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March 4, 2020 By Bill Hunt 3 Comments

A Tragic Tale of Sexual and Domestic Abuse

I’ve been in touch with my cousin today, and want to do my best to help the poor woman in this , quite frankly, distressing situation. Please take a few minutes to listen to the audio file, and read her story.

Emilys Story (Name Changed)

“My heart was dark and empty and I’d built my walls up high, we had been friends a long time and I trusted you. How wrong could I have been?

I slowly allowed you to be more than just a friend, you made me laugh, smile we got on so well and you were always full of compliments.

We slowly progressed to a bit more than friends but things needed to be kept private between me and you I wasn’t ready for another heartbreak. For a time you were happy with that. Until I was having a night out with the girls. Suddenly it had to become public knowledge and on social media. I wasn’t quite ready for that but reluctantly agreed as I know it made you happy. That was it! Everything had to be all over social media, little did I understand at the time i was part of some war…

Over time, you’d begin to laugh in my face telling me that you’d brag about our sex life to your mates and work colleagues. I felt humiliated that people were knowing private intimate details about me.

Days out, holidays birthdays and so on were ruined by your temper tantrums about sex. Your days off had to be spent with me constantly giving you sex otherwise you wouldn’t spend any time with me.

You started video calling me if you noticed my car wasn’t on the drive wanting to know where I was and if I didn’t answer I must have been shagging someone else right?! There were times where even your own kids would say” I don’t know why you bother with him the way he is with you”

You’d have nights out and tell me I have to leave the door unlocked have the kit on (stockings and suspenders were your favourite thing) legs spread and ready for you.

One particular night sticks in my head I was just drifting off to sleep then from nowhere you said” if I ever see you with another mad I’ll slit your throat. And that’s not a threat it’s a promise!”

Over time the sex got worse, you got so rough with me, you were almost twice my weight. You’d be that rough that the tears would fall. You’d stop and say “well I need to smash you” and once the tears had stopped you’d start all over again. The bottom half of my body always had bruises new and old each one a perfect imprint of each of your fingers where you’d squeezed me so hard.

The criticism started about my body, my stomach was too big and I needed to diet but of course there was never any flaws with yours…

Slowly I’d find out that you’d been meeting other women… people would tell me things or messages would come up o. Your phone…. over night all trace of me from your social media had vanished like I was never a part of your life. When you’d turn up at my house demoing dinner and sex your car would be hidden so no one knows you were here. More often than not I’d give into the sex demands to shut you up but you wouldn’t bath for days on end and the smell of you would make me heave.

One ocassion you turned up at my house drunk, kicking things, throwing things , calling me every name under the sun and I ended up wearing the contents of your take away before you fell asleep in my bed and I had the sofa..of course the next morning it never happened and you’d go home the. If I wasn’t going to give you hangover sex

We slowly stopped being seen out together why should we go out if there was going to be no sex when we got home? But when you did take me out you’d drive as fast as you could as you knew it terrified me, then look at me laugh and tell me you love winding me up as you know I’ll f**k better the next time we have sex.

The last time I ever let you have sex with me you were so rough I was praying you’d finish soon as the pain was unbearable but like you always said you had to hang on for as long as possible. That particular night I felt the warm of your spit on me and then laughing. Enough was enough. I felt ashamed, humiliated, degraded and worthless. Again it never happened.

Of course there were occasions that you were nice we’d go out there would be the odd gift here and there but then demand sex for it on the way home or at home.

The only other times you were really nice was when you wanted money out of me. As soon as you’d have it I got the silent treatment or the goal post as to when I’d get it back got moved.

You had me so low at times I often wondered if I wasn’t around anymore you’d finally be happy and I’d have done something right for once. These thoughts soon resolved when I pictured it happening and you laughing about it.

This is just a small part of my story, abuse isn’t always being beaten it comes in many forms, and took me a while to realise what was happening to me.

If you ever find yourself in a position like I was please take the steps to get out and be free. So that you can be happy again and slowly over time learn to love yourself again and heal from it.

No one has the right to hurt anyone in any way physical or emotional! Xxx”

Seeking help

If you, or anyone you know find themselves in this kind of situation, please seek help immediately. Be it from your local GP, local hospital, or call any one of the many helplines available.

The Samaritans

Call 116 123, day or night.

March 2, 2020 By Bill Hunt 3 Comments

Stop the theft of Brighton General Hospital site: Keep it Public!

For 154 years Brighton General Hospital has been an iconic landmark on the hillside of Elm Grove, with its imposing classical buildings visible from as far as Brighton Railway Station. Opened in 1866 as a city Workhouse, it subsequently served as a Kitchener Hospital for wounded soldiers in WWI, becoming a Municipal Hospital in 1935, run by Brighton Corporation. After the NHS was founded in 1948, Brighton Municipal Hospital eventually became Brighton General Hospital in 1951.

After years of running Brighton General Hospital down and decanting NHS services into (the now severely overdeveloped) Sussex County Hospital and even private clinics around the city at great expense, the Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust (SCFT) is seeking to sell off a large part of Brighton General site to private developers for the highest price. It claims this is to finance a ‘health hub’ at the bottom of the site, though they are also intending shiny new offices for SCFT headquarters next door to the hub. Figures are currently unknown as to what they would receive for the site v what the new HQ and health hub would cost but it is suspected a sizeable profit would be made.

However even the 11 services still using the Brighton General site would struggle to fit into the proposed ‘hub’, which is also intended to provide a GP service and campaigners argue the plan has not been properly thought through. The Ambulance station has been re-located to new premises by The Keep at the top of Lewes Road, though would need to retain a micro site for a couple of vehicles and interestingly the existing ambulance station piece of land belongs to SECAMS (South East Coast Ambulance Service) so would need to be purchased in order to bring SCFT’s plans to fruition.

Three groups have joined forces to try and stop this public asset being sold off. Sussex Defend the NHS, The Living Rent Campaign and Brighton and Hove Heritage Commission. While they all have differing dreams for the future of the site, on one thing they are agreed. This land is THEIR land. In fact the famous Woody Guthrie song inspired a certain Robb Johnson to pen a protest song for Brighton General. There has also been a recent TV interview with protestors amid several protests at Brighton General site as well as stalls in the city.

There is also a fourth group involved, the Brighton & Hove Housing Coalition.

Apparently a local homeless charity has also approached the council begging for the Brighton General hospital to be turned into a homeless community – which would have represented an apt return to its workhouse roots. Certainly Emmaus has done wonders with the former nunnery in Portslade village turning it into an admirable and full homeless rehabilitation service. However with the pressing issue of the Corona Virus, perhaps the most immediate need is to re-open the disused wards as an emergency isolation unit.

Yes we need social housing, but the city is also desperately short of convalescent, or step-down, beds and has no dementia care unit. Patients needing either service are currently scattered in disparate nursing homes, sometimes in other towns where their friends and families struggle to visit them. Some of these nursing homes are also now closing down, so a low-tech cottage hospital facility would be ideal.

Meanwhile the NHS has already flogged off Bevendean Isolation hospital, Hove General hospital and scandalously, in 2011, the Brighton General Hospital Nurse’s home, a much loved and much needed source of affordable housing for local nurses close to their work (whether that was Brighton General or Sussex County). A feeling is growing that the city cannot afford to lose any more NHS healthcare facilities.

In 1950, the population of Brighton & Hove was 434,948. In 2019 the population of Brighton & Hove is 601,574 (an increase of 166,626 individuals – almost a third) and people are living longer yet hospital provision is going down not up. No one seems to know when the last area health audit was done, but once NHS facilities are gone they are gone. And let it not be forgotten that the overdeveloped Sussex County hospital serves the whole county, not just Brighton and Hove. Moreover it has no green spaces and precious little car parking, making it a difficult site for many patients and visitors. Brighton General Hospital, although on a hill, has plenty of both and each building has a distinctive character. It is already laid out like a ready-made community with safe spaces for people to recuperate or work in. The physical rehabilitation centre even has its own gym. As for the East Brighton Mental Health unit, that is much needed where it is and its patients won’t necessarily want to share a waiting room with physically ill patients all shoehorned into a health hub.

Interestingly when Brighton and Hove Heritage Commission put up their blog post, in Jan 2019 to highlight the architectural and potential community treasures of the site they were contacted within 12 hours by the SCFT and asked to remove it and promised a meeting. This never materialised. It also became evident that council officers were not then being consulted and nor was CAG (Conservation Advisory Group). When a local tour guide tried to arrange walking tours of the site, he was refused for ‘health and safety’ reasons, even though he did regular walking tours of the Woodvale Victorian cemetery up the road with no issues. Ingeniously he simply turned them into indoor virtual tours of Brighton Workhouse, producing an informative and enjoyable history of workhouses in general and Brighton General Hospital’s history in particular, to wide local acclaim. Save Brighton General Group attempted to have a ‘picnic protest’ in the grounds last summer, but this too was nixed.

If a local area health audit were to find that Brighton General is no longer needed as a hospital though, and the site largely became housing, it is worth remembering that high ceilings and picture windows never go out of fashion yet all people get nowadays are eggbox flats with tiny windows and doors they cannot get their furniture through. It also keeps things infinitely more affordable rent or sale-wise to refurbish and retrogreen a heritage property than to demolish and rebuild with some soulless glass and concrete box with a lifespan of only 50 years. We also have a responsibility to future generations to honour the past where we can and keep Brighton special if we are not to end up with a homogenised Luton-on-sea. Ultimately there are other places to live when a city becomes overcrowded and this city already has a major issue with empty and second homes lying empty for large swathes of each year, which only St Ives style measures can address.

So what next for the campaign? Well that would be telling, but none of us are going away including the many NHS staff, past and present, among our ranks who are equally appalled at the prospect of losing Brighton General! We know that SCFT see us as a mere inconvenience to their plans, and we intend to prove them wrong.

So what can you do?

Sign and share the petition:

Join Save Brighton General! Facebook group:

Join the mailing list here bgactiongroup@outlook.com and find out what stalls and events you can join in with or help promote

Write to your MP https://members.parliament.uk/constituencies/

If you are a health historian or land law expert, the Brighton Heritage Commission wishes to hear from you! bhhcheritage@gmail.com

Finally it should be remembered that the NHS did not pay a penny for Brighton General Hospital or its land when it took it over in 1951, so perhaps SCFT has a moral duty to hand it back to Brighton and Hove City Council (formerly Brighton Corporation) if it is no longer needed as an NHS hospital. At least then it would be easy for the council to afford to convert the heritage buildings into council/social housing, replacing the 20th Century buildings with sympathetic council/social dwellings to complete.

January 19, 2020 By Bill Hunt 8 Comments

Does paid traffic help SEO?

I’m a frequent visitor to Quora, a website where people post questions on anything from how to write a business plan to tips on feeding three-legged lactose intolerant llamas on the island of Bermuda between the months of April and May.

However, a question I came across today was – surprisingly – unrelated to llamas. It centred on SEO, and specifically the difference between attracting ‘paid visitors’ versus organic visitors.

It’s a well known fact that CTR (Click Through Rate) does greatly affect search engine rankings. A good value provider of ‘clicks’ is the California based company SerpClix, which allows you to specify the keyword phrase you want to be ‘known for’, and then you can actually choose the geographical location of your human – yes, human(!) ‘clickers’, which is a bonus, as gone are the days when google can be fooled by a warehouse full of workers in India fervently clicking to boost the rankings of a doll repair shop in Birkenhead.

Here is the Quora question, along with my answer:

What specific advantages do people searching on Google have on my website's search ranking have over paid visitors?

A website is like a brochure you’ve spent a lot of time writing and designing, that is left on the floor of your office. If no-one knows it’s there, no-one will look at it. It needs to be put in the hands of the right people who are interested in what it has to say.

So, the answer to your question depends what you mean by ‘paid traffic’. If you’re referring to ads, then in the long term they have no significant effect, and could, in fact, do a great deal of harm if visitors click on your ad leading to your website, and then don’t find what they are looking for, and leave immediately. This increases what is called your ‘bounce rate’. A big no-no for google.

This is like a celibate monk finding your leaflet which turns out to be a small-form Kamasutra – one would imagine that it wouldn’t hold a great deal of interest for him, and would be discarded (to his recycle bin), in haste.

In 2015, Google released something called RankBrain, which is now the most influential ranking factor, based mainly on ‘user’s behaviour signals’- that is how they react with your content, how long they spend on your website, what they click on, and what page they leave from. RankBrain is designed specifically to understand a user’s intent in order for google to serve them the best possible results.

The factors that google takes into account has changed over the years, from on-page content – specifically relevance related to the user search, then it gauged popularity – ie the number of backlinks. In 2011 this changed. Now, the RankBrain algorithm is based on user experience – it is designed specifically to figure out what the user wants. Google wants to provide a good experience, providing exactly (or very close to) what your visitor is searching for.

It therefore looks for ‘trust factors’. It watches every move you make – every single link you click on, how long you spend on a page, etc. It is trying to anticipate the reason for searching. Bounce rate has a negative effect because it signals to RankBrain that a user has had an unsatisfactory experience. You have to show RankBrain that your website is trustworthy enough for google to hand over its visitors.

So, the user behaviour signals being picked up by RankBrain boil down to the fact that sites with more clicks are being pushed higher up the rankings in google. You therefore need high quality user signals to send to google – an increase in clicks, the time spent on your site and reduction of bounce rate shows you are keeping visitors happy and that they are getting what they are looking for. Decipher your user’s intentions, and show google your site belongs at the top. High quality user behaviour sends signals that feeds back to google’s RankBrain which, in turn, does your website enormous good from an SEO point of view.

Google very often carries out ‘split-testing’ – it will take a site from page two, place it on page one for a limited space of time, and if the site fails to attract clicks, it ‘loses’ – and without radical action from the website owner, it will never appear on page one again. Indeed, it may even be pushed to page three. You have to earn your search signals and reduce bounce rate in order to show your site is worthy of a high ranking. It boils down to figuring out what your users want, and working hard to provide it.

There are a number of services, some that employ people to search for your site on google, and are paid to spend a certain amount of time browsing on random pages, exiting by a page you specify. There are other services that perform similar actions using a piece of software which can be installed on Macs, PCs and mobile phones. These services directly influence CTR (Click Through Ratio).

So long as you provide quality content, a user friendly experience, and most importantly, what users are looking for, increasing your CTR through one of these services is a ‘boost’ that many websites could (and arguably should) take advantage of.

Pictured, a llama-like bull terrier looking very happy with his SEO strategy and click through ratio.

December 13, 2019 By Bill Hunt 1 Comment

The Latest News from TopDog PR

November 28, 2019 By Bill Hunt Leave a Comment

A Freelance PR Consultant’s Guide to Online PR and Social Media

Despite the lack of definitions in the sector, most brand owners and freelance PR consultants are beginning to take their online presence seriously. There’s little doubt over the power and accelerating popularity of Internet sites that allow consumers to share views and experiences about products and services.

This has accelerated with the growth in Internet usage, and media consumption has shifted to the mobile and the web. The first few search results on google build or destroy brand reputations. I can help you navigate this tricky area.

it’s a Socially-Networked World

“Social computing is not a fad. Nor is it something that will pass you or your company by. Gradually, social computing will impact almost every role, at every kind of company, in all parts of the world.”

Forrester Research, Social Computing – How Networks Erode Institutional Power, and What to do About it

The web has revolutionised the way brands and freelance PR consultants communicate with their audiences.

The modern consumer wields a great deal of power. People are talking constantly about brands on the Internet, and information travels fast. They write about experiences, and search engines then aggregate these opinions.

Conversations are going on about brands on a daily basis. The most powerful and trusted behaviour changer in existence is peer to peer communications. This is why many marketers and brand owners are recognising the value of this form of direct engagement.

Technology and social change have shifted the traditional power-base, taking control away from traditional media owners and placing consumers at the centre.

Participatory web tools and services aggregate information, shifting consumers from being ‘end-users’ to active participants in content, and therefore knowledge creation.

People talk about shared interests, which form a unified collective intelligence that has reorganised the relationship between producers and consumers.

The End of Mass Marketing?

Mass marketing is becoming an outdated concept. Traditional approaches to understanding customers and communicating with them are inadequate to form a relationship with the individualistic, wary and discerning Internet-savvy consumer.

The transition from marketing to collaborating means that the discipline will need to appeal to attitudes and emotions rather than demographics. Social media is incredibly powerful.

Whether you’re looking to raise awareness of your brand or shift negative comments from the first couple of pages of Google, I can help. As a UK freelance PR consultant, I can integrate digital PR strategy into an existing PR campaign, or delivering a standalone social media project.

There are many PR and marketing campaigns that would benefit from a digital strategy to reach new audiences in a more meaningful way. Consumers are looking for a ‘one-to-one’ authentic engagement.

Social media is now a mainstream phenomenon. It allows never seen before opportunities for building brand awareness, reputation management, and product evangelism.

For the first time, brands come alive, from a viral video on YouTube, to a CRM campaign on Twitter. I can advise you how best to listen, respond, and engage with your audience in a whole host of new and exciting ways.

Digitally Obsessed

I come up with a digital strategy and work with you on your SEO. I can produce quality video and audio content to help promote you or your brand across diverse media channels.

Your brand is no longer represented only on your website, amplified by blog posts and comments, customer reviews, forums and microblogging. Everyone who works on your business is potentially a brand ambassador – wherever and whoever they’re speaking to.

My Services include…

Online PR

I help tailor your message, tone of voice, and content to help achieve your desired effect, whoever you’re looking to engage with. I then analyse what’s said that might affect your brand.

Crisis Management

There is no editorial compass to substantiate fact from fiction on the Internet. Opinion is sold as objective fact. Due to the replicating nature of the media, the negative views of a vocal minority can easily be mistaken as fact.

We can help you to both address misinformation and inaccuracies, or advise you on the best way to handle your brand detractors.

Social media news releases

Media relations

Blogger outreach

Word-of-mouth campaigns

Online competitions and promotions

Websites & Blogs

Cost-effective SEO optimised website design and build

Campaign microsites

Blog strategy, creation and training

Content Creation and seeding

Podcasts

Video production

Event photography

Issues monitoring

Brand and buzz monitoring

Blog monitoring

Brand audits

Training

Social media / digital workshops

November 19, 2019 By Bill Hunt Leave a Comment

The Rolls Royce of Hoodies

The Infiltrator Black from Location Clothing

As winter approaches, why not invest in this, Location Clothing’s Infiltrator Black. With the ‘Goggle Hood System’, four outer pockets with zip / stud button closures, water-resistance and orange quilted lining, it will provide extra warmth, it also provides distinctive street styling for trips to your local bank or building society.

Grab yours here.

November 19, 2019 By Bill Hunt Leave a Comment

Are We All Brains in Vats?

Anyone who’s studied philosophy will probably be familiar with the ‘Brain in a vat’ debate.

In a nutshell, a disembodied brain is floating in a vat, inside a scientist’s laboratory. The scientist has arranged that the brain will be stimulated with the same sort of inputs that a normal embodied brain receives.

To do this, the brain is connected to a giant computer simulation of a world.

The simulation determines which inputs the brain receives.

When the brain produces outputs, these are fed back into the simulation. The internal state of the brain is just like that of a normal brain, despite the fact that it lacks a body. From the brain’s point of view, things seem very much as they seem to you and me. How could you know that you’re a brain in a vat? How can you distinguish the illusion from what is real?

Well, what is more interesting than the nature of reality and how that relates to how we perceive it?

If you’re not familiar, then have a read. Here’s a good article comparing the BiV phenomena to the discovery that you’ve been trapped in an apparently false reality in 90s film the Matrix.

November 17, 2019 By Bill Hunt Leave a Comment

A Review Of Fateless (Sorstalanság)

Lajos Koltai’s harrowing film Fateless (Sorstalanság) is based on the semi-autobiographical novel of the same title by the Nobel Prize winning author Imre Kertész, who also wrote the screenplay. It is set in 1944, as Hitler’s Final Solution becomes policy throughout Europe.

The film follows the fate of 14 year-old György Köves from Budapest, who finds himself swept up by cataclysmic events beyond his comprehension; experiencing first Auschwitz, followed by Buchenwald and Zeitz concentration camps before returning to a very different home from the one he left behind.

Fateless cleverly explores the contrasts of the unity and brotherhood that developed between inmates of the camps with the sense of alienation that many experienced upon returning home when the war was over.

The film features many poignant scenes that, for me, sets it apart from other Holocaust films. One hypnotic example is a grueling roll call that has the prisoners stood outside for hours on end.

Lajos Koltai: “Kertesz has a phrase in the book about them standing there ‘like wind blowing through a forest’. I wanted these scenes because the difficult thing in the camp was not being beaten up or physically tortured, but the time spent in this place.

I had to realise this by using effects of music [by Ennio Morricone] and movement. I met a Hungarian dancer who specialises in showing the movements of the suffering or dying and I prepared a kind of realistic choreography with him. Morricone composed an ‘anthem of solitude’ for the sequence.”

Inevitably perhaps, the film has been compared to Schindler’s List, but in its favour, it lacks the melodrama. It also lacks the sentimental Hollywood schmaltz of Life is Beautiful. Indeed, it is its un-sentimentality that sets it apart, and for me, makes the film so powerful.

The other strength of the film is that as the viewer is drawn into the narrative, Koltai manages to turn the traditional Holocaust movie ethos on its head by asking not how we react to scenes of such horror, but instead, what it must be like to get so accustomed to such an environment that it becomes what its participants would regard as ‘ordinary’.

The acting throughout is excellent, notably that of Marcell Nagy who plays the lead role of György, who, despite maintaining the stoic belief that ‘there’s nothing too unimaginable to endure’, seems to physically waste away as the film progresses.

The cinematography is also faultless, and Ennio Morricone’s score adds another dimension to an already amazing film. But don’t take my word for it:

“exquisitely modulated and superbly mounted,”- Variety
“an extremely powerful piece of work.” – The Guardian
“I can honestly say it’s one of the most powerful and thought-provoking features I’ve seen this year.” – Time Out
“Lajos Koltai’s film ranks among the best nondocumentary cinematic treatments of the Holocaust yet produced.” – New York Times
“I was completely overwhelmed.”- Nobel Prize winning author Imre Kertész

November 17, 2019 By Bill Hunt Leave a Comment

The Genius of Chris Cunningham

Chris Cunningham is a British video artist and music video director, best known for his music videos for electronic musicians such as Autechre, Squarepusher, and most notably Aphex Twin on videos for “Windowlicker” and “Come to Daddy“, and Björk‘s “All is Full of Love“. All were used in Chris’ chapter in Director’s Label.

He has also created art installations and directed short movies. He was approached to direct a movie version of William Gibson‘s cyberpunk novel Neuromancer; the project has been in development hell for more than two decades. In the 2000s, Cunningham began doing music production work, and has also designed album artwork for a variety of musicians.

November 17, 2019 By Bill Hunt Leave a Comment

The Festival of all Festivals – Castlefest 2020

If you had to pick one festival to go to in 2020, why not avoid the run of the mill music festivals, and opt for something a little more diverse and give Castlefest a try?

Here is Castlefest’s official write-up:

“Imagine yourself in a completely different world at Castlefest, the Fantasy festival of the Netherlands. A fest for young and old, where, as soon as you enter the gates, you find yourself in the Other World. Castlefest is a total experience with lots of music, fantasy writers, themed catering, medieval crafts and a large market which offers everything a fantasy fan is looking for.

A large amount of bands are performing at the various festival stages, from Pagan Folk to World Music, from Medieval Rock to Indie. In short, for each music lover his own!

Castlefest characterises itself by a unique ambiance. This makes that regular visitors are looking forward to the next edition a year in advance. It creates a feeling where you find yourself in a completely different world, causing a daze and homesickness for weeks after the event took place.

The Castlefest-feeling is difficult to define, but something everyone needs to experience themselves. The highlight of the festival is the Wicker Ritual. Together with visitors, bands, exhibitors, entertainers, caterers and the staff you are living towards the moment the Wickerman is lit. The energy that is then released is a special experience that cannot be missed.

Castlefest takes place from July 30th till August 2nd 2020 at the Keukenhof Castle in Lisse.”

Don’t miss out, get your tickets here!