First Post

On finding that Elizabeth Truss was allowed to take up a whole page in the village newsletter, in order to inform us about what she had been doing as our MP ‘on our behalf’.

View from the Dam Green Republic (1)

I believe I speak for many when I express my sadness at discovering that the Kenninghall newsletter has been pressed into service as a right-wing propaganda tool.

Glad as we are when any young person who might normally be left on the unemployment scrapheap finds a job, it is different when that person charges you about £100.000 per annum (including expenses) in order to bring about the very changes to society that one has fought tooth and nail to prevent.

To find that the village newsletter allows that young person to crow about how she has been busily stealing from the poor and giving to the rich is, well, a bit rich.

To hear her bragging about how she plans to destroy the environment, divide the community still further, and prepare the country for World War 3 is galling indeed.

And to find that she has been given a full page ad in a number of issues free of charge is thoroughly irksome.

To allow space in a newsletter for political debate is a dangerous move but to surrender its pages to partisan propaganda could be more hazardous still. If equal access were granted to all political persuasions, Kenninghall might have to print a whole series of rival publications and we could end up with a scenario where for instance the gardening club supports the blue pages while the Kenninghall allotment society prints its minutes on the red pages. The Green Party may have to have a few meetings first in order to decide what constitutes a quorum, but once that matter is settled, they will almost certainly print in biodegradable ink on green recycled paper (content to be decided after the next meeting).

The Lib Dems are so chuffed at being allowed to stand next to David that they are unlikely to complain about anything right now but when the ConDem alliance begins to crack up we might see some fireworks from them as well.

Is this really what a village newsletter should aim to do?

Speaking as the unelected president of the neighbouring Dam Green Republic, I would urge you to show restraint, bury the hatchet, and cease and desist from this course. Your newsletter should be about what unites you surely and not the instrument for highlighting political divisions.

Il Presidente

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HOORAY HOORAY             I AM ALLOWED TO STAY

Yes the good news is that having finally obtained Indefinite Leave to Remain, I’m allowed to stay forever and although that is perhaps not a very long time geologically speaking, it is nevertheless a good reason for celebration so with not one but two good reasons, a celebration we shall have.

Avid readers of these occasional articles from the republic will know that the Dam Green Republic is about to have an important birthday on the 9th of November. It will be 25 years since our declaration of independence and although the date was made famous by an unhappy event on the other side of the pond, it is not my fault that they get things wrong in the US.

Partly because of events on the aforementioned other side, the celebrations will be modest and restrained but those who know me will expect nothing else. With a lunatic in charge in the US, ruinous fires on every continent (except Antarctica), droughts, rising sea levels and catastrophic glacial collapses caused by global warming and politicians here struggling to outdo each other to demonstrate unconcern about the state of the planet there seems to be little progress towards a more sustainable world and partying appears frivolous.

Nevertheless, we are determined to mark these two momentous and long awaited occasions (55 and 25 years respectively) so we are going ahead albeit in a low key sort of way. Modest it may be but you are all invited and there will be a free glass of cider or juice for everybody and off course there will be a fire because, as the saying goes “you can’t burn a crown without fire”. The plan is to light the bonfire just after dark, stand around for a bit and then go to bed. Not to be missed.

See you on the 9th of the 11th

Il Presidente

The UK political system is not broken. It was never whole.

After yesterday’s debate in parliament about the UK’s future relationship with Europe it is now clearer than ever that the British electoral system is not fit for purpose and what is more, that it cannot provide the country with the leadership it needs in these difficult times. If it were fit for purpose or if it were democratic we would be obliged to put up with the shambles until we have had a chance to fix the problem but that is not an option that is available to us. The only people who can help us replace this undemocratic and shambolic administration are the very leaders who got us into this mess in the first place and who’s power and prestige depends on maintaining the pretence that all is essentially well with the UK’s system of goverment .