Daily Archives: 18 Mar 2017

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18 Mar 2017

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Accountability, Devolution, Environment (local), Hinkley C, Local Enterprise Partnership

United Nations asks UK to pause Hinkley C for assessment

“A United Nations committee asked the U.K. to suspend work on the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant pending assessment of the environmental impact.

The UN Economic Commission for Europe requested the pause, it said in a document on its website. Electricite de France SA, the French state-controlled utility, won approval to build an 18 billion-pound ($22.3 billion) nuclear plant on England’s western coast in September. To help shoulder the construction costs, EDF convinced China General Nuclear Power Corp. to take 33.5 percent of the project.

The UN committee recommended the halt until it established whether “a notification under the Espoo Convention” was useful, according to the statement. The Espoo Convention sets out the obligations of countries to “assess the environmental impact of certain activities,” according to the commission’s website.

Bouygues SA and Areva SA have received contracts for work at the plant.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-18/un-asks-u-k-to-pause-hinkley-nuclear-plant-work-for-assessment

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18 Mar 2017

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Accountability, Democracy, Electoral Commission, Voting

“The Prime Minister, the Tatler Tory, his Conservative party Battlebus mistress and a VERY revealing election expenses leak”

“The [Conservative] party was fined £70,000 last week after an Electoral Commission inquiry found it had failed to record correctly £275,000 spent during the 2015 general election and at by-elections like Rochester.

An email showing how ‘Tatler Tory’ Mark Clarke and his mistress ran the Conservative Party battlebus campaign at the centre of an election expenses row was leaked last night.

In the email, Clarke tells MPs his battlebus will not affect their election expenses because it ‘is accounted for out of central campaign spend’. …

… In it, he says the campaign has the ‘full financial support of CCHQ (Tory HQ)’ and has been ‘signed off’ by election chief Lynton Crosby and party chairman Lord Feldman.

On ‘expenses and funding,’ Clarke says: ‘Our costs are met by donations contributed and declared via CCHQ. We fund all activist refreshment. This is not an election expense. We fund all the hotel and transport. This is an election expense and is accounted for out of central campaign spend.’

He advises MPs to contact battlebus campaign aide India Brummitt for further information. She can be seen in the audience in a film of Mrs May – then Home Secretary – in a crowded bar at Clarke’s ‘RoadTrip’ during the Rochester by-election, which the Tories lost to Ukip’s Mark Reckless. Mrs May tells Clarke: ‘What you are doing is absolutely tremendous.’ She leads a round of applause for him.” …

… The Electoral Commission report said the Tories were likely to have ‘understated the value’ of their spending on the three by-elections.

It said the party’s failure to accurately report its expenses meant there was a ‘realistic prospect’ that candidates gained a ‘financial advantage’ over opponents. Former Tory treasurer Simon Day was reported to the police and could face jail if found guilty. Up to two dozen Tory MPs could face charges of electoral fraud.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4327812/Prime-Minister-Tatler-Tory-Conservative-party-mistress.html

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18 Mar 2017

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Austerity cuts, Claire Wright, East Devon Alliance, Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

East Devon Alliance NHS cuts meeting – Colyford hall filled

“COLYFORD Memorial Hall was packed for East Devon Alliance’s (EDA) public meeting today (Saturday) to fight the decision to close hospital beds in Seaton and elsewhere in East Devon.

Independent county councillor Claire Wright was the invited guest speaker, the stage also featuring EDA leader Dr Cathy Gardner and EDA county council candidates Paul Arnott, Martin Shaw and Paul Hayward.

In short, it was decided to put pressure on town and parish councils, and East Devon District Council to oppose the decision by NEW Devon Clinical Commissioning Group.

The possibility of seeking judicial review/s was discussed.

An action plan will be finalised in about two weeks’ time when it is known where town and parish councils, and other interested parties stand.”

https://www.viewnews.co.uk/colyford-hall-packed-seaton-hospital-bed-closure-protest-meeting/

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18 Mar 2017

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Accountability, Democracy, Hugo Swire

George Osborne and his pals

We assume this includes old Etonian mates Swire and Cameron – all three fired within a few days when Mrs May took power.

… “For six years, Britain was governed by public schoolboys who were useless at almost everything apart from handing cash to their mates in the City and the housebuilding industry. They boasted of competence, yet tanked the economy so badly that British workers are suffering their worst decade for pay since the Napoleonic wars. They claimed to be compassionate, yet Osborne and his colleagues snatched money off the poor and sent disabled people to their deaths. The believers in free markets called and bungled the referendum that will drag Britain out of the EU. The Conservative and Unionist party has done an admirable job of smashing up the union.

It was a government of Michael Gove and Andrew Lansley, Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson [and Hugo Swire]. It was an administration of bunglers, chancers and the shameless; it has done huge damage to the relationship between the political elite and the public. And at its centre was Osborne, the tactician-in-chief, the man who cut taxes on multinationals even while he lifted benefits off disabled people. His reward? To be handed more money by the mates who got most out of him while in office.

The public-school larceny might make you angry; the lack of effective oversight should make you despair. Osborne’s new job must be agreed by parliament’s advisory committee on business appointments, which is meant to regulate the jobs taken up by former ministers. This is the same watchdog that allowed Gove to go back to work for Rupert Murdoch, former health secretary Lansley to take money from drugs firms and the ex-water minister, Richard Benyon, to take on £1,000 a day in the water industry. Dress it up in ceremonial robes but this is class privilege writ large and made all the more glaring by being pursued by politicians who bang on about a “fair crack” and the need for social mobility. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/18/george-osborne-laughing-evening-standard-david-cameron

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18 Mar 2017

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Economy, EDDC

Number of people over 65 working in East Devon has more than tripled

“4.5 In terms of the age 65+ population, there has been a significant rise of those who are economically active in the past decade. In 2005 just 5% of the 65+ population were economically active. In 2016 this has increased to 16.8%. This suggests that people are either choosing to postpone their retirement, continuing to work out of necessity or are re-entering the workplace post retirement.”

Click to access 280317-overview-agenda-combined.pdf

page 38

So, not quite the “economically inactive” as labelled by some councillors and officers (many of whom are over 65 themselves and certainly economically active drawing their various allowances from EDDC).

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18 Mar 2017

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Accountability, Economy, EDDC, Local Enterprise Partnership, Small and Medium businesses

99% of businesses in East Devon are small businesses

So why is our Local Enterprise Partnership made up of a handful of big business people, property developers and speculators? How do they represent East Devon

“4.4 We know that 99% of East Devon businesses are either micro or small enterprises. This is comparable with Exeter at 97%. This places our area in the top 30% of districts nationally for the number of micro businesses. The average business size is 6.4 employees which is below the Devon and Cornwall average of 8.1 and the national average of 9.9 employees.

4.5 In terms of the age 65+ population, there has been a significant rise of those who are economically active in the past decade. In 2005 just 5% of the 65+ population were economically active. In 2016 this has increased to 16.8%. This suggests that people are either choosing to postpone their retirement, continuing to work out of necessity or are re-entering the workplace post retirement.”

Click to access 280317-overview-agenda-combined.pdf

page 38

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18 Mar 2017

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Inequality, Phil Twiss, Rural communications, Rural communities

Inequality in rural communities

Councillor Phil Twiss is in charge of rolling out broadband to areas in East Devon that have low or no broadband speeds. EDDC opted out of a Devon-wide project, preferring to choose its own way of doing things. Contact Councillor Twiss if you are unhappy about broadband provision in your area:

Email: ptwiss@eastdevon.gov.uk
Telephone: 01404 891327
Address: Swallowcliff, Beacon, Honiton, EX14 4TT

“Almost 10 million people in the UK live in areas of England defined as rural. They are – on average – 5.3 years older than their counterparts in urban areas, with settlements in sparse areas tending to have the highest proportion of their populations amongst the older age groups, the report said.

The outward migration of young people and inward migration of older people, who tend to have greater health and social care needs, as well as poorer public transport links, are having a “significant impact” on people’s daily lives and access to services, it concluded.

Eighty per cent of rural residents live within four kilometres of a GP surgery, compared with 98 per cent of the urban population, while only 55 per cent of rural households compared to 97 per cent of urban households are within eight kilometres of a hospital, the study found.

Crucially, a combination of the older demographic and the unavailability of high-speed broadband has led to a growing digital gap between urban and rural areas, which is enhancing loneliness among the elderly and preventing people from benefiting from important developments and innovations in access to health-related services, the report went on.

There is a growing social and economic gap between those who are connected and those who are not – the ‘digitally excluded’ — with 13 per cent of the adult UK population (6.4 million) never having used the Internet, and 18 per cent saying that they do not have Internet access at home.

“Rural social networks are breaking down with a consequent increase in social isolation and loneliness, especially among older people,” the report states.

“The fact that social isolation influences health outcomes in its own right suggests that this and the emotional and mental wellbeing of people in rural areas is an important and hitherto neglected area in the promotion of public health.” …

… We need to be more observant of how dependent that older population in rural areas is, and the pockets of isolation and deprivation that you get are there, and they’re very often hidden because it all looks like a nice rural ideal.”

The report also states that the level of poverty in certain rural areas was also a serious problem that was frequently overlooked, with almost one in seven (15 per cent) rural households living in relative poverty after housing costs are taken into account.”

A lack of affordable housing in some areas is now extending to those on average incomes, not just people on lower incomes, leading to people — generally of the younger generation — moving out to urban areas and increasing concerns about the sustainability of rural communities.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rural-communities-countryside-public-health-england-local-government-association-neglected-digital-a7636521.html

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18 Mar 2017

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Misc

George and Hugo – both parachuted, both with other responsibilities

Owl says: Mr Swire was parachuted into the safe seat of East Devon from London. He is also Chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council which takes up quite a bit of his time, including travel to the Middle East

At least George has a home in his constituency – Swire chooses to live in Mid-Devon.

“Constituents of George Osborne in the Cheshire constituency of Tatton were largely critical of the former chancellor’s decision to take on the editorship of the London Evening Standard, arguing that it would make it hard for him to represent the seat.

Richard Page, whose mother, Beth, was on the selection committee that gave Osborne the party’s nomination, said: “I think it will be a great loss to the local political world. How can he do both jobs? We want someone who is fully committed to the area.”

His mother, he added, had supported Osborne’s selection because she “thought he was a man that was going places”. But he admitted he had always been sceptical about somebody who had been parachuted in from London. “They don’t have the same links with the area,” he said.”

Others in Knutsford, an affluent town with cobbled streets and boutique shops, said it was “ridiculous” to have an MP with affiliations to a particular party at the helm of a newspaper, creating the potential for political bias. There was also the strong feeling that Osborne would become distracted as he dedicated four days a week to the paper.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/17/constituents-criticise-george-osborne-new-job-tatton-mp