In a long press article the Tory candidate for the new Exmouth & Exeter East seat, David Reed, outlined his priorities and credentials in somewhat disjointed terms.

The three key issues he will address if elected are: reducing sewage spills; improving social care access; and promoting apprenticeships. 

Many would say that the first two of these issues are the direct result of right wing conservative policies intended to reduce taxes by shrinking the state and cutting investment in services and infrastructure.

Water companies (and Railways, which he doesn’t mention) are examples of how privatisation has broken Britain.  

In a speech to a Conservative Forum in April 2009, for example, David Cameron declared that “the age of irresponsibility is giving way to the age of austerity”, and committed to end years of what he characterised as excessive government spending. He became PM in 2010 with George Osbourne as Chancellor and we can now see the result of what he meant by “austerity”.

In the article David Reed described himself as ‘centre-right’ which doesn’t seem to be a good starting point to stop leaks in sewage or improving access to social care.

On promoting apprenticeship schemes he says they allow:

“…companies, the private sector, to invest in their people, and it creates a much better connection so that people can actually learn on their job, but also have the opportunity once they’re qualified to save a lot more and then buy into things like housing, have a family, which I think the Labour [education] policy has eroded. “

Maybe news to him: the Tories have been tinkering around the edges of the policy on apprenticeship schemes for the past 13 years with the latest funding package published last October.

In Owl’s view apprenticeships suffer from the short term nature of so many investment decisions taken in Britain by both government and the private sector. We need a complete reset on investment but that can only come with a government demonstrating confidence in managing the economy, not conducting mad cap experiments with the likes of Liz Truss.

Asked about his relative political inexperience, he said: “I would like to think that I’ve actually packed a lot into my life so far.  

“I’ve been very close to central government policy for a long time, and I’ve been on the sharp end of delivering that policy, either through the military [as a former Royal Marine] or in other jobs that I’ve done, or in the defence industry [defence contractor BAE Systems with whom the MoD currently spends £4.0bn annually 2021/22].  

“I’m coming in knowing how the state works, understanding how to bid for central government money, how to write an effective bid, which is very, very important, and then how to actually work with relevant authorities to actually get on the job and actually deliver those things. 

“It takes a long time to see how that puzzle fits together, but I come good to go.” 

(Is that a promise? – Owl)

Read the full article here 

As yet, inexperienced David Reed who has only tenuous local connections doesn’t know who he might be facing in the General Election. They could trump him both on experience and local connection.

Exmouth & Exeter East is a seat that Labour has said is not, for them, a “battleground seat”.

Could this be another two horse race?

There are nearly 26,000 Claire Wright votes to play for between the Exmouth & Exeter East constituency and the Honiton & Sidmouth constituency. Owl can’t see many of these going to either of the Tory candidates.