A political scandal or By popular request....

Was this weeks theme for our group. We had 13 members present, a good turnout for August. Rob, deputising for Chairman Nik Morton, announced that Penny Legg had started a new type of writers group, Writing Buddies, which had been mentioned in the Writers' News magazine (which is being circulated amongst members.) Gerry opened proceedings with an interesting story based on the events in a grave digger's, or gardener's as he preferred, life - which ended with a 50 pd. twist. Gerry has recently signed up with the Writers' Bureau and we look forward to seeing how he gets on with his course. Rob is currently editor of the WB Students Magazine. Heather read another instalment for her 'long' short story which created a lot of discussion, mainly around the political motives and opinions. More to come... Brenda read from a piece she started and abandoned a while ago - about an Amercan lady call 'Red' - Brenda bravely tried to set the scene in an American bar but perhaps her London origins came through causing a few members to feel a little disorientated about her story. We await to see if Red appears again at TWC! (Come on Brenda give it an edit!) Douglas read an interesting story about a journalist trying to cover events in Sudan but his accounts of events was disputed by the politicians. We liked the story and the descriptions. Ian read his poem based on the theme (see blog title):

Political Scandal

By

Ian Clark

MPs,

Lots of sleaze,

Corruption and abuse,

Daily news,

With journalistic views,

On all this power misuse.

Expenses fraud,

By those who think they’re God,

Because they faced an election,

They will not last,

But become the past,

As they face deselection.

Condemnations,

Of poor explanations,

As well as misbelief,

Why this or that MP.

Could not see,

That they were just a thief.

A promised review,

But that’s nothing new,

As party leaders filibuster,

But what the country feels,

Is they need rods of steel,

And not a feather duster.

It matters not,

Who we have got,

Once the country has spoken,

For given the tools,

Regulations and rules,

Will continue to be broken.

This was well received and comments included 'How True!' Well done (as usual) Ian

We arrived at Jane's turn who promptly told us it was 'pathetic' (she was worried because she had written it in a rush) but it in fact it was a very enjoyable, entertaining and topical poem based on the recent exploits of the penguin, Ralph, (it has been in the news) having to have a wet suit made to protect him from the sun's rays.

We all enjoyed it!

Mary read a trilogy of poems which we then debated which was the best order for the Kate Adie (based on) poems. I think we arrived at a consensus.

As we had a few minutes to spare, Rob read his "Those High Tech. Hospital Machines" based on his recent adventures in Torrevieja hospital which he wrote up as a blog.

Rob would like to thank everyone for helping him time keep the meeting in the absence of his watch!