Reflections on the remarkable EU Parliamentary Elections in the UK.

English Democrats becalmed.  Brexit Party is in full sail, leaving UKIP and all the others floundering in its wake.

The English Democrats received 39,938 votes in total in the 4 regions in which they stood; East of England, North West England, South West England and Yorkshire and The Humber.  In a previous blogpost I wrote that they would not retain their £20,000 worth of deposits and would do well if they garnered 40,000 votes – so I was not far wrong.  It was a gallant effort by patriotic candidates to raise the subject of English nationhood, but their voices were drowned out as The Brexit Party roared onto the scene.  Robin Tilbrook’s party may one day have a chance to prosper if and when the SNP enter a coalition with Labour and or other left-wing parties to form a government in Westminster.

I suspect UKIP will gradually fade from the scene and most of its 554,463 voters, 3.3 per cent of the vote,  will eventually  drift over to The Brexit Party and give further impetus to its 30.5 per cent of the vote.

The future of the Conservative Party and The Brexit Party will be decided by October 31.  If there is no Brexit by then the Conservatives are doomed as their Brexiteer supporters will jump ship to Nigel Farage’s party.

Staple Common on the Blackdown Hills in Somerset. A fine view toward the Quantock Hills.

The short drive south from Staple Fitzpaine on the Blackdown Hills in Somerset takes you between the hedgerows up a narrow twisty minor road toward Castle Neroche and its environs.  With Neroche on your left you will come upon the entrance to the Forestry Commission’s Staple Common plantation on your right.  Pull in to the wide gateway and you can enjoy some fine views toward the Quantock Hills.

Earlier this week I did just that, and took some photos.

The first photo is a view over the tower of St. Peter's Church in the village of Staple Fitzpaine - it can be seen above the treetops in the centre of the picture.  Hestercombe House, on the slopes of the Quantocks, is just visible on the left of the picture.

A view from Staple Common on the Blackdown Hills in Somerset toward the Quantock Hills.

I panned to the west for the second photo.  Hestercombe House is now just visible on the right.

A view toward the Quantock Hills from Staple Common on the Blackdown Hills in Somerset. 

Jenny Knight and Mike Blundell step up to the plate for the English Democrats in the South West Region's European Union Parliamentary Elections.

I have come across very little in the West Country papers referring to the policies Jenny Knight and Mike Blundell are advocating as they step up to the plate for the English Democrats in the South West Region in the EU Parliamentary Election – an election that this country would not be participating in had the British Political Establishment honoured the result of the 2016 EU Referendum.  

However, I did find this from the North Devon Gazette:

English Democrats

The English Democrats firmly believe in leaving the EU and 'putting England first' - including campaigning for the creation of an English Parliament.

It is putting up two candidates for the South West - Jenny Knight and Mike Blundell.

First candidate on the ballot, Mrs Knight, said: "I am from a Devon military family from Great Torrington and went to school in Bideford, North Devon but now live in Somerset. I am a local historian having written guide books on Bath.

"I am standing for the English Democrats Party whose manifesto includes leaving the EU and Putting England First. We also campaign for England to have her own Parliament to equalise that of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

"I am also supporting those women born in the 1950's who suffered financial hardship when the state pension age was raised for women from age 60 to 66, with little or no notice and implemented through the 1995 and 2011 Pensions Acts. Thousands of women in the South West were affected, losing in general up to £45,000 each.

"If elected I will campaign with Pension Reformers United for all those women across the South West who, quite rightly, feel they have suffered an injustice at the hands of successive Governments and deserve recompense."

Second candidate, Mike Blundell, said : "The European Union is an inward looking, authoritarian and inefficient institution. The sooner we are out of it the better.

"I am a family man, living and working in Bristol for more than 30 years. In that time I have experienced the decline in the quality of our public services.

"We should be spending our taxes on improving our hospitals and schools and not being forced by the European Union to have them spent funding subsidies for tobacco, wine and sugar. We can add to this slipper farmers, receipt free MEP expenses and the endless travel between Brussels and Strasbourg.

"The EU is outdated, it is the past. Time to say goodbye."

Good for them for standing.  In present circumstances, they will have done well if they receive more than 10,000 votes.

Here is a link to the whole article:

https://www.northdevongazette.co.uk/news/politics/euro-election-south-west-candidates-1-6056398

The Parish Church of St. Andrew in the village of Old Cleeve, West Somerset, and its noble view across Blue Anchor Bay.

Last Monday, as it was such a fine sunny day, my wife and I decided to visit the village of Dunster in West Somerset.  I drove across the beautiful Blackdown Hills to Taunton and then up the A358 between the delightful Quantocks and Brendons.   Once on the A39 we headed for Dunster, but after passing through Washford we decided to take a short detour along the narrow lanes to the village of Old Cleeve.

I had read of a famous epitaph on the gravestone of the local blacksmith, George Jones, who died in 1808, and wanted to see if I could find it in the graveyard at Old Cleeve’s Parish Church of St. Andrew.

Arthur Mee, in his The King’s England, Somerset (Hodder and Stoughton, 1968), writing of Old Cleeve states that: “It has a noble outlook, through the trees across the wide bay to where North Hill rises like a mountain from the sea.  Raised above the cottage roofs, the church has the best of the view, for which it took its seat 500 years ago.”

The Parish Church of St. Andrew in the village of Old Cleeve, West Somerset.

The view toward North Hill across Blue Anchor Bay from the churchyard of the Parish Church of St. Andrew in Old Cleeve, West Somerset.

I found the Church of St. Andrew on the hillside above the village and took some photos of the view across Blue Anchor Bay noted by Arthur Mee, but I could not find the grave of George Jones.  However, I discovered the blacksmith’s epitaph in Edward Hutton’s Highways and Byways in Somerset, (Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1923), and reproduce it verbatim below:

My Sledge and Hammer lie reclined,

My Billows too have lost their wind;

My Fire’s extinct, my Forge decay’d,

And in the Dust my Body’s laid;

My Coal is burnt, my Iron’s gone,

My Nails are drove, my Work is done.

A stroll with my camera along hilltop hedgerows in South Somerset.

On May 15 I went for an afternoon stroll around hilltop hedgerows in South Somerset.  I took my camera with me as it was a bright day, but there was very little blue sky around to enhance the background.  Nevertheless, I think I managed to take some pleasing photos capturing the season of the  year.

Cattle grazing on the crest of a hill in South Somerset.

Hawthorn in the hedgerow.

Hawthorn flowers.

Dandelion seed.

A sea of rapeseed. 

The well trodden footpath at the edge of a South Somerset hill top field.  Cow parsley to the left, rapeseed to the right.

Germander speedwell.

Red campion.

A Green Party supporter raises the standard of political campaigning in Ilminster, South Somerset?

I was driving through Ilminster yesterday when my wife saw what appeared to be a Green Party election poster attached to a telegraph pole.  I went back and took a photo.  Obviously this local supporter of the Green Party wants to raise the standard of political campaigning?

A Green Party supporter raises the standard of political campaigning in Ilminster, South Somerset?

The poster may persuade some to "vote Green", but it did not persuade us!

A stroll around the village of Pensford in the Chew Valley, North Somerset.

The large village of Pensford straddles the A37 about 4 miles south of Bristol.  I stopped for a short break there recently, with my wife, on the way home from Bristol.  We parked in Pensford’s Memorial Hall car park off Publow Lane and I had a quick stroll around the village.

I made my way back to the High Street where I came upon the village Lock Up.  Made of stone, it is octagonal and has a perfect hemispherical roof.

The Lock Up in the village of Pensford, North Somerset.

Next to the Lock Up is a bench with a plaque commemorating local man Bernard Stanley “Acker” Bilk, an accomplished clarinettist whose Stranger on the Shore became the UK’s biggest selling single of 1962 and was in the charts for 50 weeks, peaking at Number Two.

Opposite High Street on the other side of the A37 is the village war memorial commemorating 7 men lost in the First World War, and 8 men and 1 woman in World War Two.

The war memorial alongside the A37 in the village of Pensford, North Somerset.

I crossed the A37, carefully, and walked along Church Street to the Church of St. Thomas a Becket.  The church dates from the fourteenth century, and is nearly moated by the River Chew.  Be aware that the main interior is now a private home and there is obviously no admittance.  However, the three-stage fourteenth century tower is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust and can be accessed. 

The Church of St. Thomas a Becket in the village of Pensford, North Somerset.  The Bristol and North Somerset Railway's 16 arch viaduct is in the background.

Very heavy rain on the night of the 16/17 July 1968 caused the River Chew to burst its banks causing the modern road bridge carrying the A37 over the river in the centre of the village to be swept away.  Ironically the village’s medieval bridge survived.

The plaque on the building adjacent to the church gates indicates the height to which the floodwater reached on that night.

The plaque on the wall by the church gates indicates the height of the flood in 1968.

The church, and most of the village, is dominated by the 16 arch viaduct built in 1873 for the Bristol and North Somerset Railway, but not used since it was deemed unsafe after the flood of 1968. 

I retraced my steps back to the car thinking another, more leisurely, visit would be worthwhile.