Julian Sturdy – York Outer video

Posted by on Sep 29, 2007 in updates | 0 comments This is a video I recorded of Julian Sturdy in the constituency of York Outer, where he is a Conservative parliamentary candidate. You can see him at home and in the community, working with local people on local issues. This video focuses on Julian’s campaign to dual the York northern ring road. Many thanks to Geoff for doing a great job editing this for...
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I slept in the spare room last night

Posted by on Sep 29, 2007 in updates | 26 comments I was removing the last crusty flakes of mascara when I saw IT through the mirror – and froze. A spider the size of a dinner plate attached to the side of my bed. I could feel the ends of my hairs tightening in shock. Equipped for such an emergency, I silently inched my way towards the spider catcher perched on my en-suite shelf, keeping my eyes firmly fixed on this unwanted leggy...
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Thanks for voting me in the Top Ten

Posted by on Sep 28, 2007 in updates | 9 comments I’m thrilled and delighted to be ranked at No 10 in Iain’s 2007 Guide to Political Blogging voted for by fellow bloggers and readers. It includes a list of 500. A thousand thanks to you all. What particularly thrills me is that my blog is enjoyed by a wide spectrum of people from different backgrounds – not just Conservatives. For example, there is Linda Jones, who admits to...
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The Foreign Office blog

Posted by on Sep 28, 2007 in updates | 2 comments Congratulations to David Miliband for launching a blog as Foreign Secretary. I know he made mistakes with his Defra site, which he has acknowledged, and I am chuffed to still be included on his new blogroll. I did predict back in July that he might be blogging again as Foreign Secretary. I like his approach, despite our different political backgrounds. He is the only minister who wants to write...
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Ending sex slavery is not a Home Office target

Posted by on Sep 28, 2007 in updates | 8 comments Let’s hope Home Secretary Jacqui Smith reads the report in today’s Times about sex slavery in Cambridgeshire. Women are said to be traded in auctions for between £500 and £3,000. They are then virtual prisoners in rented houses. An investigation by The Times has revealed how immigration from Eastern Europe has brought a supply of women deceived into thinking good jobs await...
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Is Gordon Brown now a lady’s man?

Posted by on Sep 27, 2007 in Uncategorized | 9 comments First he wows Lady Thatcher, then make Mariella Frostrup come over “all unncessary”. How many more women can Gordon Brown woo in the run up to the increasingly imminent election? I wonder if he has been following advice given in The Statesman which pointed out that Gordon the female vote decides elections, he needs more than a make over and won’t win unless he learns to speak...
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Our missed IT election opportunities

Posted by on Sep 27, 2007 in updates | 1 comment I have just heard on the radio that Labour is appointing key staff for campaigning logistics and media relations – to start next Monday – gearing up for an autumn general election. Whatever the outcome, I am disappointed that we did not use this last year to further develop political campaiging on the internet, especially as our political parties have been following the impact this...
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Nadine and hospital cleanliness

Posted by on Sep 26, 2007 in Uncategorized | 11 comments Nadine Dorries used to be a nurse, so David Cameron should sit up and listen when she offers him expert advice about cleaning hospital wards. She firmly believes uniforms should be laundered on site, that this would help wipe out infections. What she says makes good sense, and you can read it here. It made me reflect on my recent personal experiences at the University College Hospital, London...
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The missing – Madeleine McCann and Denise Pipitone

Posted by on Sep 26, 2007 in updates | 10 comments   The young girl being carried on the back of a traditionally dressed Moroccan woman in North Africa does look remarkably like Madeleine McCann. But parents of missing children are used to having their hopes raised – and dashed. It’s so difficult to be sure from a grainy photo. We can but hope. Similarities have also been noticed between the young girl leading the procession...
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Iain’s list of top Conservative blogs

Posted by on Sep 25, 2007 in Social Media, updates | 14 comments This is Iain’s list of top Conservative blogs compiled by a panel of 12 right wing bloggers. He wonders whether my “softer, more personal approach” was not to their liking, which is why they placed me at 19. And I am thrilled to be included in the top ten on the main list, which I have not yet seen, thanks to the votes of other bloggers and my readers. My approach to blogging...
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Let’s campaign for the Red Arrows

Posted by on Sep 25, 2007 in updates | 9 comments Were you shocked, like me, to learn that the Red Arrows have been banned from performing at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics – because they are too British! If so, then please sign the following 10 Downing Street protest petition to try and get this ludicrous decision overturned. The Arrows, officially named the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, have flown at 4,000 festivals...
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Blogging and women

Posted by on Sep 25, 2007 in updates | 9 comments This is my article about women and blogging which I contributed for Iain Dale’s 2007 Guide to Political Blogging, which will be published this week. I’ve been writing my blog for 18 months and I have never had so much fun. I have also discovered that it is not for the faint hearted. Women bloggers still make headline news in a way that their male counterparts don’t. Women bloggers...
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Saudi women petition for right to drive

Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 in updates | 14 comments Saudi women are the only women in the world who are not allowed to drive as a result of an extremely strict interpretation of Islamic law. Instead, wealthy women hire live-in chauffeurs, while poor women must rely on male relatives for transportation. Now a women’s group called the Committee of Demanders of Women’s Right to Drive Cars has launched a campaign against the ban,...
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Schilling’s sleuthing by Matt Wardman

Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 in updates | 8 comments Matt Wardman of Wardman Wire has been doing some sleuthing on the Schilling’s saga. He told me: “I couldn’t make it up. They have a PR problem themselves. Search “schillings” on google and the first hit is Bloggerheads. Hits 4 and 5 are Craigmurray.co.uk. Last week they sponsored a conference about “protect your reputation”, attended by Mr Schilling, no...
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The missing – Chen Jie

Posted by on Sep 23, 2007 in updates | 8 comments In China, 190 children are snatched every day – more than twice the number taken in England and Wales in a year. The Chinese government does not acknowledge the extent of the problem, or the cause. The Single Child Policy has made it essential to have a son, leading to the abortion of more than 40 million girls and setting the price on a boy’s head at more than six months’...
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Cambridge street life through the eyes of Stuart Shorter

Posted by on Sep 23, 2007 in updates | 9 comments   Step out of your comfort zone this evening and see Cambridge through the eyes of Stuart Shorter, a homeless drug addict. Stuart:A Life Backwards is compelling viewing, it traces his life backwards (his own suggestion), and author Alexander Masters had no idea what horrors would be revealed. This gives you a rough idea: According to his mother, Stuart was a happy-go-lucky little boy,...
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Bluetongue plagues our countryside

Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 in updates | 6 comments With Bluetongue disease detected in Suffolk, I ask myself what is  happening to our countryside? And what confidence can we have in Defra, after its recent bungling of foot and mouth disease? The arrival of bluetongue was a shock, it is spread to farm animals by midges. How can it be controlled? Climate change has even been blamed for its presence, according to this BBC report: The...
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The Brown’s body language

Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 in Uncategorized | 13 comments What does this picture tell you about the Brown’s body language? Gordon Brown is deliberately posing for the camera with a very fixed smile, while Sarah appears to be floating by his side as an uncomfortable appendage. We were used to seeing the Blairs holding hands while they beamed for the world’s media. There is no doubt they were devoted to each other. And while it is true that...
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How many women could handle 200 lovers?

Posted by on Sep 21, 2007 in updates | 18 comments I received an invitation today with my latest edition of The Spectator, to celebrate the launch of a new biography, “Jennie Churchill, Winston’s American Mother“, by Anne Sebba. It boasts that she was “outspoken, dazzlingly beautiful and had 200 lovers.” And although she married three times, the real love of her life was her son Winston. Wikipedia charts many of...
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Outrageous shutting down of British blogs

Posted by on Sep 21, 2007 in updates | 10 comments It’s extraordinary, but true, and even though we live in a democracy where freedom of speech is a right we can enjoy, that freedom does not extend to your blog if you upset a rich and powerful person. That is the gist of Iain Dale’s unbelievable post outlining the shutting down of Tim Ireland’s Bloggerhead’s site, as well as Craig Murray‘s, former Ambassador to...
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This post deleted at the request of the person involved.

Posted by on Sep 21, 2007 in updates | 0 comments
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Your question for Question Time

Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 in updates | 5 comments Apparently Question Time has a new look when it returns this evening, and we can email questions in advance to quiz the panelists. Tonight they include Chief Whip Geoff Hoon; Conservative MP John Redwood; Lord Ashdown, former leader of the Liberal Democrats; editor Janet Street-Porter and CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour. However, it’s always the unpredictability of the audience that...
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Welcome to blogging, Stephen Fry

Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 in updates | 12 comments Stephen Fry’s first post on his new blog has shown him to be something of a geek. Let’s hope he shares some gossipy tit bits about his theatrical life, as well as describing how he copes with depression. I find Stephen Fry a totally fascinating man, I would love to have dinner with him, to fall under the spell of his hypnotic voice. I walked by a restaurant in Burnham Market last...
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The missing – Stephen Hadley

Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 in updates | 0 comments It’s exactly a year today since Stephen Hadley was last seen, aged 26. He had been staying with friends in Walsall when he disappeared. He was last seen shopping in a supermarket at about 1pm on Wednesday, 20 September, and a few hours later he sent his mother a text message. Stephen has not been heard from since. Stephen,who is originally from Devon, belonged to a band, and guitarist...
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Why is the world such a cruel place?

Posted by on Sep 19, 2007 in updates | 15 comments I always think I will never want to carry on living if either of my two sons died. I was so deeply saddened to learn of the death of Joanne Coombs, who was only 40. She was reportedly found dead at Manningtree, Essex, last night. Her beautiful 17-year-old daughter Natasha was found dead near the same spot on 10 August after being hit by a train on her way home from a night out with...
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