Daily Archives: 28 Apr 2015
What Hugo Swire thinks of people who use food banks
Hugo Swire said it was important to avoid users becoming dependent on the food bank and they should be encouraged to learn to cook for themselves.
Translation: poor people are going to food banks because they don’t know how to cook.
NO: they go to food banks because they can’t afford to BUY food to cook.
“We have to be careful to instil the idea of responsibility,” said Mr Swire. “There will always be people who can’t manage their own affairs.”
Translation: people who go to food banks are just irresponsible people who can’t manage their perfectly adequate money.
NO: many people who go to food banks are working people with families and on low pay and/or zero hours contracts who just don’t have enough money to survive.
“I think it’s a very useful role for the churches and the community to play and one that’s always gone on in one way or another. It’s what the Big Society is about.
Translation: it’s not our job to feed poor people.
NO: we all share the responsibility of taking care of the poorest in our society – but particular responsibility for this should be placed on the rich.
“The key is to encourage people who come to understand why they are coming.”
Translation: Poor people are lazy scroungers who have no idea how to manage their money and should get off their backsides.
NO, they are just much unluckier than you – they didn’t have inherited wealth or an Eton education to give them a good start in life.
Mr Swire added: “No one should have to be dependent on a food bank. What concerns me is the elderly people who are perhaps not getting enough to eat, but are embarrassed and feel it’s beneath them.”
Translation: Most of my core voters are old and I must suck up to them because every vote for me counts in this safe seat.
YES: he finally got something right!
http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/election/food_banks_not_political_1_4046334
That letter from “5,000 small businesses” in Daily Telegraph not what it seemed
“A letter of support for the Conservatives from 5,000 small business owners has begun to unravel after it emerged it was orchestrated by the party’s central office, contained dozens of duplicate names and one person who said they had never signed it.
The letter, which was promoted by Tory small business ambassador Karren Brady, has been criticised after it emerged the document originated from Conservative party headquarters. This was discovered because the author of the document is listed in the metadata as “CCHQ-Admin”.
The Guardian has also established that at least 45 of the small business owners who signed the letter are in fact duplicate names – including one man who signed it four times and several who signed it three times.
For example, a Michael Withers is listed at number 2944 for Microse, 3925 for Sefton Meadows, 4611 for Tradewinds Europe and 4618 for Trans‐Continental Group. Company checks show this is one man with four small businesses.
Another person, Arun Ahluwalia, even appears to have signed it twice for the same company, Opera Opticians, at 3240 and 3241.
Another of those who signed twice is a Conservative councillor, Mark Hook, who listed himself under both ELJ Furnishings and Gosport Borough Football Club. ….”
When asked about the duplicates, the Conservatives claimed they had only ever billed it as “representatives of over 5,000 businesses”, although the Telegraph list suggests they are all separate owners of small businesses.
Meanwhile, one company executive has had to be taken off the letter, after Aurum Solutions, a technology company, tweeted on Monday morning that its sales director did not sign it and wanted to be removed.
One of the small business signatories was also found to have been Stanley Ward Conservative Club, a member of the Association of Conservative Clubs.
Later, Diverse Cymru, a registered charity, issued a statement saying that it “categorically” is not affiliated to the Conservative party, after its chairman, Keith Dewhurst, signed the letter in its name.
The statement said: “Diverse Cymru’s name should not and should never appear on any list of political endorsements such as the one published today in the Telegraph of entrepreneurs of small businesses, neither of which terms apply to Diverse Cymru. We believe we were included in error and have contacted the Conservative party to remove our name from this list immediately, and are also working to ensure that Diverse Cymru is not similarly cited in future.”
The signatories included 32 business leaders who have donated more than £9m to the Conservatives ……
Tonight’s Vision Group for Sidmouth hustings
Please note that this hustings has been 100% organised by the Vision Group for Sidmouth and NOT by any individual candidate….
Hugo Swire has sent this email to his supporters:
“Hugo Swire will be holding a hustings meeting tonight at the above address. Also attending, I believe, will be Claire Wright, Independent and Andrew Chapman, UKIP.
Please come along and show your support to Hugo, who, I am sure, will look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.”
It’s rather like when he describes himself as having “attended” St Andrews University (i.e. he did not graduate from the University) – he is not “holding” the hustings, he is “attending”.
TONIGHT: Hustings in Sidmouth: General Election
Organised by Vision Group for Sidmouth. Reminder of details, from the VgS website:
When: 7:30 PM 28th April
Where: St Francis Church Hall, Woolbrook, Sidmouth, EX10 9XH
Who: Andrew Chapman, Stuart Mole, Steve Race, Rt Hon Hugo Swire MP, Claire Wright
A copy of the letter sent out to declared candidates:
Dear Candidate
Many thanks for accepting the invitation (subject to any other emergent diary demands) to the Vision Group for Sidmouth (VGS) 2015 Hustings. So far the panel will be made up of the following Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPCs)s :-
Conservative Hugo Swire
Independent Claire Wright
Labour Steve Race
Liberal Democrat Stuart Mole
UKIP Andrew Chapman
The Hustings for the General Election will be on Apr 28th at St Francis Hall
The event will be styled on the BBC Radio 4 programme “Any Questions”.
The PPCs will make up the panel to take questions from representative groups and members of the public.
The evening will commence at 7.30pm with refreshments.
The panel will gather at 7.50pm; the session will consist of pre-prepared questions being fielded through the chair to the PPCs from the audience – namely from those organisations and individuals who have sent in questions.
The panellists will not be aware of the exact wording of the questions beforehand; they will not be subject to follow-up questions from the audience, although the chair might chose to ask for clarification.
The question-and-answer session will end at 8.50pm with further refreshments.
The evening should finish at about 9.15pm.
The event will be moderated by the Chair. Microphones will be available for both panellists and members of the audience fielding questions. Refreshments will be provided by the VGS.
I will provide a further update nearer the time.
Best regards,
Dave Bramley
Chair
Vision Group for Sidmouth
Real Zorro puts EDDC CEO and Returning Officer under the spotlight
and is not impressed. Fortunately, he isn’t the Returning Officer for South Somerset where things seem to be runnung more smoothly – so far!
http://realzorro1.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/east-devon-one-man-three-jobs-what-can.html
EDDC in secret talks with DCC to build (some) affordable housing in Exmouth
But remember that “affordable” means 90% of market rent.
Why not a Community Land Teust for 100% affordable housing for lical people as has been done in other areas. And what about self-builds?
And surely these political decisions did not take place behind closed doirs during the Purdah period?
And it will be SO interesting to see which housebuilder they pair with!
Service industries such as tourism are providing the only growth in the economy
But still the old guard at EDDC totally ignore it (except at election time when they lead out Councillor Kerridge for one of her very rare appearances to flog the dead horse of water-based transport or if it involves ex East Devon Business Forum members who are coincidentally housing developers):
Pay up or leave EDDC sheltered housing
No compromise: pay higher charges for a full service or leave your sheltered accommodation:
We have to hope that compassion will return to EDDC after the elections on 7 May 2015.
Conservatives “Funding apprenticeship with fines” – er, isn’t there a flaw here?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32491591
First you let bankers do the things that attract the fines, then you use (some of) the fines for apprentice education.
Shouldn’t you close loopholes that allow the wrongdoing in the first place?
What this says is: it’s ok to misbehave as long as we get our cut!
Imagine how this would work at a local level – don’t put up parking restriction signs or speed limit signs, fine people for over-staying or speeding and then use the fines to build yourselves, say, a new HQ!
Power corrupts ….. and postal voting helped in Tower Hamlets
For those of you (like us) who enjoy this sort of thing, here is the 200 page judgment on the corruption and abuse of power that took place in Tower Hamlets recently. In parts it reads like a fiction thriller – if only it were.
This has led to the Electoral Commission promising to have a good hard look at the processes of dealing with corruption in local authorities, and not before time:
In particular, it shows that the whole process of postal voting is very open to abuse and needs to be strengthened.
Seaton Tramway: futuristic new station planned for Seaton
We don’t have a dog so will this kitten do?
We don’t have a small dog to take around vote-catching for us as Hugo does, so this was the next best thing:
PLEASE, PLEASE VOTE INDEPENDENT ON 7 MAY!
Man in suit and tie in Cornwall with hard hat: must be George Osborne!
Telling us he’s going to stop his pals buying second homes in Cornwall. Pull the other one, George!
“As reported in yesterday’s WMN, just 6,000 votes could swing 10 seats in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.
He denied his plan for Cornwall was a series of national policies strapped to local “bribes”.”
East Devon Watch 