For many years, in the UK as well as other countries, progress across a wide range of issues seemed to be the natural order of things. Almost every year, the economy would grow a little and people’s real (inflation-adjusted) wages would grow with them. Almost every year, in other words, most people would become just […]
There must have been a time when the Conservative party stood for conserving things, for responsible stewardship and avoiding needless waste. I know for sure that’s what Conservative friends of mine believe in. Business-like decision-making, investing in our future. But like many Tory voters, my friends now feel abandoned by a party stripped bare of […]
If Alexander Darwall, the landowner behind the wild camping judgement, had actually been hired to recruit numbers to the right to roam cause, he could not have done a better job. 3,000 people made the effort to travel to the village of Cornwood, climb the roads and tracks to Stall Moor, stand together in the […]
This is an important summary of the situation from Jacob Öberg: Absolute must-read Brexit newsletter by Peter Foster which this week takes a shot at our ‘beloved’ Retained EU Law Bill (returning to the Commons) which is what Peter calls some ‘pretty crazy baggage’ from the outwardly sensible Sunak Government. Short recall, the REUL Bill […]
You will recall the brouhaha caused by the visit paid by Dorset police to two women hoping to attend a Chris Loder surgery in a nearby village. This Orwellian incident has gained extra significance with moves by the government to enshrine ‘pre-crime’ in the Public Order Bill, indicating a degree of paranoia about anyone who […]
Conservative MPs are systematically ripping off Green Party branding in their communications to voters – a new low for a party that is now clearly ashamed to be seen for what it is, writes Tom Scott. What would be your first thought if you received a leaflet like one of those shown above from a […]
Boris Johnson has been urged to make a stunning comeback to frontline politics “for the sake of Britain, Brexit and British people”, reports the Daily Express. The paper (I really can’t bring myself to call it a newspaper) says there have been, “surging calls for the former Prime Minister to make a sensational return, with many Tories warning […]
On Jan 8, Sky News launched its new Westminster Accounts project with Tortoise Media. Together they have created an interactive database which makes the information reported to the Register of Members’ Interests more easily accessible so that we can really see who is receiving what sums and from whom, whether it’s in the form of […]
So, the new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is worried that Britons are not numerate enough. He said he wants people to “feel more confident” when it comes to numbers and finances and plans to make maths compulsory study until the age of 18. Mr Sunak added that the UK must “reimagine our approach to numeracy” in […]
It would be easy to feel pretty despairing right now. After all, things have got steadily worse. We thought the NHS was at the brink in 2021. We had no idea how much further this callous government was prepared to push it, how much death and misery it would wilfully ignore, while pumping out propaganda […]
For the second part of our review, here are some articles which were read by hundreds rather than thousands. We think you might have missed some of them! We are particularly anxious that the passage of time and the power of propaganda does not wipe our memories of some of the terrible people who have […]
Our top ten reads for 2022 in reverse order. In at number 10, but thankfully NOT one to have had a go at being in at Number 10 (ho, ho), it’s that delightful ERG-er and Brexiter Sherryl Murray: At 9, a still sadly relevant piece on the abandoning of the clinically vulnerable to Covid risks: […]
A very happy Christmas and New Year to all our readers from the team at West Country Voices. We are going to take a bit of a break and detoxify (oh my, how we do need to detoxify!)from Westminster for a few days but urge you, if you have a few idle moments, to have […]
In the bars and tea-rooms of the House of Commons there is always gossip. So when, at times, the level of gossip diminishes, to be replaced by a proportionate increase in discrete whispering, every Westminster watcher will instantly sense that something is afoot. But what? To begin with, that is not at all easy to […]
After 12 years of Conservative government, the UK faces serious and rapidly growing problems on multiple fronts: 1) economically, 2) in terms of the financial, physical and mental health of the population and 3) in human rights and democratic safeguards. Last week we showed how far the UK economy is falling behind other leading economies and how its population […]
More than 30,000 people have read the story of the police visit to two women, and if you haven’t – you can catch up here! Fran Swan, of Fishpond, and Beverley Glock, of Lyme Regis, had registered for a public meeting for Chideock residents, which was held on Friday 25 November. They had to give […]
Our social contract – the ‘deal’ that makes us a civilised country – is under grave threat both practically and philosophically. And we are not talking about it. Practically, the UK is in a grave situation. We are in the midst of a serious cost-of-living crisis which will plunge over half of the UK population into fuel poverty […]
When I was first contacted with this story, my source asked me to listen and tell her whether I thought this story was at all weird. My immediate response on hearing what happened was “Bloody hell!”. I think that reaction will be shared by many readers and my comments on this incident are at the […]
It has been widely reported that Conservative Peer Baroness Michelle Mone and her family had received almost £29 million from a firm on whose behalf she had lobbied. She helped PPE Medpro to win government contracts worth over £200 million for providing personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic. As the Financial Times writes: “The government came […]
So, in a straw poll of Twitter users organised by the new Chief Twit, Elon Musk, Donald Trump has been ‘elected’ back onto the platform after being banned in 2020 for reasons we all know. “The people have spoken,” tweeted Mr Musk. Haven’t we heard that phrase before, ad nauseam, since 24 June 2016? Musk’s […]
On 11 September I wrote a column on the US elections, anxiously throwing a few predictions around. I’m so relieved and encouraged to update this week that a majority of Americans rejected election denialism and minority rule. (with much gratitude!) The big news is the US Senate is still in Dem hands! (starburst emoji) The […]
Does anyone honestly believe that this shambles of a government has any democratic legitimacy right now? Has Rishi Sunak given any indication that he is upholding his promise to deliver a government of ‘integrity, professionalism and accountability? Gavin Williamson…known bully and enforcer via blackmail techniques. Sacked on not one but TWO previous occasions by earlier […]
Our first past the post system may have the advantage of familiarity and simplicity, but it is serving us very ill. The current government enjoys a massive majority in the Commons, allowing it to ram through legislation that damages our democracy, our human rights, the environment and so much more… and all despite securing only […]
As US midterm election results are still coming in overnight, a myriad of thoughts/feelings are cascading in my brain right now…Did the democracy-defending Democratic party pull a rabbit out of hat throughout the US? I was imagining a decisive landslide, unlike the US mainstream and Murdoch-funded media. So many purple (mixed red Republican and blue […]
Devon for Europe took their ‘democracymeter’ to the centre of Newton Abbot, gauging public opinion on the state of affairs in Westminster before going on to deliver a letter to the constituency MP, Anne Marie Morris, asking her to support calls for a general election. Newton Abbot has always been a tough gig, and the […]
Babe – the pig with the unerring snout for pigswill – returns for a satirical sojourn in the Sunlit Uplands and a political sketch. As the year moves into its closing phase, there’s never been a better time to root through the fallen fruit and leaf litter of Anthony Mangnall’s autumnal tenure as Constituency MP […]
Yesterday I sent this tweet, in dismay at hearing Nigel Farage’s voice, once again, on the radio – in this case BBC World at One. I wondered afterwards if I’d been right. So I listened again, to see what it is about Farage I find so dangerous, and ask whether I was reasonable to suggest […]
It can only be a matter of time before you get to hold the reins of power. The only possible way this cannot happen is if the current increasingly fascist regime finds a way to halt elections altogether – maybe by engineering a state of emergency, having pushed millions of decent people out of their […]
Sunak needs the ballast of the far-right and is curiously-led by the angry wasp that is the ERG – currently supporting the unfathomably unpleasant Suella Braverman. Sunak has said nowt. Just perfunctory praise for the most bafflingly re-appointed Secretary of State in political history. Attacking asylum-seekers with firebombs is terrorism. Terrorism. This goes unmentioned across […]
Maybe we should review all the false language that has been used by the Tory Party over the last twelves years as they have been dismantling the country? Part 1: ‘Brexit Benefits’ & ‘Brexit Dividend’: Ok, so this was supposed to be an incentive for people to relinquish all the genuine benefits of EU membership. […]