Ellee Seymour

LabourList contributor Bryony King reckons that The Sun’s support for Conservatives isn’t a worrying matter for Gordon Brown.

She believes that Labour can rely on the internet to bring them in votes:

“If we want to forget about The Sun, which I’m sure we all do, then we need to switch our focus to the internet and to the front line. Elections are won by people, not papers, and we need to make sure the Labour message is reaching those people and we need to be communicating with them. MPs, PPCs and activists can all play a part in the internet campaign. Labour politicians need to be following the example of those who are already utilising the internet, with party members aiding and networking on their behalf.

“Voters are as likely to be twittering, logging into facebook or watching videos on  YouTube than reading The Sun everyday. That’s where Labour need to be with them to win the election.”

Labour has already lost that battle too, Bryony. Barack Obama raised a staggering half a billion dollars online in his 21 month campaign for the White House. How does Labour’s online fundraising campaign compare to that? When it is pulling in millions too, then yes Bryony, Labour will have connected with its voters and can rely on the internet to pull in votes.

While Bryony and myself might be up to speed with the social media joys and benefits of the internet, I do not believe that this is true of the majority of British voters. That’s why Conservative candidates are working hard at grass roots level and knocking on doors galore, and why David Cameron has been travelling around the country with his brilliant Direct Cameron tour to meet as many voters as possible face to face, as well as enjoying the support of The Sun, and networking on the web.

Here is the link of a video I recorded about Obama’s fantastic use of the internet in his election campaign which political campaigners might find of interest.

Gordon had better start packing his bags….

*Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Labour is in serious financial straits, according to Iain Dale, and is struggling to meet its annual loan interest payments of £2 million. He reports that they cannot pay back their existing loans and in any normal meaning of the term, they are technically insolvent.

I hope all the Labour activists are twittering hard!

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I was very disappointed to see a full page advertisement in the national press today by Tesco promoting 1 litre of spirits for £10 – a whopping 75% reduction; this is even cheaper than duty free prices from what I remember over the summer.

If highly profitable stores can slash its prices like this, why don’t they act responsibly and offer this kind of generous saving on quality foods for hard up shoppers, instead of promoting buy one get one free” or “three for two” price deals which forces consumers to stockpile and throw out unused produce?

My main concern is how this latest offer – displayed under Tesco’s well known strapline “every little helps” – makes alcohol more affordable and accessible at a time when increasing numbers of people need help to overcome alcohol addiction.

This is highlighted today by a report in the East Anglian Daily Times that more than 100,000 people in Suffolk has an alcohol problem. We are constantly reminded that this is a serious issue which is escalating in the UK, with more people than ever being admitted to hospital with drink problems.

It’s also totally ludicrous and baffling that alcohol costs less than water. No wonder supermarkets have been accused of “exhibiting the morality of a crack dealer”.

Who is Tesco helping here?

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I’m waiting for my arrest because I also had a regular free child care swap with a friend during our toddlers’ nursery school days.

Apparently, this kind of adult consensual arrangement is in breach of the Childcare Act because it lasted more than two hours and constitutes “a reward”. Two stunned detective constables have been told they need to register as childminders and that they have been breaking the law as they should have had a criminal record check. Surely police officers have already had one!

Who would have thought that a reciprocated arrangement which enabled two bright women to carry on working around their families’ needs in a homely environment and didn’t cost them a penny during an economic downturn was illegal! It makes a mockery of common sense and the promotion of family and community values.

I doubt this is an isolated case. Like thousands, nay millions of other mums who have found themselves in this situation, I plead guilty too.

The pic shows one of the police officers, Detective Constable Leanne Shepherd with her child Edie who said: "I couldn’t have hoped for better. The children were so happy, work was really happy because we were able to give as much as we could but doing the same job."

Any working mum will tell you that such such sentiments are priceless and a terrific achievement and gives her much needed peace of mind.

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With the Chancellor Alastair Darling warning Gordon Brown that his Ministers are losing “the will to live” in the run-up to the election and acting like a football team with their heads down well before the final whistle, who better to turn to for tactical advice than the luscious Nancy Dell ’Olio.

Mind you, the former flame of England’s football manager, Sven Ericksson, didn’t win her personal match with the Swede, who repeatedly cheated on her.

Nancy describes her affection for the Labour Party – and in particularly Peter Mandelson – in this Mail on Sunday article, stating that she is “in love” with him, and that “if a crocodile were to eat Gordon Brown in Brighton this week,” Mandelson should be the next Prime Minister.

Nancy, I don’t think there are any crocodiles in Brighton. But tell Gordon to watch out for the piranhas!! There might be plenty about.

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I have been following readers’ letters in The Times about palliative care for the dying and penned one describing my personal experiences following the recent death of my mother-in-law Vera.

I found it distressing to watch Vera unable to swallow fluids in the her last days, particularly as a small sponge on a stick which I had used to dip in water and moisten the mouth of my father in his last hours, was no longer available. This is what I wrote:

Sir, I helped to care for my mother-in-law, who died at home from a terminal illness this month. We tried giving her fluids through a straw, a baby beaker and a teaspoon until her swallowing reflexes stopped working. We were told she could choke if we continued, and that we should let nature take its course.

I asked the district nurse for some sponges on a stick that we could dip into water to moisten her mouth. These had been available when my father died in similar circumstances five years ago. We were told they were now banned as a health and safety risk because some of the sponges came off, and no alternative suggestions were offered. An assistant at our local Boots store suggested that we tie some gauze on a cotton bud, and this was what we used to moisten her parched tongue in her last hours. I could see the immense gratitude in her eyes.

With all the technological advancements at our disposal today, could someone not create a safe sponge on a stick that could be used to add a little comfort for the dying?

Ellee Seymour

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I wouldn’t want to end my life as a vegetable and am now able to make legal arrangements to spare myself – and loved ones – this kind of suffering. I hope I will never find myself in the situation of becoming involved in an assisted suicide. But I’m relieved that new laws mean this can now be done at home without fear of prosecution, instead of travelling to a clinic in Switzerland.

The latest headlines on this very emotive topic reminded me of the most poignant story I have heard on this subject. One cannot image the helplessness and distress that the devoted husband of novelist and scholar Valerie Grosvenor Myer felt as he walked out of his house three miles from where I live to spend the day at Cambridge University Library, knowing that his sick wife was planning to take her own life, and that he had to leave her alone to die to avoid prosecution.

I remember reading Michael Grosvenor Myer’s very moving letter in The Times on November 26, 2008 which described their terrible ordeal, and I have republished it here.

Sir, My adored wife of half a century took an overdose last year. She was a distinguished woman — obituaries appeared in The Times (August 16, 2007) and other newspapers a few days later. But Parkinson’s disease had robbed her of the power of speaking articulately; her beautiful italic handwriting was nothing but a bitter memory; she kept falling over and injuring herself. She knew when she had degenerated as much as she was prepared to put up with.

Asked by some well-meaning doctors and nurses what I thought of it, after a previous, obviously unsuccessful, attempt — when I had to call for help because instead of dying as she wished she had gone into a coma, and I couldn’t cope with that — I replied to their apparent surprise that I thought she had behaved rationally and courageously. When one consultant threatened to section her I told him outright that was the remark of a fool and a bully.

When the day came, I agreed to invent an unnecessary day’s work at the university library so that she could get on with it. I don’t regret it: it was what she wanted. My regret is only that because of the idiocy of the present law, my precious only heart’s darling had to die a horrible, lonely death all alone here in the house instead of having me here to help and comfort her, which was what she wanted. People such as Baroness Finlay of Llandaff can make their own arrangements. The best I can wish them is that they might learn from experience what it feels like.

Michael Grosvenor Myer

My regret is that I never met this very talented and courageous woman who lived so close to me.

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Once again my Cambridgeshire village finds itself in the media spotlight following the 33-year sentencing of Rekha Kumari-Baker for murdering her two daughters to “wreak havoc” upon her former husband, David Baker.

I have just walked by the murder house round the corner from my house and where Davina, 16, and Jasmine, 13, were stabbed with two kitchen knives as they slept at their home.

The area was totally deserted, and the once boarded up house which holds the  secret of the bloodbath that took place there is now lived in by another young family. A neighbour told me it had been bought by a property developer, refurbished and sold.

“I could never live in a house like that where such a terrible thing had taken place,” she said.

Could you? I certainly couldn’t either.

The tragedy of this is that Rekha’s lovely daughters could have been her best friends during the personal turmoil she suffered. Instead she took her rage out on them and slaughtered them.

The teenage girls expected only love and protection from their mother. But she became a monster and showed them no mercy – and neither did she deserve any from the court.

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I agree with Heather White that networking at next month’s Conservative Party conference will be the most important as we edge closer to the next general election.

I thought her advice for budding political candidates which was recently highlighted on ConservativeHome expressed good common sense, so I have repeated them here in the links below.

Developing a networking strategy

Making a good impression with people that matter

Vying for selection and dealing with rival candidates

Networking in your constituency

Party Conference Survival Guide

As it is less than two weeks away, I thought this extract from the Party Conference Survival Guide might be helpful. The advice could also apply to others working in the political sphere with their own agenda:

Why are you actually at Conference and who do you want to meet? Is this a chance to improve your contacts, recruit supporters or raise money? And who are the individuals that you need to reach?  Could any of your existing contacts help or is there an organisation that may help create an introduction? As a candidate, is there an issue you really want to be raising with someone or a key journalist you want to meet?

The first thing to do now is to prepare a list of all those people that you already know. Make contact with them and arrange a coffee, lunch or drink in the bar. Is there anything you can do to help them, do they have a fringe event you could help support? Think about what they are doing now, have they moved jobs recently? Are they connected to other people who may be good for you to meet?

Do you need pictures with key party members for campaign materials or do you really want to speak to a major donor who could help boost your campaign coffers?  Is there someone in your list who may be able to make it happen? Or do they know someone who could help? Or perhaps you do not know anyone relevant to get to your target so you are going to have to work out a route on without any assistance at all.

If you are going it alone, when and where will you meet these people? Look thoroughly through the Conference handbook and plan a diary of key fringe events or speeches to attend. If you really want to meet George Osborne, it would be helpful if you’d bothered to hear his Conference speech, for example, as a way to start a conversation.  Or perhaps Eric Pickles might have time during the Conservatives Pub Quiz he’s hosting.

Time will be limited at this Conference, more than ever before; you have to ensure you have planned exactly what you want to say and what you want to ask. Making the right impression is one thing, but having a useful, engaging conversation should be the end-game – work on it and prepare.

This will be the first time I have attended the party conference, so I welcome your advice too on how to survive it. I shall be working while I’m there, but I certainly do intend to enjoy myself as well. I shall look forward to meeting up with old friends and making new ones.

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My author friend Jean Adamson was mugged yesterday. The shameless robber escaped with her purse and left her lying in the road with a broken arm.

Jean is 81-years-old and has a frail build, but is full of feisty spirit that I hope will see her through this terrible ordeal. She is immensely popular in the village where we live because of her kindness and non-judgemental views towards all young people

She had walked a few yards to the village store in the morning to exchange her copy of the Observer because it did not include the supplements, and she was particularly keen to read one of the sections.

Unassuming Jean, who has sold an estimated 25 million popular Topsy and Tim children’s books over the last 50 years which she wrote with husband Gareth, believes she was possibly followed by the cowardly mugger from the shop when he struck.

I wonder if the robber was one of the local lads who Jean has read to from her story books during many visits to schools where she is much loved. Surely not.

Everyone loves Jean for her gentleness, warmth, generosity, wisdom, intelligence, patience, decency and humour. That was why I nominated her for an honour and she was awarded the MBE in the Millennium.

Jean was determined not to give in to the robber and hung on to her shopping basket as she fell and was dragged along the road. But her valiant efforts were no match for this well built thug whose eyes were firmly peeled on her purse in her  basket. He succeeded by forcefully wrenching the basket and twisting it around her arm, which led to her horrid injury and bruising. She cried out, helpless on the road and unable to move as he fled, and was rescued by two neighbours, Trudy and Grace, who took her to hospital as no ambulance was available.

Jean has placed her faith in the local police and hopes they will catch this yob, described as a well built 15-year-old and wearing a white peaked cap and white t-shirt. What has the world come to if an elderly lady can’t walk along her village high street on a Sunday morning without being attacked and robbed?

She was inundated with media calls when I visited her this afternoon and handled them all with grace and perception.

Jean is very much a free spirit and in her younger days as an art student, she painted the uniquely flamboyant gay icon Quentin Crisp naked many times; he was famed for his outlandish autobiography The Naked Civil Servant. She is very cultured and gifted as a writer and artist.

We laughed together as she told me about the community police offer who called round and left a couple of Noddy bells with the helpful suggestion that Jean attaches them to her purse as some kind of alarm.

Jean has a better idea. She giggled as she said:

“I think I will attach them to my tortoises Mercedes and Matilda so I know where they are in the garden.”

That sounds like just the kind of sensible idea that Topsy and Tim would have come up with…

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I guess most people know as much about the Lisbon Treaty as they do the offside rule in football. And care just as little.

However, the implications of the vote in Ireland on 2 October are crucial as they would establish a president and foreign minister for the EU, as well as transferring a swathe of powers to Brussels.

The Irish rejected the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum last year and, in true democratic style, are being asked to reconsider and vote again.

The Treaty has to be approved by all 27 member states before it can come into effect and is intended to make the larger European Union "more democratic, more  transparent and more efficient".  If it is rejected by Ireland again, it could be scuppered. Other countries also have to ratify it, including The Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. Their eyes are firmly on the Irish decision.

I can’t see David Cameron holding a referendum on this if he wins the next election; I’m sure he would have shown his hand by now if this was his intention. Yet according to a poll in the Sunday Telegraph, 70% of those questioned want a vote, even if the treaty becomes law.

Intriguingly, Europe doesn’t get a mention in the Conservative Party Conference programme which starts three days after the Irish vote.

It is disappointing that Conservative MEPs have not been given a platform to speak about their new group, the European and Conservative Reformists Group, most probably because the referendum and Europe is such a divisive – and potentially explosive topic – which needs to be avoided there.

But it obviously is going to be talked about and this would have been the ideal time and place for David Cameron or William Hague to declare their intentions on the referendum, one way or the other.

*Pic shows pro Treaty support courtesy of Young Fine Gael, the youth section of Ireland’s Fine Gael Party.

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