Bridgwater Town Diary

Some things what happen in Bridgwater and some equally personal thoughts about them by Westover Councillor and Town Council Leader Brian Smedley. All opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily not bonkers. Oh and are definitely not official Labour Party policy, God No, they wouldn’t want people to think that.

You Can’t Say That!!

Free speech is under threat in this country says US Vice President JDVance.

If I wanted to say that Donald Trump is a ridiculous excuse for a President who has conned the American public into voting for him I wouldn’t even be allowed to say it.

Oh wait a minute, I just have.

And if I wanted to say his latest decision to negotiate with Putin without involving Zelensky would be an insult to the thousands of brave Ukrainian people who had heroically fought and died for their country I wouldn’t be allowed to say it.

Oh wait a minute. I just have.

Peace in Ukraine? But on who’s terms…

And if I wanted to say….no hang about, I can say anything and we do have freedom of speech. He’s just wrong isn’t he.

We’re all just not saying the things he wants us to say or what he wants to hear.
He thinks there’s no climate crisis. He’d have got more brownie points for irony if he’d said it from the Louisiana floods or while trying to put out the raging California wildfires . But Americans don’t do irony. Which is ironic.

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This is a Clash Town

Bridgwater has 7 twinnings. 6 with other towns and 1 with an ideology. Joe Strummer, lead singer and main songwriter with groundbreaking punk band The Clash, visited Bridgwater, called it a ‘Clash Town’ and liked it so much he moved here.

When you see the twin towns listed on the finger board next to the Blake statue you may not have noticed the one pointing west. ‘Seattle’ (USA). How did that happen?

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Stretching a Point

I’d never been in a stretch limo before. In fact, I wasn’t even sure I knew what one was, so I had to google it. I was right. So, if anyone saw that long posh white car driving round town last week that was one. The kind of car that looks like it’s been designed by a tug of war team and is literally ‘stretched’.

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The Man Who Bought the World

Elon Musk is a brilliant bloke, only has people at heart and definitely isn’t involved in any global conspiracy to undermine democracy.

Now if that opening sentence has come out differently than I wrote it then there really is something to worry about in the media today.

Democracy really is a precious thing but how it works isn’t often appreciated or even understood. People like Elon Musk really do give the impression they might be trying to undermine it. The richest man on the planet he could easily be called ‘the man who bought the world’. Continue reading “The Man Who Bought the World”