HomeBlogs & ViewsBirmingham Mail ColumnistsMaureen Messent

We all have our crosses to bear, My Lord Bishop

IT MUST have been quite a sight. Read

Families are the deadliest threat to childhood

FOR a few alcohol-fuelled seconds at New Year, most of us wish for a world where blame is shouldered, where those culpable stand up and face the music. Read

An alien idea of democracy

WHY, with her first hand knowledge of Pakistan's volatile and violent political scene, did Benazir Bhutto return to her country? Read

'Tis the season of joy... and greed

SOME of us received an ecstatic letter from Tanzania between Christmas and New Year. Read

Another fertile Christmas for our youngsters

MUCH of the passing year has been wasted. As we come to its close, there is a sense of under-achievement - the nation at home is split, continues to bicker, has reached no consensus. Read

Fairytale victory for common sense

GAY people can take jokes against themselves - I've received a card this week from a long-term couple of men who signed themselves as "your favourite old queens". Read

How difficult can it be?

WE DON'T like our binmen. They often leave a trail of rubbish behind them, refuse to pick up certain black bags and whinge like prima donnas when we complain. Read

You have to admire her spirit

GRAN Helen Truman, aged 62, sued the local council near Aberdeen for £35,000 after she tripped (like you do) as a result of knocking back 14 vodkas. Read

Archbishop's protest spot on

THE Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, once our Bishop of Birmingham, gave nervy and lily-livered Anglicans a kick up the slats as he tore off his dog collar, announcing it would remain off until the murderous Robert Mugabe is ejected from office in Zimbabwe. Read

Daftness of school's counselling

THE fear and mental disarray of that tragic Tipton mother, who did away with her five-year-old son and then killed herself, beggars description. Read

Don't buy Connie's record

SUTTON Coldfield's half-pint diva Connie Talbot, who almost won the TV show Britain's Got Talent and has now cut a disc, has not got into this year's pop charts. Read

The Spice Girls are not good role models

HO, HO, HO. Isn't it fun to see Labour's heavy hitters revealing themselves as totally out of touch and toadying? Read

Delia is the cream of the cooking crop

HOW long would you - I presume you're a carnivore - be prepared to spend on cooking a pot of chilli con carne? Read

Taking a stand against the rude disabled

I'M NOT a Tesco shopper and I find that company's expansion threatening. Read

Benefits policy that dooesn't add up

I'M puzzled at government policy to halve child poverty by 2010. Read

Sperm donor can't say he wasn't warned

YEARS ago this nation was warned against the practice of unofficial sperm donorship. Read

The Queen is only human

WE ESCAPED emotional incontinence by a whisker as the Queen and Philip celebrated their diamond wedding this week Ð but weren't those eulogies over the top? Read

Just Another Day in the story of Heather

THE wild-eyed and manic Heather Mills poured her accumulated venom at Paul McCartney in both London and New York. Read

X Factor sacking was right thing to do

NONE of us every guessed, I suspect, that the X Factor could take the moral high ground. Read

Time to crackdown on dole cheats

UP TO three million of the British work-shy are to receive a kick up their scrounging slats next year when they will be told: "No work, no welfare." Read