Melanie Reid



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Full name: Melanie Reid

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Journals: The Times

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Website: TimesOnline / Melanie Reid

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Current position/role: reports and commentates for The Times from Scotland


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Website: TimesOnline / Melanie Reid

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Articles:

 * pneumonia, wheelchair . . . then?'' - Almost a month ago, I broke my neck in a riding accident, leaving me almost immobile. This how I am fighting back - 1st May 2010
 * did I let this happen to me?'' - The Times columnist Melanie Reid broke her neck and back earlier this month. Here, from a hospital bed, she confronts her future... - 24th April 2010
 * law will stop people wanting to get high'' - Selling small amounts of drugs in clubs is not shocking. It’s a responsible idea - 1st April 2010
 * meddling and show some horse sense'' - Whether it’s smoking at home or my riding club, they always pick the wrong targets - 25th March 2010
 * tribe of lost souls should not be on our conscience'' - In asylum policy emotion must never replace hard facts - 11th March 2010
 * have not yet faced the real Jon Venables problem'' - The authorities showed admirable courage. So must we - 4th March 2010
 * the principle. Pay the Chandlers’ ransom now'' - It would be humane, and would cost peanuts. if not for this, what is taxpayers’ money for - 25th February 2010
 * all thrilled by Mossad the movie'' - Of course we should condemn extrajudicial murder, but I still can’t help admiring Israel’s nerve - 18th February 2010
 * your initiative? Far too dangerous'' - A tragic suicide is a grim reminder of what can happen when ‘rules culture’ gets out of hand - 11th February 2010
 * Cleo Laine has given us a lesson in life and death'' - This was the best possible tribute to Sir John Dankworth - 9th February 2010
 * in three of us is going to join Terry Pratchett in mental disintegration'' - His common sense and dignity has changed for good the debate about assisted dying - 4th February 2010
 * paperwork can wait: everybody wins with adoption'' - We must not allow agencies to block the natural human urge to rescue Haiti’s orphans and bring them to the West - 21st January 2010
 * Robinson is not a sinner. She’s a heroine'' - The First Minister’s wife has been pilloried. But for breaking out of suffocating Presbyterianism she should be canonised - 14th January 2010
 * brings out the inner Tory in all of us'' - Resilience, resourcefulness ... words banned from the left-wing lexicon are now on unlikely lips - 7th January 2010
 * charges criminalise us for being human'' - Of course it’s not fair to be penalised for going slightly over your limit. Being caught out for something trivial infuriates us - 23rd December 2009
 * prisoners off drugs? Don’t be so silly'' - By pushing methadone to inmates, the State has become the dealer-in-chief in Britain’s jails - 10th December 2009
 * & safety can damage your reasoning'' - The safety culture is like censorship. Fear of breaking the rules stop us assessing real risks - 3rd December 2009
 * still wriggling to avoid the flak on Iraq'' - By the time Chilcot reports, we’ll have moved on – and that’s the intention. But we should never forget the postwar failures - 23rd November 2009
 * to pillory disabled Brown'' - No one deserves the vindictiveness being directed towards an accident-prone Prime Minister - 11th November 2009
 * sozzled victims of modern hypocrisy'' - Philip Laing and Sarah Lyons were silly, but they didn’t deserve utter humiliation. The drinks industry is more to blame - 5th November 2009
 * brass are failing our Top Guns'' - The tragic Puma helicopter crash shows how easy it is to buy into a pervasive Hollywood myth - 28th October 2009
 * Edward Erin the cad most men secretly admire?'' - The doctor who poisoned his mistress is more than just a throwback to unenlightened times - 21st October 2009
 * couldn’t pay £41,000 back if I worked till I was 90'' - I bet ministers bump along the bottom too - 15th October 2009
 * is bit. Serves Lady Scotland right'' - Petty rules have been tripping up millions of law-abiding people for years. Now they can snigger - 23rd September 2009
 * last we can count the cost of doing nothing'' - We know that childhood misery has its price. But now even the bean-counters can see the case for change is irresistible - 17th September 2009
 * weeks of rain is a disaster for the North and West'' - The weather on the rainy, rainy banks of Loch Lomond is a sign of worse to come - 10th September 2009
 * reject the Baby P’s who survive'' - Our system for helping neglected children is too short-term, too wishy-washy and too cheapskate - 4th September 2009
 * should not have to fear the world outside'' - The cases of Jaycee Lee Dugard and Laura Dekker will only reinforce the view that we should lock up our daughters - 29th August 2009
 * to rape: is that what we’re fighting for?'' - The Afghan President’s collusion with conservatives is pragmatism over ideology, but we may have to live with it for now - 18th August 2009
 * the sell-by date: just eat and enjoy'' - The food industry’s appetite for sales, shrink wraps, and life on the beach - 11th August 2009
 * rode to glory ... and now I can prove it'' - Of all the new service industries, nothing can beat vanity sports photography - 4th August 2009
 * have the scallops. Oh, did you hear about those fishermen?'' - The price paid for the shellfish in restaurants is astronomical. But the men who risk death to bring them in are paid a pittance - 23rd July 2009
 * small step back to where we started'' - The Apollo missions were supposed to reveal the truth about the Moon. In fact, they taught us about the Earth – and ourselves - 20th July 2009
 * the frolics comes the awful truth'' - Truth be told, can anyone face another single word about 18-year-old boys dying in Afghanistan? - 14th July 2009
 * the children out: it’s their only hope'' - If we let students stay at home, we are guaranteeing the end of the human race within a few generations - 9th July 2009
 * victim, tomorrow's feral brat'' - We emote for the Baby Ps of this world, but if they grow up and go to school, we ostracise them - 25th June 2009
 * lack of vitamin D linked to swine flu?'' - Scotland has a disproportionately high number of swine flu cases. There could be a simple reason - 18th June 2009
 * flu is not entertainment'' - We all scoffed. Now the signs are that it's not going away - 4th June 2009
 * needs more than a festival'' - The national identity is a fragile mixture of decency, fairness, humour - and grievance. It will not be easy to nurture it - 26th May 2009
 * life and soul of the drinking classes'' - Pubs are precious - warts, absentee husbands and all. But unstoppable forces are killing them - 16th May 2009
 * on earth are we banning a mouthy DJ?'' - The people on this exclusion list are as much of a threat as athlete's foot - 7th May 2009
 * Boyle redeems us from superficiality'' - The ugly duckling didn't need to become a swan - 18th April 2009
 * me hospital over home birth any day'' - Women who think they can have a baby without 21st-century medicine are spoilt and complacent - 16th April 2009
 * have never needed God more'' - A&E departments are a war zone. There could not be a worse time to get rid of their chaplains - 9th April 2009
 * sure-hoofed way to control the mobs'' - If humans are so clever, why do we rely on the least aggressive of animals to do our patrolling? - 2nd April 2009
 * just blame the police for not catching rapists'' - We should look at ourselves for our failure to respect women - 28th March 2009
 * us from state-regulated grannies'' - If grandparents are paid for childminding, the bureaucrats will inevitably want to regulate them - 26th March 2009
 * big case of death by empty words'' - The job of a hospital trust is not to produce impenetrable words, but clean sheets and treatment - 19th March 2009
 * stoked our Massereene fury'' - Public anger in support of the Armed Forces shows that our attitude to terrorism has moved on - 12th March 2009
 * are the real addicts?'' - The case of a novelist's son and the tragedy of a baby expose our moral confusion over drugs - 5th March 2009
 * dour old Dundee be the new Paris?'' - Don't scoff at plans for a new V&A on the Tay - 26th February 2009
 * the ones caught in the rat trap'' - Take heed, all ye who evangelise about recycling. These rodents are cleverer than us - 24th February 2009
 * private death: a public issue'' - Dementia is a filthy disease: I want the right to decide for myself when I have had enough - 19th February 2009
 * It's a racing cert this horse will be a winner - Like all great public art the white steed of Ebbsfleet has the power to stir our souls - 12th February 2009
 * Start smoking at 70? Yes - and take drugs, eat chips... - Three cheers for Gwyneth Paltrow and her plans for advancing age - 5th February 2009
 * Money can't buy peace or reconciliation - It will take more than £12,000 payments to bring the two factions in Northern Ireland together - 29th January 2009
 * Closing the peaks is the height of cheek - The woolly-hat brigade preach open access, but resent it if others want to share the countryside - 10th January 2009
 * Rugby players: vulnerable out on their own - Sex and the oval-ball game will never mix - 8th January 2009
 * Close encounter with planet Jobcentre - Jobless executives be warned: humiliation and incomprehension await you in the State's embrace - 30th December 2008



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