Yesterday morning, two hundred and fifty residents of Mid Bedfordshire came to the Rufus centre in Flitwick to listen to Professor Connett deliver what was a master class lecture in waste incineration.

Possibly the world’s leading authority on the subject, he flew in from New York the day before.

To most of you, a lecture on waste incineration may not sound very exciting. It was. It was fascinating.

At the end of the lecture the professor was drenched in sweat and exhausted. He was given a standing ovation. That was our way of saying thank you for the wealth of information he gave us.

Proff Connett has been fighting Covanta in the US for twenty five years. Coincidentally, Covanta haven’t built an incinerator in the US for exactly twenty five years.

I cannot even begin to put all the information he gave to us in one blog. Instead, each day, I will post a small blog on how and why we must oppose the intention of Covanta to build a Wembley sized incinerator in Mid Beds.

Covanta, are in the middle of a court action in Connecticut in the USA. One of many.  The case against them is that they have emitted toxic fumes which contain dioxins and other poisonous chemicals, into the atmosphere.

This isn’t an isolated case. It has happened over and over again. What happens in court is that Covanta will be fined a paltry amount. They will promise to remedy whatever caused the leakage of noxious fumes and then carry on.

If they build an incinerator in Mid Beds, the same will happen here.

The leaked fumes are actually composed of ‘fly ash’. This is the ash which does not drop through the grate in the incinerator, but remains un captured in the atmosphere. It is highly poisonous and dangerous.

Then fly ash is actually composed of nano particles and once emitted into the atmosphere, they can stay up there for a long time, sometimes years before descending.

The particles are so tiny, that they are fully ingestible by humans and once breathed in they are absorbed into the lungs quickly. Do we want an incinerator with a track record of noxious fumes emission discharging carcinogenic fumes all over Mid Bedfordshire?

Covanta have plans to build six incinerators in the UK. Between them they could fill the entire British atmosphere with carcinogenic fumes, from shore to shore. They have to be stopped.

Since I first became interested in politics, I have found it difficult to understand the concept of the BBC licence fee.  I have always found the BBC politically biased. Obviously, not in the Conservatives favour. The worst offender being the Today programme.

Last weekend, I found myself in the middle of a political maelstrom. It was a zero news weekend. Nothing of any political significance was happening and so the publication of the Commissioners report was seized upon.

Actually, in terms of my blog, it was old news. Over a year ago I apologised to my constituents via the local newspaper, http://tinyurl.com/32f6jg8 for not always being able to be up front about where I was. It also only takes any individual with a smattering of intelligence to see that everything on the blog is accurate, because it is largely a record of real time events. It was only ever the perception of where I was on any particular day which was disguised.

The BBC in reporting this was absolutely fair and balanced. They gave me ample time to put over my point via the PM programme at 5pm and then clipped, so I have been informed by others, a very fair and balanced section on the subsequent news bulletins.

A number of Conservative MPs who heard it have told me they couldn't have been fairer. You don’t often hear a Conservative MP say that about the BBC.

The substantive point in the report, was of course the fact that I had been completely cleared by the Standards Commissioner of any misuse of my expenses.

In May last year, when the expenses fiasco first hit, Sky News reported almost all day long a story which more than implied, it actually stated, that I was guilty of expenses abuse.  Sky reported with full screen size photographs that I had mis claimed £18,000. On Monday, the Boulton blog again ran a negative story and legitimised the very man I had been advised to disguise my movements from, Tim Ireland.

 Not only has this man stalked me, he can telephone my constituency office so many times in a morning, the staff disconnect the phone, making it impossible for constituents to make contact. He never telephones the London office. He possibly suspects those calls would be recorded.

I have reported Tim Ireland to the House of Commons police on three occasions and the Chief Constable of Bedfordshire Police explored the option of triggering section 5 of the Public Disorder Act. The House of Commons Police informed me that Mr Ireland had actually rang their office demanding to know if he had been reported. He had and they were seeking advice from the Met harassment unit. 

You only have to look at the huge number of Twitter accounts and web sites he has registered in my name and the very odd, obsessive nature of his writing to understand why I was given the advice regarding my blog that I was. What he writes is aggressive, untrue, disturbing in its intensity. During the election, Mr Ireland travelled to my constituency from Surrey by train,not an easy journey, laden with computer and camera equipment. He then supposedly lied to the organisers of a public meeting about who he was, in order that he could get close to film me.

 I am not the only person he has harassed and stalked and when I spoke to a well known law firm about him recently, he was well known to them. For something completely different.

The Sky Boulton blog was outrageous and distressing. John Craig, their political reporter felt there was nothing wrong in legitimising a man I and other MPs have felt the need to report to the Police. He has also harassed political bloggers and who knows who else. If I am not mistaken, he once telephoned Iain Dale somewhere between 30 - 40 times in one hour. The Sky blog sank to a very low depth that day.

At a local level, I found Anglia TV rude and aggressive and refused to give them an interview. Whereas, Andrew Sinclair at BBC Look East TV was professional, courteous and again allowed the time for me to explain and then screened the whole interview, which was tough, but balanced and fair.

So, on reflection, I am eating humble pie. I’m not saying I have altered my opinion re the licence fee, however, I witnessed firsthand, right at the sharp end, journalistic professionalism and integrity. I experienced fact checking and scrutiny and an organisation which resisted the temptation to act like a red top broadcaster and remain fair and impartial. The same cannot be said of Sky or Anglia.

I am going to amend the EDM which is posted below.

I'm am toying with the idea of launching a campaign to scrap May 1st as a Bank holiday and replace with Armed Forces Day as the Bank holiday in June.

This would seem to be a good way to mark and register appreciation for our Armed Forces.
I also have it on very good authority that this idea may also be well received.

Off to the table office again!

New polling conducted by ComRes has revealed some quite startling findings.

ComRes posed some very simple questions regarding the information available to women about abortion.

89%  of adults polled support a change in the law in order to enshrine a woman's right to be informed of all the physical, emotional and psychological risks associated with abortion.

82%  support a legal duty on doctors to provide access to advice and information regarding the alternatives available, such as adoption.

As I said yesterday, to some, that would be an inconceivable option, however, we are not the woman seeking an abortion. It's her right to choose.

78%  support a compulsory cooling off period between diagnosis and decision. Time to breathe and think. Time not to be bullied into the wrong decision.

It is time to stop pretending that abortion is a simple medical procedure with no consequences. Women are suffering everywhere because of the taboo surrounding abortion. It is a subject which cannot be discussed in Parliament with any level of rationality because of the perceived attack on a woman's 'right to choose' to abort. A woman's right to information in order that she can make an informed decision is equally important, more important, because without it she is being denied the right of control over her own life. The findings produced by ComRes indicate that the public understand and support this.

Interestingly, the number of adults who think the upper rate at which abortion takes place hasn't moved since the end of the campaign.

It does help, when you leave Parliament late at night and intend to work when you get home, to take the lap top charger with you!
Blogging figures from yesterday in five...

Does anyone think this is right? Do we really want to see more of this in the UK? 

http://tinyurl.com/34gaetp

Tonight, some very interesting data will be released regarding abortion and associated issues such as informed consent.

I spent last Parliament championing a campaign to reduce the upper limit at which abortion takes place from 24 weeks to 20. We were defeated in the Commons, however, a subsequent reduction in the upper limit rate of abortion last year, demonstrated that the campaign had very clearly won the public argument of hearts and minds.

The debate was also the most watched on the Parliament Channel in many years. At a lunch, with  BBC executives following the debate, I was informed that the viewing figures were even higher than during the Iraq war debates. Ably demostrating how much public interest there is in the subject.

The problem is that if debate and discussion on a controversial social subject, which has harnessed public interest and concern is suppressed, society will find it's own way to deal with it. Hence the prayer vigils which are attracting media attention outside the Marie Stoppes Hospital.

Informed consent has become such an issue because of the experience many girls are undergoing when they seek help. The psychiatric consequences of abortion are becoming a recorded concern. Maybe they wouldn't be if the abortion process took place in a more thoughtful manner. If girls and women were offered counselling and information regarding other options such as , wait for it, yes, adoption. As strange as it may seem, some find that an easier option than having to deal with the consequences of a medical procedure which, somewhere in their deepest thoughts, they regard as the ending of a life. Whatever you may think of that, it's not your choice. Each and every woman should have a right to choose.

It also puts a woman in control of the decision, rather than the boyfriend, friend or parent. A loss of control at the time of crisis and concern, undoubtedly leads to the problems many are experiencing post abortion.

Women deserve far more help and consideration than they receive today and some of the stories we are about to hear are harrowing.

What we are seeing outside the Marie Stoppes hospital is the consequence of Parliament not executing the will of the people.
The statistics gathered during the campaign indicated that the public wanted action, we gave it none. The reduction in the abortion figures came about due to a sustained campaign assisted by the national media.

If we continue to suppress the debate. If we continue to refuse to acknowledge the real distress some women  experience both at the time and in later years, then we will see that nucleus of a movement outside Marie Stoppes grow.
Is that what we really want?

I don't understand them. Will have them translated tomorrow. I don't get what page views means if my blog is just a rolling page. It's not like you click from one to the other? Anyway, it's a lot!!

What was it Noel Coward said?

EDM laid in table office, printed tomorrow. First stage in campaign. Now onto ten minute rule bill, Westminster Hall debate and out into the public.

Today Monday) I am laying down an EDM as the first stage of a campaign I intend to run to raise public awareness and thankfulness for the risks and sacrifice made by those serving in our armed forces.

Repetitive negative broadcasting and reporting throughout the Iraq and Afghanistan war unfortunately impacted badly upon serving personnel. Rarely do broadcasters commend the troops.

A member of the Royal Anglian, who had just returned from a tour in Iraq, said “you would just like to know that you have the support of people at home when you are out there, but you don’t, not really”

This was someone who had worked ten hours a day in fourty two degrees of searing heat carrying a back pack which weighed almost his own body weight.  A man who left his wife and children behind for months on end and didn’t know if each day was going to be his last and every day, ate his food peppered with sand.

These men and women are literally in the front line fighting extremism and terrorism at its worst in order that we can maintain the freedom to criticise the very wars they are fighting.

In America, returning troops who have fought alongside our troops are regarded as heroes.  It’s not the case here.  

The wording of the EDM is as follows;

That this House recognises the risks taken and the sacrifice made by all members serving in our armed forces overseas and the commitment to duty of those based at home. This House also recognises the need to encourage public support for the dedication and bravery shown by those serving in Afghanistan and Iraq and to use every opportunity available the House presents to raise public awareness and appreciation towards those serving their Queen and country.

I love lazy Sunday's and trawling through the papers. That includes the Beds on Sunday, which I have sent straight to my email account. Unfortunately, it never arrives on a Sunday and so it was whilst reading back issues that I encountered this little anomaly.

Sue Cullen, who is AKA @humphreycushion, prolific tweeter and AKA Ms Cushion, contributor to online adult entertainment site wordejaculation (can't put the rest in or the link comes up, but if you really want to view her writing style just add the .com) who is also according to an email sent to the Mail on Sunday by Kerry McCarthy MP, the Labour party organiser for Mid Beds and according to the Mid Beds Labour party web site, the Labour Prospective Candidate for Mid Beds, gave an interview to my esteemed local paper;

http://www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/News/Bloggers-upset-at-MPs-Twitter-claims.htm

As you can see, the article quite clearly states that she is the Labour candidate, as I assume, told to the reporter and as we know displayed on the web site. Of which the editor at the Beds on Sunday has a snapshot.

However, The Mid Beds Labour party Chairman, James Bunker, writes on the letters page of the Beds on Sunday, 17th October edition,  that Sue Cullen is NOT a Labour party candidate.

So, which one is it it then? Who's telling the truth? Sue Cullen or the party Chairman, James Bunker? Mr Bunker, your web site, whoops, I forgot one of her many hats - Bedfordshire web site and on-line co-ordinator - quite clearly states that Ms Cullen IS a candidate. Maybe you would like to write a letter to the Beds on Sunday clarifying your position?

Or is she only the candidate on the day she wears that hat?

I was very relieved to read in the article that Sue Cullen (local Labour party organiser, AKA @humphreycushion AKA Ms Cushion... yeah, I suppose you've got the picture) stated that she was not on any 'health related benefits'. Slightly confusing as she wrote on twitter that she was on disability benefit?

And just a word to the 'girl with a one track mind'  who was on Breakfast TV yesterday. Impressive performance. I believe the wordejaculation web site might be yours? I commend your attempt to defend one of my constituents, however, the rule of politics is this. Put yourself up for election, become a political candidate and you lose some of the privileges you cherish as an individual. Those being privacy and anonymity. You did yourself a disservice by not a) stating who you were referring to and b) not mentioning at least one of her many disguises.

If you believe in something, you have to be prepared to stand up and fight for it,  and fairly. Not hide behind a curtain of pseudonyms and fancy dresses. You have to have the intellect and bravery to argue your own corner and that of your party, not use the sewer of twitter to harness gullible recruits to fight your corner for you.

The fact that Sue Cullen AKA @humphreycusion AKA (ok, I'm bored with this now) does not even mention on her twitter account or blog that she is the Labour party organiser,candidate, writer for adult......etc etc... speaks volumes.

Perhaps her Chairman could get his story right and enlighten us?

update

For those who may not know - you become a 'prospective candidate' from the moment of selection until the legal election period begins which is when you transfer to being a candidate. You cannot be a candidate from selection because if you do call yourself such, the period of time you incurr election expenses kick in. Parliamentary candidates are Prospective Parliamentary Candidates, PPCs from selection until the election is called and then become Parliamentary Candidate from that time for the period of the short campaign. I imagine the same law applies to local candidates.

If I am correct, Sue Cullen described herself as the 'candidate' on the web site and I assume told the reporter 'prospective candidate'.

For someone who always stands by me....http://tinyurl.com/btyh5l

And everyone should see this anyway, it's so good !

 Welcome to the phenomenal number of new readers I have inherited over the last twenty four hours!

I hope you remain; however, I must issue a warning. I am profoundly dyslexic which means my spelling is bad.  But hey, it would appear that I am in the very best of company.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1323056/How-Jane-Austen-failed-spelling-using-regional-accent-poor-punctuation.html

I would also like to state that every word written on my blog is absolutely true. Any sensible person can obviously see that. How could one fabricate a public meeting with 300 atendees? Or a campaign to prevent an incinerator being built? It would be very difficult indeed. However, I do not provide information regarding my personal diary or movements, or where I sleep at night. Or indeed where I am about to be, as opposed to where I have been,  which means that the blog can often be out of synch.

I have been slightly amazed at the response to my being cleared of a fifteen month investigation into my expenses.

I had hoped that the media would focus on the fact that I was completely exonerated. That the enquiry exposed the fact that I had never claimed against the John Lewis list, had not flipped or claimed a mortgage. That I am in the minority of MPs who has not had to pay money back.

I believe that if I had been found guilty. If I had had to pay money back. If the standards commissioner had discovered that I had claimed £14,000 for home improvements to a house not in my constituency or even where I lived, the reaction would have been far more moderate.

The fuss has been created by some of the more unstable people on the internet and on Twitter. As I said this morning - in politics, Twitter is the sewer of the social networking medium, where online bullies talk to each other, over and over again.

These people would like my blog to be diminished, so that any future campaign I may run, say on abortion, would be undermined from the outset.

The fact also remains, that if I had been a Labour MP claiming for home improvements, on a tax payer funder mortgaged house and even a smattering of the abuse which has been hurled my way via Twitter, had gone in the other direction, the screams of sexism and misogyny would be heard for miles around. And it would be true.

On Monday, I am being interviewed by one of the UKs top feature writers for a national newspaper. In that interview I hope I will be able to expand on some of the issues written about today.

I am delighted to have been offered the interview. I respect the intellect and integrity of the interviewer and feel comfortable in the knowledge that the truth will always out and sense and sensibility will always rule the day.

BBC Look East are putting out a prolonged interview tonight after attending to my surgery in Barton Le Clay this morning.

The surgery was very busy with lots of people pledging their support to fight Covanta. This has prompted me to remind everyone of the forthcoming visit of Professor Connet from New York.

I shall be hosting a meeting at which the Professor will be speaking at; The Rufus Center, Flitwick, on October 30th at 10.30 am.

Don't forget to hit MMAG web site on http://mmetag.com  for updated information regarding the consultation process.

IF YOU HAVEN'T COMPLETED YOUR ONLINE OBJECTION DO SO TODAY!!  YOU ONLY HAVE ONE CHANCE.

 

The link to my PM interview tonight - 22minutes in

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00vcqm5/PM_21_10_2010

After a fifteen month ordeal, I was a delighted, for my family, to have been cleared by the standards commissioner today.

Everyone is getting very excited about my comments regarding my blog. Not that it had anything to do with the complaint lodged by the BNP.
My blog conceals IDs, times, dates, and is often out of synch.

This is because I have had more than my fair share of inappropriate attention to deal with
For example - when I do blog exactly where I am going to be - we find ourselves having to deal with some very strange and un invited people.

I suppose if any of my blog were truly fiction, I could call myself a journalist.

The fiction, in terms of locations etc, is done to protect my family and staff.

Go to page 9

http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/sr2010_summary.pdf

Departmental expenditure rises year on year.

Some may call the 'cuts' efficiency savings.

My worries are about growth, not cuts. This CSR would have been perfect had it cut taxes, done away with the licence fee and committed to stop sending vast sums of money to Europe.
Thereby creating an environment for investment and growth in preparation to deal with rising unemployment.

George did a great job, but that would have been perfect.

So, thousands of soldiers lose their jobs. The very people who have risked their lives every day in order that the BBC can function and fail, over and over, to support the sacrifice they make .

The BBC will only receive the equivalent of a 16% cut over five years. That just isn’t good enough.

The BBC has done a very good job over the last thirteen years to support the Labour Government. They have facilitated the very process which has resulted in the cuts every family in the nation has to bear. The blood which will flow from the cuts is all over BBC hands too.

Having displayed such bias, the Corporation should take more of the pain.

We should demand to know what each presenter is paid. Because we pay.  Students who have to buy a TV licence for each room in a student halls. Each person who is ill, elderly or infirm - we all pay from our taxed income.

We know what teachers, nurses and MPs are paid. Why is the BBC allowed to function under this veil of secrecy?

We need to know the exact cost of every production. How much each person on the production team receives. Every expense receipt going back over five years should be produced for everyone to see. Because we paid.

The argument to justify the BBC licence fee used to go that the BBC made outstanding period dramas.

I have a two word answer to that.  Downton Abbey.

Well, I'm not popular in my office!
We have had a flurry of emails asking for details of my Hawk Flight.
Here is the blog I posted at the time

http://blog.dorries.org/id-1399-2009_5_And_now_for_something_completely_differentMy_Hawk_Flight.aspx

Yesterday, I walked into RAF Henlow in my constituency with a heavy heart and then a wry smile as I thought about the Air Commadore.

The very first time I visited Henlow,  Air Commodore Bill Coaker, threw me into a decompression chamber.

The second time he put me in a car, drove me to RAF Boscombe and sent me up in a Hawk Jet. Maybe he was trying to tell me something?

My heart was heavy because I remembered the words of the Henlow officers who measured me up for my G force suit and prepped me for my medical.

During the small talk (which is necessary during the measuring process believe me!) the officer said   “I’m glad you are a Conservative, you can always depend on Conservatives to look after the forces”.

I felt very proud just at that moment as I thought ‘yes, you can’. I think our forces have a very rough deal indeed. In fact, I think the treatment of veterans is almost a disgrace.

For example, soldiers who are in barracks in Chicksands and want to remain in the Bedfordshire area when their time in service has ended, cannot apply to join a housing list until the day they leave barracks and are declared homeless.

 A man who risks his life for our freedom, has to declare himself homeless in order to accommodate his family.

Whilst on the base, a soldier has access to a dentist and medical facilities, but his family don’t. In America, not only do the family members have full access, but should they be discharged, they can come onto the base and continue to access treatment.

A Commander I spoke to yesterday was extremely insightful. “You politicians need to decide where it is you want this nation to stand on the world stage. Only when you have done that, will you be able to decide what the armed forces should look like going forward”.

I agree. This will involve a major overhaul of how our armed forces are organised and operate and there is no doubt that this is going to happen..

It is a relief that the defence budget cut  is not going to be as severe as we first thought and Liam Fox should be applauded for that.

Maybe we can use this opportunity of change and reform to also review how we regard, respect and treat our forces personnel and their families.

If we can alter what are effectively their terms and conditions of service. If we as a Government can demonstrate in a practical way our thanks for the loyalty of service personell, if we can acknowledge the sacrifices they make, then maybe the British people will follow likewise and begin to do the same.

I have had so many visitors from the constituency in the Commons today, I have had no time to blog.
First meeting tomorrow is at Chicksands at 9am and then a full constituency day. Twitter is going to come in useful again. 600 followers in 24hrs, not bad.

Here I go agian....@Nadine_MP

Photo upload arriving soon.

I had to. All will be revealed.

I am up to my neck in contaminated blood facts and stats in preparation for a speech I am going to deliver tomorrow.

I am also going to reignite my Twitter account, in preparation for …. Something.

Leaving Westminster on Monday night at 11pm, I noticed a Golden Lab guide dog looking a bit distressed.

He was stood outside Carriage Gate, surrounded by a group of young girls who were all squealing.

His handle was laid flat on his back and about four of them were trying to pull him towards the bridge.

I turned to look back when I got to the Lords entrance and he was stood, as a silhouette in the street lamp, looking back over his shoulder towards me. Still refusing to move.

All the way home I agonised about what to do. I rang a broadcaster from Sky, who I knew would have the number for a reporter in the Commons who has a wonderful Guide dog, Chip, who everyone loves. I couldn't bear the thought that maybe someone had stolen Chip!

He rang me back, no; Chip was safely tucked up in his basket at home with his reporter owner who was nicely relaxing with Chip, a glass of wine and a Bonio. (I know that conjures up an image of both lying in the basket!)

This was only partial good news to me. I got into bed, but there was no way I was going to sleep. So, as you do, at midnight, I got up and rang the House of Commons Police and I am so glad that I did. All was revealed.

The poor dog needed to do something he was trained not to do on pavements.  So, the lovely House of Commons Police, who could see what was happening, took charge of the situation and provided him with, err...space and let him, well…. whatever. Their only complaint was they had to watch him on camera.

 Why are they complaining? Think how mortifyingly embarrassing it must have been for the poor dog!

 

Did you know that if every GP referred one less patient per year and requested one less diagnostic test, the NHS would save half a billion pounds in that one year?

An indication of how cost effective  GP Consortia will be when GPs begin to extend their role and take greater responsibility for extended elements of patient care.

If you could put into one sentence why the NHS reforms are pretty amazing, that one has to be it.

The corridors in Westminster have gone film mad. The recommended film to watch amongst some very senior MPs is ‘Made in Dagenham’. I had a bit of as film moment myself today.  I have been wearing all black for work for some time now. If it was good enough for Co Co, it’s good enough for me.  A former Secretary of State, greeted me today with “ah, Nikita”. No, said I, (whilst wondering had pre senile dementia set in) it’s me, Nadine (I said Nadine a bit louder, just in case it had, as too many do) .

I know that said he, you just reminded me of the girl in the film who was given an injection and woke up in a strange building and became an assassin.

Well, I’ve never seen the film, but yeah, I can see the comparison. Except...I woke up in here instead.

As my salad arrived almost everyone around the table said “is there a revolver hidden in that”. Cue raucous laughter. MPs are very strange beings.

This breaks my heart

http://bracknellblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/fed-up-so-im-going-to-stop-blogging.html

If you don't suffer from dyslexia, you cannot understand his frustration.
People just don't get it that you can stare and stare and cry and still not see what others see.

I implore you, do not give up. Do not let it beat you because your blog is great. You are great. Keep on.

PS  The GCSE stuff wont help one iota. You need to learn coping strategies, ie, always wrtie you are, not you're. The comma tricks are easyish but I still get caught out with those all of the time. Don't keep looking at what you have written, it wont help, you can't see it now, you wont in an hour. Learn the tricks. Keep to short sentences. They really do help. Take comfort from the fact that if you are dyslexic, you will have a hidden talent somewhere else.

When people ask me which woman politician has influenced my life, they expect me to answer Margaret Thatcher. Whereas I admire the great lady and am honoured to be attending her birthday party at No10 on Thursday night, the woman who has influenced me most tends to surprise people as it is Eleanor Rathbone, the independent MP from Liverpool and pioneer of family allowances.

Eleanor began campaigning for the ‘family allowance’ which became child benefit in 1918 and only saw her efforts come to fruition a year before she died in 1945.

There was nothing this woman did throughout her entire career which I did not admire or agree with. She campaigned hard for better working conditions for the Liverpool Dockers. She was committed to social policy implementation and yet interested in foreign affairs. Both are my passion. She stood by Churchill when many didn’t. She opposed appeasement and had a reputation as a formidable MP who made foreign secretaries quake in their shoes as she approached.  Throughout her career she campaigned hard for the equality of women and improved living conditions for the poor.

I was only ten years old when I first heard all about Eleanor Rathbone. Stood on the corner of Rathbone Rd in Liverpool, waiting to cross and holding my Dad’s hand I remember asking the question “who is Rathbone and why does he have his own road?”  My father launched into an explanation of who she was and about the work she had undertaken with her father, who I believe may also have been an MP. My Mum then chipped in with something I have never forgotten. She explained the work Eleanor Rathbone had undertaken in order to have a family allowance paid directly to mothers, because, and these words stuck in my mind “men in poor households who work hard and have awful jobs used to drink all the wages on a Friday night and many women found themselves without a penny to feed their family for the rest of the week”.

That was the motivation for Eleanor’s campaign, to help ease the terrible burden many women from poor backgrounds had to face and to ensure there was some money to feed the children.

It was this knowledge which, as soon as I became able to, made me stop drawing my child benefit. I found it difficult when other Mums told me they were putting their child benefit towards private school fees or some other luxury. Knowing how hard Eleanor Rathbone had campaigned, it didn’t feel right to me.

If Eleanor Rathbone were alive today and sat down and had a cup of tea with George and Iain, I think she would approve of what they are trying to do and support their objectives.

What a shame we can’t ask her.

But not very well..

http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?referral=other&refresh=o03W12ZekE07&PBID=ff4d9265-8301-48f4-9713-b817725cb069

Interesting comments by Sue Cullen, the candidate the local Labour party has selected for the forthcoming local elections. She is also the Bedfordshire Labour party organiser who attends meetings in the Jubilee room in the House of Commons with Kerry McCarthy MP, the Labour party Twitter Tsar and whom Kerry McCarthy visits at her home. Apparently, according to her Labour party bio, she also writes for Bella and the Guardian. Obviously put on the party web site in order to impress and win votes. Or is it con votes? Because it implies she is a fully paid up journalist, or has been for both publications, which is interesting, as when writing a blog post recently, the only writing achievement she referred to was one where she won a competition at the age of sixteen? Conned blog readers?

The adult web site she writes for is not specifically for disabled people in any way whatsoever, or claims to be. Wordejaculation is on Wordpress.  It is sexually graphic in terms of images, even containing a photograph of Sue Cullen herself. The writing is also sexually graphic and again, the site makes no pretence of this. It is an erotic fiction web site. It appears Sue Cullen, who writes as Ms Cushion, conned the Beds on Sunday journalist into thinking it was a provision for disabled people. Ms Cullen also once tweeted that she was on disability benefit, but told the Beds on Sunday journalist she wasn't and that she is not registered disabled. She claims her agency is paying her long term whilst she is off sick. And the journalist believed her.  I am sure every carer would like to know the name of the agency, so good that if you are off work for months they keep on paying. So, who's being conned there? The tweeters or the journalist?

She has twittered that her disability is due to the Coalition Government cancelling operations she is waiting for on both of her feet.

I have just got back in after an hour long walk in the woods with the love of my life...my Labrador. This morning I awoke to her sat by the side of my bed with my handbag hanging from her mouth. I had forgotten that at the restaurant last night I couldn't eat my steak and asked for a doggie bag. She obviously knew I had forgotten!

For the first time I can smell musky autumn everywhere. The fire is lit and crackling, logs stored by the grate, ready ready for Miss Widdecombe.

Next week is going to be an excellent week for a number of reasons, which will all become apparent before next weekend, I hope.

Friday's always leave me drained and it is going to get worse. You would like to wave a magic wand for everyone. Stop the repossession, build the downstairs bathroom, make Nice approve the treatment. That has to be the worst. Hearing how Nice think a treatment is too expensive because it only guarantees 3-5 weeks extra life.

If you have breast cancer and only weeks to go anyway. If you want your children to come home through the door another twenty times to find you sat there, wanting to hear all about their day and hope that they will remember even a bit of it - why shouldn't you have the treatment?

The answer is of course, because there isn't enough money and we have something called health priorities.

If paying a flat rate benefit, regardless of how many children you have, means that once we have paid the debt off we will have money to provide the luxury treatments - and who would describe 3-5 weeks of extra life a luxury? Then bring it on. 

Fridays sometimes leave me very angry too.

 

It's Barton, Streatley, Harlington, Westoning and Flitton today, finishing up in Flitwick and then done. No appointments over the weekend for a change which is just as well as the Health Select Committee papers landed on the doorstep as I left the house, in four large brown packages. Note to self...need new highlighter pens.

I posted this in October 2008

http://blog.dorries.org/id-1114-2008_10_The_New_Winston.aspx

It's ok team Cameron, I don't mind you pinching my idea :-) We are all in this together.

The Labour shadow cabinet election results are in. The fact that they have failed to elect their best talent shows how determind they are to confine themselves to the political wasteland. Any party which leaves out of the cabinet Diane Abbott, Tom Harris and Ian Wright amongst other excellent  political operators deserves to wallow. Mind you, it's good for us I suppose. Chris Bryant will be gutted tonight. He is sharp and without doubt the most ambitious of the lot.

I know I shouldn’t have favourites but I have to say -  I love Wootton Upper School.

It’s the pastoral care the kids receive which does it for me. The way the Headmaster has fostered an atmosphere of openness and almost affection for the children who attend the school.  The pupils - and I know this happens because they tell me - can walk into the Headmaster - Mr Withell’s - office at any time and have a cup of tea and a chat with him. He is more like a Dad who happens to work at the school than a Headmaster and I know he has mastered walking that tightrope between discipline and care.  The head of sixth form is exactly the same and is another well thought of ‘Dad’ figure.

I often have pupils from Wootton Upper on work experience in my office and they have nothing but good and positive things to say about the school and its teachers.

Yesterday, Mr Withell, pictured to my right, your left and a group of parents (most had left by the time we got round to a picture) met with the leader of the Council to discuss school transport.

One of the severe cuts being imposed means that the council will now no longer be able to provide the late bus from the school to the villages.

There is no public transport to the villages and so all of those children who stay at school until later to use the computers or to stay at one of the many clubs run by the school, will now no longer be able to stay.

You may think that the clubs are a luxury. They aren’t. Many children still don’t have computers at home and so much learning is now online based that access to the school library and computers is the only way some can keep up.

Yesterday was spent sat round the table trying to find a way forward. It was difficult. It is almost impossible when there is no money and we live in a rural constituency which has poor public transport.

To parents; I know that Trisha Turner, the Council leader, will do her very best to facilitate a solution, I’m just not sure that it will be the exact solution we want.

I am writing again to ask them to look again and see if they can cut from somewhere else and save the late bus from Wootton.  Problem is, wherever the knife falls so will the pain be felt.

We are in the process of organising a very large anti Covanta demonstration. Details to follow. There could be over a thousand people taking part, however, as it stands today, it looks as though it could all happen on November 6th. In time to ensure people remember to object. Obvioulsy, with so many people in attendance, we have to co-ordinate health and safety etc and that is all in process.

Keep hitting this and the MMAG web site for more information nearer the time.

We would like to hit facebook and all social networking sites with a viral three minute video of the demo
 with a very clear message.

Can anyone do this for us as their contribution? If so, could you email me either at the address on this site or contact Hugh or Nicola at MMAG. Thank you!

I have just been text the following from a conference delegate who is a very successful businessman. He has held a variety of high offices and is nobodys fool;

"Could you please pass this message onto IDS - The work he has done and the announcements he made at conference today have enabled me to feel proud to be a Conservative once again".

Iain has just given a speech that could move you to tears. The best speech.

It is impossible not to feel proud of Iain and what he has achieved. Tony Blair inherited a Treasury in 1997 with coffers full of gold. He knew the biggest threat to the state and society was welfare dependance and he knew it had to be reformed- and yet was unable to begin to address it. Employing Frank Field to think the unthinkable, he conceded in his memoirs that he couldn't make it happen.

IDS walked into a job when the new Conservative led Government had been left a note stating that there was no money left. The coffers housed hungry mice and dust. It had all been spent.

And yet against that background, Iain and his team, which includes the fantastic Philippa Stroud and everyone at the Centre for Social Justice, have not only thought the unthinkable, but have begun to make it happen.

David Cameron must be thinking what a lucky man he is to have Iain.

The quiet man truly roared this week.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/8042990/Morrissey-Clare-Balding-Nadine-Dorries-liberals-love-a-good-Twitter-outrage.html

I gave this interview to the New Statesman weeks ago. Little did I know how relevant it would be today.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/09/nadine-dorries-palin-bagshawe

This was one of my quotes from the article

Dorries, meanwhile, would like to see a similar kind of uprising of stay-at-home, conservative mothers in the UK: "Do you know the people who have no voice in this country? Who are never written about, who journalists never talk about? The mums. Mums who decide that they will give up their careers and stay at home and look after their children."

If I was giving that interview today.....

I arrived in Birmingham at nine am in the middle of a monsoon.

In the three minutes it took to walk from the south car park to Broad St, my coat had completely soaked through and my new boots squelched as I walked.

Unable to see the late accreditation office due to the mascara pouring into my eyes, I apprehend a young Policeman in a luminous yellow jacket.  I was due for a TV interview at ten.

“Please, I beg you”, I, err, begged, “can you tell me where the late accreditation office is?”

With a flourish, from a pocket large enough to sleep the Dagenham Girl Pipers Band, he produces an atlas of a Birmingham street map and begins to rotate it 180 degrees, each way, twice. Then, In a dramatic fashion, he waves his arms and proceeds to direct me on a twenty minute walk.

I am panicking a little by now. Time is running against me and only minutes into my trek, my umbrella gave up the will to live having fought fiercely against the Twister which swept down Broad Street leaving me to carry a disintegrated heap of collapsed metal and soggy material. The unberella looked just how I felt.

At the end of the walk,  I lift my head to brave the elements expecting to see the office.  I am in Five Ways and nowhere near the ICC. With a failing heart,  I re trace my steps. Not easy as by this point I am becoming delirious with dehydration and lack of food. Finding myself back in exactly the same spot as I had been when I asked the Policeman the way, at exactly the same road block, I nervously ask another Policeman. By this point I am crying, however, I am so wet no one can tell.

“Late accreditation” repeats the Policeman, after he had strained to hear the weak whisper falling from my lips. “It’s there love”, pointing to a door no more than six steps away from where we stood.......

 

My day starts in the morning with a pre record for the regional Politics Show which will go out at twelve. I'm with Douglas
Carswell MP and we are discussing AV and the week ahead.
I am also speaking on a panel at lunchtime, two radio interviews and then speaking at the 2020 healthcare fringe meeting on trauma care.

I imagine the atmosphere in Birmingham, now that we are once again in office and leading the Government will be buzzing and possibly our most united, happiest conference ever.

Not wishing to be macabre, however, did anyone else feel as shocked as I did when listening to PM and the report of a tragic suicide? The reporter said, in very strident tones, sans emotion, that the person in question 'had killed himself'. The 6pm news reported him as having been 'found dead'.
Is it a sign of the times that the language we use has no emotional tone or consideration for those listening whom may have known him? Would it not have been better to have described the situation as 'having taken his own life'?

The poor Labour MP who was pulled from Newsnight along with me was already well way on the way to London before Newsnight got through and managed to cancel. I would be really hacked off if that were me. What a miserable way to spend a Friday night, on damp trains and wet stations. The MP is a shadow cabinet contender and probably had much better things to do. 

Not wanting to be a Mum who brags or anything, however, the Kenwood Chef has worked! She's only been at uni for two weeks and is home for the weekend. Yes, of course I know it's because she has run out of clean clothes and is so exhausted from freshers, the newness and making new friends that she will probably just want to sleep for 48hrs, but do I care? She's home. :-) The downside is worrying about at which point do I mention that I have to leave on Sunday morning at 7am to do media and conference?

Just been pulled from Newsnight for Frank Field, which is fine as I can still get on with my night, however, feel really sorry for the Labour MP, who is already on the train...from Scotland!

Today was a very busy day and a very tearful one for many of my constituents, who are being hit hard by the recession. Today I seethed with anger at the shocking, irresponsible mess Gordon Brown created and the state he left our finances in.
The day started at seven and now I am off to do another Newsnight.