William Robinson

SWLondoner — This was a video piece covering the Annual Parsons Green Fair in Fulham which supported local charity Fulham Good Neighbours which took place on July 6th. The event had different stores as well as performances from local school children throughout the day. I interviewed Fulham Good Neighbours' Chief Executive about where the money raised from the day's event would go to and why the event was special for the local area. The money raised would go to support the charities' support services aimed at supporting the elderly and isolated within the community. I also interviewed Chelsea and Fulham's newly elected MP Ben Coleman asking him why the event was so important for the local community, in which he said that it allowed people to talk about what the great work of Fulham Good Neighbours which he said was one of his favourite charities. I spoke also with some of the fairgoers about how they found the fair which on the whole was a completely positive reaction.

North East Londoner — This story refers to the success of the Give An X campaign which focused on getting more young people registered to vote before the 2024 General Election. The campaign was jointly run by charities My Life My Say, #IWill and Shape History who all focused on getting more young people engaged with politics and making sure that their voices were heard and represented. The aim of the campaign was to get as many young people to be registered to vote by the deadline of June 18th. It proved successful with over 1.6 million people aged between 18-34 registered to vote after the election was announced on May 22nd. I interviewed #IWill’s Policy and Public Affairs Officer George Fielding about how big the issue was in terms of young people not being registered to vote. He said that before the election, 4.3 million people were not registered to vote and that they wanted more young people registered to hold politicians to account. I interviewed Shape History's Associate Strategy Director Jack Maycock about how the importance of the campaign and how they managed to get so many people to register to vote. He said it was based around bringing politics to people and that the support of recognisable brands such as Lime Bikes, Ben&Jerry's and Tinder were all key to their success. I also asked him why there were so many young people who weren't registered to vote, he said it was because young people didn't believe that politicians weren't listening to them and that more active listening needed to be done by politicians.

SWLondoner — This article is about the result of the Kingston and Surbiton constituency at the 2024 General Election which saw the incumbent Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey retain his seat with an increased majority. I managed to take notes of Davey's acceptance speech as well as his pooled interview about his own result but also the fact that the Liberal Democrats were on course to have their best ever election result. I had researched the key issues of campaign which referred to the continuing closure of Kingfisher Leisure Centre and Chessington F.C. being underwater during the winter months. I also researched an independent candidate who polled 1,177 votes on a platform of justice for postmasters' which referred to Davey's time as the post-office minister during the coalition government.

SWLondoner — This article referred to the increase in the absolute poverty rate within the UK in 2022-23 which was the highest increase for the previous 30 years. I set out to find out why this was the case and what the major political parties were offering to tackle poverty and homelessness in the run-up to the 2024 General Election. I interviewed a Big Issue Vendor Andre Rostant about his experiences of being Below the Breadline, being homeless and working as a Big Issue Vendor. He said that people have a particular mindset when it comes to homelessness which isn't at all accurate. I also created a digital map of the different London boroughs focusing on the different levels of child poverty within each part of London. I then interviewed the End Child Poverty coalition manager Rachel Walters about the impact of the two-child benefit cap on child poverty. She explained that it had done and gave me some figures about the particular increase which I displayed on a graph. She called for the abolition of the cap as she claimed that it would lift 300,000 children out of poverty. I then researched the major party manifestos and highlighted the key differences of their approaches to reducing poverty in the UK. The Conservatives wished to keep the cap as did Labour although Sir Keir Starmer claimed he would scrap the cap if he had the resources whereas the Liberal Democrats planned to scrap the Vagrancy Act that outlaws rough sleeping in England and Wales.

SWLondoner — A live blog covering the events of Wimbledon Qualifying on Wednesday 26th June 2024. It was the second round of qualifying in which players such as Richard Gasquet, David Goffin and Amanda Anisimova were attempting to qualify for the Wimbledon Main Draw. The blog contained pictures of the action as well as interviews with match winners.

SWLondoner — It was a tale of differing debate fortunes for the leaders of the two biggest parties during the Sky News Q&A session in the 2024 General Election Campaign. Keir Starmer excelled when announcing his education policies whereas Rishi Sunak struggled with his message for young people.

SWLondoner — During the 2019/24 Parliament, MP suspensions hit a record level with 16 MPs having been suspended from their parities as well as 18 MPs having resigned from the House of Commons. I wanted to discover what was the reason behind the amount of suspensions and so I contacted a retiring Labour MP Jon Cruddas about he thought the reason behind it was. I also researched a blog from a Parliamentary expert which gave me additional information about changes in Parliamentary Procedures in regard to complaints which also helped to understand what had actually impacted the changes in MP suspension levels.

South East Londoner — The story was about a new journalism school opening in Beckenham, South East London aiming to increase diversity within the journalism sphere. The school was opened by Cocoa Girl founder Serlina Boyd and I interviewed her about why she had decided to open the school and who was she targeting with it. She told me that the school was aimed at children between 7 and 11 from ethnic minority backgrounds as she said that only 0.2% of journalists are black which she hoped with the new school, she would be able to increase. I asked her about how she had found it difficult to break into the industry as a woman of colour. She said that a lack of role models made it difficult for her to break through into the industry at first and that she hadn't had a black colleague in 18 years which inspired her to set the school up. When asked about future plans, she said she would want to get children from other disadvantaged groups such as those with neurodiversity to help make the journalism industry more diverse.

SWLondoner — This story covered opposition and concern from local homeless charities to the Government's proposed new Criminal Justice Bill which they believed would criminalise rough sleeping. I interviewed St Mungos Islington & Care Regional Head Ayesha ‘Ish’ Camp about their concerns and what clarification they wanted from the government. The biggest concern was in relation to the new powers that the police would get for nuisance beggers and rough sleepers which Camp feared would be interpreted that rough sleepers would be a nuisance and cleared of the street. They wanted that particular part of the bill to be amended and focused under anti-social behaviour laws. The bill had received the opposition of 40 Conservative MPs including the MP for Cities of London and Westminster Nickie Allen who said when I asked her about her opposition to the bill, she said that we need to avoid criminalising rough sleepers and research why they are rough sleepers in the first place. I then emailed a right of reply request to the Home Office with the concerns that I had received and they gave me an effective answer which was included at the bottom of the piece.

SWLondoner — A then-serving Government minister was helping to spearhead a campaign attempting to Save the Chelsea Bun. Greg Hands, the then MP for Chelsea and Fulham and the Minister for London had teamed up with Partridges to help revive the Chelsea Bun. The bun had been a favourite of King George III and his family and had an over 250-year history but Hands had feared were no longer being sold at South West London bakeries. The campaign was hoping to use the annual World Chelsea Bun Awards in May to hope revive the popularity of the treat. My work consisted of interviewing Hands and Partridge's owner John Shepherd about the campaign, why the Chelsea Bun is so important as a South West Londoner delicacy and how people can help to support the campaign. I also asked both for information about what the Global Chelsea Bun Awards are and how people can enter the competition.

SWLondoner — This article was about Barnes Football Club a recently revived football club hosting a community day at the beginning of March. The community day's aim was to help raise the club's profile in the community and to attract new players for the season starting in September 2024. I interviewed Julie Burgess who is the club's secretary and was among those who managed to revive the club as her grandfather had been the club chairman for 46 years. I asked her about why she wanted to revive the club, she said that they wanted to give local children a safe place for them to play due to cost of playing football is too great for parents. She also said that she wanted to be able to set up a women's team as well due to the fact that there weren't in her view, a lot of women's grassroots football teams. I did additional research in order to give more profile about the club and discovered that Barnes Football Club were the first ever club to win a match in the FA Cup when they beat a Civil Service team 2-0.