Why do women stay with brutes?

Posted by on Mar 31, 2008 in updates | 18 comments I was astonished to read about the cruelty levelled by Sir Vidia Naipaul against the women who loved him – his Oxford educated wife Pat and mistress of 20 years Margaret Murray, for whom the attraction was merely sexual. I found John Carey’s review in yesterday’s Sunday Times on the authorized biography of VS Naipaul, "The World Is What It Is", by Patrick French, both...
read more

French chic, where are the heels?

Posted by on Mar 30, 2008 in updates | 25 comments The outfits were elegant and demure and deliberately understated to accommodate the renowned British reserve. But one thing stood out and disappointed me about Carla Sarkozy‘s carefully planned wardrobe during her visit to the UK last week -where were the heels? I only started wearing flatties after I began to carry babies around on my hips. Up until then, I always wore the right colour...
read more

What a difference a week makes

Posted by on Mar 30, 2008 in updates | 14 comments Just before Easter I was ranked at just over 19,000 by Technorati, the internet search engine which tracks every blog in the world. In the last week, thanks to my hectic home and work schedule which resulted in light blogging, I dropped 10,000 places, but am still ranked above 30,000. Just. And my blog was ranked as high as 13,000 a year ago when I had more time to spend on it. I really value my...
read more

A literary weekend in Cambridge

Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 in updates | 6 comments I’m attending a couple of meetings this morning, then heading off to Cambridge Wordfest for the rest of the day for some stimulation at this always exciting literary festival being held this weekend. It may not surprise you to learn that with my passion for environmental issues, I am particularly looking forward to listening to Sir David King, the government’s former chief...
read more

Phoning home from the sky

Posted by on Mar 27, 2008 in updates | 13 comments There was a time you could go to the cinema and enjoy a film knowing everyone’s mobile phone was switched off. That is not the case any more. When my family and I this week went to see my husband’s starring role in The Other Boleyn Girl, somebody’s phone rang and the woman in front spent the whole time texting. Now, disappointingly, I learn that one of the last public...
read more

Supporting brain injury survivors

Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 in updates | 6 comments I’m wearing my trustees hat today and will be spending some time at Headway Cambridgeshire with its excellent CEO Andrew Gardner. Next week is Action for Brain Injury Week and it will focus on highlighting research which describes the discrimination and prejudice experienced by brain injury survivors, as well as the lack of proper care they are given by agencies which should be supporting...
read more

Why Darling shouldn’t be banned from pubs

Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 in Uncategorized | 13 comments There is an internet campaign to ban Chancellor Alistair Darling from every pub in the land following the 4p per pint tax increase in this month’s budget. Musings of a Reactionary Snob is one blogger giving this his full support. But I think banning him is taking the easy way out, that voters should have the opportunity of coming face to face with him and giving him their own personal...
read more

Happy Easter

Posted by on Mar 21, 2008 in updates | 22 comments Happy Easter everyone. I want to have some family time this Easter, so blogging will be light. It won’t be long before David flies the nest and heads off to uni and I want us to enjoy as many family trips together as possible before he leaves. It’s difficult to plan days out for teenage boys, but I thought they might enjoy The London Bridge Experience, which takes you deep into...
read more

Off to York today

Posted by on Mar 20, 2008 in updates | 6 comments I’m off to York today to spend the day with Julian Sturdy. A pity there is never time to tour the city because it is stunning and I would love to study its history and architecture. Apologies for the light blogging this week, but when duty calls, a girl has to do what a girl has to...
read more

How can we save our post offices?

Posted by on Mar 19, 2008 in updates | 7 comments Quote of the day from Post Offices Minister Pat McFadden on Post Office closures: "In most of the local closure plans so far about 99% of people will either see no change to their current post office or will still be within a mile of one by road." He obviously hasn’t listened to a word that has been said by protestors up and down the country, the huge impact it will have on...
read more

Another whirlwind day

Posted by on Mar 18, 2008 in updates | 8 comments I am spending today interviewing a very unusual person for a book I plan to ghost write about his extraordinary life. Once it is accepted by a publisher, and my agent thinks that should not be a problem, I shall tell you more, if I am allowed to. It’s all very exciting.
read more

"It must be done by legal means.."

Posted by on Mar 18, 2008 in updates | 9 comments “It must be done by legal means.” That is the line my husband speaks as an extra when he plays a lawyer in the newly released film, The Other Boleyn Girl, which we have yet to see. My husband has a very loud and deep voice and I can imagine it resounded around Ely Cathedral. However, it did not make King Henry V111 quake in his shoes, He demanded: “I don’t care how it is...
read more

Promoting food and farming, and rushing around

Posted by on Mar 17, 2008 in updates | 6 comments I’m hoping for dry weather today as I am spending the morning at the rather stunning Cambridge University Botanic Garden where Shadow Agriculture Minister James Paice, Cambridge MP David Howarth, Euro-MP Andrew Duff and Cambridge Mayor Jenny Bailey will roll up their sleeves and join local school children in sowing vegetable seeds. They will also pledge their support to educate our young...
read more

Memories of Sue

Posted by on Mar 14, 2008 in updates | 6 comments I met my friend Sue’s husband for lunch today, my friend who died last year. They didn’t have any children and have no close family in the area and he is pretty much alone. He works abroad half the year as a tax exile, he is a captain of a merchant navy ship. I’m afraid to say he is not too good at the moment and is waiting for a diagnosis from his doctor following blood tests...
read more

Shannon Matthews found alive and well

Posted by on Mar 14, 2008 in updates | 12 comments I imagine the whole nation is feeling overwhelming relief following the brilliant news that nine-year-old schoolgirl Shannon Matthews has been found alive and well, three weeks after going missing. She had been found concealed in the base of a divan bed in a house in Dewsbury and a 39-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of abduction. This is particularly great news following the first...
read more

My latest interest

Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 in updates | 12 comments I keep meaning to practise my clarinet more often, get stuck into the garden, read all those books I bought last year, spend more time with my mum, visit the gym more frequently and enjoy longer country walks and bird watching trips. I’m never short of things to do – and that’s on top of work, chores and being a permanent family chauffeur. So why am I taking up bridge classes...
read more

Do you wash your feet before going to bed?

Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 in updates | 11 comments My husband doesn’t wash his feet before going to bed, so he can count his blessings for not marrying this Chinese woman called Luo, who burned her husband to death for failing to do so. Can you imagine what his fate would have been if he had not replaced the top back on the toothpaste or put the loo seat...
read more

"Draconian" PCT denies treatment to more than 1,000 patients

Posted by on Mar 13, 2008 in updates | 3 comments Bravo to the York Press for launching a Let Your Doctor Decide campaign in protest against a PCT vetting panel which decides if patients are to be given further treatment as part of a cost-cutting exercise. Last year the panel denied treatment to more than 1,000 cases – nearly 40% of the referrals – including some for serious illnesses such as cancer. There are lots of angry people,...
read more

Early Day Motion supports families of missing people

Posted by on Mar 12, 2008 in updates | 14 comments I met some wonderful people today, families and friends of missing people, all marching through London to raise awareness about the lack of support they receive. All trying to do their best for the loved ones they have lost. Their personal stories are not just tragic because of their huge loss, but because of the way these cases are dealt with by police and officials – particularly...
read more

Marching for the missing

Posted by on Mar 12, 2008 in updates | 2 comments I shall be joining families of missing people and marching with them in London this morning. They are urging the government to listen to their poignant stories about inexplicably losing people they love, and to offer much needed support. Who knows how they cope, how they carry on with their daily lives when so many questions remain unanswered. The least I can do is be there with them, shoulder...
read more

YouTube advice needed

Posted by on Mar 12, 2008 in updates | 6 comments Does anyone have any idea why, when I download YouTubes from my Sanyo Xacti C5, it doesn’t show the whole video, just the top left hand quarter? I’m wondering whether it is something to do with Windows Vista, I do not recall having this problem before changing my computer. Any advice would be much...
read more

Britishness and the new Kit Kat

Posted by on Mar 11, 2008 in updates | 11 comments How can we persuade our manufacturers to demonstrate their Britishness? It seems ironic that while our teenagers are being bribed, sorry offered council tax and student fee rebate incentives if they volunteer to take an allegiance oath to Queen and country, our British companies are opting to produce items thousands of miles away rather than at home. Should they be offered similar incentives, I...
read more

Should we have a Minister for Pensioners?

Posted by on Mar 10, 2008 in Uncategorized | 13 comments We have a Minister for Women and Equalities in Harriet Harman, and a Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families in Ed Balls. That covers a few chunks of our society, but there seems to be no dedicated role which cares for one of our most vulnerable groups – the elderly. While we fret about our youngsters eating five portions of fruit and veg a day and tucking into healthy school...
read more

Will Civil Serf blogger be fired?

Posted by on Mar 9, 2008 in updates | 37 comments A civil servant who wrote an unflinching blog where she described her working life, the incompetences and inadequacies she regularly encountered, could now be in very hot water for publishing her views. The Civil Serf blog now seems to have been removed after it was highlighted in today’s Sunday Times, with the headline: "Hunt is on for demon blogger of Whitehall," while the...
read more

Government urged to listen to families of missing people

Posted by on Mar 9, 2008 in updates | 3 comments Here are some heartrending stories from courageous families who will be attending Wednesday’s March for The Missing. I don’t think I will be able to keep a dry eye. The march begins at 10am on March 12th at the Raoul Wallenberg Memorial, opposite 32 Great Cumberland Place, London W1. The families hope the march will highlight the scale of their helplessness, the effect a missing...
read more