Campaigns
I spoke to LBC News about the Bonehill-Paine selection — and why Somerset isn’t a lower bar
I spoke to Steve Holden on LBC News about the Crewkerne South selection this lunchtime (Aug 6th) — and what the Conservatives think a councillor actually does. Listen again on Global Player, my interview starts at 2 hr 20. Joshua Bonehill-Paine, who was jailed for antisemitic harassment, was selected as the Conservative candidate for Crewkerne…
Read MoreKemi Badenoch has one standard for MPs and another for Somerset.
The leader of the Conservative Party went on national radio this week to defend her party’s selection of a former neo-Nazi as a council candidate in Somerset. She lost the argument twice. Once on Joshua Bonehill-Paine. Once on Somerset “That’s what councillors do” Joshua Bonehill-Paine was jailed for three years in 2015 for posting antisemitic…
Read MoreThe government wants to weaken flood plain protections. Tessa Munt is fighting back — and I’m with her.
Tessa Munt MP, as Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Flooding and Flooded Communities, went directly to Parliament to request dedicated debating time on the National Planning Policy Framework changes. She made the case to the relevant committee that the proposed changes are dangerous — warning that they would allow developers to bypass…
Read MoreOur Somerset Communities Are Our Greatest Asset
I am truly proud to have been appointed by the Somerset Council Leader to the role of Associate Lead Member for Community Resilience in the Council Executive — a recognition of the community work I have dedicated myself to, and a responsibility I do not take lightly. My role is to support the Council Leader…
Read MorePaths That Connect Us
I was invited to contribute to a film celebrating the Strawberry Line — a path that’s become something of a lifeline for our local community and our sense of wellbeing. This is a short extract from my contribution. The full film is due out this summer.
Read MoreGrassroots, Evidence, and the Road Not Taken: Rethinking the Glastonbury TrainLink Debate
The Glastonbury Trainlink team were actively working to stimulate demand for bus usage, which is exactly the kind of approach we need, i.e. community grassroots driven. They also carried out valuable groundwork in community engagement, with Parishes, surveys etc. It’s not accurate to assume that a train link via Pilton village would fail. Rather, it…
Read MoreA people’s path, in pieces, while determined as a train on the track to be a Somerset Circle.
Have you ever wondered why the Strawberry Line appears in parts of Mid-Somerset in fragments — stops and starts, interrupted with gaps of busy roads? The answer is a history lesson, and a story of remarkable persistence spanning many decades. Recently I attended a packed meeting of the Pilton Village History Group, where Richard Jones…
Read MoreA Turning Point for Mental Health: Why This Weekend’s Lib Dem Policy Matters
This weekend, members passed a landmark mental health policy at the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in York. For me, it marks the culmination of a year’s work as part of the working group that helped make this moment happen — and I could not be prouder. Mental health touches every one of us. It reaches…
Read MoreA Game-Changer for Rural Somerset: Why Glastonbury TrainLink Must Be in the New Transport Plan
Somerset is at a crossroads. A new Local Transport Delivery Plan (LTDP) is being finalised that will shape how people travel across our county for the next four years. For too long, rural communities have been left behind by a bus system designed around profit rather than people. That must change — and the Glastonbury…
Read MoreFrom Gallery Walls to Council Halls: Women Who Lead (for International Women’s Day, 2026)
Recently I visited the National Portrait Gallery with my daughter, one of our favourite London haunts. Watching her immerse herself in the lives and stories on the walls made me think about how many women appear in those frames—and how many more have been written out of history because we so often see only “his…
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