Kittens will be…well, kittens! I had forgotten just how inquisitive, energetic and naughty kittens could be and as I watched Sir Percival of Ashburton ping from one work surface to another and then surf across the paperwork on the desk, tailed fuzzed up like a bog brush, I wondered how on earth I was going […]
The disturbing claims from Nusrat Ghani that she was sacked from her ministerial position because of her ‘Muslimness’ are as chilling as they are unsurprising. We have become accustomed to the ugly reality of a ruthless far-right party machine that keeps this government in power. Jim Funnell examines the government’s record on inclusion. Johnson’s government […]
Dear West Country Voices, Every day, sometimes two or three times a day, allegations arise that should trigger the immediate resignation of the man that the electorate chose to be the Prime Minister. I say the electorate chose, but actually the initial choice of leader, was made by the Conservative party membership and those sitting Conservative […]
Political speculation abounds on whether Johnson can survive. It is apparent that the consensus is that he cannot. But let me offer a word of caution. The assumption is being made that a man who has refused to comply with every convention in life that governs good behaviour will do the honourable thing and step […]
Those of us of a certain age may remember the sci-fi television series Blake’s 7. For those who don’t remember, it was a sort of Star Trek but with a Marxist sub-plot. Anyway, in the later series, their spaceship (unsurprisingly called ‘The Liberator’) was gifted a computer called ‘Orac’. For me, at the time, the […]
This is a record of our well-attended Democracy in Danger event on Thursday 20 January. Unfortunately the tape was not running for the introductions and so I paraphrase in this summary. Molly Scott Cato, (Greens) talked about her work to research and then to raise awareness of the rise of fascism in the UK. She […]
William Wragg, Chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs (PACA) Select Committee, made an extraordinary intervention at the latest meeting of the parliamentary body that scrutinises, amongst other things, the Civil Service. He began the meeting by reading a statement about the whips bribing, bullying, and even blackmailing Tory MPs to withdraw their letters […]
The CPTPP Pacific Trade Deal is throwing the environment and British farming under the bus in a desperate bid to justify Brexit, argues Simon Oldridge. I just listened to my MP, Anthony Mangnall, singing the praises of the Trans-Pacific trade deal (CPTPP) without a single mention of environment or climate in the entire 35 minute podcast. […]
Dear West Country Voices, I couldn’t believe my ears this week when the Government announcement came about the withdrawal of the measures to help protect the public against the dangers of Covid, by 27 January. In reality, rather than an announcement, it was in fact the complete disownment of the English people by the cowboys calling […]
Dear West Country Voices, The Conservative party has clearly been in power for too long and has too much power based on significantly less than half of the votes cast in the last general election (an 80 seat majority based on securing a mere 43.6 per cent of the ballots cast in 2019). The recent […]
This man will say and do anything…and we mean ANYTHING… to save himself. In case you have not seen it, take a look at this: That’s appalling, right? But it is as nothing compared with abandoning all Covid mitigations and thereby throwing the most vulnerable under the bus to save his political skin. Please write […]
Jack Monroe has allowed us to reproduce this important thread. She started life in local journalism, so she gets the importance of speaking to local audiences. She’ll be on James O’Brien’s show on LBC on Friday 21 Jan if you want to hear more. Woke up this morning to the radio talking about the cost […]
DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT >>>CALENDAR WILL FOLLOW SOON What’s on! if you want to add your event, please contact campaigns@westcountryvoices.co.uk Discussion on housing crisis/housing need, 24 March, online PETITION Johnson to withdraw and apologise re Starmer/Savile lie PETITION on saving access to judicial review. Liberty PETITION to reject government plans to switch to the less democratic […]
Want to help? Here’s where you can find organisations and campaigns to join. Let us know if we are missing yours from the list. NB: this is a work in progress! Action Network: resources, toolkit and ways to mobilise Climate Crisis/Environment Climate Outreach Extinction Rebellion Friends of the Earth Fridays for Future Green New Deal […]
The mammoth Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill(which includes such petty acts of spite and vengeance as proposing up to ten years’ incarceration for damaging a statue and the granting of police powers to seize Gypsy and Traveller homes) has been approved in the Commons before being passed for final approval in the Lords; except […]
This weekend (16/17 January) we have all been given a stunning lesson in the strength of the Conservative Party’s propaganda machine. Hemmed in by his lies, his popularity plummeting faster than a spacecraft re-entering earth’s atmosphere and hurtling towards the sea, Boris Johnson called in favours from mainstream broadcasters, three major newspapers, and his pet […]
Dear Conor, I am sorry that I have to write to you again so soon after the Owen Paterson debacle. Indeed, if truth be told, I’m also a little resentful. As well as trying to recover from the twin hits of Brexit and Covid on my career, I am also now an unpaid carer for […]
When I got Long Covid in March 2020. I was 38 and healthy. If you are anything like I was then, it is hard to understand how bad Long Covid is. I think that we all have an instinct to just… look away. But, please, it is important that you look. My own low-points: early […]
We know that Boris Johnson’s days in Number 10 are numbered now. We can’t be sure how many there still are. That his tenure will end well before the time of the next election is, however, seemingly certain. But my question is, so what? What then for the Tories, and us. The Conservative Party is […]
The Labour Party has finally said that it will oppose some of the extremely dangerous amendments to Priti Patel’s Policing Bill in the House of Lords. But others look set to be waved through by the official opposition, unless it shifts its stance before the key votes on Monday. Tom Scott explains. The first protest […]
This is a press release from campaign organisation, Grassroots for Europe. We do not usually publish these verbatim, but this is a well-worded and powerful summary of the situation we face, a situation that seems unbelievable in the UK, a situation which is a key characteristic of a repressive regime. We will be covering the […]
‘Thrown under the bus’ has turned out to be one of the most-needed, most-overused phrases of the last two years. Fishers, farmers, touring musicians, small businesses and our young have all been chucked under the Brexit bus. The NHS has been subject to a sustained crushing from the bus which carries the greedy ambitions of […]
Some might feel that Brexit is trying to take us back to the rather quaint England portrayed in Dad’s Army, a world in which the country had its back against the wall fending off an evil foe, when patriotic, nationalist spirit was generated by its leaders and xenophobia was fostered to fuel the determination to […]
Dear Editor, I’m exhausted by the Covid pandemic. I think we all are. The ongoing worry that every little sniffle I get might be Delta or Omicron and that I might pass it on to my household and elderly relatives; the constant mental weighing up of how many people I should safely meet while cases […]
The ‘not guilty’ verdict in the trial of the Colston-4 has been a gift to those within the Conservative party who favour culture war over doing something practical to improve our lives. Better by far to have us angry, divided and at each other’s throats on social media rather than noticing their policy failings, authoritarian […]
Jury trials are the latest in a long list of things which have displeased the government. Its reaction looks like it is following a familiar – grim – pattern. Phil Syrpis explains. Every time ‘events’ prompt an institution, beyond the direct control of the government, to take a course of action which displeases the government, […]
Jane Stevenson writes to Sheryll Murray, Conservative MP for South East Cornwall, to explain why the Policing Bill is such a threat to freedom and democracy. Dear Sheryll Murray, I am writing to you about my concerns about the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (the Policing Bill). There is a lot wrong with this […]
No one of sound mind can, I think, work out the reasoning of Lord Geidt when deciding to very largely exonerate Boris Johnson of all charges relating to the funding of the refurbishment of the Downing Street flat in letters published yesterday. By refusing to reopen his original inquiry and by permitting himself to only […]
Dear Editor, I have been disappointed by the lack of outrage over the government’s Nationality and Borders bill, specifically Clause 9, which disproportionally affects black and brown residents in the UK, allowing the government to remove people with dual citizenship or with parents who were born abroad, without warning. However, this Clause does much more […]
It seems that democracy is under assault on multiple fronts from voter suppression measures and attempts to curtail tactical voting in the Elections Bill to the attack on our right to peaceful protest in the Police, Crimes, Courts and Sentencing Bill. Couple this with a government elected on lies and misrepresentation and hostile to any […]