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Campaigning - The Local Lib Dems' Strength

7/29/2017

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Today I publish the third and final guest post in my series of political articles from prominent personalities in the three main parties locally.

We've had Peter Bedford for the Tories, and Chris Kealey for Labour.

Now it's the turn of Michael Mullaney, Lib Dem County Councillor for the Hinckley De Montfort ward, and Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Bosworth in the 2010, 2015 and 2017 general elections.
Campaigning - The Local Lib Dems' Strength
by Michael Mullaney

On Friday May 5th I was at Hinckley Leisure centre with my Lib Dem colleagues waiting for the results of the County Council elections. I was standing in the Hinckley De Montfort seat, a marginal the Conservatives were aiming to win. The Conservative candidate was a high-profile President of the Chamber of Trade.

In the end I was elected with a majority of over 500, a better result than I had hoped for. It was also great to see my Lib Dem colleagues David Bill and Stuart Bray re-elected. Best of all was seeing the extremely hard-working local campaigner Bill Crooks gaining the Mallory seat.


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Fast forward five weeks to Friday June 9th and I'm at another count at Hinckley Leisure Centre, this time for the general election where I'm standing to be MP. Though this count was personally a less positive one, as Tory MP David Tredinnick was again re-elected for Bosworth.

Campaigning as anything other than a Conservative in Bosworth is never easy, but given my background I've never treated anything in life as easy.
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As the son of a factory worker/caravan maker, as someone whose school was a comprehensive and in whose family nobody before me had stayed at school beyond 16, let alone gone to University, I realise everything in life has to be hard-earned.

Our parliament urgently needs to be more diverse, and MPs more representative by gender/race/sexuality. Another key way it needs to be diverse though is in the social background of MPs. We need more MPs who come from low-income backgrounds who understand, because they've experienced it, how difficult life still is for far too many people who are struggling in this country.

Equal opportunities and social mobility are things I am passionate about, but they are not enough. There are many people who need extra help and support due to disability, infirmity and mental ill health (The latter an area that has been sadly neglected for years but thanks to people like Norman Lamb MP an issue beginning to get the attention it deserves.) I was particularly disappointed that earlier this year the Conservative government, supported by our MP, backed cutting £30 a week from the Employment support allowance, something that would hit many disabled people hard here in Hinckley and Bosworth and the rest of the country.
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Over the 9 years I've been the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate I've campaigned all year round not just for a few months before election time. In that time I've worked with fellow Lib Dems and local residents on many local issues. Including successfully campaigning to save Hinckley's Ambulance station when it was threatened with closure.

​Campaigning to save Hinckley's second Fire engine when it was threatened with being removed. Working with residents to try and save threatened village Libraries in places like Barwell and Desford. And campaigning to save local nature features such as the "Big Pit" in Hinckley from unsuitable development. 
As well as campaigning on big local issues, one of the best things about being a councillor/campaigner is the opportunity to help individuals with their problems. Whether it's Council Tenants who need help with a housing repair, or parents who are struggling to find a school place for their child, making a difference to the life of an individual/family makes campaigning worthwhile.

More broadly what motivates me to campaign is liberal philosophy and the belief that a liberal society will improve life for every individual. A belief that every individual should have as much control over their own lives as possible and that we should prevent situations where some organisations/people hold too much control over other people's lives

So the state is needed to provide quality education and other services to give people opportunity in life, but the state should not grow to be too powerful over the individual. So authoritarian measures such as ID cards should be resisted. The state should hold accountable through the criminal justice system those individuals who exert oppressive power over others by committing crimes against them. This means properly funding the police to be able to do this. A liberal society also means insuring employers do not have too much power over their employees, hence the need for workers rights, Minimum and Living wages, holiday leave, Maternity and Paternity pay.

Liberalism differs to other beliefs, such as socialism/communism/fascism, in that there is no grand scheme or blueprint for society. The core of liberalism to me is that a constant balancing act needs to take place within society to ensure that opportunity is maximised for all, that oppression is minimised, that power is spread widely and every individual has as much control as possible over their own lives.

I've stood three times in Bosworth, in 2010, 2015 and 2017 I've not been elected but it still seems worth it. On all three occasions I was honoured to have received the highest Lib Dem vote of any candidate in the whole East Midlands region. (Previously Bosworth had been "mid-table" for Lib Dem votes in the East Midlands). At this election the 9,744 votes we got in Bosworth was the highest Lib Dem vote in any of the 105 constituencies in the entire Midlands, East and West.

As well as being the most winnable Lib Dem seat in the East Midlands, Bosworth is also the 50th most winnable seat for the Lib Dems in Britain. Meaning that if the Lib Dems return to the number of seats we won in the 4 general elections between 1997 and 2010 (or hopefully even better) Bosworth will have a very good chance of electing a Lib Dem MP.

I will continue to campaign and fight for local residents here in Hinckley and Bosworth. It's great to be part of a strong Lib Dem team locally. On both Leicestershire County Council and Hinckley and Bosworth Borough the Lib Dems are by far the biggest opposition groups challenging the decisions of the Tory run councils. After a year of election surprises. The Brexit vote in the referendum, Trump becoming US President, the liberal Macron coming from nowhere to win a landslide in the French elections, who knows what the future holds. Whatever happens I shall continue to campaign here in Hinckley and Bosworth for local residents.

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Looking Down On Richard lll's Grave

7/26/2017

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Did you know that the UK owes its legal system, weights and measures, and the fact that our laws are actually written in English, to a guy whose remains lay buried under a Leicester car park for over 500 years?

Yes, I’m talking about King Richard lll. He’s not the baddy everyone made him out to be. After he was killed at the Battle Of Bosworth in 1485 the Tudors were able to tell the story their way, considerably maligning his character. And then Shakespeare perpetrated the myth by portraying Richard as a real out-and-out villain.

I know all this, courtesy of Iain Gordon, Director of the King Richard lll Visitor Centre in Leicester, who gave me a guided tour of the superb facility, and filled me in on the Richard lll story. 

Although he was only on the throne for two years, Richard was a real man of his era, having been born into politically unstable times when it was either plot and kill, or be plotted against and killed. 


During his short reign he set the ball rolling on what have become three major aspects of our civilisation today: he had laws translated from French into English making them more accessible to the people; he instigated major reforms of the judicial system to make it fairer and less open to corruption by introducing bail and juries; and he introduced what we refer to nowadays as standard weights and measures as a way of measuring goods being traded.

The Centre has had well over 200,000 visitors since it opened in July 2014.  I suspect many of them will only have been familiar with the Shakespearian portrayal of Richard…in particular the Laurence Olivier version. But when you leave the Centre you’ll have a much better idea of Richard the man, his achievements as King, and realise that he truly understood what the English people of that era wanted and needed. 
July 26th was the third anniversary of the Centre's opening, and I'd like to extend my thanks to Iain Gordon for giving me chapter and verse on the Dynasty, Death and Discovery that combine to give us this incredible historical detective story.

The Dynasty aspect plays out like a medieval soap opera featuring the intrigue and plotting surrounding the Plantaganets and the War Of the Roses, with Death coming at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.  But the part of the story that only the Centre can tell is the Discovery of Richard’s remains under a car park.
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The first gallery introduces Richard’s life with videos of five major characters; his mother, wife, brother, the Earl of Warwick and the Italian who made his suit of armour. This sets the scene of the turbulent times into which Richard was born. Then we move on to his controversial ascension to the throne, touching upon the two princes in the tower. 
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The Centre in St Martins is on the site of the Greyfriars Monastery which was ripped down under Henry Vlll’s dissolution of the monasteries. Incredible to think that Richard’s original grave in the monastery remained intact over five centuries of the city’s growth with the development of roads and buildings.

“The Victorians did come close to it, though, with some of the foundations for this building we’re now in,” says Iain.

He explained that the University of Leicester could tell what Richard’s diet was, by analysing his bones – in particular sections of his ribs. “He had a high protein game and seafood diet, and drank a lot of wine, as Royals and other high status people would have done. 

“And we can see evidence of his scoliosis – the curvature of the spine – and begin to understand how that might have affected him at the time.” It’s at this stage of the exhibition that it really comes home to us that Richard was a real human being.

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But the most spine-tingling aspect of the tour is reserved for the very end, when we enter a room with a glass panel at the far end of the floor. Step up to that, and we are looking down on the very spot where Richard’s bones were found after lying undisturbed for over 500 years. And a projection shows us exactly how they looked on that historical day.  

The Centre has attracted over 200,000 visitors since it opened just three years ago, including 70,000 in 2016. However, from the moment the first hole in the excavation was dug in 2012, the world’s media descended on Leicester, and as the story unfolded with his identity being confirmed in 2013, people were becoming increasingly enthralled by The King In The Car Park.
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​All in all, a trip to the King Richard lll Visitor Centre is an absolute must. We find out about Richard the myth, Richard the real man and his achievements that we’re still benefitting from today, and the incredible detective story that led to his remains being discovered and identified.  
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A Change In The Weather

7/22/2017

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Today I present the second in a three-part series of political guest posts. Last time we had Conservative Peter Bedford.

Now, it's the turn of Chris Kealey, Labour's candidate in my local constituency of Hinckley and Bosworth at the last two General Elections.
 
A Change In The Weather
​by Chris Kealey

​Two years ago I stood to represent the borough I grew up in. This summer I gladly did it again, fighting to be the MP which Hinckley and Bosworth needs and deserves.
 
Between the two General Elections in 2015 and 2017 it seemed the world had changed a lot: the Brexit referendum, Trump, Macron, new leaders of all the major UK political parties… Leicester City winning the league! And closer to home, I became a dad.
 
It made me think hard about politics. Was it worth it? What more could change?
 
I think I’ve seen a difference for the better.
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Knock, knock…
 
Who’s there? Politician. Groan.
 
A well-known sociologist argues that Brits talk about the weather because it’s something we can all agree on. It’s neutral. It’s inoffensive. We find common ground about it easily and we build our conversation from there.
 
Politics is the opposite. Most people hate to talk about it. It has labels. It appears to need knowledge of obscure things. For some it’s about disagreement and discord. It is seen as a game, separate to real life. Just noise.
 
Also, those who do politics are weird. Let’s face it. Political campaigning must be one of the strangest hobbies ever.
 
Imagine spending your evenings and weekends knocking on other people’s doors to ask them for their personal views? Picture yourself fronting up regularly on a market stall to answer questions or heckles from strangers? Or how about offering yourself repeatedly to others to scrutinise your life, your beliefs, ideas and values?
 
It’s gruelling. It’s can be thankless. But this is the gauntlet we set (most of) the people who want to represent us.
 
Something has changed
 
In 2015 while campaigning I heard three things almost every day:
 
“Politicians are all the same.”
 
“I’m not interested in politics.”
 
“Labour can’t win here…”
 
This year it was different. I heard those statements far less. In fact, hardly ever.
 
The weather had changed.
 
Perhaps it was the impact of every vote counting a year ago in the EU referendum? Maybe it was two manifestoes from Labour and Conservatives which offered genuinely and starkly different views on how to lead the country? Did a snap election focus minds? Or bluntly, did folk care more because they saw more at stake for their family, friends and work place?
 
Not the same
 
Hundreds more people took time to get in touch this time than two years ago. Social media buzzed constantly. More people came to my open meetings. Constituents wanted to know more about what I stood for, who I was, and crucially what I would do if they gave me their vote.
 
This went, I hope, some way to challenge the first statement. I showed that all politicians are not the same. I tried to debunk this in every meeting.
 
Yes, in Bosworth, four white men stood to be the MP this time (not very diverse…) but each held different values and brought different experiences and viewpoints. I was proud to campaign again on being the local, positive, credible choice. I felt I had a greater chance this time to get my message across and people wanted to find it out for themselves. That was welcome and new.
 
For love or in hate
 
Secondly, this year’s elections also put paid perhaps to those saying “I’m not interested in politics.”
 
Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn, social media, the economy and other factors seemed to have opened up the conversation – out of love or in hate for some or all of those things. I was contacted by dozens of first-time voters, young and old, and a good number who were rethinking old allegiances.
 
That’s not politicians' spin. It’s the truth. I’ll happily note as many folk got in touch to disagree with me and vent, as agree.
 
But that is good. More wanted to have their say or test their view.
 
I think politics felt more immediate this year, more relevant, and more connected to our everyday lives – the choice and cost of food on supermarket shelves (future Brexit trade deals), school places, police numbers and pay freezes in the NHS (national taxation and the deficit) or the state of traffic through the town (jobs, investment and infrastructure).
 
People were interested in issues that mattered, not political games.
  
Winning here
 
And to the third thing: Labour can’t win here.
 
Well, we didn’t win in Hinckley and Bosworth this time. So it holds true for now. But Labour increased its vote (a swing of 6.6%) and came second to the Conservatives. We grew our membership again and we enthused thousands through our local, positive approach. Lots of plusses.
 
Time and again, people said they were sick of game-playing and tit-for-tat politics. They liked our campaign because we stuck to issues.
 
We now need to keep it up, earn more people’s trust, and continue to challenge the three statements I listed above.
 
 
Everyday politics
 
I am sure the weather will remain the number one thing that Brits like to talk about.
 
But perhaps 2017 has allowed politics to creep onto more people’s horizons? It has become more everyday.
 
It is my hope that politics has become a little less weird, less other, more relevant and inclusive.
 
But we will have to work at it together.
 
That’s how we can truly hold to account decision-makers and those who act in our name.
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Peter Bedford -Why Am I Conservative?

7/15/2017

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Now the smoke has cleared after the election, I'm intending to run three guest blog posts from prominent members of the three main political parties in the Hinckley and Bosworth area.

First up, today it's the turn of the Bosworth Conservative Association Chairman, Peter Bedford, who was also recently elected as our local County Councillor. 

Then it'll be Chris Kealey, who was Labour's Parliamentary Candidate at the general election, followed by the LibDem's Parliamentary Candidate, who is also a local county councillor.

Peter read law at the University of Leicester, before training and qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Since qualifying Peter has worked within several large organisations such as Bardon Aggregates, Next and currently works as a Senior Audit Manager for soft drinks manufacturer Britvic plc.

​He is Chairman of Bosworth Conservative Association and County Councillor for Markfield, Desford & Thornton on Leicestershire County Council.
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Over now to Peter Bedford, to explain why he is a Conservative.
By Peter Bedford
My Journey: 

My journey in the Conservative Party started back in the year 2000, when I was just 14 years of age, and a student at my local secondary school. Perhaps politics is a somewhat unorthodox interest for a 14-year-old lad from a working-class family; but having strong opinions and a belief in achieving change for the betterment of one’s community and family has always been at the core of who I am as a person. Indeed, at that time I wouldn’t have described myself as a ‘Conservative’ or indeed having any affiliation with a political party; but that all changed after I met, who I am proud to say is a dear friend of mine, Peter Bone MP.

I first met Peter Bone after a church service in which our local youth worker suggested that I might ‘grill’ him on many issues, particularly given that he was standing as the Conservative Candidate for my home town of Rushden in the Wellingborough Constituency.

After a good half hour of grilling Peter on a range of issues from sex trafficking through to membership of the European Union (Yes, I was a Eurosceptic back then too!), he invited me to his office the following day. The rest you might say is history – soon after I joined the Conservative Party and have been active in all General, European and Local elections ever since!

At the time, and even today, people would ask: “Why are you a Conservative, you’re from a single parent family – you should be a ‘Labour Man’”. This mentality infuriates me, because THE REASON that I am a Conservative is because I believe in aspiration and the philosophy that it does not matter who you are, or where you have come from, but what you do with your life that matters.

Being the eldest of three sons in a single parent family very much shaped my outlook on life; it equipped me with the drive and focus to better myself, by attending university and establishing a decent career, and in turn better the circumstances and life of my family. To me this goes to the heart of what being a Conservative is all about.

Do not get me wrong - over the years I have found myself disagreeing with the Party on a range of issues; but at my core I believe that it is individuals and not the State that knows what is best for oneself and community.

Acknowledging the stereotypes that have dogged the Conservative Party for time immemorial I have personally always described myself as a ‘working class Tory’. By that I mean someone who was not born with a silver spoon, but has had to work damn hard to achieve the successes that I have been blessed with in my life to date. Indeed, I would say that the vast majority of Party Members fall into this camp; as such it is disappointing to see all too often Conservative Party Members being portrayed as privileged ‘toffs’ – as in my experience nothing could be further from the truth. 

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Challenges:

In my view, the key challenge facing the Conservative Party today can be summed up by a single word: Aspiration. At the recent General Election, the Party failed to provide a manifesto offering that could capture the aspirations of a generation of young people. A generation who face tens of thousands of pounds of university debts, where the prospect of owning their own home seems but a dream and where rates of pay have flatlined. If the Party is to re-engage with this generation of young voters it must provide radical solutions to satisfy their aspirations.

The Party must, to coin a phrase, ‘think outside of the box’ in formulating solutions; for a failure to do so will prove fatal to not only the Party’s survival, but also to the Country’s prosperity which would be put at stake under the ‘hard left’ platform advocated by today’s Labour Party.
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Furthermore, in my view and I would say this as a mixed-race member of the Parliamentary Candidates list, the Party needs to go much further in ensuring that our Members of Parliament reflect the diversity of modern Britain.

Indeed, like many former Parliamentary Candidates I get frustrated at the perceived ‘old boys club’, that goes on in all Parties, where our MP’s appear overall to come from the same educational, social, and political circles and do not truly reflect the diversity (age, sex, race, sexuality, background, education) of our Country. This is something that I hope to play a part in changing over the coming years.

Final thought:

Finally, I conclude with a concept that has run through me since my days as a 6th form student: ‘Rights & Responsibilities’.
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All too often we as citizens know our ‘Rights’ and are only too willing to shout when we feel that these have been infringed by another; but conversely, we overlook our ‘Responsibilities’ to others and how our own actions may affect their ‘Rights’. I think the Country, and indeed the World would be a far better place if we all considered this interrelationship in everything that we do.


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Child’s Ghostly Face And Sound Recordings In Silent Rooms

7/14/2017

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Is the paranormal real? Are there things out there that defy explanation? Well, ghost hunters Hannah Sargent and Fiona Cotter, from Leicestershire paranormal company Get Spooked, say definitely…because they’ve experienced it.

Oh, and so do I, as I’ve experienced it on several occasions, too.

According to Hannah and Fiona, there are two types of paranormal event. Firstly, a “residual” haunting, where the spirits we see aren’t conscious of us being there with them. What we see is simply a playback of something that happened in the past. But no-one knows how or why it happens. Secondly, where the spirits we encounter are conscious of us being there, and can communicate with us. 
.Hannah and Fiona have many experiences of both kinds. They caught a child’s face on camera during a session at Leicester’s Guildhall; Hannah was scratched several times through her clothes at the old Towers asylum but didn’t realise it until she was undressing; and she has felt someone – or something – tugging at her clothes.
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Other memorable experiences include a spirit sending a table and chairs skidding across the room, at Hannah and Fiona’s request; a little boy’s voice was recorded calling for his Mummy; other recordings have said “Get me out” and “Help me”; and swirling mist has been seen. 
They have also seen a figure in a dark cloak or dress floating up stairs, and a child’s face playing peekaboo with them around a corner.

And Fiona recalls packing up their equipment at the end of an investigation, when she and a colleague could suddenly smell burning. “It was very strong, but nothing was on fire. Then we learned that there had been a fire there in the past. We didn’t know that at the time.”

The pair believe Earth-bound spirits are trapped here – a point reinforced by their communication with a presence saying it was there with its family who had all died at that location.  
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“I believe a lot of the spirits we encounter are lonely, and often trapped,” says Hannah. “There’s definitely something out there on the other side. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t do this. But everyone has their own opinion.”
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So how do their investigations work? As well as using a lot of highly sophisticated equipment, more traditional methods such as ouija boards and human pendulums are also employed. With the human pendulum method, the spirit is asked to choose one of the people on the investigation, who feels a gentle push, and then the spirit speaks through that person.  

The recording equipment includes spirit boxes, which scan radio waves, and voices come through on it…and a Rempod, which is a round box that detects electro-magnetic fields. It comprises an aerial and four flashing lights. “The lights flash when a presence comes near to the aerial,” explains Fiona. “The closer the presence, the more the lights flash. We ask the spirit to move towards it and the lights flash more – if we ask it to move away, the lights stop flashing.”

The pair say spirits pick up and feed on people’s energy, making them feel tired. “We can go to a location on day and it’s extremely quiet. But the next time there can be a considerable amount of activity. They also like draining batteries – we can turn up with a fully charged camera, and it’s drained within a few minutes.” 

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I was curious as to whether they think the entities they encounter are the spirit of former living people, or beings from another dimension. Hannah believes they have all lived as human, even those engaging in minor poltergeist activity. “They just want people to know they’re still here, and they do like to play games with us. We can put objects in certain places and ask them to move them. When we come back they’ve been moved.”

Hannah founded Leicestershire-based Get Spooked two years ago, having undertaken paranormal investigations for four years before that, and Fiona joined shortly afterwards. While Hannah originally became interested in the subject through programmes like Most Haunted, she does question whether some of the things are faked for the TV.

“We understand why people are sceptical, but when they come to one of our events and experience something for themselves that has no logical explanation, they often change their minds.”

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And Fiona says she knows it’s not been faked when she and the team take photographs depicting things that were not visible to the naked eye, and their sound recordings play back voices from totally silent rooms.

My view: There may be as-yet-undiscovered scientific explanations for these phenomena, but at the moment it does seem to indicate there is something waiting for us after death. Which gives comfort and hope. However, on the flip side – it’s also frightening to think that our soul or spirit could become trapped here on Earth, unable to move on to its rightful place in the afterlife.  

If you’re as fascinated as I am by the paranormal and supernatural, Hannah, Fiona and the team regularly organise official visits to a variety of haunted places. Upcoming ones include:

July 17:  Gresley Old Hall, Swadlincote.  £25
August 7:  East Drive, Pontefract.  £59
September 2: Old Vicorian Gaol, West Bromwich.  £45
September 22:  Drakelow Tunnels, Kidderminster.  £35
October 13: Oak House, West Bromwich.  £49

 
Get Spooked: 
www.getspooked.co.uk
Facebook:  Facebook.com/GetSpOOked
Twitter: @GetSpookedUK
Instagram:  getspookeduk
Tel: 07498 283506
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    Stewart Bint supports mental health charity Lamp Advocacy.

    Click here to donate
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    Author

    Stewart Bint is a novelist, magazine columnist and PR writer. 

    He lives with his wife, Sue, in Leicestershire in the UK, and has two children, Christopher and Charlotte, and a budgie called Sparky.

    Usually goes barefoot.

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