In the East Devon constituency as of today:
The Green Party has decided not to put up a candidate in East Devon.
The Liberal Democrats have yet to announce if they have a candidate.
Labour Party candidate Jessica Pearce has withdrawn her candidature and Labour must now find a substitute.
Confirmed candidates as of today: Andrew Chapman (UKIP), Hugo Swire (Conservative) and Claire Wright (Independent).
The above graph (click to enlarge)has been provided by Chris Wakefield, who left a detailed related comment (number 9) at http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/site/comments/40000_leaflets_ready_to_go_as_hugo_swire_says_game_on
One needs a sense of irony when reading this Express and Echo reader’s letter. One suspects it may pass over the heads of many in our majority party!
Below is a direct quotation from two pages of (free publicity) for Hugo Swire in this week’s Exmouth Journal. Hard to know why the newspaper published his long and rambling article as it had nothing to say about Exmouth or East Devon but had LOTS and LOTS to say about his globetrotting!
Compare the two glowing pages on Swire’s international profile to the succinct and straightforward letter from Independent Parliamentary candidate Claire Wright in the same newspaper on Knowle relocation:
We know which we prefer!
EDA has been sent this spoof version of the new Conservative Party poster (rumoured to be a photo taken in Germany), with added accompanying features of the Government’s vision for growth. 
Let your friends know the important choice facing Britain this year…More green fields cut through by tarmac and disappearing under sprawling cloned housing estates? Or new voices at Parliament and around the country, who will bring changes to the NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework…the so-called ‘developers’ charter’)? More info at Community Voice on Planning at http://covop.org/
Could there be another, very different, route to long-term prosperity more suited to Britain’s natural assets, particularly in East Devon…..?
The commonsense call from Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Cllr Claire Wright, to put EDDC’s office relocation project on hold, has now somewhat belatedly been echoed by the current East Devon MP, Hugo Swire.
Despite this, the New Year message about Knowle from EDDC Leader Paul Diviani is all too clear, as reported here: http://futuresforumvgs.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/knowle-relocation-project-prudent-thing.html
Several very reliable sources have said that current MP Hugo Swire heartily disagrees with EDDC’s current relocation plans to the point where he will go into print about it, rather than just talk about it as he apparently did last week in Sidmouth.
But still no sign of his views on his website or elsewhere – though the site does include a very interesting page that lists all the things a constituency MP COULD do for us if he were not so terribly busy at the Foreign office and rushing around the Middle East and Looking after Proctor and Gamble:
It belatedly appears Hugo Swire has suddenly realised that spending £11m plus on a new HQ is an EDDC Tory folly.
Councillor Troman, who has announced this, though there is yet no confirmation from Mr Swire, now only has to persuade all his other Tory councillors (including those from Sidmouth) to follow suit.
What a pity Mr Swire has not been on board since 2011 when this project was announced (indeed since 2007 when it was apparently first mooted by the Tory majority). And no peep from him as we tried to get access to the figures on the move (culminating in EDDC appearing at Exeter Magistrates Court, dragged there by the Information Commissioner) and nvo help at all when we pointed out the folly of an HQ on Exeter’s doorstep rather than in the middle of his constituency.
However, there is a General Election looming, so U-turns seem to be the order of things now.
But OUR loyalty goes to those brave Independent councillors (particularly Claire Wright, Ben Ingham and Susie Bond) who have pointed out these follies consistently and tried to right the wrong – to the rude and arrogant derision of the majority of Tory councillors.
What a pity they fail to see the stupidity of spending vast amounts of our money on themselves in a time of austerity and at the same time selling our silver. And what a pity it came only hours AFTER the full cabinet endorsed the move. When the announcement could have carried so much more weight if it had been made before the event. Whilst the stable door was still on its hinges, so to speak.
But, the ballot box awaits and we can have our say then – thank goodness!
EDA hears on the grapevine that this is East Devon MP Hugo Swire’s intention. Any truth in this rumour?
If so, Cllr Claire Wright has pipped him to the post (possibly not for the last time), at last Wednesday’s Full Council meeting…as reported on the front page of today’s Sidmouth Herald (Fri 19/12/14).
Ignoring recommendations they now have a £78 m war chest having changed the law on candidates’ election spending. The law passed without parliamentary debate, ignoring Electoral Commission recommendations that it would lead to “excessive spending to prevent the perception of undue influence over the outcome of the election”.
A Labour Party executive said: “[David Cameron] promised to take the big money out of politics … Yet he has now cynically changed his tune …”
Parties can now spend up to £32.7 m on elections, up from £26.5 m. The law was changed by Statutory Instrument, the terms of which were not debated in the House of Cards (sorry, Commons).
Of the £78m raised by the Conservative Party, more than £21m has been donated by hedge funds. George Osborne’s recent stamp duty changes gave a £145 m giveaway to hedge funds.
Dinner clubs and auctions have raised £6m – including a jar of Hugo Swire honey auctioned at £15,000:
Sunday Times: With very little legislative work to do, MPs are being allowed to go back to constituencies on Thursdays, a day earlier than usual. It has been calculated that this means that current ministers are getting an extra £187,000 to go electioneering
Says it all really. EDDC says they will increasingly rely on internet links to provide “services” and the local MP says they aren’t good enough and there may be “riots” in rural areas if they don’t improve!
” … Neil Parish] MP, speaking at a House of Commons hearing into the plan to ditch paper-based EU farming subsidy applications from next year, accused the quango delivering the £1.2 billion broadband programme of picking “easy cherries off the tree” in towns and cities
… Farming groups are livid over the move towards “digital by default” because of the poor broadband connections in the countryside
[He] said only around 8% of properties in his constituency are connected to super-fast broadband. The national target is 95% coverage by 2017 .
“… Questioning Chris Townsend, chief executive officer of BDUK, Mr Parish said: “Are you going to change your tactics and actually roll it out faster to those hard-to-reach rural villages? Otherwise there’s going to be a riot on your hands.”
You want a very large, imposing iconic statue? Don’t have the money for it? Fear not! MP Hugo Swire will have a quick word with his mates who represent the tobacco industry and it’s yours!
Wonder how many useful things the cost of these statues might have financed? How many Mulberry ipad cases one statue could have bought for the homeless!
Not in East Devon, nor indeed in the UK, as pointed out in this letter in the Exmouth Journal (04/12/2014):
‘Last week Hugo Swire told us that his party is committed to protecting the natural environment, keeping development sustainable etc. But that view is not shared across the country.
The Government planning policies have failed to protect communities from rapid and disproportionate development. That was the widespread view of those, like me, who had been invited form all parts of the country to Westminster in September to give evidence to a Parliamentary Select Committee.
Everyone had stories to share of large tracts of agricultural land being built on; villages doubled in size; brownfield sites in the centre of old industrial towns being left, while the green fields around the margins are being built on because it is cheaper; extensive building in flood plains; the green belt eroded; AONB protection swept aside.
All this is happening under the guise of sustainable development because of the Government’s drive for house building at any cost and in any place. But the term sustainable is so ill defined that using wooden cladding or installing plastic plumbing in place of copper and a low flush toilet, ticks the box.
No thought is being given to social or environmental sustainability. Yes, we need housing to meet local needs, particularly affordable housing. But we are not getting it and we have sacrificed a lot of agricultural land in the process. Affordable housing promised in planning applications disappears when developers plead poverty. I understand none of the affordable housing promised by Tesco in Seaton, for example, will be built.
David Daniel’
East Devon Watch 