Daily Archives: 18 Mar 2024

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Planning applications validated by EDDC for week beginning 4 March

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18 Mar 2024

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Tory minister refuses to say if party has received new £5m donation from Frank Hester

A Cabinet minister has refused to confirm whether the Conservatives have taken another £5 million donation from Frank Hester, the businessman accused of making racist remarks about MP Diane Abbott.

www.independent.co.uk 

Mark Harper also declined to comment on “hypotheticals” when pressed repeatedly on whether the party will accept more cash from the top donor.

Reports emerged this week that Mr Hester may have offered £5 million more, which has not yet been published by the Electoral Commission.

Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips asked Mr Harper today (17 March): “Has the Conservative Party received another £5m from Frank Hester?

The transport secretary replied: “I’m not involved in donations.”

What are the rules on accepting donations? Owl asks Sir Humphrey:

Under the PPRA rules political parties must declare all donations over £500.

Under these rules anything less than £500 is not a donation for the purpose of declaration.

So Sir Humphrey, what constitutes a “donation”?

A donation is money, goods or services given to a party without charge or on non-commercial terms, with a value of over £500.

Sir Humphrey, are there any restrictions on receiving donations?

Donations have to be permissible donations and from an identifiable source, impermissible donations must be returned within 30 days.

Sir Humphrey, what is a permissible source? Can any old rogue or business make a donation?

A permissible source includes:

  • an individual registered on a UK electoral register, including overseas electors and those leaving bequests
  • a UK-registered company which is incorporated in the UK and carries on business in the UK

And PPRA?

Don’t ask.

Sir Humphrey, will it keep us squeaky clean if we say: “All our donations are declared in the proper way”?

Undoubtedly!

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Ed Davey: ‘We need a cross-party agreement on social care’

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have been challenged to sign up to cross-party talks finally resolving the impasse over social care, as part of a Liberal Democrat plea to “grasp the nettle” after years of failure.

Michael Savage www.theguardian.com

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said that his party would include in its forthcoming manifesto a promise to attend cross-party talks on social care after the election. He called on both the Tories and Labour to do the same in a bid to agree a financial package that helps the NHS and deals with the high costs some face.

“We’ve got lots of ideas to bring to the table,” Davey told the Observer. “But we’re only going to ultimately solve this if we have a cross-party consensus. It’s just been knocked out for far too long. We need to do it right this time. We cannot wait.

“Come to the table. Put in your manifestos – everybody – that you will take part in cross-party talks after the election for a cross-party agreement on social care. We can therefore come up with something that will stand the test of time. This is a long-term policy with a massive impact on the NHS. There are issues on how it’s financed and we’d have to all agree on that, too. I don’t think there’s any other way of doing it. I just hope Sunak and Starmer will respond positively. Let’s grasp the nettle. Let’s crack it.”

Several pledges to deal with the huge social care costs faced by many families have been made in recent years, with both Boris Johnson and Theresa May promising solutions that were never implemented. Private cross-party talks before the 2010 election also broke down.

It comes after the main parties were recently told to “grow up” by Sir Andrew Dilnot, whose government-backed commission proposed a cap on social care costs more than a decade ago. He said there had been “no serious addressing” of the state of the care system by Labour or the Conservatives heading into the election campaign.

Davey said he had been disappointed by suggestions that Labour wanted to “park” the issue until well after the election. He said that some of the ideas he would bring to the talks would be a special national minimum wage for care workers and more help for family carers. “They actually save the taxpayer huge amounts of money,” he said. “They want to do it. If you gave them a bit of extra support, such as a bit of respite care, it’d be more sustainable. More would do it and they’d be able to do it for longer.”

Davey was speaking ahead of this weekend’s Lib Dem spring conference. He said that there was now the real chance of a “once in a generation” election that saw a complete Tory collapse.

He said that his party’s hopes were growing that both the chancellor Jeremy Hunt and levelling up secretary Michael Gove could be unseated. Both cabinet ministers have seats in Surrey, part of the “blue wall” of previously safe Tory heartlands that the Lib Dems have been focusing on under Davey.

The Lib Dems have been stagnant in the polls at around 10% for some time, with some criticising the party for being overtaken by Reform UK, the successor to the Brexit party. However, Davey said Reform was only a threat to the Tories and byelection victories showed his targeted campaign was working. He said he felt a “moral responsibility to make sure we beat lots of Conservative MPs”

“I’ve noticed over my time that if leaders focus on vote share across the whole country and ignore seats, they perform badly at the election,” he said. “I am not going to do that. If you have a strategy that is focused on the seats where you can win, and you don’t allow yourself to be taken off by criticism, frankly, I think we will do what we need to do. We’re going to play an absolutely central role in removing the Conservatives.”

He denied the criticism he had received over the Horizon scandal had hampered his leadership. He was criticised after it emerged he had initially refused to meet Alan Bates, the former postmaster and campaigner fighting for justice, when he was Post Office minister during the coalition government.

“Liberal Democrat leader in election year gets attacked by the Conservative press shocker,” he said. “It’s a huge miscarriage of justice and we need to play our part in getting justice for the postmasters. They need exoneration, they need compensation. The inquiry needs to learn the lessons and we need to change things big time.”

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18 Mar 2024

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We Need a Constitution 

moneyversusdemocracy.

We Should Learn From Ireland

This post is meant for those who agree that we need a proper entrenched constitution, not just a muddle in which the government can avoid addressing the challenges we face, and shut down dissent in order to retain the trappings of power.

Creating a constitution from scratch is a huge task, but it seems to be required in our case. We can learn from the Irish experience. When the Irish Free State was formed in 1922, it was still tied somewhat to Britain. It formed its own constitution which drew heavily from the Westminster system. By 1934 Éamon de Valera decided it was time to review the constitution. He had two objects in mind, to finally cut the ties with Britain, and crucially providing that any future amendment would be done in a controlled manor. Any change can only be agreed by a national referendum. This constitution came into effect in 1937 following a plebiscite. It has lasted 86 years without coming into difficulties. There have been 32 amendments reflecting great changes in the economy and society, many of which de Valera did not foresee.

The wording of the constitution is particularly clear and the office of the parliament( Oireachtas) issues loads of citizen information.

What I am suggesting is that we examine each article of the Irish constitution and see whether and how far it could be included in the British constitution. Having done that we should compare that with the Cabinet Manual which is the government’s view of what the constitution is, and how things should be done.

I have set out my ideas in a bit more detail in a document (59Kb) which I can email you on request. Please email me on davidsmith658howard@gmail.com.

I am currently working on my own. I am 82 and am in not very good health. I need support. I welcome any constructive comment on errors of fact, on the process etc. Any wholly unhelpful comment will simply be ignored at this stage.

  • Do you want your comments to remain anonymous?
  • Can you assist with any aspect of the drafting? If so would this be as part of a small group?
  • Should we attempt to inform mainstream media at this stage? If so can you help?
  • Do we need a better website? Could you help with this?

David Smith

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Sunak has ‘given up’, says Davey as he urges Lib Dems to ‘smash blue wall’

[Also reported in Simon Jupp’s and David Reed’s essential on-line reading: “The Mail Online”:

Sir Ed Davey sets his sights on Tory seats in southern heartland: Lib Dem leader will today urge members to knock on five million doors and ‘bring the Blue Wall tumbling’]

“Smash the blue wall”

Sophie Wingate www.independent.co.uk

Sir Ed Davey has told the Liberal Democrats spring conference that the Prime Minister “sounds like he’s already given up” and that setting the general election date is “pretty much the only thing left that Rishi Sunak controls any more”.

The Lib Dem leader said the Tories “no longer represent British values of decency, tolerance and the rule of law”, as he challenged members to “smash the blue wall” at the national vote.

The Lib Dems are using the gathering in York to prepare for a further push into traditional Conservative strongholds, particularly seeking to win over voters in the south and south-west of England.

Sir Ed rallied members to “make this a once-in-a-generation election” as he argued that his party was the only one to offer “transformational change”, while the Tories and Labour were just “tinkering around the edges”.

Mr Sunak this week ruled out holding an election on May 2, indicating that he would send the country to the polls in the latter half of 2024.

The party that brought us Boris Johnson, Suella Braverman and Lee Anderson, proudly funded by a man who made the most appalling racist and sexist comments – the Conservatives no longer represent British values of decency, tolerance and the rule of law

In his speech on Sunday, Sir Ed said the election date was “pretty much the only thing left that Rishi Sunak controls any more”.

“He certainly doesn’t control his party. Certainly not his Cabinet. Certainly not the healthcare crisis or the economy,” he said.

“In fact, the Prime Minister sounds like he’s given up.”

Sir Ed accused the Prime Minister of “outrageously running down the clock” and “squatting” in Downing Street “while the crises facing our country just get worse and worse”.

The Tories were overseeing “political, economic and financial instability” because they had “been consumed by the most damaging, never-ending soap opera in British political history”, the Kingston and Surbiton MP said.

“And Tory MPs have given us another episode this weekend, with plots for yet another prime minister – a fourth in less than two years,” he added.

It comes as Mr Sunak faces reports that some Conservative MPs are plotting to replace him before the election, and criticism over his handling of the emergence of alleged racist remarks about an MP by major Tory donor Frank Hester.

Addressing the racism row, Sir Ed said: “If this week’s news has shown anything, it’s that we must also cap donations to political parties.

“So that even the wealthiest racists cannot buy power and influence over the Conservative Party.

“The party that brought us Boris Johnson, Suella Braverman and Lee Anderson, proudly funded by a man who made the most appalling racist and sexist comments – the Conservatives no longer represent British values of decency, tolerance and the rule of law.”

Sir Ed urged Mr Sunak to call a national vote immediately, saying the Lib Dems were “up for the fight” and “the country can’t wait a moment longer to see the back of this terrible Conservative Government”.

“We can make this a once-in-a-generation election,” he said.

“In so many parts of the country, only we can beat the Conservatives. And we must.”

He argued the case for having more Lib Dem MPs in Parliament, saying: “The mess our country is in demands not a plan to tweak things, but a plan to transform everything.

“Tinkering around the edges won’t come close to solving anything, and yet that’s what both the Conservatives and Labour are offering. They’re both trying to cloak themselves in the costume of change, but they’re both really saying ‘keep things the same’.

“The Liberal Democrat approach is so different, because we don’t just want to change things on the surface – paper over the cracks but leave the foundations to crumble underneath – we want real change”.

He said that would only happen “if we change our political system”, as he called for proportional representation to replace the first-past-the-post set-up.

Repealing the Fixed Term Parliaments Act was “a shameless act of Conservatives rigging the system in their favour”, he added.

Sir Ed also made the crisis in the NHS and social care central to his conference address, setting out “big, bold reforms” to ensure people could see a GP, NHS dentist or pharmacist when they needed to.

“Investing wisely in community services, to save lives and save money in the long-run, instead of just throwing cash at crisis after crisis with nothing to show for it,” he said.

He called on all parties “to include in their manifestos a cast-iron commitment to finally hold cross-party talks on social care to finally forge the agreement that has been kicked down the road for far too long”.

The Lib Dems won 11 seats at the 2019 general election, but have since gained formerly Conservative constituencies across southern England in a series of by-elections.

These have included Chesham and Amersham in Buckinghamshire, Frome in Somerset and Tiverton and Honiton in Devon.

But some polls suggest the far-right Reform UK party has overtaken the Lib Dems in popularity across the UK.

Tory Party chairman Richard Holden said: “Sir Ed Davey’s vacuous ramblings told the country nothing about what the Lib Dems stand for. Just like Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, they can’t say what they would do, because they don’t have a plan.

“A vote for the Liberal Democrats would mean going back to square one under a Sir Keir Starmer-led Labour Government – and that will inevitably mean more borrowing and more taxes on working people.”

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National Grid’s net-zero vision: £60bn and an ‘electrical spine’

Britain’s power network will need £60 billion investment in new offshore wind farms if it is to hit the government’s target to decarbonise the electricity system by 2035.

Are we having a good experience with privatised utilities delivering timely investment in infrastructure? – Owl

Caroline Wheeler www.thetimes.co.uk

National Grid, the FTSE 100 company which is responsible for keeping the lights on, will unveil its plans on Tuesday.

It intends to connect up to 86 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2035, which on a windy day is enough to meet peak demand. It says 20,000 jobs will be created annually, of which 90 per cent will be outside the southeast of England.

The plans will, however, raise fears of hundreds of new pylons spoiling the countryside.

National Grid receives about £20 a year from each household bill as part of a transmission charge. These payments will finance the network upgrade.

Demand for electricity is set to rise by nearly two thirds over the next decade as people’s everyday lives, from increased smartphone usage to running an electric car, place more demand on the network.

To meet the government’s net-zero target, thousands of miles of new cabling will be required to move electricity from the sea and on to homes and businesses.

National Grid’s ESO division (electricity system operator) has recommended the creation of an “electrical spine”: onshore cables that will move a huge volume of power between Peterhead in Aberdeenshire and Merseyside.

Although the route is yet to be determined, the cable is expected to run down the east coast then through the central belt of Scotland to the northwest of England.

In addition three offshore links connecting windfarms in Scotland to those on the east coast of England will be recommended to “innovatively connect up the turbines offshore”.

Fintan Slye, the ESO executive director, said: “Great Britain’s electricity system is the backbone of our economy and society and must be fit for the future”. He said the company had to take “swift, co-ordinated and lasting action” to meet the net- zero target.

Up until now offshore wind farm developers have built individual connections to the shore. This approach was both criticised by affected communities and created bottlenecks, resulting in wind farms being paid to turn off turbines.

The ESO said this was now untenable as ministers pursued a near fourfold increase in offshore wind capacity to 50GW by the end of this decade. At present 14GW comes from wind although offshore capacity, from 130 projects at all stages of development, stands at 100GW.

Its aim is to reduce construction costs and minimise disruption after opposition from communities, notably Conservative constituencies in Suffolk.

Campaigners there argue that plans for onshore substations, as well as new connections between Suffolk and Kent, and an interconnector to the Netherlands, could cause long-term damage to ecology and tourism.

This year Ralph Fiennes, the actor, who was born in Ipswich, called for a halt to plans for “acres of steel and concrete in areas of profound natural beauty”.

Under National Grid’s plans, which seek to answer some of the concerns from residents, three times more undersea cabling could be laid than pylons. This will include 900km of upgrades to the existing network, a new 3,800km offshore network and a new 1,600km onshore network which could be overhead or underground.

Last year gas accounted for 32 per cent of Britain’s electricity generation, ahead of 29 per cent from wind and 14 per cent from nuclear. The last coal-burning plant, at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, is due to close in September. Britain is set to have the second-largest offshore wind fleet by 2035, with 20 per cent of global capacity.

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Rocks the size of cars collapse in huge Sidmouth cliff fall

A famous East Devon cliff has collapsed – again. Another huge cliff fall took place in Sidmouth today with visitors and local residents describing rocks the size of cars coming down onto the beach below.

Olivier Vergnault www.devonlive.com

Exmouth coastal scientist Vicky Walkley was sitting on a bench enjoying the view of the coast when she heard a loud rumbling noise. She looked at the famous red cliff below and saw it collapse onto the beach. She said the cliff fall happened today (Sunday March 17) at around 2pm.

The latest collapse has happened at the Jacob’s Ladder end of the beach. The incident was caught on video, which can be viewed at the top of the article.

Vicky said: “The rocks and debris entirely covered the full width of the beach in seconds, which really highlights how dangerous it is to walk next to unstable cliffs like these.

“Even after the main cliff fall had stopped, debris kept on falling. About 10 minutes after the dust settled, a huge rock the size of a car then came crashing down the cliff and rolled along the beach. Luckily there was no one on this part of the beach at the time but if there had been, it could have been tragic.”

The latest cliff fall in Sidmouth (Image: Vicky Walkley)

As a coastal expert with more than a decade’s experience Vicky is familiar with what can trigger cliff falls – even though such incidents remain very difficult to predict.

She explained: “As a coastal scientist for 11 years, I have been working on projects to help the government and local councils assess and predict coastal erosion. Cliff falls are very difficult to predict, they can happen at any time – not just in stormy weather with big waves, but also on calm sunny days like today.”

She added: “All the heavy rainfall we’ve had this winter acts to lubricate the joints in the rock and increase the likelihood of cliff falls. Warm sunshine can also heat the rock, causing it to expand – this can trigger cliff falls too.

“The effects of climate change, including rising sea levels and wetter winters, are likely to accelerate the rates of cliff erosion in future, so it’s important that everyone is aware of these risks when visiting the coast.”

Sidmouth’s cliffs are notorious for crumbling with cliff falls previously taking place at both East Beach and Jacob’s Ladder. In September at the East Beach end of the town, footage captured a “waterfall of earth” coming tumbling down. In October there was another incident at the other end past Jacob’s Ladder.

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Trees legal battle in the High Court next week

The outcome will be known in three to six weeks

A judicial review to decide whether Plymouth City Council acted legally when it chopped down more than 100 trees on Armada Way in a late-night operation last March will be heard in the High Court in London next [this] week.

Alison Stephenson, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

The case, set for Tuesday and Wednesday, has been brought by protester group Save the Trees of Armada Way (Straw).

It will argue that the council, at the time under Conservative control, used an emergency order to fell the trees as part of a redevelopment plan without full scrutiny.

It will also claim the authority failed to get proper advice to carry out an environmental impact assessment, did not take account of nesting birds and that a report on the consultation was biased.

The hearing was delayed after the now Labour run council tried and failed twice to get the case thrown out. It said the original decision is now “academic” as  there are new plans for Armada Way. The court, though, said the applications were “misconceived”.

Costs to the taxpayer so far from the clean-up operation after the trees were remove, together with subsequent legal costs, are understood to be close to £300,000.

London-based Goodenough Ring Solicitors, acting on behalf of STRAW, are holding more than £28,000 pledged by the public to fight the case through a Crowdjustice campaign.

The firm said that the results of the judicial review would not be known for three-to-six weeks.

It said a further legal action by its client is being considered, alleging a consultation on new plans for Armada Way last October and November failed to provide enough details on the cost.

It was revealed in January that scheme is now likely to cost £37 million, compared with original redevelopment plans of around £13 million.

A spokesperson for Goodenough Ring said a letter before that stage of legal action began had been sent to the council, but a decision had not been taken yet on whether to proceed as it depends on the outcome of next week’s hearing.

In a statement, Straw said: “It’s disappointing that not only are Plymouth City Council still defending what they did last March, but that this hearing did not happen months ago, as it should have.

“Plymouth City Council have been wasting time and taxpayers money, kicking the can down the road, but we are pleased that the hearing is finally happening. I think the people of Plymouth deserve to know if their council has acted unlawfully or not.

“Obviously we hope to win and we hope that this action will send a strong message to all councils that the unnecessary destruction of our trees and green spaces is simply not on.”

A spokesperson for Plymouth City Council said: “The judicial review is based on a decision made by the previous council administration. Following the election last May, the new council leader withdrew that decision when he first took office. Therefore, the original decision, which is subject to the judicial review, was not implemented any further.

 “While we remain hopeful that the judge will agree, it is important to remember that the legal hearing does not impact the current plans to regenerate Armada Way.

“Our city deserves to have a better city centre – a city centre that rivals others across the country and one where people want to live, work, visit, shop and do business in.”

The plan includes more than 200 trees, which is more than previously on Armada Way.