Maybe until this month, Boris Johnson could have got away with the dead cat speech of 14 April. A rousing play to the ‘Leave’-voting gallery, appealing to xenophobia and fear whilst making a rational-sounding case for deporting thousands of young men each year to what amounts to a penal colony in Rwanda. Except, he is […]
Many will feel that the need for a written, enforceable constitution must surely be beyond doubt. But imagine if Johnson’s government decided to write it? [They’d want to ensure they were in power forever, thereafter, for sure. Ed] 1) When a prime minister or minister breaks the ministerial code, an apology will suffice instead of […]
As some of you might expect, the latest banshee howl that is #TheWeekInTory is quite lengthy, and I advise a deep dive into your preferred sedative before beginning. Let us begin where the last one ended, which is, astonishingly, a mere five days ago [cue wobbly screen]… 1. Having spent a week insisting there was […]
The partner of one of our readers has gone to Poland to help with the effort to rescue refugees from Ukraine. He’s a field/trauma medic with extensive experience having served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He had intended to go straight into Ukraine to join extraction efforts, but the attack on the Ukraine military base has […]
We are at a very dangerous point for our democracy. We are not being shelled, starved and murdered by Russians, but we are being cheated, lied to, gaslighted and exploited by the most corrupt, mendacious and cruel government seen in our lifetime. Johnson is so greedy for power and so utterly contemptuous of truth and […]
Let’s have no more whingeing about poverty. Price rises should present no difficulty to anyone prepared to take some tips from the thrifty habits and entrepreneurial flair of Conservative MPs, writes Tom Scott. A tweet by Tory supporter Kevin Edger sneering at a nurse who skips meals in order to afford food for her children […]
It’s high time we got real and faced up to the disastrous performance of the Johnson government and its damaging impact on our lives argues David Knopfler. We live in fictitious times, where magical thinking has replaced facts: where we pretend that pandemics are over despite the bodies piling up at our mortuaries in ever […]
Let’s start #TheWeekInTory with PartyGate, where randy Honey Monster and (no, really) Prime Minister Boris Johnson denied 20 fines meant there had been wrongdoing. 2. This doesn’t quite explain why he had personally phoned the Queen to apologise for all the wrongdoing. 3. Regardless, The Metropilitan Police issued MASSIVE fines of £50 for breaching lockdown […]
The long awaited schools white paper, the first in six years, is a flimsy thing. Instead of serious investment it offers soundbites. Instead of cash to address inequalities it offers cliche. Like so much of the so-called ‘levelling up’ agenda it promotes the illusion of action rather than a practical programme of change. So empty […]
As a Russian-speaking person of colour who was born and raised in Ukraine, I believe that I am in a position to speak on the issue of nationalism and neo-Nazism in Ukraine. To talk about Ukrainian nationalism, we first have to establish the context of the relationship between Ukraine and Russia. These are not just […]
Regular readers of my Facebook posts will know that it is my position that this current government is dangerous because of its incompetence. I recognise that many of you find them to be cruel, or their policies deliberately designed towards the vicious and unnecessary, but my own experience is that they haven’t got a clue […]
As the queues on the M20 get longer and longer with the average waiting time of anywhere between 18-30 hrs you have to wonder how much this will cost consumers. Moreover, many don’t even know why it’s happening. Here is a quick piece to explain this lunacy. Back in January the new IT system GVMS […]
It’s been reported that the Chancellor’s wife, Akshata Murthy, is not tax domiciled in the UK. This has been confirmed by a statement issued on her behalf. But I think the statement of facts issued by her is wrong. And I also suggest HMRC could challenge this claim. I need to report what a spokeswoman […]
Omicron is far more dangerous than the flu, explains Dr Dan Goyal. Many have bought into the “Covid is now like the Flu” narrative. So here’s the science without the scientific jargon. Judge for yourself. For the ‘Too long, didn’t read’ folk: like for like: infection fatality ratio (IFR) approximately six times that of flu; […]
On 4 December last year you published a letter from me that expressed my theory that the leadership (and subsequently the policies) of this country is finally decided by some 180,000 Conservative Party members, plus 370 sitting Tory MPs and a small number of press barons. Obviously, we can now add a number of Russians who […]
Note: No EU country has ever fired a shot at another EU country. Sixty years ago, in 1962, the then British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, set out a strong and compelling case for Britain to join the European Economic Community (later to be renamed the European Union). What’s remarkable is that Macmillan’s pro-Europe arguments of […]
Being an inveterate reader of the online Spanish press, my attention was drawn recently to an article in El Mundo online which linked the Ukraine War of 2022 to the Falklands War of 1982… in the context of Boris Johnson. On the 40th anniversary of this conflict, this article is timely; is it really 40 […]
Many of us are watching the disintegration of democracy and the UK’s reputation for trustworthiness and integrity and (naively) wondering when the rule of law, standards of conduct will reassert themselves. Surely someone, some authority will step in and stop the canker from spreading? Andrew Levi tells it like it (unfortunately) is… It won’t take […]
This edition of #TheWeekInTory fell on April Fool’s Day, and there was an obvious temptation to slip a fib into this. I didn’t. So if you feel fooled, it’s only because some of you voted for these gibbering apes. Anyway, here we go, with the longest, stupidest one yet… 1. Grant Shapps (who has more […]
This article by Mark E Thomas explores whether the Johnson government is the worst in recent British history. You can read the ‘summary’ or delve into the supporting articles. Either way, it’s a compelling and damning reckoning. All politicians (and all people) occasionally lie. But Johnson is “probably the best liar we’ve ever had as […]
Insistence on complex visa requirements is in stark contrast to the outpouring of empathy for Ukrainian refugees by people in Britain. A government that promised it would cut ‘red tape’ is now using bureaucracy in the cruellest of ways, writes Tom Scott. When I was growing up in the 1960s, films and TV series set […]
Yesterday (Wednesday 30 March) was an incredibly emotionally difficult day for me. My work partner and I were tasked to go to Lviv and extract two elderly people. We arrived in good time, without having to go through as many military road blocks. We checked into the aid centre and awaited our passengers. They were […]
If further proof were needed that ‘levelling up’ is a soundbite rather than a strategy, the proposal for a new cadre of elite sixth forms provides it. Mick Fletcher explains. Trailed as one of the key measures in a programme to address 55 ‘education cold spots’, the aim is apparently “to ensure talented children from […]
Online here European Movement CEO, Anna Bird, addresses UK with Ukraine rally in London. – YouTubeand reproduced below, more or less as delivered, is the text of Anna Bird’s speech at the London Mayor’s ‘vigil for Ukraine’ in Trafalgar Square on Saturday. It is excellent that European Movement UK (EM-UK) was involved in organising this […]
On a day (29 March 2022) when the PM has made it clear he has no interest in mass law-breaking, on his watch, in his office, here’s my revised essential Johnson guide to government: Accept responsibility for nothing. 2. Blame others for things that are your fault. 3. Take credit for things that aren’t your […]
Well, what a week that was: Medyka, the busiest crossing on the Polish-Ukranian border, and the most disorganised; no major NGO on the ground, just lots of organisations and individuals trying to help. I’ve seen some incredibly sad sights, seen kindness and met some selfless people that it has been a privilege to work alongside. […]
Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, has told Tory-supporting The Telegraph (£): “We’ve had our differences with the EU, but now we must stick together against Vladimir Putin” She added, “Disagreements over the Northern Ireland Protocol pale in significance to the fight for freedom and democracy.” While reiterating her determination to “fix” the Northern Ireland Protocol agreed […]
Dear West Country Voices, My wife is a GP and also works regular shifts in A&E. Last Friday she was diagnosed as having Covid. She worked all through the darkest days of 2020 and wonders how she has escaped it so far. I had it in October last year at the same time as our […]
There is a growing and numbing realisation of just how bad Sunak’s budget really was. Worse, he’s even now saying that there is nothing he can do about poverty. This is thread to explain why he’s failing and what we can do about it if we want to change our politics. If you want a […]
The (dis)United Kingdom is the fifth largest country globally in terms of nominal GDP (gross domestic product), according to Wikipedia*. 216 countries are recorded on Wikipedia in terms of their GDP. One of my daughters is in Morocco (rated the 60th ‘richest’ country), and yesterday she and her friend were eating in a mother-and-son’s small […]