May 23, 2007 in updates | 16 comments I shall be participating in a seminar later today about the changing face of journalism as social media becomes increasing popular. The seminar topic is Citizen or Consumer – the politics of online journalism, organised by POLIS, the journalism and society think-tank at the London School of Economics. Here are some of the questions which will be raised: 1. How much does the nature of...
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Hi honey, can you speak up before I run out of oxygen?

Posted by on May 23, 2007 in updates | 10 comments I wonder what the roaming charges were for British mountaineer Bob Baber when he called his wife from the top of Mount Everest and set a new world record. I agree with Neville that it was a very impressive piece of marketing by sponsors Motorola. Bob had little time to phone home as 15 minutes is the maximum time usually spent at the summit. Making the call was was very...
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The vicar, the loos and an unholy row

Posted by on May 23, 2007 in updates | 6 comments Tom Ambrose, a vicar from Trumpington, a parish on the edge of Cambridge,   could be ejected over his attempts to put modern loos in the 14th century church, a plan which has upset some parishioners who obviously have very strong and well controlled bowels. The poor man faces an ecclesiastical tribunal, one of a few to have been held in the last century. His legal fees could cost the...
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The missing – Lee Boxell

Posted by on May 23, 2007 in updates | 8 comments   The parents of Lee Boxell haven’t changed anything in his bedroom since the day he vanished from their lives in September 1988 when he was 15. He would be 34 now – and his broken hearted mother wonders if she has walked past him in the street and not recognised him. In their campaign, Lee’s family managed to break new ground for other missing children...
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When tea for two can cost more than you bargained for

Posted by on May 22, 2007 in updates | 24 comments Funny the things we get het up about.  American television reporter and presenter Michael Manning could not see why he had to pay for a tea refill. While free coffee refills are part of the unspoken American constitution, the issue of whether the same applies to a second tea bag seems to be very much a grey area. Now Michael could probably afford to buy the entire restaurant where he...
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The missing – Rahma el-Dennaoui

Posted by on May 22, 2007 in updates | 5 comments The abduction of Madeleine McCann has striking similarities to the mysterious disappearance of toddler Rahma el-Dennaoui who was also snatched from her bed, sleeping between her two sisters at their home in Sydney, 18 months ago. Her father checked on her at 2am – and by 8am she had vanished. Police suggested she may have been taken by a childless couple or a woman desperate for...
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Seeing the wood for the trees

Posted by on May 22, 2007 in updates | 13 comments I hope when EU ministers responsible for urban and spatial development  meet in Leipzig this week, that they will  have given serious consideration to boosting the number of urban trees in our neighbourhoods. I live in Cambridgeshire, the least wooded county in the country, and not the best of place to be as I adore trees and avenues. I feel an adrenalin rush whenever...
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Will stem cell therapy help Michael walk again?

Posted by on May 21, 2007 in updates | 10 comments A woman crippled in a road accident is on her feet again thanks to revolutionary embryonic stem cell treatment in New Delhi. Sonya Smith was run over by her own car in Brisbane 17 months ago as she tried to stop it rolling down a hill with her three young daughters inside. After two months of injections and physiotherapy, she has regained control of her bladder and bowel, sensation in her...
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When charity begins at home

Posted by on May 21, 2007 in updates | 7 comments Gordon Brown has no choice but to grant tax relief on the Madeleine McCann search fund on humanitarian grounds. How could any government feel comfortable in boosting its coffers this way, profiteering from the tragedy of these horrific and exceptional circumstances? Every penny is desperately needed to finance an international search and pay for private...
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The missing – Nicole Morin

Posted by on May 21, 2007 in updates | 23 comments Nicole Morin totally vanished 22 years ago aged eight while walking to an elevator in her Toronto apartment block to meet a friend who was waiting for her in the downstairs lobby.  She never arrived. Her unsolved disappearance marked a turning point for similar police investigations as it took a week before homicide were alerted. How much crucial forensic and...
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