Rachel Reeves’s speech

Rachel Reeves made a speech yesterday – click here – it sounded pretty good but the devils (and the angels) are always in the detail not the rhetoric.  Who could argue with this sentence? ‘Over the weekend I made clear to Treasury officials that the manifesto commitments that we were elected on will be kept…

General election comments

I’d like to thank the Scottish Labour Party, the Lib Dems and Reform for delivering a massive Labour majority on such a small share of the vote. Voters in Scotland switched from SNP to Labour, voters in the southwest and elsewhere switched from Con to LibDem, voters all over the place switched from Con to…

Dear Mr Reed, 3, marches and manifestos

Dear Steve Reed, in just a week’s time you may be in your second day in your new job as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. I hope so.  As a Labour member I’ve been delivering leaflets for Lee Barron in Raunds, a small, ex-boot-and-shoe town in Northants, and in the Corby…

Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 32 by Nick MacKinnon

Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…

Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 6 by Richard Lilley

Richard Lilley is a retired solicitor who lives in the Upper Worth valley.   Turbine 6: Shackleton Knoll  SD 98539 31512 ///incorrect.diverting.steered Go, sit upon a mountain steep, And view the prospect round; The hills and vales, the valley’s sweep, The far horizon bound. And as you gaze on this vast scene Your thoughts will…