“It’s only one garage”, I was told when I mentioned that there was no HGV diesel at Lomond Gate earlier this week. But is it really not an issue when only some garages have no fuel? A thread: Lomond Gate is the last garage on the A82 going north that is really suitable for trucks. […]
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 […]
Thousands of people who shop in the UK have probably noticed shortages of products in British supermarkets. The supply problems are blamed on the shortage of HGV drivers and the government is taking steps to tackle it: the driving hours have been extended and there is a talk about bringing the army drivers to help […]
Thousands of people who shop in the UK have probably noticed shortages of products in British supermarkets. The supply problems are blamed on the shortage of HGV drivers and the government is taking steps to tackle it: the driving hours have been extended and there is a talk about bringing the army drivers to help […]
Thursday 9 September, evening: the UK Government published their long-awaited proposal for a new UK data protection regime. The new framework is the peak of a journey which Open Rights Group has followed closely, starting from the National Data Strategy and down to the TIGRR report and the Digital Regulation Plan. We will analyse and react to Government consultation thoroughly, […]
In the first four videos in this series on tax havens I have explored how they work, what they abuse, and why that abuse should worry anyone who is concerned for fair markets, the rule of law and democracy, all of which tax havens (or secrecy jurisdictions as I prefer to call them) actively seek to undermine. This then leads to the obvious question, which […]
Last Christmas was effectively cancelled by Boris Johnson and his cohort of incompetent ministers. Johnson had promised that this would not happen but, as with most of his “guarantees”, he unashamedly reneged. This Christmas may well be completely ruined as well. The Covid-19 pandemic, which had been brought under a semblance of control over the […]
There are widespread reports this morning that the Tories are planning at least a one per cent increase in national insurance to fund an increase in spending on the NHS of an equivalent amount. To describe a policy so poorly thought out as ill-conceived is to be overly polite. Let me point out some of […]
The term ‘supply chain’ is bandied around frequently in discussions about Brexit. Since it appears that some cabinet ministers have a somewhat hazy grasp of the phrase, I wonder if it would be helpful to explain it in simple terms. I am not trying to imply that readers of West Country Voices have an understanding […]
There SHOULD be pay rises in most sectors, including HGV. But pay rises won't solve the staff problem, and here's why. For arguments’ sake, imagine we give a 20 per cent pay rise to HGV drivers. This attracts 20,000 people from lower paid jobs. HGV problem solved (in a year or so) But… The industries […]
During the Covid-19 lockdown, online exercise and dance classes became a staple part of many people’s lives. As well as keeping us physically fit and healthy, they helped provide social interaction which supported mental wellbeing. Unable to offer face-to-face classes, exercise and dance instructors had needed to embrace online platforms such as Zoom or MS […]
Liz Truss, the cheese obsessive who counts rollover trade deals as the sign of the dawn of a new era for ‘global Britain’ and crows about flogging a few stiltons to the famously-lactose intolerant Japanese has hit diplomacy for six with her gleeful appointment of Brexit-fanatic Botham as trade envoy to Australia. Ennobled for his […]
Our eye was caught by this thread on Twitter which we are reproducing with the author’s kind permission. It prompted some further research into costs and an interview with a carpenter with a business in renovation and conversion projects in Devon. More from him below. Conversation with the dads at my son’s footie training yesterday […]
You may have already seen the story that Plants Galore in Newton Abbot, Plymouth and Exeter will be giving away £100,000 worth of stock because of Brexit. WCB had also been sent a press release from the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) about a recent visit by Brexit-backing MP for South East Cornwall, Sheryll Murray, to […]
Military Aid to the Civil Authorities is the set of situations in which military personnel can be deployed in the UK in support of the civil authorities. Like all large organisations, MoD operates in acronyms and this one is known as MACA. The use of military personnel is carefully prescribed so that it is very […]
When leaders of the world’s richest countries gathered at Carbis Bay in Cornwall for the G7 summit, the climate emergency was (allegedly) high on their agenda. Could part of the solution lie deep in the Cornish granite? Or is lithium mining yet another environmental disaster waiting to happen? In March, the Conservative MP for St […]
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 […]
Why is this man smiling, you may ask? Is it because of his new hat? No, says our great portrait artist, Mr. Rushforth, it is because he is none less than Andrew Bridgen, the Honourable Gentleman for North West Leicestershire, who recently and single-handedly divined the cause of the nation’s intractable haulage crisis. Given Mr […]
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 […]
So now we know that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has drawn the short straw for building the Prime Minister’s latest vanity project. The good news is that, notwithstanding the regular damning reports of its performance, Defence Equipment and Support does know a bit about acquisition and programme management. There are no other departments that […]
It was claimed in the Guardian yesterday that Rishi Sunak had written to the prime minister to ask for a relaxation in Covid travel regulations. He had. The populist in No 11 was trying to out-popularise the populist in No 10. You could not make up the scale of Covid recklessness on display when debate should be […]
This article is reproduced by kind permission of author Richard Murphy and is taken from his blog, Tax Research The idea that national insurance should pay for the increased cost of social care for the elderly is hideous. It reveals that the government does not know how tax works, how the economy functions, or how […]
This artice came out of West Country Byline’s recent online event on the true cost of cheap food. You can listen to the session here: A list for change We are ordinary people facing the huge wealth of the 1 per cent and the power of the state in an assumed democracy which is in […]
This article was originally submitted as a letter to the editor. I went to a remote session at the Tolpuddle festival on All Change for Food Production. What shocked me was that it appears that the government’s agricultural policy, post Brexit, is to import more food to meet demand while making it more difficult to […]
Shop workers go unnoticed by much of society. They toil away mostly unseen in the background so that the rest of us can get our groceries, ready meals, beers or clothing in well-stocked, pristine-looking stores. They work for some of the big, long-established companies in the UK – Sainsbury’s, Asda, Next, M&S, John Lewis, WH […]
It was all so predictable. Ending the free movement of UK and EU citizens and making the UK a less welcoming place for EU nationals was always going to lead to labour shortages in key sectors. Government were warned repeatedly but didn’t listen; or perhaps just didn’t care. They can’t avoid it now. One of […]
Baroness Thatcher would have been appalled. She would want to know why a Tory government, yes a Tory government of self-proclaimed free marketeers, was writing out a blank cheque in the name of the UK taxpayer to give to a successful, profitable Nippon car company and a Chinese Communist Party-owned firm. My politics are centre […]
Somerset residents have been warned by Somerset Waste Partnership that continued staff shortages will mean delays and interruptions to rubbish collection services across the county. The contractor, Suez, is struggling to cope with a lack of staff to drive their bin lorries and has called on people to be patient while they attempt to recruit […]
One of the numerous benefits of being in the EU was the fact that you could move seamlessly from Britain to mainland Europe, and you would not pay any extra charges on your mobile phone beyond what you were already contracted to pay. Roaming charges on moving to another EU country had been abolished. Before […]
We are very pleased to be able to reproduce the Twitter thread from the UK Trade and Business Commission with their kind permission. The message was pretty clear: Brexit has been very damaging to a very valuable sector of our economy and to our soft power worldwide. It is also clear that the government appears […]