This Week with Brian
Your Local Area
Including stage right, boats and buses, box-office leaders, repeating the trick, doing the maths, calling the shots, topping the polls, flying the flags, Afghanistan not Rwanda, a burst of reality, a boycott, not spots, jabs, fines, CIL cropping up elsewhere, Grimsby Town, council re-organisations, pharmacy provision, constitutional matters, on the buses, striking photos, rhyming slang, wild hogs, folding the paper and where’s the weekend?
Click on the appropriate buttons to the right to see the local news from your area (updated every Thursday evening).
If there’s anything you’d like to see covered for your area or anything that you’d like to add to a segment that we’ve covered, drop me a line at brian@pennypost.org.uk.
Further afield
It’s almost possible to feel sorry for Kemi Badenoch’s Tories at the moment. Time was when they had the whole of the right wing as their hunting ground, a free-market savannah. Capital punishment, national service, privatisations, deportations – all these and more were at their disposal. For decades, the party knew it could get people’s attention, in some cases favourably, by pulling another crazy animal out of the undergrowth. The left and the centre had nothing that could touch it.
[more below]
• Enter Reform, stage right
Those days are gone. In the last year, the Conservatives have found that their ancestral lands have been taken over by political migrants with turquoise rosettes, asylum seekers who were finding that life in other parties was leading them open to the risk of persecution. Without formalities or permission, they swarmed over the Tories’ ill-maintained defences, arriving if not in small boats then large battle buses to take over the once blue and pleasant heartlands on which the Tories had for so long complacently grazed.
The Tories now find themselves in a position not disimilar to that of the UK as a whole: impoverished, largely irrelevant, living off past glories and hopelessly at the mercy of more fleet-footed opponents with little to lose from their incursions. It’s become a sort of cross between the Church of England, the Distressed Gentlefolks Association and Manchester United, with the added disadvantage of having a leader who appears to hate both the media and PMQs and, as a result, perfoms badly when confronted with either.
• A bitter harvest
Badenoch may well be a decent person. However, she’s not box-office in the way that Farage and Trump are and Johnson was. One can argue all day long about how it’s policies not personalities that are important but try telling that to the electors.
During the 2024 campaign one local activist for a party other than Reform told me that they’d knocked on a door and been told in no uncertain terms that “I’m voting for Farage.” One being told that he wasn’t standing in this seat, the reply was “whatever.”
You can’t argue with this logic – and, in many ways, it is logical. In a complicated world, you seek for the lowest common denominator. You assume that the charisma and views of a leader you admire will somehow filter down to their local candidate, regardless of their personal views or any track record they might have in local involvement.
This enemy was let in by one Conservative leader during his disastrous and inept Brexit referendum decision, and even more disastrous and inept Brexit referendum campaign. Now, less than ten years later, the party’s next leader but five (I think: one loses count) is reaping the bitter harvest.
Perhaps the most important thing that episode taught us is that, if you can persuade a PM to hold a referendum, it’s possible for a well-organised populist movement which keeps things simple and doesn’t worry too much about the truth to give all the established parties a good kicking. A number of people in the UK rather liked the power that this gave them. So, when the moribund Tory administration was finally forced to confront the voters, Reform repeated the trick.
Despite the electoral system which gave them only a handful of MPs and despite Labour’s huge landslide, there was no doubt in many people’s minds who the real winners were. The party then pulled off an even bigger coup in the 2024 local elections, winning control of ten councils and polling comfortably more votes than any other party.
• Maths
A quick look at the general-election maths also gives another clue as to why Reform supporters might be feeling annoyed with the way the system works and thus more inclined to take it on.
Labour got about 9.7m votes and won 411 seats. Reform, on the other hand, attracted about 4.1m votes and ended up with five seats. In other words, about 36 times more votes were needed to elect a Reform MP than a Labour one.
The Greens, who got nearly 2m votes and were rewarded with four seats, needed about 21 times more votes to elect an MP than did Labour.
For once, the Lib Dems – thanks to a very clever national campaign – ended up about par.
This is many ways old news now: except that it isn’t, as these new lines have been drawn and Reform has constantly topped the opinion polls for most of this year. This gives the party energy. Despite having most of the seats, Labour in on the back foot every day. The Conservatives are still in trauma mode. The Lib Dems have 72 MPs but don’t seem to be able to get any particular traction with national issues. The Greens, whose time should have come given the climate disaster that’s overwhelming us, seem unsure whether they’re environmentalists or the last bastions of the left. Above all, none of them has a box-office leader.
• Territory
Reform does, and they know it. Farage’s particular ire is focussed on the Conservatives: less because he disagrees with many of their views than because he wants their territory.
Whatever the Conservatives can promise, Reform can promise more. Buoyed up by a large share of the national vote, Farage Inc feels it has a mandate to come up with policies that are limited only by his imagination. Take the recent idea of deporting asylum seekers. The Tories had a plan to send them to Rwanda. That’s feeble, Farage said: we’ll send them to Afghanistan.
Operation Restoring Justice, which the party launched with obedient trumpets and fireworks being supplied by many media groups, promised not only this but also to deport about 550,000 illegal migrants during its first five years in government.
These small boats and their passengers continue to dominate the immigration discussion. Forgotten is the fact that many of them are fleeing countries which the UK’s own actions helped to destabilise, if inadvertently. So too is the fact that many of the arrivals by whatever means who are still in the country are unknown and uncounted. How Reform plans to round them all up and despatch them to somewhere and then prevent them from returning is far from clear.
Phrases used so far include “detaining and deporting absolutely anyone who comes via that route” and “if we do that, the boats will stop coming in days because there will be no incentive.” Both of these have been heard before. Neither has worked.
• Setting the tone
That doesn’t worry Farage. He’s calling the shots and setting the tone. This month it’s been immigration. Other battles will follow and with each victory Farage will be setting the agenda for future elections more and more on ground of his choosing.
A large majority, traditional superiority or perceived self-evident truths from the traditional parties are no guarantee of continued political success. These need to fight back: particularly the Tories, whose repeated ineptitude over the last ten years allowed this invasion to take place.
Another option, of course, is that one of the other parties finds a leader who’s box office, someone who can like Boris Johnson win an election despite all his manifest flaws. However, looking around the national political spectrum, it’s hard to see where such a person might come from.
It may not be the most honest way of winning power. However, after such a concentrated and unwelcome burst of reality in the last year or so, the other parties might not be much concerned with honesty. Like football, politics is a results game and the tide is currently running against them.
• Flags
I don’t think I’m alone in this but when I see large numbers of Union Jacks or St George’s Crosses being flown I think either of an impending football tournament or of an impending far-right rally. For various reasons, some of which are discussed in this article on Sky News and this one on the BBC, there have been a lot of these kind of flags put up recently.
As the BBC reports, this “has caused a headache for councils”. To take them down, or order them to be, might make them appear unpatriotic. To leave them would set a possibly unwelcome precedent. Would that mean that all flags are OK? The EU flag would offend Brexiteers, the Palestinian one Jews, the Israeli one Palestinians, the Scottish one the English and the Russian one pretty much everyone.
Then again, who judges what constitutes an “acceptable” level of offence? Is it necessary to avoid all actions which might offend someone? Is it regarded as offensive to some people not to fly a flag if most of the others in your street are doing it? You see what a minefield we’re getting into.
Then there are genuine cases of flag rage, however falsely based. Full Fact reports that “a video is circulating online with misleading claims it shows “Pakistani migrants” removing a Union Jack flag and raising the flag of Pakistan in its place, in response to the recent “raise the colours” campaign.” In fact, FF explains, “the clip actually shows the Pakistan flag being raised at the country’s consulate in Glasgow, where the Union Jack is not flown.”
This news came too late, however, to stop some from rapidly launching broadsides on social media. “Union Jacks taken down and replaced with foreign flags in UK cities” one person fulminated. “This is actually outrageous!”
There’s also the question of whether a flat spray-painted on a council notice, on a roundabout or a zebra crossing (all of which have happened) are legitimate mediums. And even if they’re allowed up and cause no offence or damage, the time will come when they start looking tired and bedraggled, so creating the opposite impression of what was intended. Who decides when this moment arrives and, when it does, will those removing them be met with howls of protest?
I think, on balance, I’m on team no-flag on this one.
Perhaps one of the reasons why the English, rather than the British, flag is so much more popular is because the Union Jack is a bitch to draw. I painted a big one for the local Young Farmers about ten years ago and it took me about two hours, most of which was spent drawing the various outlines in pencil. The George’s Cross most of us could paint with our eyes such: indeed, looking at some of the rather slapdash handmade versions, that seems to be exactly how they were done.
Easiest of all would have been the Libyian one back in the day as that was just plain green. Mind you, that would have offended the climate-change sceptics. You can’t win, can you?
• And finally…
• One attempt at going box office, or sticking to his principles (the two aren’t mutually exclusive) was demonstrated by Lib Dem leader Ed Davey this week when, as reported by The Guardian, he said that he would “boycott King Charles’s state banquet held in honour of Donald Trump to protest against the US president’s failure to intervene decisively to end the war in Gaza.”
• One of the things that we learned from the pandemic was that vaccinations do work for the vast majority of people. Unfortunately, the USA’s Sceptic-in Chief Robert Kennedy Jr – that “Jr” qualification must surely rankle after all these years – doesn’t agree, cancelling nearly $500m in federal funding for mRNA research.
• One often sees local councils and the like proudly proclaiming that “we have 99.2% coverage” or whatever for broadband or mobiles. This leaves some scratching their heads and wondering how this 0.8% crops up so often when they want to use the service. In fact, according to a work done by the Severn Valley Partnership and reported on BBC R4’s You and Yours this week, the figures for mobiles at least derive from data provided by the industry and inferred from the number and size of their masts.
Thios doesn’t necessarilly reflect what actually happens. The SVP came up with the cunning plan of having a rack of mobiles, each permanently pinging to test signal strength, being installed in refuse collection vans as they trundled around the various districts in that area. This far more scientific analysis suggested that the not-spot figure was closer to 16%.
• We all know that Thames Water is in trouble. However, having to amend a re-structuring programme and agree a repayment programme to accommodate the needs of a £123m fine must be particularly galling. My main concern is where this money will go. RR wants as much cash as she can get at present but diverting these revenues – if they’re paid – into the bottomless pit of the Treasury will only exacerbate the situation that led to them in the first place. I’d have thought that the money should be mandated for additional investment by Thames Water or given to Defra or the EA for relevant remediation work.
• Many of you will be aware that we’re continuing to cover the Community Infrastructure Levy scandal which, from its first appearance as a result of the draconian enforcement policies by West Berkshire Council (which has, to its great credit, reversed its policy) has since been shown to exist to prevail in at least twelve other authorities. I’m pleased to announce that I’ve this week identified another council where this has happened.
In a sentence, this involved homeowners being charged sometimes six-figure sums due to minor paperwork errors as a result of building extensions, if the councils concerned are prepared to take a sufficiently predatory attitude towards the interpretation of the badly drafted legislation. This article (with links to others) provides a summary of the problem. Wherever you are, if you’ve been impacted by this example of heavy-handed municipal behaviour, please email me at brian@pennypost.org.uk.
• The last time I saw Grimsby Town play football was about twelve years ago when Reading hammered them at the Madjeski. On 27 August, now in League Two, they beat Manchester United 12-11 on penalties in the League Cup. Manchester United are a very easy club to dislike, something I don’t make any attempt to conceal. So I won’t…
Across the area
• Reorganising the councils
Councils up and down the land continue to grapple with the complex business of re-drawing England’s currently chaotic local administrative map as demanded by Whitehall. The three main tasks, in the likely order of their urgency, are:
- Abolishing the two-tiered councils where functions are split between the county and the district;
- Introducing strategic mayoral authorities where these don’t exist each with a population of at least 1.5m;
- Ensuring that all unitary councils have a population of at least 500,000.
Not all councils are involved to the same extent. London boroughs, for instance, are all single-tier and of the requisite size and already have a strategic authority so won’t need to worry about this. Oxfordshire, which is none of these things, will have to worry about all three. West Berkshire has got involved in the two-tier issue because its currently favoured option is joining up with the Vale and South Oxfordshire (the Ridgeway plan).
The councils themselves are in an invidious position. They have to prepare for what might happen, which in many cases involve elaborate courtship rituals with neighbouring authorities. However, they’re far from sure what Angela Rayner’s preferences in any of the matters will be.
Among the matters that are so far unclear are: whether she’ll insist that all districts have a mayoral authority; if the responsibilities of these will follow the current metropolitan model or be tweaked; whether she’ll permit “land grabs” to take place, such as Reading has expressed an interest in doing with part of West Berkshire; whether she’ll permit new councils to be formed from parts of more than one traditional county, as Ridgeway would be; and to what extent she’ll insist on the population minimums.
There’s also the question of money. In general, district councils (which don’t look after education of social care) are quite flush with cash where as counties and singe-tier councils (which do) are basically broke. For this reason, the Vale and South Oxfordshire are attractive propositions for West Berkshire. However, will such councils be allowed to keep their reserves or will some or all of these be hoovered up and re-distributed?
I spoke to WBC’s Leader Jeff Brooks about all this on 28 August and he confirmed that “work was continuing” on this multi-pronged project. This includes not only the Ridgeway plans but also the strategic authority which might comprise Berkshire and Oxfordshire; and perhaps Buckinghamshire; and perhaps Swindon. The criteria for choosing partners for this are in many ways different from those for the far closer amalgamation that Ridgeway would require.
With the strategic bodies, matters such as socio-demographic affinity and likely political composition are less important. These will be concerned with large projects that would span or affect several districts such as railways, roads, reservoirs, large data centres and new towns. The arguments for West Berkshire teaming up with Swindon in a strategic authority are perhaps more compelling than their forming a unitary together. Again, and in all things, Angela mike think otherwise.
• Pharmacy provision
This BBC article takes a look at the challenges faced by many pharmacies across the country. It cites recent research by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and Community Pharmacy England (CPE) which have claimed that “up to 63 per of pharmacies could close in the next year, around four in ten are unable to pay in full for the cost of prescription medication for patients and that nearly half of pharmacy owners had been forced to remortgage their homes or raid personal savings in the last year to subsidise the cost of medicines.”
A new funding settlement has recently been introduced but the NPA’s survey finds that 94 per cent of pharmacies said this did not bring stability to their finances. The annual shortfall is estimated to be between £1.5 and 2.5bn.
One of the pharmacists the authors contacted was Graham Jones, who runs the ones in Lambourn and in Shrivenham. He made the point that, until this settlement, there had been no income uplift since 2018, effectively amounting to a 30 per cent funding cut.
We took a look at this issue about a year ago after a local paper referred to the fact that West Berkshire has fewer pharmacies per capita than any other part of the country. As we suggested, though true, this only tells part of the story. Service quality is down to a number of factors, of which the number of pharmacies is but one: indeed, because of the way the funding works, too many of them can actually make the overall service worse. One conclusion is that independents appear to be better than chains. Unfortunately, these are also the ones who appear to most at risk from the funding shortfall.
You can also read an interview with Graham Jones (who was also for several years the Leader of West Berkshire Council) by clicking here. This looks at both his pharmaceutical and political careers as well as the all-important matter of his desert-island choices of music, book, film and luxury item.
• Constitutional matters
The UK doesn’t have a written constitution. Local councils, including West Berkshire do. These govern how the authority behaves and conducts itself. For people who want to keep an eye on what’s going on, and to comply with aspirations of democratic transparency, having online access to a complete, up to date and searchable copy of this would seem to be a minimum requirement.
Most councils, including The Vale, Reading, Bracknell and even poor old bankrupt Slough have managed to do this. If West Berkshire has, I can’t find it and nor has anyone else.
The constitution is available, but in about twenty separate files, not gathered in one document. One might, for example, be searching for “scrutiny” or “planning” or “voting”. References to these or numerous other words or phrases could appear in any or all of these. Searching through all these is an arduous task and twenty times more difficult than it needs to be. Effectively, WBC’s constitution is impossible to access.
There’s no requirement under the 2000 Local Government Act that the constitution be provided in this way but most authorities have regarded a complete version as being a part of the requirements.
I’ve been assured by a senior member of WBC that this is a matter that’s being looked into. However, I don’t understand what the delay is all about. Either the current collection of documents is complete and current or it isn’t. If it is, then merging these together in one PDF is something that would take anyone with basic PDF skills perhaps an hour to do. If, however, this collection of documents is either not complete (ie there are gaps), or has overlaps, or is not current, these would be separate and rather serious problems.
The problem of locating information doesn’t seem to be restricted to us outsiders. During the defenestration of Councillor Claire Rowles in 2022, WBC spent £3,850 on a QC in order to have them explain an aspect of its own constitution. Could this partly have been because no one could find the necessary reference? If so, perhaps WBC’s officers would benefit as much as local residents from having one complete document to which we could all refer.
• On the buses
We’re now into the final few days of West Berkshire Council’s consultation into residents’ levels of satisfaction about local bus services. You can click here for more on this. You need to have had your say by 11.59pm on Sunday 31 August.
This is, as the statement explains, a result of the Council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan and Enhanced Partnership with local bus operators which were introduced a few years ago as part of a government initiative. £2.6m has been received from the government and part of the deal is that users be asked what they think of services. This is your chance to contribute to the discussion.
News from your local councils
Most of the councils in the area we cover are single-tier with one municipal authority. The arrangements in Oxfordshire are (currently, at least) different, with a County Council which is sub-divided into six district councils, of which the Vale of White Horse is one. In these two-tier authorities, the county and district have different responsibilities.
In all cases, parish and town councils provide the first and most immediately accessible tier of local government.
West Berkshire Council
• Click here to see the latest Residents’ News Bulletin from WBC.
• Click here for details of all current consultations being run by WBC.
• Click here to sign up to all or any of the wide range of newsletters produced by WBC.
• Click here for the latest news from WBC.
Vale of White Horse Council
• Click here for details of all current consultations being run by the Vale Council.
• Click here for latest news from the Vale Council.
• Click here for the South and Vale Business Support Newsletter archive (newsletters are generally produced each week).
• Click here to sign up to any of the newsletters produced by the Vale’s parent authority, Oxfordshire County Council.
Wiltshire Council
• Click here for details of all current consultations being run by Wiltshire Council.
• Click here for the latest news from Wiltshire Council.
Swindon Council
• Click here for details of all current consultations being run by Swindon Council.
• Click here for the latest news from Swindon Council.
Parish and town councils
• Please see the News from your local council section in the respective weekly news columns (these also contain a wide range of other news stories and information on activities, events and local appeals and campaigns): Hungerford area; Lambourn Valley; Marlborough area; Newbury area; Thatcham area; Compton and Downlands; Burghfield area; Wantage area.
• Other news
• During September, residents of West Berkshire can collect a free roll of compostable food-waste caddy liners during regular opening hours from all West Berkshire Council Libraries, the Council Office reception at Market Street in Newbury, and Tilehurst Parish Council, while stocks last.
• West Berkshire Council has announced that residents have saved over one million used coffee pods for recycling since it started collecting them at the Newtown Road and Padworth recycling centres.
• West Berkshire Council is hosing drop-in sessions to explain about its recycling arrangements and to answer any questions you may have. These will be being helped in Hungerford, Calot, Theale, Newbury and Thatcham. Click here to see this WBC Residents’ Bulletin and scroll down to the third article.
• On which subject, the government has announced that “Through the new Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging scheme, every town and city across the country will receive a major boost to their recycling services, with more than £1 billion funnelled into improving critical infrastructure and collections.” As a result, West Berkshire will receive about £4.7m, the Vale £1.55m, South Oxfordshire £1,7m, Wiltshire £8.6, and Swindon £4.8m. A full list of which councils will receive what can be seen here.
• And still with recycling, this time producing something you can use. West Berkshire Council has announced that, in partnership with Veolia, it’s launching a one-month pilot to offer free deliveries of locally produced soil conditioner to eligible community groups and councils. Email recycle@westberks.gov.uk for more information.
• You can find our about fostering in West Berkshire by clicking here.
• A statement from WBC explains that “Everyone is Family campaign, run by our leisure operator Everyone Active, is back with a variety of family-friendly activities at Hungerford Leisure Centre, Kennet Leisure Centre, Cotswold Sports Centre, and Lambourn Centre, all for just £2 per person until Wednesday 3 September.
• The animals of the week are any of those featured in the 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards.
• A number of good causes have received valuable support recently: see the various news area sections (links above) for further details.
The quiz, the sketch, the fact and the song
• So to the song of the week. I’ve always loved Deaf School who were smart and stylish and musically literate at a time, the late ’70s, when such accomplishments weren’t widely revered in the UK. The main man Clive Langer’s finest moment came later when he wrote the music for Shipbuilding, one of the most gorgeous songs ever. Let’s stick with the band, however: here’s Where’s the Weekend?, which gives a good flavour of their poppy cabaret style.
• And next it’s the Comedy Moment of the Week. I’d not come across this before but did so by accident after digging out the Deaf School link – Rhyming Slang from Alas Smith and Jones.
• After which we have the Unbelievable Fact of the Week. This has been gleaned from Edward Brooke-Hitching’s The Most Interesting Book in the World, described as “a miscellany of things too strange to be true, yet somehow are”. This week’s is that one of the many methods of predicting the future is hyomancy which involves observing the behaviour of wild hogs.
• And finally, the Quiz Question of the Week. This week’s question is: Assuming you could do it, how many times would you need to fold a sheet of paper in half so that its thickness was greater than the size of the observable universe? Last week’s question was: What is the significance of 763 miles per hour? The answer is that it’s the world land-speed record, set by the Thrust supersonic car in October 1997. No, I didn’t know that either.
