Dying celebrity in sick website taunt

20/03/09

Phil Simms writes:

JADE GOODY has been targeted by a website that ranks celebrities on their likelihood to die in 2009.

Sick, deathlist.net has identified 50 celebrities who it feels are unlikely to last another 12 months.

Although she didn’t make the list, the 27-year-old former Big Brother contestant, who was diagnosed with cancer last year, and has two sons Bobby, five, and Freddie, four, is the subject in a forum entitled: “Is she poppadoomed?”

Visitors have left their ideas for newspaper headlines. Toast suggested: “Goody mum drops," while Eejit recommended: “Goody tomb shoes.” Eastenders actress Wendy Richard, who died on February 26, gave Deathlist 2009 its second “success” according to the disclaimer. She was ranked 19th.

Other celebrities include train robber Ronnie Biggs in first place, former England and Newcastle football manager Bobby Robson in sixth, Patrick Swayze in 12th and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 45th. The rules on inclusion state that candidates must be famous in their own right such that their death is expected to be reported in the UK media.

However, candidates cannot be famous purely for the fact they are likely to die soon. A maximum of 25 candidates on the previous year's list can reappear on the next year's list. The website proudly claims that “expectations were high” for the coming year. The disclaimer said: “A fine performance from Deathlist 2008, with a record-equalling 14 deaths, makes expectations high for the 2009 list."

“The ongoing battle with medical science continues as it slowly but surely makes the challenge greater each year, but hopefully this is offset by the endless research of the forum members in combing the news sources of the world for nuggets of information on those who are ready to claim a DeathList success as their final contribution to society.”

The website even has a merchandise section where visitors can buy t-shirts, mugs and even thongs emblazoned with the DeathList logo.

As published on The-Latest.com

WOMAN DIED AFTER 999 CALL BLUNDER

Phil Simms writes:

A WOMAN died in her father's arms after a 999 operator refused to send an ambulance for her.

David Rice-Evans was told to look in the phone book for a doctor. It was only after he made a second emergency call 17 minutes later that an ambulance was sent to his home at Sydney Harrison House in Lower Shiplake.

His daughter Anna, a 26-year-old recovering drug addict, had died by the time the emergency vehicle arrived.

An inquest heard that the delay would not have prevented her death but South Central Ambulance Service apologised to her family.

Oxfordshire coronor Nicholas Gardiner was told that the incident happened on November 13 last year while Ms Rice-Evans was visiting her father and his partner Becky Vincent.

The former nursery nurse died after drinking wine and methadone, a heroin substitute that she tricked a doctor into prescribing her. Mr Gardiner said she had a drink problem from the age of 16 and in the last year of her life was drinking the equivalent of one-and-a-half bottles of spirits a day. She had also been addicted to heroin.

Mr Rice-Evans, 60, told the court that when she came to see him she brought a medal to say that she had been "clean" for six months. He said that if she was still taking drugs he would have known.

He added: "She seemed ery happy and I felt that she was improving,. I just wanted her to get into rehab so she could keep the momentum going."

His daughter, who used to work at Cygnets nursey school in Henley, complained of stomach pains and made an appointment to see a doctor at the Hart Practice in York Road, Henley, that afternoon.

Dr Phillip Unwin said he prescribed 300mg of methadone with instructions to take 100mg per day after Ms Rce-Evans convinced him she was still taking heroin.

Medical guidelines issued by the British National Forumstate that first dose of methadone should be between 10 and 40mg per day.

Dr Unwin said: "She came into my surgery saying that she was a drug addict and was no longer able to administer the drugs because all her veins had collapsed. She was desperate for help.

"Anna looked physically ill. She was very pale, sweaty and shaky. I felt very sorry for her. She said to me that she injected heroin into her scull but I couldn't tell because she was wearing a lot of make-up. I couldn't detect any alcohol on her breath and I was sitting very close to her.

"She appeared very distresed but was very articulate, a nice girl. She didn't seem to have much money and she explained how she would go to Reading and sleep with her supplier to get heroin.

"I believed her story. Based on the facts she gave me, it appeared that she had been on heroin for a long time. She said that she had been on methadone before and I assumed her symptoms were due to withdrawel."

The inquest heard that despite a warning from Dr Unwin not to mix the methadone with alcohol, Ms Rice-Evans drank cans of cider throughout the day.

Her father said that when his partner rang 999 the first time the operator refused to send an ambulance and said to look in the telephone book for a doctor.

"I just couldn't believe it," he said. "The one time I call the emergency services for my only daughter they just wouldn't come."

Mr Rice-Evans, who had to perform emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation on his daughter, described the moments before she died.

He said: "She sat down in a comfortable chair and looked like she was sleeping, which she often did. It had been a while and she got up out of the chair and moved on to all fours.

"I put her back in the chair. She then snorted. I thought she was asleep but she looked very pale. She got up and collapsed again and I became extremely concerned. I tried to wake her up but I couldn't." Mr Gardiner said: "It may have appeared that she was snoring but it is a sign of respiratory distress. I wouldn't expect a layman to recognise that."

Tracy Redman, emergency planning manager for the ambulance service, apologised to the family for an emergency vehicle not being sent after the first call.

She told the court: "It is an error of judgement clearly taken by the initial call-taker, for which I can only apologise. Call operators categorise responses - they have set questions. Obviously the wrong questions were asked. Referring people to their GP is fairly common practice but in hindsight there should have been a response."

Dr Gareth Turner, consultant pathologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, said the delay in the arrival of the ambulance would not have affected the outcome.

A postmortem examination concluded that Ms Rice-Evans died of respiratory distress caused by methadone and alcohol toxicity. She was three times over the legal alcohol limit for driving.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, the cornor said: "Anna Rice-Evans took 78ml of methadone, an underdose in terms of the amount prescribed. She drank a third of the bottle which indicates that she did not intend to overdose."

After the inquest, Mr Rice-Evans said: "She was a really lovely daughter and as a family we were very close. W had many happy times together. It was a great honour to be Anna's father and watch her grow up into a lovely young woman.

"She was a fun, lively, laughing girl who sometimes didn't find life easy but was terribly positive. When I was ill, she always looked after me. I couldn't have wished for a better daughter."

Karen Rice-Evans, Anna's mother, with whom she lived in Cornwall, said: "Until November 13 last year I thought if someone called an ambulance one would come, no questions asked. It is hard to take in but I hope it would never happen again."

The couple were married for 25 years before separating several years ago and have a son, Peter, 29.

As published in the Henley Standard, The Times and Daily Telegraph.

Rescued by my guardian angel

Phil Simms writes:

A SOLDIER from Sonning Common has been hailed as a hero after he saved the life of one of his comrades in Afghanistan.

Private Carl Bennett, 21, thought nothing of his own safety to help Gary Hudson after their truck was hit by a roadside bomb.

He gave the wounded driver emergency first aid until they were rescued.

Pte Hudson, 21, from Manchester, spent four weeks in hospital after almost losing his right leg and now faces months of gruelling rehabilitation.

He said: "Carl is a hero. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here. He saved my leg and my life and I will be forever grateful."

As he recounted the Taliban attack to the Standard this week, Pte Bennett revealed how afterwards he discovered a guardian angel hidden inside his armour that he believes protected him.

He said: "I have no idea how it got in there but superstitiously I'm glad it was, particularly as I came out without a scratch. I keep it with me everywhere I go now."

At the weekend the soldier returned on leave to the family home in Peppard Road where he was greeted with joy by his father Phil, 48, a drinks wholesaler, mother Diane, 51, and sister Louise, 24.

He refused to accept the title of hero but his mother said: "He will always be a hero to me and the family. He saved someone's life. We are very roud of him."

Pte Bennett, a craftsman in the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers, based in Colchester, has been in the armt for almost four years.

He was working as a recovery mechanic when the bomb attack happened in July as he led a three-man crew heading for Camp Bastion, the main British base in Helmand province in south-west Afghanistan.

He said: "I didn't hear an explosion, it was just a whoosh that came up from underneath the truck. There was red smoke, then nothing.

"We must have lost a wheel because the truck suddenly dipped and went off the road. The engine and the electrics cut out. We then rolled into something and stopped dead.

"Everything went quiet, it was pitch-black and we were on our own."

The former pupil of Sonning Common Primary School and Chiltrn Edge School performed emergency first aid on Pte "Gaz" Hudson, who had only been in the war-torn country for three weeks after completeting his army training two months earlier.

"I thought he was dead," said Pte Bennett. "He wasn't moving, he was slumped against me. He was lifeless and he didn't look as if he was breathing. After a few seconds he suddenly came back to life with a sudden intake of air. He must have been knocked out by the steering wheel as the Improvised Explosive Device, or roadside bomb, went off underneath the driver's footwell. I asked him if he was alright and he said yes.

"My other colleague, who had been curled up in a ball, had got up and started to check himself over. I had a little giggle to myself as I thought, 'wow, I'm lucky to be alive'.

"Then Gaz's eyes opened and he started shouting that he had oil on his right leg that was burning him. I looked at it and I couldn't see a problem but he started to breathe really heavily. Then he started screaming.

"I took a closer look - he had a few cuts in his combats but it didn't look too bad. I ripped open his cuts and the skin on his leg, his calf, just fell away and through a whole in the floor - all that was left was shredded muscle.

"I was shocked and my heart started pumping. If I could have taken a step back I would have but I had no choice - if I didn't do something he would die."

Each combat soldier is issued with a personal medical bag that cn only be used on them. This is so that if you are injured you have the equipment to take care of yourself.

But the rookie driver had misplaced his bag. Pte Bennett said: "We have a certain type of pouch to put our medical supply in so we know exactly where to find it.

"He was screaming and shouting so he couldn't tell me where it was. I started to search him and I finally found it in his ammunition pouch.

"It was still pitch-black. I had to undo all the wrappers to find out which bandage was the right one to put on his leg.

"I remember asking my other colleague to hold Gaz's hands because it was going to hurt.

"I pushed up on the wound to try to stop the bleeding and he let out a cry like I have never heard before. I did the bandage up the best I could but blood was still seeping through."

The explosion damaged a major artery, causing severe haemorrhaging. He could have died within five minutes if the bleeding had not been restricted.

Pte Bennett said: "I had to put a tourniquet on his leg, which is a piece of equipment normally put on blown off limbs, to cut the blood flow. I did it up as best I could - he was relly screaming and wailing. It wasn't pleasant and that moment will always stay with me.

"I put the tourniquet on just below the kneeso that if he did lose a leg he had a chance of keeping the top part of it. At this point flares started to go up so I was getting 30 seconds of light or so at a time.

"I picked up a morphine injection but found it difficult to read the instructions. There is a red and purple end to the needle but the colours look exactly the same in the dark so I didn't know if the needle was actually going to go through his leg or through my thumb but it worked okay."

Stranded in the smouldering wreckage, unable to escape because of the possibility of further bombs nearby, the three men had to wait 30 minutes to be rescued by a British army recovery team.

Pte Hudson was taken by helicopter to Camp Bastion and Pte Bennett stripped their vehicle of all its sensitive equipment, such as the mounted machine gun, preventing it getting into enemy hands.

It wasn't until after the ordeal was over that the soldier realised how lucky he had been to escape unharmed.

He said: "It was a narrow escape from my point of view. We had been on the road for 24 hours.

"It had been so long the batteries on our radios had run down. I had been driving for the entire time and my backside was hurting due to being weighed down by all the body armour. I was so tired I was falling asleep at the wheel.

"The three of us decided to trade places moments before the explosion. Gary took over as driver and my other colleague, who had been manning the machine gun, took the passenger seat, while I leant against the back of the truck for a moment as I was exhausted.

"When I was back at base I checked my body armour. I took the plates out of my jacket to see if they were warped or had any bits of shrapnel stuck in them and inside a pouch there was the guardian angel.

"It had a message written on it that said it had watched over me."

He said that the surgeons and medics who treated Pte Hudson "did a fantastic job".

"As far as I'm concerned they saved his life because the main artery in his leg was still bleeding," he said.

"I went to see him a couple of days afterwards and he was in high spirits, which is not surprising given that he had nearly just died.

"Somehow he had got his calf back with a skin graft. He has a really bad scar and he will have to live with it for the rest of his life."

Mrs Bennett, who works for Help the Aged, said the family were always thinking of her son while he was away. "I used to pray every night and every morning to ask God to look after him," she said.

"It was absolutely terrifying not knowing if we were going to hear or see him again. It would sometimes be a month or so before we could speak to him.

"I shudder to think how all the other mothers and families feel when their sons go off to war.

"We always knew he was going to go but we never actually thought that he would. They when the day arrived we were terrified. he is back now, that's the main thing."

Pte Bennett, who is now on a month's leave after completing a six-month stint in Afghanistan, shrugged off the praise for saving his comrade's life.

He said: "To have the British flag on your shoulder is something that makes you really proud.

"Every other country thinks that the British army is he best in the world and although I am biased, I would have to agree with them.

"I'm not a hero. The infantry do these kinds of deeds daily. They are the real heroes."

As published in the Henley Standard

Shopkeeper is targeted by robbers 63 times

Phil Simms writes:

THIS could be Britain’s most robbed man. Shopkeeper Mohamed Ally has been targeted 63times and each time his first thoughts were “oh no, not again”.

In 28 years owning stores in Peppard, Caversham and Warfield Park, the 72-year-old has been targeted on average more than twice each year.

The latest incident was at Peppard Stores in Stoke Row Road, which he has owned since 1984, when a teenager armed with a knife demanded his takings but Mr Ally frightened him off.

“I must be one of the most robbed shop owners in the country,” said Mr Ally. “I’ve had everything from knives, guns and iron bars thrust in my face to really big guys threatening to use me as a punch bag. People were robbing me nearly every Monday at my shop in Warfield Park, near Bracknell, so I couldn’t even get any insurance.

“I think I get targeted so much because people think I am isolated as there are not many people about and there are only two shops along this [Stoke Row] road. I can’t explain it — all I know is these people should go out and get a job instead of harassing me while I try to make a living.”

The latest incident happened two weeks ago today when the youth, who wore a motorcycle helmet. walked into Peppard Stores at 11am and demanded all the money in the till — just £20.

Mr Ally said: “I told him he was stupid to try to rob me in broad daylight. I’m used to people robbing me and it was quite funny as I had just literally paid the pie man who dropped off some of his goods so I only had £20 in notes and some loose change.

“He said I must have some money under the counter, which I didn’t, but I went down and pretended to count out money and emerged not with a wad of cash but a pick-axe handle at which point he ran off.”

A customer called the police and a teenager was arrested. He has been released on police bail until tomorrow.

Mr Ally, who has been married to Ruby for 48 years and has two grown-up children and six grandchildren, said: “I work for 84 hours a week. I am not going to work like hell so that someone can steal from me. I get so angry my adrenaline just goes up and I feel I should defend myself.”

In previous attacks, thieves ransacked his shop in Warfield Park five times, his Caversham shop three times and his Peppard shop twice — all at night — and Mr Ally said they would not have got away with anything if he had been there.

He said: “I may be 72 but I’m not an easy chap to rob. I may be small but I’ve knocked down blokes who are 6ft 2in.”

As published in the Henley Standard and The Sun

Charities Face Cut in Council Grants

Phil Simms writes:

CHARITIES and community groups in Henley are set to have their grants cut because the town council’s public spending has spun out of control.

A minimum of £70,000 is to be slashed from the budget before April next year, with a similar amount in the following 12 months. If action is not taken to balance the books, next year’s budget deficit could reach up to £190,000.

A meeting of the finance and administration committee on Tuesday heard the council’s spending had become ‘unsustainable’. Committee chairman Barry Wood said: “We have a deficit and an increasing one if we do nothing about it. This will drive us into major, major cuts. We must make clear that nothing is sacred.”

The council is predicted to overspend by up to £90,000 this financial year and if it maintains services and funding at current levels that figure could more than double the following year.

Cllr. Peter Skolar said: “I cannot remember the last time this committee said no to spending money. At the last full council meeting alone we spent £9,000. We have to send out the message that we have to cut our clothes according to the cloth.” In an immediate cost-cutting exercise, councillors decided to slash up to £30,000 from committee budgets.

Cllr. Allan Follett said: “Although I agree with all the work these charities and groups that apply for funding do, we can’t give money to all of them. We all have our pet projects but the key to this is for each committee to prepare a basic budget, so we can work out how much we are going to spend. We must still offer a service to the residents of Henley. That is what they pay council tax for.”

Community groups and charities were upset at the prospect of losing grants.

Melba Pitt of Henley’s Mencap Society, which was given £250 this year — half the amount it asked for — said: “We rely on council money. Any more grant cuts will make a really big difference to what we can provide to our members. We would normally give money to the play scheme at the Chiltern Centre to give parents some much-needed respite. We gave £1,000 this year but we may now not be able to do it again next year. We can only do limited fund-raising.”

Tim Haveron Jones, chairman of Henley Round Table, which was given £750 towards this year’s May Fair, said: “In the absence of funding from the council we may have to change the event next year so that it costs less or we will have to find alternative funding or sponsorship.”

Henley Town FC was refused a grant of £500 this year. Chairman Andy Bryan said: “This was half the sum needed to complete the work to the pitch. This made it difficult to raise the money ourselves. Any possible cut in spending for sports teams in Henley next year would be really disappointing as we need council funding to keep the club running. At the moment we rely on private functions.”

The council plans to reduce the predicted overspend this year to £20,000 and to balance the books by 2012.

As published in the Henley Standard

Farmers Warn of Harvest Disaster

Phil Simms writes:

FARMERS in and around Henley are counting the cost of some of the worst weather for years as they struggle to harvest washed-out cereal crops.

Instead of reaping up to 100 acres a day each, they are only managing about a fifth of that amount in a week.

The cost per farm of the recent wet weather could run into tens of thousands of pounds.

Brian Doble, owner of Shiplake Farm, said some farmers were ‘getting desperate’.

He said: “Between Saturday, August 30th and Monday of this week we have only completed 45 minutes’ work.

“At the start of the year we had 1,100 acres that needed to be cut. We cut 400 in July, which was a good month, and since then we have cut only 250 acres. That is nowhere near where we need to be. We have another 260 acres of wheat to cut and the grains have already started germinating. This means the quality is going to suffer considerably.

“There are more than 300 acres of rape seed that we haven’t even started sowing yet and if we don’t do it by the end of this month, we won’t be able to do it at all as the conditions won’t be right.”

Michael Colston, owner of Ewelme Park Farm, said: “It has been an absolute nightmare. We had only six days without rain throughout August.

“We still have another 200 acres of crops to get in. The wheat is starting to deteriorate and the corn has begun to sprout. We are losing money every day the crops continue to lie in the fields.

“To say that we will lose thousands of pounds would not be an exaggeration. We were facing an all-time record harvest.”

Many farmers will have to either leave crops to rot in the fields or carry out large-scale drying at huge cost.

Mr. Colston said: “The corn has to be dry otherwise the cutting machine will not work. I am really walking on a knife edge: either I leave it in the fields or I will have to dry it at £30 a tonne, which cumulatively will be more than what it is worth. The outlook looks as bleak as the weather.”

Simon Beddows, farm manager of Phillimore Farm, warned of a knock-on effect.

He said: “The longer it takes to get the harvest in means we can’t plant next year’s crops. Normally we harvest 100 acres a day but at the moment we are bringing in 20 a week. We will now get a lower yield for next year which will mean it will be more difficult to break even, let alone make a profit. It will be financially crippling and the larger farms will have been hit even harder.”

Simon Stracey, of the White Pond Farm in Stonor, said: “We still have 50 acres of winter wheat to get in, 40 acres of beans and 60 of straw. All the quality has gone out of the wheat, it’s all starting to shoot.”

Shirley Belcher, administrator for the Oxfordshire Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs, warned things might get worse before they got better. She said: “We can’t seem to get two days in a row where it doesn’t rain, let alone a week. The outlook is bleak and it is all very depressing but we are all in the same boat and we have to deal with it the best we can.”

As published in the Henley Standard

Now for London

Phil Simms writes:

OLYMPIC silver medallist Debbie Flood today pledged to be back on the water in time for London 2012 after revealing she will be taking a one-year break from rowing.

She was widely tipped to win gold in the women’s quad scull in Beijing but the crew was pipped to the post by hosts China in the final stretch.

In an exclusive interview with the Standard at her home in Deanfield Road, Henley, Debbie, 28, spoke of her future plans. But she couldn’t hide the disappointment of failing to win gold with her fellow crew members, Katherine Grainger, Frances Houghton and Annie Vernon.

“Our immediate reaction was one of sheer devastation, tears and disappointment,” she said. “It is not what we trained so hard for. Words cannot comfort us.

“The race went down to the last stroke. Throughout the final we could not let ourselves think we could be beaten. When we went through that last little bit, we were at full pelt. We led the race the whole way down but were overtaken. It was such a tough race.

“Nine days later we have come to terms with it. We could not have trained more or raced any harder. We raced to the last stroke, we did all we could on the day. Unfortunately, that’s sport. We have to live with the fact that other competitors crossed the line first. We will always look back and be disappointed with the result but we are still proud with how we raced. A silver medal in the Olympics is a fantastic achievement.”

Debbie, who has won gold two years in a row in the women’s quad in the world championships, praised the support Team GB received.

“There were more than 500 people who went out there to support us, which was fantastic,” she said. “In particular, my mum, dad and brother all came out to cheer me on, which was such a morale boost.”

Debbie said her Henley club, Leander, was one of the main reasons behind the success of Great Britain’s rowers, who achieved their highest medal total for 100 years.

She said: “Everyone goes to Leander so that they can make the British team. There is a great atmosphere as everyone is motivated to do well and improve and, ultimately, to win, but we also like to have fun as well. Everyone gets tired and stressed at times, so we all get together and pick each other up whenever we need it, which is fantastic to be a part of.”

After flying home from Beijing this week, Debbie passed on the chance of a champagne party to spend time with her golden labrador Charlie. She said: “Although all the attention at Heathrow was a nice surprise, I really just wanted to get back home to Henley. I came back and had a quiet night in and had a takeaway with Charlie. And no it wasn’t a Chinese! I don’t think I’ll be having one of those for a while.”

Now Debbie wants to pursue dreams of a different kind. She wishes to fulfil her long-held ambition of working with disruptive youngsters and will take up a job as a prison officer at Huntercombe Young Offenders Institute in the New Year. But rather than hanging up her oars, she concedes the pull of a London Olympics in 2012 is just too much.

“I’m going to take a year off,” said Debbie. “After all I have been training for eleven years and I’ve always wanted to work with disruptive kids so it will be a great challenge for me. But I will be back on it for London 2012.

“The pull of London is immense, everyone is so excited and it will be great to be a part of it. And despite all of the disappointment at these Games I have no regrets, there is nowhere else I would rather be. But, in London, I’d better bloody win gold.”

As published in the Henley Standard

Conquering Heroes

Phil Simms writes:

REIGNING Olympic champion Steve Williams and his Leander Club team-mates returned from Beijing as heroes this week after continuing the club’s tradition of churning out gold medal athletes.

Of the 15 Leander Club athletes, all made the final and 13 won medals, helping Great Britain to two gold, two silver and two bronze medals, their greatest haul for 100 years.

“It was such an awesome feeling,” said Williams, who won his second career gold medal in the men’s four. “You start off with happy contentment, but it is not until the second week that you get a real sense of perspective.

“It was the same at Athens four years ago, you get a fantastic light feeling, you don’t need sleep, and you feel light and free. There are no words for it. It is what you have dreamt of for four years.

“The preparation is still a big risk, but once you achieve it, life seems to make sense.”

The men’s four had endured a turbulent time with injuries leading up to the Olympics, with much of the personnel changing, which meant they were not in the best shape going into the world’s ultimate sporting event.

“It was such a huge relief, we had such a difficult journey, with the team experiencing lots of injuries,” Steve added. “All four members had experienced back problems so we had to field lots of reserves and substitutes. Training didn’t go well as a result and it was tough to keep confidence high.”

But Great Britain topped the rowing medal table after the double scull also took gold, the men’s eight won silver behind Canada, and there were bronze medals for the men’s and women’s double sculls.

However, there was disappointment for the women’s quad scull, widely tipped for the Olympic title, having to settle for silver behind hosts China.

Williams, 32, who is Leander Club captain, said: “It was absolutely gut-wrenching to see the women’s quad fall just the wrong side of the line. It is such a fine line between glory and heartbreak.

“For Debbie Flood I know it would have been heartbreaking and she is such a nice person who does lots of things for the Henley community. If anybody deserves to win it is she and the women’s quad. I could really feel their pain. It was very, very tough. There are simply no words for it, but they put a brave face on it and still managed to put on a smile for their team-mates.

“It was a great performance by all our athletes to top the medals table and everyone should be really proud. Even though it is a great result it is inevitable some people are going to be left disappointed.”

Williams, who first started rowing aged 13, believes that all those athletes who did not achieve Olympic immortality can still be proud of how they raced, with some even exceeding expectations.

Louisa Reeve, who competed in the women’s pair gave the performance of her life after missing out on competing in the women’s eight.

“She only qualified for Beijing five weeks before the start,” Williams said. “They were the last pair through the door yet made it into the top six and the final — that was her Olympic dream. She didn’t win a medal but her performances were absolutely fantastic after experiencing a real back-to-the-wall moment, which is something to savour.”

Leander Club has a rich history of providing Olympic gold medallists, that includes the likes of Sir Steve Redgrave, who won five gold medals at five consecutive Games.

Williams said: “I feel incredibly privileged to be part of such a fantastic club and it is in no small part to the legacy left by Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent.

“Their performances over successive Olympics opened the doors to funding at the club. Not only does it mean we can have some world class facilities but it means that we can take on rowers at any level. At Leander we make champions.

“A perfect example would be Richard Egington in the men’s eight. He is a model of what we try and achieve. Richard came to us in 2001 with a mediocre rowing pedigree. And in 2002 he won the Thames Cup in the Henley Royal Regatta and bronze at the World Championships later that year. Now he has a silver medal from Beijing and it shows just what we have done.

“Success breeds success and people will be looking at our athletes and will be seeing their own pathway in four years’ time. They will look at getting Henley medals, then World Championship medals and then Olympic medals in London in 2012. For us it is a staircase that leads upwards from Leander.”

As published in the Henley Standard

Politician who is not 'martyr for freedom'

Phil Simms - Online Columnist

FORMER leading British Conservative MP David Davis has been at the centre of a media frenzy following his resignation over the issue of the government's controversial 42-day detention without charge policy.

The ex-shadow home secretary has triggered a by-election in his Haltemprice and Howden constituency in Yorkshire and says he is to stand as an independent and will fight for ‘civil liberties’ and hopes to ‘encourage a great debate’.

What utter rubbish.

The shock move is neither a publicity stunt nor an act of high principle. The fact is Mr Davis is an ambitious man; he has tried and failed to gain the Tory leadership and has held a number of shadow cabinet offices. It has obviously been made abundantly clear that the former Special Forces man is no longer in David Cameron’s plans for any possible cabinet position after the next general election, most probably in 2010, which the boys in blue are widely tipped to win.

It was merely a desperate attempt, due to his notoriety to the British public, to derail the Tory express that has gathered speed over the last six months, due to a number of high-profile blunders by leading members of the government and in the wake of the ruling Labour Party's embarrassing defeat in the Crewe by-election in May.

With the motley collection of musicians and politicians from other parties that Davis has put together one wonders whether or not he's trying to become the pied piper of British politics. So far he's managed to attract acclaimed violinist Nigel Kennedy and British army colonel Tim Collins. Veteran Labour MP Tony Benn is said to have pledged to speak in support in a by-election rally if Labour fail to field a candidate against Davis. Left-wing singer Billy Bragg is also said to have been approached by the Davis campaign team for a possible collaboration.

It appears the British public wants a change and no amount of political smoke-screening will alter that. It is unsurprising therefore that Cameron has started to think about being Prime Minister, the steps he needs to take to fulfill his dream and what he is going to do when gets there. Upon meeting the man last Friday while on the campaign trail in Henley-on-Thames, in South Oxfordshire, it is clear he wants to bring in fresh faces with new ideas and a new way of thinking – David Davis clearly does not represent any of those things.

He got out before he was booted out. The Henley by-election itself is quite interesting. Tory candidate John Howell, is a local man who has served on the district council and has close links within the town and I don’t think there is any doubt that he will replace the new mayor of London Boris Johnson as MP, although I do feel the party's majority will be cut.

In the words of a friend and colleague of mine “you can put a blue rosette on a goat and it would be elected in Henley.” The fact that Cameron is here claiming “we are definitely taking this seriously, there is no such thing as a safe seat,” is also a façade. I anticipate in two years time Howell will be asked to step aside and a new face, possibly another mate from Eton, will be put in his place and propelled up to the cabinet. I’ve got your number pal. Interestingly though Labour’s Henley-man, Richard McKenzie, is currently facing the serious prospect of losing his deposit to stand for the seat.

I’ve seen Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, then Cameron but all I’m told is ‘somebody senior’ from the Labour party will be coming down next week – I didn’t even know the Labour candidate’s name until yesterday. That really does put it all in context doesn’t it. So can I really blame Davis for taking the stand he has done?

Sure I agree with him on the subject, but where he resides is such a stronghold there is no real chance of him losing, thus limiting any political impact. Sure he will make a few headlines, but the affect won’t be of the kind to undermine Cameron’s push for power, because let’s face it whatever the Tories do within the next two years nothing will halt the downward spiral currently experienced by prime minister Gordon Brown and Labour.

I just feel sorry for Davis because, despite being a diligent politician who stands up for what he believes in, he is soon to be cast on the political compost heap, having been known as the Tories nearly-man. But that is the price of progress and David Cameron’s seemingly relentless pursuit of a re-branded Conservative party.

* Davis will today launch his website: www.daviddavisforfreedom.com

++++++++++++

It seems I am the only person who is happy to see that the Shell drivers are on strike. Firstly, none of the garages near where I live are supplied by shell and secondly, and most importantly, my journey time to work in the morning has been halved due to the fact that I no longer have to sit behind lorry drivers who persist in taking up two lanes or driving about as fast as an asthmatic ant with some heavy shopping (Blackadder Ed.).

As published on www.the-latest.com

They just don’t seem to want democracy

Phil Simms writes:

RELIGION and politics are two great rival factions that have been the cause of most of the world’s greatest tragedies. Neither subject belongs in their counterpart's sphere but quite often the lines of separation become blurred, causing friction.

In recent weeks we have seen, once again, our Asian brethren reject democracy in a way that is abhorrent to all right-minded people the world over. When things have not gone to plan there is uproar, riots in the streets, innocent people dead, but when society seems to be running smoothly they haven’t really liked that either.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated; she was shot in the head and neck just before a huge explosion, via a suicide bomber, that killed her and at least 15 others. This, however, was just the latest attempt to take her life. One hundred and fifty people died in a suicide bomb attack as she returned from exile in October last year. Her election into government was supposed to be a new beginning for the volatile country but it seems democracy just won’t be accepted in this part of the Indian sub-continent.

But the reason behind such senseless killings just boggles the mind. Bhutto wasn't particularly religious and was seen as a great friend to the West – a fatal error. But to kill on that basis is just ludicrous. I don’t like the people living in the house next door to me, but I haven’t bought a tank have I? I don’t greet them in the mornings will a volley of rifle fire just because I don’t like the way they think and the company that they keep. As things stand, elections in Pakistan are still set to take place this month, although trying to persuade the two main opposition party leaders to stand could prove to be somewhat problematic.

President Pervez Musharraf has ordered the police to take a firm hand against protesters, but given the fact that they have already shot dead rioters, that’s a totalitarian viewpoint if ever I’ve heard one. Presumably he means a shoot-on-sight approach, which does not bode well for the majority of the peace-loving populous. And the police are supposed to be protectors of the people.

Then we look over to Africa, again another place of historic political and social turmoil. In Kenya thousands of protesters have rioted in Nairobi, burning houses and kiosks, almost from the minute President Mwai Kibaki was declared winner of the 2007 election two weeks ago. The trouble is between security forces and opposition supporters who say the 'rigged' election has been stolen from them. The violence has left as many as 300 dead with thousands more fleeing their homes for fear of a backlash from opposing factions. The fact is that some nations are so steeped in Darwinist tradition that people believe that power should come from physical superiority rather than mental reasoning.

It is difficult for a democracy to survive when it is forced upon any one particular country, particularly if the people of that nation have no previous experience of it. Religion also plays its own part in this mess. Indeed, American President George Bush, commenting on his war on terror and Iraq said: “God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East.”

This illustrates exactly what I’m talking about as Bhutto was killed because she wasn’t seen by extremists as a Muslim – there is trouble in Kenya because the tribal leaders can’t live in harmony together and us, the West, are just as bad because we apparently believe that democracy is ordained by God.

The Middle East views democracy as a Western phenomenon, a Christian creation that will make globalisation complete, thus forcing a new way of life on their people and sacrificing their own sense of national identity. But are their fears justified? The bitter irony is that we, the West, in our lovers of democracy guise have done and are continuing to commit the very crimes we are trying to prevent – in other nations. How can we try and spread democracy as the form of government that promotes fairness for all and can save lives when throughout history, right up to the present day, democracies are just as corrupt as any other form of administration.

During the 1970s America funded the Irish Republican Army, an underground cell of Irish terrorists that ran riot throughout the UK killing thousands of people with bombs and bullets. The British themselves amassed an empire that covered a quarter of the globe, so they can hardly be exempt from blame on the imperialistic front. Moreover, the Brits stormed into Iran twice and installed a new ruler or Shah in 1941 and 1953 because 'we' thought, through a democratic decision-making process, it was the right thing to do.

Middle Eastern countries are therefore justified in their fear and hatred of Western democracy. Our present day British government is not even transparent and is up to its neck in sleaze and corruption that would make even Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe blush. In the past two years we have seen everything from rent boys to cash for peerages political scandals. No wonder Britain has one of the lowest electoral turnouts in Europe. So, if we don’t believe in our democracy why should anybody else?

As published on the-latest.com