Maureen Messent columnist, euthanasia, lifestyle & news

Ugly truth about our prejudices Jan 20 2011

MOSELEYITES’ indignation led to the closure of an establishment called Shelley’s Indulgence – no prizes for guessing the nature of its services.Read

Tragedy is just a part of real life Jan 13 2011

TRAGEDY queens and domestic divas of Britain, I salute you.Read

In a world of trauma bin bags don't count Jan 13 2011

I’VE laughed aloud at the idle Jeremiahs with sufficient time to turn the small local difficulty of uncollected rubbish into an urban catastrophe comparable to the Haiti and Pakistan earthquakes.Read

Breathalyse inmates at New Year? I predict a riot... Jan 06 2011

PICTURE the scene at Ford Open Prison on New Year’s Eve before the riot that left £2 million damage.Read

There are worse fates than being brought up by Elton Jan 06 2011

MY JOURNALISTIC sisters have been in full cry for days, feigning horror that Elton John and his partner have adopted an infant, marking the occasion by buying the new-born over a million quids worth of designer goodies.Read

These Twit-erers need to be silenced Jan 06 2011

A NEW year but still the same old clap-trap from those who can’t learn the merits of silence.Read

No longer living the life of Riley Dec 30 2010

I’M REASSURED, in our national gloom and despondency, that it was a Birmingham family who brightened the dying year’s last gasps.Read

Come and lighten up a bit Dec 30 2010

IN A festive episode of Top Gear that took the team on a Middle East drive, Jeremy Clarkson donned a burka as a bit of light relief, I guess.Read

They need whipping into shape Dec 30 2010

NEXT up is the glorious saga of the English Defence League’s multiple whiplash injuries claim – remember this when next the morons descend to “defend” Dudley.Read

Amy wows in her own way Dec 30 2010

THIS year’s class acts came thick and fast.Read

Happy Christmas for little Bernard Dec 23 2010

ON A September morning this year, a Birmingham man, woman or teenager dumped a young, malnourished and ailing all-black tomcat outside the back door of Marks & Spencer in our city centre.Read

Let's keep precious Nativity story alive Dec 23 2010

I DOUBT if Christianity will be rocked by the BBC’s updating the Nativity story with a young Joseph doubting his girlfriend’s story of a visiting angel relaying the message she’s up the duff.Read

Get off your high horse, Hemming Dec 09 2010

POLITICIANS who mount high horses risk heavy tumbles, even broken bones, when they fall prey to their own pique, peevishness and the sort of foot-stamping associated with brats.Read

Zimmerframes at dawn, then? Dec 09 2010

OTHER silly old beggars courting publicity this week include that strange little Jack-in-the-Box figure Louis (“You’ve made the stage your own/you deserve to be in the final/everyone loves you”) Walsh.Read

Avoid getting under Cam’s wing, Kate! Dec 09 2010

ONE of the Sunday red top papers tells us that Kate Middleton is to be taken under Camilla’s wing, whence she’ll learn the protocols and ways of royalty. Read

Hunting for right name Dec 09 2010

JAMES Naughtie, the BBC Radio 4 presenter, stumbled over Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s surname.Read

Time to speak out for peace Nov 25 2010

LITTLE girls gather in giggling groups in their gaudy headscarves. Beside them, little boys in the crocheted hats of Pakistan walk solemnly to after-school classes at local mosques to learn the Koran in Arabic.Read

Let’s hear it for the TV laughing stocks Nov 25 2010

ANN Widdecombe galumphs on in Strictly, her pneumatic backside threatening to eat up the audience, her knee-length bloomers (included in her contract) thwarting the lustful who might conjure with the thought of hanky-panky with this lady and her gravel-grinder voice.Read

No excuse for brutal drama Nov 25 2010

JIMMY McGovern (Cracker and The Street) is a gifted dramatist who’s counted the nation’s pulse – but the BBC behaved brutally in broadcasting a play of his that showed bullying and suicide among British troops in Afghanistan.Read

The loss of innocence Nov 25 2010

A “LOST” tribe (actually they’re not lost, just never before been found) are photographed in their settlements high up the Amazon.Read

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