Cllr Andrew Southall

08/09/2026

Typo corrected 😃

Dudley Council will NOT follow Birmingham's legal action to remove national flags

08/09/2026

Get them up around Stourbridge ring road! 🇬🇧
And when they get tatty, replace them.
That's how our national flag should be treated.

Note: there is a typo on this news article – Dudley are NOT taking the flags down

07/09/2026

🪂 An update on my skydive for More Mascots Please Cic:

I've been in touch with the company facilitating the skydive and, as I've never done anything like this before, their advice is that I complete the required full-day training course first, with the actual jump taking place on a separate day. This is because the training day is intensive enough on its own.

I've taken them up on that advice.

There was availability to jump this Thursday, but we'd really like Ceri Davies and the More Mascots Please team to be there on the day. The next date that works is Thursday 24th September.

So, the plan is now:
🪂 Wednesday 9th September: Full-day training course
🪂 Thursday 24th September: THE SKYDIVE! Weather permitting...

I'll be posting from the training on Wednesday for any doubting Thomases 😅

And on the 24th, the jump itself will be filmed by the crew jumping with me, with Ceri and the team capturing it from the ground as well.

We've made a good start with donations, but we still need your help to hit our target.

If you can spare anything at all, please donate to More Mascots Please CIC here:

The aim of More Mascots Please CIC is to make a difference to the lives of disabled, disadvantaged and terminally ill children, based in the Black Country and Birmingham areas.

05/09/2026

Evening all, just a reminder that this will be on Wednesday!

02/09/2026

I attended the site visit of the Woodlands Care Home this afternoon and the Planning Committee meeting this evening – the committee voted against the application to develope the site.

Cheers to that! 🍻

02/09/2026

My skydive for More Mascots Please Cic is on the 9th September – please support!

01/09/2026

The monetary system is the root cause of our compounding crises.

We must end the reliance on central bank interventions that allow governments to bypass fiscal reality. When a state can effectively subsidise its deficit through monetary expansion, true accountability disappears.

Politicians must be bound by strict fiscal rules and hard budget constraints.

If a government cannot rely on indirect monetary financing and chooses to break its manifesto by raising taxes, it must lose its mandate and face an immediate election.

Restoring sound money forces the state to prioritise ruthlessly. Once you fix the incentives of the state, you create the economic discipline required to solve our deepest structural problems.

31/08/2026

They are gone.

30/08/2026

Iceland has voted not to enter talks to join the EU. When do they get their government filibustering and a "People's Vote"? 🤔

23/08/2026

It was good to join Times Radio earlier today to discuss the Prime Minister's proposals to change how planning decisions are made.

Britain needs more homes. The question is how we deliver them.

Simply transferring power from one group of politicians to another will not fix a planning system that is slow, cumbersome and increasingly difficult for smaller builders to navigate.

Regenerate existing sites. Prioritise brownfield land. Make it easier for smaller builders to build. Encourage private investment. And when new homes are approved, make sure the infrastructure promised alongside them is actually delivered.

But there is another side of the housing equation that Westminster is remarkably reluctant to discuss: demand.

Recent levels of net migration have added substantially to housing demand at precisely the time Britain is already struggling with housing supply and infrastructure.

We need to build more.

We also need to reduce demand.

Net 170,000 a year is still too high.

Fix the supply AND the demand.