Promoting the Politics of Courage
If I get any time for pre-Christmas shopping, I’ll shop local. There won’t be any “Black Fridays” or “Cyber Mondays” for me. You can hardly move without bumping into a new gigantic supermarket here in West Cornwall. But it would be easy to overlook the fantastic local businesses we have in our midst right here […]
The word is out. Excited flocks of starlings chase across our sight. The sky is silk and infinity. I wish I could stay to see the spectacle of their murmuration – for me, one of the most dramatic and enthralling displays of the natural world. But I must chase (less excited – more grim determination!) […]
My most recent round of casework surgeries (in Helston, Penzance, St Keverne, Zennor and Pendeen) generated large, wide ranging and many distressing cases. The one issue which perpetually comes top of the list of concerns is the consequences of not having enough decent and genuinely affordable homes for local families. Before I was elected as […]
Since we live in a world where people appear more interested and animated by their mobile devices than the people around them, more interested in listening to their headphones than to those around them and more engaged when social networking than when socialising, events like Remembrance Parades are all the more poignant and significant. As […]
British troops complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan this week. Meanwhile historians will dip their pens and pass judgement on whether the mission was a success, failure or score draw. There is no single score card against which we can rate the originally US-led mission in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. It […]
Should electors be given the power to petition to get rid of their local MP between elections? OK. OK. I get the point. I don’t want to be trampled in the stampede! Anyway, as I was about to say, MPs have been considering this week how electors can hold their MPs to account, other than […]
Let’s hear it for the hardworking and dedicated staff working on the frontline of the NHS. This is their lot: years of wage freezes, being threatened (by the Conservatives) with lower ‘Regional Pay’, having to pay through the nose for nurse registration (entitling them to the right to be poorly paid!), struggling with inadequate registered […]
Four and a half years ago I cautioned my Party that we shouldn’t encase ourselves in a straitjacket when entering Coalition with our mortal enemies – the Tories. Two recent events show that Parties in a Coalition should give each other room to retain their identity. 1) When my Bill to reverse Government policy on […]
If politics is about facing up to hard choices then decisions about committing armed forces into conflict is amongst the hardest of all. A year ago I defied Party Whips, spoke and voted against the Government’s proposed military intervention in Syria. By a small margin (7 votes) those who took my view succeeded; the Government […]
About 30 years ago I was urging political leaders to take action to counter the growth of second home ownership and the detrimental impact it was having on our local communities. I had proposed a new planning law which would give local communities the chance to put a cap on numbers. It’s good to see […]