Sincerity, determination, and smiles from the public, were the key impressions from tonight’s BBC Spotlight feature on East Devon’s Independent Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC), as she knocked on constituents’ doors. Claire spoke of the role of Independents able to act “without a Party Whip breathing down their neck”. In these times of diminished Party loyalty, that could be a vote winner….
Daily Archives: 21 Apr 2015
‘Huge leap’ forward in fight to save Honiton day centre
Pullman’s View from Honiton reports, ‘Jackie Wadsworth founded the now fast-progressing project to bring day care for older people back to the town.’ Front page story here: HonitonViewFrom21stApril2015 .
Town Councillor Jackie, is also standing as an Independent candidate for the District Council, with the East Devon Alliance who claim to be ‘Independents working for you’. We see what they mean!
Final full council meeting: Wednesday 29 April 2015, 6.30 p.m.
Final full council meeting of the current council will be on Wednesday 29 April 2015 at 6.30 pm at Knowle.
THIS WILL BE THE LAST OPPORTUNITY FOR THE PUBLIC TO ASK QUESTIONS OF THE CURRENT COUNCIL – GET YOUR REQUEST TO SPEAK IN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE IF YOU WISH TO SPEAK
Agenda, which consists mostly of minutes of previous council committees and presentations to retiring councillors, is here:
Anyone attending might check that the old guard does not take this opportunity to make outrageous political statements or even decisions!
Methinks many more councillors will be leaving than those retiring!
Brilliant: half a million voters registered yesterday (but too late now)
“The Electoral Commission said there have been 2,296,530 online applications to register to vote since its campaign began on 16 March. Of these, 707,171 applications were made by 16-24 year olds.
The previous record for single day sign-ups was 166,000 on 5 February – National Voter Registration Day. The third highest was 123,000 online applications on Sunday, 19 April – following David Cameron’s appearance on BBC’s Andrew Marr show. The next highest was 110,000 on Thursday, 16 April – the day of the BBC’s live election debate featuring the leaders of the five main opposition parties.
Research carried out in 2014 suggested that 7.5 million people eligible to vote were not on the electoral register.
Heaven or Hell?
Thanks to comedienne Jennifer Saunders Facebook page for this:
It gets worse for Tory Chairman Grant Shapps/Michael Green!
A parliamentary candidate for the Welwyn Hatfield constituency of Tory Party CO-Chairman Grant Shapps (aka “Michael Green”) has changed his name to Michael Green to stand agaInst Shapps.
Shapps admitted last month that he did work as a web marketer under the alias Michael Green after entering Parliament and, when challenged said that he had been “over firm” in his denial!
Here is the official list of candidates:
On his website
“Mr Green” (rumoured to be a famous comedian) says:
“Tory chairman Grant Shapps has been pretending to be ‘Michael Green’. Well my name really is Michael Green. And I’m pretty pissed off.
So I’ve decided to embarrass him by standing against him in his own constituency. That’s right: his secret pseudonym will be joining him on the ballot paper.”
Conservative Party Chairman “has Wikipedia account blocked” after investigation into “sock-puppetry”
Wikipedia has blocked a user account on suspicions that it is being used by the Conservative party chairman, Grant Shapps, “or someone acting on his behalf” to edit his own page along with the entries of Tory rivals and political opponents.
The online encylopedia, where pages are edited and created by readers, has tracked the changes made by a user called “Contribsx” who has systematically removed embarrassing references on Shapps’ Wikipedia page about the Tory chairman’s business activities as Michael Green, the self-styled millionaire web marketer.
A Guardian investigation found about a third of the contributions made by this user were to Shapps’ own Wikipedia entry while the rest are made up largely of unflattering changes to the online pages to senior political figures – including prominent figures in the Tory party such as Philip Hammond, Justine Greening and Lynton Crosby.
Wikipedia says that “sock-puppetry” – creating a fake online identity “for an improper purpose, such as to mislead other editors, disrupt discussions, distort consensus or avoid sanctions” – is not permitted.
It added that it had banned Contribsx and said any evidence of future attempts to cover the user’s tracks would be investigated immediately.
The site’s administrators, selected Wikipedia volunteers who patrol the site, told the Guardian that they “believe that the account Contribsx is a sockpuppet of Grant Shapps’ previous accounts on Wikipedia … and based on the evidence the account is either run by Shapps directly or being run by someone else – an assistant or a PR agency – but under his clear direction.” …..
A tale of three (or four or more) placards … perfect placement is all!
It’s another sign!
Approach to the election, on the A 35.
Safe seats: today’s Rotten Boroughs
Hugo Swire sent a rather whining letter to the Express and Echo complaining that the Electoral Reform Society had made a mistake and so East Devon is NOT a marginal seat but a safe seat and it is HIS safe seat, so there!
Had he read on further in that post he would have seen them say this about safe seats:
“Safe seats are the 21st Century’s rotten boroughs. The average constituency last changed hands between parties in the 1960s, with some super safe seats having remained firmly in one-party control since the time of Queen Victoria.
The majority of seats can be predicted because of Westminster’s broken First Past the Post electoral system.
As consituencies are small and only elect one MP, rival parties often don’t stand a chance of winning in hundreds of seats across the UK. Even if they have significant support it counts of nothing if they lose. As the loss of safe seats is rare, parties target their resources on a small number of floating voters in marginal seats – meaning they give up on millions of voters across the country.
You can find out how much parties spent on your vote here.“
http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/safe-seats
Meet the candidates…if they deign to turn up!!
Town Council hustings tonight in Sidmouth (21 April, 6.00pm -7.30 pm, in Sidmouth College).
Organised by Vision Group for Sidmouth (VgS) http://www.visionforsidmouth.org
Wonder if any of the current councillors will show their mettle and be there to face questions? Only ONE representative came to the crowded VgS District Council hustings last week, with lame excuses for the rest.
Voters’ verdict: Could do better?
TONIGHT: Spotlight to feature East Devon’s Independent Candidate for Parliament
The spotlight will again be on Claire Wright and her bid for Parliament in the May 7th election. See her on BBC TV this evening, on the local ‘Spotlight’ news.
Conservative Cupcakes
“CONSERVATIVE CUPCAKE CASES
David Cameron has previously revealed that he has watched The Great British Bake Off, which might explain these rather pricey cupcake cases. The pack of 36 patriotic cases, in Tory blue with a Union Jack design, comes in at £5 a pop.”
Or, possibly £50,000 if auctioned for Conservative Party funds by our own Hugo Swire (see comment), or, you could get 250 mixed colours for £4 postage free from Amazon (though their tax position of not paying very much because no-one makes them might put you off).
That, ladies and gentlemen, is today’s lesson on the free market economy!
It’s a sign!
Noticed these poster boards springing up all over East Devon? This one’s on the A3052.
A picture is worth a thousand words …
Prospective Parliamentary Candidates’ Hustings in Exmouth last week, picture from Hugo Swire Twitter:
pictured, l-r (but not literally) Andrew Chapman (UKIP) ,Stuart Mole (Lib Dem), Steve Race (Labour) , Hugo Swire (Con), Claire Wright (Independent)
Caption contest suggestion:
Chapman: Now, how can I link this to the EU … tricky … but I’ll give it my best shot …
Mole: So much to say, but will voters listen to my Party?
Race: Ditto.
Swire: That’s my best side, make sure you get my best side …
Wright: Is he going to say ANYTHING about East Devon? There is so much work to be done …
If you missed the Exmouth hustings, you can hear the candidates for yourselves in interviews broadcast this morning on Radio Devon.
Voters in Newton Poppleford: compare and contrast
Do YOU live in this la-la land? Do your current councillors live in it? Is Newton Poppleford and its developments in it?
Remember, we are all in it …!
Use your votes wisely: Claire Wright and East Devon Alliance or other Independent candidate
Independent of everyone …..
Devon’s answer to One Direction
Source:
Oh dear, when you have to bring in George Osborne, things are getting bad …..
East Devon Watch 