Every year when we submit our accounts to the Electoral Commission we are also required to provide a ‘Review of Political Activities’ covering the year just gone.The 2009 Review has recently been forwarded to the Commission and here is what it says:During 2009, thoughts again turned towards preparations for the forthcoming General Election. The WessexContinueContinue reading “Review of 2009”
Tag Archives: Countryside
Whither Wessex?
“At a number of places in his celebrated Imperialism (1902), J. A. Hobson used southern England as an image of the successful, imperialist side of British capitalism: a countryside of plush ‘parasitism’ drawing tribute from overseas via the City, supporting ‘great tame masses of retainers’ in service and secondary industries, and riddled with ex-imperialist hirelings.ContinueContinue reading “Whither Wessex?”
Beware of Barbarians
“…the forces of vandalism and cruelty are ever ready to exploit or destroy what so many generations have painfully laboured to create…”Dr Herman Finer, 1933Change itself is the only constant but there are different kinds or degrees of change. Some changes enhance the quality of life, others can diminish it (which is why ‘modernisation’ -ContinueContinue reading “Beware of Barbarians”
Bonfire of the Inanities
Should we have a new archbishop? Not just a new archbishop of Canterbury, but a new archbishopric. Of Winchester.Wales separated from Canterbury in 1920 and there is a similar demand for a separate Cornish Church today. So why not a separate Wessex Church? It’s not a new idea. Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester fromContinueContinue reading “Bonfire of the Inanities”
More is Less
Just before Christmas, Labour issued a draft of its new statement of planning policy on what it laughably terms ‘sustainable economic development’. It turns out to be no less than a manifesto for sacrificing our quality of life on the altar of globalisation.Buried within it is a proposal that henceforth housebuilding should be considered asContinueContinue reading “More is Less”
Food is the Future
We’ve nothing against townies. Many of us live in towns. Some exiles even live, in Babylonish captivity, in the very heart of London itself. But as Wessex Regionalists, we all know better than to believe that food grows itself on supermarket shelves.If only that realisation were universally shared. London, which grows next to nothing itself,ContinueContinue reading “Food is the Future”
Two Cheers for Sir William
“The Green Belt is a Labour achievement, and we mean to build on it.” John Prescott, 1998Last Saturday, at the AGM of the Swindon-based National Trust, its chairman, Sir William Proby, announced plans to buy up Green Belt land threatened by Labour’s housebuilding craze. Sir William’s critics are wrong to see anything extraordinary about this:ContinueContinue reading “Two Cheers for Sir William”
Free is Cheaper
According to Alan Cochrane in the Daily Telegraph recently, “Alex Salmond is walking on water”. The drive displayed by the SNP administration at Holyrood has in equal measure astonished the Scots and enraged the English. Why can we not have the same standard of public services now available north of the border? Well, we can.ContinueContinue reading “Free is Cheaper”
Happy King Alfred’s Day
Australians are often characterised as having little time for monarchy but there are folk down under who celebrate King Alfred’s Day. If they can do it, why do we in Alfred’s own land pay so little attention to the greatest ruler in our history?King Alfred died on 26th October 899. It’s the one important eventContinueContinue reading “Happy King Alfred’s Day”
