Members of Extinction Rebellion (XR) Wimborne staged a protest outside Mission Systems in Wimborne, Dorset, over the company’s links to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Mission Systems is owned by US-multinational Eaton, which manufactures parts for the F-35 fighter jet used by the Israel Defence Force. These jets are central to the bombardment of Gaza, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Three baseless taboos are derailing national renewal – but they need not The question is not whether the UK needs a decade of national renewal as Sir Keir Starmer claimed. We can see the need in nearly every city in the UK. Shops close and are boarded up; and when they reopen, it is often as charity […]
Friday, July 25, 6pm in Exeter city centre. Shops and cafes closing their doors for the evening, people heading home from work, others on their way to pubs and bars for the start of the weekend. None of them could miss the large crowd in Bedford Square, just off the main street, where hundreds of […]
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 […]
Inspired by a meditation, devised through an unexpected collaboration, and created on a site where it fitted like the missing piece of a jigsaw: the Tipton St John labyrinth is almost a metaphor for itself. If that seems a bit complicated – welcome to the multi-layered world of labyrinths. A labyrinth is not a maze, […]
I am writing to express deep alarm and disappointment at your recent announcements opposing a youth mobility scheme and cancelling care worker visas. These decisions are not only irresponsible and damaging — they represent a political miscalculation of staggering proportions. They are accelerating the breakdown of our health and care system in an extremely dangerous […]
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 […]
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 […]
“Wherever it is found, hunger highlights the fault lines of inequality that run through that society.” In our society, that could indicate the effects of political austerity measures, including the latest benefit cuts. On a global level, it could point to the people in the world’s poorest nations whose crops are being destroyed by the […]
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 Anglo-German Family History Society (AGFHS) is a well-established group for all those who are interested in researching their roots among people from the German speaking parts of Europe, who have emigrated over centuries and settled in Great Britain or Ireland. We have developed considerable expertise and resources, and new members are always welcome. Here […]
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 […]