All Budgets are important, but this one is especially critical: 13 years of market fundamentalist policy choices have left the UK in a state of decay, with a weak economy, falling real wages, a cost-of-living crisis and growing poverty. Our public services are on their knees: our schools are crumbling and even our cherished NHS is struggling […]
Friday 17 November saw the West Country Voices live debate on Plymouth & South Devon Freeport. Held within the spectacular St Mary’s Church in Totnes, the event was attended by around 80 people in person and an even larger number online. The livestream was not without some problems, but it was an ambitious project, blending […]
Suella Braverman’s ‘exit’ letter to prime minister Rishi Sunak was a bombshell, but perhaps not in the way she intended. After the usual platitude of it being a privilege to have served as Home Secretary and a list of what she considers to be her achievements, she made some jaw-dropping admissions. First, she reminded Sunak […]
Rishi Sunak’s long-anticipated reshuffle was less significant for its scale than for its surprises. The news broke at 8.35am: Suella Braverman had been sacked. It later emerged there would not be the customary exchange of letters, where the outgoing minister says it has been the honour of their life to serve and the prime minister […]
Here’s the Year 6 (11 year olds) ‘writing-for-a-purpose’ attempt from this week’s new chairman of the Conservatives. So proud is Richard Holden of his party that he decided to skip pasting in the logo. Astonishingly, it appears that ministers have all been endowed with magical powers which have made them instantly successful in all their […]
Warning: contains strong language. Somehow, it’s time for #TheWeekInTory again, even though it’s still only Monday. Four more days of this week to go, and we’re already up to 74 points. F*ck-a-doodle-doo! Anyway, do a quick snort of glue, and then let’s get stuck in. 1. Suella Braverman took a break from kidnapping dalmatians to say […]
All this talk about how “Sunak is waiting for the verdict on the Rwanda policy” before sacking Braverman isn’t quite the politically astute move some seem to think. Here’s my analysis of the pointlessness of the Rwanda policy and why Sunak’s best option is to fire Braverman before the verdict is out. First off, fairly […]
Rishi closes his eyes to think. This time next year he’ll have left this all behind. California. Sunshine. No annoying questions from annoying journalists. Surrounded by people he can relate to. Despite all the damage, Rishi knows he has the chance to do one good thing today. This culture war stuff was never really his […]
The Braverman story is developing by the hour and there is still a (remote) possibility that Sunak will discover a scrap of moral fibre and fire her but, to be honest, she should have gone for the homeless/lifestyle callousness. The Highcliffe Guy explains why. How Propaganda Works:Suella Braverman’s attack on homeless people is possibly her […]
I apologise, but try as I might, I can’t find any material for #TheWeekInTory. Only kidding. It’s an absolute casserole. Let’s down a pint of absinthe and get stuck in. Also – trigger warning. [Contains strong language] 1. We begin with the Covid inquiry, which revealed the shocking news that everything we all knew three years […]
Many people have tried to analyse the secret of Sir Alex Ferguson’s success as a football manager over so many years, first with Aberdeen, then with Manchester United. What was clear, from many interviews with the man, was that he consistently adopted a siege mentality, suggesting repeatedly that ‘they’ were out to get United, that […]
This week is turning out to be very revelatory…and shocking. Ed We will update as and when… From 30 October: What we see from the Inquiry is intense focus on the period between Jan 30 and March 23r. This was the nearly two month period that would affect all of our lives so profoundly for […]
Delighted to be publishing Russ again. This episode of the week in Tory is a cracker. Contains strong language. 1. Britain faces a crisis in health, education, farming, energy, housing, childcare, social care, imports, exports, manufacturing, services, debt, growth and infrastructure, so Rishi Sunak announced his grand plan to slightly alter A-Levels. 2. As Sunak finished […]
Proportional representation delivers the right kind of Donald! “Poland won! Democracy won! We removed them from power! […] This is the end of bad times.” Donald Tusk, 15 Oct 2023 When we put out Tomasz Oryński’s piece setting out the significance of Sunday’s vote outcome for his country, we shared his anxiety about a further […]
I’ve been waiting for over nine weeks for a meaningful reply from my MP – Anthony Mangnall (South Devon): so far, I’ve only had a three-line response to 19 clear, precise questions I asked about a proposal he made to the Minister for Levelling-Up, regarding government-backed loans to private companies to ‘win’ public money (and […]
This Sunday, when driving past Polish consulate or cultural centres, you might see queues of people. It’s because Poles are going to the polls in the most important elections since 1989. Depending on the results on Sunday, Poland will either sail back to the bright side – the world of European, democratic values and rule […]
Dear Editor, An element of doubt is insidious, I thought, having read about the ‘recording’ posted on X (formerly twitter), purporting to be a tirade from Sir Keir Starmer, effing and blinding at his staff because they forgot to bring his tablet (as in iPad, not paracetamol). Labour staffers were taken somewhat by surprise, it […]
Dear Editor, I have sent this response to the BBC, after their wholly inadequate response to my complaint about the lack of coverage of the big rejoin march in London on September 23: I am incensed and insulted by the generic, risible, unsubstantiated and facile response to my original complaint. “BBC News is unable to […]
Local households recently received a letter from Selaine Saxby, our North Devon MP, which contained a petition to complain about dentistry, or lack of it, in North Devon. I also note that she asked a question in the House of Commons on the same subject in July 2022. You can look at this in two ways: […]
Greetings, South-westerners! Now you see him… The news that Steve Barclay, Secretary of State for Health, was meeting the Prime Minister for discussions about the NHS refutes the widespread belief, supported by the press and social media, that he is a Virtual Minister. Virtual Ministers are the result of a dire shortage of genuine […]
Most of those registered to vote do not want a Conservative Government, yet they keep getting elected! How does this happen? Democracy campaigner and author of The Tory Winning Machine, Adam Herriott, explores the reasons. The Conservative Party has always been the party of the rich and powerful. The Tory Party operates to form governments that […]
These Conservatives will do pretty much anything to con the public into voting for them. We ran a story back in January about how they were pumping out looky-likey propaganda to tell us that Tory blue is green. In recent months, they’ve switched their phoney eco-credentials for faux-journalism promoting their candidates as local heroes and […]
A closure of sorts for BCP, as an independent report is revealed at the recent Audit and Governance Committee. The audit covers the 2021-23 era of former Conservative leaders Drew Mellor & Phil Broadhead, and slams their chaotic time in government. The headlines:Red flags were raised against BCP’s financial management, governance, efficiency and effectiveness.Auditors found […]
Dear Editor, The British Science Festival is running in Exeter from September 7 – 10, co-hosted by the University with events happening across the weekend both on campus and in the city centre. This celebration of science links quite neatly to today’s announcement on the UK finally reaching agreement on membership of the EU’s Horizon […]
So here we are again. In the middle of yet another ‘how long have they known and why did they do nothing about it’ saga. The RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete) scandal demonstrates the same callous disregard for the lives outside the circles of the privileged few as did the care home tragedy during Covid. […]
Did you know that nearly 200 parliamentary seats have not changed party hands since WWII? Conservative East Devon hasn’t changed hands since 1835! West Dorset has been Tory since 1857. That’s 200 seats where the incumbent MPs (or their successors) have felt pretty relaxed about retaining their jobs. No need to panic, come election time! […]
Nadine Dorries’ resignation letter in full. It was quite fun to read. I fluctuated between “what on earth is she talking about” to “ha ha, she’s bang on there”; a mixture of whining “poor me” to real hatred towards Sunak! Wow – a lot of the things she thinks she achieved during her time as […]
This summer’s figure of fun is Mid-Bedfordshire MP Nadine Dorries. She resigned on June 9, 2023 in solidarity with disgraced former prime minister Boris Johnson, who resigned suddenly and unexpectedly that same day as an MP when he realised he would be unable to avoid a sanction by the House of Commons that would lead […]
Suella Braverman is the kind of person who cuts corners and ploughs on regardless. Nothing gets in her way. Not our constitution. Not parliamentary sovereignty. Not the rule of law. Now, in her latest project, the Bibby Stockholm detention barge for asylum seekers, those behaviours have put the lives of people under her department’s care […]
We’re just waiting for the Conservatives to take credit for the Lionesses’ epic win, to be honest, but in the meantime, here are the latest shocker whoppers being trotted out to con the public. The fall in the rate of inflation is all down to government policies and the refusal to pay public sector workers […]