PENELOPE FRIDAY

Guilty – Of Being Ill

28th October 2010 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this

On 2nd July 2001, Barry George was convicted of the murder of Jill Dando. In 2008, after the conviction had been overturned in 2007, a retrial acquitted him. From the very moment he was found guilty, analysts such as Joan Smith of the Independent (in her article I'm amazed at the Dando verdict. Aren't you?) had suggested the conviction was unsafe, relying as it did on one dubious piece of...

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Condemnation of the ConDem Nation

8th October 2010 | 1 comments | 1 person likes this

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats came together riding on the back of the wave of a financial deficit which apparently looked set to wipe out the country. (Apologies for the rather orgasmic nature of that sentence - I am, after all, an erotica writer!) Still, they said, even with this our government alliance can produce a 'fairer Britain'.

Fairer Britain? Oh yeah? For whom?

George Osbourne's emergency budget was shown by a...

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Wheelchair Chic

16th September 2010 | 3 comments | 2 people like this

Have you ever noticed that clothes look and feel different when you're sitting down rather than standing up? That pair of jeans which seemed just the right length when you were standing in front of the mirror show an unnecessarily large amount of sock or ankle when you're sitting on a chair. When you're sitting down, the dress which clung sexily to your curves when upright makes your not-all-that-big-thank-you stomach...

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Where The Buck Stops…

27th August 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

When I started university in the dark old days of 1996, I was informed in a letter that I needed formally to 'declare' my disability. Which seemed fair enough, really, so I went along to do so, only to be told that I wasn't in the right place, but should go somewhere completely different on campus. “Oh bother,” thought I, and plodded off. To be told that I still wasn't...

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Pubs, Clubs and Accessible Toilets

27th July 2010 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this

 They have those low desks in banks now, made for wheelchair users and I applaud this, I really do. It's nice to feel that somebody, at some point, realised that being a wheelchair user does not mean that you're not allowed money.

Although possibly the cashiers were just fed up with saying “But that doesn't look anything like your signature!” and having disgruntled people snap back at them “Well, you try...

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Learn From Your Children

28th June 2010 | 2 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

A wonderful thing about children is that they are extremely accepting of disability. This is not to say that they are not interested in the differences between people – they certainly are, much to the embarrassment of their parents! But what parents often don't understand is that their child's innocent captivation with differences is very rarely a problem for the disabled person. I've had plenty of kids stare with undisguised...

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ME/CFIDS Awareness Day

13th May 2010 | 0 comments | 2 people like this

May 12th is ME/CFIDS Awareness Day. Most years, I've bemoaned the fact that this is a little known and extremely misunderstood (by those who think they know something about it) illness.

This year, perhaps it's not so unknown. The story of Kay Gilderdale's acquittal of murdering her daughter Lynn made headline news in the UK. And may, perhaps, have made people realise that ME isn't just "feeling a little bit tired all...

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But you don’t look sick…

6th May 2010 | 2 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

There's lots of things to come to terms with when you are disabled. For me, until I was nearly 15 years old, I was an active, healthy person. The sudden change when I got ill took more than a little getting used to, especially as I wasn't diagnosed correctly for some time. After that, I had to get my head around the fact that this wasn't temporary, but likely to...

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