The Agriculture Bill comes back to the House of Commons on 4 November amidst growing concern from rural communities up and down the UK over the government and Conservative MPs’ stubborn refusal to enshrine food and animal welfare standards in law. Peers have voted again to beef up protection for farmers and consumers. Farmers are […]
Earlier this month, the first round of the government’s Culture Recovery Fund was announced by Arts Council England, with a welcome £257m allocated to 1,385 theatres, museums, orchestras, dance companies, music venues and other arts organisations impacted by Covid-19. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden announced: “This funding is a vital boost for the theatres, music venues, […]
“Short of drowning a basket of puppies live on air, I can’t think of a worse communications fail.” No, that wasn’t me. That was Sarah Vine in the Mail on Sunday in a column entitled, “How could N°10 let free school meals turn into a dog’s dinner?” Me agreeing with the fragrant Mrs Gove —for […]
Editor: We like to bring you Twitter threads which you may have missed or will otherwise never see because you aren’t on the platform. This is a gem. Shocking.If you have not already done so, please sign Marcus Rashford’s petition. The 322 @Conservative MPs who voted against extending Free School Meals during holidays have themselves […]
Anthony Mangnall M.P. House of Commons London SW1A 0AA 26 October 2020 Dear Mr Mangnall I’m writing this open letter to you in reply to yours of 27 July 2020, which reprimands me for calling Brexit out as a “resurgence of the disease of fascism”. Be in no doubt: that’s exactly what Brexit is. […]
Farmers will be better off if we vote to leave the EU, they said. We’d decide our own rural strategy, abolish the hated basic payment system, pay farmers more, keep and maybe even enhance farmers’ subsidies just as Switzerland, Norway and Iceland do. And we’d get rid of those pesky regulations — all while improving […]
Amazingly, this is my third #TheWeekInTory in 7 days, and if anybody wants to pay for me to go somewhere comparatively sane and relaxing for a week, I’m up for it. I hear Mogadishu is nice. Anyway, buckle up, here we go… 1. Previously on The Week In Tory: the government campaigned for Brexit so […]
Environmental campaigner Tony Whitehead considers the extent to which Dartmoor’s nature is protected, and the shocking condition of its protected sites. On 28 September Boris Johnson committed to protecting 30 per cent of the UK’s land by 2030. A fine ambition, of course, and to be welcomed. In the government statement that accompanied the announcement […]
On 23 October, we published an article on North Devon MP Selaine Saxby’s insensitive but revealing comment on the free school meals issue. You can read the article here. Ms Saxby has attempted to defray the criticism of her (speedily deleted) Facebook post elicited thus: Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m never very […]
No-one should have to tolerate abuse in the workplace and bullying is wholly unacceptable. An MP is a public servant with a duty of care to his or her constituents. Having taken on a public role, MPs must expect to attract opprobrium if they act in ways which their constituents do not like. They should […]
Editor: In a week when a former minister, Nicky Morgan, claims that name-calling from the opposition somehow justified Conservative MPs voting to deny poor children access to free meals, it’s clearer than ever that we must have electoral reform and put an end to playground politics. Caroline Voaden’s experience as an MEP allows her to […]
Every single Conservative MP in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset with the exception of Anne Marie Morris (who voted for the motion) and Neil Parish, Simon Hoare, James Heappey, Dr Liam Fox and Sir Christopher Chope (for whom no vote is recorded) voted against extending free school meals for poor children through the Covid-19 crisis. […]
There’s a new website in town: mpsagainstfreeschoolmeals.com/ Expenses are for the period 30 June 2019 – 1 May 2020, so it’s just five and a bit months for the newbies like Selaine Saxby, who has claimed over £30,000. Remember. This excludes Anne-Marie Morris as she voted FOR, and Neil Parish, Dr Liam Fox, James Heappey, […]
Do you find yourself boiling with rage at the growing evidence of wanton cruelty and shameless and shameful politicking from this government? I do. Today was another terrible day. You might wonder why this piece mentions second helpings, when even firsts are being denied. Cast you mind back to the summer, when footballer Marcus Rashford […]
As we wait for what feels like the final slow-motion spin of the car as it hurtles inexorably towards the cliff edge, wondering if our heroes are going to escape from this seemingly impossible situation … again … no, stop there. Enough with the Hollywood imagery, the tired old metaphors. They just aren’t funny anymore. […]
National problems, local solutions. As some pubs are required to close under Tier 3 restrictions, staff develop local solutions to beat the across-the-board failings of Serco ‘Track and Trace’ and overcome limited lab capacity.
#TheWeekInTory returns, and I’m very sorry, but it’s a monster. The little scamps have achieved quite a lot in the – yep – FIVE DAYS – since the last one. Let’s dive straight in with probably the most gobsmacking sentence you’ll read all year… 1. NHS staff were polled on whether, in recognition of their […]
The tide is slowly turning in one of the early fronts of the culture wars, as scientific possibility and questions of personal freedom challenge the assumptions of an earlier generation. Throughout its history, on questions where private vice encounters the desire to create the perfect ‘city on a hill’, the United States has lurched between […]
Update: Amendments defeated, but the Bill goes back to the Lords. There is still hope. Keep up the pressure. The Immigration Bill comes back to the House of Commons from the House of Lords this afternoon, Monday 19 October. The Lords’ amendments include an important safety measure for the three million-plus EU citizens living in […]
We – 95 per cent of us – want to keep our high food standards. Likewise, 92 per cent of us want both food and animal welfare standards maintained in future trade agreements. And 86 per cent of us fear food produced to low standards and banned here would find its way into institutional food […]
Despite claiming to ‘Back British Farming‘, parliament voted down Lords’ amendments to the Agriculture Bill which would have ensured food imports meet domestic standards of food and animal welfare.
A hotel in Tintagel has been flying the QAnon flag. What on earth is going on at the Camelot Castle? Some of the strangest TripAdvisor reviews ever written are of a hotel dramatically sited on a rugged headland at Tintagel on Cornwall’s north coast, the Camelot Castle Hotel. Among the oddest of these are from […]
Last night, your government and mine voted against – yes, against – enshrining the UK’s food and farming standards in law. Instead, we are asked to trust in their manifesto promise to maintain said standards and not to compromise them in any trade deals they might finally (and without the say-so of parliament) strike with […]
I wander around in a daze wondering how it came about. I spend much of every day thinking about the beautiful relationship I had, but it was all taken away from me by lies and deceit, not on my part, but by others. I have known since the 23rd June 2016 that the divorce was […]
This article is reproduced from Miles King’s blog by kind permission of the author. Ten years feels a bit like a significant anniversary – and a long time. Perhaps the last ten years feels longer than many decades have, given what has happened (and is about to happen) over that period. Ten years ago I […]
Thursday 8October saw ordinary people across the country taking part in the European Movement’s ‘No to no deal’ campaign. Established in the aftermath of World War Two by Winston Churchill, the European Movement is the UK’s longest standing pro-European organisation with a network of over 100 local groups. Their latest campaign is the most urgent […]
The once autocratic King Lear, now stripped of power and exposed to the storm, ushers the poor Fool into the hovel, then kneels and prays: Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, Your looped and windowed […]
Several recent events have raised urgent questions about the threat to our democracy from unscrupulous digital operatives. Disturbingly, these questions remain largely unanswered by a report this week from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Last week, Channel Four reported on a data leak from Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign that revealed how ‘Team Trump’ had worked […]
We like to bring you Twitter threads which you might miss because you aren’t on Twitter! Here’s one from a reader in the USA ahead of Monday’s Agri Bill vote, responding to a UK reader’s thread. We’ve added her thread, too. I’m an American, I lived in the US for 30 years and worked in […]
Normally Mondays bring on a bout of the blues, but 5 October bucked the trend. It was a day for rejoicing, because the Lords inflicted a string of defeats on the government’s controversial immigration bill. Two of the amendments, both proposed by Lord Alfred Dubs, concerned children. You’d think amendments safeguarding children would pass unanimously, […]