THE REAL DIAMOND QUEEN

In celebrating a Diamond Queen, who is made of the hardest material you can possibly find, remember the real Diamond Queen, the authentic thing, who tried to bring some humanity to a family who have absolutely nothing to do with everyday life and remain as remote from the world as they were pre Diana.

The reason we are celebrating this year is ironically because of the interest Diana created in the Royals. It was the woman the Royals vilified that has kept the interest and support of this archaic and out of touch establishment alive. They are too pompous to acknowledge it, but it's the truth.

HAVE BABY WILL TRAVEL AGAIN!!

There seems to be a plethora of stories in the papers about how long you should breast feed for. A woman has allegedly breast fed her daughter till eight, or was it seven. There's lots of debate if this is in bad taste or just good economic sense and lots of discussion about the importance of bonding.   From a travel perspective, if a mother is breast feeding it's a Godsend.  No bottles no sterilization, in most countries barring some states in the US and some parts of this country, the cultures are much more relaxed about breast feeding mums in public.  It's not only healthwise one of the best gifts you can give to your baby, but on a practical level when traveling it makes the mother's life so much easier.    I've produced a guide to traveling with babies and toddlers in conjunction with Persil.  Have a look at the attached guide which includes top tips for making the most of your travels with your baby.  

SPILL THE BEANS BROOKS

Was that documentary 56 up meant to be depressing?   It was supposed to give an insight into social history. The public school boys for the most part chose not to continue to be featured in the documentary probably because they've joined the Masons, are in the law, the city and are self aware enough to know they would appear smug and pompous.   And ultimately make the documentary even more depressing than it already is, revealing the extent of the divide between the haves and have nots.

What with watching that documentary and the news recently which seems to be a odd mixture of relentless rain, Olympic cheer, Jubilee Celebration and admiring Kate Middleton's latest outfit, combined with the tragedy that is Syria, the deaths in Afghanistan, the M15 guy found in a suitcase and parents killing their children, reasons never being explained, plus the news of the continual infighting allegedly between nations on whether the euro is going to sink or swim I'm wondering what the hell is going on.

The cobweb of lies going on between the law, the city, the police, certain parts of the media, in this country and globally actually, seems to have got so complicated and convoluted, the guilty, corrupt and stupid are being seen as guilty, corrupt and stupid almost as if even the manipulators are confused now.   The cobweb - the establishment and systems are redundant.  Why can't we just get rid of the web. We are the spiders after all.  And now Rebekka Brooks has been accused of perverting the course of justice.   (btw, what is the actual definition of that?   Justice that is.  I always realised it was relative but it's becoming utterly non sensical and meaningless.  Anything the government uses as a buzz word or phrase always becomes meaningless.   It was family values, now it's transparency).  All we need now is for a high court judge to be found in a bath house with CEO of an international bank and perhaps that will start the dominos falling, family values and transparency and all.     Please Ms Brooks start spilling the beans.  I don't know if you did pervert the course of justice but I bet you know an awful lot of very powerful people who do....

FEMINISMS........

Just watched five mins of This Morning which don't have or make the time to do normally but first there was Penny Junor who was dissing Princess Diana for being a mother who was more like a big sister to her kids because she didn't have a good role model, and then there was Liz Jones from the Mail, who was dissing women for behaving less like mothers for having kids, and not focusing on their work.   I admit I enjoyed seeing the usually extremely placid Holly Willoughby wanting to lean over - especially with LJ - and punch her.  I know both girls got their words in the Daily Mail, a paper for women who have self esteem issues and subconsciously want to chip it away even more.   Having written for it in the past I know that's the case (the first about a bullying relationship in a marriage and the second about bullying relationships in the playground), so it's features are about bullying but they also manage to intimidate those reading them at the same time. About abuse for the abused, while abusing them.     Not sure if that is evil or commercial.

Junor has always been very pro Pro Charles and fortunately people know she's pro Charles. I expect despite all the media hype about trying to make him and Camilla more popular it still ain't working, so having a dig at Diana's ability as a mother is really a last ditch attempt to get rid of the ghost.  Shoddy one. Guarantee there will be articles on how fab and balanced and successful Camilla's brood have been. Point is, so have Diana's so far.  Which is more than you can say for the nannies who looked after Charles, Anne, Edward and Andrew.   (will I get beheaded for saying that??)

As for LJ saying she wouldn't employ women of child bearing age, I understand it's very frustrating for employers who invest time and money and then the woman goes off and gets pregnant and has a baby.   She says that happened to her a lot when she was an editor of a fashion magazine.

But in both cases it's women attacking women.   It shouldn't be that way.   I remember I interviewed the late Barbara Cartland for tv and radio long time ago. She told me women should never read the news as their voice lacked authority and they should be in the home looking after their man, although she managed to keep down a job as a prolific writer.   And there was another Barbara. Barbara Castle, who I interviewed at the anniversary of the suffragette movement.  She'd just written her autobiography and there were loads of women (few men) asking her to sign their copies.    I asked questions of her (for the Standard actually, part of the same group as the Mail) and at the end she thanked me, told me I was a very good interviewer.   "women in journalism lose their femininity, they feel they need to be tougher, harder, more ruthless than men. And they are more ruthless with their own sex than they are with the opposite. That is a mistake."  she said.  "Stay the way you are feminine.    Femininity is all about strength, real strength, not arrogance."  I thanked her. I wasn't going to get a book but I did.    She wrote in her book 'never let it be a man's world'.  That was over twenty six or so years ago now.    I think we're going backwards.   Come on girls, be good to one another.   Then the men will follow.

GORGEOUS RADIO....

Interviewed by Jo Pembroke at Radio Gorgeous today to talk about infidelity.   Really enjoyed it and think I talked some sense and spilled some beans.