Fellow readers have surely heard about the Immensa scandal by now, which has affected us here in the South West. Their Wolverhampton laboratory was sending false negative Covid test results to people on an alarming scale from September to October. There have been lots of graphs and analyses about this scandal in the press: but […]
The next two weeks are absolutely critical for the planet and West Country Voices will be featuring articles on the climate crisis, the conference and the parallel event being run in Totnes with our support. We will be watching closely to see if this government lives up to the green credentials it so frequently claims […]
Some background ahead of an important vote in parliament on 3 November: in September 2019, The Guardian published their scoop on MP Owen Paterson’s breaches of parliamentary rules by lobbying for companies that he was paid to advise. To quote: The documents [detailing meetings and letters] raise questions over whether the North Shropshire MP has broken parliamentary […]
COP26 is set to dominate the news over the next two weeks. Where does this leave our region and local communities? Totnes has started its own parallel environmental event to COP called ‘COPnes26’, continuing the town’s now well-established tradition of environmental and sustainability awareness. Here are some highlights: One of COPnes26’s roles is to enable community […]
[This letter is to Cornish MPs but many of the points made could be applied with equal force and justification to all Conservative MPs across our region and beyond. Ed] Dear George Eustice, Cherilyn Mackrory, Steve Double, Sheryll Murray, Derek Thomas and Scott Mann, At the last general election, all of you stood on a […]
Back in January David Warburton, Conservative MP for Somerton and Frome, was happy to announce support for a a private members bill to stop water companies discharging untreated sewage into rivers. He took the trouble to write to Sue Everett of the Friends of the River Frome (FoRF) after his meeting with her and colleague […]
“Lords’ Amendment 45 to the Environment Bill would have placed a legal duty on water companies in England and Wales “to make improvements to their sewerage systems and demonstrate progressive reductions in the harm caused by discharges of untreated sewage.” “Despite the horrendous environmental impact of the disgusting practice, shortly before the vote, the Conservative Environment Secretary George Eustice recommended to his […]
Shirley Williams Memorial Lecture. October 15 2021 19:00 POWER AND FEAR – THE TWO TYRANNIES Before I begin, I’d like to offer my sincere condolences to the whole of the Amess family – what happened today is not just a tragedy for them but for all of us who believe that democracy must operate free […]
My eye was caught today by this thread from Colin Yeo, a barrister passionate about immigration law and a campaigner for the rights of all those who fall foul of this government’s hostile environment. He founded and edits the widely-read Free Movement immigration law blog and last year published Welcome to Britain: Fixing Our Broken Immigration System. Colin’s […]
West Country Voices have been sent a copy of this letter from South Hams Cimate Action Network to MP for Totnes, Anthony Mangnall. It was sent on 15 September. To date there has been no response. Dear Anthony Action, not promises Thank you for setting out your reasons for saying no to Devon County Council’s […]
Hot on the heels of West Dorset MP Chris Loder’s scarily ill-informed and ill-advised comments on the parlous state of the UK’s supply chains comes this gem, which we are reproducing from the original blog post by Luke at Town Towels. It would be pure fun if it were not for the nasty undercurrent that […]
Dear Editor, We have such short memories. As a species perhaps we have evolved that way; but as a nation we British seem to be past masters at reacting with outrage at some news event and then forgetting it very quickly, and it hardly figures in most people’s thoughts thereafter. I do hope that West […]
Dear Editor-in-Chief, We are in regular contact with most of our French friends since moving back to the UK. Funnily enough they seem to be able to fill up their cars with no problem. Amazingly their shops have no shortages (M&S in France being the exception), although fresh stuff is getting more expensive. And , […]
Further to Valerie Huggins’s recent excellent article on universal credit (UC), I’d like to offer the following experience of a family reliant on UC: Over the last couple of years, my local church charity group has been in a position to help a ‘distressed’ family. Confidentiality prevents me from giving any details; suffice to say […]
Dear Editor-in-Chief, Johnson really just wants to destroy Great Britain. Quite why I haven’t worked out yet, but I am struggling to find out! Every single policy has been to the detriment of the British and to the advantage of the USA. Our major defence industries have been sold to Americans. Our NHS is in […]
Dear Editor-in-chief, Nearly a fortnight ago the Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, resigned after taking personal responsibility for nearly 17,000 deaths from Covid-19. This, in a country of some 126 million people which has recently hosted the Olympic Games. Many in Japan thought the games should be delayed again, but they compromised by not allowing spectators […]
Dear EiC Many thanks for Anthea Simmons’ pair of enlightening pieces on Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh. Having cast my line into the Register of Members Interests, I caught a couple of interesting minnows which supplement her arguments. The first article suggested Mr Fysh felt he had acquired some expertise in epidemiology and virology. Well he’s […]
Dear Editor, Further to your article “Lying and Liars are killing our democracy“, here are two pertinent quotes: George Orwell: “The inflated style itself is a kind of euphemism. A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear […]
Dear Mr Parish I am a ‘floating voter’ in your constituency and deeply concerned at the provisions of the Elections Bill, which has its second reading today, 7 September. This bill is the biggest threat to democracy the UK has ever faced and, because the Conservatives have such a large majority, it has every chance […]
Dear Editor-in-Chief I saw this tweet and I found myself wondering what on earth has happened to us? Why aren’t we outraged to hear that the government won’t be putting any Covid restrictions in place unless deaths go above 1000 a week or, as was later clarified, 50,000 a year? How have we got to […]
Dear Editor-in-Chief, You have recently published two contrasting articles on electric cars. Without wanting to contribute to the for-and-against debate, I wish to offer a view on an aspect of these vehicles which seems to be overlooked in most reports about them. I well remember an item on electric cars – the vehicle of the […]
Dear Editor, Re: Let’s not mince words: the mass murder in Plymouth was an act of terrorism I worry society is becoming too quick to judge and that we are too easily convinced we are right on every issue (having tapped into the opinions of people ‘like us’ on social media). During the Brexit campaign […]
Every day on the television news and in the newspapers we see huge parts of the world on fire and other parts submerged beneath exceptional flooding. The recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report makes it clear that this is undeniably the result of global warming caused by human activity. This report goes […]
Madam, David Love is quite right to call for a pay rise for NHS staff: Why can’t we give nurses a fair pay rise? Letter to the editor BUT it isn’t just NHS staff that are suffering: (almost) all of us are. TUC research shows that about 58 to 61 per cent of national income […]
Dear Editor, I am puzzled. The one clear thing to emerge from the Brexit referendum campaign was that we would stop paying £350 million each week to the EU, and instead spend it on our wonderful NHS. I calculate that £350 million a week is just over £18 billion a year. It is difficult to […]
Dear Editor, In response to the news (which was already known to many) that the EU was to charge UK visitors €7 to enter the Schengen zone Conor Burns (MP Bournemouth West) tweeted on the 3rd August ‘We must absolutely not impose the same on EU visitors to the UK‘. Mr Burns seems to be unaware that […]
Of course, our PM, who obviously prides himself in ignoring virtually all the norms of respectful, moral citizens, would regard the above as being nothing to do with him. With three marriages, multiple both publicised and, I would expect, hidden affairs, as well as an unknown number of children he confirms the first part but […]
Meet Maia: 19 years old, resident of Orkney. Describes herself as “very politically aware”. We’d agree. Mike Galsworthy first drew our attention to her wise insights into the dirty tactics being exploited by Johnson and his gang. She has made an exclusive follow up video for us…hopefully the first of many! She’s amazed, dismayed, frustrated […]
West Country Voices (WCB) launched a year ago with the help and support of Louise Houghton at Yorkshire Bylines, Mike Galsworthy and Tom Brufatto at March for Change and the blessing of Peter Jukes and Simon Colegrave at Byline Times. Run by a team of volunteer, citizen journalists, editors, proof readers and a picture editor […]
