Last week, plans were announced for a Bucks / Oxon / Northants combined authority, a move that raises important questions of local and regional identity. We’re assured that this is just a practical measure of co-operation that won’t affect day-to-day services but these things have a habit of acquiring their own momentum. The case forContinueContinue reading “Losing Direction”
Author Archives: WR_admin
That Figures
The Campaign to Protect Rural England is good at collecting statistics. It may be no more than a gnat on the side of the development elephant but at least it knows how to document the scale of the deception being practised upon us by the London regime. However, there is rather more to the dataContinueContinue reading “That Figures”
Choosing to be Beggars
Last week, an environmental coalition – Butterfly Conservation, the League Against Cruel Sports, the Mammal Society, the Ramblers, the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts – held a ‘Rally for Nature’ at the Palace of Westminster. Why? To lobby MPs ahead of the next election, reminding them of how important nature is. MPs need reminding. BecauseContinueContinue reading “Choosing to be Beggars”
The Extravagance of Austerity
Good chancellor, bad chancellor. George Osborne played a little double act with himself this week. It started with lots of spending announcements. A whopping £15.1 billion on roads and £2.3 billion on flood defences. Oh, and Bicester is to be a new town.Then there was the Autumn Statement, seized on with the claim that publicContinueContinue reading “The Extravagance of Austerity”
Green as Gravel
Natalie Bennett, Leader of the Green Party in England & Wales (& Cornwall) was one of the panel on BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions? this week. To the amazement of anyone concerned about the ecological crisis we face, she launched into an impassioned defence of massive urban development and a rejection of those measures thatContinueContinue reading “Green as Gravel”
The People v. The Profit
In Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell painted a picture of the future as a boot stamping on a human face, forever. The boot now has a name. TTIP. The Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership. Hammered out in secret talks between Europe and the USA, it will make democracy illegal, by giving corporations the right to sue governmentsContinueContinue reading “The People v. The Profit”
Seeing the Light
Here’s a story from the North Somerset Times, a story with outlines applicable throughout Wessex, and maybe across other regions too: “A long-standing member of North Somerset’s Conservative party has resigned from the organisation which he believes ‘has no interest’ in the area’s issues.Arthur Terry, who is the representative for Portishead’s East Ward on NorthContinueContinue reading “Seeing the Light”
Scotland the Bold
How’s this for a map to follow? Not perfect, indeed, but certainly perfectible, as much for Wessex as for Scotland. We too have the ability to wake up and grasp a better world. Let’s give it a try…
Scared As A Bully
On 9th November 2014, Catalonia voted 4 to 1 for independence from Spain. Madrid isn’t ready to begin talks on separation. Instead, it’s determined to prosecuteCatalonia’s leading nationalists for organising the vote. Will David Cameron protest? Will there be airstrikes? On 20th November 2014, the French Parliament voted to abolish many of the historic regionsContinueContinue reading “Scared As A Bully”
May It Be
Thanks to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 we know that the next General Election will be on 7th May 2015. This means that small parties with few resources and little flexibility now have the same chance to plan ahead as the London-based big battalions with their ear to the ground at Westminster. WR President Colin BexContinueContinue reading “May It Be”
Wessex Regionalists 