Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget.For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet.G.K. Chesterton, The Secret PeopleTen years ago last month a petition of 50,000 signatures calling for a Cornish Assembly was delivered to Downing Street, to the home of a Prime Minister renowned forContinue reading "Whose England?"
The Sack of Wessex
Pressure is being piled on MPs to toughen scrap-metal legislation in a bid to stop thieves stripping out our infrastructure in search of a quick profit.There was a time when metal theft was more or less restricted to opportunist pilfering from building sites and removing lead from the roofs of abandoned churches. Not any more.Continue reading "The Sack of Wessex"
Needling Doubts
News reaches us that Occupy Bristol are finally departing from College Green, after weeks of treating PUBLIC open space as somewhere to set up their own Third World shanty town, having first failed to find anywhere more relevant to squat. Surprise, surprise, there are syringes all over the place. It seems that those who wantedContinue reading "Needling Doubts"
Politics, Philosophy & Economics
Politics - featuring the unacknowledged death of localism.Philosophy - or the message behind the medium.Economics - coming soon to a petrol station near you.Because understanding what’s happening is the first step towards influencing it.
End of the Beginning
When the London Stock Exchange closed yesterday, it became possible to compare the year-end positions for 2010 and 2011. The FTSE 100 was down 5.6% over the year. Banks fell more sharply. Oil and gas shares rose. The High Street remains in dire straits, partly due to the impact of online shopping, partly due toContinue reading "End of the Beginning"
Horrific Outbreak of Democracy in Paris
The French Parliament appears to be on the brink of allowing mistakes in regional boundaries to be corrected by a vote in the départements directly concerned. The new law would remove the right of voters in the wider region to veto change – a right that, in effect, keeps folk locked in an administrative marriageContinue reading "Horrific Outbreak of Democracy in Paris"
Peace & Goodwill?
This September, those who died in terrorist attacks on U.S. cities were commemorated, ten years on. Although the death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan combined is over 300 times the death toll of 9/11, few words were spared for the victims of those U.S.-led crusades for oil, unleashed under the pretext of fighting terror, withContinue reading "Peace & Goodwill?"
Nuking Weymouth
According to financial analyst David Malone today, “2012 is going to be the year of unrest and repression.”A London establishment that has spent the last decade, and more, treading heavily on the world has now invited the world round for a spot of sport. And is getting worried. It might be a very good ideaContinue reading "Nuking Weymouth"
Missing the Obvious
There’s a water crisis looming. The Coalition wants us all to be more careful. Hippy conservationists seem to agree that water meters, dual-flush toilets and garden water butts will take the pressure off. Maybe sharing showers or bathwater would help. All of which is nonsense. It’s nonsense because we would actually have more than enoughContinue reading "Missing the Obvious"
Occupied by London
Witney’s witless MP, David William Donald Cameron, was in Brussels this week to bargain over a new European treaty. He didn’t get what he wanted in return, a hands-off approach to regulation of the ‘socially useless’ activities of the City of London. That’s no surprise. He could hardly have chosen a less popular cause toContinue reading "Occupied by London"