Anyone who’s been to the new town of Cranbrook lately, will be interested in this link: http://futuresforumvgs.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/where-we-live-now-new-town-home-town.html
Was it Churchill who once said, we shape our buildings and our buildings shape us…
Probably for the same reasons that Swire should be afraid of Claire Wright!
http://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-guardian/20150425/281487864894772/TextView
Good to see a member of the judiciary recognises this problem, even if political parties and the police don’t:
“Last year Mawrey repeated his warning that postal voting enabled electoral cheating on an “industrial scale”. …
…”Challenges should be governed by simpler, modern and less formal rules of procedure allowing judges to achieve justice in the case while having regard to the balance between access and certainty,” it proposes. …
” … In his 200-page judgment on Rahman, Mawrey pointed out that although the election court is a civil hearing, “the criminal standard of proof, namely proof beyond reasonable doubt” is applied. Candidates, unless “a mitigating factor is established”, are deemed responsible for the acts and omissions of their agents. …
“Dr Toby James, senior lecturer in politics at the University of East Anglia and author of Elite Statecraft and Election Administration, said the long delay between last May’s mayoral vote in the east London borough and the election court’s ruling this week highlighted the need for a more speedy resolution process in electoral disputes.
“Imagine what would happen after the general election in two weeks’ time when you have disputes arising from a couple of constituencies and very close party results,” he told the Guardian. “It’s a Victorian procedure. Election justice should be quicker and then we would see if there’s more signs of fraud.”
Remember this recent article in the Express &Echo?
‘Disabled tenant fears she may be evicted from home.’
A DISABLED East Devon District Council tenant fears that she and her elderly husband could face “eviction” from their home under the authority’s plans to charge its sheltered accommodation residents for its services.
Because Devon County Council has pulled half-a-million pounds of funding, East Devon’s sheltered housing tenants were informed in the autumn that they will be eligible to pay for the Home Safeguard alarm service and home visits made by Mobile Support Officers – which comes to about £10 a week.
The council has stressed that the charge will be phased in over the next three years and tenants on benefits will receive discounts and a means-tested hardship fund will be available.
The council said it would do “everything it possibly can” to assist residents to meet the new service charge, but that non-payment would be pursued through the courts.
Because the alarm service and support scheme are integral to the sheltered housing, a council spokesperson said residents who do not want both elements will be supported in finding alternative options, including accommodation.
But 71-year-old Kathy Moyle, a tenant in East Budleigh, says she is fearful about the impact of the new charge, but also that the prospect of having to move out if she does not want to pay for both the alarm and support visit elements, is akin to “eviction”.
“We’re being asked to pay for both the alarm and the warden support, and if we don’t want to pay we’ll be classified as not needing the support and could be evicted,” said Kathy. “They’re refusing us the right to say no.
“It will be a case that we choose between heating and food or this – £10 a week is a lot of money. This is no more than an Old Age Pensioner bedroom tax.”
Now more details on the same topic have emerged, from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by a member of East Devon Alliance: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/increased_charges_to_sheltered_a
Seems EDA is beavering away on all sorts of election matters right now. We especially recommend the video introductions on the candidates’ pages. http://www.eastdevonalliance.org.uk ….or try them on Youtube . Type eastdevonalliance, then candidate’s name.
“There’s a real democratic value in having a local newspaper,” said Martin Moore of the Media Standards Trust. “It’s not just that it allows the community to know what’s going on. It’s also that the presence of a journalist who turns up to council meetings makes local politicians more accountable and keeps tabs on their behaviour.
“As these papers close – or as they’re hollowed out, closing local offices and running news gathering from a hub in a city miles from people’s lives – we’re gradually creating a serious democratic deficit. The number of professional journalists reporting on local news has plummeted in the last decade. There are now areas of the UK where there is virtually no professional news reporting at all.”
Just as well we have Owls and Zorros!
Real Zorro obviously has very high standards. As a public service he has been investigating the quality and availability of information that the two front- runners in East Devon’s elections are providing us with, including what is apparently now called a “360 degree multi-media presence” which Real Zorro knows all about!
He finds Claire Wright’s presence (website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and probably lots of other things) up-to-date, easy to access and informative.
But, oh, he is SO disappointed both with Hugo Swire and East Devon Conservatives, where information is sadly lacking, web pages are SO old and so out-of-date it is embarrassing (or should be) and the lack of “news” and “events” is particularly worrying.
Seems like they don’t have many people who are able to work this interweb malarky and they don’t have much of a social life either ….!
Hugo Swire says on his Twitter feed that people who rip down election posters are sad – indeed they are. He also thinks they fear democracy, which is also true. We should all have a fair crack of the whip (unless we are Independent candidates who don’t like Whips very much!).
But we must also add that ANYONE who puts them up on a highway will have them taken down by Devon County Council – and that’s democracy at work too!
The Independent – JCB and its billionaire owners donated more than £1 million to the Conservative party in the financial year 2014-15, Electoral Commission records show. The company was subsequently featured prominently in Government-sponsored and promoted advertising. The Independent states
…”JCB’s headquarters in Staffordshire has been used by the Government as the location for several prominent speeches, announcements and PR visits.
Downing Street chose it as the location for David Cameron’s long-awaited speech on immigration last November, which generated a large amount of media exposure for the construction and equipment firm.
George Osborne visited the company immediately after delivering his 2013 Autumn Statement, again attracting media coverage for JCB.
Transparency data revealed that the firm smoothed the trip for the Chancellor by providing a helicopter, meaning he did not waste too much time travelling up north for the PR stunt.
Other UKEF publications that feature JCB include the promotional brochure ‘How UK Export Finance is Helping UK Business: Making Exports Happen’ and another document titled ‘Competitive export finance for growth’.
JCB and the Bamford family have donated nearly £6 million to the Conservative party.
Lord Bamford, chairman of JCB and his brother Mark are long-term supporters of the Tories and together with Lord Bamford’s son George, the three of them have personally donated more than £2 million to the Conservative party since the Electoral Commission obliged parties to disclose donations over £7,500 in 2001.
Donations from three companies owned by the family – JC Bamford Excavators Ltd, JCB Research and JCB Sales Ltd – total £4 million.
Labour said government ministers had “serious questions to answer”. Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Ashworth said: “This smacks of cronyism. It seems taxpayers’ money is being spent promoting a major Tory donor.
“The Tories are ramping up advertising spending in advance of the election, looking after their mates and their electoral interests in the process. People expect better and will not accept public funds being used in this way.”
A Conservative party spokesman said: “We are proud to be backed by a great British success story, a British company that employs thousands of people here in the UK and operates around the globe.
“Unlike Labour, donations to the Conservative party do not buy our policies, our leader of our candidates.“
A BBC reporter visited the richest, poorest, oldest and youngest constituencies in England to find out what people thought of the General election and voting. Results were fairly predictable – confusion about who to vote for in Eastbourne (oldest), a predisposition for Labour in Nottingham (poorest), staunchly Conservative (richest), apathy and confusion in Blackburn (youngest) but he ended his piece by saying:
“Apart from a Conservative billboard, as we pulled out of Eastbourne, I didn’t see a single election poster on the entire 634-mile trip. No boards in gardens, no party stickers in windows. For large parts of the country it barely feels like there is an election happening at all.”
It just shows how different East Devon is from the rest of the country! But we knew that anyway! And we know why: people such as Claire Wright and the East Devon Alliance are aware that there is a need for REAL change in the district and are prepared to do something about it.
Letter published by Western Morning News:
“So Mr Swire, in defiance of the Electoral Reform Society, regards Devon East as a “safe” Conservative seat? But how would he know when, until recently, he he has little contact with his constituency?
Have his advisers not warned him of the huge popular support for homegrown Independent candidate Claire Wright who is now the only parliamentary candidate who could unseat him? Has he not been told that she has actually listened to the concerns of local people? Is he not aware of her impressive record of public service to her community in combating inappropriate development of East Devon’s precious green spaces, in campaigning for greater local democracy, and in fighting to keep hospital units and other key public services, all of which have been under sustained attack from Mr Swire’s government’s cut-backs?
And does Mr Swire think that by erecting large expensive blue billboards in fields (often those owned by those who have been exploiting our green and pleasant land) that he can persuade the public to vote again for a party whose planning set-up has given the green light to such developments?
It is often unguarded comments that show the true nature of a person. Mr Swire’s arrogant joke when acting as auctioneer at the exclusive Mayfair fundraising party in February reveals his attitude to those less fortunate than himself – he said that anyone on benefits could afford to bid £55,000 to support the Conservative Party.”
Michael Temple (Sidmouth address and contact number)
Great photo of Hugo Swire at the Clyst Vale Community College hustings on the Facebook Page of Claire Wright Independent Parliamentary Candidate page – his body language says it all!
It can’t have helped that this was one of the local places where Claire Wright received her education. Maybe she would have been intimidated if she had been at Eton (Hugo’s old school) though we doubt it!
Ministers are usually wheeled out only in marginal constutuencies this late in an election period. So why was the Transport Minister in East Devon (admittedly only a “flying” visit to the airport to sing its praises) and why did Hugo Swire feel it worth both a Twitter entry AND a picture ? It’s not a marginal seat after all ….
Can’t be too many people called “Name Surname” in East Ham!
Channel 4 is to to close its E4 channel on day of general election from 7 am to 7 pm to encourage the youth vote.
“Viewers tuning in on 7 May will see “Darren”, the man responsible for keeping E4 on air, manning the control room in place of its regular programming.
The first time in the UK a channel has closed down to encourage people to vote, a pre-election marketing campaign will tell viewers: “How many times have you missed life-changing events because you wanted to watch your favourite show?
“May 7 is election day and Darren is going to turn E4 off so you might as well go and vote. You won’t forget will you Darren?”
East Devon Watch 