West Country Voices

14/12/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/186nCKKnAq/

In the wake of Trump’s unnerving appointees, the investigative journalist and veteran of the libel court offers pointers on coping in an age of surveillance

13/12/2024

Altruism in property developers? As if!
Planning policy needs to put need before greed, urges Cornish MP, Andrew George.

Press release from Andrew George, MP for West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly: The government’s announced planning policy risks putting “greed before need” and is “destined to fail”. Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, launched changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, which th...

09/12/2024

Just how much did the Duchy want to charge National Park for the visitor centre at , asks reader:

Dear Editor, It has always been so easy to throw stones at authorities for their lack of vision and forethought, but who here are the real villains? We are informed by Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) that they can no longer afford to keep the visitor centre at Princetown open. This centre ha...

09/12/2024

'After the pervasive whiff of corruption, local councils and voters were, perhaps, hoping that Labour would be a breath of fresh air, ready to tackle the housing crisis in an inclusive, collaborative way and overlaying it all with a green, sustainable agenda.'

We’ve all seen them, haven’t we? The earth-shade painted, faux-timber-clad housing estates with their strips of fake grass, their crescents of executive homes in the best spots, and, overall, the dead, sterile look of a film set for the Stepford Wives. This pop-up townlet and its maze of little ...

06/12/2024

Please show this to anyone who remains a fan of Farage!

06/12/2024

https://www.bestforbritain.org/back_eu_trade

Change Minds → Change Politics

05/12/2024

Why is Starmer letting the Right set the agenda? Jon Danzig calls out the betrayal, the naivety and the impossibility of achieving Labour's economic goals outside the EU.

I believe Keir Starmer when he says that under Labour we will not be joining the EU again, or its Single Market, or customs union. He has been saying that since he became Labour leader and now since he became Labour Prime Minister. He had quite a different view of migration and FOM back in […]

05/12/2024

" 'Never again’ and ‘it couldn’t happen here’ are not magical charms that protect us. They just make us feel comfortable ignoring all the signs. Progressive politicians need to wise up. We are in a war. We need to get tooled up, before we get mown down."

Back in 2019, David Milliband delivered the annual Fulbright Lecture at Pembroke College, Oxford University. The speech was titled ‘The New Arrogance of Power’ and he argued people were no longer protected from abuse by their leaders by international law and standards of behaviour and that this,...

02/12/2024

Please contribute. An evidence-based decision is best, away from all the media hype...

This week, I’ve written to farmers across South Devon to get their views on the Government’s Family Farm Tax.

There’s been lots of debate about this policy, with a brand range of figures being circulated about how many will be impacted by these changes.

But having met with farmers across South Devon, the message I’ve received from them is clear: that these changes, in their current form, will have a devastating impact on family farming.

As the debate continues to progress, I want to get more views from farmers about this proposed policy, so I’ve invited everyone I’ve contacted to take part in a survey on this.

I’m looking forward to hearing their thoughts.

If you're a farmer in the South Devon constituency, please either return a paper copy of the survey to my office including your name and address, or share your views part online: https://www.carolinevoaden.com/apr-survey

02/12/2024

This article is from 17 yr-old May Puckey. Climate anxiety is a massive feature of many young people's lives and, sadly, with good reason.

May Puckey is a 17-year-old from East Devon who is passionate about the environment and politics. We are very keen to encourage young citizen journalists, so please get in touch if you want to have your writing considered for publication. The media has focused on what Donald Trump’s second term of...

02/12/2024

A very important article

Keir Starmer needs to fix Britain’s broken electoral laws now - if he doesn’t, we will all suffer the consequences

01/12/2024

30/11/2024

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/29/brexit-donald-trump-britain-eu-us?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

From defence to trade, the incoming US president is upending the old order – and standing apart from our neighbours leaves us dangerously exposed, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland

28/11/2024

AI is doing nothing good for local news. This is a shocking (if unsurprising, on reflection) exposé of what is going on. And if highly-processed food makes us fat, what does highly-processed news do? Again, nothing good. Written by a human! Please read +share!

If you’ve looked at a local news website lately, you may have got the feeling that something’s not quite right. Seeking stories about your own area, you click on an interesting headline and find yourself reading about a completely different place. You probably see a lot of content about motoring...

27/11/2024

There's money to be made from infrastructure 'investment'...just not by us!

Some context: “Starmer wins backing of billionaire BlackRock chief: ‘He offers hope to British politics’ The Independent’s headline from October 2023 Dear Editor, The Bank of England base rate is 4.75 per cent. Effectively the UK can borrow slightly below this.BlackRock private debt fund cur...

26/11/2024

THAT petition....!

Emma Monk expands on her thread (which got more than 2m views on the bad place...and you can imagine the pile-on)

On the wet weekend of November 23-24, 2024. a parliamentary petition demanding the government ‘Call a General Election’ really took off, and has been getting many people, especially those on the right, very excited! The petition states: “I would like there to be another General Election. I bel...

25/11/2024

This dangerously unhinged man-child is now interfering in our democracy. He thinks he is master of the universe.

21/11/2024

The charity A Band of Brothers is proving that , when nurtured healthily, can be a force for good by helping young men step into their power as stewards of their families, communities, and the world at large.

Knot in the stomach. Sharp intake of breath. Then comes the M word. “Masculinity.” For some, it evokes ideas of strength, protection, and leadership. For others, it conjures images of harm, domination, and outdated ideals. What’s clear, however, is that masculinity is at a crossroads. Across t...