[And did Alison Hernandez get a ticking off?]

Once again Simon Jupp is claiming conservative credit for the “triple lock” in his latest facebook “Weekly roundup”.

As Owl explained in the middle of January, from a speech given by Richard Foord in parliament:

The Conservative 2010 manifesto talked about restoring the link between the basic state pension and average earnings”,

Whereas it was the 2010 Liberal Democrat manifesto that stated:

“We will uprate the state pension annually by whichever is the higher of growth in earnings, growth in prices or 2.5 per cent.”

In the same “Weekly roundup” Simon said:

“It was great to welcome Home Secretary James Cleverly to Sidmouth last weekend to talk to residents with Police & Crime Commissioner, Alison Hernandez. We have record police officer numbers in Devon & Cornwall & Honiton’s police station has recently reopened to the public, with more to come.“

But Simon again forgot to mention that:

Honiton is in Richard Foord’s constituency – those of us actually living in “Juppland”, for example  Sidmouth and Exmouth have yet to see a police office reopen, and in Budleigh even see a police officer, except on training days!

A year ago Owl reported that about a third of the new “Bozzer” recruits (Boris Johnson’s promise to add 20,000 to the force) Alison Hernandez boasted about getting in 2019 (and we are paying for) had voted with their feet and had left. We are also paying through the nose for these recruits as Hernandez bangs up her take of the Council Tax once again by a “necessary” 4.95 per cent. Since coming into office in 2016 she has pushed her take of the average council tax by over £100.    Remember she spends 70% more of your Council Tax as EDDC does. (Council Tax is split: 73% DCC; 12% Police; 7% EDDC; 4% Fire; 4% Towns & Parishes).

Finally, did the Home Secretary take her aside for a little chat about her force not only being in “special measures” but rated poorly for failings in “Strategic Planning” and “Value for Money”? From the photos, perhaps he did.

Owl is wondering whether to start a “ministerial visit ” count as an indicator of how insecure the party feels the East Devon parliamentary seats are?

They are also kept pretty “hush hush” for some reason.