Over on My London Your London I have up a review of Sugar Mummies, the Royal Court’s new play about female sex tourism. It has provoked vast numbers of column inches, little of it great informative value, on the issue, as Kate on Cruella has discussed.
Unfortunately the play is about the same standard as the discussion.I’m thinking about writing up something for CommentisFree – not quite sure if I’m ready for the storm however…
The next Carnival of Feminists is coming up fast, to be on Being Amber Rhea. Get your nominations in now, at the Blog Carnival form, or to amber [at] tangerinecs [dot] com. (Please put Carnival of Feminist in the subject line.)
Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it due to work commitments, but should you be in London tomorrow (Monday), entry to the England-India one-day match will be free, to mark the 30th anniversary of the first women’s match to be played at Lords. Play starts at 10.45.
The Sunday Times reports with its usual sensitivity and understanding. Its piece on the doctor who says “late” motherhood is a problem is undoubtedly legitimate journalism (it is in other papers as well), whatever you think of her words, but the the ST goes on:
Nevertheless, the comparison with teenage mothers will still sting. The two groups could not be more different. One is made up largely of deprived and feckless girls while the other is dominated by highly educated and successful career women.
The problems caused by single teenage mothers are also very different and largely social in nature. The problems for middle-age women in contrast are mostly — but not entirely — medically related.
This isn’t a quote – it appears to be the newspaper editorialising on the bottom of the “news” story.
The Telegraph is showing no more sensitivity in its piece about death rates for babies of mothers with diabetes. Good story: “New figures show that babies born to diabetic mothers are four times more likely to die shortly after birth than children born to women who do not have the condition.”
Then …
Dr Blott, who is also a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, pointed out that a diabetic woman was six times more likely to die during pregnancy and added: “It’s amazing that these people aren’t carefully watching their diet and ensuring that their blood sugar is strictly controlled. Partly, the women themselves are to blame, but the health service also lets them down.”
Of course you could, if you weren’t the Telegraph write this the other way, about the lack of services…
The Cemach researchers also discovered that only 34 per cent of women with diabetes received specific advice on pregnancy before they conceived. Just 39 per cent of women took folic acid before their last menstrual period – despite diabetes increasing four-fold their baby’s risk of neural tube defects such as spina bifida.
“The defence offered in a High Commission hearing of 3 May 1632 by a countryman caught “pissing against a pillar†in St Paul’s en route to his wedding – that he did not realize that he was in a church – has sometimes been cited as evidence of the cathedral’s secularization, but the case itself more importantly reveals Laud’s insistence on rigorous enforcement.”
p. 58, in Crankshaw, D.J. “Community, City and Nation, 1540-1714,†pp. 45-70
p. 53, Keene, D. Burns, A, Saint, A (eds), St Paul’s: The Cathedral Church of London 604-2004, Yale Uni Press, New Haven, 2004.
Tempted by a map I found in Stanfords, of the Garden of England Cycle Route , yesterday I set out from my front door in Regent’s Park to tackle the first bit. I was hoping for Rochester, about 50 miles, but didn’t get quite that far, due to a combination of late starting, slow going (cobblestones and blind corners on the Greenwich to Woolwich section), and threatening weather.
Still, it was an interesting ride, and flat: always a bonus.
The route to Greenwich, about 12 miles, is familiar, but after that it was new territory. I expected post-industrial ruin, and there was plenty of that – great timbered wharfs melting gently into the Thames, and also of course the post-post-modern of the Millennium Dome, which appears to be rusting gently into its carparks. (Great cycle path around it though!)
A little further downriver there was this stunningly detailed Victorian(?) warehouse complex – just look at the fancy coloured brickwork. Parts of it appear to have been used as an industrial museum, but it looked in a pretty bad way.
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