Category: Hastings
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To speak or not to speak?
Have the May council elections given women an answer to that dilemma? Surrounded by bullies, propagandists, and comfortable males who can’t be bothered to understand, women have had a hard job working out when or whether to raise women’s issues. There was much discussion in the lead up to the May elections as to whether […]
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We must rebuild trust – Ha ha ha!
***Long read for the weekend*** I’m writing this as I anxiously await the results of local council elections. It’s been a strange one for me, because it’s the first election since I foreswore party allegiance (I maintain that I didn’t leave Labour, Labour left me) – but the result still matters to me, because I […]
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Talking to council candidates
(Interim comments) on the options for my ward in Hastings There are, according to the council nominations list, five candidates for my ward in the May 5th council elections. Like many people, I’ve lost faith in party politics so I decided (also like many people) to make my own list of questions to ask candidates […]
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Questions for council candidates?
Yes, women are asking candidates about sex. I do rather worry that unscrupulous politicians (like Boris Johnson) will just say whatever they think the women want to hear, whilst those who’ve been bullied will say absolutely nothing, whatever their views. It doesn’t need to be complicated though. If you’re a candidate and receive ‘the questions’ […]
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Beware the Thatcherite Greens
I was in the Green Party once but, it feels like a lifetime ago. Just about all the socialists in the Green Party left to support the Corbyn movement in Labour – it seemed the best opportunity in our lifetime to bring both socialism and environmentalism into our government. Unfortunately, that failed. Many of the […]
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UBI Hastings? Let’s work on it
Tonight, I joined the inaugural meeting of the UBILab Hastings – becoming part of the growing network of people nationwide, looking into how Universal Basic Income might be made to work for all of us. The idea is to provide a stable, economic floor through which no-one is allowed to fall. The UBILab networks include […]
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The behaviour required of our councillors
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a piece for the local paper, asking that we remember borough councillors are our fellow citizens, and should be treated decently. I am now in the rather contrary position of needing to remind borough councillors to treat each other decently. I don’t want to see any of our […]
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Local politics – identity v solidarity
If there is anything like a progressive alliance in May, or at the next General Election, it’s going to have to be based on something better than party politics. Last week, I wrote a piece calling for independent candidates for next year’s council elections (well, any elections that happen next year really) because it seems […]
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Make lousy politicians a minority
We could do this. Here’s how… There are millions of people in this country who, like me, have used the phrase ‘politically homeless’. They have been thrown out of, or lost faith in, their ‘natural’ choice of party. There are also increasing numbers of people who, like me, have realised there’s more to politics than […]
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Crosscut your community
In November 2021, the news hit Hastings that a group of refugees had drowned trying to cross the channel. It hit us hard, because being a southern coastal town, the victims of failed attempts tend to wash up on our shore. This has never been a problem we are able to ignore. Local reactions are […]
Kay Green 