Category Archives: General Election
Spotlight on Claire Wright
Sincerity, determination, and smiles from the public, were the key impressions from tonight’s BBC Spotlight feature on East Devon’s Independent Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC), as she knocked on constituents’ doors. Claire spoke of the role of Independents able to act “without a Party Whip breathing down their neck”. In these times of diminished Party loyalty, that could be a vote winner….
It gets worse for Tory Chairman Grant Shapps/Michael Green!
A parliamentary candidate for the Welwyn Hatfield constituency of Tory Party CO-Chairman Grant Shapps (aka “Michael Green”) has changed his name to Michael Green to stand agaInst Shapps.
Shapps admitted last month that he did work as a web marketer under the alias Michael Green after entering Parliament and, when challenged said that he had been “over firm” in his denial!
Here is the official list of candidates:
On his website
“Mr Green” (rumoured to be a famous comedian) says:
“Tory chairman Grant Shapps has been pretending to be ‘Michael Green’. Well my name really is Michael Green. And I’m pretty pissed off.
So I’ve decided to embarrass him by standing against him in his own constituency. That’s right: his secret pseudonym will be joining him on the ballot paper.”
Conservative Party Chairman “has Wikipedia account blocked” after investigation into “sock-puppetry”
Wikipedia has blocked a user account on suspicions that it is being used by the Conservative party chairman, Grant Shapps, “or someone acting on his behalf” to edit his own page along with the entries of Tory rivals and political opponents.
The online encylopedia, where pages are edited and created by readers, has tracked the changes made by a user called “Contribsx” who has systematically removed embarrassing references on Shapps’ Wikipedia page about the Tory chairman’s business activities as Michael Green, the self-styled millionaire web marketer.
A Guardian investigation found about a third of the contributions made by this user were to Shapps’ own Wikipedia entry while the rest are made up largely of unflattering changes to the online pages to senior political figures – including prominent figures in the Tory party such as Philip Hammond, Justine Greening and Lynton Crosby.
Wikipedia says that “sock-puppetry” – creating a fake online identity “for an improper purpose, such as to mislead other editors, disrupt discussions, distort consensus or avoid sanctions” – is not permitted.
It added that it had banned Contribsx and said any evidence of future attempts to cover the user’s tracks would be investigated immediately.
The site’s administrators, selected Wikipedia volunteers who patrol the site, told the Guardian that they “believe that the account Contribsx is a sockpuppet of Grant Shapps’ previous accounts on Wikipedia … and based on the evidence the account is either run by Shapps directly or being run by someone else – an assistant or a PR agency – but under his clear direction.” …..
Safe seats: today’s Rotten Boroughs
Hugo Swire sent a rather whining letter to the Express and Echo complaining that the Electoral Reform Society had made a mistake and so East Devon is NOT a marginal seat but a safe seat and it is HIS safe seat, so there!
Had he read on further in that post he would have seen them say this about safe seats:
“Safe seats are the 21st Century’s rotten boroughs. The average constituency last changed hands between parties in the 1960s, with some super safe seats having remained firmly in one-party control since the time of Queen Victoria.
The majority of seats can be predicted because of Westminster’s broken First Past the Post electoral system.
As consituencies are small and only elect one MP, rival parties often don’t stand a chance of winning in hundreds of seats across the UK. Even if they have significant support it counts of nothing if they lose. As the loss of safe seats is rare, parties target their resources on a small number of floating voters in marginal seats – meaning they give up on millions of voters across the country.
You can find out how much parties spent on your vote here.“
http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/safe-seats
TONIGHT: Spotlight to feature East Devon’s Independent Candidate for Parliament
The spotlight will again be on Claire Wright and her bid for Parliament in the May 7th election. See her on BBC TV this evening, on the local ‘Spotlight’ news.
Conservative Cupcakes
“CONSERVATIVE CUPCAKE CASES
David Cameron has previously revealed that he has watched The Great British Bake Off, which might explain these rather pricey cupcake cases. The pack of 36 patriotic cases, in Tory blue with a Union Jack design, comes in at £5 a pop.”
Or, possibly £50,000 if auctioned for Conservative Party funds by our own Hugo Swire (see comment), or, you could get 250 mixed colours for £4 postage free from Amazon (though their tax position of not paying very much because no-one makes them might put you off).
That, ladies and gentlemen, is today’s lesson on the free market economy!
A picture is worth a thousand words …
Prospective Parliamentary Candidates’ Hustings in Exmouth last week, picture from Hugo Swire Twitter:
pictured, l-r (but not literally) Andrew Chapman (UKIP) ,Stuart Mole (Lib Dem), Steve Race (Labour) , Hugo Swire (Con), Claire Wright (Independent)
Caption contest suggestion:
Chapman: Now, how can I link this to the EU … tricky … but I’ll give it my best shot …
Mole: So much to say, but will voters listen to my Party?
Race: Ditto.
Swire: That’s my best side, make sure you get my best side …
Wright: Is he going to say ANYTHING about East Devon? There is so much work to be done …
If you missed the Exmouth hustings, you can hear the candidates for yourselves in interviews broadcast this morning on Radio Devon.
Devon’s answer to One Direction
Source:
Oh dear, when you have to bring in George Osborne, things are getting bad …..
Naughty, naughty Zorro!
Hugo says East Devon is a safe seat for him
Oh dear, Hugo, best not rely on the Electoral Reform Society – if it made one mistake, it can make another!
Declining Tory Party membership: who exactly do they represent?
No wonder Hugo is pounding the pavements … with so few supporters available!
“The Conservative Party has released details of its membership, after it was claimed that people were leaving the party in droves.
It had been suggested that membership had dropped below 100,000 and, while the figure quoted is in fact 134,000 …
… Worse than that, it seems membership has halved under the leadership of David Cameron; in 2005, 253,600 members voted in the leadership contest between him and David Davis. …
… The party itself claims 174,000 members – but this includes ‘friends, non-member donors and others’ in the numbers. In other words, people who are not members of the Conservative Party …”
At last – we find something Hugo Swire does on the cheap!
This
http://www.parliamentary-standards.org.uk/ViewAggregateData2014.aspx?mcode=0167&year=2013
is a summary of Hugo Swire’s expenses claimed in the 2013-14 Parliamentary year. It can be seen that he has claimed near to the maximum amount allowed for staff payroll costs, including the salary he pays his wife (up to £35,000).
What is striking is how little he paid for office costs “the costs of renting, equipping and running an MPs office and surgeries” in his constituency. Allowed a maximum of £22,750 he had spent only £7,011.52.
Is his office particularly cheap to run – or is it that he spends so little time here he doesn’t need much in the way of office or local surgery expenses?
and speaking of paying wives (which is allowed but which few MPs choose to do) the arch-Conservative blogger Guido Fawkes had this to say about the practice:
Keeping “IT”* in the family
MPs will protest that they pay their spouse / son / daughter / sibling a pittance and they work extra long hours and suchlike. The truth is they deny someone more competent the chance of a job won in open competition. Many MPs really use the staff allowance as a subsidy to family members. Who can forget Derek Conway’s lavish family staffing arrangements, with payments to offspring at university? Peter Hain’s employment of his octogenarian mother despite having a staff of civil servants, special advisers, private secretaries, secretaries and case workers. Bob Spink famously employed his former wife, his lover and her daughter.
Many MPs now employ their wives / partners in their maiden names to disguise the dodge. For example Elaina Cohen is Khalid Mahmood’s partner – he dumped his wife for her – but contrary to the rules of the House he doesn’t declare the relationship. No doubt some of the above will have innocent explanations for why – against best private sector practise – they issue staff passes to family members. They shouldn’t do it, it is nepotism.
*The ‘it’ being our taxes.
http://order-order.com/2010/08/25/keeping-it-in-the-family/#_@/as_aAd6GhnIn/Q
Poor old Hugo
He’s having to pound the pavements of East Devon for hours and hours, something rather new to him – he must be seeing a good few places he never knew existed and we gather that he is hearing some quite uncomfortable home truths about district matters – which he didn’t bother with until very recently.
It’s hard to know whether EDDC is a liability for him or vice- versa.
He must be getting home to Mid- Devon or London quite exhausted! Well he isn’t getting any younger.
“Women age 18-24 least likely to vote” : PLEASE PROVE THIS WRONG!
According to an article in today’s Observer magazine, women 18-24 are the least likely to vote.
Please prove them wrong. If you have not registered it is still not too late – tomorrow is the last day – even if you will not be in the country or away from home you can have a postal vote. The easy link is here:
https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote
Remember: you will continue to need the health service for many years to come, you may need more education for yourself and/or for your children and you will need childcare if you must continue to work and you will need a secure home.
Vote for the candidate that you think will protect your interests.
Hugo Swire predicted in 2010: “We will go back to the bad old days when MPs went back to their constituencies once every five years just before elections”!
Daily Mail – July 2010 – NOTE PARTICULARLY THE LAST SENTENCE BELOW!
“Two Tory Ministers have accused Commons expenses chiefs of wrecking their right to have a family house in their constituencies by slashing their second-home allowances.
Solicitor General Edward Garnier and Northern Ireland Minister Hugo Swire each charged around £24,000 a year expenses to cover the costs of renting elegant country homes in their constituencies, while living most of the year in private houses they own in London.
Mr Garnier claimed the maximum allowance of £24,006 last year for his beautiful house, Little Dalby Hall, which is on a 5,600-acre estate in Leicestershire.
His allowance this year to cover the rent has been slashed to £8,366.
Mr Swire’s claim for £23,103 to cover the cost of renting a large farmhouse in Devon has been reduced to £9,756.
Both have protested to IPSA, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, after they were told they can only claim for the equivalent of a one-bedroom flat.
Mr Garnier is said to have accused IPSA of turning MPs into ‘visiting country squires’.
He was backed by Mr Swire, who said the new system threatened to take politics back to pre-Victorian times when some MPs rarely visited their constituencies. …
… They deny they are trying to ‘have their cake and eat it’ by demanding the right to live like gents with two full-sized family homes – one in London and one in the country – with the second funded by the taxpayer. …
.. Mr Swire, 50, the MP for East Devon, is a close friend of David Cameron and related to the Swire Hong Kong trading dynasty.
Last year, he received £1,400 a month in second-home allowance to rent the pretty Lincombe Farmhouse near the Devon resort of Sidmouth. It has been cut to £812 a month, with extra for council tax and bills. He too complained the
ruling was unfair.
Mr Swire and wife Sascha and their two young children live in a £1 million house in the heart of affluent Fulham, West London. The property is owned by Mrs Swire.
Educated at Eton and St Andrews University, Mr Swire served with the Grenadier Guards before becoming a director of Sotheby’s auction house.
In his bachelor days, he dated Jerry Hall before she married Mick Jagger. The late Joe Strummer, singer with the punk band The Clash, was his brother-in-law.
A friend of Mr Swire said: ‘Hugo is not whingeing. If he is forced to give up his Devon house for a one-bedroom flat he could not take his children down there and so obviously would spend less time there. His constituents would lose out.
‘We will go back to the bad old days when MPs went to their constituencies once every five years before election time.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1291791/Youre-turning-MPs-visiting-squires.html
Our next MPs husband speaks …
DAVE WRIGHT
Claire Wright, East Devon
“Claire sort of slipped into politics. Fighting to save Honiton Hospital maternity services in 2004 set the ball rolling.
“When she joined Ottery St Mary Town Council around 2007 she said it would be a “few Mondays” every month. Having a busy job myself, I questioned how on earth we were going to fit everything in.
“She has since managed to fit in ousting the then leader of East Devon District Council in 2010, and then become Devon county councillor the following year with the biggest majority in the South West.
Mr Wright has taken on the role of political agent, dealing with the finances and signing forms. He said: “I have had to get used to people saying things like, ‘Will you be Claire’s secretary on £30-35k, like Hugo’s [sitting East Devon MP Hugo Swire] wife?’ ”
He said that standing for MP was something that became inevitable.
“It dawned on me before Claire that it had become her duty to stand.”
They carried out a survey among East Devon residents which formed the backbone of Claire’s manifesto.
“I have been staggered by people’s generosity of time and money,” he said.
“Scores and scores of donors have contributed their own money to the campaign, and there is an army of deliverers – it really is quite humbling.
“My daughter Katie and I will burst with pride if she gets elected, but we will have to ask Nanny and Grandad to help us out even more than they do at the moment.”
East Devon constituency far from safe seat
according to the East Devon graphic and remarks here:
Why were so many people walking around with Claire Wright placards in Exmouth last night?
Many people seen in the area of Exmouth Rugby Club, talking animatedly and clutching a lot of Parliamentary Candidate Claire Wright’s election literature. …There was standing room only for late arrivals to this latest in the series of Claire’s public meetings.
So tonight’s PPC hustings, also in Exmouth (Fri 17th April), should be interesting! Glenorchy Church at 7.30 pm. Organised by Exmouth Christians together. Come early to get a seat!
Next East Devon hustings tomorrow Exmouth 7.30 pm
Exmouth: Friday 17 April
Glenorchy Church Hall. Organised by Exmouth Christians Together
East Devon Watch 