Latest news with #Levellers
Daily Mirror
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
'What Jeremy Corbyn's new party means for Keir Starmer'
Imagine a party. It's not going well. The Levellers are playing on a loop, the vegan nibbles are untouched, and half the guests have wandered off. So you take over the stereo and slap on some mainstream rock. Pop open the Pringles, flourish some red meat, tell everyone "let's make this a REAL party!" People start wandering back. They're maybe not quite convinced - some bloke called Nigel has a pub lock-in down the road, and the sound of Quo is thumping through the shrubbery - but they'll give it a whirl, for now. So you head to the kitchen, where you realise the place is a mess and you should have planned ahead to bring gloves and matches. Rachel can't locate the powerhouse, Wes has his head in the oven and Angela is complaining bitterly, having just realised the shopping bag contains vegetarian sausages and some special offer mayonnaise. You pop your head round the door to see how it's going, and someone's put Morrissey on. The sofas are filled with row-energy resentment, and someone asks you for a minicab number. From the front door comes the sound of laughter, and when you push through the guests you see Jezza having a screaming row with Zarah in the front garden. It spills down the street, and half the party follows just to see what happens next. This is where Keir Starmer now finds himself - leader of a party few people were that convinced by, drained of oomph, wondering why no-one wants his non-alcoholic, not-much-punch. Other parties are starting up left, right, and further right, with irresponsible offerings, nerve-shattering sound levels, and 100% more vibrancy. There is only one thing that works in this situation. And what Keir needs to do for the Labour Party is the same thing Jeremy Corbyn did just by talking about having a new party: make things more interesting. Were the metaphor to extend this far down the page, it would have to involve a current affairs equivalent of putting on Primal Scream and breaking out the vodka. Instead, we've got wall-to-wall cuts, u-turns, a narrative of failure, gloom and irreversible decline. It's like watching Milli Vanilli when their CD got stuck. Keir got rid of Jeremy once, and it did make his party more attractive to the mainstream voter. But that was 5 years ago, when people were desperate to be done with the hurly-burly of Boris and Brexit. A professional capable of combing his hair was always going to be the last man standing, but he was never going to be the best person to hold the attention of a public attuned to clickbait and chaos. Enter Nigel, stage right, and Jeremy, stage left. Both of them formed from splinters of mainstream parties that the voter fell out of love with, both occupying a radical niche, and both capable of causing division quicker than the Large Hadron Collider. Nigel of course is popular and on course to be PM, if you believe Nigel and forget that no-one's questioned him properly yet. Jeremy is a tried-and-tested failure at the ballot box, but that's not to say his time won't come: when the centrists fail, the extremes arise. Nigel's outfit is tainted by a near-total lack of fact-checking, both in who it recruits and what it says. Jeremy's managed the amazing feat of splintering his split, with his cohort Zarah Sultana announcing it before there was a name, and reportedly before Jeremy was ready. Nigel always argues with comrades and flounces out. Corbyn always ignores what he doesn't like. None of it matters: both men are magnets to the mentally ill, and these days, just about everybody is. If Keir wants to know what's next, he could do no better than gaze across the Despatch Box to Kemi Badenoch, where a desultory leader is detached from reality and apparently unfazed by the growing threat to her flank. Wannabes are turning into social media vigilantes in the vacuum of her total lack of energy, ideas, or approachability. The same will happen to Keir if he doesn't buck up. Angela will arm, Wes will weaponise, and Rachel will become his Kwasi Kwarteng, the failed Chancellor desperately trying to pour some common sense in his ear. But the only thing that will work is the political equal of proper music, and proper food - a wealth tax, a National Care Service, a pandemic plan, a Hillsborough Law to end national scandals, chunky electric vehicle subsidies, solar panels for every roof paid for by the National Grid, employer incentives to get the disabled into work and, for the love of Pete, some NHS parity for mental health services because if you're not depressed yet, then you've not been paying attention. Radical policies, wealth redistribution, a super-rich level of inheritance tax, a Robin Hood tax and a few of the things the Left have wanged on about for years but which the mainstream will happily swallow will see off the threat of Corbyn, and move Labour narrative onto firmer ground. It is doubtful, though, whether someone who has tacked so far to the right on immigration, crime and the economy is capable of tacking the other way. And could his job withstand what would inevitably be packaged, by Nigel and Jeremy, as a capitulation to the loonies? There's risk on all sides. All that's keeping Starmer in post is that his party is disappointed, rather than angry, and that could change at conference in autumn. He needs to realise people are thirsty for something he's not giving them, and then he has to decide whether he will deliver it. My bet? History shows he goes with the flow. A vegetarian who's prepared to dish up raw steak, a manager quite able to cause dysfunction, an apolitical politician leading a party of idealists while not having any ideas. I suspect it'll be left a bit, right a bit, left a bit more, before someone finally takes pity and gets him a cab home.
BBC News
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Amulet Theatre reopens after 20 years for pop-up summer shows
A theatre that has been closed for almost 20 years is reopening for summer shows. Campaigners attempting to buy and reopen Somerset's Amulet Theatre in Shepton Mallet have announced a programme of pop-up events, including live music and a cinema movie nights.A temporary event space, which includes a mini auditorium and a café bar, has been built on the ground floor the Berkeley, from Let's Buy the Amulet, said: "We are so excited by this opportunity to briefly reopen the Amulet to showcase what a difference the building can make to Shepton Mallet." Bosses of Let's Buy The Amulet group are hoping to secure public funding to purchase the site and turn it into a permanent community in early 2025, the group was told money set aside by the previous government had been Berkeley added: "There is some new public funding that is becoming available that we will be applying for and we also have a community share offer so people can buy shares in the charity we hope will purchase and reopen the building."The group is hoping to build a 60 seater mini-auditorium, an exhibition gallery and a café bar. Originally built in 1975 as The Centre, the building was a gift to the town from the Showering Family, who are famous for inventing operated as a popular theatre and community centre for many years but has been in private ownership and largely out of public pop-up events will be held in July and August, with Mark Chadwick of the Levellers performing the opening show on 4 July.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
English liberty means the right to protest against the monarchy
Any lover of liberty should be delighted that Symon Hill, a trainee Baptist Minister, has finally received some measure of justice after being outrageously arrested by the police for expressing his view on the monarchy. On his way home from church in September of 2022, when confronted with a local procession proclaiming the accession of King Charles III to the throne, he called out 'who elected him?' For this he was handcuffed, taken away to the station and charged under the Public Order Act with 'threatening or abusive words or behaviour'. Even though charges were eventually dropped, and Hill has now been paid £2,500 in compensation from Thames Valley police over his arrest, it was a scene befitting a dictatorship rather than a free country. The monarchy is taken to be so emblematic of British and English identity that opposition to it is sometimes seen as an expression of anti-Britishness. But nothing could be further from the truth. England doesn't have an official national anthem. While 'God Save the King' – the official anthem of the United Kingdom – is deployed at football internationals, 'Jerusalem' and 'Land of Hope and Glory' are played at other sporting events. These latter patriotic hymns make no mention of a king or queen. What could be more anti-British than arresting and attempting to punish people for anti-monarchism? Republicanism may be a minority view, but it is just as British – and specifically English – as monarchism. It has a long and deep history on these isles. You see it with John Milton, the author of Areopagitica, one of the greatest texts against censorship ever written. You also see it with the Levellers and their insistence on popular sovereignty, religious tolerance and extended suffrage. And you see it with Thomas Paine, whose republican ideas were crucial in shaping the American Revolution, and whose constitutional architecture drew upon the revolutionary ideas of 17th century England. This radical tradition is also found in the poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Blake and (early) William Wordsworth. Shelley wrote: 'Man must assert his native rights, must say / we take from Monarchs' hand the granted sway.' When Symon Hill shouted 'who elected him?' about King Charles III, he was echoing an old argument that no ruler can govern a people without the consent of the governed. A lot of credit must go to English republicanism for helping to shape Britain into becoming a free society governed by the rule of law and not the absolute will of an individual on a throne. Without its struggle against arbitrary power, England wouldn't have become the 'republican monarchy' that Voltaire eulogised over. For many of us, our affinity to England and Britain isn't and has never been dependent upon the pomp and ceremony of monarchy. There is nothing at all alien about opposing the Royal family; Britons have been doing it for centuries. And the right to reject the monarchy – even if you strenuously disagree with republicanism – is an affirmation of British values rather than a rejection of it. What is England if not the land of liberty? If the King is nothing more than a custodian of a free society, there ought to be nothing to fear from one man voicing his opinion against the status quo. To try to repress this would be, above all, a betrayal of the liberty generations before have struggled and perished to advance in this country. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
English liberty means the right to protest against the monarchy
Any lover of liberty should be delighted that Symon Hill, a trainee Baptist Minister, has finally received some measure of justice after being outrageously arrested by the police for expressing his view on the monarchy. On his way home from church in September of 2022, when confronted with a local procession proclaiming the accession of King Charles III to the throne, he called out 'who elected him?' For this he was handcuffed, taken away to the station and charged under the Public Order Act with 'threatening or abusive words or behaviour'. Even though charges were eventually dropped, and Hill has now been paid £2,500 in compensation from Thames Valley police over his arrest, it was a scene befitting a dictatorship rather than a free country. The monarchy is taken to be so emblematic of British and English identity that opposition to it is sometimes seen as an expression of anti-Britishness. But nothing could be further from the truth. England doesn't have an official national anthem. While 'God Save the King' – the official anthem of the United Kingdom – is deployed at football internationals, 'Jerusalem' and 'Land of Hope and Glory' are played at other sporting events. These latter patriotic hymns make no mention of a king or queen. What could be more anti-British than arresting and attempting to punish people for anti-monarchism? Republicanism may be a minority view, but it is just as British – and specifically English – as monarchism. It has a long and deep history on these isles. You see it with John Milton, the author of Areopagitica, one of the greatest texts against censorship ever written. You also see it with the Levellers and their insistence on popular sovereignty, religious tolerance and extended suffrage. And you see it with Thomas Paine, whose republican ideas were crucial in shaping the American Revolution, and whose constitutional architecture drew upon the revolutionary ideas of 17 th century England. This radical tradition is also found in the poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Blake and (early) William Wordsworth. Shelley wrote: 'Man must assert his native rights, must say / we take from Monarchs' hand the granted sway.' When Symon Hill shouted 'who elected him?' about King Charles III, he was echoing an old argument that no ruler can govern a people without the consent of the governed. A lot of credit must go to English republicanism for helping to shape Britain into becoming a free society governed by the rule of law and not the absolute will of an individual on a throne. Without its struggle against arbitrary power, England wouldn't have become the 'republican monarchy' that Voltaire eulogised over. For many of us, our affinity to England and Britain isn't and has never been dependent upon the pomp and ceremony of monarchy. There is nothing at all alien about opposing the Royal family; Britons have been doing it for centuries. And the right to reject the monarchy – even if you strenuously disagree with republicanism – is an affirmation of British values rather than a rejection of it. What is England if not the land of liberty? If the King is nothing more than a custodian of a free society, there ought to be nothing to fear from one man voicing his opinion against the status quo. To try to repress this would be, above all, a betrayal of the liberty generations before have struggled and perished to advance in this country.
