Ellee Seymour

Like David Cameron, I have packed a selection of light reading (though not trashy!), for my holiday which starts tomorrow.

It includes the works of two new authors for me, Justin Cartwright and A. L. Kennedy, as well as The Great Lover, by Jill Dawson – a novel about my adored Grantchester poet Rupert Brooke. I’ve bumped into Jill in my gym in Ely a couple of times and went to her book launch. I’m not sure how I will feel reading about this wonderful poet in a fictionalised way as I am a purist. But I am inspired by the great reviews it has had and look forward to reading about his failed love affair; a happy ending does not have the makings of a best seller!

We have taken the plunge and are going on a cruise around the Med, calling at Venice, Croatia and the Greek Islands, so it is pretty special. We are travelling with the same lovely friends we first cruised with three years. I wrote about that trip here and the amazing people I met. Lucky son David will be spending his 19th birthday at a beach barbecue in Corfu and swimming around its glorious coves.

My only complaint about our last cruise was that I never saw my two sons; they instantly made friends, went off midnight swimming and dancing – and whatever else teenage boys get up to. I was lucky if I bumped into them at all.

Whatever you are doing, I hope you have a lovely summer…

Ciao!!!

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Which political blog is your favourite? You only have until midnight on Friday to register your votes for the 2009 Blog Poll organised by Iain Dale for the TOTAL POLITICS GUIDE TO POLITICAL BLOGGING IN THE UK. As usual, it will be published in mid September in association with APCO Worldwide.

Please email your ten favourite blogs (ranked from 1-10) to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com. Naturally, I would still welcome your support.

I can’t believe how time flies, and that I was first included in one of Iain’s indispensible political blogging guides back in 2006. Well done Iain for being such a brilliant leader in this sphere and always supporting lesser known blogs.

Here is the list I submitted:

1. Conservative Home
2. Iain Dale
3. Political Betting
4. Dizzy
5. John Redwood
6. Nadine Dorries
7. John Prescott
8. Norfolk Blogger
9. Burning our Money
10. Donal Blaney

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Headway Cambridgeshire this week welcomed Cambridge MP David Howarth for a visit and he was very impressed after learning about plans to develop and expand our services  for brain injury survivors in the county.

As chair of trustees, I explained how we particularly wanted to reach out to BME groups who are brain injured and slipping through the net. I am also concerned about the long-term treatment offered to servicemen who are brain injured while serving their country.

David was a great support to us when we risked losing our premises and he initiated this meeting himself. He was very impressed with grant funding our chief executive Andrew Gardner has secured totalling almost £500,000.

He also generously agreed to host a fund-raising event in Westminster, which is always a popular venue.

David said:

“Headway should be congratulated on securing this much-needed funding which will allow it to expand its valuable work further into communities.

“The charity is turning lives around, often in the most difficult circumstances, and guaranteed funding is vital to ensure that its work can not only continue, but that it can be extended to reach those that might not otherwise benefit. I wish Headway every success for the future.”

We are also fortunate to have the support of Shadow Minister John Hayes who is again planning his popular annual parliamentary cricket match this summer which my son James hopes to join in again.

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I can’t help but feel sorry for Craig Murray, though I think he is being too harsh on himself by saying he is “probably the worst political candidate in history” following his experience in Norwich North.

The Honest candidate who is a human rights activist, writer, and former British Ambassador, Rector of the University of Dundee and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Lancaster School of Law, describes his devastating experience in today’s Mail

“The 953 votes I garnered in Norwich North last week – just 12 ahead of the BNP – in a campaign totalling £46,000 cost me nearly £50 each.

“It would have been much more effective to stand in Norwich market and accost passers-by with the line: ‘Vote for me and I’ll give you 25 quid.’  I might have ended up in jail – but I’d have doubled my vote.”

It certainly makes one wonder why so many minority parties and Independent candidates want to put themselves through all this, though Murray had genuine intentions following the MPs’ expenses row and regarded himself as a credible, qualified and experienced alternative candidate to vote for. He describes how he started with high hopes and reckoned that if he could get a good result, perhaps Esther Rantzen, Martin Bell and all would come charging in for the General Election, and give Parliament a real leavening of independent MPs, who were genuinely not in it for a lucrative career but to serve the public good.

However, while Rantzen and Bell might be familiar household names and enjoy a degree of popularity, I doubt the same can be said of Murray; I doubt many people had heard of him in Norwich North before the recent by-election. Despite his honourable intentions, Murray came sixth out of 12 candidates – and the last candidate only pulled 23 votes. How much did they cost each?

Murray also boasts that he was able to attract streams of volunteers from across the world to deliver leaflets, from as far as Ireland, Ghana, New Zealand, Australia, Uzbekistan, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Sweden, France and Poland. As admirable as this is, I wonder how many came from Norwich North where it really mattered as these volunteers would have had the knowledge to discuss important local issues with constituents and may have been able to influence them.

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Congratulations to our terrific new MP Chloe Smith – the youngest in the House of Commons – who achieved an outstanding result in Norwich North beyond our wildest dreams.

Chloe won 13,591 votes in the by election – more than twice as many as Labour candidate Chris Ostrowski, with a swing from Labour to the Tories of 16.5% on a turnout of 45%. Labour was down 26.7 per cent on the general election; it was an humiliating defeat.

Here is a link to Chloe’s victory speech in which she describes the honest way she plans to represent the local community – or they can boot her out if she feels she hasn’t kept her promise at the next election.

Hopefully this victory in Norwich North will be followed by the same result in the neighbouring constituency of Norwich South at next year’s general election when Chloe will be joined in parliament by our excellent candidate there Antony Little.

The full results were:

Chloe Smith (C) 13,591 (39.54%, +6.29%)
Chris Ostrowski (Lab) 6,243 (18.16%, -26.70%)
April Pond (LD) 4,803 (13.97%, -2.22%)
Glenn Tingle (UKIP) 4,068 (11.83%, +9.45%)
Rupert Read (Green) 3,350 (9.74%, +7.08%)
Craig Murray (Honest) 953 (2.77%)
Robert West (BNP) 941 (2.74%)
Bill Holden (Ind) 166 (0.48%, -0.17%)
Howling Laud (Loony) 144 (0.42%)
Anne Fryatt (NOTA) 59 (0.17%)
Thomas Burridge (Libertarian) 36 (0.10%)
Peter Baggs (Ind) 23 (0.07%)

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Full marks to the Cambridge Green Party councillor who came up with the wonderful  idea of making juice from fallen apples which kids had been using as missiles to pelt  at residents.

Coun Margaret Wright came up with the juicy idea to tackle anti-social behaviour and campaigners have been awarded a sustainable city grant for its purchase, which is intended for community and local use, not commercial.

Local residents are invited to take their apples along to the community apple press. The first pressing is planned at the city’s Stourbridge Fair on Saturday, September 12.

How long before other communities branch out in the same way …

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In about 10 days we set off for a cruise around the Med. But I am becoming increasingly concerned about the threat of swine flu.

A friend we are travelling with – who works in a doctor’s practice – told me last night that one of their staff was off with swine flu. My husband then mentioned that three or four of his colleagues have been sent home from work as suspected cases. This must mean we stand a higher risk of becoming infected.

I wondered if you knew of anyone who has had swine flu, and how they coped. Like airlines, I can’t imagine cruise liners wanting infected passengers on board.

*Talking about airliners, I heard some women talking about fear of flying today. One was saying that she had to be doped up with Valium before she could set foot on a plane. Another was describing how her niece had emigrated to Australia and her mum was unable to visit her because of her fear of flying. Last year the mum booked an airline ticket, but became so stressed about it that she was medically unfit to travel. This was not covered by insurance, so she lost her money.

My husband had a fear of flying once, but went on a course at Heathrow or Gatwick which cured him. Whatever you are planning this summer, enjoy….

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You would imagine Damian McBride was virtually unemployable after Smeargate. But he has miraculously landed a job as a business liaison officer at his old school, Finchley Catholic High, in north London. Its motto is: “Grant that we may always be truly wise.”

He is even proudly listed as one of the school’s Famous Old Boys, where his name is sandwiched between screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin, who scripted The Italian Job, and Father John McDonald, former Chaplain to the Catholic Stage School.

Here are some of my favourite quotes from his interview in today’s Guardian, the first one the former Downing Street spin doctor has given since resigning three months ago.

"I let them down appallingly. No 10 should have stuck the boot into me much harder.”

and

"Of course I’m sorry. I’m sorry for the damage I did to Gordon and the reputation of No 10. And I’m sorry for the offence I caused to various people by writing those emails about them. But I can’t say sorry for the emails being published because that had nothing to do with me, and I never wanted it to happen. As far as I was concerned, those emails went in the bin shortly after they were written … and that’s where they should have stayed."

and

“I knew I’d have to resign. It was the equivalent of coming home from a night at the pub and being told that the entire time you’ve been chatting with your mates someone’s been recording the conversation."

and

"I lost my dad three years ago. He was from a religious Scottish upbringing, very stern, and he would have hated reading those emails. I remember thinking: ‘Thank God my dad didn’t have to see this’, but the way Gordon reacted to me that day, it was as bad as telling my dad."

Saved by his old school, how lucky is that. I think the school is very misguided in its judgement, and should observe the ethos behind its motto.

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Congratulations to Cambridge’s most famous road sweeper Allan Brigham, who has been awarded an honorary Masters degree from Cambridge University.

I had a call from the BBC World Service last week wanting to contact him after reading about him in one of my previous posts. Allan was given the honour for his unique historical tours of Cambridge – and he is open about not being a big fan of the university because of its inclusivity.

I am joining Allan on his latest tour tomorrow around Cambridge city centre. His passion for the city and its inhabitants is really infectious and gives one a great sense of pride in living so close to such a fabulous world famous city. His anecdotes are so humorous and interesting, I could listen to him for hours.

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News that the Environment Agency is paying for 1,4000 tonnes of toxic waste illegally dumped in Brazil to be returned to Britain has made us a laughing stock.

I hope the companies concerned are fined and struck off any list of recommended companies dealing with waste and recycling. After all, this is taxpayers’ money and the companies concerned should be forced to pay all the costs incurred.

The Brazilian authorities say that the waste found in the containers included syringes, bags of blood, condoms and nappies. Seats from chemical toilets and used bandages were also reported to be mixed with the bales of recyclable plastic while other containers held computers, televisions and car batteries.

Public resentment in Brazil increased when one of the containers was found to include a collection of dirty toys with a note in Portuguese saying that they should be washed before being distributed to “poor Brazilian children”. How shameful.

I wonder if this has happened in other countries too, particularly China, which imports our waste plastic for recycling. I suspect many people are not even surprised at this latest dumping; householders often state that they believe their recyclables are dumped at landfill as a reason not to recycle. It does nothing to promote trust and confidence in this very important area. And now this dumping has increased concern about the illegal trade in hazardous waste, despite international laws preventing export without strict safeguards.

My view is that we should in the UK be responsible for recycling our own waste – why do we need to ship it half way round the world at a time when we want to reduce carbon emissions? I remember not so long ago reading that there was only one plastic recycling facility in the UK, which is ludicrous when the demand by householders to recycle plastic is very high. I hope there are more now and that we can be self sufficient in this area.

This is an issue the government has failed to grasp and deal with effectively, and has ended up making us look a laughing stock.

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