Is a fatal flaw. Vote for the same old crooks as last time and you’ll get the same old policies they promise and don’t deliver. Consider a couple of planning cases in Gloucestershire that were reported in the press this week.At Tetbury, nearly 300 homes at two separate greenfield sites outside the town were approvedContinueContinue reading “Faith In The System”
Category Archives: Housing
Working for Wessex
Frank Field is the Labour MP for Birkenhead, in Cheshire. Though Labour is his label, he is no mere mouthpiece. The unique depth of his knowledge of matters relating to welfare reform is widely respected across party lines. So when he joined the panel for BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions? on Friday night, interesting thingsContinueContinue reading “Working for Wessex”
Analysing ‘Dave’
The MP for Witney is a Tory Prime Minister for our times. Not too blatant a representative of the landowning and military class (though do scratch and sniff), nor the child of a grocer, but a public relations man. What you see is anything but what you get. Like Blair, Cameron is first and foremostContinueContinue reading “Analysing ‘Dave’”
Bye Bye Beauty
Last week saw the first results published from the 2011 census of England (& Cornwall) & Wales. (We’ll call that ‘ECW’ for short.) The results are interesting both for what they say and what they don’t. There’s a gap of maybe a few million who aren’t included and therefore have to be estimated. It’s anContinueContinue reading “Bye Bye Beauty”
Trust Not
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty is a bit bogged down just now. It finds itself embroiled in an unholy row over an allegedly pro-creationist display at the new visitor centre for the Giant’s Causeway. It’s said that it came under financial pressure from Democratic Unionists in government to doContinueContinue reading “Trust Not”
A Stitch In Time
We remain firmly opposed to the wave upon wave of London overspill housing that is changing the character of our region for the worse. (And destroying in the process the very things that settlers find attractive.) That’s not to say that we think all construction workers should pack up their tools and seek a differentContinueContinue reading “A Stitch In Time”
Squeezed Down The Plughole
“Man stalks across the landscape, and desert follows his footsteps.”Herodotus (5th century BC)North-eastern Wessex, along with much of the rest of southern and eastern England, is now subject to a hosepipe ban. Parts of western Wessex are heading that way too.Why? Last night, the BBC’s reporter let slip that one component of the problem isContinueContinue reading “Squeezed Down The Plughole”
Where Does All The QE Go?
Not difficult to guess!
Tackling the Taboos
“There are those who say the system is broke. It’s not. That’s how it was built. It is there to make rich people richer.” Bilbo GoranssonIn parts of Wessex, second homes are an epidemic. In the coastal communities of south Devon, including towns such as Salcombe, second homes and holiday lets now account for overContinueContinue reading “Tackling the Taboos”
A Rock and a Hard Place
For those who value our environment, and those who care about the future, there is a distinct lack of choice on offer from the London parties. The Tories and their glove puppet want to turn the planning system into a developers’ charter, telling us that localism doesn’t, after all, do what it says on theContinueContinue reading “A Rock and a Hard Place”
Wessex Regionalists 