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Thanks

Another friend just linked me to the Google Spreadsheets templates. Yes, Google do templates for wedding planning.

Admittedly they all seem to be American, and given the nature of my profession, I'd already created my own spreadsheets... but it does tickle me that there is nothing Google don't cover.

All my political involvement is centred around disability issues - even the ones that don't affect me make me angry.

The first thing I would do would be to remove ATOS from the disability welfare assessment process. You wouldn't believe me if I started to tell you about some of the stuff going on with them. But even on the most basic level - if a person applying for disability benefits presents supporting statements from their NHS GP, their NHS consultant, their local authority social worker, their NHS physiotherapist, the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick-maker... there's no need for the taxpayer, who already paid for these public sector professionals, to pay even more for an additional half-hour "assessment" by a private GP who has no access to the applicant's medical notes.

Having saved several million (or possibly billion - ATOS aren't terribly forthcoming with the exact figures) doing that, I would then extend the Winter Fuel Payments to include all substantially/severely disabled people on low incomes - basically the people who end up housebound by the snow and whose health is affected by extreme temperatures. I would also withdraw the WFP from anyone who went abroad for the winter, if you can afford a holiday you can afford to heat your home.

Next up, I would get rid of all those stupid schemes like Remploy and Pathways, the ones that started out with good intentions about helping disabled people into work but are now more concerned with ticking boxes to get the next bit of funding for the company cars. That really would save billions - I would divert these funds around to Access to Work, which is the DWP's own scheme that provides real, practical support (wheelchairs, sign language interpreters, screen-reading software, etc) to disabled people entering employment. Like the NHS/ATOS issue, I see no point in the public sector paying for the private sector to provide something that the public sector already provides...

There's more, but you'd all start throwing eggs at me. So to lighten the mood, I present Mad Cap'n Tom, a parliamentary candidate I have been privileged to know for some years now, whose policies include fixing Broken Britain by issuing a free roll of duct tape to every household in the country.

Had a proper British barbecue last night... or to put it another way, I wore 3 layers of clothing, and sat under a golfing umbrella clamped into a Black&Decker Workmate while the Manly Men Cooking With FIRE occasionally passed across a burger.

Very tasty, mind.

Thanks Mrb and Cristina!

Mother-in-law has so far gone for a softly-softly approach, specifically stating that she's happy to help but doesn't want to tread on our toes. She's a very... strong-willed and assertive kind of person... and I think she's actually worried that if she ploughs in too much we'll up sticks and elope. Of course the other side of that is that she is the perfect accomplice for dealing with any vendor who messes us about.

Well, I managed to have a dilemma about using the wrong fork when all I'd wanted for dinner was a sandwich... never had formal sandwiches before...

Having seen what Kenilworth Castle were charging - and the extent of the restrictions in place - I didn't dare even *look* at what Warwick would be charging, mercenary contracting or otherwise.

Sean, I think that's all good advice. And he is well-versed in the art of agreeing with me.

I'm finding that, like a lot of Google things, you really need to start using it in order to learn how to use it.

Everyone everyone everyone!

Future husband and I have just booked our wedding (venue and registrar) for May 2011. The clock is ticking! So much to do! So much fun to have doing it!

Alas, I can't invite you all (partly because we would then need a bigger venue, and the amount of work that went into finding this one...) but I know a lot of you have done this weddingy thing, if you could pass on one bit of advice, what would it be?

(First person to say "don't" will have points deducted for lack of originality.)

I spent the last few days on the Isle of Wight (trying to make a good impression on the future-in-laws) and I figured I wouldn't be needing to pack sun cream in April, would I?

*sigh*

It's not the worst sunburn I've ever had, but I'm not wearing necklaces and having to be very careful brushing my hair.

Not my idea but I forget where I heard it... the idea of being buried with a fully-charged mobile phone so that if, IF, something went horribly wrong, you would be able to call for help.

In the same conversation, there was also the suggestion of a voice-activated gravestone with a concealed speaker and a few short phrases recorded before passing. So that if one of your nearest and dearest was kneeling by your gravestone telling you how things were going, your disembodied voice could interrupt with "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that," or "this is all really interesting stuff. It's so boring down here."