We recently received an email criticising this blog for focusing too much on “an undifferentiated English radical tradition” and on influences from America and Eastern Europe at the expense of our own native Wessex political tradition. The Clubmen, argued our correspondent, were a distinctively Wessaxon movement, the Levellers were not. Whilst we make no apologiesContinueContinue reading “Wessex political thinkers: William Barnes”
Tag Archives: Labour
Exceeding Expectations
We’ve always enjoyed watching Mebyon Kernow’s progress and learning from what they get right, or very occasionally wrong. Our association dates back to the 70s, when the founding generation of MK members was still at the helm. It was the era of grainy, photocopied leaflets and duplicated magazines, produced in a political climate that isContinueContinue reading “Exceeding Expectations”
Pass It On
Nowadays, the Conservatives have a tree as their emblem, symbolic of the countless trees to be felled thanks to them and their allies (Labour, FibDem, even Green) as the urbanisation of England rolls onwards. The emblem used to be a flaming torch, the same symbol that used to warn motorists of a school ahead, beforeContinueContinue reading “Pass It On”
Valuing Europe
As tens of thousands flock in renewed hope to join the Labour Party, much of the last Shadow Cabinet has walked off in disgust at the thought of actually having to believe in something. Yes, British politics is about to get much more interesting. Jeremy Corbyn though is no friend of Wessex. So long asContinueContinue reading “Valuing Europe”
That Sinking Feeling
In the late 1940s, large numbers of people were forced out of the lands where they and their ancestors had lived for generations, since at least the time of the Crusades. Their ancestral homes were handed over to immigrants from other parts of the world, who brought their own history with them. The displaced livedContinueContinue reading “That Sinking Feeling”
Labour in Vain
What a joy today to hear again from war-crimes suspect Tony Blair! He’s never sounded more panicked, falling over his words as he warns Labour not to be true to itself. He clearly shares the anxiety of so many of his fans who fear the Left is about to steal their party from them. That’sContinueContinue reading “Labour in Vain”
A Wealth of Possibilities
Last week, BBC1 aired a programme called Millionaire Basement Wars. It described how, over the past decade, some 2,000 new basements have been excavated beneath high-value properties in central London, most notably in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. The buildings are often listed, so there’s little scope to extend up or out. ThatContinueContinue reading “A Wealth of Possibilities”
Useful Idiots?
This week saw a rally at Westminster in support of housebuilding. There’s no denying the heartache if you’re not adequately housed, but many demanding a cull of our countryside are being dupedby those who stand to benefit financially from a yet-more-bricks-and-mortar solution. There’s no sound case for adding to our housing stock if we can’tContinueContinue reading “Useful Idiots?”
Wanted: an NHS
“The power which causes the several portions of the plant to help each other, we call life… intensity of life is also intensity of helpfulness — completeness of depending of each part on all the rest. The ceasing of this help is what we call corruption.” John Ruskin, Modern Painters, Volume 5 (1860)Cornish academic BernardContinueContinue reading “Wanted: an NHS”
The Aye’ds of March
Et tu, Nicola? It’s onething to have Plaid Cymru singing the praises of an anti-Welsh Green Party but today we had the SNP join the chorus. Nicola Sturgeon has urged folk in England to vote either for the Greens or for a Labour candidate that would challenge Ed Miliband from the left. We would likeContinueContinue reading “The Aye’ds of March”
Wessex Regionalists 