Swire’s “husting” doesn’t impress Twitter!
Daily Archives: 7 Jun 2017
Tories get money from Wonga – for the rest of us it’s the other way round!
“A major investor in Wonga, a banker and two billionaire hedge fund managers head a list of Conservative donors in the final set of election watchdog data released before Thursday’s general election. The Tories raised £1.16m in the final full week of campaigning, beating Labour by just over £69,000, the Electoral Commission disclosed on Wednesday.
Adrian Beecroft, the former government adviser and investor in payday lender Wonga, gave £50,000 in the week to 6 June. In 2012, he wrote the Beecroft report for David Cameron, which called for changes to make it easier for businesses to sack employees.
The hedge fund millionaire Reade Griffith also gave the Conservatives £50,000. In 2013, Griffith, who founded Polygon Investment Partners, was ordered to pay more than £800,000 to Kensington and Chelsea council for planning permission to build an “iceberg” basement under his house. Griffith and his wife had applied for permission to build a swimming pool and media area in a two-storey basement. The money was supposed to contribute to affordable housing elsewhere in the borough.
The billionaire hedge fund manager Sir Michael Hintze has given £250,000, making him the joint top individual donor in this particular week. Before the last general election, he gave the party their single biggest donation in six years – £1.5m.
Ehud Sheleg, an Israeli-born businessman now based in the West Midlands, has also given £250,000. He is the director of the Halcyon Gallery on Bond Street, which recently exhibited a collection of Bob Dylan’s artworks. Arne Groes, an executive at the London headquarters of French bank BNP Paribas, has given £100,000, as has Keith Bradshaw, a Birmingham-based businessman.
Labour has received £1.046m in the final full week of the campaign. Unite, the union, is the biggest donor, with gifts of £528,000, followed by the Communication Workers’ Union, with just over £320,000.
The Lib Dems received just over £103,000, most of which came from public funds. The Green Party received £10,000, around half the amount received by the Women’s Equality Party. Ukip received no donation of more than £7,500.
The Conservatives raised more than 10 times as much as Labour two weeks ago, partly thanks to a donation of over £1m from the theatre producer behind The Book of Mormon and The Phantom of the Opera. John Gore, whose company has produced a string of hit musicals, gave £1.05m as part of the £3.77m received by the Conservatives in the third week of the election campaign. In the same period, Labour received only £331,499.
Labour has concentrated on raising small sums from its members, most of which will not be included in these figures, sources said.
By law, political parties standing candidates at the general election must submit details of any donations and loans of more than £7,500, as part of weekly reports to the Electoral Commission.”
Hugo Swire refuses to discuss any aspect of his general election campaign
“Hugo Swire, the Conservative candidate, has not responded to requests from DevonLive for comment on any aspect of his election campaign.”
Claire Wright: the one to watch, the one to vote for
“… Claire, who lives in Ottery St Mary, is currently an Ottery St Mary town councillor and is the Devon County Councillor for the Otter Valley ward. She did represent Ottery St Mary on East Devon District Council from May 2011 to 2015, when she stood down.
She says that she has been a campaigner from the start – her first campaign letter was written when she was just nine when she wrote to the Brazilian Embassy demanding that they stopped killing dolphins for the eyeballs.
She made a foray into public relations and started working for the NHS in 2000. She said: “I set up campaigns on stopping smoking, coughs and sneezes spread diseases (in case pandemic flu arrived in the UK) and while working at Devon County Council in 2007, I established a campaign to improve adults’ perceptions of young people – called ‘Don’t Judge Us Before You Know Us!’.”
She took a step into the world of politics in 2009 when there was ‘the threat’ of a Tesco store coming to Ottery St Mary. It mobilised her to join the Sustainable Ottery’s campaign against it and it was from there that she joined Ottery St Mary Town Council.
As a councillor, she battled to get funding for West Hill’s very first play park and helped to improve the broadband service in the area.
In May 2011, she stood for election to East Devon District Council, and managed to oust long-standing conservative leader of the council, Sara Randall Johnson in the process – her first political giant-killing.
She said: “As an EDDC councillor I focused on two main themes – encouraging more transparency and openness – and trying to save the district from a very real threat of over-development.”
In May 2013, she was elected to Devon County Council where she is a member of the health and wellbeing overview and scrutiny committee, and she retained her seat in May 2017 with a massive majority.
In May 2015, she stood in the parliamentary elections in East Devon, running against foreign office minister, Hugo Swire.
She came second with 13,140 votes and a 24 per cent share, polling the most votes of any Independent in the country since 2001, when Independent, Dr Richard Taylor won Wyre Forest.
Now, in 2017, she is standing again, and her ‘people power’ army have hit the streets.
She only stood after she managed to secure an “army” of helpers and a crowdfunding appeal raised over £12,000 in just four weeks: with 75 per cent of donations being in small amounts of £50 or under.
One of Claire’s team said: “Claire stood up to Hugo in 2015, and despite a brilliant campaign got knocked back down. Instead of accepting defeat, she used that experience as a platform from which to fight even harder for the people of East Devon. If you’d asked me when I moved down here in 1995 that my vote could make a difference in this safe rural Tory seat, I would have laughed.”
But now the team are quietly confident that the support they’re feeling on the streets will be translated into a massive vote this Thursday.
“One of my team was stopped in the street by a man waving my manifesto who wanted more information: he will be voting for me. Young people voting for the first time, older people who are worried about the dementia tax, doctors, teachers, mothers with young children, students, the unemployed, a whole range of professions, all are uniting in a shared desire for a passionate, caring, hardworking MP for East Devon.
“A Sidmouth woman marrying an Exmouth man took time out from her wedding day on Saturday to have her photo taken with one of my boards. All her family are voting for me this time’.”
Joshua and Jamie Anderson (aged 21 and 19 respectively) are from Exton on the river Exe. They said: “We would prefer to vote for our own parties, but having read Claire Wright’s manifesto, we are happy to put our preferences aside and vote for her. For too long, the Tories have treated East Devon as a safe seat and Mr Swire has been neglecting us – and getting away with it. Whatever party you belong to, we need to rally now behind Claire Wright, our only hope in East Devon.”
West Hill resident and Claire’s team member Lisa Simpson said: “I’ve been a Labour supporter since I was old enough to vote and never contemplated supporting another party, nor indeed tactical voting, but I was won over, not only by a realistic opportunity to unseat a Conservative MP but by Claire’s integrity and work ethic.”
Claire added: “There are disenchanted Conservatives, angry that their man, Hugo Swire, did not bother to attend hustings, showing their support. The local Green party is backing me all the way.
“But more importantly, people who’ve never voted before, young voters, people who abstained last time, are realising they can be part of a quiet revolution right here in Budleigh Salterton and Sidmouth. We’re demonstrating a new way of doing politics that responds to local people and seeks consensus rather than confrontation.”
Claire has been endorsed by tactical voting sites Best for Britain and Tactical 2017 and even Booker prize-winning writer Hilary Mantel has endorsed her campaign, saying ‘she is local, energetic and knowledgeable… Claire Wright is the candidate who will speak up for Devon East.'”
Midweek Herald excels again!
The EDDC postal vote scandal? Nothing. The general election? Just a blip on the landscape – reduced to one reluctant half page of candidates’ puff – and that’s been it for the last few weeks.
Anyone would think they had been told to keep it away from the public.
News? What news? Nothing to see here – move on please, move on.
Claire Wright hits Russia Today news, Swire whinges!
But just to be clear – she has NOT run an anti-Brexit campaign – she has accepted Brexit and has campaigned to have it scrutinised by MPs in Parliament.
Meanwhile, all Swire can do is whinge about media bias!
https://www.rt.com/uk/391134-independent-devon-wright-swire/
While Claire is attracting young, old, male, female, urban and rural voters, this is Swire’s most recent campaign photograph:
This is (one of) Claire’s teams:
Vote for Swire: Vote Swire, a vote for old men! Vote Wright: a vote for everyone!
East Devon Watch 