1. Save our hospital

Macclesfield Express, Wednesday 22 February 2006
DO NOT miss your opportunity to have your say on Macclesfield Hospital. Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust is sending out a leaflet entitled What Is Making It Better, Making It Real?

2. Politicians behaving like a pack of animals

Macclesfield Express, Wednesday 22 February 2006
IT'S not often parliament passes judgement on something of which we have intimate knowledge, more often than not the issues are complex and we assume their understanding is greater than our own. So, it came as something of a shock to read extracts from the proposed Animal Welfare Bill. As a dog trainer I was horrified to read of the ban on tail docking.

3. No big screen for very small minds

Macclesfield Express, Wednesday 22 February 2006
YOU may have noticed I have abandoned my seven year long cinema campaign. Cineplex UK gave us our best chance back in 1999 when they submitted plans for a six-screen theatre complex at Lyme Green. Labour members of Macclesfield Borough Council thought it a wonderful idea, which virtually guaranteed it would never happen.

4. I will if Sheila will

Macclesfield Express, Wednesday 15 February 2006
"USE maternity unit or we could lose it" - do you like that headline? It accompanied a letter from Sheila Ryan chair/person/woman of the Maternity Services Liaison Committee. It's straight to the point... we have a great maternity unit so use it.

5. The art of taking offence

Macclesfield Express, Wednesday 15 February 2006
I DEMAND the right to be offended. Don't ask me what about, I haven't decided yet. I just want to take offence. In an era when everyone takes umbrage against anything I feel like I'm missing out.

6. My column is only prejudiced when it isn’t complimentary

Macclesfield Express, Wednesday 15 February 2006
CHESHIRE Police Authority do not like Barlow's Brief. They consider the content to be 'prejudiced' against the police, a claim they never made when I wrote: 'Our Chief Constable has been as good as his word but, perhaps most importantly, he has impressed the rank and file, which is a task beyond most senior officers.'

7. Police indifference puts lives at risk

Macclesfield Express, Wednesday 8 February 2006
I'D JUST read the astounding story of the two teenage girls abandoned on a lonely Wilmslow road at 2.30am by a police patrol car who arrested their male driver on suspicion of drink driving.

8. Wining, dining and diving

Macclesfield Express, Wednesday 8 February 2006
IF THERE is one thing worse than a stinking cold it's having one on the day you are to be the after dinner speaker. I spent Saturday afternoon in bed snoozing and sneezing until Mrs B ordered me into the shower.

9. Monkey see and monkey do

Macclesfield Express, Wednesday 8 February 2006
LET'S suppose you were some fictitious borough councillor. Say your name was, oh I don't know, how about Brendan Murphy? You are part of the ruling Tory elite; you have an incisive mind and ask a lot of questions.

10. Money for nothing & your nicks for free

Macclesfield Express, Wednesday 1 February 2006
OVER the years the good people of Macclesfield have had their intelligence insulted by some amazing civic stunts. Remember how the 'Local Plan' was used to insist only semi-industrial premises could be built on Dane Moss then rapidly changed to accommodate housing when it suited the council; the tactic of holding 'public' meetings at times when the public couldn't attend and the threat of civic bankruptcy if we said no to Danegate?