George Eustice, Conservative MP for Camborne, Redruth & Hayle, and Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The professional Cornishman stood for that famously green political party UKIP in the 1999 EU Parliament elections. He lost. He doesn’t promote his former affiliation on his website, of course, but if I were George Eustice […]
Here’s a collection of news stories that probably won’t be covered in any detail by the BBC or much of the mainstream media. We’ll try to put a selection together for you at least once a week. There’s no shortage of material with this government! Russian interference in our democracy: Remember the Russia report into […]
This government is trying to con us into believing that the trade deals being struck benefit the UK. They don’t and now there is talk that the NFU are resigned to the demise of cattle farming in the UK and are prioritising compensation for farmers put out of business by Brexit. And this film from […]
When we arrived in Spain recently, we commented that it felt reassuring to be arriving in a ‘grown-up country’. It struck us as soon as we started our drive south, immediately becoming aware of the fact that everyone was wearing face-masks, as required in indoor public places; a high number of people show the same […]
Back in July 2020, we ran a story (which you can read by clicking on the image above) in which, Mike Temple explained how Dr Cathy Gardner, from East Devon, a microbiologist with a doctorate in virology, had recently challenged the government in the High Court for not protecting elderly people in care homes, with […]
One of the oddest aspects of Brexit is that those who were angriest beforehand – “Politicians are all liars!” ; “They’re only in it for themselves!”; “I’ll never trust one ever again!” – were and remain those most likely to vote for, defend and even champion the worst liars of all. The most dishonest bunch […]
The BBC’s new docudrama The Trick dramatises events around ‘Climategate’ – the hacking and subsequent false representation of thousands of emails between climate scientists, just before the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit. It’s an episode that can now be seen as a blueprint for a later – and even more devastating – disinformation operation. Writer Owen […]
Shirley Williams Memorial Lecture. October 15 2021 19:00 POWER AND FEAR – THE TWO TYRANNIES Before I begin, I’d like to offer my sincere condolences to the whole of the Amess family – what happened today is not just a tragedy for them but for all of us who believe that democracy must operate free […]
On 11 October it finally became clear that, the last objection having been withdrawn, the Compulsory Purchase Order to enable the completion of the ‘Stop Line Way’ cycle and walking route between Seaton and Colyford would be able to proceed. This was momentous for the local community in East Devon, and the news quickly gathered […]
We’re all a bit tired of pretending that Brexit is fine/will be fine, aren’t we? There are even a few cracks appearing in the BBC’s propaganda wall. Plausible deniability is over. A Brexit-supporting Question Time audience can see it for what it is: a disaster. The government is turning itself inside out trying to spin […]
It is really hard to believe they are serious. A predictable shortage of labour because of Brexit, dismissed in the referendum campaign as ‘project fear’, has suddenly become part of the plan all along. Loyal Tories have apparently swallowed Johnson’s claim that crises in the supply chain show we are moving to a high-skill, high-wage […]
In the UK, the life of ordinary citizens is cheap, taking second place to short-term economy and profit. I remember the scene vividly. We were in a supermarket car park, and before us, about 500 yards below a slight incline, lay the mangled wreckage of the trains that had collided at Ladbroke Grove, a few […]
West Country Voices have been sent a copy of this letter from South Hams Cimate Action Network to MP for Totnes, Anthony Mangnall. It was sent on 15 September. To date there has been no response. Dear Anthony Action, not promises Thank you for setting out your reasons for saying no to Devon County Council’s […]
Watching Priti Patel tossing chunks of glistening legislation to the rapt audience at the Tory Party Conference is to be powerfully reminded of feeding time at the zoo. The same Pavlovian flutter of audience hands at the applause lines; the same salivating eagerness for yet more blood, yet more political protein; the same smacking of […]
“…This government has always been quite comfortable with importing… more food from abroad – cheaper imports – and not worrying about our food security and producing at home here, and I think that philosophy is starting to show now…” (Nick Allen, CEO of the British Meat Producers’ Association, on the BBC’s Farming Today on 6 […]
Hot on the heels of West Dorset MP Chris Loder’s scarily ill-informed and ill-advised comments on the parlous state of the UK’s supply chains comes this gem, which we are reproducing from the original blog post by Luke at Town Towels. It would be pure fun if it were not for the nasty undercurrent that […]
As the Conservative party conference ploughs on, welcome to the Kingdom of Shambolica: 137,000 deaths from Covid (official figures), but probably a great deal more blowing over £37 billion on a test-and-trace programme that never worked properly an NHS on its knees and menaced with yet more privatisation growing evidence of dodgy Russian donors to […]
There is that map circulating the internet, used by Brexiters to show that driver shortages are nothing unusual across Europe, and thus the situation in Britain is not specific to this country only and, surely, it has nothing to do with Brexit. You can find that map for example in this Daily Mail article; for easiness […]
Helston Town Council and the Downsland Charity have failed to allay concerns over the sale of a wildlife corridor to developers. Last month, West Country Voices reported on a tangle of conflicting interests that has enmeshed Helston Town Council and a charitable trust that is meant to be acting in the interests of residents of […]
Ever get the feeling that the current crop of Conservative MPs – especially Brexiters – fail to think things through? Brexit is itself the most monumental example of a failure to understand (in fact, wilfully mis-understand) the consequences of shooting ourselves in the foot. There’s an endless stream of nonsense from John Redwood whose Twitter […]
The growing labour and skill shortages across the economy of the United Kingdom are fundamentally down to the explosion of the UK’s demographic time bomb. The UK has an ageing population with an ageing, shrinking, domestic workforce with, just as importantly, an ageing, shrinking, domestic business-owning class. More people are retiring from the UK labour […]
This government don’t do honesty. They don’t get irony. But, boy, do they max out on hypocrisy! UN Human Rights Council 48: UK statement on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of peaceful protests – UK statement: The United Kingdom welcomes today’s discussion. Peaceful protests play a positive role in the […]
Robert Jenrick, the MP for Newark and former housing minister, lost his cabinet post under something of a cloud, after being caught failing to declare a secret meeting between himself and a clutch of property developers in the Enterprise Forum. He was clearly not entirely happy with his demotion, firing off a thinly veiled slingshot […]
Dear Editor-in-Chief, We are in regular contact with most of our French friends since moving back to the UK. Funnily enough they seem to be able to fill up their cars with no problem. Amazingly their shops have no shortages (M&S in France being the exception), although fresh stuff is getting more expensive. And , […]
West Country Voices has recently highlighted how Brexit is affecting the language teaching sector in the UK, with dire impacts on school trips abroad and on the TEFL sector in the UK. Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) has also, for many years, provided many British people with an opportunity to move abroad, selling […]
In an attempt to pose as doing something to help tackle the shortage of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers the government has announced that the Department for Education (DfE) will be spending £10 million to train an estimated 3,000 drivers. Set aside for the moment that this is a drop in the ocean compared with […]
Labour is tearing itself apart (as usual), leaving the Conservatives to get on with misgoverning us without the punishment due to them (as usual). It’s dispiriting for anyone who cares for this country. As usual. Why does Labour do this? Why has it no settled purpose? Why does it throw hostage after hostage to the […]
“It’s only one garage”, I was told when I mentioned that there was no HGV diesel at Lomond Gate earlier this week. But is it really not an issue when only some garages have no fuel? A thread: Lomond Gate is the last garage on the A82 going north that is really suitable for trucks. […]
Sherryl was elected in 2010 and wasted no time in getting to work, most notably in the Commons bar. The Tories had to apologise after accusations that she drunkenly insulted a doorman before attempting to vote on the minor matter of the 2010 Budget. The media then gate-crashed the party, following which – though I’m […]
Thousands of people who shop in the UK have probably noticed shortages of products in British supermarkets. The supply problems are blamed on the shortage of HGV drivers and the government is taking steps to tackle it: the driving hours have been extended and there is a talk about bringing the army drivers to help […]