Here we have a photo of MP Hugo Swire recently opening a “parish field” at Clyst Honiton:
But what is that to the right of his shoulder in the picture? It looks like a large plastic hand just about to thump him on his rear! Maybe it’s an old Eton ritual like the Eton Ball Game. Still, at least he has his comfort blanket if the worst happens.
“The feeling of power has been found to have a similar effect on the brain to cocaine. It increases the levels of testosterone and its by-product 3-androstanediol in both men and women. This in turn leads to raised levels of dopamine, the brain’s reward system called the nucleus accumbens, which can be very addictive.
Like cocaine, scientists now believe power can lead to too much dopamine causing more negative effects such as arrogance and impatience.”
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority – made up of a consortium of 10 local authorities is going back to the drawing board and attempting to draw up a Regional Spatial Strategy – i.e. a Mega-Local-Plan. Those long in the tooth (i.e. who remember local government more than 4 years ago) will recall that this used to be the way things were done for infrastructure and investment wit the (not-much-missed-because-it-wasn’t-very-good) South West Regional Development Agency SWRDA with their Spatial Strategy for the whole of Devon. They were replaced by Local Enterprise Partnership – but they, too, seem to be fading away gradually as we hear less of them and their funding.
http://www.agma.gov.uk/what_we_do/manchester-family-centre-of-excellence/index.html
(what an odd URL!)
So, maybe this is the way things are going – fewer and fewer small authorities and more and more amalgamation as Councillor Potter predicted at Newton Poppleford earlier this week.
But where does that leave EDDC? They fought Devon-wide unitisation so, so hard a few years ago – spending at least a quarter of a million pounds of our council tax on persuading us not to go down that route and saying how bad it was for us. Then, as soon as the new government came in, they cancelled unitisation saying it was not a good idea. Now amalgamation seems to be the new theory and it’s all ok now.
There must be some really hard head-scratching going on at present at EDDC as they see the possibiity of losing control! Though there are many who think they lost control some time ago ….
… and wouldn’t the Skypark HQ make a lovely Devon HQ so that Exeter and DCC could sell off their current offices for housing ….. unless it goes to Plymouth, of course! Why not: it’s on the far edge of the area and only as far (relatively speaking) from Exeter in Devon-wide terms as Axminster is from Skypark in EDDC terms!
Our MP is a very enthusiastic proponent of TTIP – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Sounds good – but for an alternative view see here:
http://defendournhsyork.wordpress.com/ttip-information/what-is-ttip/
This is what Private Eye has to say about his involvement:
For those unable to enlarge the image, the crucial quotes are:
“Swire conceded there were concerns … “that regulatory standards will be lowered, or that investment protection provisions could lead to a dismantling of the NHS” but then argued that this would not be the case … however, Private Eye continues: “In fact he willfully misses the point. The danger is that the TTIP will undermine the NHS as a supplier of health services, rather than cut access to it. By making NHS services an investment class, TTIP can cut NHS hospitals out from running the health service, replacing them with centres run by US Healthcare corporations – including HCA International, aka the Hospital Corporation of America, which already runs many NHS services.
Pays your money, takes your choice!
East Devon Watch 