Ellee Seymour

I have been tagged by Nadine Dorries on the things Gordon Brown should be:

Proud of:

His wife and family

His thick skin

Apologise for:

His policies which resulted in the poorest fifth of households comparatively paying more tax and receiving a lower share of benefits since Labour’s election victory in 1997.

The contempt he has shown some Cabinet colleagues.

Do immediately when he becomes PM:

Definitely sack Patricia Hewitt and Margaret Beckett – but keep David Miliband as Environment Secretary.

Listen to colleagues and loosen up.

Things he should do whilst PM:

Make affordable housing a priority – but not at the risk of concreting over our countryside.

Consider the needs and dignity of the elderly, improve their health care without causing them financial hardship.

Now over to Bel, Curly and Istanbul Tory.

(Republished due to technical difficulties).

Doesn’t Gordon Brown think he has enough talented members in his own party to serve in a Cabinet?

Interestingly, Nick Robinson’s blog on this subject has a comment from a Cambridge blogger about Paddy Ashdown’s visit to the university city yesterday - with bodyguards present. Cantab asks:

“Lord Ashdown was in Cambridge yesterday evening in order to promote his new book. Perhaps surprisingly, it was deemed necessary to have bodyguards present - the same bodyguards as were present when Peter Hain, the current Northern Ireland Secretary, came to Cambridge the week before. Would that kind of fuss ordinarily be afforded to a former Lib Dem leader and former UN High Representative in Bosnia? Despite his protestations to the contrary, might Lord Ashdown have already accepted a post that would justify the security detail?”

Good question, I wonder why it was deemed necessary and the cost to the taxpayer. Surely there wasn’t a problem that he couldn’t deal with, even if he was anticipating a bit of a media scrum.

*It seems Brown’s invitation to Paddy Ashdown didn’t win the approval of Alan Johnson, who is running for the deputy Labour leader. He said this morning that Labour was not interested in a coalition, that the Liberals had not had a seat at the cabinet table for 100 years and it would probably be another 100 until they did again.

Hardly an auspicious start for Brown.

(Republished following technical difficulties today)

Etan Patz’s disappearance on 25 May 1979 is the is the oldest open missing child case in New York City’s history.

Six-year-old Etan had grabbed his school books and given his mother a goodbye kiss before leaving to catch the bus to school. He was never seen again.

In the months and years that followed, Etan became the symbol for lost children all over America. Then, in 1982, President Reagan proclaimed May 25, the anniversary of Etan’s disappearance, as National Missing Children’s Day. Each year since, the U.S. Department of Justice has held a ceremony to commemorate missing children and to honour men and women across the nation who have worked tirelessly to recover missing children and reunite them with their families. Sadly, Etan was never found, but National Missing Children’s Day continues to be a tribute to his memory.

In 2003, suspicion irrevocably settled upon convicted child molester and paedophile, Jose Antonio Ramos, 60, who is serving time in a Pennsylvania prison for molesting boys. He had been a friend of Etan’s baby-sitter.

In 2001, Etan’s parents declared their missing son legally dead and pursued a civil case against Ramos, who was found liable for Patz’s death in May 2004. They were awarded a sum of $2 million, which they have never collected.

Each year, on Etan’s birthday, his father sends a card to Ramos asking him: “What did you do to our son?”

In memory of those who are still missing.

 (Republishing following technical difficulties today)

I have had a very difficult couple of days publishing posts on my blog using Windows Live Writer. Microsoft picked up on it instantly after I wrote about it earlier today and discovered that a block had been created by the server that hosts my website for security reasons.

They have been in contact with the host server and I am now hoping that I can successfully publish this post to remove the block, that it will mean the end of a very frustrating couple of days.

Fingers crossed!

Well I’m sorry if MPs get bored sitting in Parliament. And I’m disappointed to hear that to help them through this ordeal, they could be allowed to take their BlackBerrys in to the most hallowed chamber in the land to help them pass the time.

I’ve never used one of these wonderful gadgets, but I’m sure it could easily be used for mischief making in the House, with MPs pinging messages to each other, maybe playing games on it as well to alleviate their boredom. And, as Nick Hopkins warns, it is totally addictive.
A report by the Commons Modernisation Committee has recommended permitting the use of handheld devices in the Commons so backbenchers can make better use of their time.

According to the committee, lengthy speeches and long waits before being called upon to ask a question can mean backbench MPs are left twiddling their thumbs for hours. And that boredom leads to low morale and may even be discouraging some MPs from attending parliamentary debates.

I do sympathise with the frustration of MPs wasting time when there are many urgent tasks that need to be done, but I do not feel this is the answer. I would suggest that they put their House in order so that it runs more efficiently and timely.

France certainly won’t be following this example. their counter-espionage chiefs have upset hundreds of ministrial staff by banning BlackBerry mobile phones for fear that the Americans may be spying on their emails.

I see that David Miliband becomes the first minister to enter Second Life as an avatar to promote a carbon calculator. I am thinking of joining him there.
According to the erudite Tom Paine, there is an airship in Second Life named after me. Although I regret that it is unlikely I will be able to join my Blogpower colleagues for their virtual awards ceremony on 1 July, it gave me the idea of holding a birthday party in Second Life which you are all invited to. You can share a glass of bubbly with me and maybe take a trip in my airship. Who knows what other surprises might be in store.

I’m hoping Neville Hobson will show me the ropes as he is an avid addict of Second Life. Once I get the idea of it, I will help anyone interested.

You are welcome to join me on 3 July - the more the merrier!

I use Windows Live Writer to write my posts and it has always been brilliant. But yesterday it mysteriously refused to publish them, though I managed to write my missing post ok. It is so bizarre and infuriating.

I spent ages trying to sort it out, but a message appeared saying there was an error which refused me access. The same happened again this morning. It means I have to resort to using my WordPress template, and I never did get the hang of adding pics and getting the text to wrap around.

As a result, I will have to pubish posts without pics, including those about the missing, which I am very disappointed about. Because my great technical supporter Geoff is away on holiday, I will have to wait until he returns in the beginning of July before it can be remedied. I will then update all the pics on the missing posts.

*Update: My technical problems seem to persist and some of my previous posts now appear distorted. My most recent ones seem to be ok, so I shall carry on and hope for the best. You can download recent posts from my sidebar where they will appear as normal (fingers crossed).