Paul Arnott www.exmouthjournal.co.uk 

There can’t be many of us who haven’t felt the financial pinch at some point in our lives.

My own experience was in my 20s, when an over-optimistic project I was involved in collapsed, leaving me about £5,000 in debt.

I had not a penny in the bank account from working that wasn’t owed – either to pay that back, or to pay rent to a chiselling landlord in a flat without heating. Ah, the1980s! Not very yuppy or loadsamoney where I was.

I would never call it character-forming; it was just incredibly stressful on an hourly basis. And being twenty-something, I was too proud to ask for help. Therefore, a luxury meal sometimes would be a bowl of white rice with the addition of a squirt of tomato puree.

I would visit my girlfriend’s family home to witness Billy the Cat being hand-fed slices of prime ham from M&S while my tongue hung out like a hungry dog’s. And above all I remember saving 1p and 2p pieces until I had enough to buy a Mars Bar.

Before I start to sound like Monty Python’s Four Yorkshireman, I should add that life looked up eventually. But the symptoms of poverty which I then endured seem never to leave our nation, despite it being one of the world’s greatest economies.

Strictly speaking, what a district council can do about this is “discretionary”; dealing with poverty is not a core “mandatory” obligation. But we feel we cannot just pass by on the other side of the road, because everyone in East Devon can see the looming acceleration of a Cost of Living Crisis.

What on earth has happened? Well, some won’t like this, but it is now empirically proven that since the self-harm of leaving the EU, our economy has shrunk by 4% according to the Conservative government’s own Office for Budget Responsibility.

Then we have the effects of the pandemic. That was not self-harm like Brexit, but the way we are coming out of it is. The recent increase in National Insurance (basically, just another income tax) is cutting into the budgets of already challenged households.

Then there is another surprising jolt, the Russian crime against Ukraine. Food supply diminishes, prices go up.

In the last two weeks households, especially for those on pay-as-you-go energy tariffs (already paying higher per unit rates), the pain is already here. For the rest of people in poverty, it’s turn off the heating or be faced with an unaffordable increase in your direct debit in the coming months.

Meanwhile, mortgage interest rates are starting to creep up again. A 0.5% rise in total recently, but where will they stop?

At East Devon District Council, despairing of Messrs Sunak and Johnson, we have launched an Action on Poverty Fund. This is not about direct cash handouts; that is not our role and in any case we simply do not have the money to do that.

Instead, we have opened a scheme where those brilliant people already working in their communities to alleviate poverty can apply for funding between £500 and £5,000 to help them develop the work they are already doing further.

We’re hoping that these groups will be able to then do more to encourage those in hidden poverty to seek help, to advise on budgeting, to help access welfare benefits, improve physical and mental health and diet, and aid practical ways of reducing energy and water costs, as well as helping people find employment.

The link for applications is:

www.eastdevon.gov.uk/grants-and-funding/grants-available-from-us/east-devon-action-on-poverty-fund

In addition, our local Conservative MPs, Neil Parish for the Tiverton & Honiton constituency, and Simon Jupp for the East Devon constituency, may appreciate your feedback to encourage them to prioritise poverty in their work for the East Devon public at Westminster.

Local groups, we look forward to your applications, and thank you for everything you already do.

‘They supported him, why don’t they leave now? They’re the party of law and order.’

Ian Hislop was met with cheers on Have I Got News For You as he said that the “entire Tory party” should resign for defending Boris Johnson amid the partygate scandal.

Isobel Lewis www.independent.co.uk 

This week, the prime minister and chancellor Rishi were given fines for breaking lockdown to attend illegal parties at Downing Street.

Johnson is the first sitting prime minister ever found to have broken the law. Johnson’s wife Carrie was also fined.

Appearing on HIGNFY on Friday (15 April), Hislop pointed out that voters had previously been told it was too soon to call for Johnson’s resignation before the Sue Gray report was released, and now were being told it was “too late”.

“He thinks everyone has forgotten about it and that they don’t care anymore,” Hislop said, curling his lip as he added: “Maybe by the time we go out, the party will have come to its senses and he will have resigned.”

“We’ve got another six parties to go. All the attention’s on this one and everyone’s going, ‘Oh god, woke BBC lefties, can’t you get over it?’

“And I’m thinking, ‘Yeah woke BBC lefty Lord Wolfson, the Tory justice minister who’s just resigned. I mean, there’s a snowflake. Tory QC, member of the House of Lords, pathetic.’”

Justice minister Lord Wolfson quit the government in protest at the prime minister’s failure to resign over breaking the law, saying the “repeated rule-breaking and breaches of the criminal law” in Downing Street could not be allowed to be treated with “constitutional impunity”.

Hislop continued: “He’s resigned. Why hasn’t Boris? Why hasn’t Rishi? Why hasn’t Carrie? Are you allowed to resign as his wife?

‘And why hasn’t the entire Tory party resigned, all of them? They supported him, why don’t they leave now? They’re the party of law and order.”

While Johnson and Sunak have apologised and paid their fixed penalty notices, it is yet to be seen if they will resign.

[These quotes above come from about 4 mins into recording, but well worth watching the whole of the first 5 mins 45 secs – Owl]

“As usual, it’s all talk and no action from a government incapable of getting to grips with the problems blighting households across our country.”

Ashley Cowburn www.independent.co.uk 

The government has admitted that a special “taskforce” announced last autumn to tackle the supply chain crisis existed for just days – and may never have convened.

Established the day before Boris Johnson began conducting a major reshuffle, the cross-governmental group tasked with “fixing” supply issues was placed under the supervision of Michael Gove.

Reports at the time claimed that Mr Johnson had joked to Mr Gove – who was then Cabinet Office minister – that he “didn’t want to have to cancel Christmas again” as the National Economic Recovery Taskforce (Logistics) was set up.

But in response to a parliamentary question from Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner in March this year, Michael Ellis, the current Cabinet Office minister, was forced to admit that the taskforce, announced on 14 September 2021, no longer existed.

“When the prime minister’s cabinet committee structures were refreshed, gov.uk was updated in October 2021 and this no longer included the National Economic Taskforce (Logistics),” he said.

The minister insisted that logistics and supply chains remained “a priority” for the government, adding that they were “discussed regularly by ministers in a range of forums”.

The Cabinet Office later said work continues to enhance the resilence of supply chains, but now through a committee focused on domestic issues.

Responding to a separate question, Mr Ellis declined to comment on whether the logistics taskforce had met “at least once” before it was removed from the list of cabinet committees.

“It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in cabinet and its committees and how often they have met is not shared publicly,” he said.

Ms Rayner told The Independent this amounted to evidence that the government was “unprepared for the problems facing our country, which will only make the cost of living crisis worse.

“They lurch from crisis to crisis,” she said. “Instead of serious solutions, all they’ve got is gimmicks and fake announcements to grab cheap headlines, with no real plan to solve the problem. The consequences are clear – travel chaos and spiralling prices for ordinary people.

“Now they’ve been caught creating a fake taskforce to hide the fact that they don’t have a plan to protect supply chains and ease the travel disruption Brits are experiencing.”

But a government spokesperson said: “These claims are incorrect. Logistics and supply chains are a priority for the government, and are discussed regularly by ministers in a range of forums. “We are committed to supporting people with the pressures of the cost of living and we have already provided over £22 billion of help in 2022-23.”

Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB union, said: “The logistics crisis has had serious consequences across the economy – yet it gets no more than lip service from the government.

“You’d have thought after seeing the public plagued by empty shelves and haulage chaos, the taskforce would have taken serious steps to address the problems.”

He added: “As usual, it’s all talk and no action from a government incapable of getting to grips with the problems blighting households across our country.”