Ellee Seymour

I’m taking my son David to the open day at Nottingham University today. I can still remember him on his first day at school. He had just turned four and was the youngest boy in his class. I was the one left standing at the school gates feeling bereft. So how am I going to feel when he flies the nest for good?  And where did those last 12 years go to?

David wants to do business studies and will hopefully start next September. I’m wondering what exactly we should be looking for on our visit, what are the important questions to ask in choosing the right university to ensure he will be happy and have good tutors. How are we going to afford it? I wish I had asked this yesterday now. Still, it’s not too late, we have other open days lined up too in the next couple of weeks. And definitely not in Scotland, that’s far too far away…

Gordon Brown is not the only one to include Africa on his agenda by appointing Mark Malloch Brown as a new minister for Africa, Asia and the UN.

It is a hot topic which will be debated at the Conservative Women’s Organisation’s conference in November. The Environment and Women as Peacemakers are also very topical issues which will be discussed.

The sparkling speakers include:

• Charlie Ponticelli, Senior Advisor from US Dept. of State, Washington
• Zainab al Salbi - Women for Women International (pictured)
• Peter Constable Maxwell - UN Representative in South Sudan
• Tom Burke - Rio Tinto Zinc
• The Baroness Chalker of Wallasey, Chairman of Africa Matters Ltd
• Sir Christopher Meyer , former Ambassador to the US (will he wear his famous red socks?)
• Zac Goldsmith from The Ecologist
• Lord Melchett, of The Soil Association

….as well as David Cameron and a host of top Tory Shadow Ministers.

I’m hoping I can do some citizen journalism reports from there for 18 Doughty Street with a camera they have loaned me. They have been very patient. I am still working out the technicalities of how to use it.

This conference was a sell out last year, so I suggest you don’t leave it too late to book up. It’s fantastic value at £30 for the day. It is open to non-Tory members too and men are also welcome.

Damien Nettles went missing after a night out with friends on the Isle of Wight  in November, 1996 when he was just 16. 

He had parted company from them at around 10.30pm. He was last seen at around midnight walking along the High Street in West Cowes shortly after buying chips. Damien was caught on CCTV footage talking to five or six men, only three have ever been identified.

Two were army officers who were in Cowes for training in sailing.  The other was a local drug dealer, who has since passed away, who was not identified until after his death.

Damien’s website says:

“This is odd, as the Isle of Wight is a very small place and I am surprised that despite pictures and publicity of this video, it took over six years for someone to identify this individual.  The first two men were identified after a documentary, which aired in January 1997, 2 months after Damien went missing.  They were not local.  The National Missing Persons Charity was given an anonymous tip that
these two were from the Army, based in Aldershot.  They were interrogated and claim they did not know anything, however, both of them held conversation with Damien, as seen on the video. “

Last week, 21 June, was Damien’s 27^th birthday. The age progression picture shows him as he would look today.

Damien, who is 6ft 3ins, comes from a close family who miss him terribly. Sadly, his family has had to move to the USA for work since his disappearance but they are still hoping to hear news of Damien. His grandparents still live on the Isle of Wight.

Despite repeated appeals run by the charity Missing People over the years, including a widely circulated age progressed picture produced by the charity, there has been no news of Damien. His mother Val said:

“I miss his wonderful, silly sense of humour and how the room came alive when he entered it…. he was larger than life and teeming with mischief and fun.”

If anyone has any information about Damien please call the confidential 24 hour charity Missing People on Freefone 0500 700 700. Donations to the charity can be made via the website www.missingpeople.org.uk .Damien’s family set up this website www.damiennettles.com

In memory of those who are still missing.

I did have some belief that Miliband’s heart was in the right place as Environment Secretary, trying to undo some of the considerable wrongs created by his predecessor, the inept Margaret Beckett. She certainly deserved to get the push.

Although Miliband’s blog came in for much criticism for being nothing other than a ministerial post, which it largely was, he did keep working at it and tried to engage more, he did not give up - unlike the Welfare Reform blog launched by Minister for Work and Pensions Jim Murphy, which seems to have died a death. And, sadly, nobody noticed. 

Miliband’s new appointment as Foreign Secretary means he can no longer write his environmental blog, where I sat among his blogroll. It has been suspended. I wonder if he will start writing a new one as Foreign Secretary as he he speaks so positively about the need for political blogging.

“The last 15 months have been hugely challenging and hugely enjoyable - and I hope we have made a difference. The new mechanisms for political engagement and dialogue represented by this blog are needed more than ever.

“Thank you for reading, commenting and arguing over the last 15 months. It may take some time for new service to be resumed, but please watch this space.”

I doubt very much that his successor Hilary Benn will write a blog on environmental issues, he was the  only candidate who didn’t do so during the deputy Labour leadership contest.

If Miliband means what he slays about “blogs being needed more than ever” for political engagement, the chances are that he will start writing a new one, with postings from Washington and Iraq, Darfur and Israel. I hope he writes more from the heart.

If he gives up for good, then how can other Labour ministers and MPs be persuaded to follow suit?

Update: Iain highlights this quote about Miliband and Beckett:

Aged just 41, Mr Miliband is a more substantial figure on his first day in
office than his predecessor, Margaret Beckett, was throughout her tenure.

I agree.

I heard a tragic story today about a young woman of 26 called Grace who visited her parents in Cambridge recently. For some reason she was pushing a car when she fell and landed flat on her chest. She later contracted pneumonia and died afterwards of septicaemia - all this happened within the space of two-and-a-half weeks.

I find it incredible that a fit and healthy young woman can die in this way in this day and age.

Although Prime Minister’s Question Time may have come to an end for Tony Blair, the police have also put more questions to him, possibly in the last week, in the cash-for-honours scandal. Could there be more to come? Could he be called as a key witness if/when charges are made?

It will be interesting to see what changes Gordon Brown introduces for party funding and honours.

MEP Robert Sturdy has asked the European Commission to explain how it can justify enforcing the use of energy saving light bulbs which contain mercury, while at the same time banning barometers for this very same reason, an inconsistency which was highlighted by bloggers in their comments about this.

Robert has fired off some questions to Commissioners Stavros Dimas (Environment) and Markos Kyprianou (Health and Consumer Protection) about the EU’s double standards about the use of mercury, requesting information about their mercury content and the risks which they could pose to human health and the environment. He states:

“In typical EU tradition, at the very same time that barometers are being banned because of the dangerous mercury which they contain, energy saving light bulbs are being championed as the answer to climate change despite them also containing mercury.   It is true that at first glance energy saving light bulbs seem more environmentally friendly than incandescent bulbs.  However, these light bulbs are being thrown away everyday and end up in landfill sites already bursting at the seams.   How is this less of an environmental risk than a barometer when every household in the EU will be throwing away these light bulbs every year?

“There could also be serious health implications regarding the energy saving light bulbs. Recent reports have stated that they pose a risk to people with epilepsy causing symptoms similar to the onset of a seizure.  

“I am in favour of doing all that we can to protect the environment and tackle the problem of climate change.  However, we must go about this in a rational and sensible manner.  People should be given the choice whether to use energy saving light bulbs or not and all of the necessary information should be available for consumers.  People need to know that the regulations imposed on them by the EU are justified, reasonable and consistent.”

Glendene Grant has asked me to publicise the case of her missing daughter, Jessica Foster, who was last seen in March 2006 in North Las Vegas when she was 21.

She said:

“We need to have everyone know who Jessie Foster is. We need to find her and bring her home. We need to make people aware of Jessie and that she is missing, and that her case is being investigated as a kidnapping/human trafficking case by the ATLAS Task Force (an intelligence committee of investigators). And we need to let people know that we have a reward we keep building, and we need to raise money to do a lot of this.”

Jessie was last known to be with her boyfriend in their North Las Vegas home when she was talking to her older sister on the telephone on the 28th of March, regarding them going to their step-sister’s wedding reception in Calgary, Alberta on the 29th of April.

Jessie’s disappearance has been highlighted extensively by the American media, and comparisons made with disappearances of other young women. Her parents hired an investigator and discovered that the straight-A student travelled from Calgary to the USA with a man she met at a reggae party who promised to pay for her trip. Jessie ended up working as a prostitute.

Her heartbroken mother is determined to continue with her search until she discovers the truth about what happened to Jessie. She hopes and believes she is still alive, forced into the frightening life of human trafficking.

In memory of those who are still missing.

Tony Blair’s exit from 10 Downing Street will be immortalised by his wife’s undignified final blast at the press: “I don’t think I will miss you lot”.

If Cherie feels aggrieved about her media coverage, she has herself to blame. She started off with a clean slate, just like Sarah Brown does now. I remember her refusal to tell anyone if her baby Leo had been given the MMR jab at a time when there were considerable concerns about its safety. I remember contacting her office around that time to ask if she would support a campaign promoting reusable nappies for environmental reasons, but she refused. She did nothing to engage or endear herself to other mothers or women in the country. She also shamelessly exploited her position as the prime minister’s wife to accept lucrative speaking engagements.

I wish Sarah Brown all the very best, she should have learned from Cherie’s mistakes. She knows she has a tough job ahead of her and I am delighted that she will be supporting children’s charities during her time in Downing Street.

Update: And do read Nick Robinson’s report about Cherie looking at him with daggers.

Would you know who to call for help if your home suffered flooding on the same scale as in the Sheffield area?  My first thought would be to ring fire brigade, but the chances are they may not be able to help.

The excellent East Anglian Daily Times reports today how the Suffolk Fire Brigades Union feared it could not cope if there was flooding on a similar scale in their county. A change in policy means that they do not automatically attend all local flooding incidents, householders could be referred to an specialist rescue company if the flooding was not deemed a threat to life, or if the fire service’s equipment could not help.

Steve Collins, Suffolk secretary of the FBU, does not think members of the public were aware that their council tax  did not cover assistance from firefighters in all instances of flooding. He believes it is a problem which needs to be addressed. I’m not sure if this is common practice throughout the country. And an outraged retained fire fighter is quoted as saying:

“We find it disgusting. It’s an embarrassment. They don’t think it is their problem. If anything ever happened in Suffolk, they would send two officers to have a look and then call in the nearest specialist rescue service, which would probably be Cambridgeshire.

“We find it insulting - a job we used to do with no problem we are now being told we can’t.”

If the government is serious about tackling climate change, which has been suggested as a possible cause for this devastating summer flood, then swift mopping up operations need to be instantly available to help displaced householders. Why was this change of policy introduced in the first place? I suspect as a cost-cutting exercise.