Stand Up For Wendy Davis

Wendy Davis is a hero of free speech - but why did she have to talk for 13 hours to prove it? Why is the system so skewed that someone has to stay on their feet for all of that time, without even a toilet break, to stand up for what they believe in?
Wendy was fighting an abotion bill in Texas which she claims would close all almost the clinics in the state if  allowed to go through. Her only hope was to delay the vote past midnight, the point of no return. Or filibust it, as it is quaintly known.

So she put on a back brace - leaning on a desk or sitting down would amount to admitting defeat - and went for it. She won - but what a hard fought victory ! They claimed she strayed from the subject. Got help when someone adjusted her back brace. Broke the rules.
What's that got to do with it? Today the world is aware of the strength of feeling against this bill. Why was that not enough ? Why was it down to one woman? That's staggering, whatever you think of abortion, isn't it?

Winning At Wimbledon

Well remember Wimbledon. Went there every year, sat in prime position on the centre court and saw the greats, from Becker to McEnroe, Connors and LeConte and they were all thrilling.
Cliff Richard singing in the rain and ducks on the covers. Sitting around waiting for the action to start, six strawberries for a fiver and big buckets of sweeties.
 Saw Fergie flirting and Diana dazzling.
Ann White in her skintight catsuit. Stuffy officials in a frenzy. Martina unmoved, saying,"Let her tennis do the talking." It did. Out she bounced, but the lads loved it. Boris wore see-through shorts and the girls got lucky. The tennis was brilliant, supreme skill, effort and stamina, truly awe-inspiring. The best of the best. Patient fans waited all day, for the chance of a ticket as somone left early. Not many did.
It was fun and it was free for me. Just  two weeks a year in the life of a Sun reporter. Happy days.

Give Patients The Whistle To Blow On Bad Staff

So the NHS is a total shambles and the Care Quality Commission thought only of themselves. Nobody is surprised, so what next?
Must get people in who understand hospitals, says the Health Secretary, not  just send in any odd bod and expect them to know what to look for.
Sounds fine - but surely NHS types will take care of each other, that's the problem. Who's going to blow the whistle then? Not that anyone can hear it.
My suggestion? Let the patients and their relatives have a cast iron way of being heard without repercussions. Allow them to say what they have found, anonymously if need be, but with a firm assurance that their worries will be investigated and poor care rooted out.
Patients and their visitors know when it goes wrong, I know, I've been there and wished that I had someone with clout to complain to. Give the people at the sharp end a say, listen to them, act,  and  only then will things begin to get better

PS I'm passionate about a better deal for patients, that's why I'm giving half the profits of my book to medical research. Devil Deal, Liz Freeman. casts £1.53 on Amazon UK and $2.99 on Amazon.com It's  a fun thriller and an escape,  plus it may do some good. Many thanks everyone

Naked In The Nick

Will he go nude in the nick then? The naked rambler who has been banged up again for showing his backside? I pity him, I really do. There's nothing wrong with the human form. Why should it matter whether he wants to display it in public or not?
But it does, in the same way that jumping a queue offends people. We dont like to see other peoples' bits in Tesco. That's just how it is.
 Stephen Gough has spent more than six years in prison because he likes to get his kit off in public. He left one court appearance and immediately stripped off so was arrested before he left the building. What's wrong with the man?
Does he enjoy the compay on cons? Are they happy to let him persue his reveal all agenda ? How keen are they to see his privates on parade? I'd put money on it he has to cover up in jail, so why not for the rest of us? He must really love life inside, otherwise he'd put on a pair of pants, wouldn't he?

PS If you like how I write get my book Devil Deal about a young guy down on his luck who gets a million pounds from a stranger. He has to pay it all back in a year or face the consequences. Getting good reviews and giving half of profits to medical research. Devil Deal, Liz Freeman £1.53 on Amazon and $2.99 on Amazon.com. Thankyou everybody.

Walk Away Nigella

Wonder if Nigella will leave now that it's out in the open? Is it easier to walk away from abuse if everybody knows and hiding is pointless? Maybe the hard part is keeping it secret - when  that is broken open does escape seem possible?
Those pictures of Nigella with Saatchi's hand  at her throat and over her mouth are truly shocking. We saw in public what has gone on behind closed doors. This is a man who does not care what the world thinks about him. He does not care what his wife thinks about him.
When Nigella was married to John Diamond we learned a little bit about her through his columns. He used to try to boost her self esteem, because, amazingly, this bright, beautiful, loving woman lacked confidence. That came across.
Then she went on to huge success. We thought she lead a charmed life. Now we know different. There are other women out there who thought they were abused because they were hopelesws, ugly and useless. Nigella is none of those things. Maybe out of her sadness others can think; "If it can happen to her it can happen to anybody. It's not my fault," and just walk away.

Tears You Can't Dry

Love talking to strangers on the other side of the world and getting their news back. That's Twitter for you. Trouble is, your heart bleeds for them sometimes and there's nothing you can do to make it better.
Take my mate Salty. I think that's her tears. She's young, beautiful and facing surgery tomorrow. Again. This time she will lose the last of her colon. You don't miss it till it's gone and then - God do you appreciate a healthy gut! She's having to choose between a bag and a pouch. Can't help her there. Can't stop thinking about her either.
Since my son had life-saving surgery I've wanted to get stuff like this out in the open. A strictured gut means terrible pain. Don't mention fistulas. Nobody wants to talk about it, a bad gut floats nobody's boat.
So I wrote a fun book and promised to give half of anything I get to research. Crohns and Colitis UK will benefit, but Devil Deal by Liz Freeman, £1.53 on Amazon, is escapist. It's a thriller with jokes and travel thrown in. People seem to like it. I wanted to get away from the crap that is Crohns. Maybe Salty in Australia will get a laugh out of it. She's getting precious few of those. Good luck girl!

Keep Cops Coming

Dammed if they do and dammed if they don't - police are getting a hammering for rushing to aid battered wives. Making them a priority might be an over-reaction, Essex Police has been told.
I think not. Too many women are dead because cops turned the other cheek.  When I was a young reporter they would not take action in "domestics," because what happened in the family home stayed there. Women were still seen as the property of their husbands - and that really isn't so very long ago.
Now after the murders of Maria Stubbings in 2008 and Christine Chambers and her two-year-old daughter in 2011, Essex police promise to respond to calls in less than an hour. Good. Violence should always warrant an immediate turn out, even if they are getting 80 calls a day.
Just that number alone is enough to freeze the blood. If abusive men - or women - know they will be hauled off to a cell maybe they will think before they punch. Police are there to protect and if that means fewer on car tax patrol that's fine with me.

PS if you are reading this and want a bit of light relief get my book Devil Deal, by Liz Freeman, on Amazon uk and Amazon.com. So far the reviews are good and half of what I earn goes to charity helping medical research. Only £1.53, or $2.99 and we will make a difference, thanks.

Shame The Name Of Jesus

A young lad in short pants kicks a man on the ground as three grown men show him how. That's how they teach their kids to be Christian in Russia. The curled up figure trying to protect his head is gay.
Bruised, bleeding and utterly defeated, he finally gets to his feet. His attackers are protected by the police. His friends arrested. What is going on over there?
New laws make it an offence to upset religious believers. Gays can face imprisonment, forced labour or at the very least hefty fines. Is this what Jesus would have wanted? Who's to say he wasn't gay? He got to 33 and never married. He may have been. We will never know.
This young man looks a bit like Jesus, with his long hair soaked in blood. His pain offends me, and everyone else with a shred of humanity. The Christ I've heard of would have bathed his wounds. Religion like this shames everyone in Russia.

Votes For Child Slashers?

Chucking good money after bad men - our money. The top lawyer in the land is off to argue against giving child killers the vote. It'll cost us millions.
Let's save him the bother. A guy who rapes and strangles his seven year old neice has no right to vote. Another who slashed the throat of a deaf man, likewise. They can shout all they want to the European Court of Human Rights but nobody, that's nobody, should be listening.
They have no rights other than the right to basic survival - and even that would have been denied them not so long ago. To argue they should have a say in how the rest of us live our lives is beyond ludicrous, it's an abomination. We should not have to countenance such rubbish.
Being Brits though, we send Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General, off to make our case in court. He won't come cheap. We should just ignore this European directive. Prisoners give up their voting rights when they get banged up. Our freedom comes with rights.  They've lost theirs. End of.

Prince Philip Pulls It Off

 Prince Philip knows his place. I can vouch for that. I've been up close and personal and seen him in action.  No one does second fiddle better.
My chance came at the Derby when as a young reporter I volunteered to ask the Queen a question on behalf of the scaredy press pack.
I called to her. She ignored me. Miffed, I asked again and this time she turned on the full glare of the headlights with an imperious " Yes!" Philip melted away. The wife  can cope, he clearly thought. I stammered out the agreed question: " Did you have any money on the winning horse - because you looked so excited? " And she gave me a huge smile and said:" Oh no my dear, I never bet!"
 Good old Philip was always exactly right for the Queen. He's boss at home but leaves the ruling of a nation to her. It's a hard call to pull off but he does it with aplomb, always with a wicked sense of humour.  He surely had a good giggle atr my expense. We all wish him well and out of hospital, hopefully in time for his birthday, because the man is a legend.

Brilliant Brain Lost To Debt

A brilliant brain is lost to us all - because some mindless fool working for a local council couldn't see past the rules. Councils must be run by zombies these days. What else would explain allowing a £1,350 council tax bill to reach  £70,000?
Poor Peter Williams, an inventor, was at his wit's end. He couldn't pay. The interest kept mounting up. So he threw himself under a train. A few months later his Vortex hand drier was voted best ever by Guinness World Records. What else would Peter have come up with, had he been allowed a bit of leeway?
He was 63. Central Bedfordshire Council is run by idiots. Someone there should have investigated this totally unrealistic interest debt. It should never have reached that level. They say they were following  their legal requirement. No they wern't, they were lazily sitting back, allowing a man to be driven mad with worry, instead of going around to his place and helping him sort it out.
Anyone with a tenth of Mr Williams intelligence would know that debt could never be paid. It's paid now, but at what cost?

Crack On Cracknell and Fix Europe

Go James Cracknell! Is there no stopping this guy? Two Olympic gold medals, the Atlantic rowed and America cycled he now wants to rachet up a storm in Europe and I'm all for it.
This is a guy who gets things done. He is also the one who stood at the finishing line to shake my exhausted man's hand as he finally finished the gruelling John o Groats to Land's End cycle race. Done in ten days, nearly killed him, but James waited for the last man in, shook his hand and said: " Well Done!" He's a hero.
He also survived a run-in with a petrol tanker, battling back from a serious brain injury. We've got far too many crap politicians, in it for their own ends. Lords taking backhanders is the latest scandal. No end to their maggotty money grabbing.
James wants to stand in next year's European elections. He's on a shortlist. GET HIM NOW! And let's see what a real man can do. He won't disappoint.