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Write from the heart
Posted by Cptn
To all you writers out there, of which there are many, Impress Books (based at Exeter University’s Innovation Centre) has teamed up with the university’s creative writing centre to pluck new talent from the ether to offer a publishing contract.
The winner will be announced Monday December 3, and they’ll get a £500 advance plus a publishing contract.
Why are we telling you? Well, we’re always after new writers at the PRSD. We can’t offer anything like £500, but we don’t have the strictures of being confined to university students on creative writing courses either. And we might be your way to the, err, big time. All you have to do is write well on any number of topics.
For more information, and to send your musings, point your e-epislte software to
November 29th, 2007
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Changing climate in Bovey
Posted by Cptn
Good ole Bovey Climate Action. One year old and it’s still ploughing the furrow of small scale individual action that can make environmental gains. And small initiatives can grow - there’s a network of 15 towns around Dartmoor that are sharing knowledge, expertise and enthusiasm about environmental action.
Going through the year’s achievement, Simon Hooton mentioned Waste Watchers and the 50 homes signed up to the energy audits, the push to green energy providers, a dolls house with 34 energy saving initiatives and the plethora of events that they run. As well as their very own Hamster Project - school children take electrosave equipment home to monitor the family’s energy usage.
But it was the big hitters in the environmental world who were the real draw: Mark Edwards of Hard Rain fame; Mark Lynas of Six Degrees fame (if you missed him, catch him today at a South West Debates gig at the Exeter Picturehouse) and Jonathan Porritt of environmental fame.
The global nature of the problem was certainly focused on, and why not? It is a boundary breaking issue and the crammed audience of acolytes in Bovey Parish church was told that the biggest environmental danger lay in India and China, as the two countries rush towards industrialised capitalism (that last bit was mine).
International issue, international speakers and a local response - still it would have been nice if we’d seen the impact of small changes and one of the school kids had done a bit of presentation on how they’d shamed with their family into modifying their energy habits.
November 13th, 2007
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The LunchBox #4
I understand there is a big rugby match on this evening, and that England and South Africa are to compete for the right to be called world champions.
This is quite a big thing for those chaps who like grappling with odd-shaped balls, and a large part of me would like to see an England victory, purely for the pleasure it would bring to my rugby-liking English friends. But it’s not that simple.
An even bigger part of me yearns for a South African victory, or more precisely, an English defeat, purely because of the hysterical, arrogant and jingoistic way large parts of the English meeja, often owned by non-Englishmen, greet any significant English sporting achievement.
The Scot in me cannae abide aw that pish. Undoubtedly, if England emerge victorious this evening, the English meeja will immediately deify the whole squad as living gods, restorers of England’s ancient right to superiority and victory, or some such offensive garbage.
And they will go on and on and on and on and on and on about it, and on and on and on.
South Africa stand between the non-English world tonight, and a fate not quite as bad as death, but nearly as disagreeable, namely the crowing of the English meeja. Come on you ‘boks, you are our only hope!
Posted by freeluncher @ Talking Liberties
October 20th, 2007
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The LunchBox # 1
In the same week that Gordon Brown ditched his pretensions to socialism by glad-handing Lady Thatcher at 10 Downing Street, I became aware of the existence of a group called the Socialist Health Association.
According to their website, the SHA exists to: ‘promote health and well-being, social justice, and the eradication of inequalities, through the application of socialist principles to society and government.’
And to which end it: ‘is affiliated to the Labour Party, the only political organisation which is prepared to entertain this agenda, and which has any prospect of delivering it.’
The SHA is currently involved in an attempt to re-model Clause 4 of the Labour Party’s constitution, in order to stress the party’s (cough!) ‘democratic socialism’.
This, presumably, is the same ‘democratic’ party that holds a majority in the UK government, despite the fact that about two-thirds of the electorate did not vote for them.
And the same ’socialist’ party that takes donations from venture capitalists, participates in imperial wars of aggression, sells arms to dictatorial monarchies, pushes NHS privatisation, and is presiding over an ever-increasing gap between rich and poor.
The SHA would appear to be living in a fantasy land if they believe the UK Labour Party can be described as ‘democratic’ or ’socialist’.
Despite their worthy aims (and they are indeed worthy), the SHA – like the Trade Unions – is doing more harm than good to the cause it espouses by its continued affiliation with the morally bankrupt and increasingly Thatcherite Labour Party.
If the SHA placed any real value on its professed ’socialist principles’, it would have disassociated itself from the Labour Party a long time ago – like most socialists already have.
What price a principle?
Posted by freeluncher @ Talking Liberties
September 29th, 2007
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Now you’re Talking
Remember we told you about Talking Liberties - a rather excellent bloggy site with a winning line in righteous outrage? You know, the site that gave a Mendacity Award to the Plymouth Herald’s Tristan Nichols?!
Well, from Saturday, the person behind Talking Liberties, is gonna be scribbling a weekly column for PRSD.
Yes, there may be no such thing as a free lunch but there’s definitely a freeluncher (in lower case, if you please), and he’s mad as hell and writing for the People’s Republic.
Don’t get us wrong, there’s still plenty going on over at Talking Liberties. It’s just we wanted a slice of the freeluncher magic for ourselves.
We think he’s great and reckon you will too. Check out his first column on Saturday. It’s gonna be the talk of the bloody town!
Posted by Thin White Duke
September 26th, 2007
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On your bike
So, Bank Holiday Monday saw the number of biker deaths in and around Plymouth rise to 12 this year.
All this despite a high-profile campaign backed by the police and the Plymouth Herald warning bikers to, yknow, be a bit more careful. Gee, thanks for that.
Don’t get us wrong – we’re all for promoting driver safety, but the thing is, you could be the most careful biker ever, and still end up coming a cropper on the roads.
Motorcyclists have about as much chance of surviving a collision as someone stolling up the middle of the motorway. And most people don’t stroll at 80mph…
People get on their bikes knowing the risks – indeed, in some cases the risks make riding bikes even more exhilarating.
In these days of 4×4s and people carriers, no-one can really claim ignorance as to what can happen if a motorcycle is involved in an accident.
But it’s such a leap of faith to get on the thing in the first place, riders almost become blind to the risks.
It really is analogous to the likes of smoking or drug taking. There’s been stuff in the news today about putting pictures of knackered lungs on cigarette packets. How long will it be before we see similar warnings attached to motorbikes?
Warning – riding a motorcycle on the roads today is pretty bonkers.
Let us know your thoughts at or simply post a comment below.
Posted by Thin White Duke
August 29th, 2007
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Monkey wrench?
Hullo viewer. Just a quick note to highlight a most perceptive entry in today’s Webwords section of Plymouth’s Herald.
Here it is: BIKER HIT MAN WITH A WRENCH (A motorcyclist walked up to a car driver, opened his door and hit him with a wheel wrench, Plymouth magistrates heard: May 30)
An animal would not behave in this way — Kath, Plymouth
Hard to argue with that, Kath – on so many, many levels.
Posted by Thin White Duke
June 1st, 2007
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Something kinda oops
We’re not the sort of people to say ‘told you so’ (yeah, right!) but we can’t say we’re surprised to hear Girls Aloud have postponed their Newnham Park show.
Apparently, organisers Edge Promotions have issues with safety and finding enough support bands to fill the day - not to mention, one imagines, the small matter of flogging some 15,000 tickets for the bally thing.
Let’s be honest, the shindig seemed ill-conceived from the off. Indeed, regular readers will remember we expressed scepticism about the event in March.
Tickets (a snip at £30 - the same price as a ticket to see Prince in London) were available from bizarre places like Digital Knights in Plymouth and the Ayres Sport & Leisurewear store in Tavistock.
And the proposed line-up was equally bonkers - with popstars Girls Aloud, Booty Luv and Eton Road mixing it up with the dadrockin’ likes of Boogie Nights, Joey The Lips and Karrallon. We’ve heard of ’something for everyone’ but that’s
just ridiculous.
Nevertheless, we’re assured the concert has been rescheduled for August 11. Whether Girls Aloud will bother to turn up remains to be seen.
Posted by Thin White Duke
May 31st, 2007
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Get with the programme
Come on people of the Republic, haven’t you got the gist yet? We chivvy, we shake, we whine and moan but mostly we just want you guys to get involved. Yes, sometimes we put up controversial stuff, sometimes we even put up stuff we don’t think is right or proper - we’ve even mentioned UKIP for goodness sake. If you disagree, say so. If you want to write a review, write one.
But, true to form, rather than despair, we’ve organised some special offers from our fellow friends of ethicaljobs.co.uk - we’re appealing to the purse rather than the pursed lips.
So watch out for some fantastic deals for ethical goods through The People’s Republic of South Devon (if you say that through a tube it sounds much better).
Posted by Cptn
May 23rd, 2007
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Energy incentives
If it’s not one bunch of green energy gods offering cash incentives, it’s another. The Bovey Climate Action group are involved in the Big Switch. For every 100 residents who switch their energy provider to Ecotricity, Ecotricity will put money towards the installation of a renewable energy source on a community building.
In the pursuit of energy self-sufficiency, some members of the group are even talking to a nearby landfill site to poach some of the methane to provide transport and heat for homes. With these guys it may be more than just hot air.
Posted by Cptn
May 10th, 2007
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