Daily Archives: 6 Nov 2014
Political donations – the Swire connection
An eagle-eyed local correspondent has added more information to our story:
with the following comment:
“I believe from press reports that our own dear MP Hugo Swire might have been the auctioneer who took the winning bid from the parties concerned at the annual Tory fund raiser.
Wasn’t this also the occasion that Hugo boasted of selling a jar of his (East Devon?)honey for £15,000 ? (He must really be in touch with the struggles of the proles of East Devon!)
Having lived in Henley on Thames, I am familiar with the addresses associated with the winning bidder and Henley Concierge, the latter especially should have started bells ringing.”
BBC Spotlight devolution debate link to live text article
Science Park gets top-notch companies – Skypark gets an energy plant, call centre, parcel depot – and EDDC HQ!
Science Park right by M5 junction and the planned new shopping centre and getting high status tenants (Met Office new computer cenntre, Blur Group) with high-tech, high-value jobs. Skypark near the incomplete and (some say) problematic Cranbrook, adjacent to Exeter airport runway and, well let’s say, less high-value job and less high status tenants (energy plant, call centre, parcel depot – and EDDC new HQ)!.
Where would I rather be? Hmmm – hard question!
The missing 6,000+ voters – whoops, that should read “the missing 5,997+ voters”!
We notice from the What do they Know website
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/conduct_of_the_may_22_2014_local#outgoing-397991
that EDDC has refused to answer a question about Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) Mark Williams’ evidence to the Commons Constitutional Reform Committee on October 13th about several thousand names apparently missing from EDDC’s latest electoral register. He told the Committee that he had not “knocked anyone off the electoral register” because, he said:
“…… at the European election if an elector presented themselves to vote and they were not on the developmental register as I call it, the presiding officer would phone up and say, ‘That’s okay, they are on my old register. We will do a clerical error and they can go back on.’”
The implication seemed to be: “Don’t worry about thousands of missing names, they just needed to turn up and they were allowed to vote! “.
On 15th October Sidmouth resident Tony Green put a Freedom of Information request to EDDC asking how many such cases there actually were at the European and local elections last May.
On 4th November EDDC refused to answer because they said EROs are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and anyway Mr Williams and his team are too busy working on the next election to be bothered with pesky questions concerning precise numbers.
In fact, in the meantime, EDA has learned from a reliable source, that the total number of electors able to vote in May using the procedure above was precisely…..THREE!
The perfect Christmas present for lovers of East Devon’s literature and landscape!
‘LITERATURE and LANDSCAPE in EAST DEVON’
A correspondent writes, “I think this book would make a good Christmas present, better still keep it as it has lots of literary walks and a map included.”
For an entertaining preview of this unique publication, written in support of EDA, you are warmly invited to the book launch evening on
FRIDAY 12th DECEMBER 2014, 6-8pm at ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH HALL, ALL SAINTS’ ROAD, SIDMOUTH, EX10 8ES
As a first, full literary companion to the East Devon area, A4 in size and full colour, this beautiful book combines large photographs with serious research, quotations, observations on literature and landscape. Included also is a map, information on the writers, an index and bibliography, plus directions as to where the authors walked in the area so readers can follow in their footsteps. The aim is both to celebrate and draw attention to this unique and threatened part of rural England. Birthplace of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Sir Walter Raleigh, a setting for stories and poems by Jane Austen, H.G Wells, John Fowles, C. Day Lewis, John Betjeman, Beatrix Potter, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and others, East Devon remains as attractive to writers today as ever. The publication of this book aims to help keep it this way.
RSVP to Mike Temple, stating number attending: michael.temple@btinternet.com or Tel: 01395 577461
The dramatisation of the book starts promptly at 6.30. Free entry. Book signing. Raffle. Light refreshments available after the performance.
East Devon Watch 