West Country Voices

08/09/2024

Sick of it!

The Observer: ‘Boris Johnson faces ‘serious questions’ over new business with Uranium entrepreneur. Former prime minister also under fire for hiring ex-aide Charlotte Own as VP despite her lack of energy sector experience’ Carol Cadwalladr, The Observer, September 8 2024 How many of us read ...

07/09/2024

https://www.economist.com/britain/2024/09/04/why-are-remainers-so-weak-in-post-brexit-britain

The European cause is hugely popular. Its proponents are strangely ineffective

03/09/2024

The far-right are using their time in the sin-bin to gaslight us into forgetting their disastrous reign and dissing Labour. If want to win next time, they cannot be 'Tory-lite'. They promised change and they must be bold enough to deliver.

“Big Bill” Tilden – the 1920s equivalent of Roger Federer – said, “Never change a winning game; always change a losing one.” Almost always, that is sound advice – but not right now, not for Labour. Labour won the general election, in no small measure due to their ‘small target’ str...

03/09/2024

Are you involved with a local charity which benefited from money from the Co-op? Has anything changed? Were you a member pioneer? How have you been treated? Are you a card-holding member of the public dismayed by the changes management have made and the consequent cuts to funding for local charities?
Doing a piece on the changes. [email protected]

03/09/2024

It didn't take long!

Reform UK are ditching their ‘Contract for Voters’. Pre-election, they dismissed other parties’ manifestos as lies. I think they now realise their Contract is utter fantasy. How ironic! They proposed that no-one earning under £20k would pay tax – guaranteed to be popular! However, they also...

01/09/2024

North Devon:

I remember being amazed when I saw the sign on the A361 when leaving Barnstaple advertising 35 months of road improvements. Wow! How can they have worked out exactly how long it would take? Living in Swimbridge, we have suffered many days and nights of traffic being diverted through the village and....

21/08/2024

Just for a change - some reading recommendations

We thought it might be fun (and interesting) to ask our editorial team and contributors what they are or have been reading recently. Do write in and tell us what you have enjoyed and would recommend (or not!): [email protected]. More to come! Dame Sarah Cowley, our Dorset editor. Someon...

21/08/2024

'chat' asking 'how are you'? Since 'woke' means a decent, moral person who values truth, justice, equality, compassion and tolerance, everyone should be happy to describe themselves as woke. That it is used as a derogatory term just shows how far politicians and the press have normalised hateful, divisive, ungenerous and intolerant behaviour. For very shame.

12/08/2024

"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."
A rebuff for Musk....

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” was an of...

09/08/2024

Always worth a watch!

Has Kamala Harris chosen the right person as her running mate? Why has Donald Trump stayed quiet in response? How much do celebrity endorsements impact elect...

09/08/2024

He's right. The media has a huge amount to answer for...and the BBC constantly showcasing Farage - second most frequent 'guest' on Questiontime - is one of the worst.

06/08/2024

“We enter parliament to supply ourselves, in the arsenal of democracy, with its weapons. If democracy is so stupid as to give us free tickets, that is its affair. We do not come as friends. We come as enemies. As the wolf bursts into the flock, so we come.”
- Joseph Goebbels

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 thi...

22/07/2024

"Curriculum coverage of politics isn’t inadequate, it’s non-existent[...] Implementing political education would not only benefit adolescents, but generations of voters to come, who will be more educated, engaged and enabled."

This month, dogs were all the rage at your local polling station. Are teenagers next? The new prime minister promises to lower the voting age to 16; however, 51 per cent of Britons oppose such a move, with just 24 per cent in support – that’s all Britons whose opinion is relevant (those over 18 ...

21/07/2024

Truth

21/07/2024

Biden: country before party.
Now the world holds its breath for the successor who must, must win.
A primary is essential. Democracy demands it.

21/07/2024

"inward investment sometimes operates more like a suction pump rather than a water-hose. In the short term money flows in; in the longer term jobs, profits and the wealth flow out..."
explains why he wants to see have its own fund

Throughout last year, a small working group met under the aegis of Cornwall Independent Poverty Forum  to design a Community Wealth fund for Cornwall. This is a proposed £10 million  investment fund which will be used to invest in local businesses, community enterprises and university startups in...

21/07/2024

Sometimes you see a post that just expresses everything you're feeling:
Possibly our shortest ever 'article' but it says it all!

Why, in God’s name, do we have to go through this prolonged, painful amateur pantomime of attempting a dignified adjustment to Brexit? The clown’s pants have fallen down. His car is in pieces. The tent has collapsed. Why don’t we just face up to it and stop trying to give dignity to our psycho...

20/07/2024

"For the first time this year, Dorset for Europe was offered the opportunity to run a stall at the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival. Along with the stall comes the invitation to deliver a short speech to explain why we’re there and what we hope to achieve. This prompted me to gush forth an anguished tirade, wholly unsuitable as an address to trade unionists, but something I have a sense will chime with many other kindred spirits. And there are many, many of us."

For the first time this year, Dorset for Europe was offered the opportunity to run a stall at the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival. Along with the stall comes the invitation to deliver a short speech to explain why we’re there and what we hope to achieve. This prompted me to gush forth an anguished t...

18/07/2024

Thank you Sue Costello

18/07/2024

10/07/2024

The inimitable George Monbiot at the Byline Festival.

George Monbiot, the celebrated journalist, author and campaigner, discussed the South Devon Primary, the GE result and the menace of neoliberalism with Anthe...

09/07/2024

Of course there's plenty to worry about the the rise of the far right and the election of charlatans to parliament, but stories of Reform's surge are misguided,to say the least.

I was shocked to see that Nigel Farage’s ‘Reform UK’ party came second in 120 constituencies. They got the third-highest vote share on 12.6 per cent of the votes, and even got an MP. All of this against a backdrop of the winning party gaining a vote-share only in the 30’s.  Oh no, wait a [....

06/07/2024

"A new day dawns… I don’t have to wake up every morning and doomscroll to discover how my government is contriving to make my life worse today. " Sadie Parker writes.
There's some real hope in the air as assembles his cabinet of experts and professionals.

Dear —, I can’t tell you how grateful I am for a seamless transition of power after the general election here in the UK. Outgoing prime minister Rishi Sunak gave the best, most statesmanlike speech of his life when he resigned. If only he’d governed in that tone! Over the past 6 weeks, the Tor...

03/07/2024

Huge thanks to all the Green and Labour supporters lending their votes to winner Caroline Voaden to end 100 years of Conservative MPs in South Devon. It's so close, but we can do this...

This website allows you to swap your vote with a Lib Dem in another seat who also wants to vote tactically: https://www.swapmyvote.uk

03/07/2024

A last reminder of just some of the reasons why the deserve to be out of office and third or worse in the GE...

It’s not just our roads which are potholed… the whole country shows similar symptoms of neglect. My article on the disgraceful state of so many British roads, riddled with potholes and crumbling surfaces, leads us to use the pothole theme to evaluate some aspects of our neglected services and fa...

02/07/2024

Please note revised time of 14:30 for the Sat session on the actions must take while its mandate is still fresh. Great panel deserving of a great audience!
Day tickets available.

It’s hard to focus on anything beyond July 4 and the results on July 5, but if you can get to Dartington Hall on Saturday 6 or Sunday 7, or both, you can still get tickets to attend the sessions that West Country Voices are hosting – and they are absolute bangers and wholly in […]

02/07/2024

If you think (as any sane person must!) that the country would be better served by an upbeat and positive opposition than the warring rump of the ,please lend your vote to make this happen.
Why should the handful of Tory survivors pick up extra money, kudos and clout? It would not be morally right at all.

Your vote is your power. Find out how to use it tactically to Stop The Tories and influence the next government.

02/07/2024

This:
Gary Neville

"They partied , they bet on elections , they crashed the economy, they broke every public service, they destroyed integrity and honesty in public office , they paid their mates billions , they put their friends in the House of Lords, they gave their cronies knighthoods, they went into the jungle , they lied again and again, they were convicted by police, they went on holiday when they shouldn’t and they have the cheek to question Keir Starmer’s work ethic. I would never take anything for granted but I hope they are annihilated on Thursday. The worst people and government we have ever had! "