Small firms are indispensable to the creation of jobs and of wealth Margaret Thatcher, speech to small business conference in 1984 Thatcher’s Britain claimed to be about creating a nation of entrepreneurs starting small businesses and thereby generating wealth and jobs. In her 1984 speech to the Small Business Conference she said, “you will see […]
When the government announced the furlough scheme for workers hit by the coronavirus lockdown, they initially forgot about the estimated five million self-employed people in the UK. After campaigning from several MPs and lobbying groups, they did announce a scheme for the self-employed, the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), on 26 March. This caused temporary […]
This government’s ridiculous attempt to criminalise a movement that sees the planet as sacred’
it is extremely concerning that an elected MP has such an inadequate grasp of the issues
Government ministers are falling over themselves to tell people to ‘get back to work’ and ‘get back to the office’. The trouble is, in doing so, they are showing how out of touch they are with the many people who have been working for the last six months, with nine out of ten saying they […]
Plumpton College joined a national call to Save British Farming yesterday amid claims that the double-whammy of the government’s agriculture bill and a no-deal Brexit could drive one in three farms out of business by 2025. Local campaigners warned that smaller farms would be worst hit. Thanking Plumpton College for its support, Save British Farming […]
If you have symptoms of coronavirus, you should get tested immediately and self-isolate until you’re given the all-clear. Although it’s not quite that simple. Getting your results is quite a testing process in itself. According to the WHO, 80% of Covid-19 cases are mild or entirely asymptomatic. I’ve had no cough, no fever, and my […]
The recent A-level debacle, which hit students from disadvantaged areas hardest, has been presented as an unprecedented set of circumstances because of Covid-19. But a report just published shows that the gap in educational attainment in terms of class and ethnic background has been growing steadily since well before the pandemic, largely because of poverty. […]
It seems that everyone is on the move. So many of my phone messages are full of Rightmove links and property photos. As the photos of kitchens, gardens and bathrooms start to merge into one, I wonder why is it that it seems like everyone I know has decided to move? Well, since March when […]
At a time when our Parliamentary democracy is under threat, those few courageous voices in the media and in public life who are prepared to come forward and expose corruption, wrong-doing and lying, sometimes appear to be the only upholders of our democratic system. This is the first in a series of articles that will […]
On Saturday 22 August, thousands of activists and campaigners came together across the UK – in a socially distanced manner – for Make Votes Matter’s action day to call for change to the UK’s electoral system. Make Votes Matter, a cross-party grassroots campaign, seeks to replace the antiquated first past the post (FPTP) system with […]
Let me share a state secret with you. Somewhere in Mayfair is a six-star hotel where once a month a group of middle-aged men along with a couple of token women gather in its basement. They wear silk and ermine robes, eat exquisite food and sip the finest wine. This Body of Souls (BOS) consults […]
The government’s disingenuous drivel about being tough on the EU and getting world beating deals is enough to make anyone want to run a mile. And trade deals may seem to be unrelated to anything in our daily lives. But with just over 130 days until the end of the transition period, trade deals – or the lack of them – are about to become very relevant to all of us.
Women have been hit hardest by the pandemic, and largely excluded from decision-making.
It is possible that these two facts are connected
Your child has just got their A-level results. Are you happy as Gavin Williamson crowing on Twitter about how much better your child has done compared to their predicted grades? Or is your child devastated that their predicted high grades have been downgraded, stripping them of their university places at Oxford, Cambridge and many of […]
Juvenile, bed-wetting, ham-fisted Etonians never endeared themselves to John Bercow, nor to Dilyn whose aptitude for calling out the disgraceful, the corrupt and downright deceitful almost matches that of the former speaker. No surprise then that he scoffed when Len McCluskey suddenly woke up to employment figures and Keir’s popularity ratings soared just as rumours […]
For 24 hours last week, an ordinary black woman took centre stage following a moment of spontaneity after the Black Lives Matter protest. Marc Quinn’s statue ‘A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020’ was never meant to be permanent, yet it had meaning and was erected to elicit debate about the future of the plinth […]
Gossip from Viktor Vova, the No 10 rat, a confidant of Prime Ministers’ pets from time immemorial. As dogs go, Dilyn is pretty loyal even if he isn’t above slipping into Foreign office banquets to taste the nibbles. See all, hear all and say nowt – except when needs must, which is pretty much all […]
So are we, as Boris Johnson claims, ‘all in this together’? When our prime minister contracted coronavirus he was able to quarantine in a flat, have meals brought to his door, before being rushed to hospital when his symptoms got worse. The same options were not available to Kayla Williams, mother of three children, who […]
Brighton has always had a flourishing arts scene and cultural history. Including the Fringe, Brighton Festival is second only to Edinburgh Festival in terms of scope, size and ambition, and is the largest and most established annual curated multi-arts festival in England. This year the Festival was due to celebrate its 53rd birthday with poet […]
It seems strange looking back on the first half of 2020 now. As the New Year fireworks popped, the atmosphere for most of us was one of celebration. Yes, there were undoubted obstacles to face, not least the definitive date for Brexit a month later, but a new year, let alone a new decade, symbolised a fresh start. At that point […]
As an erstwhile stand-up comedian, used to noting down ideas for my set, I’d never have imagined trying to write, instead, a comparison between real life and its substitute. In common with many other performance arts, live comedy has been totally shut down by the Covid-19 pandemic and possibly will remain so until next year. […]
What do you know about farming, a friend asked? The answer is … not much. But I have a passion for locally produced food and worry about the looming threat of Brexit. The more I’ve looked into it, the more it has made me an ardent campaigner to lessen the impact of leaving the EU […]
In late 2016, Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror episode NoseDive painted a dystopian future, where people can rate each other and these social media scores affect how you can live your life. Nosedive was aired in October 2016, just past the June Brexit vote. We had little idea of the years of turmoil ahead of us. […]
