Blog
Introducing the hospitalist
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...
The Jon Venables legal quagmire
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...
Janice is just the ticket!
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...
Controlling from the grave
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...
My Toastmasters election special
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...
Should the Yorkshire Ripper be released?
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...
Our Headway ball
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...
The Heather Brooke influence
I wonder what the feisty Heather Brooke would do in my shoes. I still haven’t had a response to a Freedom of Information request I submitted on 1st November last year. I’m getting fed up with this unexplained delay after being told I would hear by the 31st...
Wisbech’s migrant workers
I come from Wisbech where agriculture plays a key role in the local economy. It is famed for its black fertile soil – and its thousands of migrant workers who have been accused of taking jobs once held by locals. I really like the idea of this programme on BBC 1...