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 […]
So, I’m sure I’m not alone in having noticed a big increase in anti-immigrant sentiment since the latest release of the numbers by the Office for National Statistics, and let’s be honest, it’s not that surprising, is it? So, keeping to the zeitgeist of the week, I thought I would bring in a reminder that […]
The charity Mid Devon Mobility is based in the town of Tiverton in Devon. It provides multiple services that meet the needs of residents in Mid Devon and North Devon, as well as those visiting the area and passing through it. The charity is a finalist in multiple in the Community Transport Awards 2023: 1 […]
This piece is probably going to be long and heavy because I’m going to detail exactly what it’s actually like to be me and all the things that I am reliant on others for that might not be particularly obvious from just reading my tweets. Here we go. I was born almost three months early […]
Background to this piece: Jeremy Hunt doesn’t rule out withdrawing benefits from claimants who have been assessed as unable to work due to ill-health. “We have nearly 1,000,000 vacancies in the economy and nearly 3 million people who are either long term-sick and disabled or long-term unemployed,” Jeremy Hunt said. “And that is bad for […]
Advent calendars are already in the shops. They have been a feature of the festive season for more than 170 years and originated in Germany. Printed versions started to be produced in the early 1900s. 16 million advent calendars are sold in the UK every year, most containing single-use plastic. The actual proportion of chocolate […]
I see it took less time than usual – actually it didn’t – for client journalists to back the idea that human rights need to be destroyed in order to be defended. The options listed here are clearly false, and still don’t include the options needed. thetimes.co.uk/article/c9f6e0… Human rights treaties have had their dayJuliet Samuel: […]
Why this petition matters The petition was started by Seaton resident, Martin Shaw, who explains why it’s needed: The Seaton area community paid half of the cost of building the Hospital in the 1980s. The NHS agreed to own and run it with NHS services for the local community. In 1991, a new wing was […]
All this talk about how “Sunak is waiting for the verdict on the Rwanda policy” before sacking Braverman isn’t quite the politically astute move some seem to think. Here’s my analysis of the pointlessness of the Rwanda policy and why Sunak’s best option is to fire Braverman before the verdict is out. First off, fairly […]
The Braverman story is developing by the hour and there is still a (remote) possibility that Sunak will discover a scrap of moral fibre and fire her but, to be honest, she should have gone for the homeless/lifestyle callousness. The Highcliffe Guy explains why. How Propaganda Works:Suella Braverman’s attack on homeless people is possibly her […]
Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, has come up with yet another outrageous proposal: this would include new laws to restrict the use of tents by homeless people, arguing that many of them see it as a “lifestyle choice”… As if sleeping rough is a ‘lifestyle choice’! She also plans to create “a civil offence whereby […]
Despite the vindictiveness continually meted out by this government to migrants, poor people, sick people, people on benefits (the list is endless), if someone hadn’t told me about Suella Braverman’s latest wheeze, I wouldn’t have believed it. The Financial Times (£) says that Braverman “seeks to curb rough sleepers by restricting use of tents on […]
Stopping what he called the ‘war on motorists’ seems to be Rishi Sunak’s latest electoral wheeze. He, or his advisors, have worked out that there are lot of people who not only drive, but who love cars and the roar of engines, the smell of petrol, the sound of revs and the thrust of rapid […]
Dear Editor, All war is terrible. For me, it’s all the worse when, in the face of human suffering, we stand by silently. As Bob Dylan said long ago, “Pretend that we do not see”. But then in this case, we know only too well that Gaza is under siege, with the debris and casualties […]
Local activists from Cycling Rebellion have launched the LOVE 20 campaign at Winton Banks in Bournemouth, calling for a 20mph speed limit on Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) roads where citizens live, work, shop and play. Heart shaped spoof 20 miles per hour (mph) speed limit signs were displayed along the road, chalk art brought […]
It was quite a coup for South Hams Society to get Henry Dimbleby to speak on the important issues of food security, food safety and the future of agriculture in this country and the event held in Kingsbridge was well-attended on a chilly Friday night . Also on the panel were the MP for Totnes […]
Boat people: glory … or infamy? “Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves!” As a maritime nation, surrounded by sea, it is hardly surprising that boats and ‘boat people’ of one form or another have figured so prominently throughout British history … for better and for worse. We shall use the term ‘boats’ rather than ‘ships’, […]
News has broken that 136 asylum seekers are due to be transferred onto the Bibby Stockholm on October 19, now that the legionella has been dealt with (allegedly). The barge will have been empty for 68 days and is rumoured to have been costing £300,00 per week while empty. The Home Office signed up for […]
This is part two of transcripts of interviews conducted by one of our local readers with a local volunteer doing what they can to mitigate the challenges faced by those demonised by Suella Braverman and this government. We are not naming either the interviewer or the interviewee lest this lead to repercussions. It’s appalling that […]
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 […]
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 […]
This is part one of two transcripts of interviews conducted by one of our local readers with a local volunteer doing what they can to mitigate the challenges faced by those demonised by Suella Braverman and this government. We are not naming either the interviewer or the interviewee lest this lead to repercussions. It’s appalling […]
Signs were put up across the 4,000 acre Spitchwick Estate on Dartmoor this summer forbidding swimming along 17km of the River Dart, including at popular beauty spots. Forty right to roam campaigners held a ‘protest swim’ at Spitchwick on Sunday 10 September in defiance of the ban. Groups included Right to Roam, The Stars Are […]
Teenage author and student Elsie Starr gives a personal insight into dyspraxia Imagine constantly worrying about tripping over, having to overlearn every Maths equation so it sticks in your long-term memory or dreading PE lessons, especially if throwing and catching are involved. Well, this is a reality for many young people, like me, who have […]
In July 2023, Rishi Sunak made a surprising public attack on the leaders of a major UK bank. “Rishi Sunak slams Coutts”. It is perhaps not surprising, however, that he picked the wrong issue. What prompted his unusual intervention was the denial of one sort of bank account to one rich man. Sunak ought to […]
So here we are again. In the middle of yet another ‘how long have they known and why did they do nothing about it’ saga. The RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete) scandal demonstrates the same callous disregard for the lives outside the circles of the privileged few as did the care home tragedy during Covid. […]
Suella Braverman is the kind of person who cuts corners and ploughs on regardless. Nothing gets in her way. Not our constitution. Not parliamentary sovereignty. Not the rule of law. Now, in her latest project, the Bibby Stockholm detention barge for asylum seekers, those behaviours have put the lives of people under her department’s care […]
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 […]
You will need to be on top of the Tory horror show to get every reference in this thought-provoking piece from Richard Haviland, but even if you aren’t, you’ll soon pick up the theme: the casual cruelty, bigotry and hypocrisy of this government and its ministers. In another life, a man with a security fetish […]
This country is in a bad way, thanks to 13 years of Tory austerity. The metrics of our decline are unarguable: from NHS waiting lists to child poverty, from the cost-of-living crisis to the creaking criminal justice system, from record numbers of foodbanks to polluted beaches and ecologically-dead rivers… And Brexit has been an unmitigated […]