Daily Archives: 24 Feb 2015
Tory MP suggests astrology could solve the NHS crisis
He said:
… “Astrology is a useful diagnostic tool enabling us to see strengths and weaknesses via the birth chart. And, yes, I have helped fellow MPs. I do foresee that one day astrology will have a role to play in healthcare.
He added that opponents to astrology were “bullies”, saying: “Astrology offers self-understanding to people. People who oppose what I say are usually bullies who have never studied astrology. They never look at it. They are absolutely dismissive. Astrology may not be capable of passing double-blind tests but it is based on thousands of years of observation.
Hippocrates said, ‘A physician without a knowledge of astrology has no right to call himself a physician,’ Astrology was until modern times part of the tradition of medicine. I think it is a great pity that so many scientists today are dismissive of right-side brain energy, such as intuition.
People such as Professor Brian Cox, who called astrology ‘rubbish’ have simply not studied the subject. The BBC is quite dismissive of astrology and seeks to promote the science perspective and seems always keen to broadcast criticisms of astrology.”
Bizarrely, Tredinnick, 65, who is chairman of the All-Party Group for Integrated Healthcare, went on to say people who opposed astrology were “racist”. He said: “The opposition (to astrology) is based on what I call the SIP formula – superstition, ignorance, and prejudice. “It tends to be based on superstition, with scientists reacting emotionally, which is always a great irony. They are also ignorant, because they never study the subject and just say that it is all to do with what appears in the newspapers, which it is not, and they are deeply prejudiced, and racially prejudiced, which is troubling.”
Last July Tredinnick caused a storm when he first spoke about the benefits of astrology, saying it had a “proven track record” at helping people recover from illness. He told MPs in the House of Commons: “I am absolutely convinced that those who look at the map of the sky for the day that they were born and receive some professional guidance will find out a lot about themselves and it will make their lives easier.
He even revealed Britain’s last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, had an official astrologer. He said: “When I was in Hong Kong on the last Parliamentary delegation, I went to see Chris Patten, the last governor before the handover to China. I visited Patten’s official astrologer which he had as governor. He certainly would have been given advice.”
He went on to claim past world leaders, including Winston Churchill, legendary French general Charles de Gaulle and former US President Ronald Reagan, also used astrology.
EDDC changing meeting dates to force through Knowle relocation and land grab days before ” the period of heightened sensitivity” would require delay till next council
What a terrible indictment of a council that its one “achievement” will be voting itself a new building in Honiton and its most dreadful lack of achievement will be the lack of a Local Plan which has left us all at the mercy of greedy developers (many of whom were members of the East Devon Business Forum – chaired by disgraced ex- councillor Graham Brown).
How will it do this: by changing the dates of scheduled meetings to force a (whipped?) vote as explained on Claire Wright’s blog (claire-wright.org):
“The Cabinet meeting scheduled for 18 March has been brought forward a week and will now be held on Wednesday 11 March 5.30 start
(The agenda will include a report on the Office relocation) Cabinet members, Chairman of the Council and Chairman of O/S, please note that the Cabinet briefing will now be held before Council on 25 February (tomorrow) before Council.
A joint meeting of Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Audit and Governance Committee will be held on Thursday 12 March at 5pm. This is an additional meeting. This will be a single issue meeting to discuss and make recommendations on the Office relocation report discussed by Cabinet the previous evening. The recommendations of Cabinet will be referred to that joint meeting. If members of the joint meeting are in agreement, the meeting will be chaired by Tim Wood, Chairman of the O/S Committee with Ken Potter as Vice Chairman. The internal and external auditors will attend.
An Extraordinary meeting of the Council will be held on Wednesday 25 March at 6.30 pm to make a decision on the Office relocation. This is an additional meeting. Recommendations from Cabinet and the joint O/S A&G committee will be reported to that meeting.”
Naughty, naughty EDDC
to take the schedule of meetings off your (new) website when you plan to push Knowle relocation and land grab through before the end of this council session and before the district council elections in May 2015.
Now, why would you do that?
This is the web page from which the information has been removed:
http://new.eastdevon.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/committees-and-meetings/
Council and Democracy – yet another oxymoron!
Claire Wright’s odds on winning the General Election rise enormously as those of Hugo Swire and UKIP fall!
Ladbrokes odds last week and this week:
Hugo Swire last week 1/12 now 1/8
Claire Wright (who started at 66/1) last week 12/1 now 6/1
UKIP unchanged at 12/1
Lib Dem unchanged at 50/1
Labour, Greens unchanged at 100/1
To make a bet go to Ladbrokes/Politics/General Election/Constituencies/Devon/Devon East (NOT East Devon)
If you want to make a bet REMEMBER: bet responsibly and you must be over 18
“Ban second home-owners buying new homes in popular rural villages”
Western Morning News on a new report:
Affordable Housing: A Fair Deal for Rural Communities
at
Click to access afairdealforruralcommunitiesmainreport3-1.pdf
highlights:
“…. Cornwall and Devon have among the highest levels of second home ownership in the country, with around 26,000 part-time properties in the region. …
…. The report also calls on the Government to reverse its new policy that means developments of fewer than ten homes are exempt from ensuring a proportion of the properties are sold or rented at affordable rates.
Lord Taylor said small sites are the “mainstay” of rural housing development.
He said: “In Cornwall and Devon this change, pushed through by the Conservative Planning Minister, will be devastating – leaving most small communities with no hope of affordable housing within local developments and local people unable to afford the vast prices inevitable on the open market in attractive villages.”
He said while new planning guidance had some rural exemptions the main effect will be to “increase site values to the benefit of wealthy landowners at the expense of local people unable to afford a local home”.
The report also calls on the “bedroom tax” to scrapped in rural areas, and for the Right to Buy council housing discount to be curbed because of fears the housing stock is being diminished.
Brandon Lewis, Housing Minister, said: “Trying to impose state bans on who can own property is totally inappropriate and simply will not stand up.”
38 Degrees “Save the NHS” March – Exeter on Saturday
“Protestors will march through Exeter City Centre this weekend to highlight the plight of the NHS ahead of the General Election.
Campaigners will meet at the Richard Hooker statue on Cathedral Green on Saturday at 11am.
They will then move onto the High Street brandishing placards and banners.
The protest has been instigated nationally by 38 Degrees, one of the UK’s biggest campaigning communities.”
We have identified most of those 6,000 missing voters – just in time for the coming elections
Our long- running campaign (Sidmouth Independent News, EDA former blog, then this blog) has – with little thanks to EDDC – ensured that our district has at last caught up with most of the 6,000 voters missing from the electoral register in 2014 – a misfortune that got our CEO and Electoral Returning Officer, Mark Williams, hauled before the Parliamentary Commission on Voter Engagement to explain. Rather unsatisfactorily.
In its most recent report: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/182375/Analysis-of-the-December-2014-electoral-registers-in-England-and-Wales.pdf
the Electoral Commission has this to say about East Devon, key paragraph:
“In contrast, in East Devon, where the challenges are different, there hjas been an increase in the number of entries on the register. The ERO has attributed this to the success of making visits to non-responding properties and individuals, which were carried out across the area in 2014 for the first time since 2010.”
In other words, Mark Williams has effectively admitted that, had he carried our doorstep canvassing as he was required to do between 2010 and 2014, rather than trying to cut corners (for whatever reason) then most of the missing voters would have almost certainly been registered in that period.
This could well have affected the outcome of European elections in East Devon and, had these voters not made it on to the register, the outcome of district and Parliamentary Elections in May 2015. An election where results may hinge on only scores or hundreds of votes.
Next on the agenda to fix – Households of Multiple Occupation.
MP who had ” done nothing wrong” resigns – deja-vu in East Devon
Oh, Malcolm, we know how hard it is for someone who has “done nothing wrong” who ends up being ditched by his party and having to resign.
We’ve seen it for ourselves here in East Devon a number of times over the years with our Tory councillors – and quite recently, too with our ex-Tory Councillor Graham Brown. AND he was stung by the Daily Telegraph too. AND he was on the front page too – saying that he “didn’t come cheap”.
People can be so unkind whe all you want is to have the money to live the life you deserve …
Our thoughts are with you.
Mobile phone 3G coverage in Devon – pathetic
Recall that, not long ago, our EDDC councillors, piggy-backing on the promises of the national Conservative Party, were boasting that, pretty soon, Devon would be covered with whizzily fast broadband coverage. That continued till it transpired that, in fact, it wasn’t going to happen.
In fact it was poor tendering on the part of councils dealing with the project which gave BT a stranglehold and a preference for dealing with the easy connections and not bothering with the, largely rural, infrastructure that cost more to put in.
Now we hear the shocking news that only 15% of Devon can receive 3G phone coverage. This is the coverage that would at least allow users to get their internet and email on their smartphones if they could not get broadband coverage. It isn’t 4G – that allows very, very fast coverage on smartphones and tablets, which is now available in many areas – but the slower, clunkier, now old-fashioned 3G!
Wouldn’t the millions of pounds being spent on flash new offices be better spent ensuring our medium and small businesses (including rural tourism) was in the 21st century?
Or will we operate a two-tier system: the nearer you are to the Science Park and the “Growth Point” the better you will be treated?
T“The most recent data published by the regulator shows that Devon has most limited mobile phone access of any local authority area in the South West. In just 15% of the county’s geographic landmass can a 3G signal be picked up with the “Big 4” networks, namely Vodafone, 02, Three and EE.
The parlous provision continues across the rural areas of the South West. In Cornwall, 3G coverage for all operators is 25% of Cornwall’s geography, 26% in Dorset and 38% in Somerset.
By contrast, in Plymouth, the biggest urban area in the Westcountry, coverage is 99% of the city, as it is with the capital and most built-up areas in the UK.”
Councillor Ian Thomas has taken this post to task in a comment saying the first paragraph is “not truthful” and wants it changed. This is an issue that may be judged subjectively, but this post below does look like boasting and all the people mentionec by name are (or were at the time) Conservatives:
East Devon Watch 