HomeBlogs & ViewsBirmingham Mail ColumnistsMaureen Messent

Star Trek: The search for ingredients

BY ALL means relish watching that oddly spinsterish little Delia Smith when she reappears on BBC2 this coming Monday. Read

Give them a life of hell, not death

WE'VE heard a litany of horrors this week, a roll-call of the dead and their killers that is unmatchable in its evil. Read

No rest in peace at St Philip's!

I'M INTRIGUED by the spat over the teenagers who congregate in St Philip's churchyard in the city centre. Read

Promises - that's all we're getting for society's woes

HAVEN'T you noticed a quiet desperation oozing from this government, a smell of failure that must be masked with responses that, increasingly, are exposed as futile? Read

Sir Richard's many acts of kindness

A GOOD few years ago, when he was known as Uncle Dickie to journalists, I had proof of the innate goodness of the late Sir Richard Knowles. Read

A tradition that must be ended

NO SOONER was the furore over Dr Williams' comments dying down than Phil Woolas, the Environment Minister, pointed out the problems - to be seen daily in hospitals and special schools - arising from the (mainly) rural Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities where marriage to first cousins is actively encouraged. This, incidentally, is a cultural tradition, not a religious law. Read

Sharia law has worked fine here for many years

WHAT ugliness we've seen this week as Britain, in the grip of gross misunderstanding, has turned on the Archbishop of Canterbury. Read

Food for thought at time of sacrifice

TOUCH of the Dunkirk spirit touched George Street in Balsall Heath this week when we, the usual suspects, gathered at St John and Martin to celebrate Lent's start and Ash Wednesday. Read

How difficult is: 'you must not torture people'

THEIR mothers love them to bits and newspapers affect patriotism by describing them as "Our Boys" - but I've never been impressed by the mental abilities of the average noncommissioned servicemen. Read

It's such old-fashioned love

BBC1 spent much time and money telling us that Mistresses, its current drama, would shock and titillate us. Read

Sacking delay shameful

WHY the delay from David Cameron in dispensing with the services of Derek Conway, the long-serving Tory MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup? Read

Spare us these death-wish stars

A MAN named Heath Ledger, who allegedly died from an overdose of prescription drugs, has generated many column inches this week. Read

Learn to fend for yourself

WHAT sort of women is it, d'you reckon, who are too wimpish to deal with an allegedly randy man without taking him to a tribunal? Read

Too quick to cash in

NO sooner had Captain Peter Burkill and Senior First Officer John Coward landed British Airways flight BA038 at Heathrow than pound signs began to flash like cabin lights. Read

You chose them - now reap what you've sown...

HOW ill-tempered and petty the more vocal of our land have revealed themselves to be this week. Read

Just deserts for Di's 'rock'

WHAT a grovelling, snivelling little twerp former Royal butler Paul Burrell is. Read

Parents' horror over seduced teen

I MUST admit to a certain unease at the Coronation Street storyline that has nubile 16-year-old Rosie Webster slipping into bed with her teacher in his late 20s. Read

The gift of life is finest way to honour the dead

IMAGINE the agony o f raised then dashed hopes, of optimism followed by the blackest despair - that is the daily diet of those waiting for an organ transplant. Read

Pubs are no place for children

CHEERS and bottoms up to the Wetherspoon pub chain for the imposition of its "two drinks only" rule for taking children to its premises for a meal. Read

Sack jobsworth who persecuted Kerry

CALL 'em stuffed shirts, call 'em talking heads, call 'em whatever you will. Read