Political violence doesn’t stay contained. It cascades – and democracy pays the price Charlie Kirk was assassinated in Utah yesterday afternoon. The news started coming in as I was settling down for the evening, and it instantly felt surreal. Even typing this feels somewhat surreal. The BBC update that pinged on my phone felt like […]
On a late August afternoon in Halifax, a woman who has spent fifteen years caring for patients in Britain’s National Health Service was racially abused and assaulted in front of her young daughter. Apple Moorhouse, a 42-year-old nurse originally from the Philippines, was walking with her family in Manor Heath Park when a simple request […]
We recently organised a free event for young people with activist and campaigner, Rob Hopkins, also of transition town fame and the author of many books, including the inspirational ‘How to Fall in Love with the Future‘. (You can read our review of the book here.) Held in Ashburton Arts Centre, which Andy Williamson generously […]
There are plenty of very stupid and wasteful consumer shopping habits, but top of the list must be buying something quite expensive for one specific job or activity, using it solely for that purpose, and then storing it away in your shed or garage and forgetting about it. We’re talking about things like carpet cleaners, […]
“Bigotry and prejudice are the hallmarks of those who fear what they cannot understand.” (a concise and accurate comment on a post in the Facebook page of ’ORDER! The Sir John Bercow Fanclub’) Migration Like many areas of the world, the British Isles have a long and varied history of absorbing immigrants from elsewhere. Recent […]
Rejuvenating our democracy is the ONLY sensible solution Britain’s electoral system has driven a full third of young people towards authoritarianism. Only fundamental reform can reverse this dangerous trend, and restore faith in democracy. Last week, there was much to celebrate for 18-year-olds up and down the country. A-Level results were published on Thursday, and […]
Like many, my heart has been broken by what is happening in Palestine. I have felt helpless and hopeless, but refuse to believe that there is nothing we can do. I’ve seen and shared the stories, images and videos coming out of Gaza – the horrific, endless and systematic destruction of people and place. Children, […]
The Daily Mail recently ran an article: “List of perks taxpayers are funding for asylum seekers”. The Conservative party then took that list, created a handy little graphic and then posted it on X: REVEALED: The huge list of freebies and perks channel migrants are entitled to once they land in Britain. Meanwhile, Rachel Reeves is taxing […]
No longer is the right wing in British politics content with dog-whistle antics; we now have dog-megaphone politics. One of the “best” vehicles used to stir up fear is immigration, and the master conjuror is, of course, N Farage. Last year he made much trouble for the police by riding piggy-back on the rumours that there was […]
On Tuesday 12 August, every single hourly news bulletin was led by a single, grossly misleading, and grossly biased story, designed to a) further fuel the misguided flames of outrage about tiny numbers of people trying to reach this country in small boats and b) to discredit the Labour Party’s work on this issue. As […]
WHAT: The Pilgrims: Our First Undocumented Immigrants demonstrationWHEN: Sunday 17 August 2025 1:00pm – 3:00pmWHERE: Mayflower Steps, The Barbican, Plymouth, PL1 2LR Protesting immigration raids, detainment camps, and deportation in the USAPlymouth, England – On Sunday, 17 August 2025, Indivisible Southwest and Americans for Action Bristol will join together to host a demonstration at the Mayflower […]
Knock on the doors of the manosphere, and what I have discovered isn’t merely a collection of grievances and muscle-flexes – it’s an entire microclimate, its own weather front pressing against the future. Here, in these digital territories, fossil-fuelled bravado becomes the very air young men are taught to breathe, each exhale a small act […]
The Conservatives have claimed migrants from small boats are “24 times more likely to end up in prison”, but this figure is wrong on so many levels! On Thursday, I was sent this headline from the Daily Mail and asked if it was true… “Migrants who cross the Channel into the UK ‘are 24 times […]
I could feel the fear in a hall full of primary school parents in Totnes as they listened to campaigners going through the evidence about the impact of smartphones on kids at secondary school. The statistics are shocking: Nearly one in 10 children aged eight to 14 have watched online pornography Almost half of children […]
This information is from the Community Integration and Advocacy Centre – vital to counter the manufactured anger that is poisoning society and our political discourse Here are 10 prevalent misconceptions regarding asylum hotels, clarified and refuted with accurate information for you to share, particularly if you are sick of hearing the same tired and often […]
We hear a lot from politicians about immigration, and the debate is frankly toxic. So last week I went to Common Flora, near Diptford, to meet a group of asylum seekers who come here once a month to work on the land, share a communal lunch and sing together. I met a young man who’d […]
What happened in Moygashel, Northern Ireland on July 10, was a disgrace. An effigy of a migrant boat was paraded and set alight as part of a so-called celebration. It wasn’t just the model of a vessel that burned, it was a grotesque caricature of human suffering, complete with mannequins in lifejackets and banners declaring […]
To really appreciate the importance of Exeter’s Respect Festival, just imagine some of the reactions if a two-day celebration of anti-racism, equality and diversity in the city was proposed for the first time today. It would prove divisive. Many people would love the idea, but you can bet there’d be some pushback, with the word […]
My father, a political journalist who spent more hours of his life in Westminster than is good for you, always told us not to be too cynical about politicians. For every bad apple, he would imply, there were five good ones. You might not share their politics, but you knew that most of them were […]
Victory in Europe! On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered, ending WW11 in Europe. I was 10 years old and remember the street parties well. People were dancing and singing, relieved that things could return to the way they were six years ago. No more sleepless nights waiting for the air raid sirens and the rush […]
Shortly after sending a happy birthday message to one of my grand-daughters, the news came on Radio 4 at 08.55 this morning that Pope Francis had passed away. Jorge Mario Bergoglio had left this life at 07.35. Hardly a shock, given his age and his recent debilitating illness, but an emotional shock nonetheless. Soon afterwards […]
Festivals generate nostalgia and on a social media chat, friends swapped memories of Easter childhoods: different levels of church-going and when they got their eggs. My Easter childhood memories always involve massive confectioner-made chocolate eggs, of the sort once seen in shop windows, and of kind American airmen. I didn’t say this in the on-line […]
We could probably do with a break from Trump this weekend, and when I saw this tweet over on X, with 5000 likes and 3,600 comments – overflowing with anti-Muslim rhetoric, it felt like a classic example of a post designed to make you think: “That’s outrageous!” Which, of course, is precisely the point. So let’s look […]
Celebration lunches, chocolates and a glass of fizz will be on the menu this Sunday, 30 March, as families get together for Mothering Sunday. But for one group of women in Plymouth, the table will be bare – except for leaflets, stickers and other material demanding an end to child hunger and poverty. Six local […]
It was International Women’s Day on March 8, and after taking a break from calling out corporate hypocrisy last year, I’m back at it. Why? Because with DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) under attack, pay gaps persisting, and women’s rights rolling back globally, this work isn’t done. Last year, I stepped back, focused on building […]
The Labour leadership can and must do better Imagine your son came home from school one day making derogatory comments – clearly picked up in the classroom – about a refugee kid in his class who had just acquired a new British passport. Knowing your son was well-meaning but easily led, you might encourage him […]
Set against so much worrying and negative news, the situation in Spain is very encouraging! We’ve just come back from two weeks there, and as so often in recent years we’ve observed a country that’s going places – in a very positive direction! A spate of articles recently, such as in the Independent, The Week […]
Elon Musk doesn’t like it. Stronger legal measures are in the pipeline to rein in the spread of dangerous lies and misleading claims on social media platforms including X, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Google. The racist riots last summer, following the Southport murders, didn’t only show how social media disinformation can provoke real-life violence on […]
It has been more than three years since we first wrote about the dramatic humanitarian crisis at the Polish border with Belarus. After a year of the new government, you might be wondering what has changed there. To quote our new minister of justice: “We have the paradoxical situation that all the critics are being […]
T’was the week before Christmas and while the rest of us were preparing for the season of goodwill to all mankind, the Telegraph was busy creating headlines designed to get people OUTRAGED at all the workshy, lazy, benefits scroungers. Bah Humbug and all that! “Majority of Britons receive more in benefits than they pay in […]