Category Archives: General Election

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15 Apr 2015

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East Devon Alliance, EDDC, General Election, Latest news, Voting

As election looms, only a week left to make sure you can vote

If you haven’t checked that you are registered to vote, time is running out!
The deadlines for registering, and for postal votes, are in this press release (14 April) from EDDC:

Last chance to join the register before polling on 7 May

Residents of East Devon are reminded that there’s just under a week left to
ensure you have registered as an elector and can vote on 7 May. The last day
for receipt of applications is Monday 20 April.

If you are already registered, but want to have a postal vote rather than
going to a polling station on election day, time is also running out. You
must apply by 5.00 p.m. on Tuesday 21 April to ensure you can vote by post.

Details of all the candidates in the Parliamentary election and for district
and parish council wards are now on EDDC’s website at:
http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/elections-and-registering-to-vote/election-documents

The website also carries information about the opening times and locations
of polling stations around the district.

Register online

Don’t forget that under the new system of Individual Elector Registration
(IER) it is up to each individual to register, not the head of the household
as before. If you still haven’t registered to vote, you can do so online at:
http://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

To get help with registering to vote or to ask for a postal voting
application form, you can also contact the district council’s Electoral
Services team on 01395 517402, or email: electoralservices@eastdevon.gov.uk

With the General Election and local elections now less than a month away,
being registered as a voter is obviously necessary so you can have your say.
But there are other advantages too – like finding it easier to get a credit
card, take out a loan or even obtain a mobile phone.

Don’t delay. Do it today!

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14 Apr 2015

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Affordable and Social Housing, General Election

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Housing associations threaten to sue over “right to buy”

Unintended consequences?

Housing associations set to be crippled by Conservative plans to extend the right-to-buy policy will launch a legal challenge against the move, they have said.

The Tories announced today that they will force housing associations to sell off homes at a fraction of their value despite warnings that the policy could cause the not-for-profits to go bankrupt.

Tony Stacey, chair of a group of 100 housing associations and chief executive of South Yorkshire Housing Association, told trade publication Inside Housing when the policy was first mooted in March that he would “definitely” launch a challenge.

“I would definitely challenge it legally. This is so fundamentally critical to us. It would shoot up to the top of our risk map if it was confirmed. We are duty bound morally to fight it in any way we possibly can,” the Placeshapers chair told the publication.

Other housing association chief executives are quoted as saying they “would be surprised” if a legal challenge did not happen because the policy would risk the viability of the entire social housing sector.

Because housing associations are private not-for-profit businesses, forcing the sale of homes at below market value could potentially breach Article 1, Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which gives everyone the “right to the peaceful enjoyment of one’s possessions”.

Industry sources also say charity law would have to be changed to accommodate the move because charities, including many housing associations, are prohibited from selling off their assets at below market value.

Today’s move by the Conservatives was criticised by both the Chartered Institute of Housing and the National Housing Federation, which represent housing associations and the industry at large.

Ruth Davison, the Federation’s policy director, said: “We fully support the aspiration of homeownership but extending right-to-buy to housing associations is the wrong solution to our housing crisis.

“Following 40 years of successive governments’ failure to build the homes the country needs, soaring rents and house prices and the biggest baby boom since the 1950s, ensuring that there enough homes today and tomorrow must be our nation’s top priority.”

A spokesperson for the Federation said they would need to see the detail of the policy before they could say whether they would support a legal challenge.

CIH deputy chief executive Gavin Smart said he feared “the figures simply won’t stack up” for the extension.

“Right-to-buy has already had a huge impact on the supply of genuinely affordable homes, which is being cut at a time when more and more people are in need. The next government should be reviewing the way the policy currently works, not extending it,” he argued.

David Cameron officially announced the policy in a speech today, arguing that it could benefit 1.3 million families and turn Britain into a “property-owning democracy”.

“We are the party of working people, offering you security at every stage of your life,” he said.

John Healey, a former Labour housing minister, described the policy as a “cheap Thatcher tribute act” and said it would worsen Britain’s housing shortage.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/housing-associations-say-theyll-sue-if-the-tories-force-them-to-sell-off-homes-under-right-to-buy-10175492.html

and more reasons why it is a poorly-thought out policy:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/righttobuy-what-is-it–and-why-the-tories-are-doomed-to-repeat-the-mistakes-of-thatcher-10174767.html

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14 Apr 2015

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Claire Wright, EDDC, General Election, Hugo Swire, Independent Councillors

East Devon groundbreaking constituency for Independents for district council AND General Election

Press release from Claire Wright, Independent Parliamentary Candidate

Devon East, where the junior Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire was the local MP and who had a majority of 9,000 in 2010, is now a marginal seat according to the Electoral Reform Society.

Meanwhile Claire Wright, with substantial local government experience, and backed by hundreds of local helpers, is considered by Ladbrokes to be the Independent with the best chance of success in the general election of any Independents in the whole of the UK. The bookies confirm that Claire’s odds have improved further and faster than any genuine, non-local issue Independent for many years. Now considered to be the outstanding challenger to the previous incumbent, Claire continues to garner support and to attract financial contributions from individuals as she will not accept donations from big business.

The backing for Independents in East Devon is not confined to Claire Wright. It also applies at the level of district council. At present, the East Devon District Council is dominated by Conservatives, as it has been for many years.

Two months ago, the East Devon Alliance, previously a successful pressure group, announced that it would form an umbrella group to support candidates wishing to stand at the District council election. Of the 29 wards to be contested, 24 will be fought by Independent candidates. A total of 37 Independent candidates will be standing across the district and 22 will be “Independent East Devon Alliance” on the ballot papers and 15 will be Independent.

Other parties will be fielding 96 candidates but, for the first time ever, the number of Conservatives, at 57, will be overshadowed by the number of non-Conservatives, which is 76.

Paul Arnott, the chairman of the East Devon Alliance said that “taken with the unstoppable rise of the Independent Parliamentary candidate for East Devon, Claire Wright, this phenomenal offer by 37 Independents to the people of the district proves that East Devon better represents the desire for a change in democracy than anywhere else in the United Kingdom.”

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14 Apr 2015

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Clyst St Mary, Democracy, Development Management Committee, East Devon Alliance, EDDC, Environment (local), General Election, Latest news, West End: WestClyst BroadClyst/ Pinhoe

Urgent: Save Clyst St Mary public meeting 15th April re. Westpoint planning application

Westpoint has applied for an exemption to its planning permission to allow timed car trials on its site. Obviously this is a concern as it is likely to be very noisy and could potentially cause additional pollution to the area too..

This is the link to the planning application (15/0139/VAR):
https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=NIGLWSGHHHM00

Save Clyst St Mary spokesperson, Gaeron Kayley, says:
“Having spoken to The Parish Council, I can confirm there will be a public meeting in the School Hall on Wednesday 15th April Starting at 19.30″

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14 Apr 2015

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Claire Wright, General Election, Hugo Swire

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“True Blue” East Devon going very pale round the gills….

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Hugo-Swire-lose-East-Devon-rivals-fight-Tory/story-26324716-detail/story.html

New kid on the block making the Tories very worried …..

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13 Apr 2015

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Claire Wright, Democracy, EDDC, Environment (local), Flooding, General Election, Hugo Swire, Latest news, National Planning Policy Framework, Neil Parish

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‘Peoples’ Voice on Planning’ event has support from all but one Party!

CoVoP crowd
About a hundred people from various parts of East Devon gathered on the lawn terraces at Knowle on Sunday afternoon 12th April to listen to speeches from parliamentary candidates and others about the national planning set-up.

The event was part of a nationwide Day of Action called for by Community Voice on Planning (Covop) and was organised by Covop trustees and Vision Group for Sidmouth.

Parliamentary candidates representing all parties, except the Conservatives ( from both the Honiton and Tiverton and the Devon East constituencies) gave their views on the national planning system and in particular the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

All of them promised reforms, mostly involving prioritising brownfield developments, protecting the countryside and building more affordable homes for local people. Conservative candidates were unable to attend and failed to respond to requests to send a written statement.

The first speaker was ex-judge Ian McKintosh, of East Devon Alliance and Covop. After reviewing the situation nationally and locally, he argued that local communities were being ignored in favour of developers.

Caroline Kolek, Labour candidate for Honiton and Tiverton, claimed that Labour would stop land-banking and prioritise brownfield sites. She shared her slot with Henry Brown, district councillor candidate for St Paul’s ward, Honiton,who made the case for more affordables for local young people.

Paul Edwards of the Green party and candidate for Tiverton and Honiton, said the countryside was our greatest resource and should be protected.

John Kelly, standing in for Andrew Chapman, UKIP parliamentary candidate for Devon East, who was indisposed, argued that the planning crisis was caused by EU regulations.

Stuart Mole, Liberal-Democrat candidate for Devon East, contended that the reforms recommended by the recent Communities and Local Government committtee should be immediately instated, for instance the proposal that all planning permissions be counted towards the 5-year land supply.

Claire Wright, Independent candidate for Devon East, put the blame for the massive increase in inappropriate development squarely on the government’s deregulation of the planning system and on the Local Council’s developer-bias and failure to produce a Local Plan.

Robert Crick, for Vision group of Sidmouth, read a litany of some of the inappropriate developments approved in the district in the past three years together with statistics provided by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England. These included the prospect of about a thousand houses a year in East Devon until 2031.

A Covop petition, to be presented to the new government, was handed out along with a short guide to the planning system and suggested reforms. The petition is available online at https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/covop2015

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12 Apr 2015

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East Devon Tories, General Election, Misc

Conservative Party identity crisis: big business, cronies and morality

In today’s Observer leader, Tim Montgomerie, co-founder of lobby group The Good Right is quoted as saying his party is “going through an identity crisis with its association with individualism, cronyism and big business and “survival of the fittest”.

American philosopher Michael Sandel is also quoted: “Who does the economy serve?” he asks and “welcomes more discussion on morality in politics and public discourse”.

Well, there is plenty of talk in East Devon about Big Business, cronyism and morality in public life!

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11 Apr 2015

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Claire Wright, General Election

“Meet the public” – no public allowed – or pay to listen!

Claire Wright’s public meetings are open to everyone. She has been visiting people in the constituency for months, she IS out on our streets pretty much every day, true public meetings are frequent, questions are not chosen, no charge is made, though individual donations are welcome. Compare with the following:

“Each of the “public meetings” I have attended have required people’s names to be on a list to get in. I saw a woman showing her passport to those running the door at Tony Blair’s event in Sedgefield.

In Dudley, Ukip were charging their pre-screened audience £5 a ticket, for the privilege of submitting any questions they may wish to ask to a moderator, who selected the ones he liked and declined them even the opportunity of being allowed to read them out themselves.

On a vast deserted building site in Watford, sanitised even of construction workers, we looked at Clegg looking at some architect’s drawings. Then we drove to Cardiff and waited outside a factory test kitchen while he made a pancake. …

… But surely the ultimate positive example of politicians going walkabout somewhere real is last year’s Scottish referendum. I didn’t cover that, but those who did, and friends who were there, tell me the leaders and big beasts were out on the streets and available for interaction. Can it be a coincidence that the campaign invigorated politics in a way many had imagined impossible?

Yet it feels a million miles away from the current electoral offering. At many Tory events, specially selected activists are made to stand behind Boris or Cameron or whoever is speaking, holding aloft campaign slogans. In the still pictures which make the news, it looks as though the politician’s speech is rousing a crowd of supporters to wave placards with riotous approval. In real life, this dynamism is a sham. The supporters are static, posed in bizarre tableaux vivants, their arms presumably getting more and more tired.

The effect of this, and indeed of all the parties’ stagey micromanagement, is to do a terrible disservice to the spectators, who are, after all, the voters. Placed in these ultra-managed situations they cease to really be people. They become people-effect wallpaper. Meanwhile, politicians withdraw from civic spaces in favour of their own kitchens. Unless this way of doing business is radically altered, we are reaching a stage where it would be less embarrassing or absurd to green-screen elections.”

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/10/the-great-unvetted-public-locked-out-as-party-leaders-tour-sanitised-britain

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10 Apr 2015

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Claire Wright, General Election, Hugo Swire

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Daily Telegraph shows East Devon as a marginal seat

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11527109/Has-your-constituency-already-been-won-in-the-2015-general-election-Find-our-here.html

(note: this link takes a long time to load on slow broadband)

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10 Apr 2015

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Claire Wright, East Devon Tories, General Election

Is Claire Wright attracting bigger audiences than David Cameron?

http://metro.co.uk/2015/04/09/it-seems-a-lot-of-people-turned-up-for-david-camerons-rally-or-did-they-5142003/

A quick headcount seems to reveal about 80 people (including one assumes some party apparatchiks). Claire Wright had around 120 attendees at her meeting in Sidmouth last week.

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9 Apr 2015

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General Election, Hugo Swire

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Parliamentary candidates

Our Labour candidate gives his address as London N1.

Our Conservative candidate gives “Address in the CENTRAL DEVON constituency”. The only candidate not to provide a full postal address.

He doesn’t even have a second home in East Devon let alone a first!

Perhaps he couldn’t afford East Devon prices, or maybe Central Devon is a cleaner and greener place to live …

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9 Apr 2015

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Claire Wright, General Election, Hugo Swire

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Influence? Who is influencing whom?

An awful lot of Hugo Swire placards appear to have been placed on land belonging to well-known local developers and/or farmers, some of whom were very enthusiastic East Devon Business Forum members. Claire Wright placards appear to be mostly at private residences or small local businesses.

Who is influencing whom, one wonders?

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9 Apr 2015

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East Devon Tories, General Election

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Conservatives have circular pre-formulated standard letters for farmers, pensioners, small businesses etc

Should you receive a personal letter from the Conservative Party that seems specific and personal to you (e.f. pensioner, farmer), be aware that it is actually a circular letter sent to lots of people with only the name changed:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3031803/Dear-target-voter-Tory-letter-writing-kit-woo-farmers-pensioners-women-revealed.html

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9 Apr 2015

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Claire Wright, General Election, Hugo Swire, Ottery St Mary

Naughty Hugo Swire “MP” – not

A reader has pointed out to us that, in the poster that has gone up in West Hill (why just West Hill one wonders – surely this “very influential” ex-MP doesn’t feel threatened by Claire Wright!) extolling the “virtues” of Hugo Swire he refers to himself as “Hugo Swire, MP”.

In fact, although he remains a Minister of State at the Foreign Office (so that he can carry on jetting all over the world influencing people and presumamably being influenced by them in turn since this is not usually a one-way street) he is NOT an MP – he is a Parliamentary Candidate, just like all other Parliamentary Candidates in East Devon and everywhere else.

All MPs ceased to be MPs when Parliament was prorogued in March. At that time they had to clear their offices and hand back all their identification and other passes, etc.  If his “team” can’t get this very simple fact right, what else might they be getting wrong?  Time for a slap on the wrist for the election agent who is supposed to be on top of these things.

However, it should be noted that, because many MPs would lose their Google ranking, Facebook links, etc if they had to change their websites, an exception has been made for social media where web addresses may remain the same (at least for now and until the results of the election when former MPs will have a lot of social media reorganisation to do).

Here is the official text from the Parliament website:

“House of Commons

When Parliament is dissolved, every seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant. All business in the House comes to an end. There are no Members of Parliament. MPs revert to being members of the public and lose privileges associated with being a Member of Parliament.

MPs are allowed access to Parliament for just a few days in which to remove papers from their offices. The facilities that the House provides for MPs in Westminster during a Parliament are no longer available to them from 5pm on the day of dissolution.

Until a new Parliament is elected, there are no MPs. Those who wish to be MPs again must stand again as candidates for election.”

http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/dissolution/

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8 Apr 2015

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General Election, Hugo Swire

Hugo Swire: not the first time he has “put his foot in his mouth”

Oh no, it happened in 2007 too and cost him his job at the time, though David Cameron forgave him and gave him a better job!

https://thehuntsman2007.wordpress.com/2007/06/18/hugo-swire-puts-foot-in-mouth-and-quickly-removes-it/

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8 Apr 2015

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General Election

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Evening Standard survey shows Londoners don’t trust politicians

” …In a series of stark findings, it shows:

Three quarters of Londoners believe MPs have not done enough to “clean up” politics, or improve its image, since the 2009 expenses storm.

More than half believe MPs are more motivated “by helping themselves” – with less than one in ten thinking they are primarily driven by the aim to “help others”.

Sixty per cent back a ban on MPs, elected for this Parliament, having second jobs outside the Commons.”

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/parliament-has-failed-to-restore-trust-after-mps-expenses-scandal-10161775.html

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8 Apr 2015

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Claire Wright, General Election, Hugo Swire

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Do you really want to vote for a candidate who is at the “top level of Government and has influence?

 

One who spends his time with his Big Business buddies all over the world with precious little time for his constituency, who makes tasteless jokes about expensive cars, Greeks and people on benefits at a £15,000 per table fundraiser and who has no idea whatsoever about the devastation being wreaked on East Devon by his government’s planning rules?  If so, feel free to vote for this man:

hugowest

 

Or you might you vote for someone who refuses to be the mouthpiece for big business, instead promises to support the local small to medium businesses, to fight for and protect the NHS in her area and has a solid record of objecting to the most devastating planning policies that this district has ever seen – Claire Wright.

Here she is drawing crowds at Ottery St Mary, Sidmouth, Budleigh Salterton, canvassing in Eastern Exeter

otterypublicmeetingcrowd  sidmouthwoolbrookcrowd_pic  budleighpublicmeetingphilip2  broadfieldsstpetersschoolfeb15  ottery_hosp_protest_oct_14

and there are many more pictures of her at smaller locations and venues on her website, talking to people and basing her Manifesto on what they told her they needed to happen in this district:

See and hear her speak:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZYXMTm1lgmg#t=0

 

 

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8 Apr 2015

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EDDC, EDDC Monitoring Officer, General Election

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Purdah for local newspapers: a good idea or a bad idea?

Whilst there are government directives regarding the purdah period for councils (to prevent them tying a future to expensive decisions that will affect them) there is no such rule for newspapers.

One local newspaper has today announced that it will operate a purdah period to ensure that candidates are treated fairly, yet another one stated that it would report political news throughout the election period.

Would it be fair if, say, one candidate got a mountain of negative publicity and behaved really badly and one got a mountain of positive publicity and behaved impeccably, to keep this news from readers?

Surely, a fairness policy then appears to protects the least liked and least popular candidates from harm and the most popular and most liked from being given credit. This can then skew election choice. Is that really fair?

Is it perhaps more a case of not wanting to tread on powerful feet?

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7 Apr 2015

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Claire Wright, Democracy, General Election, Transparency

“BIG MONEY” INFLUENCE NEEDS TO BE TAKEN OUT OF UK POLITICS


Commenting on the publication of a new poll by the Committee on Standards in Public Life outlining widespread mistrust amongst the public towards major donors to political parties, Director of Unlock Democracy Peter Facey commented:

“It is clear from the Committee on Standards in Public Life that the public do consider the influence ‘big money’ has on politics is important and that it makes very little distinction between influence from individuals, companies and trade unions.

“This research should make sobering reading for politicians from across the political spectrum. It ought to spur them into action. Let us hope that it does not take another funding scandal before they are prepared to do so. With public confidence in politicians continuing to plummet, urgent action is required.

“Introducing a cap on donations to political parties may be risky but not as risky as doing nothing. It is high time government and opposition parties alike ended the rhetoric and got around the negotiating table.”
Summary of the polls findings:

82% of people considered party funding to be an issue of “some” or “great” importance.

81% of people believed people donated to political parties in the hope of receiving favours, special treatment or special access and influence over the party.

85% of people thought that politicians very often or sometimes do special favours for donors.

76% of people thought that politicians very often or sometimes based decisions on what their donors wished.

52% of people thought that giving special favours to donors was never acceptable.

In a separate poll, the CSPL also found that the percentage of people in England who believe that MPs are dedicated to doing a good job for the public dropped from 46% to 26% between 2008 and 2010.

Both polls can be found here:
http://www.public-standards.org.uk/OurWork/Public_Attitude_Surveys.html

http://unlockdemocracy.org.uk/media/news/entry/big-money-influence-needs-to-be-taken-out-of-uk-politics

The only Parliamentary candidate who does not take donations from Big Business or Unions is Independent Claire Wright.