Not on the List
Would-be Labour MP Maya Evans questions her exclusion A “long list” of candidates from whom one will be chosen to represent the Labour party at the next general election in the Hastings & Rye constituency was unveiled last week. The…
Regime Change
Greens accept two posts in Labour-led cabinet At the first meeting of Hastings Borough Council since the local elections, Labour party chief Cllr Paul Barnett was voted back last week as council leader by a “co-operative alliance” of Labour and…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
The Starmer Project: A Journey to the Right By Terry Eagleton Published by Verso Books, 2022, paperback, rrp £,available at Bookbuster, 39 Queens Road Review by Tim Barton With our fundamentally undemocratic ‘first past the post’ system of allocating seats…
Claire Carr Defects to Greens
Cllr Claire Carr, who was newly elected as Labour councillor for Castle ward at the borough council election in May, announced last week that she had left the party and joined the Greens. That doubles the Green party representation but…
Pride and Prejudice
Why Town Mayor was barred from LGBT+ event Last Sunday’s Hastings Pride festival was billed as a major event in the town’s calendar – the more so because of cancellation not only of the 2020 event but also of the…
Local Labour Party Addresses Transgender Issue
Ten years on from its original adoption (see side panel), Hastings Borough Council has indicated that it plans to refresh the town’s Equality and Human Rights Charter, and last week the Hastings & Rye constituency Labour party (CLP) issued a…
Free food for kids
On 21st October a parliamentary motion to provide around disadvantaged children in England with £15-a-week food vouchers during school holidays until Easter 2021 was voted down by the Conservative government majority at ; Hastings & Rye MP Sally-Ann Hart was…
Antisemitism: Local and national
On 21st October Hastings Borough Council adopted the working definition of antisemitism developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The working definition comes with eleven examples that are intended to clarify its application, such as: “Accusing Jews as a…
Kim Forward Becomes Leader Elect of Hastings Council
At a meeting of Labour party councillors on 17th February Cllr Kim Forward was elected by them to take over as their leader in the wake of Peter Chowney’s resignation. Former mayor, deputy leader of Hastings Borough Council (HBC) since…
Disability And The Minimum Wage
What Was Actually Said The following exchanges – extracted and distorted across the national media – took place at the HIP Hastings Hustings at East Sussex College last Thursday evening when the four electoral candidates in the constituency of Hastings…