VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You and Your families are well. These early months of the year are often a financial struggle for many families, perhaps after a Christmas splurge, perhaps as tax bills await. The Citizens’ Advice Bureaux are full at this time of the year, debt counsellors are at their busiest, and, unfortunately, too many take their own … Continue reading A Prayer for Help with Finances
BY JENNY LONG Poetry is big business online. There has been a boom in digital poetry in the last few years and sites like Spillwords have become some of the largest on the Web. Up there at the very top of destinations for online poets’s work is The Poetry Fellowship based in the United Kingdom. The Poetry Fellowship is based in a Georgian building in Taunton … Continue reading The Poetry Fellowship
An Open Letter to the Legal & General Board Dear L&G Board Members, We are compelled to inform you that L&G’s Brand and reputation is in jeopardy. You state: ‘Our purpose is improving the lives of our customers, building a better society for the long term and creating value for our shareholders. This shapes every aspect of how we do business. We’re not only … Continue reading Do L&G Hate the British Countryside?
BY JIM WEBSTER The other day I took the car in to get an MOT and service. As I walked home two women passed me walking in the opposite direction. One said to the other, “he were having a fag behind the recycling bins.” Such is the joy of the English language that this probably means something entirely different depending on what part of the … Continue reading Linguistic Good Taste
CSM EDITORIAL It used to be that we’d laugh at America. Our cousins across the pond could snaffle Britain’s best scientists and engineers, they could come up with economic miracle after economic miracle – but they would always pick an idiot as President. When we Brits faced crises we’d come up with a Churchill or a Thatcher while the Americans stumbled from one fool to … Continue reading The Worst Leaders We’ve Ever Had
BY BEN EAGLE It was with a sigh of relief that I learned that Michael Gove was not moving to the Department for Exiting the European Union last week. Quite understandably most people were probably focused on the destination rather than the starting line. However, my eyes, as usual, were pointing towards Defra. The last thing that food, farming and the environment needs at this … Continue reading We Need Stability at DEFRA
CSM EDITORIAL The questions surrounding the smirking terrorist and liar Ashraf Mahmud Islam are not moral ones, but legal ones, explains ITV News Security Editor Rohit Kachroo. Ashraf Mahmud Islam has been imprisoned in northern Syria since January. Ashraf has been held by Kurdish YPG forces yet his Kurdish captors are unwilling to continue to house him and his fellow captives or put them on trial. They want … Continue reading Throw Away the Key
BY SAM HOOPER Open Borders zealots and anti-immigration hawks could yet come to a pragmatic compromise that works for all, if only they stopped viewing the immigration debate as a zero-sum, existential war. This Texas town shows the potential fruits of such compromise. One of the nicest things about having moved from Britain to the United States is the fact that I now live in … Continue reading Bringing Back Patriotism
CSM EDITORIAL The dossier and smears launched against Boris Johnson this weekend seemed planned to coincide with the launch of the ERG’s alternative plans for Brexit. The hitjob is well-detailed here http://bit.ly/2oPO2f4 here http://bit.ly/2wYtAwj and here http://bit.ly/2wVjuMB As things turned out, Boris’ use of the term suicide vest rather dulled the attacks – a quite brilliant shield tactic or a lucky counter strike by the man who could well … Continue reading Smearing Boris Backfires
