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As I Please
As I Please is a weekly blog, written by Graham Smith, available free to readers who register with the Cornwall Reports local news website.
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- Cornwall’s cunning plan to win the Eurovision song contest next year 17 May 2026
- The man in charge of Project Devonwall is called Gardner. What could possibly go wrong? 30 October 2025
- Fighting fascism: why I have joined a new political party of the Left 25 July 2025
- EXCLUSIVE: the State of Cornwall in the National Context 18 May 2025
- Cornwall at a Crossroads: Why we must keep all devolution options on the table 20 January 2025
- Devonwall crisis: County Hall calls in the experts, again 17 December 2024
- Mission Critical: what do you think of it so far? 1 October 2024
- EXCLUSIVE: Cornwall’s bid to host Eurovision Song Contest 12 May 2024
- Cornwall’s Devolution White Paper: how it works 30 November 2023
- Woke up this morning feeling fine 12 August 2023
- With Branson’s rocket empire in ruins, Cornwall Council reaches for its emergency consultancy hotline 24 May 2023
- Living by numbers: every Conservative MP in Cornwall must now take seriously the risk of defeat at the next general election 24 June 2022
- The Liberal Democrats will probably beat the Conservatives in Tiverton & Honiton, but don’t worry, it’s only a by-election 29 May 2022
- How to share prosperity and win elections – why not just give everyone in Cornwall a garden centre voucher? 17 April 2022
- Saints Trail – it wasn’t the first two-wheeled “omnishambles” and it won’t be the last: Any inquiry needs to ask the right questions if the same mistakes are not to be repeated 7 February 2022
- From Watergate 1972 to Downing Street 2022: it’s telling lies which is the really serious crime 17 January 2022
- Daze of Hope? In Cornwall, a new “Jeremy Corbyn Party” would have more to do with pasties than politics, at least in the short-term 10 January 2022
- How to save the leisure centres: why Alf and Roy provide a blueprint for survival 17 September 2021
- Situations Vacant: Red Queen needed to draft Covid Safety Bill before the next general election 2 September 2021
- You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps: Why Tony Blair is both right, and wrong, about Afghanistan 22 August 2021
- The more things change the more they stay the same: will the real winners of the Cornwall Council election please stand up? 11 August 2021
- Fightback: holding out for a hero in a world where truth is often stranger than fiction 23 July 2021
- Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser: there are lessons for Cornwall in Batley & Spen 1 July 2021
- New coat pegs and no running in the corridor: a few points to watch for when life gets back to (nearly) normal at County Hall 23 May 2021
- Keeping things in proportion: why Churchill was right, and democracy really is the worst form of government – apart from all the others 11 May 2021
- Our Friends In The North: A brief, recent, history of the Labour Party and why I now have more time for my cousins 4 May 2021
- Here is the news 28 April 2021
- Everyone’s a winner: there is no need to wait until 7th May to find out who triumphed the previous day 5 April 2021
- Elections 2021: The Battle for County Hall – what do you think of it so far? 26 March 2021
- Lifting the veil: a brief guide to “purdah” and why we should be paying even closer attention to what goes on at County Hall during the next six weeks 21 March 2021
- Inside the G7: how to make a drama out of a crisis 19 March 2021
- “Winning here” and other lies: get ready for a bulging sack of political waste paper 28 February 2021
- Hot Gossip: nothing is proven, everything is possible 8 February 2021
- Inside the G7: A letter from America 25 January 2021
- Inside the G7: so true, it has to be made up 21 January 2021
- I brief, you leak and she’s just been charged under Section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 16 January 2021
- As Cornwall falls off a Covid cliff, will 2021 be the year the Boris Bug triggers yet another coup within the Conservative party? 1 January 2021
- “Clarification is not to clarify things. It is to put one’s self in the clear” – why the Cormac-gate review must ask the right questions 14 November 2020
- Out of the mouths of babes: why Cornwall’s Conservatives need to swallow hard, and admit they have got it badly wrong on free school meals 25 October 2020
- Living by numbers: As the government wrangles over tougher Covid-19 restrictions, is it time to embrace logic and consistency? 8 October 2020
- Covid-19 and Cornwall at the tipping point: will the lessons be learned? 21 September 2020
- Is there something fishy going on in Mevagissey? As the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy sinks below the UK’s horizon, Cornwall’s own fishermen show they have plenty of other ways to fall out with each other 14 September 2020
- Remember, remember, the 5th of November and how Cornwall Council ended up sleepwalking into “reasonable” constitutional chaos 10 August 2020
- Black lives matter everywhere, but who controls the past controls the future: Cornwall’s uncomfortable history with slavery 9 June 2020
- Will the war against Covid-19 end the same way as most wars, with refugees evacuated by helicopter from embassy roofs even as the politicians declare victory? 11 April 2020
- Covid-19: A postcard from Midwich, village of the damned 17 March 2020
- Ring A-Ring O’Roses, A Pocket Full of Posies, and other ways to Keep Calm And Carry On 12 March 2020
- Could you be our next Police and Crime Commissioner? There are only 97 campaigning days to go 31 January 2020
- Look North, in wonder, as Scotland edges closer to affordable local government by pioneering Britain’s first tourism tax 30 December 2019
- If you tolerate this, then your children will be next 21 December 2019
- Cornwall is going to be Conservative for a very long time – we just have to get used to it 18 December 2019
- Is the Newquay airport goose being fattened up for privatisation? 29 November 2019
- Getting into space is about maths and physics, not public relations: why Cornwall Council should say “no” to Richard Branson 13 September 2019
- A lesson for Cornwall? Why Brecon & Radnor might not be the Brexit game-changer the bookies are forecasting 31 July 2019
- After Peterborough: while politicians try to understand what happened, Labour should bring back its £3 supporters’ scheme and then ballot to determine Brexit policy 7 June 2019
- Why Cornwall should brace for defeat next week 18 May 2019
- Why only Jeremy Corbyn can beat Nigel Farage, and why it’s all about the turnout – a partisan view 21 April 2019
- Inside Kennally Care: details start to emerge of how charities and companies are now taking over Cornwall’s health service – with orders to cut spending 8 February 2019
- As I Please: Glittering Prizes – The Cornwall Reports New Year Honours 29 December 2018
- A day in the life of the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator 23 November 2018
- All the way from Arabia – a sci-fi vision of Cornwall’s future? 16 November 2018
- Got an allotment? Get ready to once more Dig For Victory, as the new Agriculture Bill looks set to devastate Cornwall 13 September 2018
- Slow Train Coming: why the Devonwall boundary changes are not entirely welcome news for the Tories 12 September 2018
- Cornwall’s local government: no place for grown-ups 31 August 2018
- Cornwall and the idea of a tourism tax: a tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing 17 August 2018
- Jumpers for goalposts: Why we need a Cornwall United to get serious about public health, and why the council should start its own football club 10 August 2018
- In a sleepy part of rural North Cornwall, another revolution is underway 3 August 2018
- Tragedy, farce, repeat: why County Hall would be an ideal location for Midsummer Murders 27 July 2018
- Bucaneers and Pirate Ports: time for Cornwall’s LEP to re-think its strategy on Economic Zones 20 July 2018
- After the football – business as usual with Cornwall’s NHS, and why it’s important to keep an eye on what’s happening in Parliament 13 July 2018
- The best possible birthday present for Cornwall’s NHS would be management from outside Cornwall 6 July 2018
- Cornwall, Your Cornwall 29 June 2018
- A design for life 22 June 2018
- Bread and circuses 15 June 2018
- Is dementia to blame for Brexit? In Cornwall, it’s a serious question 8 June 2018
- Why badgers should take extra care on the A38, and why I miss the sight of a squashed hedgehog 1 June 2018
- Cornwall, the Final Frontier, and how to make “devolution” more inspirational than a stale fart 25 May 2018
- Struggling in the stormy seas of shrinking ratings, BBC local radio’s “Dementia FM” heads for its iceberg 18 May 2018
- Newquay spaceport: reach for the stars, but watch your wallet and beware of half-baked big ideas 11 May 2018