Grumpy Granny's Blog

As I am retiring from public life, this is my last ever post- and I leave with all guns blazing! Richard Sharp and Andrew Griffith were a Director and Chairman of the Advisory Board respectively of the Centre for Policy Studies, a think tank founded by Margaret Thatcher. No doubt Rich & Andy got on famously. By 2013, two other people who were getting on famously were Rupert Murdoch, owner of....

Women tend to be more realistic than men. After all, we seem to spend a significant part of our lives listening to men, whilst knowing, realistically, that we cannot believe much of what we hear. All my many years of life have brought home to me two crucial pieces of realism. Firstly, about money. Money only has the value that the powerful are prepared to ascribe to it. The vast majority of....

I listened to discussions today on TV about the impact of alcoholic parents on their children. I would not wish to minimise this impact. Or the impact of  parents who gamble; or are drug addicted; or lazy; or unemployed; or low intelligence; or have no taste in clothes; or are anti-social; or are shy; or are over-confident or........ And so I could go on. The truth is that, on cursory ex....

A lot of rubbish is written about women's "rights". There are 195 countries in the world and in very few of them do women have the same rights as men. Of course, there are many countries where the majority of the population have few rights. Typically, these are countries where government and the economy are both under the control of small minorities, who allow their fellow citizens little wealth....

Apparently, Andrea Leadsom didn't mean to say that having children gave a parent a bigger stake in the future. SHE SHOULD HAVE MEANT IT - BECAUSE IT IS TRUE. Those without children fend for themselves, often very selfishly. They may play the role of affable Aunts and Uncles, but that is very much a " great to have them, better to give them back" scenario. Decent parents, on the other hand, are ....

Watching on TV so many ladies of my age again being rescued by boat from houses in Carlisle, only 6 years after being told it wouldn't happen again for 250 years, made me think about honesty in politics. Thinking done. There isn't any. There is so little governments seem to be able to do about any issue of import. The Prime Minister should have a sign on his desk " The Buck Has Died And Who The....

The United States has not had a female President since inception. To date, apparently, no mere woman has been equipped to fill the Oval Office. In 2015, are over 200 Million women living in the 50 States of the Union. Yet the males chauvinists deny that any one of  them is ripe to take over the reins of power? Hilary Clinton is a first-class candidate for the Presidency. Lets be honest.Th....

The tragic pictures from just off the coast of Sicily earlier this week highlighted the plight of many who will never take such a boat journey. Our planet is in a pitiless mess. Almost everywhere you look, there are huge problems  which seem insoluble. The most obvious, of course, are in the Middle East and North Africa, with Syria and Iraq both in a state of civil war. Then th....

I am not at all grumpy today  because I am off to wonderful Plumpton racecourse. Plumpton has always been one of my favorite tracks.  Firstly, it is easy to get to. 40 minutes from Victoria, you arrive at a little platform at the bottom end of the course. After that, it is a 5 minute stroll up the side of the course to the quaint old stand, where the great and the good mingle with their....

Female Genital Mutilation is one of the great scandals of our time. This barbaric act is estimated to have been carried out on over 170,000 women now living in the UK. There is NO justification for this brutality towards women. No cultural or religious excuse is acceptable. IT MUST STOP RIGHT NOW. So far, not one successful prosecution of either doctors or parents has been achieved in the UK. T....

Now that Legal aid for divorce has disappeared, there are some interesting scenes being acted out in UK Courts. Instead of assessing the merits of fine words crafted by members of the legal profession, Judges are now more likely to have to implement the rules of the Marquess of Queensberry. Yes, boxing matches between estranged spouses are quite common! Where couples decide not to....

Poor care for the elderly will again feature on the Panorama programme tonight. Ever before the screening of this latest expose, there are cries of outrage in the broadcast and printed media,calling for new regulations and controls to solve the problems. Sadly, what is needed is not a raft of political or regulstory measures.We already have enough of those which don't work. Instead, our Society ....

It is really not possible to be grumpy today. As I look out of my window to the lovely countryside near Bath, the bright sun has clearly badly warped my personality. Usually, I can find something to complain about. Today, though, all is well with the world, or at least my portion of it. Part of my pleasure is from just walking my dog. She is a pretty little mongrel, as I used to be, and,a....

Gwyneth Paltrow has lost a husband this week . She has also made few friends by claiming life for her as a mother and actress is harder than for women with less demanding roles. Many have scoffed at La Paltrow's moans. In doing so, her critics are chosing to ignore some simple truths about Thespians. Firstly, creative people are almost always at least a chapter short of a full script.Sometimes t....

I am the first one to stand up for women - but sometimes we really do not merit the term " fair sex ". A case in point is the decision making of Alison Saunders , the Director of Public Prosecutions. I am told Alison is a keen dancer and it may well be the case.No matter how light she is on her feet,however,she has certainly been heavy-handed in her dealings with the celebrity sex accusations. ....

President Hollande of France does not exactly look like a "Ladies Man". Somehow seeing him astride his Scooter doesn't stir the senses in the same way as the likes of Steve McQueen powering up his Harley. Of course, looks are not everything.He may have the charm of Maurice Chevalier or the romantic singing voice of Charles Aznavour. Then again, he may just be a "powerful" man. Power in its....

In many ways, life is better for women in the UK than it has ever been before. Sex descrimation has eased considerably, though there remains work to be done.For example, there are still many women who receive less in wages than their male colleagues. Also,we still need to see a far greater presence for women in the House of Commons.The corridors of political power remain an area of male dominatio....

Being a Gran myself, I know all about the difficulties in getting the balance right between benefiting from from the experience of older people and, on the other hand,letting younger people have their head. Our beloved Queen has precisely this predicament. The photograph yesterday of four Monarchs together-the Queen , Charles,William and George-highlighted the need for the current encumbent to m....

I don't consider myself old-fashioned but I am certainly not young any more. As you can tell from the graphic, I am not exactly Miss World.As far as I can remember, I have never been in that category  in the looks stakes and one thing that has not deteriorated over the years is my memory. Which gets me on to the subject of "local". When I was a girl, growing up in suburban London,local me....

We are on average living longer than we have ever done before.Girls have a year or two on the boys, but both sexes can expect to reach 80 these days. Living longer is of course only part of the story.Sadly,many reach a stage in life where quality does not match up to quantity.Deterioration of mental faculties can be particularly distressing for both the elderly and their loved ones.Perso....