Section: Society

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The great Co-op con

Anthea Simmons

Did you get a Co-op card despite being very resistant to having more plastic in your wallet and absolutely hating the ‘privileged’ pricing blackmail from other stores? Did you get a card because you really liked the idea that you would be helping to raise money for small local charities? That’s why I got mine, […]

Searching for the Motherland: emotive photographic exhibition, Shire Hall, Dorchester, 17 Sept – 16 Nov

Editor-in-chief

Shire Hall Museum in Dorchester is hosting an emotive photography exhibition from Robert Golden, offering an intimate insight into the lives and experiences of the Windrush generation, 25 years after their arrival in the UK. Opening on Friday 27 September, Searching for the Motherland features over 50 photographs of London’s Windrush generation and their families […]

The Spanish festival that celebrates ‘in-comers’.

Mike Zollo

Our first parallel text…which only really works on a PC! Translation of Beatriz Cebreros Baeza’s text by Mike Zollo. Seems to us that we would do well to copy this initiative to build the bonds of friendship across the nations. Let us know if you live somewhere this already happens! In the 14 years we […]

Don’t be a hater. The law will come for you on both sides of the Atlantic

Andrew Levi

Twitter’s full of people trumpeting near zero understanding of English law or of the convictions in respect of the violence of the last 10 days or so. Nor does the US First Amendment mean what many (often Americans) seem to think. Frustrated? Maybe this will be some use. “Incitement” has been an offence under English […]

Someone is attempting a fascist coup in Britain…

Botfinder Collective

Editor’s comment: I read this originally on X/Twitter and approached the author, who agreed to us publishing it here. I then had quite an internal debate about whether or not to trust my impulse to share it with a wider audience and have come to the conclusion that the time for skirting around this subject […]

Shame I never got to interview the Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan, when she was in Totnes. She’d have loved answering my questions…

Anthea Simmons

Fellow citizen-journalist editor, Peter Shearn of Totnes Pulse, contacted me to see if I would like to interview the secretary of state for education, Gillian Keegan. Apparently she had elected to kill two birds with one stone and give a ‘puff’ to the government’s free childcare for two-year-olds, and (presumably) to the re-election chances of […]

MacMillan’s Manon – still utterly relevant, more’s the pity

Anna Andrews

If you are one of those who (as dance critic Mary Clarke said), “think ballet is just Swan Lake” – pretty fantasy, tutus and tiaras, with no relevance to modern-day Britain, I might suggest you watch the Royal Ballet’s production of Manon. (It doesn’t have to be ridiculously expensive: tickets at, for example, Seaton Gateway […]

Clear and present danger – letter to the editor

Editor-in-chief

Dear Editor, What is happening to our nation when MPs need bodyguards?  What are the influences that have created such an unprecedented decline in what we are told by some is still a world-leading democracy?  Yes, we must acknowledge that the mainstream press and TV and social media have played a deeply significant role in threatening the foundations […]

‘It could never happen here’: the normalisation of the unthinkable

Richard Haviland

For many years, Alastair Stewart was an ever-present on ITV news. He always had a likeable demeanour, a pleasant voice, and a professionalism that made sure he never betrayed his political allegiances. He was everything a news presenter should be. But at last week’s Tory leadership hustings in Manchester, we saw a different Stewart. Freed […]

‘Defend our Juries’ at Bournemouth Crown Court

Defend Our Juries

On the morning of December 4, 2023, a group of Dorset residents joined about 500 others around the country holding signs outside Bournemouth Crown Court, as part of the growing public campaign Defend Our Juries. Their signs displayed the centuries-old principle of ‘jury equity’, which is the right of all jurors in British courtrooms to […]

Peace in our time

Eric Gates

It is a full seven years since the Referendum, which demonstrated that a fraction over half of the British population (or a fraction over half of those who could be bothered to vote) placed no value on Britain’s membership of the European Community. Over the following years, many of us have spent varying amounts of […]

‘If volunteers went on strike, half the country would collapse’ – The Crafty Fox Cafe’n’Hub on the Foxhole Road

Anthea Simmons

I ran into Robbie while campaigning for the South Devon Primary. Robbie’s controlled anger and frustration with the current state of affairs was mirrored in a democracy meter filling up with the stickers that represented people’s view of the current government – not positive. At all. A resident of this rather run-down estate, she explained […]

The Starmer deepfake affair – letter to the editor

Editor-in-chief

Dear Editor, An element of doubt is insidious, I thought, having read about the ‘recording’ posted on X (formerly twitter), purporting to be a tirade from Sir Keir Starmer, effing and blinding at his staff because they forgot to bring his tablet (as in iPad, not paracetamol). Labour staffers were taken somewhat by surprise, it […]

Taxing private schools: coherent strategy or counterproductive?

Emma Monk

Since Labour announced their plans to either remove the charitable status of private schools, or add VAT to school fees, social media and right-wing outlets have been awash with people claiming it wouldn’t raise any money in reality, or it would cause untold private schools failing and ‘flooding’ the state sector with students. I thought […]

Active travel is the path to follow

Mick Fletcher

On Saturday September 16, a short section of traffic-free path in rural Somerset was officially opened. It was a small thing in itself, just over one mile in length and, at present, with no onward off-road connection at either end. Nevertheless, it illustrates some very important points. The path, and others like it currently being […]

Conspiracy theorists awake – and are heading to a town near you

Tom Scott

When Russell Brand issued his pre-emptive denial in an attempt to get ahead of the horrendous allegations of rape and sexual assault aired by The Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches on Saturday, he addressed his 6.6 million YouTube subscribers with the words: “Hello there, you awakening wonders.” It’s Brand’s standard greeting to his followers and […]

Smuggling and trafficking: both are bad, but they are NOT the same thing

Daniel Sohege

We need to take a dive into some of the differences between “smuggling” and “trafficking”, and, before we start, both are bad and both can involve exploitation. Daniel Sohege explains: In the simplest terms, and we’ll get into why this isn’t simple in a bit, trafficking, more often than not, is a longer term form […]