https://www.hugoswire.org.uk/news/personal-view-2017-general-election
Pack it in Mr Swire – you are embarrassing yourself.
Category Archives: Accountability
Privatisation and austerity: the dreadful human cost
“The company responsible for managing Grenfell Tower had been reviewing fire safety procedures after previous incidents, it has emerged.
Kensington & Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) was paid £11m by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to manage social housing in 2016.
KCTMO’s Adair Tower, also in north Kensington, had previously suffered a fire – the result of arson – and some residents suffered from smoke inhalation and had to be rehoused.
The London fire brigade issued an “enforcement notice” telling KCTMO to install “self-closing devices” on the front doors of flats in Adair Tower and the nearby Hazlewood Tower, built to the same design.
KCTMO, named this year among the top 100 not-for-profit firms to work for by the Sunday Times, has offered its “sincere and heartfelt condolences” to anyone affected by the fire. “It is too early to speculate what caused the fire and contributed to its spread,” the company added. “We will cooperate fully with all the relevant authorities in order to ascertain the cause of this tragedy.”
KCTMO contracted the £10m refurbishment of Grenfell to a private construction firm, Rydon, which in turn subcontracted some of the work, in an illustration of the rewards on offer to private firms from social housing projects.
One of the other firms in the chain of companies involved in the refurbishment appears to have removed a description of the project from its website.
Rydon landed an £8.6m contract to “upgrade” the Grenfell Tower, including adding the external cladding that is being investigated as a potential factor in the fire’s rapid spread.
It boasts a string of contracts for the NHS, local councils and the Ministry of Defence, while its maintenance division, which led the refurbishment of the Grenfell Tower, maintains 22,000 properties and has nearly £450m of contracts on its order book.
The company made a pre-tax profit of £14.3m last year on revenues of £271m and paid investors a dividend of £2m, the largest slice of which went to Rydon’s chief executive and largest shareholder, Robert Bond, 61.
The company’s highest paid director, usually the chief executive, also earned a salary of £424,000 in 2016, a pay rise from £392,000 the year before.
“We are shocked to hear of the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower and our immediate thoughts are with those that have been affected by the incident, their families, relatives and friends,” the company said.
It insisted its work “met all required building control, fire regulation and health and safety standards”.
“We will cooperate with the relevant authorities and emergency services and fully support their inquiries into the causes of this fire at the appropriate time.
“Given the ongoing nature of the incident and the tragic events overnight, it would be inappropriate for us to speculate or comment further at this stage.”
After Rydon won the contract to refurbish Grenfell, it commissioned the ventilation specialist Witt UK to work on the project, it emerged on Wednesday.
Witt UK, based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, previously had a page on its website that boasted of work by one of its subsidiaries, PSB UK, on Grenfell Tower.
A version of the page was still available in Google’s historic “cached” data, in which the company explained that ventilation systems would protect residents from smoke in the event of a fire.
A description of the project read: “The lobby smoke ventilation system has been designed to provide the existing stairwell with protection from the ingress of smoke from a fire within a dwelling by means of a mechanical extract system.”
Witt UK is owned by the German family business Witt & Sohn, run by Dr Henrik Witt, 62, and Karsten Witt, 58.
A person who answered the UK company’s telephone said it had been advised not to comment.
According to the removed page of the Witt website, it handed over the “prestigious project” to a Birmingham-based building service engineering company called JS Wright & Co.
A spokesperson for JS Wright & Co said: “We are shocked by the catastrophic fire at Grenfell Tower in London and our thoughts are with the families, relatives and friends of all those affected by this tragic incident.
“JS Wright carried out a contract with Rydon Maintenance last year to provide Grenfell Tower with improved building services.
“Rydon Maintenance was in the process of refurbishing the building for Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation on behalf of the council.
“Like everyone else at this stage, we are unaware of the causes of this fire but we will co-operate fully with all inquiries and investigations into this incident.”
Rydon also contracted another firm, Harley Facades, to provide the cladding that is being examined as a possible factor in the blaze.
Harley’s website reveals it was paid £2.6m for the Grenfell Tower work.
Grenfell Tower has been managed by KCTMO since 1996, when it took over responsibility from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
KCTMO documents reveal it put its fire safety policy under review last year, ordering changes including speeding up the installation of self-closing doors, tackling hoarding and dealing with clutter in communal areas.
According to board minutes for November 2016, KCTMO admitted it needed to adopt “a more proactive approach to the installation of self-closing devices to flat entrance doors across the stock”.
The company said it would increase the frequency of fire risk assessment reviews, install fire action notices in the entrance lobbies of all blocks and undertake “further work to address the issue of storage and charging of mobility scooters within communal areas”.
The latest accounts filed by KCTMO with Companies House show that “key management personnel”, led by the chief executive, Robert Black, shared £760,000 in salaries for managing properties in the borough.
The accounts did not reveal the names of the recipients, but the company lists four people under “senior management”.
“Lack of confidence in leadership”
The chair of the supervisory body for Scotland’s national police force has stepped down, after two committees of MSPs declared a lack of confidence in his leadership of the Scottish Police Authority.
Is there anyone here in Devon who might be in a similar position – whose abilities are found wanting at the top level?
Owl can think of several people!
But it takes strong leadership of the bodies that oversee such incompetent leaders to take effective action in these situations.
Ah, well …
“Devon and Cornwall’s police and crime commissioner should consider resigning over a row about whether gun owners could act as armed civilians in the event of a terror attack, a member of the Police and Crime Panel, which oversees and scrutinises the commissioner, has told BBC Radio Cornwall.
Alison Hernandez has since said her comments on BBC Radio Cornwall on Monday were “misinterpreted” and she was “not advocating the use of firearms or other weapons by members of the public in the event of a terrorist incident”.
However, panel member and former police officer Chris Batters said: “To make such a statement as she did without having ever consulted with the chief constable, I think, is outrageous.
“I think, at times, she does go off, in a gun term, half-cocked.
“At times, I’m doubtful whether she is up to the job. In the light of comments such as this, I sincerely think she should do [resign], yes.”
BBC Devon website 13.18 pm
Owl says: surely, what she said is only half the problem. You really CAN’T misinterpret what she said and it’s the fact that since saying it, she can’t see what she did wrong!
It will be very interesting to see what the Police and Crime Panel (the only group to which she is responsible) handles this one.
Do they retain confidence in her? If so, why?
Hernandez and her “vigilante” comments get wide national coverage
If our Chief Constable can be investigated for misconduct when making mild, general comments about electoral expenses and investigations (he was cleared after a 7 month inquiry by another force) surely this woman can be investigated for her comments as covered below:
THE HEADLINES
THE SUN
“CORNISH NASTIES UK gun-owners could fight back in terror attack says Devon and Cornwall police chief – and suggests new ‘shoot-to kill’ powers”
DAILY MAIL
UK firearm owners could fight back in terror attack, says police chief: Devon and Cornwall crime commissioner suggests shoot-to-kill powers could be granted in ‘extreme circumstances’
THE GUARDIAN
Gun owners could help fight terror attack, says police commissioner
CORNWALL LIVE
Police commissioner Alison Hernandez to look at arming vigilantes to defend Cornwall from terrorist
Did you vote for Farage to get a knighthood – quite possibly if you voted Tory!
1208 people in East Devon voted for UKIP – 2 in every 100 voters in the constituency. Now it appears that they will get a better deal than any other individual or party as rumour is that the DUP is demanding that Nigel Farage gets a Brexit role AND a knighthood as part of the price the Tories must pay for their co-operation:
And Theresa has form when it comes to letting croney knighthoods through (such as that awarded to Hugo Swire by David Cameron):
PLEASE let it be fake news! Alas, it appears not:
http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/815954/DUP-Nigel-Farage-Ukip-Conservative-Brexit-Theresa-May
Hernandez engages mouth before brain on response to terrorism
The Guardian has taken up the article below first published on the Express and Echo website:
The original article:
“The crime czar has come under fire for entertaining the idea that armed citizens could repel a terrorist attack.
Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Alison Hernandez was asked by a caller to a Radio Cornwall phone-in whether private citizens with gun licences should use weapons to defend their community.
The Conservative did not support the idea but rather than outline standard police advice she told the woman to write in and promised to talk to the chief constable about it.
Devon and Cornwall police moved to quell any talk that the force might consider sanctioning some form of community force ready to take up arms in places like Devon.
The second most senior office told the public to stand down and said “highly trained police firearms officers and Special Forces will be deployed”
The police staff association also stated that such a move was not the way forward though it was unsure of the legal implications if such an extreme situation arose.
A spokesman for Ms Hernandez suggested she had been “dead batting” a controversial question and in no way backed the creation of a vigilante force.
William Morris, an independent candidate who stood for election as PCC last year, said there was “no way” we should even be “discussing or promoting the idea that an individual can take the law in their own hands”.
“I can understand how passions are aroused because terrorism is a terrible crime against humanity but if we start thinking that way then terrible mistakes can happen – it is not the right approach.
“Terrorism is beyond wrong – it is utterly abhorrent.
“The advice from the Met police will be echoed by the chief constable – to leave the area, if not to hide and then to report.
“I would hope she would (repeat this) and I am sure she will is she is asked again. Every right thinking person with a sense of community responsibility would say the same and I am sure on reflection she would.”
The issue of the public fighting back came to the forefront during the most recent terror attack in London when a football fan single-handedly took on the three knife-wielding killers.
Milwall supporter Roy Larner battled the terror attackers armed with nothing more than his fists and has been hailed a hero, with a petition launched for him to be awarded the George Cross.
In fighting back, the 47-year-old gave dozens of others who were in the Borough Market restaurant the chance to escape.
It is not the first time the Tory politician has got into hot water in Cornwall.
The police and crime chief, who admitted smoking dope as a teenager, last year confessed her love for hard-core gangsta rappers across the Tamar.
She revealed during an internet discussion on the Cornish Truro Hour that she was a one-time “fly girl” and a fan of California outfit NWA (Niggaz Wit Attitudes).
The group’s debut album in 1988, Straight Outta Compton, began with the track “F**k tha Police”, a protest against police brutality and racial profiling
A woman who called the Cornish chat show on Monday asked Ms Hernandez what her view on allowing licensed firearm users to enter the fray.
However, she later reportedly refused to discuss the idea further, not wanting to embarrass the commissioner.
Janice Adam, from the Police Federation, said reacting to and dealing with any such incidents should be left to highly specialised firearms officers.
A spokesman for the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) said Ms Hernandez was not intending in any way to promote the idea.
“The answer came in response to a call to a radio show,” the spokesman added.
“The official advice from the police is to run, hide and communicate and Alison advocates this. There is no intention whatsoever to promote the use of guns by private individuals as weapons in any way.”
The force issued a statement following the radio show.
Deputy chief constable Paul Netherton said: “Quite obviously a marauding terrorist is the most challenging of circumstances, the police response requires significant professionalism and training as well as firearms capability.
“During these incidents, highly trained police firearms officers and Special Forces will be deployed to protect our communities.
“We would only use the normal military in response to a national security threat level and they would be deployed to free up police resources from their security duties.
“Under no circumstances would we want members of the public to arm themselves with firearms, not least because officers responding would not know who the offenders were, and quite obviously they would not have the time to ask.
“Our message to the public is a simple one: to run, to hide and to tell.
“Having said that, I accept that British policing will require anuplift in resources in response to the unprecedented threats we are currently facing.
“This includes additional operationally firearms capability as well as an investment in our local policing which does so much to identify and prevent people from committing terrorist acts.
“In light of the recent terrorist attacks and the threats that the UK are facing, we have already reviewed our resources and are working with other agencies to ensure that we have the capability to meet these threats.
Postal voting scandal in Plymouth gets even worse
Owl wonders if our EDDC error of insecure postal voting forms will receive attention from the Electoral Commission – which seems to have its hands rather full after this crucial election:
“Thousands of votes were not included in the result for a newly-elected Labour MP, Plymouth City Council has said.
Luke Pollard won Plymouth Sutton and Devonport with 23,808 votes. However, the actual figure including the missed votes cast in his favour was 27,283.
Mr Pollard said the votes from the Efford and Lipson ward were counted in his constituency, but they were not included in the result.
He would still have won comfortably over Conservative Oliver Colvile.
Mr Colvile’s official result on Thursday was 17,806 votes. However, with Efford and Lipson added in he won 20,476 votes.
The Electoral Commission has said it will investigate. [BBC]”
“What is puzzling about this is how a mistake on this scale could happen. A core element of election counts is to check how many ballot papers you have at the count in total and whether that matches the number issued to voters at polling stations and returned through postal votes. Then you count the votes for the candidates and it is a basic check to ensure that the total of those matches that number of ballots cast.
From the council’s response so far, it sounds like a spreadsheet error may be the answer – but even so, it would require a sequence of spreadsheet errors for not only the vote total to be wrong but also for the ballot paper total to also be wrong and so still match. Or perhaps for no such cross-check to have been made. Either way, that’s not a ‘computer’ error by the looks of it; rather a failure to plan a robust way of handling the data which has safeguards against errors.”
http://www.markpack.org.uk/150405/plymouth-sutton-and-devonport-constituency-result/
The Conservative/DUP swamp just got swampier
“Politicians across Britain and Ireland have called for the Democratic Unionist Party to reveal the source of a £435,000 (€500,000) donation it received in the run-up to the UK Brexit referendum last year.
The DUP, which backed the proposal for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, spent heavily during the campaign, including £282,000 (€325,000) on a newspaper advertisement and £32,750 (€37,500) with a data-analysis company linked to Donald Trump. It spent only about £10,000 in Northern Ireland.
The DUP has said that the £435,000 came the Constitutional Research Council, a group whose only publicly declared member is its chairman, Richard Cook, a former Conservative general-election candidate who lives near Glasgow and has business links with Saudi Arabian intelligence services. The council does not publish accounts and has refused to name its funders. Northern Irish election law allows political donations to be kept secret.
Politicians and campaigners from across the spectrum told The Irish Times that the DUP should reveal who funds the council.
The call comes as the DUP is set to support Theresa May’s minority Conservative government.
The Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat said: “Democracy depends on openness. That’s why we have transparency legislation on campaign donations.”
The Scottish National Party said failure by the DUP to reveal the names of the donors would “cast a dark shadow over Theresa May’s government” and its negotiations with the EU. …
The controversial £425,000 donation is widely considered to be the largest sum ever given to a Northern Irish political party. During the 2016 Stormont elections the DUP spent less than £90,000.
The £282,000 advertisement was a four-page wrap-around for the Metro newspaper, which is not available in Northern Ireland. The £32,750 spent on data analysis went to AggregateIQ, to target voters on social media. The company has been linked to Cambridge Analytica, a firm funded by the billionaire Robert Mercer, who heavily backed Brexit and Mr Trump’s successful presidential campaign.
Reports in the UK suggest the Democratic Unionists want Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, and the millionaire Brexit funder Arron Banks involved in the Brexit talks. Mr Banks has denied that he was involved in DUP’s Brexit donation but has said that the DUP asked him for money to support his Leave.EU campaign.
In February this year, during a televised debate ahead of snap Stormont elections, the DUP leader, Arlene Foster, said the donation came from “an organisation in England that wants to see the Union kept” but refused to give any more information.
Later that month the DUP said the money came from the Constitutional Research Council. Richard Cook’s business associates include Prince Nawwaf bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, a former director general of the Saudi Arabian intelligence agency. In 2013 Mr Cook set up a management company focused on the Middle East. His codirector was a Danish man named Peter Haestrup, who was named by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with a notorious 1995 arms drop. Mr Haestrup was never charged with any wrongdoing.
The UK Electoral Commission records donations to Northern Irish parties, but these are not made public because of security concerns dating back to the Troubles. This ban, called the Prescribed Period, was due to last only until October 2010, but that date has been repeatedly extended.
The leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, Naomi Long, called for the secretary of state to end the prescribed period “without further delay” and for the DUP to reveal details of the party’s Brexit funders.
“The situation in NI, where parties can receive huge donations yet not disclose them to the public, ought to have ended many years ago. However, now that the DUP are wielding influence over the UK government, continued secrecy around their finances is completely untenable,” Ms Long said.
The former UK Green Party leader Natalie Bennett said: “Given the apparently key role the DUP are going to play in deciding the future of Britain, we must have clarity about where this money came from and what steps the party took to check its source.”
The DUP did not spend all of the £435,000 Brexit donation. At the end of the campaign £9,000 (€10,300) was transferred into normal party funds.
The DUP declined to comment on this story.”
Did Swire and Heffer sing May’s praises at Swire’s one-man hustings?
Did anyone attend the low-turnout, one-man hustings that Hugo Swire held in Exmouth the night before the General Election? Owl has yet to hear from anyone who did – those contacting EDW having got no further than the car park before thinking better of it and going home for a nice cup of cocoa.
Unable or unwilling to debate other candidates, and unable to be seen interrogating himself, Swire was reduced to being interviewed by Daily Torygraph journalist Simon Heffer.
One can only assume that the evening included many examples from them both of strength and stability and Theresa May being exactly the right woman for the job. And what the Tories would do with their landslide victory.
But wait! Today is another country – look what Heffer has to say now:
Truly, a week (no, just 4 days!) IS a lifetime in politics!
Is EDDC Cabinet guilty of “groupthink”?
The theory of ‘groupthink’…
First formulated by the psychologist Irving Janis, it specifically applies to tightly knit executive teams composed of a dominating leader and ultra-loyal assistants with a drive to maximise in-group solidarity.
Suppose that in a first stage the team accomplished something extremely difficult, as May did in scheming her way to bid for the Conservative leadership. Especially important here was the intra-party arm-twisting of all the other candidates after the Brexit vote, so that she could ascend by coronation instead of having to fight an internal party election.
Janis argued that succeeding in this first stage struggle, against the odds, and with a centralising and controlling leader, then induces in the leadership team a distorted view of their own insights and capabilities.
Buoyed up by high morale, contemptuous of ‘outsiders’, and completely discounting any critical feedback received, the leadership team then goes on to make genuinely monumental second stage mistakes – as Blair did in committing to the Iraq war, and later sending troops to Afghanistan; or as Cameron did in his 2013 commitment to hold a Brexit referendum, and then his mismanagement of the doomy Remain campaign in 2016.”
Monumental second-stage mistakes? Such EDDC and its £10 million relocation plan – that replaces one HQ with an expensive new HQ and two expensive but smaller satellites in Exmouth and Sidmouth perhaps?
Swire: poor winner
For clarity, Owl has NEVER attacked Mr Swire’s family but HAS called into question his employment of his wife as his parliamentary assistant on a salary of £35,000 per year.
The employment of family members is also frowned upon by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, which plans to stop this practice forthwith:
DevonLive reports:
“East Devon constituents have responded after the district’s MP Hugo Swire took to twitter to complain of the ‘vile’ abuse he and his family had received on social media during the campaign. Hugo Swire was re-elected to Parliament as East Devon’s MP on Thursday after securing 29,306 votes – 4,000 more than he received when he was victorious in 2015.
Independent challenger Claire Wright came second with 21,270 votes as she cut his majority from 12,000 to 8,000.
But no sooner had Mr Swire, who has been the MP for the area since 2001, had his victory confirmed, he launched an attack on Ms Wright and her supporters, claiming he had been “lied to and libelled” by her “vile” fans on social media in an interview with the BBC.
He also accused both The East Devon Alliance and East Devon Watch of being ‘vile’
He also took to twitter and after announcing he was deeply honoured to be re-elected as the MP, said he was taking time out from twitter to drain the swamp of vile comments from Claire Wright’s not so charming followers.
Mr Swire told the BBC that his camp “fight it very straight”.
“We don’t answer back and perhaps we made a mistake not doing that on social media,” he said.
“I and my family have been lied to and actually very often libelled in a constant stream of abuse on Twitter and on some websites.
“There’s something called East Devon Watch which is again tied in with the East Devon Alliance – they’re all the same sort of people and frankly it’s time to call them out now. It’s no good them hiding behind their nice little smiles and pretending they are independent. These are not, they are vile, some of these people.”
Claire Wright has said that she and her team where not behind any of the ‘vile’ abuse that he received during the campaign.
But, Paul Arnott, chairman of the East Devon Alliance said he had no idea what Mr Swire, a former foreign minister, was on about, and said he was a ‘graceless winner’.
Mr Arnott said: “The poor man clearly needed a good night’s sleep. We”ve all heard of bad losers but graceless winners are a rarer species. We can”t pick the bones out of his troubled blurt but as Chairman of the East Devon Alliance I can say that he hasn’t the slightest clue what he is bleating about.”
East Devon Watch – represented by an anonymous Owl, runs a blog which claims to ‘shine a light into the darkest corners of East Devon’. It also responded to Mr Swire’s comments.
They posted: “East Devon Watch has never made any secret of supporting (but not being part of or supported by) East Devon Alliance. EDW has never hidden behind a nice little smile – there is nothing to smile about with the politics of East Devon. Indeed, crying would be more appropriate!
“There is no pretending to be independent – EDW is indeed indepdent and proud of it.
“EDW will continue to hold the politics and politicians of East Devon to the light and looks forward to doing so for many, many years.”
As of Sunday morning, 43 people had replied to his tweet. Of them, only two had come out in support of Mr Swire while the other 41 were a mixture of personal abuse, voters appalled at how the area’s MP views his constituents, and comments saying that he does not engage with his constituents.
@UmLittlePlums said: “We are still your constituents and you’d do well to remind yourself of that. The result aside, you are deeply unpopular.”
Kelly Hammond said: “You really need to stop insulting the very people you have been elected to represent. May not have voted for you, but you’re still their MP.”
Linda Bowen said: “Wow… seriously? There’s a reason these CONSTITUENTS didn’t vote for you. Perhaps you should ask yourself why rather than insult them.”
Francis Clark said: “Probably no worse than the bile spewed by the Tory rags. The right wing press lies constantly. Why no opprobrium from you then?”
Joe Hellier-Brown said: “Just wanted to congratulate you for at least having the decency to OPENLY slate the people you represent. Fair play!”
Claire Whiter said: “Don’t worry we’ll be watching you now. Don’t think you can get away with being useless any more.”
He did get some comments in support, with Michael Smith saying: Sorry to hear this. Campaigns should be fought on all fronts but always with respect. Didn’t vote for you but congratulations,” while Liam Chick said: “Well done Hugo. East-Devon is now stable.”
In a panel interview the Exeter University politics expert Professor Jason Reifler said that a robust discourse was part of the British political system.
“Politics is not for the faint-hearted, and if you are going to get into it, particularly in the national system, you have to weather some attacks,” he said.
“It’s never good to go after someone’s family or say something about a candidate but those things do happen. Far more distressing are attacks on the democratic process. People don’t like sore losers, they also don’t like sore winners, this would be a good opportunity to show the stereotypical British stiff upper lip.”
Former Lib Dem Devon County Councillor Des Hannon said: “I think attacks on people’s families are absolutely out whichever way they go, that’s just not acceptable but anything that’s at Hugo, frankly he pretty much incited himself by his attacks on Claire Wright and also as part of an absolutely entrenched establishment in East Devon which has assumed it has a right to rule permanently there with no flexibility and Claire is feeding off that – the more he protests this the better it will be for her.”
Strong and stable
“Since 1997, we have had 4 Prime Ministers and 14 housing ministers and average property prices have soared by 250%.”
Sunday Times
Another swing, another roundabout
Hot on the heels of the news that our Police and Crime Commissioner is considering appointing an old pal as her deputy as reported here:
comes news that her erstwhile Chief Executive Officer Andrew White has decamped to Lincolnshire.
“Lincolnshire Police have appointed current CEO for the Police and Crime Commissioner in Devon and Cornwall Andrew White, as their new Assistant Chief Officer.”
He was appointed by Lincolnshire Chief Constable Bill Skelly – who was formerly – Deputy Chief Constable of – wait for it – Devon and Cornwall!
“Experts unimpressed by East Devon MP Hugo Swire’s claims he was victim of Twitter bullies”
“Politics experts quizzed by DevonLive had little sympathy for East Devon MP Hugo Swire’s complaints that he had been bullied on Twitter, with one accusing him of being a “sore winner”. As reported yesterday, Mr Swire said supporters of Independent rival Claire Wright had “lied to and libelled” him on the social media network.
Ms Wright lost her battle to claim the East Devon seat against the Tory incumbent, but was by far the most successful independent candidate in the country in Thursday’s poll.
In a panel interview the Exeter University politics expert Professor Jason Reifler said that robust discourse was part of the British political system.
“Politics is not for the faint-hearted, and if you are going to get into it, particularly in the national system, you have to weather some attacks,” he said.
“It’s never good to go after someone’s family or say something about a candidate but those things do happen. Far more distressing are attacks on the democratic process. People don’t like sore losers, they also don’t like sore winners, this would be a good opportunity to show the stereotypical British stiff upper lip.”
Former Lib Dem Devon County Councillor Des Hannon said: “I think attacks on people’s families are absolutely out whichever way they go, that’s just not acceptable but anything that’s at Hugo, frankly he pretty much incited himself by his attacks on Claire Wright and also as part of an absolutely entrenched establishment in East Devon which has assumed it has a right to rule permanently there with no flexibility and Claire is feeding off that – the more he protests this the better it will be for her.”
http://www.devonlive.com/east-devon-mp-hugo-swire/story-30382446-detail/story.html
Vile person?
“A Sidmothian satirist is offering East Devon residents the chance to ‘meet your MP’ – in the form a cabbage sporting a blue ribbon.
Alex Ritchie claimed that the vegetable’s ‘spokesman’, Sir Hugo Swire, was unavailable so he was sat with it on Sidmouth’s Esplanade.
The Conservative MP was re-elected for a fifth term with a majority of more than 8,000 votes.”
http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/sidmouth-satirist-s-fresh-take-on-election-result-1-5055711
Just to clarify: Owl has never known, known of or met or corresponded with Mr Richie.
Will Mr Swire be commentating on this legitimate protest?
“Ordinary people” – millionaires!
“This morning’s BBC Breakfast show contained an absolutely astounding series of interviews about the the Tories’ hated Dementia Tax policy and the state of the NHS.
What the BBC failed to mention during the course of both sections is that their supposedly ‘impartial’ voice of concern for the NHS (a man who the BBC described as ‘loving the NHS’ was actually an ex-Tory Councillor, millionaire property mogul who had worked for a PRIVATE healthcare company for 33 years.
The ex-Tory Councillor was interviewed both as a seemingly ordinary member of the public at 07:25, saying the council had been “phenomenal” when his wife was diagnosed with dementia and needed help, and just an hour later he returned in a pre-recorded segment debating the future of the NHS with a junior Dr who was distraught at the destruction caused the Tory cuts.
The first discussion was about Theresa May’s disgusting dementia tax. The interview starts with another member of the public expressing deep concerns about the cap on social care, saying she is worried that her children will be left with nothing if her or her husband have to go into care.
The conversation then moves on to a man who is referred to just as “Gordon”, and he speaks about his experience of funding care for his wife who he says was diagnosed with dementia in 2009.
The conversation then moves on to a man who is referred to just as “Gordon”, and he speaks about his experience of funding care for his wife who he says was diagnosed with dementia in 2009.
Gordon Maclellan BBCHe says that he found the local council to be “phenomenal” in offering him and his wife support to help fund her care. He goes on to say that he would certainly benefit from the Tories proposals to raise the cap on care costs from £23,000 to £100,000.
Just over an hour later on the same programme, we encounter another interview with the same man, or to give him his full title Dr Gordon Maclellan, who introduces himself as being recently retired.
This time he’s here to talk about the NHS crisis and discuss the best way to fix it with a 33-year-old junior doctor.
Breakfast describes Maclellan as being somebody who “loves the NHS”, and the purpose of the segment is to help people decide which party is best suited to cure the NHS crisis.
Throughout the interview, Gordon consistently uses classic Tory talking points and the usual ridiculous defenses of their carving up of the NHS, at one point he defends the Tories cuts by saying:
“people died in my day too”
So, who is this Gordon Maclellan? And why does he always seem to keen to defend the Tories? …
… Dr Gordon MacLellan worked as a Private Orthopaedic consultant for the Nuffield Health Brentwood Hospital for 33 years.”
“Developer submits appeal to £7.5m Knowle plan refusals”
“PegasusLife submitted its challenge to East Devon District Council’s (EDDC) ruling to the Planning Inspectorate on Wednesday before today’s deadline.
Councillors defied officer advice to refuse the scheme in December – arguing it would overdevelop Knowle and represent a departure from the site’s 50-home allocation in the Local Plan. They also had concerns about the lack of ‘affordable’ housing provision.
An EDDC spokeswoman confirmed that PegasusLife has lodged an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate, but said it can take weeks for the process to begin.
The developer has agreed to pay EDDC £7.505million for the site of its current HQ if the application is approved. The proceeds would go towards the authority’s £10million relocation to Exmouth and Honiton, but councillors have since voted to press ahead with the project before a buyer is guaranteed.
This means construction work, funded by a loan, will begin at Heathpark in Honiton before Knowle is sold. Work on Exmouth Town Hall is already under way.”
http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/developer-submits-appeal-to-7-5m-knowle-plan-refusals-1-5055742
Swire calls East Devon Watch, Claire Wright and East Devon Alliance supporters “a vile swamp”
… here’s what he said:
and here are a few of the comments he refers to:
His comment on East Devon Watch:
“There is something called East Devon Watch which is again tied in with East Devon Alliance – they’re all the same sort of people and frankly it’s time to call them out now. It’s no good them hiding behind their nice little smiles and pretending they are independent. These are not, they are vile some of these people”.
1. East Devon Watch has never made any secret of supporting (but not being part of or supported by) East Devon Alliance.
2. EDW has never hidden behind a nice little smile – there is nothing to smile about with the politics of East Devon. Indeed, crying would be more appropriate!
3. There is no pretending to be independent – EDW is indeed independent and proud of it.
4. Vileness …. well, Owl leaves readers to make up their own minds.
EDW will continue to hold the politics and politicians of East Devon to the light and looks forward to doing so for many, many years.
Ian Hall resigns from Axminster Town Council
As revealed by View from Axminster but remains at District and County:
Priorities, dear boy, priorities!
East Devon Watch 