I have tried to submit paperwork to them on three occasions, and each time it has been returned to me with a query. Why can’t they pick up the phone and speak to me, as I requested, if there was a problem? Where is the personal touch?

The paperwork, which I posted recorded delivery on Monday, was returned to me again today with a letter saying I had failed to submit a cheque for the £400 required to proceed.

I clearly remember attaching my cheque to my statement with a photocopied exhibit – all of which has also gone missing too as none of this was returned with the other forms they stuffed in an envelope.

I called their office this morning to ask them to find out what had happened to my cheque. I explained that it was attached to my statement with a paperclip, and I asked their officer, Neil Holman, if he could trace my missing paperwork too.

To my utter amazement, Neil asked me if I had used a large paperclip! Doh! Like they can’t see a normal sized one! Would it have made any difference if I had used a 3ins paperclip? What size paperclips do they use in their office? You couldn’t make it up!

I spoke to Neil three hours ago and he hasn’t called me back. I doubt he will.

I naturally phoned my bank to cancel the cheque, and the episode so amused the person I was speaking to at Barclays that he offered to waive the normal £12 fee as he couldn’t stop laughing at the ridiculous question I was asked by the Ministry of Justice about the paperclip. He said it was hilarious and had made his day.

In my view the Ministry of Justice needs a thorough shake up. Isn’t there anyone in government who can sort out the mess there?

I would call it a travesty of justice. Feel free to share your experiences.

The clause is included in the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Bill 2011, which says that political parties will face a cut of half their State political funding if they do not have at least 30% women and 30% men candidates at the next general election. This is to rise to 40% after 7 years, and discussions are expected to start this month.

The Centre for Women and Democracy, to which I belong, reports that Ireland is currently at the bottom of the western European league table, with just 15% women in the Dáil, the Irish Parliament. France has 19% and Italy 21%, with the UK, at 22%, just above them.

Nan Sloane, Director for CWD, recently attended a conference in Dublin on ‘How to elect more women?’to discuss the Irish government’s proposed legislation bringing in quotas for women and men candidates at the next general election, and says the event was heavily oversubscribed, with more than 400 people attending.

Nan says the clause has aroused considerable interest and support:  “Already some parties are discussing the possibility of increasing the scope of the provisions either to increase the level to 40% immediately, or to include the 2014 local elections, or both.”

High ranking Irish politician and academic Ivana Bacik (pic) explained why quotas are so important in this report she wrote last year, and why Ireland has got left behind other European countries:

“Ireland has an appalling record on women’s representation in politics.

“In 1990, when Mary Robinson was elected as our first woman President, we were in 37th position in the Inter-Parliamentary Union rankings of women’s representation in the lower or single house of national parliaments. By February 2011, we had fallen to 85th position, with 23 women Deputies, or 13.8% of the full complement of 166 TDs.

“We are well below the world and European average and the internationally recommended figure of 30%. Perhaps the worst finding is that we have disimproved in the last 20 years. It is not that the number of women in our Parliament has changed greatly — the Dáil representation has never exceeded 14% – in other words, it has always been at least 86% male — but the fact is that other countries have improved their position since 1990, moving up the rankings.

“In particular, other European countries have adopted legislation requiring political parties to select a minimum percentage of women candidates – and this has changed their ranking.

“In 2009, I initiated the production of a report by the Joint Oireachtas Justice Committee on women’s participation in politics. This was published in October 2009, and it recommended the introduction of legislation requiring political parties to adopt targets for the selection of women candidates, based on the model used in other EU states like Belgium and Spain.

“It is vitally important that this sort of legislation is introduced. Without it, voter choice will continue to be severely restricted in Ireland. In five constituencies in the 2007 general election, there were no women candidates at all, so voters could not support a woman no matter how much they wanted to.

“Local elections in 2009 were no better. Only 16% of councillors elected were women and that figure fell from previous local elections when a magnificent 17% was reached.

“Voter choice remains restricted in the current general election, with women representing only 15% of the total number of approximately 560 candidates running nationally – depressingly, this is an even lower percentage than the proportion of women candidates in 2007.

“We need to address the ongoing absence of women in politics as a matter of urgency.”

I discovered this special gem in Simon Jenkins‘ best seller, England’s Thousand Best Churches, where it was awarded five stars – the highest accolade – and visited it on his recommendation for the first time about seven years ago.

When I first stepped inside, I was immediately struck by its wonderful light and vast windows, the painted panels on its screen and its dark inward facing pews, and wondered when this very special Marshland church was last full. I wholeheartedly agree with Simon who says: “Inside, there is hardly a disappointment”.

The church, a short drive from the Queen’s Sandringham estate, is also much admired by Prince Charles, who has donated to its latest fundraising appeal.

I have returned there few times as I can never resist calling  in when I am in the area now that I have discovered it, which I did yesterday. My mother and I have also joined its small and welcoming congregations for its Good Friday service, and I misguidedly thought that its sheer architectural beauty would attract a throng of worshippers.

Thank  you Simon Jenkins for highlighting what a rare treasure this fabulous church is. In Simon’s words: “The ‘Queen of Marshlands’ deserves more respect than she has been accorded…..If English churches were Dutch Old Masters, this would be St Pieter de Hooch”

I urge you to see it for yourself.

I read the story and was shocked by two points: first, the terrible slur on my home town, with a Russian migrant quoted as describing Wisbech as rougher than Moscow; and second, the terrible demise and wasted life of 17-year-old Alisa Dmitrijeva, said to owe £15,000 to a drug dealer. Her badly decomposed body was found on the Queen’s Sandringham Estate by a dog walker in woodland near King’s Lynn, on New Year’s Day.

Latvian-born Miss Dmitrijeva was identified by comparing detail from her palm with records held. She was last seen in  King’s Lynn, on 31 August, 20 minutes from Wisbech.

With a third of Wisbech’s 20,000 population now said to be Eastern European, and five reported murders from their community in the last two years, a Wisbech man felt compelled to write to the Daily Mail urging the paper to highlight the “desperate situation” in the town which he claims is being ignored by politicians for fear of being branded as racist. Following its investigation, the Mail claimed that the “Baltic Mafia” was taking over English Fenland towns, terrifying local residents and ensnaring teenage girls, such as Alisa. One woman is quoted is saying she is too afraid to go out after dark as Wisbech “has changed for the worse”.

I thought it was sensational drivel, until I spoke to a very well reasoned trader in the town today who I respect and asked for his views on the article. To my astonishment, he agreed with it all. Yes, he said, there was an incredibly high number of migrants in the town, and 30% wouldn’t be unreasonable. Yes, he said, there was an element of fear in the town and it was driving shoppers away. No, he said, he did not think the Mafia comment was exaggerated as he had seen Mercedes and BMWs with blacked out windows prowling the streets which were new to the town.

I asked the trader, why Wisbech? He told me that local gangmasters advertise for workers in Eastern Europe, and some go to other towns like Boston, Spalding and King’s Lynn for work.

So I asked the trader for his solution. “Stop giving them our benefits. They even get child benefits for their children back home,” was the resolute reply from him and others in his store. Is it politically incorrect to say this? Or commonsense?

He was also quite definite that many Eastern Europeans were decent, hard working people, but there is a hard-core criminal element causing fear which hasn’t been nipped in the bud.

Wisbech people remain fiercely proud of their town, and many have not forgotten the drubbing it was given by the BBC and Evan Davis which claimed that locals blamed migrants for taking their jobs.

I also asked someone from Outwell who I met this morning for his views about the article, and he told me he avoids Wisbech too as it had changed in recent years, preferring to shop in Downham Market instead.

This is a great disservice to our small  businesses who are struggling to survive in today’s economy, but he was adamant that Wisbech held no appeal for him any longer.

One other part of the article that surprised told how during a five-day police crackdown on violent crime in the area and drugs raids, £40,000 of cannabis was seized and 25 people arrested for suspected offences ranging from knifings to burglary. Surely this kind of crackdown should be happening every day to stamp out crime! There must also be concerns from the Eastern European community about intimidation towards towards them as they fear reprisals from drug and crime gangs if they speak to police .

I guess I will always see Wisbech through rose-tinted spectacles, but clearly our politicians, council officers, police, traders’ associations, local people and the Eastern European community should be putting their heads together to discuss these issues. Every town has problems, and didn’t Wisbech have its fair share before migrants moved in?

Personal safety for all our citizens, and a healthy local economy, are vital for a successful community, and if there are very real concerns that they are at risk, they should be discussed openly.

 UPDATE 29 January: Immigration Minister Damian Green is this week expected to outline the principles behind the government’s new ‘‘selective” immigration policy that will give preferential treatment to investors, entrepreneurs and world-class artists, dancers, musicians and academics. Under the planned reforms ”fewer but better” immigrants will be allowed to settle in the UK, with those who lack the skills to ”help drive economic growth” or contribute to UK culture facing greater scrutiny.

*Instead of knocking my home town, I would like to see the media highlight personal successes stories about Eastern Europeans who have settled in Wisbech to highlight the positive contribution they have made to the local community. It’s not an underworld town, and I feel safe walking around there.

*Here is a link to Sally Chidzoy’s report on this topic for BBC Look East.

*In 2007, Chief Constable Julie Spence of Cambridgeshire Police said more officers were needed to cope with complex problems posed by an influx of migrant workers following the expansion of the European Union.  Were her concerns heeded?

She warned it could take as much as three times longer for officers to deal with a crime involving a migrant worker.

Were her concerns heeded?

*Wisbech Standard link to this post with comments. And the Huffington Post.

Cord blood banks have been set up at a number of hospitals around the UK, and I learned of Virgin’s plans for Cambridge from Greer Deal, director of Global Regulatory Services, who attended the latest  London Regenerative Medicine Network meeting where the collaboration was announced earlier this week.

Greer wrote about it on her blog:

“The last speaker was Dr Rajan Jethwa, from the Virgin Health Bank and the common theme during his presentation was the word “free”!  This was actually to support their image of being a “social enterprise”.  It’s strategically clever because to be a social enterprise is “the only way private business can be accepted as a healthcare provider within the NHS environment”.  So a few statistics: for £1,195.00 a member of the public donates 80% of the cord blood to a public bank.  This is enough for one adult transplant and is provided free to the NHS hospital.  The first 5ml of cord blood, however, is stored on behalf of the family with the Virgin Health Bank for a 25 year term which can be used by the family if needed.  All profits made by the Virgin Health Bank are donated to stem cell initiatives.

“The ‘big news’ of the evening was the announcement by Dr Jethwa that Virgin Health Bank had established a long term partnership with the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  This partnership is to accelerate the development and availability of stem cell transplants and it is hoped that it will demonstrate what can be achieved via a collaboration between the private and public sectors.  Another objective is to increase availability of cord blood cells and thereby reduce the currently high costs of transplants.

“Here at Global Regulatory Services we are particularly pleased with this announcement as, yet again, it showcases Cambridge (UK) as being a centre of innovation and excellence.  We are delighted to be located right in the middle of all these exciting scientific advances and to be part of what is affectionately called the ‘Cambridge Phenomenon’.”

Richard Branson elaborates on how his Health Bank will work:

“Virgin Health Bank was established to provide families with a high quality service through which they could store their baby’s cord blood stem cells and support the NHS by enabling them to donate some of those cells to others in need. The partnership with Cambridge University Hospitals will further the development and availability of stem cell transplants, and is a great example of what can be achieved through collaboration between businesses and the public sector.”
The initiative is planned to help address the problem of availability, which has partly been brought about by the high costs involved in such transplants. The cost of obtaining one stem cell unit for this purpose was estimated at £36,000 in 2010.
New parents delivering babies at Cambridge’s Rosie Hospital will be given information regarding cord blood banking, allowing them to decide whether they wish to participate in the scheme. Mothers who chose to store their baby’s stem cells will be able to donate some of them to Virgin Health Bank, who will then make them available for transplant on the NHS, increasing the chances of patients on waiting lists finding a match. Richard Branson has also pledged to reinvest any profits made from Virgin Health Bank to further the development of stem cell therapies.

However, I wonder if provisions can be made for families who want to donate to support this ethos, but can’t afford the fee. Can they donate for philanthropic reasons, relinquishing future rights?

Here is a link to a case study which demonstrates how a cord  blood bank can help save lives.

I do think you can stay in a position too long and that there is always a right time to move on so fresh blood can reinvigorate and bring different dynamics and insights to the board. With many other pressing commitments, I felt this was the right time for me to step down and hand over to James Berry, a retired financial director who will now steer our Headway group and its wonderful work providing rehabilitation for adults with an acquired injury, into a new era as it expands throughout the county.

I feel privileged to have been a part of it for so long. It was a steep learning curve too when I was first appointed as the chair and had to build up a new board from scratch. We all evolved together, and the greatest compliment anyone could have paid was when our former CEO who now works with another charity told me that he had recommended some of my innovative ideas to his chair of trustees.

I would like to thank my fellow trustees for their support over the years and for these lovely flowers. I was also presented with a beautiful orchid by staff, and a photo montage of them all, after I called in to say goodbye today, and I couldn’t leave without seeing our clients, always a poignant reminder of why Headway’s work makes such an important difference to people’s lives. A head injury is the kind of accident that could happen to anyone on any day without warning, changing their lives for ever.

I hope everyone realises this is not goodbye, I am a Headway friend forever…

What once seemed a controversial idea has now won widespread approval as Sativex, the first ever prescription cannabis-based medicine, is used in many parts of the world to help patients, though it is currently waiting approval with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Cannabis is known to work on parts of the brain known as cannabinoid receptors.

This Friday, the company behind its development, GW Pharmaceuticals, which was founded in 1998 by Dr Geoffrey Guy to develop cannabis as a medicine, will have the government’s seal of approval when Agriculture Minister James Paice officially opens their labs near Cambridge where their clinical research team will co-ordinate global trials. The company grows 30 tonnes of cannabis a year at a secret location.

Demonstrating true entrepreneurial flair, and with firm conviction, Dr Guy told Cambridge Business magazine:

“Most people in our industry said it was impossible to turn cannabis into a prescription medicine. We had to rewrite the rule book. We have the first approval of a plant extract drug in modern history. It has 420 molecules, whereas every other drug has just one.”

Congratulations to Dr Guy for thinking outside the box, and revolutionising plant drugs.

Meanwhile, the Home Affairs Committee  is currently reviewing its drugs policy and will consider whether this is the right time to decriminalise drugs. Are we ready for that? No way, I’m not convinced.

I think any woman who can bring up eight very happy kids, works 40 hours a week and can survive on £18,000 deserves a top management job. I challenge any man to do the same! Could any of our bankers on big bonuses succeed?

Julie got to meet Samantha Cameron at Downing Street, along with other finalists from the Daily Mail Inspirational Woman of the Year award.

But wouldn’t it  be great if the Prime Minister’s wife kept in touch with Julie Jones and offered the hand of friendship to her and her family from the bottom of her heart because women like Julie are one in a million, or more; they keep you grounded. Perhaps Julie’s extended family could be invited to play with the Cameron’s kids one day at Chequers.

Here is Julie’s inspirational story from today’s Mail:

When Julie Jones and Caroline Atkin were schoolgirls, they vowed to be best friends for ever. At the age of 11, they solemnly promised to do anything for each other.
That childhood pledge was honoured years later, when Caroline died from a brain tumour at the age of 45, leaving five children. In her last weeks, she asked Julie to raise the children as her own.
Julie, a softly spoken single mother of three with a modest home in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, and a tiny income, didn’t hesitate.
She says: ‘I told Caroline that I would be her “Plan B”. I held her in my arms and said “You’ll be OK”, but I knew I was losing her.’
Caroline was already battling a brain tumour when her husband David died in January 2010 from a brain haemorrhage.
Before her death in June 2011, she drew up a will giving Julie custody of her children.
‘The hospital rang me and I raced there, but Caroline had just gone,’ she says.
‘I went to her house. The children arrived home from school in a taxi and I gathered them in my arms and said: “Mummy’s gone to Heaven. She isn’t poorly anymore.”
‘Michael, who was 11, left the room. Kieran, ten, sat in shock, James, nine, broke down, while Emma, seven, and Chantelle, five fidgeted. I took them to the park, then we packed and I brought them home.’
Julie, mother of Adam, 20, Peter, 19, and 14-year-old Christian moved the table from her dining room to turn it into an extra bedroom for the girls.
She says: ‘I put a tent up in the garden, and the children took turns to camp outside. We turned it into a game. The children were terribly traumatised by losing both their parents so quickly.
‘Michael kept being sick and Chantelle was hysterical at the thought of leaving me to go to school. But now, despite our lack of space and money, we have become one happy family.’
The table in the kitchen is so small that Julie had to cook Christmas dinner in two sittings. Her eldest son has left for university and his bedroom is used by the younger boys.
Julie works 40 hours a week as an administrator and runs the home on her £18,000-a-year salary.
‘Caroline’s photographs are all around, and the children aren’t quiet anymore. The house is filled with screams and shouts and  laughter,’ she says.
‘They say “Julie, you make us so happy,” but the truth is that they’re the ones who make me happy. I’m not extraordinary. I’m just a mum — with lots of love to give.’

Katherine was a brave soldier and remained smiling and composed in her gorgeous gowns as she sang about love, heartbreak and an empty bed, which couldn’t have been easy for her. A friend who has seen her sing many times thought she had lost weight as a result of her emotional turmoil.

This is the first week of a gruelling two month tour with the very dashing tenor Nathan Pacheco from Virginia. The two sang together at a Disney parade on Christmas Day and Katherine’s break up to fellow Welsh fiance Gethin Jones was announced less than a week later. Nathan is happily married, I believe, so there is no need to jump to conclusions about their professional relationship. From our brief chat afterwards, he told me that by singing together, this could help raise Katherine’s status as a singing star in the US which she has had trouble breaking into, and that they met after he recorded his album at her studio in London.

However, the break-up from Gethin was a topic which Katherine was happy to bring out in the open, telling her audience: “For the last few weeks I didn’t know if I could do this. Thank you for your support.”

And we then sat grieving with her for her lost love as she sang, “And This Is  My Beloved”.  But the real tear-jerker for pa-in-law was “Time To Say Goodbye” which he told us he wants played at his funeral (hopefully, not for a long time yet.)

Aunt Betty and I did wonder if Katherine was milking the sympathy a little bit after she invited audience comments which she read out in the second half, including one which said: “Well done Kath, you are holding up well. Remember when it is time, there are 3,000 soldiers in Afghanistan.”

It’s unfortunate too that the glossy £10 programme included a radiant picture of Katherine proudly displaying her engagement ring. She also describes there her desire to maintain a private life away from the public gaze:

“I never wanted to be famous. I just wanted to be a singer and it’s really important for me to keep the interest on my singing and not what I’m doing at home or who I’m seeing. I just don’t think it’s anyone’s business really. Yes, I have a partner who’s also in the public eye, but I’d be going out with him if he was a bin man so we just want to keep it for ourselves.”

I always have difficulty when celebs say their private life is their own as it is the public who has given them the fame and fortune which they can now enjoy, I feel that the fame naturally attracts public curiosity and some adoration, though I did feel for Katherine with her nightmare stalker, so this could be the reason she wants to hold back.

And in answer to a question about what 2012 held in store for her, Katherine’s reply holds no surprises after the way recent events turned out:

“I’ve read all that nonsense that I’m giving it all up tomorrow. It’s not true. What I actually said is that I want to enjoy one day being a mum and I would like to slow down when that happens – but I don’t think that’s going to happen in the next 12 months.”

Despite her reluctant fame, Katherine is blessed in many ways with her voice and beauty, but she still looks like the fresh-faced girl next door. I wonder if her recent heartache will help transform her into an astounding Maria Callas diva who suffered so much for her love of Aristotle Onassis ….

Btw, Nathan had many adoring women fans and a rapturous applause too, with one woman shouting out, “I love you Nathan!”

And Katherine was a real star, the show did go on despite her heartache, and any woman who has suffered a broken heart knows how tough this must have been. Thank you for a great evening.

Here are Katherine and Nathan, courtesy of Asianj123 from Disneyland:

*Coincidentally, two sets of friends were also at the same concert. One group staked the stage door and managed to get Katherine’s autograph and a kiss after she sweetly wound down her car window when she saw them outside shivering! Not so difficult if you use some common sense and strategy; they did wait outside in the freezing cold for half an hour and send yellow roses to her changing room too!

The Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, has vowed to bypass a European Court of Justice ruling that bans patents on embryonic stem cells by turning to the United States or India instead.

There are 26 laboratories in Cambridge using stem cells; it has the largest aggregate of stem cell scientists in Europe. However, their future research, which is hoped will lead to vital medical discoveries, remains uncertain if they comply with the court ruling announced last October.

Sir Leszek, a former lecturer in medicine and Chief Executive of the UK’s Medical Research Council, told a Cambridge Network gathering of  hi-tech business leaders, that the ruling may be “politically incorrect”, and that the government was “trying to play this down”.

He said: “I believe embryonic stem cells have to be the way forward. We do have a problem in the European area, but I’ve been very clear, both to ministers and others about how Cambridge is going to tackle that. We will continue to do a lot of research here, we will engage with whatever development we can locally and further forward, but the university itself will look at ways of ensuring that patenting can actually occur, and, if necessary, be run through the US, and, if necessary, the Indian sub-continent.”

He added: “There is no way we can actually block the development of potential therapeutics which will have a major impact.”

Sir Leszek, who earlier in the week had been speaking to David Cameron and his “prime ministerial team” about innovation, along with Intel and Hermann Hauser, feels passionately about the potential revolutionary treatments which embryonic stem cell research could provide for those suffering from blindness, spinal cord injury and stroke, as well as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s.

“There is a fundamental issue that Europe has got involved, and frankly, I don’t think we should stand back and prevent major opportunities from actually reaching completion as quickly as possible.”

When the European Court of Justice announced the ban on patents, David Willetts, the Science Minister, told The Times that the government remained committed to stem cell research, despite the court’s decision:

“It does look disappointing because we want to see the effective development of cell therapies that could alleviate and tackle serious medical conditions. It could inhibit this research and development.

“If Europe wants to remain as productive and creative in scientific discovery as it historically has been, it can’t regulate innovation out of existence.”

Back in Cambridge, Sir Leszek was in no doubt about the major contribution this fine academic city could provide:

“Here we have the brains and the means and the ideas to change to world; frankly, we should have the ambition too. Cambridge  is a unique environment with the best ideas and the best implementation. If the answers to pressing questions facing humanity don’t come from here, where will they come from?”