We know this has been a difficult decision for Jon and we will miss him. Jon has been absolutely the heart of West England Bylines for the past four years. He has put his indelible mark on the publication, and has led the team with patience, wisdom, enthusiasm and good humour. He has a depth of experience, an eye for detail and a natural curiosity which have proven a phenomenal asset to WEB. He has earned the love and respect of our 100+ authors and volunteers, many of whom have come to see him as a good friend.
In addition to his role as editor in chief, Jon has been one of our most prolific authors. His regular series ‘Sewage Watch’, which tellingly holds the water companies to account for the harm they are doing to our rivers and lakes, is one of our most read features. Jon will continue to update this and we hope he will remain one of our regular contributors.
Going forward Jon will be a difficult act to follow. We have an enthusiastic editorial team who believe strongly in the future of West England Bylines and its potential to hold power to account, as well as making unheard voices heard. We will continue to see Jon as a role model of how these things can be made to happen. We will do all we can to carry the torch he lit into the future.
Peter Burke
Claire Jones
Barbara Morrison
Michelle Cook
Jon writes:
In 2020, as a fervent campaigner for Britain to stay in the EU, I was persuaded by my colleagues at Cotswolds for Europe to help set up a new online publication for Gloucestershire and surrounding area. Yorkshire and the North East had already launched and in July West England Bylines went live.
We focussed naturally on how Britain should stay as close to Europe as possible but we also attracted writers on conserving our environment and farming. But even in our early days we looked beyond our borders and tackled global issues like the climate emergency.
From the start I was working under the guidance of Mark Huband, an experienced former FT journalist. However Mark became incapacitated and then sadly and unexpectedly died. I took over the role of editor in chief with trepidation but was well supported by a great team and West England Bylines thrived.
In the four years of existence we have published more than 1,000 articles from over 100 writers. We developed four prime themes: Broken Britain, Climate Emergency, Ukraine Crisis and Women in Focus which encouraged our writers to explore related issues.
Another theme I published a lot on was the parlous state of our water industry. My Sewage Watch blog on press coverage of the pollution of our waterways has attracted thousands of views and I shall continue to add to it.
Finally many thanks to my support team of Peter, Barbara, Claire, Michelle, Jim, Philip, Hadrian and Julian without whom I’d have been lost.
Thanks too to our excellent writers – too many to mention all but here’s a selection.
– Martin Griffiths (for his cartoons and poems)
– Paul Ryder (for championing democracy and his historical pieces)
– Barbara Morrison (for violence against women and girls, social inequalities)
– Claire Jones (on Tactical Voting, PR and the Labour Party, democracy, the far right)
– Hadrian Cook (British constitution and the Tory Party)
– Jim Price (Latin American travel and cocktails)
– Michelle Cook (Climate Action and UBI)
– Bob Copeland (for striving for a fair society)
– Helmut Hubel (for his insight into the Ukraine crisis as well as German politics)
– Julian Greenbank (on his home town Bristol and his work on constituency changes)
– Tom Hardy (Climate and Regulation)
– Steve Dawe (Active Transport and Oxford)
– Peter Burke (metrication, NHS)
– Philip Cole (Electoral reform)
So West England Bylines is in great shape going forward.
I’m sure we can rely on your continuing support.
We want to hear your views. Please send any comments to editor@westenglandbylines.co.uk
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