Do Blair and tennis go together?

Do Blair and tennis go together?

You have to wonder if it is the same Tony Blair. Our premier of old whose government did nothing to save school playing fields from being sold off and promote their use for health and fitness, is now advocating tennis as a sport which notherners should participate...
Who is Zineta, my new mystery friend?

Who is Zineta, my new mystery friend?

As I sit in my digitally equipped office and listen to the village  school children singing their Christmas carols outside, a cosy fire roaring in the room next door, I pause to think about my new friend Zineta, and the kind of life she is having in Bosnia....
Do our kids have the same hunger to succeed?

Do our kids have the same hunger to succeed?

Three times in the last hour I have walked into my son David’s bedroom where he was supposed to be deeply engrossed in his studies only to find him feverishly excited about a computer game. This is not an isolated incident, it is a very common occurrence. He...
The "forgotten hostages", asking for the impossible

The "forgotten hostages", asking for the impossible

I fear for the safety of our British hostages in Iraq following their evil captors’ impossible demands for Britain to pull out of Iraq. We know that this is not going to happen. If the 10 day deadline started from the date when Jason’s appeal was...
Hi Mike (oops Ian). And my name is not Ethel!

Hi Mike (oops Ian). And my name is not Ethel!

I wondered why Mike walked silently by when I spoke to him at a Christmas bash last week – I called out the wrong name, I should have said Ian! I’m normally good with names, unlike Bryan Appleyard, who becomes readily fixated by ties, agonised expressions,...