Why just claiming benefits doesn’t exempt you – and why the headlines saying otherwise could land people with fines I wonder how many people claiming benefits will read these headlines and think they are allowed to ignore any hosepipe ban in their area? Because the headlines are pretty clear in their messaging – if you’re […]
When people in the southwest think about poverty, their concerns often lie close to home. The cost of living crisis, increasing food bank use and housing pressures are all visible realities across the region. There is another aspect to poverty that can feel very distant from our everyday lives in the southwest: the extreme poverty […]
The future of justice in the UK hangs in the balance this week. This comes against a backdrop of the long custodial sentences and disproportionate use of remand to detain anti-genocide and climate protestors in the UK, and the increasing restrictions on peaceful protest in legislation and the conduct of trials—as outlined in the recent […]
Dear Editor, This Volunteers’ Week (1–7 June), I want to pay tribute to the people in Cornwall who are quietly changing children’s lives. Across Cornwall, 16,372 children are eligible for free school meals, a stark reminder that for many families here, getting by is a daily struggle. Nationally, 4.5 million children are living in poverty: […]
I sat and watched Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, and I want to tell you what it looked like from where I am standing. Not from a green leather bench. From a desk, across from real people, every single working day — people on benefits, and every one of them struggling. So when I watched Kemi […]
As misleading headlines go, this Express headline has to be one of the worst. The figures show almost the exact opposite, so how did the Express get it so wrong? To be fair to the Express, the “shocking new study” they refer to in the subheading was a study released by the Centre for Social Justice, which also […]
As many readers will have spotted, Claudi lives and works in Scotland, but her lived experience and powerful analysis is just as relevant to people here in the West Country. The government has spent the last few days wringing its hands about “NEETs.” If you’ve not come across the term, NEET means Not in Education, […]
Sit down. This one is going to make your blood boil. In 2024-25, the Trussell Trust handed out 2.9 million emergency food parcels across the UK. Over a million went to children. One parcel every 11 seconds. Up 51 per cent in five years. Add the 1,172 plus independent food banks Trussell doesn’t count, the […]
Farage wants us out of the ECHR. Here is what that actually means. Nigel Farage and Reform UK want the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). They sell it as a quick fix for immigration. The truth is much, much bigger than that. Let me lay it out in plain English. […]
The Daily Mail’s claim falls apart the moment you read the actual guidance A post popped up on the Facebook feed of one of my lovely subscribers over the Easter weekend, and she asked me to take a look, for obvious reasons: “It’s grim when your child is banned from bringing home a picture of Jesus to […]
As a transplanted northern Californian, one thing I can’t get my head around, is the British way of naming foods. I’ve already talked about biscuits in an earlier article, but now I want to take on other foods that don’t actually say what they are. I’m bringing this up (so to speak) because it troubles […]
Buckle up, today will be a double debunk; Firstly the headline and article, and secondly, the online claims sprouting from this article. The Claim So let’s start with the claim that 67 dog breeds could be banned in Britain. The Daily Mail begins with: Sixty-seven dog breeds could be banned in Britain if new breeding guidelines set […]
I don’t know about you, but I am sick of the political narrative being dominated by the far right and I am sick of this government allowing Reform UK to colour or even, seemingly, dictate policy. The Overton window has been pushed so far to the right by the client media and the (historically) main […]
One of the most memorable American films I have seen, albeit many years ago, was Mississippi Burning (1988). Its producer was Frederick Zollo, and no, he is no relative of mine, so far as I know, but was married to Barbara Broccoli, famous for some of the Bond films. Mississippi Burning is based loosely on […]
In the boardrooms that control our cortisol economies, tech executives rub their hands with glee and continue, avariciously, to guard the profits they have earned out of children’s dependency. Many of my peers describe to me how they know the impacts of social media on their mental health but just can’t stop scrolling, feeling like […]
My grandparents on my mother’s side were Geordies from the North East of England, born and bred, but on my father’s side were born in the Austro-Hungarian empire. My grandfather from Hungary and my grandmother from Austria, just off the Danube – Rembrandtstrasse – just a short walk from the University. Cultured and deeply integrated. […]
A journalist, without completing the checks, nor indeed any of the paperwork, was, to their astonishment, approved online for a job as an ICE agent anyway – intentionally demonstrating for their magazine that literally any unvetted person could be appointed. By implication also demonstrating any kind of racist, rapist, felon with a grudge or an […]
Stop calling this a food crisis, because a crisis suggests confusion or happenstance, and nothing about what is happening in Gaza is unintentional. People are not running out of food; they are being pushed into starvation so deep that families are forced to eat expired flour crawling with insects, soaked in rodent waste, and covered […]
Here is part 2 of my “they’re cancelling Christmas” debunk. I will try and cover as many of the ludicrous rage bait claims as I can, so you have the facts to hand when your Facebook-indoctrinated relative brings up these myths over the festive period. In part 1, I debunked the claims that Tesco had renamed their plastic Christmas […]
A myth-busting explainer on Tesco trees, ‘renamed’ cakes, and the real purpose behind these manufactured panics. I vowed I wasn’t going to do a ‘they’re cancelling Christmas’ Substack after doing a quick Bluesky thread on it, and talking about it very briefly on James O’Brien’s LBC show. However, I’ve changed my mind for several reasons: So buckle up for your […]
This December, Bournemouth Foodbank is bringing festive cheer to communities across the town, with a full programme of events and the launch of a brand-new hub in Winton, St Luke’s Hub. Across two weekends — 6–7 December and 20–21 December — from 10am to 4pm, the Foodbank will be hosting Festive Fun at the Sovereign Centre. Families […]
A few weeks ago, a Guardian article with this title described how a Spanish town took a very significant decision over the treatment of its migrants. But first, some background. The UK is not the only target destination for migrants seeking a safer or a more prosperous life; in fact, Spain receives considerably more migrants […]
A couple of weeks ago, we published Simon Chater’s account of the work of Care4Calais. Now the weather has changed – cold, wet and brutal and whilst Care4Calais usually see a dip in those needing their help in the winter months, this is not the case this year as war, climate and persecution drive more […]
Activists in Exeter will be joining a national wave of protest against the banning of Palestine Action as a ‘terrorist organisation’ this Saturday, November 29. Around 25 protesters will defy the ban by sitting quietly outside Exeter Central Station from 1pm, holding placards stating “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”. It’s part of what […]
Plaudits from Robinson should be a flashing red light on any government’s dashboard. So, it’s finally happened. Tiny Tommy Robinson – or Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, as his Irish immigrant mum christened him – has publicly endorsed the Labour government’s new immigration policy. “The Overton window has been obliterated,” he cheered. “Well done patriots!” For those of […]
As press and certain politicians seek to load all the ills of our society onto people arriving in small boats, it is high time we faced up to the fact that there are consequences to any country’s actions, not just in the sense of war and conflict, but also resulting from empire-building. And while the […]
In a field near Dunkerque, a circle of five chairs round a small table festooned with a jumble of scissors, clippers, oil, capes and towels. It’s refugees’ hair cutting time! Much in demand, hair cutting is one of the services provided by Care4Calais, a charity meeting the needs of refugees and asylum seekers stranded in […]
Last weekend, an elected member of parliament (Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin) went on Talk TV and said, “It drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people, full of people who are basically anything other than white people.” Let that sink in. We have reached a point in the political discourse […]
On the surface it looks like another ‘conservation versus industry’ planning controversy, with the odds predictably stacked against nature and wildlife. A multinational quarrying company wants to expand its operations in Devon, which will mean destroying a large forest. As the company prepares its application for planning permission, a group of local residents are fighting […]
Nigel Farage and now the Conservatives want to take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – a treaty Winston Churchill helped create in the ashes of the Second World War. This isn’t just a point of principle. This is about retaining the fundamental rights we have to protect ourselves against abuses […]