Cold comfort for farmers in post-Brexit free-for-all
The future of British food and farming is at stake
Category: East Sussex
All at sea over a Brexit deal – and fishermen may be left high and dry
The fishermen of Hastings once dreamt of a return to a Britain that charted its own course, freed from having to share its coastal waters and fishing opportunities with French, Spanish and Dutch rivals. It was a powerful message behind Brexit – symbolising ‘our island nation’, which once ruled the waves and now had to […]
Sussex MPs fought the law – and Loughton abstained
The dark days for British democracy are coming in battalions at the moment, but Tuesday’s House of Commons vote on the Internal Market bill still stands out. MPs approved the bill by 340 votes to 256, despite fears that it could lead to the UK breaking international law. The bill is controversial because it contradicts […]
Not Living The Dream: has the British dream of entrepreneurship failed?
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 […]
Holes in the self-employed support scheme are swallowing millions of people alive
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 […]
Let us pray, Prime minister
This government’s ridiculous attempt to criminalise a movement that sees the planet as sacred’
Caulfield’s grasp of oven-ready deal proves half-baked
it is extremely concerning that an elected MP has such an inadequate grasp of the issues
Plumpton College joins call to Save British Farming
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 […]
Sussex villagers who took Syria to their hearts
Syrians fleeing their war-torn country have had a mixed reception in Britain – depicted as besieging our borders in Nigel Farage’s infamous ‘Breaking Point’ poster. Elsewhere they have been welcomed, and in some unexpected quarters. Such as the leafy Sussex villages of East Hoathly and Halland. The villages (pop 1,600) may seem an unlikely link […]
Eviction threat recedes, but anxious winter ahead
Thousands of renters will have breathed a sigh of relief as the government further extended the deadline that protects them from summary eviction. As well as the new deadline of 20 September, there is a six-month ban on most evictions taking place until the end of March 2021. So those who would have risked losing […]
Our World in Our Words: can creativity drive change?
This summer, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in the USA, there has been a reigniting of the Black Lives Matter movement around the world. There have been widespread protests, many of them driven by, and attended by young people from a variety of backgrounds. For some, even if they want to […]
More power to the pushers in solar revolution
Solar power has brought with it many benefits – though perhaps not the current flood of cheap high-quality heroin to our shores. Today, Afghan opium production has seen a sharp rise with the arrival of solar power and the ability to pump water from depths of 100m. Being able to irrigate barren deserts has turned […]
Local needs are not part of new planning ‘revolution’
The government’s ambitious new White Paper, ‘Planning for the Future’. promises the biggest shake-up in the planning system since 1948, with a ‘fast track for beauty’. We urgently need to build more genuinely affordable homes, especially in the South East – but this White Paper won’t achieve that. It misunderstands the reasons why houses aren’t […]
How the government’s algorithm has failed Generation Covid
On 13th August, thousands of students in Sussex and across the country anxiously opened their A-Level results, many to bitter disappointment and confusion. This included me. After spending half a year turning in extra essays, often working from 9am to 11pm, and using all my spare time working in the library, I was confident my […]
An algorithm for change
I have been a secondary teacher for 15 years, working my way up to Head of English and now Senior Leadership Team. I have always worked in ‘challenging schools’ serving areas of significant deprivation. It’s never been an easy ride and it often feels like the odds are stacked against our students and their communities. […]
On a beach in Sussex, ‘migrant’ myths exposed
The recent hot weather brought with it calm seas, and the calm seas brought with them an increase in the number of refugees crossing the Channel in small boats. To look at the reaction from the government and the right-wing press, one could be forgiven for thinking this was a massive invasion. What we actually […]
Keeping It Local – Lewes’ new party allies show the way
While Westminster politics remains resolutely tribal, out in the country things are changing. As more people begin to tire of yah-boo confrontation, Lewes provides a fascinating example of how successfully different political parties can work together and run a complex district council. After the May 2019 local elections, the Conservatives emerged as the largest single […]
Future of Pooh’s forest hangs in the balance
I remember when we heard our village shop was closing because the owners couldn’t afford to continue running it. If we had known the shop was in such difficulty we would have supported it more – but it was too late. The same fate may now hang over Ashdown Forest, the Sussex beauty spot famed […]
Billion-pound vandalism: Norman Baker takes aim at the plans for the A27
I recall a visit I made to a Midlands town to meet various councillors and businessmen (and they were all men) when I was a transport minister. ‘When are we getting our new road?’ they demanded. ‘We have been campaigning for it since 1938!’ I had to explain that it was not a matter of […]
Gathering storm over our vital ferry link
During those first weeks of lockdown when the roads fell silent and there was hardly a plane in the sky, one service remained to ensure that fresh produce, fruit and vegetables continued to reach shops and supermarkets in Sussex. Unpublicised and uncelebrated, as so often in its history, the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry kept open […]