Iain’s political blog guide needs your votes

Posted by on Jul 29, 2007 in updates | 27 comments Iain Dale is asking bloggers to select the top political bloggers for his 2007 Guide to Political Blogging in the UK. I have written an article on women bloggers for it. It means that bloggers and blog readers will choose who they feel should be ranked at the top, who are worthy of inclusion. He would like them to make at least 10 nominations and, as an incentive, he is offering £100 of...
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My hectic summer hols

Posted by on Jul 23, 2007 in updates | 25 comments I am being pulled in all directions over the next few weeks. The school holidays are special to me because I  feel I only have my boys on borrowed time now, if we can do things together still and enjoy each others company, then I shall make the most of it. The truth is, as they are teenagers, this  largely involves me being their chauffeur, but I do have a few other plans up...
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Conservatives and Rwanda

Posted by on Jul 20, 2007 in Uncategorized | 28 comments Vicky Ford is writing some brilliant reports on her mission to Africa, to the beautiful country known best for its genocide, to Rwanda where she – and other Conservatives – are helping improve the lives of those living in abject poverty. I know it will be a truly unforgettable and moving experience. The aspiring MP is among Project Umubano in Rwanda, a...
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My vision for citizen news networking

Posted by on Jul 20, 2007 in updates | 8 comments I have just returned from an Anglia TV reception in Cambridge with the local great and the good where the company said  they would loan out video cameras if anyone wanted to record an event, encouraging them to be citizen journalists.  I turned to Bob Pearson, Director of Communications at Cambridgeshire County Council, and described to him my vision for citizen news...
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The Ealing Southall defeat

Posted by on Jul 20, 2007 in Uncategorized | 18 comments I had been hoping Conservatives would come at least second in the Ealing Southall by-election, but coming third was a bitter blow and a huge embarrassment. Tony Lit, despite his dashing Bollywood looks and huge popularity was obviously a flawed choice after it became known that he had only joined the Conservative Party shortly before his selection and had donated money to Labour just days...
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Great quote from Othello

Posted by on Jul 20, 2007 in updates | 3 comments “Men are nothing but stomachs and we their food. They eat us until they are full and then they belch us.” I would like to think that times have changed since the great Bard wrote those words in Othello, but what a wonderfully, descriptive way of putting it. And what kind of guy sits in the theatre and reads the whole play from a book as it is being performed before his very eyes by...
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The missing – Jovanna Stacey Crawford

Posted by on Jul 20, 2007 in updates | 0 comments  Jovanna Stacey Crawford went missing on June 5, 1981 when she was just two years old. Sometimes, differing information is given about the circumstances of a person’s disappearance, which is the case here. Some reports state that the last time Jovanna was seen was at her home in Bridgeport, Connecticut in the care of a family friend. The family friend gave the child to...
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A day with Othello

Posted by on Jul 19, 2007 in updates | 12 comments One of my favourite annual excursions is with my Shakespeare buddy son David when we visit The Globe Theatre and today we are going there to see Othello. I love the wit of Shakespeare and his clever play on words and have yet to see an RSC production I have not enjoyed. I’m sure today will be no exception. Performers at The Globe bring Shakespeare alive, with minstrels...
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The missing – Debbie Steel

Posted by on Jul 19, 2007 in updates | 5 comments In memory of those who are still missing.This is a local case for me, I remember reading about the mysterious disappearance of Debbie Steel, who ran a pub in Ely, Cambridgeshire with her former partner Brian McDermott. She vanished in December 1997 aged 37. I remember police digging up the immediate area and scouring the neighbourhood. They also checked CCTV in Ely and on the London...
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What will your kids be doing this summer?

Posted by on Jul 18, 2007 in updates | 16 comments I have always loved the long summer holidays with my boys, I never wanted them to be over quickly. But I wonder how our “cotton-wool“ kids are going to cope over the next few weeks, my heart goes out to them. It’s hard to believe that one-third of children aged 7 to 12 are reportedly never allowed to play outside because their parents are so concerned about their...
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What do women voters want ?

Posted by on Jul 18, 2007 in Uncategorized | 9 comments With all political parties trying to win over women’s votes, their advisers may want to dip into a new book called If They Only Listened To Us: What Women Voters Want Politicians To Hear. Soon after the 2004 presidential election, former New York Times journalist Melinda Henneberger interviewed 234 women in 12 states for their in-depth personal thoughts about politics and what they were...
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The missing – Gareth Koch

Posted by on Jul 18, 2007 in updates | 4 comments It’s been three years and four months since Gareth Koch vanished while trekking in Nepal  with a friend in March 2004 aged 24. The two went their separate ways and alarm bells rang after Gareth failed to return home as expected. His parents have worked tirelessly to find any information about Gareth’s disappearance, including writing to former...
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Where can I find the best consultant for my son?

Posted by on Jul 17, 2007 in updates | 29 comments Just in case any medics read this blog, can anyone please tell me where I can find the best consultant for my son so he does not have to have surgery on his face? I’ve mentioned our visits to Great Ormond Street Hospital to treat David’s chronic osteomyelitis in his jaw. He will  be 17 next month, he will soon be too old to continue being treated there, and I’m afraid he...
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The missing – Diana Lynn Harris

Posted by on Jul 17, 2007 in updates | 2 comments The daughter of Diana Lynn Harris has turned detective to solve the long-running mystery of her mother’s fate after she disappeared in Monroe County, Florida 25 years ago. She was ten years old at the time and had been in Michigin with her brother visiting their father. Christine Hill believes her mother stumbled across some illegal activity, possibly involving drugs, at a...
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Would Boris win your vote?

Posted by on Jul 16, 2007 in Uncategorized | 14 comments The reason I like Boris Johnson is because he is obviously very intelligent (and I have a weakness for brainy men), and the way he tends to smile and charm his way through life, through his various gaffes. At the end of the day, we know he is not perfect, but then who is? Ken Livingstone, perhaps? If Boris wins the Tory nomination for London Mayor, the campaign will be electric,...
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Stand Up Speak Up

Posted by on Jul 16, 2007 in Uncategorized | 5 comments David Cameron has launched an innovative online Stand Up Speak Up campaign to help Conservatives shape their future policy by “engaging and involving” the public, asking for their views which will then be considered by the Shadow Cabinet. In order to work, it means admitting when past decisions were wrong, agreeing to re-think the issue of grammar schools, for example,...
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The latest recycling row

Posted by on Jul 16, 2007 in updates | 2 comments While I am delighted the government has been recommended to re-think its fortnightly bin collections, I just wonder why it has taken so long when Labour ignored previous warnings about the potential health risks this involved. According to a government committee, plans to encourage householders to recycle more rubbish are too timid, too complicated and unlikely to work. It concludes...
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The missing – Sarah Morales Hernandez

Posted by on Jul 16, 2007 in updates | 2 comments Sarah Morales Hernandez, 14, went missing Las Palmas on July 30 last year after arranging to meet a friend in a shopping centre. According to her friend, the teenager never arrived and CCTV cameras have no footage of her ever entering the centre. Thorough and extensive searches of the island were carried out, as well as many newspaper appeals and posters being issued. Her...
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Women and blogging – your views please

Posted by on Jul 13, 2007 in updates | 42 comments You need to have an ultra thick skin and may sometimes wish you could crawl under a very large stone, but other than that, blogging is great fun and I have loved every day of it – well, most of them. The good days certainly outweigh the tiny minority of bad ones when I have goofed and been ridiculed by others as a result. Fortunately, it has only happened a couple of times since...
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The missing – Derek Cross

Posted by on Jul 13, 2007 in updates | 1 comment Derek Cross vanished while on holiday with his friends in Benidorm 11 years ago when he was 26. Last year Derek’s family renewed a desperate appeal for information. His son Spencer said: “I was nearly four and can remember bits about him. My mum and family tell me stories all the time and say I’m a lot like my dad. “I really want to see my dad. I miss him...
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If you are at a loose end this evening….

Posted by on Jul 12, 2007 in updates | 15 comments Well I can honestly say that so far, nobody has ever got lost under my leadership as a guide for the Ramblers’ Association. Let’s hope my walk this evening is as successful as my previous jaunts. I live very close to Wicken Fen, a stunning National Trust nature reserve, where I will lead my group of merry men and women. In fact, when I led this same walk last year, romance...
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Campaigning for twins and fairer benefits

Posted by on Jul 12, 2007 in updates | 21 comments Guest post by Linda Jones, campaigning for fairer benefits for parents of twins and triplets.  I am a twin myself and so delighted to give a guest spot to Linda Jones who writes a site dedicated to multiple births called appropriately You’ve Got Your Hands Full. Her twin daughters, Emily and Melissa, look like cherubs, I’m sure they are lots of fun too, as...
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Have you upset any of the royals?

Posted by on Jul 12, 2007 in updates | 10 comments We all know the Queen has the patience of a saint, the greatest difficulty for her must be not to show surprise or annoyance at other people’s odd behaviour. She must have known by now that they do things differently on the other side of the pond. Take George Bush’s wink, he probably thought he was being friendly and putting our monarch at her ease; at the end of the day, it was...
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The missing – Renee Aitken

Posted by on Jul 12, 2007 in updates | 0 comments Renee Aitken was abducted from her bedroom in New South Wales, Australia, in 1984 aged five. She would now be 29.  Despite exhaustive police investigations and three massive land searches, no trace of her has ever been found. An inquest was held into Renee’s disappearance four years ago when the coroner returned an open verdict. He concluded that Renee was dead...
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The media’s movers and shakers

Posted by on Jul 11, 2007 in updates | 5 comments I wonder if you have read the latest MediaGuardian 100 list published this week, their annual guide to the most powerful people in the industry. Candidates were judged on three criteria – their cultural, economic and political influence in the UK. I am surprised that Iain isn’t mentioned at all, he gives so many TV and radio interviews and writes for the national press, as well...
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