Throwing a sickee

Posted by on Jan 15, 2008 in updates | 12 comments My son David came home early from school yesterday covered  from head to toe in bumpy rashes, they are all over his body, as well as his face. The doctor instantly diagnosed them as Urticaria caused by an allergic reaction. They look very much like a heat rash. David had been having a pretty normal day at school and we have no idea how he became infected. He is a very healthy 17-year-old,...
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Are you an organ donor?

Posted by on Jan 14, 2008 in Uncategorized | 15 comments I carry an organ donor card, and have given blood, but I don’t want it to be legislated on a presumed consent basis, it should be a personal choice. This is a very emotive topic and is a decision an individual can make before his death so the next of kin does not have to make an agonising decision. I agree it’s tragic that there is a critical shortage of organ donors, and that lives...
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Robert Sturdy on rural roads and energy

Posted by on Jan 14, 2008 in updates | 0 comments My MEP Robert Sturdy has made headlines in two leading regional papers today. The Eastern Daily Press describes how hopes for a dual carriageway to span Norfolk as a major European route were scrapped surreptitiously by Eurocrats. Robert discovered this was because our government was not expected to upgrade the A47 before 2020, so it was downgraded from the transEuropean network of major routes...
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Conrad Black’s £1,200 biography

Posted by on Jan 14, 2008 in updates | 5 comments I know he’s a fascinating man, but why does the biography of Conrad Black entitled Robber Baron: Lord Black of Crossharbour, by George Tombs cost a hefty £1,274.25 plus postage at Politicos where it is reduced from its normal price of £1,699? I don’t imagine it will make the best sellers’ list at that price. So I have searched around the internet and deduced that it...
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Drinking to destruction

Posted by on Jan 11, 2008 in updates | 19 comments I love statistics, but not these.  Today we are shockingly told that 1,000 binge drinkers are hospitalised in Britain every day. This is a subject which is often on my mind since losing my friend Sue to drink, as well as Celia, who was found to  be four times over the limit one morning when stopped by police. I found myself at Christmas thinking of how sad the bereaved family of...
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Another PC World complaint

Posted by on Jan 11, 2008 in updates | 27 comments I decided to buy a flatscreen TV with my £100 vouchers from PC World after Lord Kalms took up my complaint following the poor service of their Tech Guys. I have just discovered that the one I bought, and was told by their staff would be perfectly suitable, an Acer X193W, does not have a TV socket and seems to be a PC monitor. The Sky technician who called round this morning to upgrade our...
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On the road to manhood

Posted by on Jan 11, 2008 in updates | 11 comments I love surprising people, and yesterday I surprised my 17-year-old son David by collecting him from the railway station after school with L plates on my car. He was to drive home. David couldn’t wait to get behind the wheel. We zig-zagged around the car park a bit before joining other commuters. I kept reminding David we didn’t need to rush it, that he was driving a different car...
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Plastic bags don’t grow on trees

Posted by on Jan 10, 2008 in updates | 22 comments Banning plastic bags is one of my pet subjects, a topic close to my heart after researching and writing an academic paper on this subject. So I’m delighted to read that China, a great provider of plastic goods, is in fact banning free plastic bags, those horrid, flimsy things that are so thoughtlessly discarded and can be seen clinging to hedges and trees. I have been most impressed by...
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Losing my cleaning lady

Posted by on Jan 10, 2008 in updates | 17 comments I hope I don’t get any unexpected visitors over the next day or two. My cleaning lady has given up the mop for a new job and it has left me in a bit of a dither. Pat helped me out for four years and became a friend, and before that Nicky took care of my domestic chores. I am now thinking that perhaps I should carry out these tasks myself. I love my home, I love it looking sparkling clean...
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Defra’s £100,000 staff trebles – and a £63 million fine

Posted by on Jan 9, 2008 in Uncategorized | 4 comments Here’s one for Burning Our Money. The number of Defra staff earning more than £100,000 has trebled in the past five years. This cannot surely be linked to their performance as it struggles with waste and recycling, climate change, floods, coastal erosion, supporting our farmers – and ensuring they get their payments on time. We now learn that delays in payments have led to the...
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How could pollsters get it so wrong?Does it come down to race?

Posted by on Jan 9, 2008 in Uncategorized | 17 comments Crikey, what an amazing result following pollsters’ predictions of another sweeping victory for Democrat Barack Obama in New Hampshire. He seemed a dead cert to win ahead of rival Hillary Clinton, but virtually all of the late polling on the Democratic side proved to be very wrong. The last Rasmussen Report had Obama +7 over Clinton. CBS had him +7. USA Today had Obama +13 and CNN +10. So...
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Changing cultural beliefs on prostitution

Posted by on Jan 8, 2008 in updates | 40 comments I had a very productive meeting with the dynamic Dr Carrie Pemberton yesterday, founder of CHASTE – Churches Alert to Sex Trafficking in Europe. She is thrilled that Home Office Minister Vernon Coker will be speaking at their major conference in London this month, which focuses on the demand for prostitution. She is also thrilled with four recent anonymous donations from men who wanted...
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Why does government refuse to regulate Botox?

Posted by on Jan 7, 2008 in updates | 13 comments While the government plans to regulate alternative and complementary therapists, should it not also offer a similar scheme for the treatment of Botox? The government has refused to regulate botox treatment, ignoring a recommendation from the Expert Working Group on Cosmetic Surgery in 2005 that Botox should be monitored by the Healthcare Commission to safeguard patient safety. The government...
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Desperate Iraqis sell their children

Posted by on Jan 6, 2008 in updates | 11 comments Families are not only been ripped apart by death and destruction in war-torn Iraq, but have resorted to selling their children, according to this disturbing Aljazeera report. It is feared that children are being trafficked for the sex trade and the organ transplant black market. Who cannot feel the pain of Abu Muhammad, a Baghdad resident, who convinced himself that selling his young daughter to...
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Two portraits of a gay icon and mad arsonist

Posted by on Jan 4, 2008 in updates | 12 comments Whenever I visit one of my friends, my head instantly swivels in one direction – to the two fabulous drawings on each side of her fireplace. I find them so captivating. But then the subjects are two very extraordinary men. Full marks if you have identified them as the uniquely flamboyant gay icon Quentin Crisp (left) and mad Jonathan Martin (right), famed for burning down York Minster in...
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Divorce by text message

Posted by on Jan 4, 2008 in updates | 17 comments Would it have made any difference if Iqbal Abul Nasr had answered a missed phone call from her husband? Would he still have sent her a cruel text message stating: “I divorce you because you didn’t answer your husband.� I doubt it. In line with Shaira law, men do not need to go to court to file for divorce. A unilateral declaration of divorce by a man, repeated three times, formally ends a...
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The magic of swans

Posted by on Jan 4, 2008 in updates | 11 comments There is something very magical about swans, particularly this time of the year when thousands of graceful Bewicks and Whoopers migrate from Arctic Russia and Iceland to spend the winter at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Welney, close to where I live. When two keen ornithological friends visited me from Cologne last week, Dan and Cathy, this was where we headed. I had borrowed my...
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A generation of sickees

Posted by on Jan 3, 2008 in updates | 10 comments There are more young people under 35 unable to work because of stress and depression than on the dole, according to today’s FT. The report says that more than half a million young Britons are officially too sick to work and claim incapacity benefits. This figure includes more than 300,000 young people claiming for “mental and behavioural disorders”. I bet the government wishes...
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Twitter helps find missing girl

Posted by on Jan 3, 2008 in updates | 7 comments I use Twitter and think it is a great micro-blogging service. And now it has been credited with finding a missing runaway 16-year-old girl, Manessa Donovan, believed to have been with a 38-year-old man. This is what her family says: In truth, the search had stalled out after 2 weeks of depending solely on local law enforcement. Once you guys were involved, we had locations, eye-witness...
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Sexism and the police force

Posted by on Jan 2, 2008 in updates | 26 comments I’ve no idea how many women firearms officers we have in our police force at the moment. Very few, it may seem, because “macho” endurance tests prevent them from promotion into specialist units. Cambs Chief Constable Julie Spence is president of the British Association for Women in Policing and has called for a change in “outdated” assessments of upper-body strength...
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Have you tried a detox plan?

Posted by on Jan 2, 2008 in updates | 22 comments I thought I would try it out to give my diet a good start – detox for a month. My version means no alcohol or caffeine for a month. Starting today. I have to make this commitment here to ensure I see it through. I have never taken such drastic measures before, but I need to lose a stone to fit into a smart new pink silk suit for a couple of forthcoming weddings. I was going to try the...
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