We recently reiterated that regionalisation doesn’t stop just because the ruling parties at Westminster have an ideological blindspot about it. Budgetary pressures are forcing all the emergency services to think about sharing work to spread the burden. The ambulance service is now fully regionalised, apart from the Isle of Wight. Fire brigade mergers are allContinueContinue reading “The Value of Difference”
Tag Archives: Somerset
I See No Ships
Horatio Nelson is often misquoted as saying these words; relying on the London media might leave you equally in the dark about the ways in which the governance of Wessex is changing. On Friday, the Coalition announced yet more devolution to Wales. An extensive package in fact, even though, as Plaid Cymru have noted, itContinueContinue reading “I See No Ships”
Bailing Out
‘A message from 10 Drowning St’. That was the headline in Metro on Wednesday. And the message is that it’s all under control, apparently. Though not before time. Metro also reported that residents in Somerset, who have faced the floods for weeks, said that recovery efforts only intensified after the crisis got closer to London. ContinueContinue reading “Bailing Out”
Light Relief
Any fool can do irony. It takes an Eton education to do irony on the grand scale and get away with it. David Cameron’s regime announced with glee today that a multi-billion pound nuclear hazard, turning out radioactive waste that no-one knows how to manage sustainably, is to be built on the north coast ofContinueContinue reading “Light Relief”
Whose Trains?
A report last month in the Western Boring Views informs us that both Cornwall and Devon County Councils may be looking to take over from Whitehall the supervision of local rail services in their areas. All worthily localist, of course. Whether that approach works elsewhere depends on how good the fit is between railway geographyContinueContinue reading “Whose Trains?”
The Culture Killers
Patronising smiles are the usual response when we point out that Wessex remains under the Norman yoke. Not so funny is the press release issued by Eric Pickles’ Department for Communities and Local Government today to mark the flying of the Somerset flag outside their London headquarters.The historic Somerset does not in fact have aContinueContinue reading “The Culture Killers”
Organising Murder
“War is organised murder, and nothing else.”Harry PatchAnd so the extraordinary life of Harry Patch, the last Tommy of the First World War, has ended at his home in Wells. His years as a centenarian were spent as an eloquent spokesman for the Lost Generation of 1914-18, imparting what he could of experiences beyond theContinueContinue reading “Organising Murder”
Danger: Electricity
It might seem churlish to complain that Gordon Brown has committed the necessary millions to electrify the Great Western main line from Bristol to London. After all, enough money has been spent on other parts of England, and beyond. But complain we do.Our demand, for the past 30 years, has been for a Wessex-oriented transportContinueContinue reading “Danger: Electricity”
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”
Wessex Regionalists 