Daily Archives: 17 Apr 2023

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17 Apr 2023

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Planning applications validated by EDDC for week beginning 3 April

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17 Apr 2023

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The Writing’s on Hand’s Hand (and the Blue Wall?)

Tories could lose over 1,000 seats in local elections, party chair warns

Greg Hands was seen with notes made in blue ink on his hand in Sunday’s broadcast interviews as he defended the record of Rishi Sunak’s government ahead of the 4 May polls.

Adam Forrest www.independent.co.uk

The Conservatives are on course to lose more than 1,000 seats in May’s local elections, the party’s under-pressure chairman has said.

Greg Hands referred several times to a forecast by elections experts Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of Tory seat losses of around 1,000 – with Labour set to make around 700 gains.

The cabinet chairman told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “The independent expectations are that the Conservatives will lose more than 1,000 seats and that Labour need to make big gains.”

Accused by stand-in host Sir Trevor Phillips of trying to “massage expectations”, Mr Hands said: “That is what the expectation is out there, but I’ve been up and down the country and the Conservatives are fighting really hard.”

Asked by Sir Trevor whether he could lose his job if the results are dire, Mr Hands said: “Well let’s see Trevor, but what I would say is that those are the independent predictions from the most credible academic sources.”

Mr Hands was seen with notes made in blue ink on his hand in Sunday’s broadcast interviews as he defended the record of Rishi Sunak’s government ahead of the 4 May polls.

Labour mocked the Tory cabinet minister after he was spotted with notes penned on his palm, tweeting: “Hands hands hands notes to Labour research team.”

The prospect of prolonged NHS strikes could derail Mr Sunak’s hopes of limiting local election damage, warned the Liberal Democrats – who said it would be “the most salient issue on the doorstep for 2019 Tory voters”.

A Lib Dem source said Mr Hands’ admission of defeat at the 4 May elections shows that the Tories “have already thrown in the towel before a single vote has been cast”.

They added: “Rishi Sunak is facing a blue wall bloodbath as people who voted Conservative all their life say never again, and turn to the Liberal Democrats instead.”

Anti-Tory tactical voting could see heavy local election losses for Mr Sunak’s party, top polling gurus have said. Election experts told The Independent the electorate had become increasingly “sophisticated” in switching between Labour or the Lib Dems.

Mr Hands insisted the government is “still working very hard in delivering” the PM’s priorities – halving inflation, growing the economy, reducing debt, stopping boats carrying migrants across the Channel, and reducing hospital waits.

But the Tory chair admitted that a wave of strikes “haven’t helped” with the vow to bring down NHS waiting lists, which stand at a record high of 7.2 million people.

Mr Sunak is “personally involved” in trying to tackle NHS backlogs, Mr Hands said when pressed on how he will achieve that in the face of strikes.

He insisted the government is “definitely not giving up” on the PM’s pledge – arguing it has “budged” in the pay dispute with nursing unions.

Suella Braverman is doing a “brilliant job,” Mr Hands insisted as he was confronted on the record on tackling illegal immigration – pointing to figures suggesting 83 per cent of the public believe the government is handling immigration badly.

“I’ve already outlined how we’re getting to grips with the job, and how we are passing the legislation, how we are coming to these agreements with key allies, but sometimes these things will take time,” Mr Hands told Sky News.

He added: “And that is why, for example, we are starting returns to Albania, we are getting to grips with this and Suella is right on top of it.”

Pressed on Mr Sunak’s pledge on halving inflation, which has gone up since he made it, Mr Hands replied that “nobody has said that it’s going to be easy to tame inflation” as he blamed higher energy prices driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Pressed on the UK’s economy showing no growth in February, the Tory chairman said: “Well, in February it was not one of the better results but January grew by 0.3 per cent … Overall, under this Conservative government we’ve got a record to be proud of on growth.”

Asked whether zero growth was something to be proud of, Mr Hands conceded that “we would like to see much stronger growth”.

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The NHS looks to become a doorstep issue in local elections

So this comment from Tim posted yesterday provides a quick briefing for non-Tory candidates:

It is worth remembering the fiasco around the closure of local hospitals caused by Tory County Councillor Randall Johnson, then local MP Swire, and then Health Sec Matt Hancock.


It was acknowledged by Swire’s wife Sasha that Swire himself was only moved to get involved with Ottery hospital “to piss off Claire Wright” according to his wife’s published diary.


Too little has changed, Randall Johnson is still chair of Devon CC’s Health and Scrutiny Committee and contributing to the Tory lie that the NHS is safe in Tory hands.


May I suggest readers do a search on her name in this website, here’s is one of many results for starters. https://eastdevonwatch.org/2018/10/04/__trashed-7/

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Should Ms Hernandez be adding her name to Tory election leaflets?

Setting aside Ms Hernandez’s typo gaffes and being serious for a moment.

Alison Hernandez signed this oath of impartiality on taking office after being re-elected, pledging to serve ALL the people of Devon and Cornwall:

This is what the government said when they set up the new role of commissioner:

“The swearing of an oath will be an important symbol of this impartiality, emphasising both the significance of this new role in local communities and that commissioners are there to serve the people, not a political party or any one section of their electorate.” See here

The commissioner must not only be impartial but be seen to be impartial.

Despite this, Alison Hernandez appears to see no conflict in adding her clearly partisan statement to the leaflet East Devon Conservatives recently distributed to residents in which they publicise their six election pledges, directly below the pledge from Conservative Group Leader Phil Skinner.

In this she omits to mention Richard Foord (LibDem) MP, the other East Devon MP, only that she will work closely with Simon Jupp MP and Conservatives in East Devon.

Does this exclude working closely with any non-Tory East Devon District Council?

Her statement, apparently made as Police and Crime Commissioner, comes at a sensitive time when we are still trying to find out why the police took so long to investigate John Humphreys and why his eventual arrest and formal charging was kept a closely guarded secret so that he continued as a councillor, with all the access to children that gave him.

In August 2021 Humphreys was jailed for sexually assaulting boys. He had been arrested in 2016 and continued as a district councillor until 2019.