What will you leave children?

Posted by on Sep 30, 2010 in Sponsored Post | 4 comments The unconditional love of a mother, the trust of young children and joy of being with a family, is heart rending in this 40 second NSPCC video. Sadly, it’s not something all children experience. This evocative NSPCC campaign reminds us that children are our future, and asks, “what will you leave the children in your life?” It is seeking support, a gift in your will, to...
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Why Ed Miliband is the loser

Posted by on Sep 29, 2010 in updates | 10 comments If Ed Miliband can find the time to conceive a child – or two – then surely he can find the time to register his name on his first born son’s birth certificate. It might not have been a priority for him, but it’s a ritual, and one usually accomplished with pride and love by new dads. How is his son going to feel when he learns about this? He could feel devastated. And if...
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Miliband ambition and regrets

Posted by on Sep 27, 2010 in Uncategorized | 11 comments Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and saying they guessed long ago that Ed Miliband would be the next Labour leader, including Iain Dale and Guardian writer Jenni Russell, to name but a couple. But I believe he set his heart on it much longer than most people realised, and that his simmering ambition had been spotted by those close around him as long as three years ago. I met the ace PR...
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Harriet Harman: the guilt of working mothers

Posted by on Sep 25, 2010 in Women MPs | 13 comments Harriet Harman should be congratulated for keeping together a tight-knit Labour Party for almost 5 months. She hands over her reigns this evening when the new Labour leader is announced. In an interview in today’s Times, she is credited with forcing through equalities law to improve maternity leave and childcare provision. Yet Harman feels that women’s equality is slipping backwards,...
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Universities and business

Posted by on Sep 24, 2010 in university | 2 comments This weekend I’m attending the first of four university open days being held over the next few weeks with my younger son. He wants to study Business & Marketing and has shown an entrepreneurial flair from a young age by selling golf balls on his school bus, as well as sweets when they were banned, but I soon put a stop to that. Even his driving instructor became a customer and bought a...
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Which Labour leadership contender has the best online presence?

Posted by on Sep 23, 2010 in updates | 1 comment Three years ago I wrote a post asking if Harriet Harman blogged her way to victory as the Labour’s deputy leader as my analysis of campaign websites used by candidates back then was that her online presence was the most interactive, and this could have contributed to her success as it demonstrated she was the best communicator out of the bunch. Social media has played a key role in this...
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The Missing – Carole Day

Posted by on Sep 22, 2010 in The missing | 26 comments I have been asked to highlight the mysterious disappearance of Carole Day, a British ex-pat living in Hong Kong, who travelled to Manila in the Philipines on a business trip on 10th September and has vanished in thin air. A dedicated facebook site has been set up where her son Jai appeals for information of her whereabouts. Carole, 56, who is from Stoke and a 5ft 4ins strawberry blonde, went to...
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Oprah’s visit to Australia, paying bloggers and Trip Advisor’s angry hotelliers

Posted by on Sep 22, 2010 in Social Media | 2 comments Some people get all the best jobs. I would jump at the chance of visiting Australia for a fraction of the price which local authorities there are paying Oprah Winfrey – a reported $5 million dollars – to give its flagging tourist industry a much needed boost as visitor numbers have considerably declined following its hosting of the Olympics back in 2000. This is obviously why Stephen...
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Women’s addiction to social games

Posted by on Sep 21, 2010 in Social Media | 3 comments I learnt something new yesterday – that millions of women are huge fans of Facebook’s social games with FarmVille toping the list with 62 million followers. It includes forums where you can report bugs and show off your landscaping, with the most addicted followers getting up in the night to “feed” their animals or “water” their crops. I must admit this is a...
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Universities and alcohol

Posted by on Sep 21, 2010 in News, Personal | 4 comments At the risk of sounding a killjoy, I totally support a suggestion by the UK’s accident and emergency doctors who want to end boozy Happy Hours for student freshers’ weeks which kicks off shortly.The alcohol consumption levels are worse for students who want to join a university sports team and find themselves virtually forced to participate in humiliating initiation rituals. I also...
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Congratulations to East Anglia’s Business Hub

Posted by on Sep 19, 2010 in Social Media | 2 comments I would like to congratulate Mark Peters and Ian McKendrick, presenters of the popular weekly Sunday morning business radio show, for its network launch today throughout East Anglia. The Business Hub only started a few months ago covering Cambridge and Ely, but is now available to listeners throughout the region. Next year it is hoped it will be networked nationwide. There is obviously a huge...
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Writing a personal statement for university

Posted by on Sep 17, 2010 in university | 3 comments I went to a parents’ meeting at my youngest son’s school last night to advise us about his university application which has to be submitted soon. Yes, how did the years fly by so quickly! This presumably hadn’t been a problem for my eldest son as he was offered a place at his preferred choice, and I didn’t even get to read it before it was sent off via UCAS. I don’t...
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Gavin Henson needs to see sense

Posted by on Sep 17, 2010 in News | 2 comments Gavin Henson, the Welsh rugby international player who became a household name as the boyfriend of singer Charlotte Church,  tells us in a newspaper interview that he wants to quit his club for “compassionate reasons, and the mental state of my mind” following their break-up. Charlotte, meanwhile, has another fella and Gavin is struggling with the knowledge that this man is...
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From journalism to PR

Posted by on Sep 16, 2010 in PR | 2 comments There’s an interesting article in the latest PR Week about increasing numbers of journalists switching to PR as newspapers close up and down the country and they succumb to the temptation to earn much more money from leading agencies. When I first made this transition, the comments from former colleagues did make me feel almost as if I had sold my soul. But I will always consider myself...
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Blending iPhones and the Business Hub

Posted by on Sep 15, 2010 in Social Media | 3 comments I’ve become a big fan of the Business Hub, a unique weekly radio show broadcast for businesses in the Cambridge and Ely area which has amassed an impressive following of loyal listeners. From this weekend the show is being extended throughout East Anglia, and the dream of the  two brains behind it – social media strategist Ian McKendrick and veteran radio presenter Mark Peters,...
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Our wartime heroes at RAF Tempsford and Bletchley Park

Posted by on Sep 13, 2010 in Ramblers | 15 comments I walked along an airfield runway yesterday once used by planes carrying our bravest wartime agents, including Violette Szabo, immortalised in the film Carve Her Name With Pride. I was with the Cambridge Rambling Club and our route passed a barn in the middle of a field. I stepped inside (there is no door!) and was astonished to see an extraordinary memorial for our wartime heroes who flew from...
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Should we have part-time MPs?

Posted by on Sep 12, 2010 in Women MPs | 3 comments Should we have part-time MPs to encourage more women parliamentarians? It is not the first time I have heard this suggestion, and it was one of the ideas given in evidence at the latest Speaker’s Conference which considered how to modernise and attract more diverse members. Green MP Caroline Lucas has now made the suggestion at her party’s autumn conference saying it would enable MPs...
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Is there news of the Chandlers, kidnapped by Somalian pirates?

Posted by on Sep 9, 2010 in News | 20 comments Next month will mark the first anniversary of the kidnap of British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler by ruthless Somalian pirates. Repeated ransom demands have been denied and negotiations have clearly stalled. The couple cannot comfort each other during their terrifying ordeal as they are separated to thwart rescue attempts. Kidnappers hoped a change of government would be more sympathetic to...
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Why are we reducing reuse of recyclables?

Posted by on Sep 6, 2010 in Environment | 4 comments In my garden I have a little table I bought for 50p from my local recycling centre in Grunty Fen (yes, really!). My son bought a few discarded golf clubs there for 50p which he sold on in true entrepreneurial spirit. I’ve often seen people searching out bargains at the site for a few pence. The last time I went to the Grunty Fen centre, it had a shed full of discarded items which it was...
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Czech women MPs display their sex appeal

Posted by on Sep 4, 2010 in Women MPs | 5 comments Newly elected women MPs in the Czech Republic proudly display their femininity and sex appeal in come-to-bed poses for a racy new 2011 calendar. In the May election, women won more seats than every before during their national elections in late May when 44 women were voted into the lower house, a proportional increase from 17% to 22%. The calendar was produced by the Public Affairs party, a new...
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William Hague and smutty minds

Posted by on Sep 2, 2010 in Politics | 24 comments Since when has it become a shameful act for two male colleagues to share a room? Why was it naive if needs must? I don’t feel William Hague was compromised, except by the smutty minds of those who enjoy spreading salacious rumours about an innocent act. I think William Hague is terrific; he is a decent man through and through and won (I believe) the largest vote share in the country at this...
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Tony Blair’s Journey

Posted by on Sep 1, 2010 in Uncategorized | 7 comments I am waiting for my copy of Tony Blair’s memoirs, A Journey to arrive. Of course, he was not going to apologise over Iraq. But I wonder what Blair says about his former Northern Ireland Secretay Mo Mowlam who was unceremoniously dumped in favour of Peter Mandelson. And why didn’t he sack Gordon Brown for his failure to tackle the budget deficit? Surely Blair is as much to blame for...
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