Suzanne Fletcher's Blog

I was surpriised to get a message from Mary Reid that she has nominated my for the Gender Balance Task Force woman blogger of the year, for both this blog and for the best post, citing the post I did on April 29th this year about the asyulum monologues.  That post, on my Mayoral Blog whilst I was Mayor of Stockton, took a lot of writing, and even more getting through the Council system.  However the message that came over that day was far too important to just stay in my mind, even though I often think about it.

Sadly, today, I was reminded again of how determined the Government is to meet its own targets and deport as many people as it can.  I have had a message telling me that 2 students, originally from Pakistan, are about to be deported on Christmas Eve for no other reason, it appears, than that there was an administrative error in one of their forms.  The 2 students have nearly finished gaining their qualifications, they have had not one penny of pubilc money spent on them, all of their fees and upkeep being paid for by friends.  So who will benefit ?  Not the 2 students almost reaching their targets for gaining a useful qualification; not international relationships as the news of this move spreads; not the public purse - the students were costing us nothing but their deportation will; Ah - but I forget, a Government target will be met.  I thought I had finished work for the holidays, but a letter has been written and faxed off to the Chief Executive of the airline, urging him to refuse to co-operate in this forced removal.

Back to the blogging.  Have a look at the link, and think about any nominations you might want to make, and maybe more importantly, other women you would like to be incouraged to start blogging.  I'll start thinking.

In the meantime, unless something stirs me to log on, I won't be posting over the holidays - let us hope for a quiet time!