Swire gone.
Raab might be going
Jupp …… ?
Not really a good time to be a “parachuted central casting Tory” with two “mentors” at such a low ebb!
Let’s make it all three out.
Remember: a vote for anyone other than Claire Wright is a vote for the Tories!
While this was happening Boris Johnson was at Dart’s Farm instead of being at the Climate Crisis debate at Channel 4:
If Johnson will not be interviewed by Andrew Neil but WILL be interviewed by Andrew Marr (and maybe by the anodyne One Show) replace the original presenter with Neil live on air, and wait to see what happens next!
“It was like two pub bores talking about weather: HENRY DEEDES listens as PM takes on a Ferrari”
Owl says: but if we are all going to be richer by leaving the EU, why will this be needed?
And in a “free market” aren’t uneconomic businesses supposed to fail? Confused(dot) Owl!
“Tories slammed by free market groups over state aid pledges.
Business and free market groups slammed pledges today by Boris Johnson to expand state aid for businesses if the Conservative Party win the upcoming election.
In a press conference today, Johnson promised to expand Britain’s state aid regime once the UK leaves the EU.
“We will back British businesses by introducing a new state aid regime which makes it faster and easier for the government to intervene to protect jobs when an industry is in trouble,” a briefing document said.
Head of regulatory affairs at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Victoria Hewson said support for state aid was “veiled support for cronyism.”
“For all the lip service the Conservatives pay to free markets and free enterprise, today’s announcements about state aid call into question their basic understanding of how these systems work,” she said.
“Calls to expand state aid translate to veiled support for cronyism. Interventionist and protectionist policies always end up disadvantaging smaller businesses in favour of a few giants.”
A spokesperson for the Institute of Directors said: “It’s not clear how these proposals will fit with ambitions of a ‘Global Britain’. The Conservatives must be wary of opening a can of worms on state aid, it’s important to have consistent rules in place to resist the impulse of unwarranted protectionism.” … “
“The Institute for Fiscal Studies is deeply unimpressed at what it deemed a “lack of significant policy action” in the Conservative Party manifesto.
The Tory social care crisis for Britain’s elderly and infirm that Johnson had promised to fix when he became PM did not even get a mention in the manifesto. Johnson had previously claimed that he had a plan ready to sort it out.
The IFS concluded that the manifesto plans meant people expecting relief for Britain’s public services after a decade of austerity would instead see “cuts to their day-to-day budgets of the last decade baked in.”
Economic researchers at the independent think tank calculated that the National Insurance threshold rise to £9,500 that Boris Johnson appeared to have lied or been mistaken about will actually only save most in paid work “less than £2 a week” and highlighted the “notable omission” for any plan to deal with the crisis in social care funding.
Nigel Edwards, chief executive at the Nuffield Trust, an independent health think tank, said he was “bitterly disappointed” to see “unnecessary delay” in tackling the issue of social care.
IFS director Paul Johnson said: “If a single Budget had contained all these tax and spending proposals, we would have been calling it modest.
“As a blueprint for five years in government, the lack of significant policy action is remarkable.”
Main manifesto pledges quickly debunked
Speaking at a launch event in Telford, Boris Johnson reaffirmed his commitment to take the UK out of the EU by the end of January, so they could “forge a new Britain”. “We will get Brexit done and we will end the acrimony and the chaos,” he said.
As well as a flagship promise of 50,000 more nurses for the NHS in England despite Brexit “chaos”, the manifesto included a U-turn restoring maintenance grants for student nurses previously scrapped by the Tories.
Tory sources later acknowledged that about 30,000 of the additional nurses would come from measures to retain existing staff rather than new recruits, and the main Tory manifesto pledge was debunked among other claims by a fact checking service within hours of the launch. Labour called the Tory figures “deceitful.”
Chief executive Will Moy said the Conservative Party could “do more to meet the standards we expect” after investigating its pledges on paving the way for 50,000 new nurses and limiting day-to-day spending increases to only £3 billion, despite promising a litany of public services investment.
The fact checkers also slammed Johnson’s use the the slogan “get Brexit done”, a phrase that appears 22 times in the manifesto including on the cover, when a deal with the European Union could take “years to negotiate”.
“The Brexit process will not be completed by January,” despite what Johnson keeps repeating said the independent organisation.
‘Older people face a triple whammy’
“After a decade of the Conservatives cutting our NHS, police and schools, all Boris Johnson is offering is more of the same: more cuts, more failure, and years more of Brexit uncertainty,” Jeremy Corbyn responded.
He added: “Boris Johnson can’t be trusted. Older people face a triple whammy as he has failed to protect free TV licences for over 75s, refused to grant justice to women unfairly affected by the increase in the state pension age, and not offered a plan or extra money to fix the social care crisis.”
The lacklustre manifesto may be down to Conservative complacency after recent polls. The latest polling released on Sunday, created by Datapraxis using YouGov polling and voter interviews, suggested the Tories were on course to secure their largest Commons majority since 1987 – a majority of almost 50 MPs.
This would mean if Boris Johnson met the public services spending promises in his manifesto the UK would still be looking at a decade of cuts “baked into” our services, according to the IFS analysis.
Boris Johnson’s broken promise to fix Tory social care crisis
Paul Johnson of the IFS’ initial reaction to the Tory manifesto was scathing: “If the Labour and Liberal Democrat manifestos were notable for the scale of their ambitions the Conservative one is not. If a single Budget had contained all these tax and spending proposals we would have been calling it modest. As a blueprint for five years in government the lack of significant policy action is remarkable.
“In part that is because the chancellor announced some big spending rises back In September. Other than for health and schools, though, that was a one-off increase. Taken at face value today’s manifesto suggests that for most services, in terms of day-to-day spending, that’s it. Health and school spending will continue to rise. Give or take pennies, other public services, and working age benefits, will see the cuts to their day-to-day budgets of the last decade baked in.”
“One notable omission is any plan for social care. In his first speech as prime minister Boris Johnson promised to ‘fix the crisis in social care once and for all’. After two decades of dither by both parties in government it seems we are no further forward.
“On the tax side the rise in the National Insurance threshold was well trailed. The ambition for it to get to £12,500 may remain, but only the initial rise to £9,500 has been costed and firmly promised. Most in paid work would benefit, but by less than £2 a week. Another £6 billion would need to be found to get to £12,500 by the end of the parliament. Given the pressures on the spending side that is not surprising.”
“Perhaps the biggest, and least welcome, announcement is the ‘triple tax lock’: no increases in rates of income tax, NICs or VAT. That’s a constraint the chancellor may come to regret. It is also part of a fundamentally damaging narrative – that we can have the public services we want, with more money for health and pensions and schools – without paying for them. We can’t.”
School cuts barely reversed
The Conservative manifesto confirmed previous commitments in England to increase school spend in England by £7.1 billion by 2022–23. However, that would leave spend per pupil in real terms after a decade of austerity at the same level as 13 years ago, the IFS explained.
In contrast the IFS found the Labour commitment of a £7.5 billion real terms increase by 2022–23 a 14.6% rise in spending per pupil.
Unlike Labour and the Liberal Democrats the Conservative manifesto refused to extend free, pre-school childcare.
IFS researchers warned that the Conservative manifesto pledges left “little scope for spending increases beyond next year outside of those planned for health and schools.”
In a dire warning the IFS added: “even in 2023–24 day-to-day spending on public services outside of health would still be almost 15 per cent lower in real terms that it was at the start of the 2010s.”
@BenGelblum
IFS warn austerity ‘baked in’ a Tory manifesto with ‘notable’ lack of social care funding
“Famous British actor, Hugh Grant, has tweeted his support for Claire Wright – the Independent Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the East Devon constituency.
Yesterday (November 28), he retweeted a post promoting Claire Wright, adding the caption: “Dear LD [Liberal Democrats], Green and Labour voters of East Devon, do this for your country. We beg you.”
Claire Wright responded to the actor’s nod with the comment: “Thanks Hugh! Love Actually is my fave Christmas film btw! Romance and politics!!!”
Grant, who famously played Britain’s Prime Minister in Love Actually (2003), is pedalling a real-life political agenda in the run-up to the General Election.
His Twitter feed @HackedOffHugh is dedicated to a campaign against the Conservative party winning a majority of seats in parliament on December 12.
He has retweeted a number of posts imploring members of certain constituencies to vote for parties, which are in with a chance of toppling the Conservative lead.”
https://exmouth.nub.news/n/actor-hugh-grant-rallies-behind-east-devon-independent-claire-wright
See pages 12-18 here:
What a mess! Houses but no road?
Recommendations:
“That Members:
1. Accept that it is not going to be possible to progress with the Housing Infrastructure Fund bid as things stand and that the offer is likely to be withdrawn unless Homes England change their position on land values
2. Re-engage the consultants for the Axminster Urban Extension Masterplan to:
a) review options to enable as much of the development in the masterplan to proceed accepting that this would be ahead of delivery of the relief road in its entirety
b) update the viability of the project to reflect the latest cost estimates and funding position
c) consider the re-phasing of the development in light of the failure of the HIF bid
3. Agree that a Housing Delivery Action Plan be produced to consider how to bolster the housing land supply position in the district and that this be considered by Strategic Planning Committee alongside a revised Axminster Masterplan.”
” Dyson has chosen former nightclub complex Saint James Power Station as its new Singapore headquarters, saying it would provide a “most inspiring backdrop” for its staff.
The 110,000 square foot site had housed one of the largest nightlife destinations in Singapore up until last year, with 11 so-called “concepts” including nightclubs and food sites.
Dyson said the property would be converted into research laboratories, which would allow it to double the number of engineers and scientists it could employ in Singapore over the next five years. Currently, around 1,200 people work for the British business in Singapore, of which more than 350 are engineers.
Jim Rowan, chief executive of Dyson, said: “After 12 years of growth in Singapore, continuing expansion in the UK, and growing sales globally, we have outgrown our current technology centre in Singapore.
“It will be a hive for our research and development endeavours.”
The company announced it was moving its headquarters from the UK to Singapore in January – a decision which prompted a public backlash amid claims Dyson was abandoning its heritage and potentially depriving the UK of millions of pounds of tax revenue. …
… The company had insisted the HQ move was a commercial decision given its manufacturing base and supply chain is located in the Far East, saying having management there “makes sense”.
Some had pointed to Singapore’s more lenient tax regime compared to the UK, with corporate tax at 17pc compared to 19pc in Britain, although Dyson has denied suggestions its decision was related to tax.
Since moving its headquarters, the company’s founder Sir James Dyson has bought a three-storey penthouse in the city for a reported S$73.8m (£43.3m). It is located at the top of Singapore’s tallest building, the Guoco Tower.”
Interesting Job Vacancy for a VERY expanding and expansionist company recently noted by Owl … Greendale Group are looking to appoint a Group Head of Property to join their team based at Greendale Business Park.
Seeing they are “developing future exciting and ambitious growth plans” are the residents prepared… Owl thinks maybe they will be now!
According to the Advert which was closed to applicants closed a few weeks ago, so let’s see who gets the job which seems a step-up for a planning officer, for example! The ad states:
“The Greendale Group is a successful family company which boasts a diverse range of businesses including the Greendale Business Park, Greendale Farm Shop, a large working farm (2,000 acres), a fishing business (23 vessels), Exmouth Marina, as well as several other investments in both commercial and residential property across the South West.
The Company is currently developing future exciting and ambitious growth plans. This key role has responsibility for all the Group’s property interests including the Greendale Business Park and reports directly to the MD and will be pivotal in ensuring the company realises its future potential.
Responsibilities:
• Management of commercial and residential portfolios across the business including the Greendale Business Park covering all aspects of property management: marketing, lettings, rent reviews, debt control, planning consent, insurance, maintenance and property improvements.
• Leading strategic expansion and development plans for the business including responsibility for overseeing planning applications.
• Reporting to the Board on key financial performance of the property portfolio.
• Identifying and developing projects to maximise commercial utility of property across the business including evaluating joint venture agreements, option agreements, promotion agreements and similar where appropriate.
• Appointing and managing consultants and advisors as required including architects, planning consultants, engineers, contractors, solicitors, agents and other professionals.
• Liaising with external stakeholders including local authorities and other statutory bodies.
• Preparation and delivery of property budgets and property maintenance programmes.
• Manage all areas of the Company’s property requirements including identifying property requirements for other parts of the Group’s business (for example, farmland and fishing).
Requirements:
• Professional Membership of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) – ideally Chartered.
• Significant experience of managing a diverse range of properties/tenants at a strategic level.
• Track record of building strong working relationships with local authorities and statutory bodies.
• Knowledge of the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan / East Devon Local Plan would be highly beneficial.
• Highly commercial, excellent negotiation skills and the ability to influence at all levels.
• Highly organised and efficient.
• Strong IT skills (advanced Excel).
The role of Group Head of Property offers a highly competitive salary and benefits package which includes a basic salary, bonus and company car allowance. If you are an experienced property professional seeking a new, challenging and exciting opportunity, this could be the right role for you.”
Give this local reporter a knighthood!
‘I may have got things wrong, I may have been mistaken, but I’ve never tried to deceive people’.
“Boris Johnson dismissed workers as “drunk, criminal and feckless” in a rant that exposes his class hatred.
The slurs, written when the PM was a journalist, emerged as he targets working-class votes.
He dismissed working-class men as “likely to be drunk, criminal, aimless, feckless and hopeless”, and single mums as “irresponsible” in a sickening magazine column in 1995, which emerged yesterday.
Mr Johnson wore a blue collar to be snapped in a butcher’s on the election trail in North Devon and Plymouth yesterday.
But Labour chairman Ian Lavery, an ex-miner standing in Wansbeck, Northumberland, said of his outburst: “These are outrageous remarks from a man out of touch with reality and whose ignorance and hatred of working-class communities knows no bounds. …”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/boris-johnson-dismisses-workers-drunk-20984876
It seems a trip to Dart’s Farm (where he was today) was more important than the global climate emergency!
“We are too far down the rabbit hole now to even know if a line has been drawn. There are so many lines now it is as if all our little lives have been tapped out and cut up with Michael Gove’s bank card.
So we can only repeat, as a statement of fact, that today was the day when the prime minister began threatening to shut down actual TV channels for the crime of his own complete moral cowardice.
It is impossible to say whether we have already gone this far before. But this is where we are.
Boris Johnson refused to take part in Channel 4’s “leaders debate” on the climate emergency, just as he has refused to be interviewed by the BBC’s Andrew Neil, and also refused even to be interviewed about whether or not he has refused the BBC’s Andrew Neil.
Where his podium should have been, Channel 4 placed a melting ice sculpture. The Conservative party sent Michael Gove in his place.
There is some uncertainty over who refused to allow Michael Gove to take part. Was it Channel 4 themselves? Was it the other party leaders? Given the other party leaders have done interviews with Andrew Neil, and Boris Johnson is refusing, they can hardly be blamed for not being the enablers to Boris Johnson’s utter shamelessness for a second time.
Gove, naturally, has responded by telling Jeremy Corbyn he’s scared. A good time to remember Michael Gove, who is less a human being and more just the Oxford Union accidentally made flesh, also likes to claim that the referendum was all about making the UK more welcoming to immigrants.
Still, the actual grownups over at the Conservative Central Office have responded by launching a formal complaint with Ofcom, and threatening to have Channel 4’s public broadcasting licence revoked.
This is the country we are now.
Who knows, perhaps, once we’ve “taken back control of our own laws”, other people being sanctioned entirely for Boris Johnson’s own failings will be the standard run of things.
“Prime minister, we’ve had one of the mothers on the phone again. Says it’s your daughter’s birthday. You’ve forgotten. Again.”
“Whoops. Righto. What shall we give her? Custodial or will 100 hours’ community service do?”
Arguably, it was going this way three and a half years ago, when Dominic Cummings threatened ITV with legal action over including Nigel Farage in their EU referendum debate show, telling them there would be “consequences”.
There were, inevitably, no consequences for ITV. Dominic Cummings made a tit of himself, but see also proroguing parliament, the Supreme Court case, refusing to send the withdrawal letter – when a tit makes a tit of itself, there are no consequences either. It is already a tit.
By the time of the second advertising break, a puddle had begun to gather on the floor beneath the Boris Johnson ice sculpture. I am reliably informed the Boris Johnson ice sculpture has already prepared court documents to suppress the puddle’s existence.
By virtue of his own non-attendance, Boris Johnson had created quite literally the exact kind of mess he had himself shown incapable of clearing up from the floor of a flooded optician’s just three weeks ago.
So there you have it. Create a mess that you can’t clear up then blame someone else. Whatever else goes wrong, the metaphors can always be relied upon to write themselves.”
“This election is proving we have the finest democracy in the world. How reassuring that Boris Johnson isn’t turning up. The prime minister doesn’t have time to discuss marginal issues relating to the environment, such as how we continue to have an environment.
It’s the same as if every scientist agreed all the country’s planes, cars, buses, boats and seaside donkeys were on fire. You wouldn’t expect the transport secretary to interrupt his busy schedule to worry about that.
The Conservatives have paid similar attention to detail in other areas, such as their promise to provide 50,000 extra nurses. Nicky Morgan then proudly insisted 19,000 of these extra nurses will be nurses who are already nurses, spending ten minutes on Good Morning Britain, explaining “these 19,000 nurses will still be nurses, so they’ll be extra nurses”.
It’s the same as if I promised to get an extra heart and two extra legs, and tomorrow announced I’d managed it, as long as you included the heart and legs I had to start with, that hadn’t left.
This is how the Conservatives will make us all better off. They’ll introduce a scheme whereby if you have £300 in the bank, tomorrow you will have an extra £300, as long as you include the £300 you started with. Do that every day for a year and you’ll be a millionaire, but Labour don’t want that, because they hate people trying to better themselves.
Then Matt Hancock assured us there are no plans to include the NHS in a trade deal with Donald Trump, because in the document about the trade deal the NHS is only mentioned four times.
So there’s no need to worry, because we all mention things four times in a trade deal when we’ve no intention of including them in a trade deal. If you tell someone “I’m popping up the shops to buy some biscuits, I’ll buy biscuits up the shop, they’ve got biscuits up the shop and I’m buying some, I fancy buying some biscuits”, only an idiot would think that meant you were popping up the shop for some biscuits.
One by one, after each interview, these characters are withdrawn from public view. There will be an announcement that “Jacob Rees-Mogg is out for another two weeks with a groin strain, Nicky Morgan will miss the rest of the season, and 250 other candidates have stress-related issues and are recovering in a secret location until 13 December.”
Johnson is determined to be seen as little as possible, and may even back out of the interview with Andrew Neil that every other leader had to endure.
But to make it fair, there was an item on the news in which Johnson was filmed buttering a scone, during which he was asked whether he put the jam or the cream on first. So all the leaders have been put under the same intense pressure.
This has worked out fairly, because Corbyn is quite reasonably and repeatedly asked to apologise for racism that comes from any Labour member, even if it’s a comment on Twitter from a parish councillor in Bodmin Moor on heavy medication. But it would be outrageous to ask Boris Johnson to apologise for racism expressed by far more marginal Conservative members, such as Boris Johnson.
To add to his list of jolly quips, a column of his has emerged in which he describes the children of single mothers as “ill-raised, aggressive, ignorant and illegitimate”. Some might quibble with the language, but at least it means he plans to be diligent in rooting out these feckless fathers who have children with such abandon they can’t even say how many they have. These bastards will be in trouble if Johnson wins the election.
And when he does speak in public, he always makes an impact. At a press conference he was asked about the fake “Factcheck” account set up by the Conservatives, and his answer, his actual real answer, was, “Um, well I’m afraid that the er the er the um the um the er but what I can say is I’m informed that I haven’t that I um that that that (long pause) that Labour have some sort of operation (long pause) uuuuuuuum um look I haven’t followed this I will I will I will I will I will but when it comes as I say when it comes to trust in politics, and er and er the facts there is one giant fact we continue to to to chase down, there is one like the hunting the snark or or or or or the quest the answer to Fermat’s last theorem or the rhythm of the Sphinx or the Bermuda Triangle er er er er the one the feel we feel the er the er the one fact that we wish to discover the one crouton in the minestrone of the Labour Party.”
What a shame Corbyn can’t be clear and concise like that. This is why we can trust Johnson on Europe: he’s simple to understand. He supported remaining in the EU, then wrote two columns, one in favour of remaining and one for leaving, voted to leave but opposed the deal to leave before supporting the same deal and then telling the DUP his own deal would include no border in Ireland which was true except for the bit about the border in Ireland. Short, simple and snappy – if only Corbyn could manage such clarity.
The problem is Johnson’s so articulate, this may make it difficult to actually Get Brexit Done. Because the negotiations will start with him saying, “with regard to beef quotas, in as of the wardrobe er wardrobe er wardrobe carpe diem as it were Spartans invaded Persia like like er like Pythagoras SMASHING the triangle Jeremy Corbyn more like a hexagon of referenda utter chaos excellent fly-half GET CATTLE DONE”.
That’s it.
Made poor jokes he’s made everywhere else, mentioned the name of his candidate a couple of times, checked off his keywords, made promises he won’t/can’t/has no intention to keep and left.
End of.
Next stop – repeat.
Owl asked someone what Jupp is like. “Empty vessel,” he said sadly, “empty vessel”!
Comment on post reposted here:
“Had a leaflet arrive this morning from CCHG setting out (again) the already disposed of untruth that all taxpayers are due a £2400 hike in their taxes with a Corbyn administration. and making the proposal that it is best not to vote Labour.
In tiny writing on the front it says ‘vote for Simon Jupp’ . I had never heard of Simon Jupp until a week ago, and there is no other mention of him on this leaflet, which is impertinent enough to tell me to vote for him. No photo, no CV, no statement of suitability for office, no trace of a policy, no ideas, no website, no email address, no sign that Simon Jupp is a real person, or merits any attention whatever.
So, in order that I should consider voting for this Simon Jupp, who Owl has suggested is not sure who he works (or worked) for, or indeed, who he himself is, I pass on to the Conservative website, where I now see many photos of Simon Jupp, who at first I mistake for a tourist who likes to be photographed with random bystanders in as many places as possible with placards saying he is delivering something – maybe he’s on a zero hours for Hermes or whoever. Then I spot his ‘opinions’ posted with the photos. And it is clear enough he does actually think he is a candidate for election to the constituency of East Devon, I can no longer suppose otherwise. But his ‘views’ are dry recantations of Tory mythologies on Brexit (that they’ll ‘get it done’ – no they won’t), that they have saved community hospitals (no they haven’t – they’ve closed them) and on and on through the formulaic dissembling required of the modern Tory candidate.
I suppose with a record in government as bad as the Tories, there is little else to do bar slag off the opposition, and even that involves conscious deception and willful mendacity. In East Devon we have endured eighteen years of lacklustre representation from someone who was sent here for an easy ride and meal ticket. Simon Jupp looks like another one of those and by God we do not want any more of that. It really is time we voted in someone who knows the place and cares about it. And that is Claire Wright – no question.
The leaflet above did have a ‘return address’ in small on the front. So I duly Pritt Stuck the pages together, marked it ‘return to sender’, rewrote the return address to make it clearer for the posties, and popped it back in the post. Suggest you do the same.”
One on climate change tonight on Channel 4.
One with Andrew Neil who has interviewed all other party leaders.
One with the only person standing against him in his constituency.
By this shall you judge the man.
Anyone who votes for him or his candidates is selling us all out.
Words fail
Would this apply to his mistress who had a daughter by him? Maybe not as she was married to someone else at the time and married someone else later!
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/drugs-love-child-affairs-new-18349295
“Single mothers were deemed “uppity and irresponsible” and working class men “feckless and hopeless” in a column which has now resurfaced. …”
Taking their lead from the Trump playbook – tell the biggest porkies and the masses will fall for them.
What a dirty, dirty election this is.
“Conservative candidates in the general election have been issued with a detailed dossier on how to attack Labour and Liberal Democrat rivals which contains numerous rehashed and potentially misleading claims, the Guardian can reveal.
The documents accuse the Liberal Democrats of pushing “pro-pimp” policies and sex work as a career for schoolchildren.
They also reheat a discredited claim that Labour’s policy on free movement would lead to 840,000 migrants coming to the UK each year.
Drafted by the Conservative research department, the documents are designed to provide candidates with approved messages to use on doorsteps across the country.
One 17-page briefing note is specifically for Tories in seats where the main challenge comes from Labour. Another 19-page document is for candidates fighting a Liberal Democrat threat.
Many of the statements within them are sourced from comments made several years ago, or by local party members, and do not accurately reflect the current positions of opposition parties.
Some draw on pledges made in the run-up to the 2015 election, or take statements out of context. …”
East Devon Watch 