I saw the news about beautiful Anne-Marie Ellement who was a Royal Military Police officer who hung herself after the Army made the decision not to charge soldiers she had accused of raping her.  It seems the organisation she worked for closed ranks and turned against her, even fellow female officers called her names and made her life a misery.  (Oh these people who never leave the school playground).  As a final slap in the face was that one of the males...

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The 30th Anniversary of the Miners Strike programme on ITV last night.  A Tory government full of privileged TWATS like Heseltine 'did what had to be done' while ex-miners told us what decimation has taken place and communities have never recovered.   Well, you can't have the proles banding together, camaraderie and rights for the working man can you!  I had to force myself to watch as I knew it would be hard going. Seeing a man from the village where I grew...

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Many true fans are in tears because all the tickets for Kate Bush were bought up in 15 minutes of going on sale.  By 10am seats were being offered on Seatwave etc from £799.  I wonder if Kate would approve?  I doubt it but there's no control.  Gone are the days of ticket touts outside venues, yes you get some, but it's far easier for some greedy sod to sit and press a button and make loads of money out of something so rare.  Some of us truly want to see...

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...and now I'm all alone in Bedsitland'.........feeling uninspired, I heard Soft Cell on the radio and was taken back to my own Bedsitland.  It was the early 80s and having lived in hotel accommodation with other chambermaids, waitresses, housekeepers, I took the plunge to get a job outside and had one week to run around London agencies and a Paddington Hotel my mate told me about (I was told no, because I was English!).  I was very young and very naive and...

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After watching Panorama's harrowing but must see programme about the abuse of elderly patients in a £700 a week 'Care Home' on the BBC last week, I was reminded of my maternal grandmother Lucy's death.  My grandmother at age 86 fell out of bed, she had not been ill, in fact she had never been in hospital (apart from working as a cleaner in a strict regime in the town hospital).  A week later she was dead.  I was only 12 and felt traumatised. I...

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With all the furore about the future of housing, the depressing prospects for people trying to find a home, Camerloon laughing at Milipede's proposal for a three year tenant/ landlord agreement, I think it's a good time to pull out this poem that fantasises about getting the hell out of this world!  It may seem influenced by God Bowie (with a bit of help from Patrick Hamilton's great book title 'Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky' but it could...

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I just want to express my joy when at a 1940s event on Saturday night, the DJ came from behind the decks in his wheelchair, took a lady by the hand and they bopped a real good jive.   Turns didn't stop him as he spun like fury and didn't fail to catch her hand as they danced with perfect timing.  I am not sure how he did it but it was very impressive.  It showed real passion and determination for the music he loves. Wheels of Fury DJ of the be bop big...

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The cooker broke down. I decided on a new one.  That went wrong after a few weeks.  Apparently I could have sent it back to the Shop before 28 days but I was too late.  So the supplier sent an engineer who, after umpteen visits with the wrong parts even got fed up and advised 'ask for an uplift number', which means the manufacturer will inform the company who sold it to me to take it away and refund my money.  The process should have been simple (in...

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I was fortunate enough to go for a country walk after a lovely Sunday lunch in Berks or was it Bucks (confused boundaries but at least it wasn't Starbucks).  It was one of those halcyon days when the City is a distant memory and you wished you lived in cottage, completely relaxed, day job a million miles away.   Everything was slow. The only buzz was bees around the flowers that hung in front of the 18th century pub, which thankfully is not gentrified. There's...

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The gorgeous, beautiful, hilarious, gentleman Rik Mayall who helped to shape the alternative comedy scene with a new humour for my generation died today. His first popular role on the BBC was in The Young Ones in which he played Rik the grotesque, neurotic, lefty student with a penchant for Cliff Richard, which led to releasing a record with an hilarious video for Comic Relief with Cliff.  He and three other miscreants (students!) lived in a...

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At Harrison's Bar - a gem of a basement for gigs Fuelled by red wine I walked from Kings Cross to Euston I took in the St Pancras Gothic beauties And said out loud in my head I LOVE KINGS CROSS GIGS I love London Streets I love London gigs Like Kath Tait's honeyed voice Lucy Lyrical's ukele Maggie Swampwino's electric mandolin Blew away my duress, my stress and the wind up my dress Fuelling my journey up Euston Road...

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To the GP I started to walk Feeling free I could not stop Along the way I met humanity I admired big houses I smelt the dried piss streets As the pavement spread Into the darkest of towns Even in the sun It was glum Downtrodden people Trying to live Life's struggle not healed With a few rays of sun Just lighting up the gloom I strode in hope Wafting through the mire Perchance to to tire Perchance to dream To sleep in this heat I wore out my feet I thought 'like the fella in the...

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Wildhood Poeticising the electrical storm Like watching a Hammer Horror When people are safe under the sheets Huddling a lover Heavy bedding I am turned on by  sheet lightning Heavy weather Frightening myself hoping for a strike When some are being struck by fists The Monster wakes No 'rain rain go away come back another day' for me I happily dance and pray for more Rain, rain faster alley alley Aster' Rhymes from wildchildhood Was I a miserable child? It could have been...

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Here is a limp (biskit) attempt to turn my (non comfortably) numb fingers and arms every morning into poetry as I had a weird dream that I could not shake out the numbness to pins and needles (paraesthesia) and wake up thinking of a punk band! Now I'm dreaming of them My fingers paralysed One white one grey one skeletal My paranoia's infiltrated my sleep Only they won't straighten They stay stiff They won't loosen But eventually I wake up Uncomfortably numb fingers Shaking...

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I imagine you're sitting in a purpose built tent of a room In downtown Stockton on Tease Robed in a kaftan sucking on a spliff Deigning to educate us lesser mortals Who get annoyed and post it on Facebook Send us e-cards professing positivity Telling us we should live and let live Don't waste time on anger - chill my friend Wafting your dream catcher and reading Salinger Malingering while I vent my spleen Well anger is an energy I could be wrong but I know I'm right 'SCREAMING...

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Not in Edinburgh but what a stirring experience watching out for something special on The Fringes.

This lead singer inspires me to think this is where David Ruffin's roots must be (The Temptations).

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I didn't get DLA and suffered total embarassment trying to claim at an appeal (I could not fill the form in alone. I had to get help). Awaiting another breakdown to explain the first breakdown. Anger walking away from the DLA in Grays Inn turned into this poem in my head and performed it the next evening at Survivors....something positive out of something negative. The 51st State of the D Hell of A! - Poetician Needs Hand Rail Three grey stooges assessing case Cross examining...

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Lovely soundbite there from a robotic public servant!  (Indeed a top banking exec used the same phrase apologising for his major high street bank's cock ups!)  The need to tick boxes, be PC (not the constable type), meet targets resulting in closed doors, dirt swept under the carpet not cleaned from the floor?  And get quite a tidy sum to boot which begs the question 'are people in charge in it for the money?'  'cause it ain't the love!  Is this a...

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98 years ago my Great Uncle Arthur Bowler was 'killed in action' in the 'organised murder' (Harry Patch).  He is commemorated on a brick in Thiepval, France.  Strangely, he was near an area called Albert, and he had a brother called Albert, pronounced very differently with a Barnsley accent, who also served in Malta in the same conflict and survived to have a very good life.  I wonder if Arthur may have connected these names as he waited in the trench to...

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Where can I get some decent food in this goddam town?  In between the fantastic festival I just needed a real dirty fry up to keep me going and guess what?  Been around the world and I, I , I can't find a fry up... Runaround Brew.... where are you? Had to settle for MACDONALDS ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!! Get this city back to reality please and give us back the cosy Italian cafes and Full English brekkies!  Then I find that:  London Hot el is charging £39 for the...

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I Love This Dirty Town (too) I found this plea In the archives of the BBC Margaret Drabble, Sean Kenny Arthur Doole I love you But weep knowing They took no pity The architects and town planners always win! Wise words from Theo Goody Highlights the wasted taxpayers' money On skills are wasted for empty words Paid for by the sweat and toil of ordinary workers Joan Littlewood as usual Fighting on the side of good But Money talks Developers walk All over our souls Until we do them a favour And...

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How apt, just read Colin Hambrook's excellent editorial and in response to his paragraph: 'I think madness is often a sane response to living in an insane society... etc' I find I concur most sincerely (folks). Now we hear, in the 21st century this 'Lord' making claiming disabled people are 'not worth' the minimum wage. Somehow his derogatory comments about people who at least are willing to 'do' something to make their lives more bearable is...

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Terrorism. 2. a person who terrorizes or frightens others. (Dictionary.com) With all the exposure of child sex abuse I am wishing in an ideal world that our bullies should also be punished. They say 'move on', 'it's in the past', 'look to the future'.  Well along with sexual abusers, our bullies should be made to see the damage they've wreaked. In an ideal world we could go back as we are now and have the confidence, the power to fight back. I thought of...

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Marie-Louise Muir profiles of Claire Cunningham, artist-in-residence at Belfast Festival at Queen's, and meets disabled artists who focus on their art rather than their disability.  Interesting programme and

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Usually I try not to watch harrowing programmes or films before bedtime (bit difficult at the moment due to Art of Gothic series on the BBC!) but I was compelled to watch 'Inside Holloway' on Channel 5 last night.  Part Two of a two part documentary, it made for a disturbing, depressing insight into the world of a women's prison. Ruth Ellis, the victim of a brutal, nasty, violent upper class man resorted to shooting him and in doing so was charged with...

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