20 July 2011
Any reader logging into my blog from today will no longer have to read the lengthy introduction explaining the object behind it. Instead I have converted this introduction into a DVD (with grateful thanks to Monti) as much as anything apart from introducing myself to the reader in a much more personal way, it will give other MND sufferers and their carers an indication of the physical condition that one can be in, with this awful disease, almost 4 years after the first indications of it were observed. Having said that, of course, I should stress that every MND patient is different- some will  deteriorate faster and others more slowly. No doctors yet seem to be able to forecast, with any degree of accuracy. the slope of deterioration. In my case, for example the early diagnosis was that I was possibly suffering from ‘flail arms syndrome’, which to me indicated that I could expect my arms to give up before anything else. This has not proved to be the case, my legs and hands.are all completely useless but I still have 30/ 40% movement left in my arms.
Another storm has arisen. This one in The Times (19 July,p.4) under the heading of ‘Lord’s give ladies a dressing down’ Some 12 years ago the members of the MCC ( Lord’s, the hallowed ground of cricket) were invited to vote on whether or not to allow women to become membersr the club – this after it being a ‘men only’ club for 212 years. Predictably, in this modern age, the women won the day and since then 50 or so have been admitted.. I predicted at the time that this would cause ructions in the future and so it has proved  (I actually voted against, in no way being a misogynist, quite the contrary, but merely because I could not see why women continue to invade what have been traditionally men’s domains).
The articles in The Times today complained because women were turned away for being ‘inappropriately clad’  The MCC dress code for women stipulates that they should wear “dresses”; or skirts or trousers worn with blouses instead women have been trying to enter the pavilion wearing jeans and have upset the men by taking their jackets of once inside; male members are forbidden to do so. Two women, it appears, in  have tried entering the pavilion in jeans, one of which ‘had large holes in them’
A second article appeared on the same page of The Times in which was reproduced yet again, the now iconic photograph of me with two of my chums in  MCC blazers, taken by Graham Morris, The Times photographer.. Cathy Harris, who is clearly a misandrist (a man hater) says ’you only have to mention MCC and the image of row upon row of blazered, often overweight, men occupying the members stand comes to mind’ (presumably this is the reason for the inclusion of the photograph. Blazered  my two chums might be, but there are certainly not ‘overweight’)  She goes on to say  ’it is ridiculous to expect ladies to wear blazers or jackets at all times’. I  am sure that no-one is suggesting that they should have to wear jackets but if they enter the pavilion in a jacket – as part of a smart trouser suit, as Ms Harris suggests – then they should leave the jacket on, as indeed we men are bound to do.
Now you can see the good sens¢ that I  displayed in voting against the introduction of women in the first place. I’m surprised that my mobile was not hacked into, at the time,  by an overzealous journalist, (or maybe it was!) after all The Times is one of Rupert Murdoch’s flagship papers.