Author Archives: Alan Bolwell
Precarity In The System
We are now at the end of one of the most vicious, divisive and short-lived general elections for a generation. This has been determined in part by two conflicting and…
GE2019
As the General Election approaches, the hustings are bustling, sleigh-bells ring in the distance, and spectres of Christmas past, present and future loom long over the upcoming winter - the…
Chowney Appears In Perry’s Scope As The First Pre-Election Torpedoes Are Fired
In an article printed in Hastings in Focus, Hastings and Rye Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, Nick Perry, cited indices where areas of Hastings are highlighted as suffering from deprivation. He…
Labour Roots
HIP’s political editor, Alan Bolwell, reports from a Labour Party drive in the key marginal of Hastings and Rye East Sussex College, Hastings played host to a local Labour Roots…
Ruddiculous
Amber Rudd quit the government late on a Saturday evening, in a dramatic and carefully choreographed move with an exclusive for the Sunday Times. Rudd said, “I no longer believe…
The Great Dictator
On the 28th of August, Boris Johnson announced his intention to prorogue parliament from the 9th September until the 14th October, shortly after parliament was due to resume from summer…
Profit from Division
Leverage is emerging in the fractures of polarised political culture. One venture capitalist prospecting in nationalist movements financed far-right agitators who successfully campaigned in UK and US elections, gaining access…
Her Finest Hour
Looking back on the career of outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May her finest hour is a shining example of her time in office. May’s appearance on Radio 4’s Desert Island…
Green Yellows Or Yellow Greens?
On 1st July Paul Hunt and Nick Perry, of the local Liberal Democrat Party, extended an invitation to the local Green Party offering an electoral pact in next year’s local…
The Hour Glass Runs On
Merlin Betts and Alan Bolwell explore the impact of Extinction Rebellion Reclaim public spaces, rewild your gardens, rebel against bureaucratic mismanagement. The climate rebels encompass all sorts, not just radical…
Intervention Programme Helps Children At Risk
The first Early Intervention Youth Programme of its kind in the UK has now been fully mobilised across Sussex and has begun to steer more than 60 young people away…
Hygiene Poverty Relief
Hygiene poverty has been identified as ‘a hidden crisis’ in Britain and one that is growing, according to a 2017 report by In Kind Direct. With little money to cover…
The Diamond In The Trough
Rotherview Nursery are celebrating having been awarded a Gold medal at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, ( 21 – 25 May). The award was given for their Floral Pavilion…
Confidence and Supply
Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign team have been holding talks with leaders of the DUP, whose confidence and supply arrangement is holding the government together. Having survived a vote of no…
Jane The Virgin
Netflix (5 seasons)Reviewed by Alan Bolwell The television serial format, telenovela, is the Latino equivalent of soap-opera; with more passion, more drama, doppelgangers, long-lost twin siblings, lovers, rivals, mortal enemies,…
Indicative?
Perhaps ‘indicative’ was too strong a word to describe a series of votes taken by MPs to find an alternative Brexit strategy. After twice rejecting the government’s plan, MPs have…
Resigned
Local Hastings Borough councillor Dany Louise has resigned from the Labour ; In her resignation letter dated 13th February addressed to Council leader Peter Chowney, Cllr Louise accused the party…
Venezuela in Brief
Rather than using ballot boxes, Venezuela uses an electrical voting ballot: to begin with, there is no doubt whatever about that. Since 1998, elections in Venezuela have been automated (using…
OPINION: Stop It, You’re Killing Us!
Amber Rudd starts her new job this month. Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions. An easy job really, in many ways she was born to do…
Campaigning For A 3rd Referendum
Editor’s note by Alan Bolwell The final party conferences before Brexit have given an opportunity for both major parties to clarify their negotiating positions. So far both parties have managed…
Fighting Words
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell came to Hastings on 21st July to talk about local issues and how the Labour Party are preparing to address these issues with a local manifesto…
Alfie’s Hope
Alfie Dingley is a 6-year-old boy who suffers a rare form of epilepsy, PCDH19, which causes regular and severe seizures. After having limited success with pharmaceutical steroid-based treatments in the…
HIP READ: Getting Headway
Enigmatic in title and content, Headway, the first novel by Kit Battenberg is many things An existential novel addressing – sometimes aggressively confronting - the human condition, whilst gesticulating dramatically…
Arts and affordable housing meet in the Ore Valley
A local trust has announced a one day festival of music, food and arts in the Ore Valley on the site of the old Broomgrove Power Station Site, featuring the…
Brexit Fish Stew – Toxic and Incendiary
By Kent Barker It was one of UKIP’s key platforms before last June’s referendum – Nigel Farage, stately as a ship’s figurehead, lead a flotilla of fishing vessels up the…
Home Secretary’s home targeted in refugee rehousing protest
Protestors gather outside the constituency home of Amber Rudd to protest the foreshortening of the Dubs amendment. By Sam Kinch Protestors gathered outside the constituency home of Hastings & Rye…
Hastings Story Telling Festival
Two Clowns Trapped in a Cardboard World was played out in a set made entirely of cardboard at St Mary in the Castle as part of the Hastings Story Telling…
Jeremy Corbyn: Philosopher King
In Plato's Republic, Socrates predicts the coming of a Philosopher King and sets out the conditions necessary for a Good State in conveniently referenced dialogue with an interlocutor. In this…
University in climb-down confusion
By Robert Joyce University of Brighton in Hastings The University of Brighton have seemingly withdrawn their decision to close their operation in Hastings following growing legal pressure over the way…
Brexiteers, Bremainians and Blairites
by Alan Bolwell (Image by Catrin Austin) As tensions run unusual high in the political climate all sides are scrambling to prepare for a general election that could come as…
A Conservative Underestimate
by Alan Bolwell (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images) Following investigations into several Conservative MPs spending during the 2015 General Election, Energy and Environment Secretary and Hastings MP Amber Rudd has…
BattleBUSTED!
(Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images) by Alan Bolwell Following investigations into several Conservative MPs spending during the 2015 General Election, Energy and Environment Secretary and Hastings MP Amber Rudd has…
Buddha Triangle at Smallworld
Welcome home, welcome back, welcome to Smallworld. An inter-dimensional portal to a world in which everything and nothing is real. A place to go to lose your mind and find…
With apologies to Michael Foster
By Alan Bolwell A couple of months ago I made the mistake of accusing the wrong Michael Foster of bizzare and offensive ramblings. I was sent an article by a…
Hastings Pride: News, Updates, Wanting to Help and Everything Else
By Natasha Scott Anyone who wants to help in any way we would all very much love to hear from you to make what I hope becomes the Pride of…
To whom it may concern,
I am writing in response to the article titled 'Julian Assange is a political prisoner, not a fugitive from Justice' in the latest edition of The Hastings Independent. In my…
Dear Metro,
I'd like to briefly pen this response to your article on the 23rd January All Hastings – Shoreditch on Sea is on the up and up says Alison Taylor. It…
“Welcome to the Jeremy Corbyn fanclub”
by Alan Bolwell On Monday 25th January around 50 Hastonians gathered in The Jenny Lind to express their interest in Momentum, a National group that has set up a Hastings…