Look at my Chest in Day to Day

My pirate chest is complete! Have a look at this…

I’m quite proud of it. I can’t keep it however. I made it for a child with Downs Syndrome at the school where dragon works. She’s a teaching assistant and looks after special needs children. I could make another one however. That said, I have about a million other projects that need completing. I wish I could retire.

All those conkers we collected from Cirencester Park on Saturday, after dim sum lunch at Bristol.

Dave Lee Travis was handed a three month prison sentence, suspended for two years. Ridiculous that it ever came to court in the first place. Two trials, 15 charges, all but one of which he was cleared of; a ruined career, and a huge legal bill. Who won? Maybe the lawyers.

The Sunday Mirror has controversially managed to ruin the career of cabinet minister Brooks Newmark, Conservative MP for Braintree. It’s a funny story.The Mirror set up a fake Twitter account supposedly belonging to a leggy, pneumatic blonde, and used it to flirt with a number of Conservative politicians, until eventually one of them did something inappropriate. It was bound to happen. It could have been an indecent proposal, or the careless leaking of controversial material. Might even have been some incriminating admission. It was none of these things however. Brooks Newman decided the thing to do was send this fictitious lady a picture of his knob - doh!

I take the view that the Mirror crossed the line here. Sleazy is fine, but honestly that qualifies as sleazy entrapment. What were they thinking? That said, what was Newmark thinking? He’s a chubby, balding, middle-aged, married guy. Didn’t he smell a rat when a lithe, young female asked him for naked selfies? He had to resign, but he should have resigned for being stupid, not inappropriate behaviour.

The story has now moved on to the issue of where the pictures of the fictional Twitter user came from. As far as I can tell, at least two women have come forward claiming to be the woman in the photos and at least one of them is complaining that the images were used without her consent.