The household support package is a mere plaster on the UK’s cost of living says Labour’s Pat Osborne
Labour Pat Osborne
While Rishi Sunak’s announcement of a £37bn package of household support for rocketing energy bills gave the Tories some respite from Partygate this week, for many of those worst affected by the cost of living crisis, its impact will barely be felt at all. October’s grant will do very little to offer respite from hardship for many on pre-paid meters, let alone replace the meals and hot showers they’ve already missed. For others the grant will offset arrears that have accumulated, effectively rechannelling cash from a windfall tax on obscene super-profits straight back into the pockets of the oil barons and energy moguls. Sunak is right to point to the role of a range of global factors, such as the war in Ukraine, in pushing energy prices up. But the cost of living crisis isn’t just about energy – it’s wilfully disingenuous of a man with his economic background to sidestep the plethora of homegrown factors that are contributing to it.
No answers The package does nothing to address low pay, nothing to address the housing crisis and rising rents, nothing to insulate homes (which is the most cost- effective way of both keeping energy bills down and tackling the climate crisis), and nothing to reverse the damage of 12 years of Tory austerity on our decaying public services. Most importantly, it does nothing to tackle privatisation and the lust for excess profits that are the root of inflation. The Chancellor’s long-awaited answer to the cost of living crisis has been to put a sticking plaster on a gunshot wound. Like the rest of Johnson’s Government, he shows himself to be without either the imagination or integrity to act in the best interests of the country.
It’s tricky speaking truth to power. How can citizens who are increasingly concerned about the looming environmental crisis persuade government and industry decision-makers to take the necessary actions to avert disaster? The challenge was highlighted at a protest outside Dorset Council’s offices on 12th May, seeking to raise awareness of the council’s failure to take adequate action since it had declared a climate and ecological emergency three years ago ago at its first AGM as a unitary authority. None of the protesters were there for personal gain. They were acting on behalf of all of us. To their credit, some councillors engaged with them as they arrived for the meeting. Notably only a couple of younger Conservatives did so. The protest was entirely peaceful, albeit theatrical and lively when a drum band struck up. There were various speeches, but they were not heard inside the building. A Conservative councillor in the meeting was reported to have described the protesters as a ‘rabble’ and said she was ‘disgusted’ by them. Decades of increasingly desperate warnings by scientists have failed to generate the required urgent action. Public protests have so far simply drawn increasingly harsh repressive measures by the Government. There is some hope, with polls indicating that most people are now increasingly concerned about the environment, and growing numbers within industry are too. A safety consultant recently left her job with Shell, sending an open letter to its executives and 1,400 employees saying the firm was knowingly causing extreme harm to planet and people. Attitudes to the environmental crisis are too often split between the so-called political Left and Right. This is disastrous. Global warming will impact us all, regardless of our political affiliation. We have to find a way to work together for the common good. Our common future depends on it.
Cerne Abbas village has been opening some of its private gardens since 1974 and this year they are delighted to return to their traditional June weekend when the roses should be at their best.
The village event will be on the weekend of the 18th and 19th June, and it is expected that more than 25 gardens will be open, all within easy walking distance of the free car park (open from 1pm-8pm). All garden hosts make a special point of being available to talk about their gardens and their homes. The proceeds will be split equally between two local charities, Cerne Valley Youth Trust, and Dorchester Youth Theatre. A few gardens can accommodate wheelchairs, and most gardens welcome well-behaved dogs on leads – these will be identified on the maps which may be downloaded from the website one week in advance of the date (www.cerneabbasopengardens.org.uk). Teas will be available in St Mary’s church, and the renowned plant stall will be back in the village square. The villagers very much look forward to you visiting.
Cerne Abbas Open Gardenms weekend is Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th June. Gardens are open from 2pm to 6pm. Entry to all gardens £7, (accompanied children free).
The world needs grown-up democracies more than ever, says North Dorset Lib Dems’ Mike Chapman – but ours is currently looked at with raised eyebrows
Mike Chapman Lib Dems
First and foremost, 70 years of duty delivered faultlessly by our Queen is the most potent message this nation can send to the rest of the world. The strong, integrating and positive voice of the Commonwealth, built during her reign, is the most extraordinary achievement, too. A heartfelt thank you to Her Majesty from here in the Vale. But why does the quality of the political leadership of this nation matter so much to us in the South West? Why should the probity of those at the top, elected and unelected alike, be so important? With the US schizophrenic about guns and equally divided about so much else, with Russia being taken to hell in a handcart and China continuing to demonstrate the viciousness of its regime, the steady voice of the more grown-up democracies needs to be heard. Thus, Partygate, the continuing spat with the EU about Northern Ireland and the rest of the Brexit mess are doubly disastrous: our nation is not focused on the more important issues and the rest of the world is dealing with us with raised eyebrows and the long spoon of distrust.
Fool all the people The electorate is increasingly savvy. Those one-liners from the 1950s on, from “you have never had it so good” to “take back control” no longer resonate the way they used to. Lincoln had it right about the limitations of trying to fool the people. We know we have been taken for a ride. The heart of this for the Vale is the notion of levelling up, currently being served up by those we have seen at the centre of the Partygate revelries. The haughtiness, the we-know-best approach of those in the various coteries at the centre can be seen in the pictures, read in the texts and felt in the denials and excuses. It is this centralised and centralising monoculture that needs fixing. Otherwise, we are no better than those tyrannies we seek to defeat. Through elections near at hand and in the longer term, we will find the way. Early May saw the start of change.
Post 1: Hours: 20 – 8.30am -12.30pm Monday – Friday, Term time plus 1 week for inset (training) days.
Post2: 16 hours – 11.15am – 3.15pm Monday – Thursday, Term time plus 1 week for inset (training) days.
This is an exciting opportunity to join the strong team at Milborne Port Primary School and shape the future of our early years provision.
The school governors are looking to appoint two qualified (Level 2 or 3) Pre-School Practitioners at The Beeches Pre-School from September 2022.
We are looking for individuals who are enthusiastic about early learning, committed to providing the best start for children in the early years, and who have a desire to continually learn and develop.
Please contact the School Business Manager Claire Brown on: [email protected] for an application form and job description.
Closing date: Friday 24th June 2022
Interviews: Tuesday 28th June at 9.30am
All completed applications should be returned to the school email address above.
Milborne Port Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff to share in this commitment.
This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check and medical clearance.
Tom Robinson, songwriter and broadcaster, will be at The Exchange later this month. Editor Laura Hitchcock spoke to him about his 50-year career as a musician, as a broadcaster and as an activist.
It was 1977 when 2-4-6-8 Motorway became one of the landmark singles of the UK punk era. Other hits by the Tom Robinson Band included Glad to be Gay, Up Against the Wall and Power in the Darkness, which went gold in the UK. As a solo artist, he had further hits with War Baby and Listen to the Radio and co-wrote songs with Peter Gabriel and Elton John. As a radio broadcaster Tom has been introducing new artists to the UK audience for the past two decades, sharing them on his Sunday night Introducing Mixtape show. I asked Tom whether his heart lies in touring or in his radio show. “The radio show was a godsend when it came along in my early 50s. I’d been a working musician for the best part of 40 years, and it was getting tiring! So the radio show was just at the right time and ensured I knew where the next crust was coming from – that I slept in my own bed and actually saw my kids grow up. But then it’s been really nice coming back out of retirement and strutting the boards again. Really I get the best of both worlds.”
Small but perfectly formed So why now think: “hmmm, as I reach 70, now is a great time to head back out and work long hours for weeks in a row”? “Ha! Gratification! People still remember the songs that I wrote all those years ago, and an astonishing number of them know the ones I wrote more recently. There’s a small but perfectly formed audience, and it’s enough to fill a venue. “At 72, still to be able to strap on a Fender bass guitar and throw shapes on a stage, pose in the lights and play with some great musicians? Why wouldn’t I? “I get to play with top-level musicians who are 20 years younger than me, and it keeps me on my toes. We do it because we love it. And when people sing along to what you’ve written, 40 years later, it’s definitely something.” And does he mind the repeated requests for 2-4-6-8 Motorway? “Oh, no, au contraire! If it wasn’t for that song I wouldn’t be talking to you now! The great advantage of only having half a dozen songs that everybody knows is that there’s plenty of scope in a show to play loads of other stuff – I just don’t have the enormous back catalogue of hits like Elvis Costello and other contemporaries of mine. So we can play all the favourites, and everybody’s happy, but I have latitude to do some interesting new stuff too.”
Introducing Mixtape And alongside the music, Tom’s career has really moulded around introducing new artists? “Absolutely! Actually I’ve had a great time on this tour asking my favourites to be my guests and open the shows. A lot are completely under the radar artists. It means I get to see them play live and they get to play to an audience that doesn’t know their work. My favourite on the last tour was a 14 year old from East Sussex. She first sent me a record at the age of 11 that she’d made at home with her dad. It was stunningly good. Really radical and spiky. When we played Brighton I asked if she fancied playing a few songs, and it turned out she’d never played live for an audience before. Her very first gig was opening for us at the age of 14 in Brighton! “And she was brilliant – the audience went crazy. Talent is talent, it doesn’t matter how old or young. She’s probably the youngest I’ve ever played on the show, and the oldest was Peggy Seeger, who sent a new song to BBC Introducing, as if she were a new unknown artist – at the age of 86. And it was brilliant! All that matters is what comes out of the speakers.”
A modern industry I’m presuming the entire industry has flipped on its head since Tom started, compared with how people access music now? “The key word there is industry. We always thought of ‘music’ and ‘the industry’ as synonymous. But the older I get the more I see that the industry exists simply to extract money between the creator and consumer. That’s why we have record companies, publishers, managers, touring companies, rehearsal space managers … endless people all creaming off their five per cent. “It is interesting that creators are now bypassing all that and going direct to the consumers. I see folk bands with a mailing list of a couple of thousand followers, and they’re making a great living off that – because no one else is taking overheads. So if someone is willing to spend £100 a year on tickets, an album, a tee and what-have-you? Multiply that by a thousand, and that’s giving up the day job and making music full time. On a very small audience. You no longer have to have a big industry behind you, to be on Radio 1 and play Glastonbury with an audience that loves what you do. ‘Unsigned’ used to be a demeaning term. But there’s no shame at all in being unsigned – now we call them independent artists, and they just don’t wait for permission to be musicians anymore.
Tom the activist So – campaigner or musician, which is your legacy? “I never got into music to politically campaign for LGBT rights or racial equality. I was just keen to use any platform I had. It has to be music first and foremost. Because unless you’re making music people love, no one gives a toss about your political views or campaigns. Nobody buys your records because they agree with your politics. Glad to be Gay didn’t change attitudes, it was the audiences that used to sing it together that went home and talked and argued with friends and family that did that. I don’t believe music has the power to change minds – I don’t think a single National Front skinhead showed up at one of our shows and said ‘Oh, I’m so stupid, I’ve seen the error of my ways’. But sharing the music with a big crowd does reinforce a message in a mind that is ready for it.”
Tom Robinson is appearing at the Exchange in Sturminster Newton on 24th June, a full band show ahead of their Glastonbury set next day Tickets are £22 here.
Luke Rake is Principal and CEO of Kingston Maurward College near Dorchester and chairs the Dorset Local Nature Partnership.
Luke Rake Principal and CEO of Kingston Maurward College
Born in Devon, Luke grew up on the edge of Dartmoor and has always been an outdoors fanatic, as well as a self- confessed geek. “I’m a classic example of the free school meals kid whose life was changed by education, supportive welfare from a number of sources and some cracking parenting. After my parents split we were shunted around by the council for a little while, including to a bedsit and a caravan, until we got lucky and landed a council house when I was 11. There are no musicians in my family, but the radio was always on and my pop quiz abilities are largely down to a young mother who didn’t migrate to Radio 2 until well after I left home. Like every sane person, I consider 1984 to be the greatest year of music in history. At sixth form I started to learn the guitar and have been obsessed with it ever since, so I’ll admit this list is heavily influenced by that!”
And so to Luke’s eight music choices, in chronological order of influence:
Hanging on the Telephone – Blondie I remember bouncing around to this in the car as we drove to and from my Dad’s greengrocer’s shop when we lived in East Devon. Literally bouncing. I don’t think we used seatbelts back then. It’s a fabulous song with huge energy and defines the late 70’s for me.
Hallowed be thy Name – Iron Maiden This band was hugely formative for me and their albums were some of the first I bought with earnings from my Saturday job. It’s also current – outside work I swap the tweed for a cut-off jacket as I’m one of two guitarists in an Iron Maiden Tribute Band. COVID has got in the way for every venue and it’s important to get this back and support live music. We’re gigging all over the country, headlining a couple of festivals over the next 12 months and love what we do. When this one kicks in, the crowd goes nuts every single time. It’s just a blast to play with the guys.
By day, he’s a mild-mannered college principal. By night, he‘s a rock-playing guitar man with torn-off sleeves
Time Stand Still – Rush Probably the closest thing they did to a pop song, this late 80s tune always makes me smile and has been a fixture in most of the driving mix-tapes (and modern equivalents) ever since. Great band, great musicans.
Dreams – Van Halen It’s pure cheese, but it’s also brilliant. We could have an endless debate over the David Lee Roth vs Sammy Hagar era, but Eddie was just such an inspiration to a young guitarist and this song is also the soundtrack to driving over Dartmoor. In the upper sixth our timetable on a Thursday had just one lesson first thing and then we were free to do … whatever. We used our ‘study time’ most productively, and were usually on the moor or at a beach by lunchtime. Van Halen was the soundtrack to every sunny day.
Day We Caught the Train – Ocean Colour Scene Although I grew up in Devon, I didn’t really regularly visit Dorset until the 90s, after I got my first car. I was doing a lot of rock climbing and frequently spent Friday nights zooming down here to camp at Tom’s Field in Purbeck, or a cheeky bivi site on Portland, and get to the pub before they rang for last orders. This tune is iconic for the 90s and was frequently playing as we left for the coast. It’s no wonder we ended up living here really – my wife and I got engaged after a particularly romantic weekend around Dancing Ledge, and even named our first cats after places in Dorset!
Famous Last Words – My Chemical Romance It’s not a phase. It’s a way of life. I was never really into grunge, but emo, definitely. Welcome to the Black Parade is the defining album of the genre and this song is just immense. We saw them in Cardiff 15 years ago, leaving behind a baby and a toddler in the care of the babysitter, and they blew our minds. This May all four of us were at Cardiff for their return, although I was more than happy to let the younger pair go into the mosh pit this time while I held the drinks and merch …
Garden Valley – Cara Dillon I love folk as much as I love metal. This is a Dougie Maclean song about emigration from the east of Scotland, and this rendering by Cara is just sublime. She has the most incredible voice, truly astonishing. The storytelling of the lyrics combined with the way it’s delivered always make me cry.
Waving through a Window Dear – Evan Hansen I love musical theatre. Music is, or should be, about emotion. Anyone who has felt ‘on the outside’ will resonate with this. I was someone who was definitely the Dungeons and Dragons science geek at school, and that, along with dealing with the challenges never having enough money at home brings when you see your friends do things you simply can’t, meant I always felt somewhat separate. Being pretty introverted also probably added to the mix. It’s a powerful message – Evan has his own issues, but we’re all on the outside at one time or another. It’s important to just be happy with you, whatever that is.
And if the waves were to wash all your records away but you had time to save just one, which would it be? Dreams. It has to be.
My book – Danny, the Champion of the World. Such a comforting read, as well as beautiful imagery. Loved this as a kid, and was then lucky enough to live in the Chilterns in my late 20s and early 30s, not far from Roald Dahl’s home. It is exactly as you’d expect it to be, and I used to drive along the same road as Danny did (when he ‘borrowed’ the Baby Austin) every day to work. Fabulous.
My luxury item Well, a guitar obviously. Along with a Marshall DSL Head and 4×12 cab please. And maybe a full pedalboard of FX. (I think you’ll find that’s cheating, and more than ONE THING – Ed)
Doug and Lucy reflect on the enormous joy of an ‘I made that!’ moment – even as they teach foals to pick up their feet, and hope they don’t split their stitches
She’s had surgery, has stitches which are not yet healed, and she’s in a small grazing pen to stop her from running. You can’t keep a good horse down. Image: Lucy Procter
We can’t start this column without mentioning the passing this week of Lester Piggott – probably the greatest jockey any of us will ever see. But what people may not know is that he was also the breeder of a number of successful racehorses, some of which he rode himself: rider-breeder is a far rarer combination than owner-breeder.
A selection of the awards that Doug and Lucy Procter have won as Honeysuckle’s breeders
Slow June At TGS, with the arrival of June, life at the stud changes pace. All but a handful of the mares and foals now live out 24/7, most of our seasonal boarding mares have returned home to their owners and our two seasonal members of staff have left for the summer. With less to do during the day, I’ve had a flurry of photos of foals wearing caps and having snuggles with the staff – but none of this is time completely wasted. If the foals are well handled at this early stage, the easier they will be to handle as they mature into half ton, lively young racehorses.
A TGS foal with hat. Because why not. Image: Hollie Rhodes
At TGS this season we’ve welcomed 22 foals into the world, 24 mares have visited their chosen stallion and, at writing, 19 are confirmed pregnant. There are two late mares due to foal at the end of the month and only three mares left to cover. Doug takes up the story: While checking on how both the foals and the grass are growing (well for both, at the moment) I got to thinking just what do we get out of breeding racehorses? With a horse like Honeysuckle, what we get out of it is pretty obvious; awards and column inches galore would be a buzz for anyone. But what about the others? A lot of horses never win. In fact about a fifth never even race. So when you do breed a winner it’s quite an achievement. You can think “I made that!”. A lot of other people – bloodstock agents, trainers, jockeys, owners, old uncle Tom Cobley and all, have got to get it right along the way, but still, YOU made it. You chose the mare. You planned the mating. You can remember the gawky youngster and what you thought about its future as a racehorse, whether they might be good. Or not. But for sheer joy and excitement, seeing a horse you bred cross the line in front of all the others, be it carrying your colours or someone else’s, is hard to beat. The old Churchill quote “there’s something about the outside of a horse that’s good for the inside of a man (sic person?) is doubly so when you’ve bred the horse too. But before we get too carried away dreaming, Lucy brings us back to earth with the day-to-day ups and downs of breeding.
There’s time for cuddles in the fields now that the workload is slowing at TGS Image: Lindsay Swalwell
Foal in stitches This month, one of our mares foaled her filly foal while standing up. Normally if this happens there isn’t a problem, but on this occasion, within a couple of days the foal’s stomach was noticeably distended. Our vet identified a potential issue with the foal’s bladder and arranged for a rushed admission to Western Counties Vet Hospital. An internal rupture was identified and surgery carried out. Now home, although mother and foal can go out during the day, we have to keep them in a small grazing pen for the next month so that the foal doesn’t gallop around too fast and risk splitting her stitches. We can’t stop her leaping for joy, however (see image at the top of article), so we just have o keep our fingers crossed she doesn’t do any damage! One of the routine jobs for us is worming, which starts at two months old, and continues bi-monthly until late autumn. We used to deworm monthly for the first year, but professional advice now is to do so every two months, the idea being to give the foals a chance to start building their own natural resistance. Our main weapon in the battle against worms though is poo picking. We regularly remove poo from fields using poo skips and rakes, before moving the horses to a different field and then going in with the tractor to harrow and top the grass and rest the pasture for a couple of weeks before grazing again.
Even in a small grazing pen, one bored foal can look for some trouble Image: Lucy Procter
Fancy footwork Our oldest foals are also meeting the farrier for the first time. It’s a good idea to regularly practice picking up their feet in the stable or field, so that it isn’t a total shock when the farrier turns up to trim their hooves for the first time. Usually the foals are reasonably well behaved for the farrier, but recently one in particular wasn’t interested in standing still with her feet up for rasping. So rather than battle with her we will do daily foot-lifting practice so that hopefully, when the farrier returns in a couple of weeks, she lets him do his job.
Royal Dunfermline With the Queen’s Jubilee upon us, and we prepare to head on up the hill opposite the stud for the lighting of the Jubilee beacon, we are reminded that her Majesty has herself been a keen owner and breeder of racehorses for most of her seventy- year reign. In fact, her most notable owner-breeder triumphs came in 1977, her Silver Jubilee year, when her homebred filly Dunfermline, won both The Oaks and The St. Leger, two of the five British Classic flat races.
This is an old favourite which we’d not done for a while. The below map is our original route (with all its 5* reviews!) but we walked it again during May just to double check all the paths, and it’s still stunning (you can see all 34 photos from the more recent 2022 the duplicated route here).
It’s an up-and-down walk as you cross the hill range and back again, and it took us three hours and 40 minutes at a steady pace. The route really makes the most of those spectacular chalk downland valleys, but the expansive views across the Chalke Valley are interspersed with shady routes through green lanes.
This is the final climb – passing to the left of the twin trees in the valley, then crossing to follow the hedge on the left of the bare strip and all the way up to the right of the copse at the top to crest the hillThe view from the top of Marleycombe Hill though … You can just about make out the cricketers in Bowerchalke below
It’s a steady pull up Marleycombe Hill… but the very steep descent into Bowerchalke isn’t much better!
The Roman path along the Vernditch ChaseNo of course we didn’t just plough through a crop. This farmer is ace – he always places posts wrapped in white plastic along the footpath through this huge field, so you always know you’re where you’re supposed to be (see the white dot over to the right of Courtenay’s shoulder? That’s where the path goes, NOT the wide tractor track over hs left shoulder)
There are three steady climbs but they are suitably rewarded, I promise, with big skies, and sights across to Salisbury cathedral, coupled with hidden green lanes and ancient woodland. Walk it on a summer Sunday, and you’ll descend from Marleycombe Hill into Bowerchalke to the sound of cricket on the village green. Perfect.
I love this solitary barn with the wide sky – and as you crest the hill beyond it, an amazing view of the Chalke Valley opens up below youThe farm track from the back of Knowle Farm is steeper than it looks here (under the tree and up the hill between the hedges). Grit your teeth and just keep plodding…
Do watch out for hares in early summer – we saw so many on this walk in the middle of May.
*There’s easy free parking at the start at Vitrell Gate car park.
All the Dorset Walks we feature have been created and walked recently by ourselves, so you know you can trust them – we aim for unpopulated routes with as little road and as many views as possible! You can always see the route and follow it yourself via the free Outdoor Active app – see all our routes here.
