Over the past 30 years as I have quietly got on with my life, raising my family while looking after my long-term ill husband (without any support) while at the same time developing my business. I have concluded that much of that which troubles us today from the economic disaster of the global banking systems failure to the current recession, the general mood of lawless behaviour by the minority in our society and pretty much the bulk of social decay in between from my perspective can be laid fairly and squarely at the doorstep of Margret Thatcher and the corrosive internal policies devised by the Conservative Government under Margaret Thatcher, which has been supported and bolstered by subsequent UK governments including Tony Blair & Gordon Brown’s Labour government and the current coalition.

Yes - her rise to power was a great boon for women, as she upped the game and showed us that we as a gender could aspire to do more and be more, but I ask, at what cost?

Yes – Maggie’s Foreign Policy in so far as clawing back what was ours from the EU, and dealing with Argentina during the Falkland War was admirable, however on the home front she was a disaster.

She closed mental health institutions with NO framework for Care in the Community. She destroyed our manufacturing base, closed our mines, and dismantled our steel and ship building industry, took milk away from the poorest of children in a cost-cutting exercise within our schools and sold off the nations “silver” in the privatisation program which has been extended and expanded by subsequent governments including the present one.

The financial stresses and strains tore families and communities apart as a new mantra was chanted from the echelons of power - greed is good, selfishness is good, and in one pivotal speech, Margaret Thatcher declared society and community as irrelevant, dead and buried.

30 years later,the gap between the 2% and the 98% is wider than it has been at any time in our history, and now the coalition government bleat on that we are all in this together. Who are our politicians trying to fool? Do they really think that the British electorate are stupid? I’d like to know when a single one of them has had to make the stark choices that the rest of us are forced to make? For example: When was the last time any of them had to choose between eating and heating?

Perhaps most devastating of all was the way in which fundamental ‘conservative policy’ ripped the heart out of what made Britain Great and tore the country apart.
The taint of selfishness on our society is self-evident and starts with the political class in the UK, by virtue of the power we the electorate give them via the ballot, they should stand as a positive example, yet not a week, month, year or government goes by without some scandal or another to shown then up to be spineless, feckless, corrupt, hypocrites, devoid of original thought.

Whether they acknowledge the responsibilities that comes with the privilege of their positions or not – people do look to them as examples, consciously or otherwise and in this manner they have spread their malaise throughout our society over time.

Yes, I am angered by the injustice and inequality of our current situation on the one hand, however as a woman of faith; I console myself in the fact that these events are “signs of the times” which are well described in the Bible and find myself happy to be alive in during the “Days of Daniel”.

We all need to brace ourselves for the worst which is yet to come. The worm is turning, and lines are being drawn in the sand. I believe that: now is the time for those of us who have been robbed, abused, marginalized and disenfranchised by the system to stand together in the light, and make our actions count by doing good and above all doing the right-thing!

It's been an interesting 10 + days or so as the Telegraph reveals the details of MP Allowances. While the story and revelations are ongoing it is stiil unclear exactly how many of the 630 MP’s, which represent us have proven themselves to be morally and ethically bankrupt.

It's a joke... They (our MP's) are the people whom set up a system which is rotten to the core and open to abuse.

Like many I have been following this story quite closely as it unfolds and am at times filled anger and disgust (more often both) as it becomes apparent that there is one rule for our MP's and another for us.

They want to know every last little detail of our lives yet many whom have been caught with their "fingers in the till" feel we have no right to know anything about them, or how they are ripping our nation off. Shame on them!!!

Recent events only reinforce my general opinion that politicians are NOT to be trusted!

I don't expect our politicians to be perfect - they are ONLY human and they will make mistakes, however what they need to understand is that many people (misguidedly) look-up to them (consciously or not) as an example; and it's a pretty poor example that they are setting. We need our politician to be honest, moral and ethical, however I think we may have to wait until "Hell freezes over" before that happens.

As to whether this fiasco undermines our democracy is yet to be determine.

Finally I think that:
1) The hypocrites’, bigots’, liars and cheats whom currently hold office should be removed from power and be barred from holding Public Office ever again.
2) They should repay every last penny which they have in effect stolen from the public purse.
3) They should be investigated by the Fraud Squad.

What can I tell you??? My primary focus through out these month continued to be eZeSchools PLP and Purple Club.

eZeSchools kept me busy as I worked with the CEO to develop new content agreements for the Personal Teaching and Learning Platform. During this time we succesfully closed not only the agreements which had been in the pipeline, we also engaged in developing partnership agreements for a handful of International Projects. I was also kept busy working with the technical development teams and partners if working on the next round of development and enhancements to the Platform; while my team were set the task of developing the client relartonships based on criterea which the CEO and I had agreed as part of the over-arching development plan.

Purple club kep me busy as I handed over the micro management of one of the primary pilots for the newly formed charity so that I could focus on the development of the operational backbone of the organisation and implementation of policy. As well as executing the profile raising and fund raising plans, which set in motion within day's of the charity becoming officially registered. I see myself working on evaluating and fine tuning the implementation of these plans as I move forward into 2009.

Was my thrid area of focus getting ready to go to India for the 8th IEF (Innovation and Enterpreneurship Forum) - the ladies of CRESCO-east and I decided to act on Christine's suggestion to take something unique as a gift for the conference organisers, for inviting us to particpate not only as deligates but also as speakers. To this end we decided to make a poster which quoted the President Elect - Barak Obama... and had photos of us (the ladies of CRESCO-east), Essex School of Business (Without which, we would never have been invited) & Southend in it. So photo shoots were arranged, then I designed the poster which was then printed and taken with us to India; which we presented to Atul Tandan Director of the Mundra Institute of Communications Ahemdabad, India. (More about India and the Conference - see Forum) 

... and that pretty much was it on the work front.

During this time I also made time for several CRESCO-east gatherings, went to a 'Bespoke' event... Bespoke is run by a group of very talented ladies... Their outlet is in Sutton Road, Southend. The ladies at 'Bespoke' provide a range of custom designed and made garments and soft furnishings as well as providing workshop and classes in those arts and crafts. I went to my favourite local night club [Evolution] on a handfull of occassions; and spent some quality time with my family... and was loking forward to 2009.

September rolled in and on the 3rd and 6th I sat the finals for the MA Course I had been a studying for. I took a few days out to stop and think... I once again reviewed my project plans and did a little more shuffling and rearranging, as it had become evident that in the short to medium term eZeSchools and Purple Club were going to need increased levels of my attention to deliver the plan and meet the objects which were set during the negociations prior to accepting this contract. By the end of September I had renegotiated my contract with Entertainers & EasyTheatres, put several of my design  projects onto the back burner; and spend the remaining little time I had on  cresco-EAST. 

I was invited back to Essex University to participate in the Guest Panel for Fresher's week and address the new intake of students both as a former student, (30th September) and as a key local business person (2nd October) - both of these events were, interesting, empowering and to some extent challenging, however I always view challenges as opportunities to grow and learn I was very pleased to have had the opportunity; and hope that I will be invited back again as applicable...

I had several key meetings one of the perhaps most significant being my meeting with my University Faculty Head, Professor Mitra; he  gave me some excellent advice on a global project I have been quietly working on for the past 20 years; and takes me one step closer to making this project real. The SEB have also agreed to engage with the consortium cresco-EAST which I founded with my girls in June...

 

... and with that October rolled around and here we are...

 

Wow! is the main thing I have to say for the past 3-months... Firstly "Where did the months go!" and secondly "The experiences of have been amazing!" 

If we go back towards the tail end of July that's when I was engaged as a consultant to Project Manager the national roll-out of eZe Schools PLP and launch the Southend Pilot of the Purple Club; this is all while I was working with "My Girl's" on the phase one development for cresco-EAST (Creative Entrepreneur's Consortium) which I founded with "My Girls" on the 18th 2008, and trying my best to make time to revise for exams which were looming in early September.  

During July I also had two MA Assignments to hand in, so you can imagine the month was a bit of a whirlwind and sped by at an alarming rate.My time dividied between wrapping up loose ends with regards to former projects which were coming to an end. Disapointment that I had failed to secure a project which I had spent 4-months developing, and handing in course assignments to deadline. The process and experience of my studies with the University of Essex, School of Entrepreneurship and Business were phenominal, in spite of the greuling timelines and schedules...

August my focus turned to eZeSchools PLP, Purple Club, cresco-EAST and me. On the development front at cresco-EAST took a few giant leaps forward, as I was invited to consult and provide development ideas for a large scale regeneration project locally on be. On top of the usually day to day routine of getting up a 7am to be out the door by 8am and in one of my client offices by between 8:30 and 9am, August was filled with numerous after-hours meetings. It's a family in joke that I am either out, working for clients, out working on my pet projects, or in my office stuck to my computer. I am truly blessed in the way that my family, are so supportive and cope with me, having the time of my life in terms of my personal development and the way that effects my journey as an entrepreneur. I applied what I had learned in my studies and put the theories one by one to the test by applying them to different levels of my somewhat ecletic, client based projects. This was my primary method of revision as August flew past in yet another whirlwind...