My meningitis scare

Posted by on Mar 30, 2010 in Personal | 4 comments Petra Ecclestone, daughter of Formula One boss Bernie, describes in today’s Times her agonising experience when she contracted viral meningitis: “I was in so much pain I wanted to die.” She has now become a worthy ambassador for the Meningitis Trust, describing her illness as a life-changing experience, no longer taking her health for granted. I have also had viral meningitis,...
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Are you too turned off politics to vote Labour or Conservative?

Posted by on Mar 29, 2010 in 2010 general election | 12 comments I’ve just read this comment on Michael Fabricant’s Facebook and feel it sums up how other undecided voters might be thinking right now: “Always voted labour, but not anymore ….will never vote conservative, so who do you vote for? what a dilemma. I feel there will be a lot of protest votes, eg. bnp UKIP, maybe not such a bad thing.” Is that how you feel too? What is...
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Walking the Devil’s Dyke

Posted by on Mar 28, 2010 in Personal, Ramblers, updates | 4 comments I met up with my friend Audrie today to walk along Devil’s Dyke from the picturesque villages of Reach to Woodditton. When I meet up with my usual stalwart ramblers, they are equipped in sturdy boots and Berghaus walking gear. I had to blink when I saw Audrie arrive in her purple velvet tunic dress over denim jeans. Audrie is a free spirited walker who adds a welcome touch of panache to us...
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Why working in Tenerife is not an MEPs “junket”

Posted by on Mar 27, 2010 in PR client, Robert Sturdy MEP | 2 comments When you are an MEP you have to attend meeting throughout the European Union. And that includes Tenerife. So today’s story front page “exclusive” splash in The Express, “Climate MEPs live it up in Tenerife” is way off the mark and misleading. My MEP Robert Sturdy is one of those who has travelled there. After all, Tenerife is part of Spain which is in the European...
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UKIP’S immigration poster defaced in Cambridge

Posted by on Mar 26, 2010 in 2010 general election | 4 comments There is no racial tension in Cambridge. When I go to Toastmasters, I am always impressed at the way in which half its members make fluent presentations in their second language. It’s the last place one would expect to find a UKIP poster promoting its strong immigration line stating, “5,000 New People Settle Here Every Week, Say No To Mass Immigration”. It has deliberately been...
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Loving my new iMac

Posted by on Mar 25, 2010 in updates | 7 comments I wish you could see me right now. I’m like a very excited kid with a new toy. And my new toy is an Apple iMac. Someone told me last week that I was like a man because of my love of gadgets. I’m actually a very feminine woman, but I just love being creative and continuously learning, discovering new and interesting people which the internet facilitates, as well as enjoying the latest...
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Thriplow daffodils, Morris dancing, and a chance encounter with our woman Speaker

Posted by on Mar 21, 2010 in Personal | 8 comments It’s true, the daffodils were scarce at the 42nd Thriplow Daffodil Weekend following our cold winter, but there were plenty of other attractions to remind me of England at its best. It helped that this was a green and unspoilt English village, a mix of traditional old cottages and immaculate modern homes, complete with a local blacksmiths. There was no graffiti or untidy, littered bus shelters...
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My latest election campaign videos

Posted by on Mar 20, 2010 in 2010 general election | 5 comments I’ve been making election campaign videos for Conservative parliamentary candidates and experimenting with new formats to make them visually more appealing, to add a new dimension. Here’s a couple I have just produced for Rob Halfon, who is standing in Harlow; one has a movie feel about it, and the second is presented as a book, with Rob’s story unfolding. If you play the first video for a...
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Julian Sturdy, campaigning for back pain injections

Posted by on Mar 19, 2010 in 2010 general election | 4 comments Should people today be expected to live with chronic pain if it can be eased by an injection? Ask those who have been stopped from having them, and the answer is a resounding ‘no’. NHS North Yorkshire and York has decided against routinely funding spinal injections for back pain, saying it must focus on buying services giving the best possible clinical outcomes to ensure value for money....
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The Telegraph and Political Boll**ks

Posted by on Mar 19, 2010 in 2010 general election | 3 comments I’ve been enjoying my friend Richard Havers’ latest timely book, Political Boll**ks which takes a sideways look at some of the amusing/sublime/ridiculous things our politicians say. I like this quote from John Prescott: “I’m told some Tory MPs believe ethics is a county near Middlesex.” Hmmmm……he can talk about ethics, he’s the one who somehow got lost – and blindly...
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Does anyone look good on Botox?

Posted by on Mar 16, 2010 in updates | 10 comments I feel sorry for Carla Bruni if she feels so insecure about her once radiant looks that she had to resort to Botox. I hadn’t noticed her features becoming deep set with wrinkles. Does she hope that a taut expression will make her appear fresh faced, younger and more appealing for her reported new lover? Or is she hoping it might stop her craggy faced husband from tempting to stray? Nicolas...
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Nick Hillman welcomes Caroline Spelman to Cambridge

Posted by on Mar 16, 2010 in 2010 general election | 3 comments It’s a great coup for a parliamentary candidate to get a shadow minister to visit them if they are not in a target seat, so very well done to Nick Hillman for persuading Caroline Spelman to support him while she was in Cambridge. Caroline is Shadow Secretary for Communities and Local Government and she called in at an old NatWest bank which is now being used by beginspace, a scheme which...
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The day I met Anna, the Lib Dem porn candidate

Posted by on Mar 13, 2010 in 2010 general election | 10 comments I met Anna Arrowsmith last Monday at the House of Lords. It was International Women’s Day and we both attended an event entitled “Achieving Equality in Parliament.” During question time, Anna’s hand shot up. “I’m the first ever parliamentary candidate from the porn industry. I’ve just been selected for the Liberal Democrats.” There was a stunned silence as everyone turned to look...
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My day in Harlow with Rob Halfon

Posted by on Mar 13, 2010 in 2010 general election | 0 comments There are one of two places I would like to  be on election night – Harlow or Luton South. It’s impossible not to be blown away by the impressive support and high regard which our Conservative candidate Robert Halfon has earned from the Essex community. I spent yesterday with him in Harlow and met a woman in her 60s who was voting for the first time ever – for Rob. I met a Labour...
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Election 2010 and Sam v Sarah

Posted by on Mar 11, 2010 in 2010 general election | 6 comments What’s he like to live with? What are his annoying habits? Does he wear Y-fronts or  boxers? Can he really be trusted to run the country? What makes him cry? These are some questions which the wives of our political leaders might have to answer soon. With both David Cameron and Gordon Brown both desperately needing to convince  undecided voters that their party should run the country,...
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Honouring International Women’s Day

Posted by on Mar 8, 2010 in News | 12 comments I will be honouring International Women’s Day today by attending an event in the House of Lords entitled, “Achieving Equality in Parliament.” It is organised by WAFE – Women worldwide Advancing Freedom and Equality and I  shall be interested to hear their speakers; this is one of my pet subjects at the moment as Westminster is represented by only 19.8% women. I had particularly been...
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Introducing the hospitalist

Posted by on Mar 8, 2010 in Infection 2009 | 3 comments Have you heard of the hospitalist? It’s an American concept, and one I would like a new Conservative government to consider introducing here to improve patient care while in hospital following yesterday’s devastating report in The Sunday’s Times which highlighted their neglect to meet targets. A pity if it is too late to add to our health policy for the general election as it could make a...
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The Jon Venables legal quagmire

Posted by on Mar 7, 2010 in News | 8 comments If reports that Jon Venables – one of the killers of Jamie Bulger – is correct and he is to be charged with offences of a sexual nature, then we face an unprecedented legal quagmire. The law seems to be bending over backwards to nurture and protect Venables following his release from prison; clearly rehabilitation hasn’t worked. Besides Mary Bell and Maxine Carr, I believe Venables and...
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Janice is just the ticket!

Posted by on Mar 6, 2010 in General Election 2010 | 2 comments Good one Janice. If candidates can’t afford their own battle bus, then this is the next best thing. I have spent a weekend with Janice Small in  Batley and Spen and I know how hard she is working. Deserving to win is not enough, and Janice knows she has to work harder to convince voters who are undecided to vote Tory, especially after a bad week of Ashcroft news. Janice and I have an...
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Controlling from the grave

Posted by on Mar 3, 2010 in News | 8 comments I’ve been reading Winston Churchill’s obit in The Times today and it describes how  his mother, the glamorous Pamela Harriman, left him $6 million in her will – on condition that he shared it equally with his first wife who he had divorced; he went on to happily remarry. As his mother was notorious for her affairs and married three times, she was hardly in a position to judge his...
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My Toastmasters election special

Posted by on Mar 3, 2010 in Toastmasters | 2 comments Last night I was Table Topics Master at Cambridge Speakers’ Club and I invited  members and courageous guests to imagine they were parliamentary candidates trying to win votes. The role of the TTM is to provide different questions which speakers can respond to totally spontaneously, to make them think on their feet for up to two minutes. I decided to repeat a topic which I did two years...
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Should the Yorkshire Ripper be released?

Posted by on Mar 2, 2010 in News | 11 comments Peter Sutcliffe is seeking a release date from prison on the grounds that he was wrongly convicted of the murder of 13 women because he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of his crimes. The High Court was told yesterday by Kevin Murray, a consultant psychiatrist at Broadmoor secure hospital, that Sutcliffe had been wrongly convicted of murder. Sutcliffe, 63, will learn within...
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Our Headway ball

Posted by on Mar 1, 2010 in Headway | 7 comments I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who supported our Headway Cambridgeshire ball at the weekend and made it such an outstanding success, raising more than £2,000 on the night. Any charity will tell you how tough it is to keep the money rolling in when there are so many worthy causes competing for it. I ended up buying the stunning painting of Madonna for my sister Rosalind...
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