One has to ask if this is a proper use of the parliamentary election process and indeed whether it was an appropriate use of his district council bid (which was successful as he now represents Ottery St Mary):
Category Archives: General Election
Claire Wright 4 – Hugo Swire 0 (or possibly minus 4)
Today’s View from … letters page:
Quote from Tory candidate for seat of murdered MP Jo Cox
“A Conservative candidate for the seat formerly held by the murdered MP Jo Cox has apologised and blamed fatigue for telling a hustings: “We’ve not yet shot anybody so that’s wonderful.”
Ann Myatt made the comments while discussing the coming together of various communities in Batley and Spen, in West Yorkshire.
“This sort of evening is absolutely first-rate because we have here people of all faiths, we have here people from different parts of the community and we’ve not yet shot anybody so that’s wonderful,” she told the meeting.”
Claire Wright one of the 25 key tactical voting candidates along with MPs Caroline Lucas, Nick Clegg and Chuka Ummuna
Press release
“Claire Wright, independent parliamentary candidate in East Devon is today named alongside national political figures as one of 25 key candidate “champions” in a campaign for Britain’s biggest ever tactical vote to stop a Conservative led hard Brexit.
The endorsement comes from the Best for Britain campaign set up by Gina Miller whose fight for Parliament’s right to trigger Article 50 went all the way to the Supreme Court.
Announcing the deal the Best for Britain team said Ms Wright had mounted a strong challenge against Conservative Hugo Swire in East Devon. She is the candidate most likely to put principle first and speak up for what is best for Britain in the next Parliament.
Gina Miller, Board Member, Best for Britain said:
“Theresa May has said this election is about her mandate for negotiation with Europe. But this means accepting the Conservative manifesto’s Deal or No Deal rhetoric. Britain deserves considered debate, not posturing.
“By supporting independent minded candidates, we want to help to deliver a Parliament that scrutinises and holds the Government to account to ensure that Britain get the best deal from Europe. Tactical voting will make a real difference in this election. That’s why we are backing strong and talented candidates that agree with our position that MPs must have the right to a full and free vote in Parliament on the terms of the deal, with all options on the table.”
Other figures named include Labour’s Chuka Ummuna, Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg and Green Caroline Lucas. Best for Britain is a non partisan organisation campaigning to ensure the final negotiation with the EU ends with the best deal for Britain by endorsing MPs that will fight extreme Brexit.
Ms Wright has expressed concern about the Brexit process and has a manifesto commitment to fighting for a vote in parliament on any final deal. Responding to the announcement Ms Wright said:
“I am delighted to receive this endorsement which raises my campaign to a whole new level. It is exciting and humbling to be named alongside experienced national politicians. I firmly believe in the democratic right for MPs to be able to properly debate and meaningfully vote on any Brexit deal.
“Again and again I have heard from people who are so fed up with the divisive nature of our politics. I am proud to be an independent and to fight for parliament to have a say on any Brexit deal.”
Claire will not receive any financial support from the Best for Britain campaign. Her funding has come from about 200 donations by local people through an internet funding site, which is transparent and accountable. It has raised ten thousand pounds in just under three weeks.
The Best for Britain endorsement is the latest high point in Claire’s campaign:
On Sunday her crowdfunding website reached £10 000, raised in less than three weeks, last week she was endorsed by East Devon based Booker prize winning novelist Hilary Mantel, the author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. Ms Mantel backed Claire saying:
“If you want a different kind of politics, do something different to get it. Don’t waste your vote, give it to Claire Wright: trust a candidate with a clear vision for our unique part of England.”
Claire has also been endorsed by tactical voting website Tactical2017 as the best East Devon candidate to defeat the Conservatives. She is currently the only Independent candidate in the country with this endorsement.
She has also been named by bookies William Hill as the official opposition in East Devon with odds of 9/2 and the only credible alternative to the Conservatives.
Events Diary
Tuesday 30th May 7.30pm, Exmouth Hustings, Holy Trinity Church, 6A Bicton Place, Exmouth, EX8 2SU
MPs and their tenuous links to their constituencies
Well, we know that Hugo Swire lives in Mid Devon, now here’s another who prefers not to live in his constituency:
Source: Facebook Unseat Marcus Fysh
At least Hampshire is in England – our MP spends lots of time travelling the world as Chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council:
“A January 2016 Middle East Monitor investigation revealed that nearly all of the CMEC’s financial backers have strong business interests in Saudi Arabia and its smaller Gulf allies, ranging from defence to manufacturing to energy resources”
Time to pack him off on his camel?
(Claire Wright – Independent – was born, raised, educated and has family in East Devon and continues to live here; the Lib Dem candidate is a Teignmouth Councillor; the Labour Party’s candidate may or may not live in East Devon (says so but candidate documents say Central Devon).
Who do you believe on the environment – Claire Wright or Hugo Swire
Claire Wright said that the environment post-Brexit wouldn’t be in safe hands if Conservatives win and did something about it for Devon:
Hugo Swire said she was scare-mongering and it would be fine:
https://www.hugoswire.org.uk/news/blog-birds-and-bees-and-brexit
The Guardian now says:
“The UK is lobbying Europe to water down a key energy-saving target despite the fact it will not take effect until after Brexit, according to leaked documents that sparked warnings that energy bills could rise and jobs put at risk.
On the day Theresa May triggered article 50, government officials asked the European commission to weaken or drop elements of its flagship energy efficiency law.
Green campaigners warned that the efforts to undermine the energy efficiency directive were a sign the Conservatives would dilute or abolish European energy and climate policies after the UK leaves the EU.
In the past, the UK has publicly welcomed the targets, which end in 2020, as an important driver for reducing consumer bills and reliance on energy imports.
The European commission wants a binding target of improving energy efficiency 30% by 2030, compared with business-as-usual.
But documents obtained by Greenpeace, dated 29 March, show the UK urging the commission to lower the goal to 27% and make it non-binding on the EU’s 28 members. A more recent version, dated 22 May and seen by the Guardian, shows the UK has maintained its stance. …
International observers choose to oversee fairness of East Devon General Election
Returning Officer Mark Williams, EDDC CEO must be delighted.
“An international mission to ensure elections are fair has chosen East Devon among eight UK constituencies to be monitored on June 8.
The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) has announced that the constituency will be one of its target seats for the general election.
Tory Sir Hugo Swire is bidding to retain the seat – one of the safest in the county – and see off a challenge from popular local independent candidate Claire Wright.
Ms Wright, who finished second in 2015, has been selected by a tactical voting website as the best option for non Tories to topple the long-serving former cabinet minister, the only independent to receive such an endorsement.
An Election Assessment Mission (EAM) will be conducted in the area from June 4 to 9 by Phillip Paulwell, an MP from Jamaica who will lead a team of Observers from the Commonwealth.
The Mission, which is being arranged by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK Branch (CPA UK) as it did in the 2015 and 2010 general elections, will also observe elections in seven other UK constituencies to oversee:
polling
counting
post-election complaints or appeals
The team will compromise of three parliamentarians and one election official from Tonga who will monitor Election Day procedures at polling stations, meet with candidates, returning officers, local officials, community groups and other relevant stakeholders in order to assess the conduct of the election.
Head of Mission Sebastian Pillay an MP from the Seychelles, said: “Exercising the right to vote is a fundamental part of democracy.
“CPA UK’s Election Assessment Mission will seek to ensure the UK election process is legitimate and representative of the electorate.
“On behalf of the team, we look forward to engaging with the democratic process in the UK.”
Chief Executive of CPA UK, Andrew Tuggey added: “This third UK Election Assessment Mission is a vital element of CPA UK’s commitment to enhance openness and transparency in parliamentary democracy across the Commonwealth. Assessing elections upholds the core values of the Commonwealth.
The following will observe events in East Devon:
Phillip Paulwell CD MP (lead observer) – Jamaica
-Hon. Yvette D’ath MP – Australia
-Hon. Ichungw’ah Antony Kimani MP – Kenya
-Rt Hon. Lord Dalgety QC – Tonga”
Tory defence minister slams Corbyn for things said by Boris Johnson!
And this twit is our Defence Secretary? Build your bunkers!
“Defence Secretary Michael Fallon was left red-faced on live television when he slammed Boris Johnson’s statement on terrorism thinking that the quote was made by Jeremy Corbyn.
The Tory Cabinet member began attacking the Labour leader on Channel 4 News last night in response to Mr Corbyn saying we have to admit that the ‘war on terror is not working’.
Channel 4 presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked Mr Fallon to respond to another quote: ‘Isn’t it possible that things like the Iraq war did not create the problem of murderous Islamic fundamentalists, though the war has unquestionably sharpened the resentments felt by such people in this country and given them a new pretext?
Thinking the quote had been made as part of the Labour leader’s speech, Mr Fallon took the opportunity to dismiss and condemn the words. He said: ‘Well they are not entitled to excuses.’ But the words were actually said by Boris Johnson in response to the 7/7 bombings in London in 2005.
Mr Guru-Murthy said: ‘What I just put to you was not Jeremy Corbyn, it was Boris Johnson.’
The presenter then read out more quotes from Boris Johnson that put a blushing Mr Fallon in even more of a pickle. Mr Guru-Murthy said: ‘He goes on to say, “The Iraq war did not introduce the poison into our bloodstream but, yes, the war did help to potentiate that poison”. “It is difficult to deny that they have a point, the ‘told-you-so’ brigade”.’
The Defence Secretary then got his words jumbled as he tried to explain his way out of the blunder. He said: ‘Well I don’t agree with that.’
Mr Guru-Murthy was quick to ensure Mr Fallon continued to enlarge the hole he had dug for himself.
The presenter said: ‘So Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, is wrong?’
When Mr Fallon refused to agree, on the premise that he did not have the direct quote in front of him, Mr Guru-Murthy watched the politician squirm as he continued to press him.
The presenter said he didn’t understand how the politician could refrain from commenting on the words when he had just heard them read out.
Speaking in London yesterday Mr Corbyn, who opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as air strikes against terrorist targets in Syria, said Labour would ‘change what we do abroad’ if it won power.
He stressed that the link between foreign policy and terrorism ‘in no way reduces the guilt of those who attack our children’ and could not ‘remotely excuse, or even adequately explain, outrages like this week’s massacre’.
Terrorist Salman Abedi killed 22 people and injured 119 when he blew himself up at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester Arena on Monday evening.”
Claire Wright – hustings and canvassing news
“There will be a
Hustings tomorrow (Friday 26 May) at
Cranbrook Education Campus. It starts at 7.30pm.
I hope to see you there!
Another hustings in Exmouth takes place on Tuesday 30 May, at the Holy Trinity Church, also at 7.30pm.
MOST of the candidates will be there…. [Hugo Swire has refused to attend candidate hustings].
Final two Saturdays of the general election:
Visiting a town centre where you are!
I would love to meet as many of you as possible!
Saturday 27 May
10am – Ottery St Mary – outside Boots
11.30am – Cranbrook outside Younghayes Centre
2pm – Exmouth Magnolia Centre – outside Boots
3:30pm – Budleigh Salterton (town end of the seafront)
Saturday 3 June
10am – Topsham, outside Methodist Church
Midday – Sidmouth in market square
2.30pm – Exmouth Magnolia Centre, outside Boots
4pm – Budleigh Salterton – town end of the seafront”
Swire’s plan for health and education cuts?
“Amber Rudd denies cuts to police were factor in Manchester atrocity”
“The home secretary, Amber Rudd, has denied that cuts in police forces contributed to Monday’s terror atrocity in Manchester.
Rudd was confronted on BBC1’s Question Time on Thursday night by a member of the studio audience who said Theresa May had been warned by the Police Federation that cuts in frontline officers would undermine their ability to gather low-level intelligence about possible threats. Rudd insisted that the majority of such intelligence came from community leaders operating within the Prevent counter-terrorism programme, rather than from police officers on the street.
The audience member said: “We are 20,000 police officers down and we get atrocities like this. Does the government not expect this?” Rudd responded: “I don’t accept that. I have asked the head of counter-terrorism whether this is about resources. It is not.
“There may a conversation to have about policing, we may have that at some stage. But now is not that conversation. We must not imply that this terrorist activity may not have taken place if there had been more policing.”
Beneath Abbott’s police funding gaffes, Labour’s numbers make sense
The home secretary added: “Good counter-terrorism is when you have close relationships between the policing and intelligence services. That is what we have. That is why the UK has a strong counter-terrorism network. It’s also about making sure we get in early on radicalisation. But it’s not about those pure numbers on the street.”
The audience member replied: “I think it is about police numbers, because it is low-level intelligence that gives you the information.” …”
Vote for Wright or Swire? This might help
Photoshop – so useful for Swire!
The Swire photo on Twitter:
Now, Owl may be wrong, but isn’t this cropped from this – that chair and that view sure look similar:
Original photo source: Sidmouth Herald
http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/east-devon-mp-signs-fairer-funding-letter-to-pm-1-4989277
Exeter City Council CEO and former EDDC senior officer sends double entendre tweet, retweeted by Hugo Swire
Billionaires and developers rush to fill Tory election coffers
“The Conservatives received a huge boost in donations in the three months before Theresa May called a surprise general election, according to figures published by the Electoral Commission.
The party received £5.46m from January to March this year, more than twice the £2.65m given to Labour.
By the time the prime minister called the election on 18 April, the Tories had received £1.85m more in donations during the first quarter of the year than it had in the last three months of 2016.
The biggest individual donation came from the Conservative party treasurer, Michael Davis, who gave the party £317,000. The South African-born former mining executive is overseeing the party’s fundraising efforts, which have targeted wealthy businesspeople and city figures.
Last week, it emerged that the Conservatives had raised £1.5m more than Labour in the first week of the general election campaign, receiving more than £4.1m while Labour raised just over £2.7m.
The Conservatives are expected to get close to the £19m maximum they are permitted to spend during an election campaign. Labour is expecting to spend less than the Tories, amid a drive for donations from its 500,000 members. …
Other major donations to the Conservatives include £55,000 from the Rigby Group, which owns exclusive hotels including Bovey Castle in Devon, where the Olympic diver Tom Daley recently celebrated his wedding.
A company called Anglesource, run by the billionaire Arora brothers, also gave £50,000.
A property firm owned by a Palestinian-born businessman has given £65,000 to the Conservatives this year. CC Property UK is owned by Said Khoury, a billionaire who also owns CCC, the largest construction firm in the Middle East.
Other major donations came from Leopold Noe, the property developer, who gave the Conservatives £130,000. The hedge-fund manager John Armitage gave £125,000.
JS Bloor (Services), linked to the property tycoon John Bloor, gave £120,000. JS Bloor and Armitage also made donations in the first week of the election campaign, which are subject to different reporting rules.
According to the Electoral Commission, the Tory party also has a credit facility of £5,554,000, while Labour has access to borrowing £113,000.”
Labour received £1.96m from trade unions, including £657,702 from Unite. Public funds are also listed for each party, which predominantly boost the totals for opposition parties. …”
Tory donors and diners from oil companies get well treated in Conservative manifesto?
“Oil executives whose industry is promised further government support if the Conservatives are returned to power have given more than £390,000 to the party since Theresa May became prime minister.
They include Ian Taylor, the chief executive of Vitol, whose firm was fined for making payments to an Iraqi state-owned firm, and Ayman Asfari, the chief executive of Petrofac, who was recently interviewed by the Serious Fraud Office over suspected corruption.
Three of the donors have attended dinners with May or senior ministers since she took office.
The payments will raise eyebrows because the 2017 manifesto includes a specific commitment to build upon previous “unprecedented” government support for the oil and gas industry. …”
Progressive alliance – an idea whose time has come
“Caroline Lucas, Green Party
In an increasingly complex world, no one party has a monopoly on wisdom. People at the grassroots understand this – now the parties need to catch up
As the polls narrow, the Tories attack the idea of a progressive alliance and the possibility of coalition government because they know these could deny them their landslide. In the long term they fear a progressive realignment breaking their stranglehold on office and power. They are right to be scared because while on the surface all for them seems strong and stable, just below a new politics is bubbling up.
If Antonio Gramsci’s haunting phrase “the old is dying and the new cannot be born” was ever applicable to a UK general election, then it is this one. The old election is taking place in party headquarters, at the daily press briefings and meet-the-people events with no real people. But what is most old-school about this election is the main parties’ tribalism: “Only Labour can defend the NHS”; “Only the Tories can provide strong and stable blah”. It’s all about them: they believe they have a monopoly on the wisdom, superiority and singular ability to manage a world that is becoming more complex by the day. They are out of their depth. We know it and inwardly they do too.
The new election campaign is happening from the bottom up in local parties and communities. When Labour insisted on standing a candidate in the Richmond Park byelection last November, after the Greens stood aside to give the Liberal Democrats a freer run at Zac Goldsmith, thus establishing the working principle of the Progressive Alliance, Labour polled fewer votes than they had members. It is always the people who get it first.
Because what is being exposed during this campaign are the limits of deeply tribal parties in an increasingly non-tribal society. Our democracy is a tired adversarial system designed for two parties when we live in a multi-party moment. Young people simply don’t understand why you can’t join more than one party – and often do. The Women’s Equality Party has shown a different way of doing things is possible by saying this is fine.
Critics complain that “progressive” is a woolly term, so let me define it: being a progressive means believing the best in people, not the worst; that a good society is one that knows it is not yet good enough. It means being impatient for greater equality, democracy and sustainability.
When a progressive alliance government is formed it will introduce proportional voting so we never have to fight against the electoral system again. So this is more than just a deal to defeat the Tories in June. The progressive alliance is based on the principle that we make better decisions by working together. Unlike the arrogant view that any one party knows it all and can do it all, we believe there is wisdom to be found in the crowd. The Greens think most about the environment, Labour about work and the Liberals about liberty. This can be a winning political hand. Not least because it starts to help us deal with the complexity of the world we face. …”
Claire Wright – damaged and stolen poster boards “unfair and disappointing”
Press release:
“In the past week Claire Wright has received growing reports of her A1 poster boards going missing or being damaged across the East Devon constituency.
More than 300 boards are now in place across towns and villages in the area, however, in the past week, she has received reports of boards going missing or being damaged, including at: Sidmouth, West Hill, Ottery St Mary, Budleigh Salterton and Woodbury Salterton.
She said: “We don’t know who is damaging the boards and it is really disappointing because it is a practice I would always condemn.
“With my 600 strong army of supporters I am fighting really hard to win this election. But I will always fight fairly and honestly.
“It is particularly disappointing because my campaign is funded exclusively by local residents who have been amazingly generous, donating an incredible £9000 over two weeks. Each board costs over £5, so it is local people’s money that is being needlessly wasted and that is deeply regrettable.”
I hope that whoever appears to be targeting my boards will now stop.”
Strong …ly weak and stable..y wobbly on home care charges!
Summary: May is panicking … she will say ANYTHING … as long as it REALLY means NOTHING!
What Owl thinks: the bigger your house, the more money you will be able to leave to your relatives. Yeah, that sounds more like a Tory policy!
“Theresa May has refused to say how high the Conservatives’ new cap on social care costs would be, after announcing an unprecedented U-turn on her manifesto plan to remove the limit.
The Prime Minister became increasingly flustered as she faced a barrage of questions from journalists, having seemingly watered down a key element of the Tory manifesto.
Asked by Channel 4 News’ Michael Crick where she would set the limit, Ms May said: “We have not changed the principles of the policy we set out in our manifesto. Those policies remain exactly the same.”
May waters down ‘dementia tax’ in U-turn after poll lead slashed
The Conservative manifesto’s section on social care makes no mention of a cap. Previously the plan had been to introduce an upper limit of £72,000 on the lifetime cost of a person’s care by 2020.
It said a green paper would be drafted to “address system-wide issues to improve the quality of care”.
But Ms May told journalists at the launch of the Welsh Conservatives’ manifesto: “The plans that we set out were very clear in the manifesto, you can look in the manifesto … We said we would issue a green paper and of course within that green paper we’ll be consulting on the details of the proposals.
“Nobody is going to have to pay for their care, nobody is going to have to pay for their care … while they are alive. Nobody is going to have to lose their family home.
“We have not changed the principles we set out in the manifesto.”
She added: “We will have an upper limit, absolute limit, on the amount people will pay for care.”
It came after a pair of polls showed Labour narrowing the gap on the Conservatives to just nine points, following the launch of Ms May’s manifesto.
The Tories’ lead has halved compared to a week ago, according to Survation, with Theresa May’s party on 43 and Labour on 34.
The poll of 1,034 adults was taken over 19 and 20 May and showed people were more likely to say Labour had the best policies for older people and the NHS.
A YouGov poll had Labour on 35 per cent, their highest of the campaign so far, with the Tories on 44 per cent.”
“Claire Wright stands up for pensioners”
“Claire Wright, the independent County Councillor fighting to win the Devon East constituency, is opposing what she deems a triple-pronged attack on pensioners, revealed in the Conservative manifesto this week.
She said: “The Conservative manifesto contains some appalling attacks on the very people who can bear it the least.
“In recent years we have seen younger people, those on benefits and disabled people, lose vital financial support and it seems that the Conservatives are now targeting older people.
“The winter fuel allowance will be so restricted that an estimated 10 MILLION people out of 12 million will lose out. That’s almost everyone.
This will create terrible hardship for older people who are already struggling to make ends meet in addition to heating their homes.
The pension triple lock is set to be lifted, which could see the same people who are struggling to make ends meet suffer hardship as they see their state pension lose value year after year.
“Meanwhile insurance companies circle like sharks, trying to cash in by providing schemes with high premiums. What kind of caring Conservatism is that? They’re taking apart the welfare state and selling it off piece by piece.”
“I’ve received messages from pensioners who are concerned, upset and angry. These are people who’ve worked hard for 40 years or more, paid their taxes and National Insurance like good citizens do, and simply want to pass on their home to their children or their grandchildren.
“And the Conservatives are aiming to take it away: Incredible! Many of them are core conservative voters. They’re telling me that they will never vote Tory again and that they’re happy to find an Independent they can back instead. One couple called it ‘an insult to our generation’.”
“It is deeply unfair, especially when the government is prioritising spending billions on projects that are nothing to do with improving lives of people living here, such as HS2, a third runway at Heathrow, building brand new roads, free schools and new grammar schools, to give just a few examples.
East Devon is well known as a beautiful place to retire to. The Guardian named it number five in the country in a 2012 article. The 2011 census showed that 28% of our local population is aged 65 and over, and that three quarters of people here are owner-occupiers. Both of those statistics are significantly higher than the national average.
So East Devon will be particularly hard hit by this misguided policy. Our local pensioners, who’ve paid into the system for decades, are being deserted by the government.
Meanwhile Hugo Swire, the Conservative candidate, is tweeting about Brexit and refusing to come to hustings.
“Theresa May talked about ‘Mainstream Britain’: that’s precisely what she’s attacking right here in East Devon!”
The Conservatives plans have been questioned by politicians and others across the spectrum.
Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative MP for Totnes raised concerns. The National Pensioners Convention is worried, and the term ‘dementia tax‘ seems to have caught on.
Even the Bow Group, the oldest Conservative think tank in the country, has described the proposal as “the biggest stealth tax in history”.
Claire continued: “We need to pick up the Dilnot Commission’s proposal from 2011, for a cap on what an individual would have to pay on care in their lifetime. The Commission was appointed by the coalition government, and proposed a cap of £35,000.
“Implementing this would ensure security for our pensioners: thousands of people in East Devon who deserve better.”
“If I’m elected to parliament on June 8th (and that’s looking increasingly likely), this is precisely the kind of assault I will stand up against.
I will work with MPs in other parties, just as I’ve been working with councillors from other parties for the last six years. I will do my best to protect ordinary people here in this beautiful constituency from the ravages of the Conservatives.
Unlike other MPs who have to follow the whip and worry more about their party leaders than the people who put them there, my focus will always be the welfare of the people of East Devon.”
Source: press release
East Devon Watch 