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From an Amnesty UK action in London last year (photo: Amnesty UK).
The recent killing of Palestinian paramedics and the dire state of the Palestinian population under assault by Israeli armed forces has prompted Amnesty International’s Bexhill & Hastings branch to call on the local MPs to intervene with the government. Nick Terdre reports. Continue reading…
Author Matthew Ingram will be discussing his new book The Garden: Visionary Growers and Farmers of the Counterculture at The Beacon on Thursday 5 June.
Byron Wallen, one of the most influential trumpet players and composers on the UK and world jazz scene, will be making a welcome return to Jazz Hastings with his band Four Corners Project for next month’s session on 3 June. Julian Norridge sets the scene.
To publish a well-written book at the time of the 80th VE commemoration is a bold decision. In contrast to the BBC’s stance of briefly referring to some veterans’ former time fighting or surviving in war, the broadcaster virtually overlooked the fact that warfare continued for several years outside Europe, in places such as Malaya, Thailand and Shanghai, and Japanese soldiers barbarically destroyed and suppressed residents alongside British based soldiers. As current Hastings resident Geoff Martin states in his introduction to From Stepney to Hell…and back, ‘On a personal level I am appalled at the lack of public knowledge of what happened to men like my Dad’. Hilda Kean reports.
MSL Projects is to hold four ‘walks & talks’ at the end-of-month half-term weekend offering a chance to explore some of the beautiful natural habitats of the local countryside. Helen Samuels explains what lies in store.
Any questions for Henry VIII? Tony Harris will reprise a well practised role as England’s most famous, or notorious, king as part of a fund-raising event for West Marina Day. Nick Terdre reports.
There’s now less than a month to go until the White Rock opens its doors for the first ever Hastings Comic Con, a spectacular comics extravaganza on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June. Kate Gordon outlines the event.
On Wednesday (14 May) the Palestine Solidarity Campaign organised a national lobby of Parliament about the UK’s complicity with Israel’s policies of genocide and apartheid. Gabriel Carlyle reports on his unsuccessful attempt to speak to Hastings MP Helena Dollimore, concluding she was deliberately avoiding him. Dollimore has contested that and some of his other claims – her statement is published below.
In March HOT wrote about how this year’s cancelled local elections in East Sussex might have turned out based on the results of an Electoral Calculus poll for the Telegraph. As some scepticism was expressed about the accuracy of such a poll, we also promised to check how well the results matched the poll predictions. Text by Nick Terdre, research and graphics by Russell Hall.
Last year the ancient ceremony of ‘beating the bounds’ took place in the Old Town. This year West St Leonards is being celebrated. Bernard McGinley explains an old innovation by the Hastings Local History Group and the Old Hastings Preservation Society.
Jude Montague talks to Kev Younger about his life in music and his ‘original music band The High Span’. They are part of Adventures in Pop, the creative new music scene with house bands Montague Armstrong Rippengal (MAR) and the Barbarian Horde.
A short service was held on Winkle Island to commemorate Victory in Europe Day on Thursday 8 May. Councillors, local dignitaries and MP Helena Dollimore were in attendance, in addition to members of the public. The Rev Matthew Phipps of St Clements officiated at the service, which was organised by Hastings Veterans’ forum. The VE Day flag was flown from the Town Hall. Pictures contributed by Stewart Rayment.
HOT’s Judy Parkinson learns about the tragedy of a German soldier, writer and artist who disappeared as the Second World War came to an end 80 years ago.
Jude Montague introduces work by some of the artists who will be contributing to a playfully exuberant show with a DIY approach at Electro Studios Project Space Thurs 29 May – Sat 1 June.
On Saturday, 10 May 2025, Hastings will welcome the inaugural Hastings Charity Fest, a free-entry acoustic music event at Barnaby’s Lounge, starting at 2pm. This one-day festival celebrates local musical talent while supporting two important music charities, with representatives from both organisations onsite collecting donations in buckets throughout the day,as the Lounge’s press office reports.
Hastings Council leader Julia Hilton is under pressure to release legal advice which she claims makes her powerless to stop a company carrying out illegal activities on Hastings Council property. Hastings & Rye Palestine Solidarity Campaign chair Katy Colley reports.
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