Government reforms ignore trans-racial adoption

Posted by on Dec 22, 2011 in Blog, PR client | 2 comments It’s the best Christmas news for any child languishing in care and waiting to be placed with loving, adoptive parents – the announcement today that the government is replacing its crippling bureaucratic process with a new system.  Proposals include forming an expert panel to develop a new system and assessment form so suitable placements can be made starting next year. I hope the...
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Why Steve Jobs will never be forgotten

Posted by on Oct 10, 2011 in Blog | 3 comments So much has already been said about the tragic death of Steve Jobs from pancreatic cancer, but I felt, as an Apple devotee, that I had to pay my tribute too. Although I have yet to lick my iMac, MacBook Pro, iPhone 4 or iPad, they are certainly tactile and I enjoy every moment of using them. (“You know a product is good if you want to lick it,” Steve Jobs, 1984.) Stephen Bayley sums...
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David Cameron supports adoption reforms

Posted by on Oct 6, 2011 in Blog, PR client | 0 comments I am delighted to read in today’s Times that David Cameron has vowed to tear up Britain’s adoption rules and end the scandal of thousands of children lost in the care system. The announcement was made in a speech at the Conservative Party conference at the same time that adoption campaigner Francesca Polini urged the Prime Minister to support adoption reforms in an interview with the...
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Adoption with Humanity e-petition launch

Posted by on Oct 4, 2011 in Blog, PR client | 0 comments I have just signed the Adoption with Humanity e-petition which has just been launched on the government’s website.  You too can sign it too by clicking here. It has naturally thrilled adoption campaign reformer Francesca Polini who is delighted to have gained the support of Baroness King of Bow and Bruce Oldfield. This is what they say: Oona King: “Like Francesca, I am an adoptive...
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Our Shine 2011 moonlight walk

Posted by on Oct 3, 2011 in Blog | 6 comments I joined a charity half-marathon through the streets of London at the weekend to raise funds for Cancer Research UK in support of their  Shine 2011 fundraiser. I walked alongside scientists Julie Barnes and Wendy Alderton from Abcodia and their friends. I believe 10,000 walkers joined in the London walk, many carrying messages pinned to their back in memory of loved ones lost to cancer. For me,...
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Why we need a National Adoption Agency

Posted by on Sep 30, 2011 in Blog | 8 comments It’s tragic that only 60 babies were adopted in England in the last year. Surely there should have been a zero on the end. This is not because there are fewer babies and young children being taken into care each year to support falling adoption figures; there are now 65,520 children in care, the highest figure since 1987. Yet fewer of these children are being adopted, and those which do...
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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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