Ash Ford-McAllister: Freelance Consultant Writer

  The UK's Autumn 2026 Budget was a lot - mostly, from my perspective, of fingers-crossed that gaming businesses and vape shops won't just pack up and leave in the face of more punitive taxation and business rates liability, a belief that the business rates a sector famous for low wages and part-time employment contracts are going to benefit from being "relieved" of will just magically appear from elsewhere to provide the income local authorities need, and those local authorities won't simply put up council tax on their residents whilst still not providing the services needed by those residents. For this post, I'm focusing on the statement that "welfare reform needs to be about names, not numbers."  What does that look like in practice? I've been on both sides of welfare - a welfare claimant, and working for an employability organisation that was tasked with "getting people back to work". That latter experience showed me the major barr...

There's a "Budget Day Boycott" - but no one offering to make themselves available to provide essentials free of charge to those who experience an immediate need  on Wednesday 28th October - an urgent, but not ambulance-worthy, hospital trip they need to put petrol in their car for.  Food intended for Wednesday's dinner that's gone off, and nothing else in, because payday isn't until Friday.  A sick child who needs medication that their parent thought they had in the medicine cabinet, only to find it has run out.  A pair of shoes found to have an unrepairable split, and a job interview in the morning. Many people are vehemently "Anti-AI" - but they won't even write down a friend's email, so that they can both  leave Meta platforms, which are steamrollering ahead with the most unethical form of Gen-AI use possible.  They won't reach out to "unknowns" to ask for art work, writing, videography, coaching, that they will pay market ra...

  I've made the decision to start a weekly newsletter, and to post an excerpt from it here each Sunday; for those who choose to subscribe (it's free!), the full newsletter will be sent by email every Monday. To sign up for a free weekly newsletter, simply email ashleyfordmcallister@yahoo.com  with the subject heading "Newsletter." Extract for Week One, week commencing 26.10.2026 Disability vs. Disabling We are currently living in the interesting times of the UK government looking fully set on bankrupting the country by “investing in AI”, including draining already critically low water supplies, adding to pollution, and destroying nature, for the data centres that support Generative AI, regardless of communities’ feelings about the loss of land, and the re-routing of utilities they pay for to fuel something that is all about constant growth, and then blaming disabled people for the country being bankrupt. The government position of “we can’t afford it, we can’t supply ...

(Photography of Reprezent Project's work by Ash Ford-McAllister) If you’ve passed the Iron Duke site in Great Yarmouth in the past year, you’ll have seen the decorative site hoarding panels around the outside. These panels were created with community engagement by Reprezent Project, who also organised the first Mural Jam, which took place on the seafront behind Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach on Saturday 5th September 2026, and saw over 60 street art artists from the UK and overseas turn up to make art and build community. Building community is also the core function of pubs. Which means pubs and street art go together like pie and mash (to draw from the British “pub grub” associations!)  That’s part of why photography by City College Norwich A-Level students, supported by professional photographer Debby Besford, showing the Iron Duke when the process of restoration first started, are showcased alongside the work of the street artists. Street art is about people who are often unhear...