Dear Editor I cannot thank you enough for your ongoing support over the years for 3.8 million UK taxpayers who were excluded from parity of Covid-19 financial support by the previous government. There are so many ExcludedUK members, like me, who are still far from recovered from the pandemic and are still struggling to claw […]
Did you get a Co-op card despite being very resistant to having more plastic in your wallet and absolutely hating the ‘privileged’ pricing blackmail from other stores? Did you get a card because you really liked the idea that you would be helping to raise money for small local charities? That’s why I got mine, […]
Shire Hall Museum in Dorchester is hosting an emotive photography exhibition from Robert Golden, offering an intimate insight into the lives and experiences of the Windrush generation, 25 years after their arrival in the UK. Opening on Friday 27 September, Searching for the Motherland features over 50 photographs of London’s Windrush generation and their families […]
Our first parallel text…which only really works on a PC! Translation of Beatriz Cebreros Baeza’s text by Mike Zollo. Seems to us that we would do well to copy this initiative to build the bonds of friendship across the nations. Let us know if you live somewhere this already happens! In the 14 years we […]
Twitter’s full of people trumpeting near zero understanding of English law or of the convictions in respect of the violence of the last 10 days or so. Nor does the US First Amendment mean what many (often Americans) seem to think. Frustrated? Maybe this will be some use. “Incitement” has been an offence under English […]
Editor’s comment: I read this originally on X/Twitter and approached the author, who agreed to us publishing it here. I then had quite an internal debate about whether or not to trust my impulse to share it with a wider audience and have come to the conclusion that the time for skirting around this subject […]
The government’s recent proposal to drop any cap on the number of pupils that state-funded faith schools can select on the basis of their parent’s belief has brought arguments back into focus about the role religious organisations play in running parts of our education system. The UK is one of only four OECD countries that […]
There are many arguments for taxing the extremely wealthy more. Perhaps the simplest is that while most normal people pay tax of up to 40 per cent on their income (or more), the very wealthy can easily pay less than one per cent on their true economic income. To most people that seems very unfair. But […]
Fellow citizen-journalist editor, Peter Shearn of Totnes Pulse, contacted me to see if I would like to interview the secretary of state for education, Gillian Keegan. Apparently she had elected to kill two birds with one stone and give a ‘puff’ to the government’s free childcare for two-year-olds, and (presumably) to the re-election chances of […]
If you are one of those who (as dance critic Mary Clarke said), “think ballet is just Swan Lake” – pretty fantasy, tutus and tiaras, with no relevance to modern-day Britain, I might suggest you watch the Royal Ballet’s production of Manon. (It doesn’t have to be ridiculously expensive: tickets at, for example, Seaton Gateway […]
Dear Editor, What is happening to our nation when MPs need bodyguards? What are the influences that have created such an unprecedented decline in what we are told by some is still a world-leading democracy? Yes, we must acknowledge that the mainstream press and TV and social media have played a deeply significant role in threatening the foundations […]
Shamima Begum is a London-born girl, who some years ago, aged 15, ran away from her parents to join ISIS. She wanted to be a mother to the children of martyrs. On 23 February 2024, the British court decided that stripping her of British citizenship is a rightful decision. I believe this is a day […]
Whether you are for or against the refugee exchange scheme known as the Rwanda Plan, the Rwanda Safety Bill is a dangerously bad piece of legislation. Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of the most famous refugee in all history. Setting aside the irony of the PM getting hot and bothered at this time […]
For many years, Alastair Stewart was an ever-present on ITV news. He always had a likeable demeanour, a pleasant voice, and a professionalism that made sure he never betrayed his political allegiances. He was everything a news presenter should be. But at last week’s Tory leadership hustings in Manchester, we saw a different Stewart. Freed […]
On the morning of December 4, 2023, a group of Dorset residents joined about 500 others around the country holding signs outside Bournemouth Crown Court, as part of the growing public campaign Defend Our Juries. Their signs displayed the centuries-old principle of ‘jury equity’, which is the right of all jurors in British courtrooms to […]
It is a full seven years since the Referendum, which demonstrated that a fraction over half of the British population (or a fraction over half of those who could be bothered to vote) placed no value on Britain’s membership of the European Community. Over the following years, many of us have spent varying amounts of […]
So, I’m sure I’m not alone in having noticed a big increase in anti-immigrant sentiment since the latest release of the numbers by the Office for National Statistics, and let’s be honest, it’s not that surprising, is it? So, keeping to the zeitgeist of the week, I thought I would bring in a reminder that […]
The charity Mid Devon Mobility is based in the town of Tiverton in Devon. It provides multiple services that meet the needs of residents in Mid Devon and North Devon, as well as those visiting the area and passing through it. The charity is a finalist in multiple in the Community Transport Awards 2023: 1 […]
I ran into Robbie while campaigning for the South Devon Primary. Robbie’s controlled anger and frustration with the current state of affairs was mirrored in a democracy meter filling up with the stickers that represented people’s view of the current government – not positive. At all. A resident of this rather run-down estate, she explained […]
Background to this piece: Jeremy Hunt doesn’t rule out withdrawing benefits from claimants who have been assessed as unable to work due to ill-health. “We have nearly 1,000,000 vacancies in the economy and nearly 3 million people who are either long term-sick and disabled or long-term unemployed,” Jeremy Hunt said. “And that is bad for […]
I see it took less time than usual – actually it didn’t – for client journalists to back the idea that human rights need to be destroyed in order to be defended. The options listed here are clearly false, and still don’t include the options needed. thetimes.co.uk/article/c9f6e0… Human rights treaties have had their dayJuliet Samuel: […]
Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, has come up with yet another outrageous proposal: this would include new laws to restrict the use of tents by homeless people, arguing that many of them see it as a “lifestyle choice”… As if sleeping rough is a ‘lifestyle choice’! She also plans to create “a civil offence whereby […]
Despite the vindictiveness continually meted out by this government to migrants, poor people, sick people, people on benefits (the list is endless), if someone hadn’t told me about Suella Braverman’s latest wheeze, I wouldn’t have believed it. The Financial Times (£) says that Braverman “seeks to curb rough sleepers by restricting use of tents on […]
It was quite a coup for South Hams Society to get Henry Dimbleby to speak on the important issues of food security, food safety and the future of agriculture in this country and the event held in Kingsbridge was well-attended on a chilly Friday night . Also on the panel were the MP for Totnes […]
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 […]
This is part two of transcripts of interviews conducted by one of our local readers with a local volunteer doing what they can to mitigate the challenges faced by those demonised by Suella Braverman and this government. We are not naming either the interviewer or the interviewee lest this lead to repercussions. It’s appalling that […]
Since Labour announced their plans to either remove the charitable status of private schools, or add VAT to school fees, social media and right-wing outlets have been awash with people claiming it wouldn’t raise any money in reality, or it would cause untold private schools failing and ‘flooding’ the state sector with students. I thought […]
On Saturday September 16, a short section of traffic-free path in rural Somerset was officially opened. It was a small thing in itself, just over one mile in length and, at present, with no onward off-road connection at either end. Nevertheless, it illustrates some very important points. The path, and others like it currently being […]
When Russell Brand issued his pre-emptive denial in an attempt to get ahead of the horrendous allegations of rape and sexual assault aired by The Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches on Saturday, he addressed his 6.6 million YouTube subscribers with the words: “Hello there, you awakening wonders.” It’s Brand’s standard greeting to his followers and […]
This is part one of two transcripts of interviews conducted by one of our local readers with a local volunteer doing what they can to mitigate the challenges faced by those demonised by Suella Braverman and this government. We are not naming either the interviewer or the interviewee lest this lead to repercussions. It’s appalling […]