Tories could tumble like Gloucestershire’s cheese chasers, but there is no mad enthusiasm for Labour
It’s a mucky, hazardous, undignified race that is all about risk and survival.
Competitors in the cheese chasing dash down Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire do it for the prize of a wheel of double Gloucester cheese.
Tewkesbury’s annual cheese chase begins
As for general elections, politicians play their game of survival for a place on the green benches in the House of Commons, and with it, power.
On the second stop of our tour with a peoples’ parliamentary bench, we came to Tewkesbury to talk to spectators at the annual event and find out what they want from their next crop of MPs.
Becky Rhode with her partner Tom, her 15-year-old son, and their family dog
Becky Rhode, her partner Tom, her 15-year-old son and her family dog were first to take advantage of the green upholstered bench which we left in a meadow with a view of the cheese chasing contest.
“In rural areas, transport is a lot more expensive, especially fuel prices. Groceries have gone up too,” she said.
Accountant Becky isn’t a big fan of the increases in the minimum wage. She feels it devalues the time, money and effort she has invested in getting her qualifications.
She says there is “no longer a sizable difference” between what she can earn as an accountant or doing something far less skilled.
Her apple orchard farmer partner Tom Spicer, adds: “We need more money or lower prices, really. That’s it, that’s the main struggle at the moment.”
Next in the chair was engineering student Joey Sharma who had travelled to the cheese rolling event from Bristol.
Engineering student Joey Sharma travelled to the cheese rolling event from Bristol
He hasn’t decided who he will vote for yet.
“I’m still a student, so student debt, I’d like something done about that. Public transport, I think that’s a big one, carbon-neutral is a big one too for me.”
Lucy Rickson, a housing association worker, thinks more should be done to help people who need social housing and that they tend to be “demonised” by politicians.
Lucy Rickson says people who need social housing tend to be ‘demonised’ by politicians
She adds: “There are a lot of issues in the southwest, rural regions, small market towns, seaside towns. Politicians need to know about seasonal work, seasonal hidden homelessness.
“If you haven’t got a huge amount of money, there’s not the work to keep your household going.”
Like student Joey, Lucy also worries about the environment and targets to reach net zero.
“I think pushing back all the targets and pushing back all the approaches to a better green world are just inappropriate. We say we can’t afford it, but then we can’t afford a lot of things. We need to prioritise more.”
Gloucestershire is our second stop in the South West, after Newquay in Cornwall, and in both locations the environment has been raised regularly on our people’s bench.
So far, it hasn’t been much of a campaign issue as both main parties have rowed back on green policies.
From Cooper’s Hill Cooper’s Hill, cheese watchers can see Cheltenham. File pic: AP
The view from Cooper’s Hill takes in key battle grounds of the election race.
You can see Cheltenham, along with its famous racecourse, a target seat for the Liberal Democrats, currently Conservative held.
The hill also peers over the town of Gloucester, where Labour need just under a 10% swing to take it. They will need that and more to win the election.
The hill itself is in Tewkesbury, a relatively safe Tory seat, and yet, not much in this election is safe. Even here the Tories could tumble like a cheese chaser.
The Lib Dems need an 18% swing, and they’ve done better than that in recent by-elections.
Labour has support in the area too, so it could turn into a three-way scramble for the line.
Jane Blofield is a urology and oncology clinical nurse
Enjoying a picnic with friends on Cooper’s Hill is Jane Blofield, who we coax on to our bench. Jane is a urology and oncology clinical nurse, and she feels her profession is understaffed.
“It’s not about making wild promises, it’s about diverting money to the right places,” she says. In her view, key among them is the NHS.
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She then says she will vote Labour but adds, “I don’t know if they’ve got the answers, but I certainly know the Conservatives haven’t because they’ve ruined the NHS.”
Pressed on if she thinks Sir Keir Starmer can repair the situation, Jane replies, “No.”
Cheese chasers tumble down Cooper’s Hill
Like the cheese race, the bumping, bruising electoral arena is a place where slip-ups happen.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party is leading in the polls, but from the voices we’ve heard so far on our tour, it doesn’t feel like people are running towards Labour with glee, but rather running away from the Tories in dissatisfaction.
The cheese-rolling crowd in Tewkesbury
Even among those who say they will vote Labour, there’s no mad enthusiasm, certainly not of the type you find on the top of Cooper’s Hill, as they prepare to chase a wheel of double Gloucester down an insanely steep grassy slope.
Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage might be polar opposites when it comes to politics – but they do have one thing in common.
The pair are both cutting through in a changing media landscape when attention is scarce and trust in mainstream politics is scarcer still.
For Farage, the Reform UK leader, momentum has been building since he won a seat at the general election last year and he continues to top the polls.
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Badenoch doesn’t want to talk about Farage
But in the six weeks since Polanski became leader of the Greens, membership has doubled, they’ve polled higher than ever before while three Labour councillors have defected. Has the insurgent firebrand finally met his match?
“I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but I despise Nigel Farage’s politics and disagree with him on almost everything,” Polanski tells Sky News.
“But I think his storytelling has undoubtedly cut through and so yes there has been a huge part of us saying ‘If Farage can do that with a politics of hate and division, then it’s time for the Green Party to do that with a politics of hope and community’ and that’s absolutely what I intend to keep doing.”
Polanski was speaking after a news conference to announce the defections of the councillors in Swindon – a bellwether area that is currently led by a Labour council and has two Labour MPs, but was previously controlled by the Tories.
It is the sort of story the party would previously have announced in a press release, but the self-described “eco populist” is determined to do things differently to grab attention.
He has done media interviews daily over the past few weeks, launched his own podcast and turbocharged the Greens social media content – producing slick viral videos such as his visit to Handsworth (the Birmingham neighbourhood where Robert Jenrick claimed he saw no white people).
Zack Polanski announces the defection of Labour councillors
Polanski insists that it is not increased exposure in and of itself that is attracting people to his party but his messaging – he wants to “make hope normal again”.
“I’m not going to be in a wetsuit or be parachuting from a helicopter”, he says in a swipe at Lib Dem leader Ed Davey.
“I think you only need to do stunts if you don’t have something really clear to say and then you need to grab attention.
“I think when you look at the challenges facing this country right now if you talk about taxing wealth and not work, if you talk about the mass inequality in our society and you talk about your solidarity with people living in poverty, with working-class communities, I think these are the things that people both want to hear, but also they want to know our solutions. The good news is I’ve got loads of solutions and the party has loads of solutions. “
Some of those solutions have come under criticism – Reform UK have attacked his policy to legalise drugs and abolish private landlords.
Discontent is fuelling the rise of challenger parties. Pic: PA
Polanski is confident he can win the fight. He says it helps that he talks “quite quickly because it means that I’m able to be bold but also have nuance”. And he is a London Assembly member not an MP, so he has time to be the party’s cheerleader rather than being bogged down with case work.
As for what’s next, the 42-year-old has alluded to conversations with Labour MPs about defections. He has not revealed who they are but today gave an idea of who he would welcome – naming Starmer critic Richard Burgon.
Like Burgon, Polanski believes Starmer “will be gone by May” and that the local elections for Labour “will be disastrous”.
He wants to replace Labour “right across England and Wales” when voters go to the polls, something Reform UK has also vowed to do.
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Is Zack Polanski squeezing the Labour vote?
Could the Greens be kingmakers?
Luke Tryl, director of More in Common, says this reflects a “new axis of competition” as frontline British politics shifts from a battle of left vs right to a battle of process vs anti-establishment.
Farage has been the beneficiary of this battle so far but Tryl says Polanski is “coming up in focus groups” in a way his predecessors didn’t. “He is cutting through”, the pollster says.
However, one big challenge Polanski faces is whether his rise will cause the left vote to fragment and make it easier for Farage to win – something he has said he wants to avoid at all costs.
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And yet, asked if he would form a coalition with Labour to keep Farage out of power in the event of a hung parliament, he suggested he would only do so if Sir Keir Starmer is no longer prime minister.
“I have issues with Keir Starmer as prime minister,” he says. “I think he had the trust of the public, but I would say that’s been broken over and over again. If we had a different Labour prime minister that would be a different conversation about where their values are.”
He adds: “I do think stopping Nigel Farage has to be a huge mission for any progressive in this country, but the biggest way we can stop Nigel Farage is by people joining the Green Party right now; creating a real alternative to this Labour government, where we say we don’t have to compromise on our values.
“If people wanted to vote for Nigel Farage, they’d vote for Nigel Farage. What does Keir Starmer think he’s doing by offering politics that are similar but watered down? That’s not going to appeal to anyone, and I think that’s why they’re sinking in the polls.”
A former paratrooper accused of murdering two civilians in the Bloody Sunday shootings in Northern Ireland 53 years ago has been found not guilty.
Soldier F – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – was accused of killing James Wray and William McKinney during disorder after a civil rights parade on 30 January 1972 in Londonderry, also known as Derry.
The veteran was also found not guilty of five attempted murders at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday.
He had denied all seven charges.
Thirteen people were shot dead by the Parachute Regiment on the day in question.
Soldier F did not give evidence, but the court heard about previous statements from two paratroopers – known as G and H – who were in Glenfada Park North along with F.
The prosecution said their testimony was direct evidence that the defendant had opened fire in the area.
Bloody Sunday Trust undated handout photos of (top row, left to right) Patrick Doherty, Bernard McGuigan, John “Jackie” Duddy and Gerald Donaghey, (bottom row, left to right) Gerard McKinney, Jim Wray, William McKinney and John
However, the defence argued that they were unreliable witnesses as their statements were inconsistent with each other and with other witnesses who gave evidence.
The trial was held in Belfast in front of a judge, not a jury.
Delivering his judgment, Judge Patrick Lynch said the evidence presented against the veteran fell well short of what was needed for conviction.
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Two people have died and five others were taken to hospital following a fire in Glasgow.
Emergency crews were called to the blaze at a property in Hughenden Lane in Hyndland at about 10.20pm on Monday.
Police Scotland said a man and a woman were pronounced dead at the scene.
The force said their next of kin have been informed.
Five others were taken to hospital for the effects of smoke inhalation.
Read more from Sky News:
Paratrooper known as ‘Soldier F’ not guilty of Bloody Sunday murders
Three arrested on suspicion of assisting Russian spy agencies
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “The fire is not believed to be suspicious, and no criminality has been established.”
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