A busy week!

Posted by Julie Voyce on August 30, 2007 10:26 AM

First of all I must apologise for my lack of entries of late. While most people look forward the extra day off over a bank holday weekend for us journalists it can prove a logistical nightmare!
When we lose a day it really causes chaos and therefore needs careful planning in the week leading up to the bank holiday and the week after. So anyway, enough of my excuses, I guess it just comes down to the fact I have been really busy!
Despite the lost day I think this week's newspaper are really strong editions bursting with news. The Examiner is leading on a bungled raid which saw a street of cars damaged as the would be thieves drove off with a hook swinging wildly from their van!
The Advertiser carries the story of Mark Devlin and his son Stan one year after they survived an horrific plane crash. When you see the picture of the wreckage it is amazing that they are still alive, something they must think everyday.
On a lighter note we have a fantastic competition where you can win £500 of holiday cash.

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This week's news

• Tags:
• Gerrards Cross
• paedophile
• Richard Webb
• robbery

Posted by Julie Voyce on August 18, 2007 7:53 PM

All journalists get desensitised to some of the things they write about, and I'm no exception.
However this week I genuinely found some of the stories in my newspapers very depressing.
The main talking point in Chesham is the fact paedophile Richard Webb was finally bought to justice many years after abusing young boys. He was jailed for nine years for sexually abusing the boys in the 1980s and 1990s. The words of Judge Seddon Cripps rang through my head: "These are people's lives you have ruined forever."
In the Advertiser we carried the story of an frail 80-year-old who was mugged in the early evening as she walked home from the shops. She was robbed of the ring her late husband gave her, a ring she hadn't taken off her finger since she was given it at age 16. What B*****ds I thought, along with the rest of the newsroom. This sort of crime really angers me as statistically it has been proven that victims of this type of crime, along with distraction burglaries, often fail to recover. The victim in this case says her son now thinks she should move. How awful that her life at the age of 80 should be totally turned upside down because of one piece of scum who has probably sold her precious jewellery for next to nothing for his next drug high.
The truth is that bad news sells newspapers, you only have to look at our website statistics and newspaper sales to see that the most read stories are those about crime and death. It's a sad reality, but that's the truth.

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UFO video received

• Tags:
• UFO

Posted by Julie Voyce on August 17, 2007 11:52 PM

The Buckinghamshire Examiner story about UFOs certainly seems to have captured readers' interest. Never before have people talked to me about a story we have carried with so much enthusiasm!
Today I received an email from a reader who had caught the 'UFO' on his camera phone, visit the Examiner site to see the video.
I'm not sure what it is, but it all certainly a bit weird. To begin with I thought it was a bit of a hoax stroy, but then people from all over the are started calling and sending in pictures and reporting sightings. Until we get a plausible argument as to what these lights are they remain UFOs!

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Malcolm And Barbara: Love's Farewell

• Tags:
• Alzheimer's
• Malcolm And Barbara: Love's Farewell

Posted by Julie Voyce on August 3, 2007 9:57 AM

I have been reading with interest stories in the national newspapers about the forthcoming ITV programme Malcolm And Barbara: Love's Farewell, which has been following the couple over the last decade as they cope with Malcolm's Alzheimer's. Initially the stories were about the fact we were going to see Malcom on his death bed. I was really moved by the reports, especially as they explained Barbara's devotion to her husband, but I was never interested in seeing his death. You see my nan has Alzheimer's so I know what a cruel disease it is. It robs not only the sufferer of their dignity and their life it also robs the family of their loved one. Someone who I admired and always enjoyed visiting very quickly declined into someone who I was afraid to visit incase she shouted at me or was told me to go away. It took quite a few years for me to come to terms with this and realise that my nan actually left us in 2000 and the person who I still call nan today is a different person who still needs us to love and care for her, but isn't able to do the same in return.
I always try to remember my nan as the person I spent summer holidays visiting, who took me to the park to feed the ducks, who took me swimming with my cousin and who cooked the best family roast dinners I have ever had. That was nan, not this poor frail shell that is left.
She doesn't have a life anymore, it is an existence and one that we don't know how long will continue as she appears to be in pretty good health physically. My great aunt was also affected by Alzheimer's and my nan helped to look after her. She used to say "put a pillow over my face if I get like that". But obviously you can't, it's still your nan, you still love her.
I haven't decided if I will watch next week's programme, I have a feeling it might be too upsetting and why watch what you are already living. I think ITV were wrong to mislead people into thinking the documentary shows Malcolm's death. Did they really need to sensationalise such a sensitive subject? The fact someone has documented this couple's life for over ten years and films into his final days is surely enough to capture people's attention.

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Latest news

• Tags:
• UFO

Posted by Julie Voyce on August 2, 2007 5:13 PM

Today the Examiner carries a story about UFOs being spotted in Bucks. The story has grown and grown over the last few weeks. It started with one reader calling in and we put a small piece on our website, then more people called in and left comments on the site. It's all a bit silly season, but what if there is something in it? People are always really quick to dismiss stories of this nature, but are we really so arrogant as to think we are the only beings in the universe? Be interesting to see how this develops over the coming weeks.

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