Finding good news under this dreadful Labour Government remains one of our more challenging weekly assignments here at the Conservative Post.
Westminster lurches from one mess to another, the Government appears determined to test the nation’s patience, and Britain too often seems poorly served by those representing us on the world stage.
But Britain is not its Government.
So every week we look beyond Westminster and celebrate the Britain that is still serving, building, investing, innovating and achieving. And this week, appropriately during the anniversary of the Battle of Britain, there is a distinctly military flavour to our good news.
We begin, though, in the tiny Northamptonshire village of Piddington, where residents provided a rather wonderful demonstration of democracy in action. Whatever one’s politics, there is something quintessentially British about ordinary people becoming involved in the decisions affecting their community. Democracy belongs to the people, not to Westminster, and Piddington provided a timely reminder that local voices still matter. Well done Piddlington. They certainly roared.
Then came one of the most important anniversaries in our national calendar.
On Battle of Britain Day, the country remembered The Few, 86 years after young pilots climbed into Spitfires and Hurricanes to defend these islands against Nazi Germany. Their victory in the skies during the summer and autumn of 1940 helped prevent invasion and changed the course of history.
Churchill’s words still echo through the generations, and so they should. The courage of those airmen, British, Commonwealth and Allied, should never become merely another paragraph in a history book. The freedoms we enjoy today were bought at an extraordinary price.
Eighty-six years later, the Royal Air Force remains busy defending those freedoms.
This week RAF and NATO aircraft took to British skies for the UK’s largest homeland defence exercise, testing the ability of our forces and allies to respond to threats against the country. At a time of growing international uncertainty, there could hardly be a more powerful demonstration that Britain must retain strong, capable Armed Forces.
The Royal Navy gave us another magnificent sight this week as sailors from HMS Queen Elizabeth marched proudly through Edinburgh. There is something wonderfully stirring about seeing the men and women of the Senior Service exercising the traditions and freedoms that connect today’s sailors with generations who served before them. Governments come and go, but those traditions of duty, discipline and service endure.
And our Armed Forces are not simply relying upon tradition. Britain is preparing for the battlefields of tomorrow.
A £400 million deal for British made Tekever AR5 surveillance drones, alongside plans for 1,000 smaller drones for the Army, represents precisely the kind of investment we want to see, backing British expertise while giving our troops modern equipment. Britain is also moving to develop a new long range anti-tank weapon after a capability gap stretching back three decades.
One of the most inspiring military stories, however, belonged to Lance Corporal Grace Cussons, who became the first female reservist to pass the notoriously gruelling P Company selection course.
Her achievement is remarkable enough, but the story behind it makes it particularly poignant. LCpl Cussons dedicated her success to her late friend Captain Lizzie Godwin, who had encouraged her to attempt the course before her death. In an extraordinary coincidence, LCpl Cussons passed on the anniversary of her friend’s death. After a year of training and two attempts, she completed one of the British Army’s toughest physical and mental challenges.
That is courage, friendship and determination rolled into one very British story.
Away from the military, there was enormously encouraging news for British manufacturing.
McLaren is powering ahead with a £500 million investment expected to create around 1,000 jobs and bring engine manufacturing to Britain. In an era when we hear far too much about businesses leaving, investment disappearing and Britain’s industrial base shrinking, here is the sort of headline we should be shouting from the rooftops.
British factories. British engineering. British jobs. British engines.
More of this, please.
And finally, forgive us a little celebration of our own.
This week the Conservative Post turned six.
Since launching in 2020, we have published 12,751 stories, welcomed more than five million unique readers and grown from a small idea into a publication read by people across Britain and beyond.
Through elections, leadership contests, national crises, political upheavals and more Westminster drama than anybody could reasonably have requested, we have kept doing what we set out to do, reporting the stories that matter to our readers and proudly flying the flag for Britain.
Six years later, we are still here. And so is the country we love. Because look beyond the political gloom and Britain is still extraordinary. Our Armed Forces are training for tomorrow’s threats. Our sailors are marching proudly through Edinburgh. Our engineers are building the technologies of the future. Our manufacturers are investing hundreds of millions of pounds in Britain. Our soldiers are breaking barriers and making history. And 86 years after The Few defended these islands, another generation stands ready to protect them.
So stay strong. This awful period will not last forever. Governments are temporary. Britain is not.
While Labour dithers, Britain continues. While Westminster disappoints, the British people achieve. Our engineers build, our businesses invest, our Armed Forces serve and ordinary people across the country keep this nation moving.
Never confuse the failures of a Government with the fortunes of a nation.
Britain remains a force to be reckoned with.
We still serve. We still build. We still innovate. We still remember.
And we still have an enormous amount to be proud of.
Here are our best-read and most shared positive stories from this week (14 – 20 September 2026):
By Claire Bullivant
For last week’s Great British News (7 – 13 September 2026) click here.
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