Country Life

At last, some coverage of rural poverty. The loss of any parliamentary voice for the once-mighty, and still living, tradition of rural radicalism is one of the many, many reasons why these reforms are so urgently necessary.

Isn’t it absolutely amazing that the party of negative equity, of a “free” market ideology the full implementation of which would simply abolish agriculture in this country, of the mass destruction of public transport, of the mercifully unsuccessful attempts to privatise the Post Office and the Forestry Commission, and of the mercifully unsuccessful attempt to abolish the Agricultural Wages Board, should have been able to present itself as the party of the countryside, and even to claim some ancestral right to represent the countryside in Parliament, a claim which is contrary to the plain facts of history?

And isn’t it absolutely amazing that you don’t already need planning permission for change of use if you wish to change a first home into a second home (which, being rather iniquitously taxed differently, is perfectly simple to identify)?

Two among many, many, many reasons for a new party.