Archives for Thoughts
Arts in Britain: Sleeping Beauty?
A View from St Mary in the Castle By Marcus Weeks Sadly, not a plug for this year’s panto at St Mary’s, but a description of that magnificent venue in…
The Truth Behind Hastings Freedom Fighters
By Sue Layparvey There’s a new local group who call themselves the Hastings Freedom Fighters (HFF). They say that they are opposed to government restrictions imposed under coronavirus legislation. They…
What’s on your mind?
We would love to hear from write to: Please be aware we may need to edit letters for reasons of space and we will only withhold names if this is…
School and Quarantine
Safiya Young is about to start her second year A Levels at Bexhill Sixth Form College. How was the lockdown for her and students like her? The buses were…
A teacher reflects
If you want the experience of not being listened to, work in education. The lockdown brought that into sharp focus for those of us lucky enough to work in education.…
Hastings residents welcome refugees
By Jo Turner On Channel 4 News this week Sally-Ann Hart, MP for Hastings and Rye, was interviewed about her party’s policy on refugees and also her own personal poor…
People’s Opposition
We are seeing a rise in mass activism. Revolt is in the air, famers are driving their tractors through London, there are mass turnouts for Black Lives Matter and Extinction…
Readers react to Thoughts and Voices
Re 5G Network Rollout – Who Does It Benefit? I find the repeated mantra of ‘it’s going to change our world for the better’ quite untrue. The ‘benefits’ seem so…
COMMENT: It really is time for the UK government to declare a Climate Change Emergency
Richard Price asks why the government isn’t declaring a climate change emergency given the evidence building up of climate catastrophe. Why are the media under-reporting or even ignoring the…
COMMENT Riots, Rows And Rainbows
Pride Month In Pandemicamonium… June is LGBT Pride Month. Whilst many associate Pride with Parades, which take place in various locations around the world throughout the summer, Pride Month is…
COMMENT 5G Network Rollout
Who Does it Benefit? The process of upgrading our mobile networks to 5G will be slow and expensive but will bring a number of improvements to different sectors. 5G’s new…
COMMENT Black Lives Matter – Everywhere Including Hastings
Amber Smith is the founder of the Black Lives Matter – Sussex Facebook group which has grown to three thousand members in just one week, and is also involved in…
COMMENT: The View From Alexandra Park
When the Home Secretary called for people to stay away from #BlackLivesMatter demonstrations on Saturday, she almost certainly gave many the final arm-twist they needed to stand up and be…
COMMENT: Covid-19 and Me
By Oliver Speer As I write this, I am in lockdown in a shed at my sister’s garden in the countryside just outside Hastings. Two days ago, our Prime Minister…
COMMENT: True Religion?
Zenos Metevsky comments on fervour for the NHS in the streets of Hastings Bank holiday sunshine lights up the back streets of Hastings – silent, empty and lined with parked…
The Scandal Of Private Testing
By Graham Pearcey The symptoms were pretty clear, and Doctor Google and I concluded that it was almost certainly giardia, a nasty little intestinal bug that makes its presence felt…
COMMENT: Don’t Be A Vaccine Damage Denier
Kent Barker replies to the Comment in 7th April issue of HIP by Paul Barlow. The debate over vaccines and vaccination is already dangerously polarised and, sadly, Paul Barlow’s comment…
COMMENT: Banging The Drum…
In common with most people I applaud the bravery and professionalism of all our NHS workers, and not just during the current crisis. As a child of the early 1950s…
COMMENT: Lockdown Liberation
A chance to change the way we live and work? Lockdown, with its sudden imposition of more free time for many of us, has spawned much frenzied advice on how…
COMMENT: Why Vaccination Matters
Former Hastings Councillor Paul Barlow explores the importance of vaccination. After the novelty of COVID-19 self-isolation wore off (about four days!) I started thinking about how we dealt with infections…
Food For Thought
Needed More Than Ever In times of crisis, we find out what we are made of. I am often surprised at what comes out of me when the pressure is…
COMMENT: Not OK, Boomer
Poppy Prescott – Kicks Back I saw in issue 145 that Glenn’s been ‘kicking off’ again. In said column, community legend Glenn, 70, reminisces about the “so-called good old days”…
COMMENT
Extinction Rebellion Hastings and St. Leonards on Climate Change and Hastings Borough Council Ahead of the forthcoming Hastings Borough Council Strategy announcement on reducing carbon emissions, Extinction Rebellion Hastings and…
An Editor’s Welcome
Voicing Thoughts on ‘Thoughts and Voices’ Thoughts and Voices is a new space in HIP subtitled ‘Comment and Opinion on Matters That Matter’ and designed to house, well, exactly this!…