A second Somerset council has called on the government to urgently address the cost of living crisis – though Conservative councillors abstained from the final vote.

Daniel Mumby www.somersetlive.co.uk 

Somerset West and Taunton Council became the second local authority in Somerset to pass a formal motion urging government action on the cost of living, following a similar vote by Mendip District Council in late May. In a full council debate held in Taunton on Tuesday evening (July 5), councillors from all parties spoke out about the pressures being placed on working families, urging action on energy bills, universal credit and fuel duty.

However, members of the Conservative opposition group abstained from the final vote, with their leader stating the motion was “overtly politicised” and the debate was a “missed opportunity” to find common ground. The motion called for a cut in the standard rate of VAT from 20 per cent to 17.5 per cent, restoring the universal credit supplement of £20, and reinstating the pension triple lock (whereby pensions rise in value by either average earnings, inflation or 2.5 per cent a year – whichever is higher).

It also called for the government to cut fuel duty in rural areas and to uncouple power prices from gas prices (which would enable a drop in household electricity bills). Like Mendip‘s declaration in May, the council also committed to staging a “cost of living emergency summit” with Citizens Advice, food banks, trade unions, chambers of commerce and the district’s two MPs – Ian Liddell-Grainger (Bridgwater and West Somerset) and Rebecca Pow (Taunton Deane – and until recently a Defra minister).

The council has also committed to creating a £50,000 support fund for those residents most affected by rising food and energy prices, which will be administrated alongside Citizens Advice by the end of the summer. Councillor Chris Booth, portfolio holder for communities, introduced the motion by stating: “We are all aware of the difficult times that our residents are going through, and it’s now the time to show that we want to do more than we already are.

“We urgently need more of this government as the shadow of hardship consumes more of us.” Councillor Benet Allen, portfolio holder for communications and corporate resources, said he was “dismayed” that the government had dithered over restoring the £20 uplift in universal credit.

He said: “The cost of living crisis is real, it affects many of us, and I’m dismayed that the government has avoided doing the one, simple, affordable thing that it could do to put money in the pockets of those who need it most – which is to restore the £20 on universal credit. They’ve done lots of other things, most of which are headline-chasing.

“I believe that this government for political reasons has avoided doing anything along the lines of putting money back into the pockets of the very poorest. We are overtaxed on our use of electricity because our electricity bills are directly connected to our gas bills. Very little of our electricity is generated by gas.

“The cost of renewable energy has plummeted in recent months – we are actually all overpaying for electricity by a factor of two or three.” Councillor Libby Lisgo, who leads the Labour opposition group, joked that the council would struggle to find a minister to whom these concerns could be addressed in light of the copious resignations from Boris Johnson‘s administration.

She said: “The way that the government is almost, it would seem, wilfully ignoring the needs of the people who most need support probably ought to beggar more belief than it does. The way they’re falling tonight [July 5] suggests that [finding a secretary of state] might be easier said than done.”

Councillor Dave Mansell – one of two Green Party councillors – added: “The motion focusses on short-term solutions, and those are definitely needed and important. I would like to add that long-term solutions are needed too, particularly for our energy security.

“The government has stopped us investing in the lowest-cost energy source, which is on-shore wind power. that is contributing to a situation which we now face, and that urgently needs to change.” The motion was passed by a substantial margin, though all the Conservatives present in the chamber abstained – and two members of the party left the chamber before the vote took place.

Councillor Roger Habgood, who leads the Conservative group on the council, said after the debate that he and his party were in support of action to address the cost of living but believed the motion was the wrong way to go about this. He said: “Unfortunately the cost of living motion to full council was deliberately set out taking an overtly politicised position by the local Lib Dems.

“The cost of living increases in our economy are of course concerning to us all, and if Mr Booth and the Lib Dem leader had taken a few minutes to construct the motion collaboratively, it could have received unanimous support. Sadly that approach and option was not chosen and an opportunity has been lost.

“Continuously blurring the lines of responsibility between the district, county and unitary councils and the national government is unhelpful. Our councillors are best placed to focus our attention on reducing costs and improving services under our direct control, rather than being distracted by matters outside of their control.

“Of course we should engage with Westminster. We have two MPs who represent us – after all that is how the latest cost of living payments for eight million families coming into effect from July 14 was formulated.

“My colleagues and I continue to focus on what we can do for residents as local councillors in these challenging times.”

At one point, Spicer calls Johnson a “fart pipe” and gives Johnson’s wife, Carrie, the nickname “Wallpaper Wendy” in reference to the £840-per-roll wallpaper the couple bought for their flat renovation.

(Read the intro then watch the video below, or just watch and enjoy! – Owl) 

Ellie Harrison www.independent.co.uk

Comedian Michael Spicer has been praised for his video roasting Boris Johnson’s resignation speech.

Last week, Johnson announced he would step down as prime minister following an onslaught of resignations in protest over his leadership.

Spicer – whose sketches often see him impersonating a fictional, frustrated Johnson aide working in a side-room – shared a video on Tuesday (12 July) mocking the speech.

“Remember it’s time to be humble,” he can be seen telling the outgoing prime minister. “And, just to be on the safe side, I’ve written down the definition of humble and emailed it to you under the subject heading: ‘You have well and truly f***ed everything up.’”

He suggests that Johnson apologise for “partying every single Friday while telling us at the same time we couldn’t sit on a park bench with our nans”.

When Johnson says in his speech that he is proud he “got Brexit done”, Spicer cuts in with: “It’s not done, it’s a mountain of burning tyres that threatens the Good Friday Agreement.”

When Johnson talks about how he got the country through the Covid pandemic, Spicer says: “180,000 people died but, yes, let’s claim it as a triumph, why not? I mean, literally nothing you say matters any more.”

At one point, Spicer calls Johnson a “fart pipe” and gives Johnson’s wife, Carrie, the nickname “Wallpaper Wendy” in reference to the £840-per-roll wallpaper the couple bought for their flat renovation.

Getting increasingly irate, he demands that the prime minister apologise. “Dig right down into that poisonous soul of yours and try to find one apology,” he says.

The video ends with Spicer holding his head in his hands in total despair.

Broadcaster and author Fern Britton was among those to praise the clip. “Totally brilliant and factually correct,” she tweeted. “He is a fart pipe.”

“‘Wallpaper Wendy’ had me snorting water out of my nose,” added another.

A third wrote: “Another slice of perfection. Thank you.”

A fourth said: “You’re the only way I can watch these speeches.”

“Immensely satisfying,” posted a fifth.

A sixth person simply wrote: “Thank you YOU ABSOLUTE BLOODY BEAUTY!”

Raab and Shapps back Rishi Sunak in race for Tory leadership

Rees Mogg and Dorries are backing Liz Truss

Looks like North East Somerset is the only place where 20 people can be found to back the “Boris Continuity” candidate JRM.

None of the above – Owl

Heather Stewart www.theguardian.com 

The UK deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, and the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, have both thrown their weight behind the frontrunner, Rishi Sunak, in the race to succeed Boris Johnson as Conservative leader.

Raab, who had not previously backed a candidate, introduced Sunak as he formally launched his candidacy at an event in Westminster.

With the other candidates in a bidding war to promise tax cuts, Raab told the enthusiastic audience: “Just remember this: while others talk the talk, Rishi this month delivered the biggest tax cut for working people in a decade; and he did it because he’s a true Conservative, imbued with the values of enterprise, hard work and family. Rishi’s values are our values.”

He also highlighted Sunak’s early support for Brexit, his “seminal” pamphlet on freeports, and his strong poll ratings relative to other candidates.

Also appearing on stage was Shapps, who has withdrawn from the Tory leadership race and thrown his weight behind Sunak, after it became clear he was unlikely to secure the backing of the 20 MPs needed to progress to the ballot paper.

Key supporters including Oliver Dowden, who resigned as party chair after the disastrous Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield byelections, and the former chief whip Mark Harper, were also present.

Sunak has sought to distinguish himself from the rest of the field by declining to promise lavish tax cuts immediately, instead stressing the importance of not believing in “fairytales”.

In his own speech, he said it was time for a “grown-up conversation” with the public about the challenges ahead. He said he wanted the campaign to be “a moment where the party and the country came together”.

Sunak also sought to explain why he had backed Johnson until last week, saying: “We owe it to the people who elected Boris in 2019 to explain why he is leaving office.

“Boris Johnson is one of the remarkable people I’ve ever met, and whatever the commentators say, he has a good heart,” he said, insisting he would not take part in a “rewriting of history” about his premiership.

He has secured the most public endorsements from MPs, who will narrow the field down rapidly to two candidates over the next 10 days. Sunak, who resigned last week, said he was bringing “a message of change”.

Says it all! – Owl

Poke Staff www.thepoke.co.uk 

No-one will miss Boris Johnson from Downing Street quite like his culture secretary Nadine Dorries.

And there can surely be no more fitting tribute to their extra special relationship than this musical mash-up which has just gone viral on Twitter.

Watch through twitter link

Absolutely the best/worst thing we’ll see today.

You have to admire the enterprise and job creation – but is this “healthy eating”? – Owl

A new community Waffle Café has opened at Seaton Hospital. 

Philippa Davies www.midweekherald.co.uk

It’s being run by the not-for-profit community enterprise Waffle which has had a similar café in Axminster for a few years, with a mission to combat loneliness, bring people together and offer new opportunities. 

The opportunity to open the new café emerged when the Seaton community interest company RE: STORE was offered a disused kitchen in the hospital. The hospital is run by NHS Property Services which supports social prescribing, connecting people with community groups to improve their wellbeing. 

RE:STORE was already running a gardening project in the grounds of Seaton hospital. Keen to create a wellbeing hub/cafe on the site, the company joined forces with Waffle.

The cafe is open Wednesday to Saturday from 9am until 5pm. On Monday and Tuesday the space is used for private groups and community activities. 

The hospital is also partnering with Axminster Project Food, who will use the café’s kitchen to educate schoolchildren about cooking and healthy eating. 

Should it be Aloysius Twinkley Winkleyton, Wealthy Frot Magazine’s Person of the Year, or this stick that went to Oxford? You decide!

First Dog on the Moon www.theguardian.com 

The only chance the Conservatives have of early recovery is if they consciously abandon the discredited Johnsonian era, reject anyone associated with him, and opt instead for someone from a new, untainted generation.

The final choice lies in the hands of the small band of “True Blue” party members, so this looks unlikely. – Owl

Opinion by Peter Mandelson inews.co.uk

The Tories have only themselves to blame for the damage they have inflicted both on themselves and the country

Whoever succeeds Boris Johnson as prime minister, it is impossible to imagine that they will be as bad, a narcissist who sees every issue through the lens of his own personality, whose only abiding question is how it makes him look, a politician who lives for the next story to tell rather than detailed policy to formulate. Britain has never been as ill-served by its chief minister as we have been by Johnson.

In 2019, as the race to succeed Theresa May got underway, I was at a function and fell into conversation with the chair of the Conservatives’ 1922 Committee who said there were no circumstances in which Tory MPs would have Johnson as their leader because “they all know what he’s like”.

A month later he was duly elected despite his party knowing what he was like. The Conservatives have only themselves to blame for the damage they have inflicted both on themselves and the country.

Brexit was never going to bring the benefits for Britain its advocates claimed, but the narrow, confrontational, ideological, short-termist way in which it has been implemented by Johnson and his cohorts is going to do acute, lasting harm to our economy and future living standards.

I say nobody could be a worse prime minister because our quality of government and the whole of our politics have reached their nadir under Johnson. Ask any civil servant how professionally degraded they feel through proximity to him. The absence of any deep, objective thinking about the challenges facing Britain and of consistent, rational policy making and commitment have meant we have lurched from one makeshift, hand to mouth spasm of prime ministerial interest, to the next.

Although the crisis was not of his making, Johnson was lucky the Ukraine invasion came along: it enabled him to distract attention from all his other failures and to seek phone calls and meetings with President Volodymyr Zelensky every time he felt the need to burnish his leadership credentials.

Yes, it may be difficult to imagine that Suella (“I owe it to the country to run”) Braverman and Steve (“People are imploring me to stand”) Baker would be an improvement on the last three years, but they would not dare show the same wholesale indifference to rules and standards in public life that Johnson has demonstrated.

Surely Liz Truss and her myopic approach to trade and foreign policy, as she takes a wrecking ball to Britain’s economic relations with both of the vast markets of both Europe and China, could not fail to be some improvement, however limited.

But none of these are the answer to the Tories’ needs. The only chance the Conservatives have of early recovery is if they consciously abandon the discredited Johnsonian era, reject anyone associated with him, and opt instead for someone from a new, untainted generation. Tom Tugendhat or Tobias Ellwood come to mind but there are probably other men and women whose faces and names are not familiar to me or the general public who could engineer the necessary separation of the Tory party from its immediate past.

A new, fresh face and mind would then have to construct a programme for government which equips the nation’s priority objectives with practical, lasting plans to achieve them, for example in decarbonisation, economic and productivity growth and transformation of public services. These policies should not pander to ideological extremes but instead aim to generate the widest possible consensus so as to enable policies to survive a change of government.

Good policies depend on durability and lasting impact. A general election will take place in the not too distant future and key elements of policy should be built on rather than scrapped. We cannot afford tabula rasa policymaking, a wiping clean of the policy canvass as one administration takes over from another in Whitehall. The UK’s economy and businesses, as well as public services, need continuity for growth and improvement, not constantly shifting ground and decision-making.

There is little doubt what the public wants to see at the heart of a new programme of government. Manifest integrity and honesty in how Britain’s government and institutions are run. Fairness in the distribution of both tax burdens and spending benefits as well as the prevailing rules of immigration and welfare. Realisation of the economic opportunities offered by Britain’s world class science and technology base in which so many decades of investment has taken place.

Keir Starmer is rightly arguing that it is the Conservative Party not its leader which is incapable of bringing the change Britain needs. Starmer will continue to build the case for change with Labour as he has already started to do. The way Labour is viewed by the public is light years away from how it was judged in 2019. The party is electorally competitive again.

But if the Conservatives want to restore their own electability they will have to start with a very different leader from the one we are saying goodbye to now.

The one who claimed he had no working class friends! 

Perhaps a surprising choice for someone who worked as a SPAD for the right winger Dominic Rabb – Owl

[Current list of candidates with their declared supporters can be found on this link. We don’t know who Dominic is backing].

sidmouth.nub.news 

East Devon MP Simon Jupp, whose constituency includes Sidmouth, is backing former chancellor Rishi Sunak in the Conservative leadership race to become the next prime minister.

Mr Sunak was chancellor of the exchequer in Boris Johnson’s cabinet until he resigned on 5 July.

Boris Johnson then resigned on 7 July as Conservative leader amid mounting pressure. He will step down as PM when a new leader replaces him.

Simon Jupp MP, who also called for Johnson to resign on 6 July, said: “Rishi is the right person to lead the nation.

“He’s serious about the South West and understands the opportunities ahead.

“I trust him to deliver a credible Conservative vision for the future which restores trust and rebuilds our economy.”

Eleven candidates have now put their names forward [at the time this article was written].

They are:

1. Rishi Sunak
2. Grant Shapps
3. Liz Truss
4. Tom Tugendhat
5. Nadhim Zahawi
6. Rehman Chishti
7. Jeremy Hunt
8. Sajid Javid
9. Penny Mordaunt
10. Kemi Badenoch
11. Suella Braverman

The Conservatives’ 1922 Committee is meeting today (Monday 11 July) to decide how the leadership race will go ahead.

Jacob Rees-Mogg mulls Tory leadership bid

Jacob Rees-Mogg is mulling a shock entry in the Conservative leadership race as a “continuity Boris” candidate, The Telegraph can disclose. www.telegraph.co.uk

• Erection of single storey rear extension and alteration of side, ground floor window to create patio door. The Farmhouse Rousdon DT7 3XRRef. No: 22/1469/FUL | Validated: Fri 01 Jul 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversion of garage to habitable use including glazed link garage Foxwood Combpyne Axminster EX13 8SYRef. No: 22/1476/FUL | Validated: Fri 01 Jul 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Dining/family room lean-to rear extension Windsor House West Street Axminster Devon EX13 5NXRef. No: 22/1475/LBC | Validated: Fri 01 Jul 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Dining/family room lean-to rear extension. Windsor House West Street Axminster Devon EX13 5NXRef. No: 22/1474/FUL | Validated: Fri 01 Jul 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use of part of existing boat storage building (B8 Storage and Distribution) to form workshop for the building, repair and restoration of boats (B2 General Industrial), including internal and external alterations to the building Land And Barn North Of Summerway Farm NorthleighRef. No: 22/1460/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey rear extension and porch to front 2 Glen Farm Crescent Honiton Devon EX14 2GXRef. No: 22/1458/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversion of roofspace to habitable use, single storey rear extension with roof terrace over, leading onto raised garden deck. 45 Mill Street Ottery St Mary Devon EX11 1ABRef. No: 22/1459/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed demolition of the existing single storey flat roof structure to the front elevation, construction of a new single storey pitched roof structure to the front elevation, construction of a new single storey flat roof structure to the rear elevation and insertion of a new window to the side elevation. 15 Long Park Woodbury Devon EX5 1JBRef. No: 22/1455/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replacement of rear two storey extension 40 North Street Ottery St Mary Devon EX11 1DRRef. No: 22/1454/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• single storey rear / side extension 30 Primley Road Sidmouth Devon EX10 9LDRef. No: 22/1463/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Full refurbishment of existing property including demolition of existing conservatory, loft conversion with addition of dormer window, re-roofing existing property and raised roof over loft conversion. Addition of solar panels, air source heat pump, woodburner flue and timber cladding. Roselea Dalwood Axminster EX13 7DZRef. No: 22/1453/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey extension 1 The Red Lodge 11 Elwyn Road Exmouth EX8 2ELRef. No: 22/1464/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Line of 12 Leylandii’s along most of the properties northern West Hill Lane boundary – applying to cut to ground. They are showing signs of stress – individual random limbs are dying, possible cause is fungus Passalora sequoia Halse Hill House 1 Halse Hill Budleigh Salterton EX9 6ABRef. No: 22/1466/TCA | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed porch and balcony to front elevation. 6 Summer Meadow Lympstone Devon EX8 5BQRef. No: 22/1447/FUL | Validated: Wed 29 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Detached open-fronted garage and detached store building with associated storage loft Jackmoor Cottage Upton Pyne Exeter EX5 5HYRef. No: 22/1448/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Installation of a corn store Land Opposite Broadhembury Memorial Hall BroadhemburyRef. No: 22/1435/AGR | Validated: Fri 01 Jul 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversion of roof space to habitable use to include a three front dormer and two rear dormer with alteration to fenestration, Removal of conservatory and conversion of roof from hip to gable and construction of external store. 56 Foxholes Hill Exmouth Devon EX8 2DHRef. No: 22/1439/FUL | Validated: Fri 01 Jul 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replace flat roof with apex roof over studio outbuilding, double garage and car port, including enclosing car port and other associated works. Trelowen Higher Metcombe EX11 1SLRef. No: 22/1443/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1, Ash : reduce and re-shape crown spread by 2m and shortening back overhanging low branches to a suitable side branch by 2 3m. Goodrich House Cheese Lane Sidmouth EX10 8RARef. No: 22/1440/TRE | Validated: Tue 28 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single-storey rear and side extension. 14 Essington Close Exmouth EX8 4QYRef. No: 22/1438/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Installation of an agricultural livestock building. Broadhayes Farm Stockland Honiton EX14 9ELRef. No: 22/1422/AGR | Validated: Mon 27 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of soakaways and installation of treated foul drainage field. Upexe Farm UpexeRef. No: 22/1426/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Kitchen extension Honeysuckle Thatch Talaton Exeter EX5 2RNRef. No: 22/1428/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Two storey side extension with first floor side and front balcony, garage conversion to habitable use with alteration to fenestration, hip to gable roof works, demolition of existing outbuilding, proposed detached garage, new driveway and associated landscape works. Mortimer House Cliff Road Sidmouth EX10 8JNRef. No: 22/1429/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Porch to front and conversion of garage to habitable use. 20 Linden Close Exmouth Devon EX8 4JWRef. No: 22/1423/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Addition of a ‘Cadiz’ retractable pergola awning situated on the first floor balcony on the street facing elevation. 9 Mudbank Lane Exmouth Devon EX8 3EGRef. No: 22/1431/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Provision of frameless handrail over kitchen dining flat roof and new door from first floor bedroom. 3 Old Barn Close Stoke Canon Exeter EX5 4ADRef. No: 22/1430/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Installation of 15no. ground mounted solar panels The Walled Garden RousdonRef. No: 22/1421/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• 2 x trees as per attached photo: prune back any lateral limbs extending over car park by 3 metres Village Station The Strand Lympstone EX8 5JWRef. No: 22/1424/TCA | Validated: Wed 29 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Holm Oak : Reduce to gain 1.5 metres clearance of garage. Bay : Trim adjacent Bays. Elder : Fell to give room to adjacent Yew and Holm Oak. Cut horizontal main stem at 0.5 metres from base. 27 The Laurels Sidmouth Devon EX10 8UXRef. No: 22/1413/TCA | Validated: Tue 28 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Single storey side extension, first floor side/front extension and conversion of roofspace to habitable use with part conversion of existing garage to habitable use. Inglenook Rockbeare Hill Rockbeare EX5 2EZRef. No: 22/1401/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1, Horse Chestnut in the front right hand side of driveway : This tree is suffering bacterial canker and also has honey fungus, although it looks healthy and full of leaf this tree is in very bad shape and there is a safety issue regarding the neighbouring property. The client wishes to have this tree removed to alleviate an insurance claim. Replanting another tree is a possibility. T2, Lawson Cypress : This tree is 2 stems, both of which have serious lean towards the neighbours property where they have cars and children. Another safety issue. Tree is in rear garden to the left of the house, it is marked with eco-stain marker. The owner would like these taken down to alleviate an insurance claim. Bendarroch House Bendarroch Road West Hill Ottery St Mary EX11 1JYRef. No: 22/1397/TRE | Validated: Tue 28 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• First floor rear extension over existing lounge.68 Valley Way Exmouth Devon EX8 4RLRef. No: 22/1403/CPL | Validated: Mon 27 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of existing 2 bed chalet and construction of a replacement 2 bed chalet 12A Tower Country Chalet Park Harepath Hill Seaton Devon EX12 2TFRef. No: 22/1404/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Two-storey side extension Marble Close Alston Axminster EX13 7LGRef. No: 22/1399/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Certificate of lawful development for a proposed garage conversion to domestic dayroom; construction of new front and rear walls to enclose existing garage46 Millhead Road Honiton Devon EX14 1RARef. No: 22/1406/CPL | Validated: Tue 28 Jun 2022 | Status: Approved
• Alterations & 2 storey rear extension 189 Manstone Avenue Sidmouth EX10 9TLRef. No: 22/1408/FUL | Validated: Tue 28 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey side and rear extension, removal of existing chimney stack, conversion of roof space to habitable use to include 1 side and 2 rear roof lights, installation of off road parking to side of dwelling 7 Woodlands Drive Exmouth EX8 4QPRef. No: 22/1375/FUL | Validated: Wed 29 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Two storey rear extension and garage conversion Rose Cottage Lower Budleigh East Budleigh EX9 7DLRef. No: 22/1381/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• First floor extension 1 Knowle Hill Budleigh Salterton EX9 7ALRef. No: 22/1374/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Proposed internal and external alterations. 5 Moor Lane Budleigh Salterton Devon EX9 6PPRef. No: 22/1366/FUL | Validated: Wed 29 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Convert an existing redundant machinery shed into a self contained bedroom/annexe to the existing farmhouse Burnthouse Farm Northmostown Sidmouth EX10 0NLRef. No: 22/1370/FUL | Validated: Wed 29 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed lawful development to replace conservatory to single storey rear extension39 Manor Park Clyst St Mary Devon EX5 1BWRef. No: 22/1340/CPL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use of land from agriculture to residential curtilage and other associated minor works Maglea Barn KerswellRef. No: 22/1344/FUL | Validated: Fri 01 Jul 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of existing farm buildings and redevelopment for up to 37 dwellings, formation of access, associated infrastructure and open space (outline application seeking approval of details of access only) Land At Hayne Farm Hayne Lane Gittisham Honiton EX14 3PDRef. No: 22/1322/MOUT | Validated: Mon 27 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Repair and restoration of entrance pillars and walls and the installation of timber gates on new rendered pillars and block up pedestrian gate and infill with blind arch Ebford House Old Ebford Lane Ebford EX3 0QPRef. No: 22/1332/LBC | Validated: Fri 01 Jul 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replace the current UPVC conservatory with a timber framed garden room 8 Meadow Bank Kilmington Devon EX13 7RLRef. No: 22/1324/FUL | Validated: Mon 27 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Install boiler flue on north east elevation and remove hearth and fire surround in sitting/dining room Flat 2 Norton Garth Court Station Road Sidmouth EX10 8NYRef. No: 22/1320/LBC | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Installation of 5no. air conditioning units on rear elevation (retrospective) 1-2 Mill Street Sidmouth Devon EX10 8DFRef. No: 22/1327/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Repair and replace bay window on rear north east elevation with the addition of external cill, and replace roof over bay Flat 8 Norton Garth Court Station Road Sidmouth EX10 8NYRef. No: 22/1310/LBC | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Enclose the existing entrance porch to the front North elevation of the house 3 Mayfield Drive Exmouth Devon EX8 2HDRef. No: 22/1291/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of a summerhouse in the front garden. Ashmount Green Lane Axminster Devon EX13 5TDRef. No: 22/1257/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of detached garage and office building (revision to garage approved under planning permission 15/1274/FUL) 91 Sidford High Street Sidford Sidmouth EX10 9SARef. No: 22/1270/FUL | Validated: Wed 29 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Repairs to existing West elevation timber balcony and metal balustrade and all structural supports. Killerton House Killerton Exeter EX5 3LERef. No: 22/1212/LBC | Validated: Mon 27 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Installation of through floor lift in sitting room and bedroom Morton Cottage The Strand Lympstone EX8 5JRRef. No: 22/1217/LBC | Validated: Mon 27 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Rebuild of a brick pier Church Cottage Church Hill Otterton EX9 7HURef. No: 22/1080/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of a cover over an existing slurry lagoon. Crinhayes Farm Yarcombe Honiton EX14 9NDRef. No: 22/1044/FUL | Validated: Thu 30 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replace 2no. windows on ground floor front elevation. Cricketers Cottage 4 Chapel Street Sidbury Devon EX10 0RFRef. No: 22/1050/LBC | Validated: Wed 29 Jun 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

From  the London Playbook www.politico.eu

FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT: MPs head back to Westminster this morning with the race to be the next prime minister about to hit full throttle. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has finally announced her bid for Downing Street, Tom Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch have clinched major endorsements and onlookers are asking themselves: Who the hell is Rehman Chishti? The temperature gauge will edge up another notch tonight when Conservative bosses announce the rules of engagement — but don’t expect bitter briefing against rivals, accusations and recriminations to be outlawed. The Tories wouldn’t be able to handle a contest without gnawing lumps out of each other.

All in a spin: The number of MPs still to decide which candidate to support is fast diminishing, which means most of the people Playbook spoke to last night were spinning like mad. Others who are still to back a horse used words like “ridiculous” and “mental” to describe the ballooning circus of hopefuls, and were finding the smorgasbord of right-wing crazies overwhelming. No one had the faintest idea who might win the thing, or if the last Conservative standing would be up to the job. “You need people with experience and humility in the final two,” one minister quipped. “But those aren’t characteristics that are common in people who think they could be prime minister.”

On that note … Chair of the committee on standards in public life Lord Jonathan Evans told the Week in Westminster last night that after the Boris Johnson era, a new PM must show that “public standards are going to be very high on their agenda.” On the Andrew Neil Show on Channel 4, former Chancellor George Osborne said the Tories must “drain the poison” of Johnson’s period in office.

One thing is for certain: The U.K. is showing little sign of shifting to the center ground anytime soon, as my POLITICO colleague Annabelle Dickson writes in her take on the pledges made so far. She brands it “a heady mix of tax-cutting, woke-bashing and Brexit-backing policies.” It’s no surprise Conservatives Zac Goldsmith and Chris Skidmore are terrified the fight for net zero will be a victim in the leadership race.

By the time the Conservative party gets around to electing a new leader, Britain will either be in recession or perilously close. The cost of living crisis will be entering a new, more painful phase with a fresh surge in energy bills. A tough autumn will be approaching, with inflation – already at a 40-year high – heading for 11%.

All they are offering is a game of tax-cut Top Trumps

Richard Partington www.theguardian.com 

These are far from ideal conditions for an incoming prime minister. Yet so far, none of the Tory candidates is offering real solutions to the cost of living challenge. Instead, the leadership contest is taking place in some parallel universe where the biggest tax cutter is king.

With the tax burden heading for the highest level since Labour’s Clement Attlee was prime minister in the late 1940s and early 1950s, this game of tax-cutting Top Trumps is perhaps understandable. The party feels it has lost its way, and needs a major reset. However, it’s a debate that is devoid of reality.

Of the leading candidates, only Rishi Sunak is arguing for restraint. The Sunday newspapers are full of pledges to cut rates for businesses, workers and consumers, with promises worth billions. Taken together, they would eradicate the tax base of a small country. In a big economy such as the UK, they would blow a serious hole in the public finances – something past Conservative leaders told us could turn Britain into Greece.

Tax cuts, big spending and budget deficits aren’t always bad news if they are backed by sound economic reasoning. However, planning fiscal policy to woo a narrow group of mainly affluent Tory party members isn’t likely to meet the needs of wider society amid the worst hit to household finances of our times.

Outside of this world of fantasy politics, economists warn that some of the tax cuts being dangled would throw petrol on the inflationary fire and turbocharge inequality.

Take VAT: cutting the rate from 20% to 17.5% would cost up to £15bn a year, but help richer households most. Inflation would be stoked by boosting the spending power of wealthier families, who were likelier to have built up savings during lockdown. Poorer households, suffering most from soaring living costs, would benefit least.

To kickstart a moribund economy, Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt are promising not only to scrap a planned corporation tax rise from 19% to 25% from next April – a move that was supposed to bring in about £17bn a year – but also go further, with a cut to 15% that would cost billions more.

It’s a demand that not even the big business lobby groups are making, and one that two former health secretaries ought to recognise would have serious consequences for public services.

Britain already has one of the lowest corporation tax rates among rich countries, and slashing it to 15% would fly in the face of the emerging global consensus that a race to the bottom on tax competition is a zero-sum game. Almost 140 nations – including the UK – agreed this much at the OECD last year, acknowledging that governments lose while footloose multinationals prosper.

There is growing recognition that headline tax cuts are terrible at promoting more business investment. According to a report by the Social Market Foundation, the UK spent close to £100bn with little to show for it when George Osborne slashed the corporation tax rate from 28% in 2010 to 19% today. Economic growth remained weak, while levels of business investment fell behind comparable rich nations.

When companies invest, they do so because of far more than just tax, often placing more weight on political and economic stability, as well as other key fundamentals that might benefit their returns – such as the skills of the local workforce, quality of infrastructure, and depth of their potential market.

Business investment has stalled because of Brexit and the pandemic – and now an imploding political system. It now stands almost 10% below pre-Covid levels.

Business leaders will this week warn that the wrong types of tax cut will make matters worse. The Confederation of British Industry, the country’s foremost business lobby group, will publish a report calling for a smarter tax policy rather than eye-catching measures to please the Tory faithful.

“We need tax changes that drive investment, not tax changes that fuel inflation,” it will say.

The lobby group is worried about the planned rise in corporation tax to 25% next spring, but has previously suggested it could be offset by a package of tax reliefs to support business investment. Such a move would be a far smarter way to develop a pro-growth economic stance.

Sunak, the architect of this carrot-and-stick approach to business taxation before his resignation as chancellor, has used his leadership campaign to kick back against the party telling itself “comforting fairy stories” of magical-sounding but ultimately reckless giveaways.

It’s an argument strikingly similar to Labour’s bitter infighting of recent years, reminiscent of Tony Blair warning the party against reaching for the comfort blanket of Jeremy Corbyn’s socialist policies. His argument was that this might feel right to the party faithful, but is splintered from mainstream opinion and not what the country needs.

Sunak is right to argue that cutting taxes for the sake of ideological purity is not a recipe for sound public finances and a strong economy. Where his message falls apart, however, is that tight budgetary constraints should triumph every time. This embraces a Treasury orthodoxy that ought to have been binned after a decade of austerity. For years it has been recognised that budget deficits can and should be used to soften economic shocks and support recoveries, if good tax and spending decisions are taken.

For the Conservatives it’s important to remember that where Boris Johnson cut through with the public was on the need to escape austerity and “level up” Britain’s lopsided economy. Levelling up delivered an electoral coalition spanning poorer “red wall” constituencies and the more prosperous south. Blunt tax cuts are not the tool to achieve a better balance.

In focusing on ideologically driven tax cuts alone, the Conservatives are missing the point that a more fundamental rethink of Britain’s economy is needed than an old and tired reboot of Thatcherism.

For a more detailed economic assessment, also by Richard Partington see: 

Boris Johnson has left the UK economy in a parlous state www.theguardian.com 

Extract:

…In the midst of this succession of generational shocks, experts say deep structural faultlines have been exposed – all made more difficult to tackle by three problems: the legacy of austerity; Brexit; and Johnson’s lack of a coherent plan to deal with them all.

“This whole period is his legacy,” said Prof Jagjit Chadha, the director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, who believes without Johnson’s key role in the Vote Leave campaign six years ago, Brexit may not have happened. At least not in the same way.

“It has dominated our economic performance since 2016,” he said, referring to the year in which Britain voted to leave the EU.

What has followed is weak business investment – with the level of spending estimated to be about 20% below where it would have been without Brexit – as well as limited gains in living standards.

Without sufficient investment and productivity gains – and now with a lack of workers to fill record job vacancies – growing the economy without stoking inflation has become harder.

Prices are rising at a rate of 9.1%, and heading for 11% this October. The Bank of England is responding by hiking interest rates to the highest levels since the 2008 financial crisis, with more rises expected next month.

“We’ve had very slow growth,” said Chadha. “To be fair to Johnson, there has been a sequence of errors from successive governments. Brexit was thought to be the answer to our economic woes. In the way it has been managed, it has only exacerbated them.”…

Rishi Sunak’s 2001 video is very different to the glossy one that emerged “overnight” following Boris’ resignation.

Could this sink his chances (not what he says but the way he says it)? – Owl

More than 10,000 people on Twitter have ‘liked’ and shared Kathryn Franklin’s video of Sunak’s comments. Kathryn, from Huddersfield, told WalesOnline: “We first saw that Rishi Sunak clip on our local BBC Politics show back in March. We recorded it as we found it to be quite shocking and telling. I tweeted it at the time but I haven’t many followers so it didn’t get seen.

“I then saw Rishi Sunak’s slick campaign video in support of his bid to become PM and it seemed to contradict what he’d said in that video clip back in 2001. So I posted the clip again… It did take me by surprise how many people were seeing the little video that my husband Stuart and I had clipped but we felt it was a good insight into the potential PM candidate and we’re glad it’s been seen by quite a few people now. We don’t belong to any political party but we just think honesty, integrity and authenticity are important values in public life. All sadly lacking of late.”

Source Wales Online

Watch video on Twitter here

The 2022 Rishi Sunak is portrayed here

Harold Wilson’s controversial 1976 resignation honours list was dubbed “the Lavender List”.

Owl thinks “The Wallpaper List” would be appropriate for Boris.

“For defending the indefensible”

Boris Johnson planning to put Nadine Dorries in the House of Lords

Jack Peat www.thelondoneconomic.com 

Nigel Adams, Nadine Dorries and Allegra Stratton are among the names being tipped for a peerage before the summer recess.

With Boris Johnson clinging to power, the outgoing prime minister is expected to use the coming weeks to draw up a list of people he wishes to appoint into the House of Lords.

According to the Sunday Times, Dorries is “expected” to go to the upper chamber and depart frontline politics for novel writing after Johnson’s downfall.

Paul Dacre, the former editor of the Daily Mail, and billionaire Tory donor Michael Hintze are also said to be in line to be ennobled in the next couple of months.

The newspaper reported that a No 10 official contacted a veteran Tory to ask whether it was possible to give Stanley Johnson a knighthood on the basis he was “once an MEP”, but the senior party figure advised against it.

Allegra Stratton – who quit as Mr Johnson’s spokeswoman after she was captured joking about at Christmas gathering at the start of the Partygate scandal – is also said to be “tipped” for a peerage as part of the PM’s resignation list.

Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton and Honiton has warned that the Conservative government isn’t doing enough to help rural areas like Devon being hit by soaring petrol prices.

More help needed for rural areas like Devon says Richard Foord

Paul Haydon www.devonlive.com

It comes after a report by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found “cause for concern” in the sector. The urgent CMA review into fuel prices, originally commissioned by Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, also reported there are “significant differences in prices between many rural and urban areas.”

The government has not yet announced any further action to tackle sky-rocketing fuel prices despite several recommendations being but forward in the CMA review, including greater transparency for consumers over fuel prices.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a rural fuel duty cut of 10p per litre, to help families being hardest hit by soaring prices at the pump. The party is also calling for an emergency VAT cut to 17.5%, which would reduce fuel prices and put an average of £600 in the pockets of the average family.

Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton and Honiton Richard Foord said: “This review confirms what we already knew, residents in rural communities like Devon are being hit hardest by soaring petrol prices. Yet instead of acting now, the Conservatives are kicking action into the long grass. They’d rather wait to see who their next leader is than offer help to those who really need it now.

Senior Tories accused Boris Johnson of trying to torpedo Rishi Sunak’s bid to succeed him as prime minister – and of refusing to leave No 10 with good grace – as the leadership race descended into bitter infighting.

Toby Helm www.theguardian.com 

As a trio of cabinet ministers entered the contest last night, senior MPs said the battle now risked inflicting even more damage on the party than the fall of Margaret Thatcher more than three decades ago.

One party grandee accused Johnson of installing unsuitable MPs to middle-ranking and junior government posts when he knew he was on his way out “to cause maximum problems for his successor” who would inevitably have to sack most of them on taking office.

“Those appointments were the most appalling thing I have seen in politics,” said the senior source. “It was obviously a move to sabotage his successor’s first weeks in office.”

Another senior figure in the government added that Johnson was so incensed at the way he had been ousted, having won such a huge mandate at the 2019 general election, that he was now intent on exacting revenge on those he saw as responsible, and on influencing events wherever possible from the outside.

“This is not an administration that is going to go quietly. There is a lot of anger about how this all happened,” said the source. “It is clear that much of it will now focus on Rishi. It is all very Trumpian.”

A former vice-chairman of the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers, Sir Charles Walker, told the Observer that pleas for restraint were pointless because there was so much bad blood.

“People like me can say until we are blue in the face that the Conservative party should not tear itself apart, but our pleas will fall on deaf ears.

“Clearly the prime minister remains deeply bruised by the chancellor’s resignation. Rishi’s camp will have to soak up a lot of anger over the days to come. That will apply to whoever takes over.”

Meanwhile, Johnson allies warned the party it would soon regret ditching him and accused the candidates vying to replace him of being incapable of repeating his successes. They say Sunak, in particular, faces questions of “loyalty and propriety” and accuse him of plotting his leadership bid for months while publicly professing his loyalty.

On Saturday night , amid the succession turmoil, fresh allegations emerged that Johnson had lobbied for a job for a young woman who claims she was having a sexual relationship with him during his time as London mayor.

According to the Sunday Times, the appointment was blocked because Kit Malthouse, then a senior figure in City Hall and now a cabinet minister, suggested the pair had an inappropriately close relationship. Johnson is said to have admitted pushing her forward for a job when the woman, who remains anonymous, confronted him in 2017.

The claims follow reports last month that Johnson had tried to secure his wife, Carrie, a role as his chief of staff during his time as foreign secretary. The pair were having an affair at the time. He is also accused of helping an American businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri gain access to taxpayer-funded business trips after their affair in 2011.

Foreign secretary Liz Truss, transport secretary Grant Shapps and the new chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, all entered the leadership contest on Saturday night, alongside Sunak, the attorney general Suella Braverman, ex-minister Kemi Badenoch and the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, Tom Tugendhat.

Shapps said he would focus on the cost of living crisis, while Zahawi promised to lower taxes “for individuals, families and business”.

The chancellor also stressed his “culture war” credentials, saying he would “focus on letting children be children, protecting them from damaging and inappropriate nonsense being forced on them by radical activists”.

Truss is expected to pledge to reverse the government’s recent national insurance rise when she officially launches her campaign this week.

Others expected to declare in the coming days include former cabinet ministers Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt. Supporters of trade minister Penny Mordaunt are urging her to declare, while the defence secretary Ben Wallace – one of the bookies’ early favourites – said on Saturday that he would not be throwing his hat into the ring.

The chair of the 1922 committee, Sir Graham Brady, will meet senior MP colleagues and members of the party’s board on Monday to decide how the contest will proceed. They are expected to agree a timetable that will see the number of candidates whittled down to two in a series of votes by MPs over the coming fortnight. Then there will be a programme of hustings for the final two, leading to a vote by party members, and the announcement of a new leader and prime minister in early September.

According to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer, Sunak is the favourite among people who voted Conservative at the last general election. Some 55.4% said he would be a good prime minister. Javid was in second place on 50.5%.

Those close to Johnson are struggling to decide which candidate they should back. “People are trying to work this out at the moment, the field is muddied by so many unrealistic candidates,” said one.

“There is a strong concern in what you might call the pro-Boris camp of certain candidates – some, perfectly reasonably, have never bought into what Boris was trying to do.

“Then there are those who have been running leadership campaigns from within the cabinet for some time, which is an act of the highest disloyalty. If you’re that far gone in terms of your support to the prime minister, you ought to have resigned months ago. I think that raises a fundamental question of loyalty and, indeed, of propriety.”

Johnson loyalists will look at any potential campaign by the home secretary, Priti Patel, as well as Truss and Zahawi, before deciding who to back. Another Johnson supporter said “buyer’s remorse” was already beginning to grow among those who had helped to topple Johnson.

Neil Parish’s wife says he’s ‘oversexed’ and obviously feels the detailed record should be set straight.

If neither were very good with computers, why did Neil employ her as his parliamentary assistant?

It’s probably a good job the voters of Tiverton and Honiton got rid of him.

He can now spend more time with his family. – Owl

‘Porn MP’ Neil Parish is ‘oversexed’, wife claims – but he says it’s just ‘healthy appetite’

Lili Stebbings www.devonlive.com

Mr Parish said wife Sue of 41-years “always says I’m oversexed – I don’t know if I am but I have a healthy appetite.”

The wife of former Devon MP Neil Parish who was caught watching porn in the House of Commons has branded him ‘oversexed’ – but he insists he just has a “healthy appetite.”

Mr Parish, 66, quit his role as Tiverton’s MP after he was caught watching porn – although he insists he really was Googling tractors the first time. He told the Mail: “Everybody laughs and says you’re telling porky pies but I’m not. When you go on to Google, lots of things come up. I look at tractors and cars.

“There was a direct link [to the site]. I’m not going to say what I Googled but it’s not The Dominator as has been reported, because that’s a combine harvester.

“I have gone on to sites before — you know, scantily clad things and what have you — but I haven’t gone on to anything like this, to be honest with you. The problem is I shouldn’t have gone on to it a second time. It was the second time that did it.”

Sue, 66, rallieed to his defence saying: “I guess we’re not very good at IT, either of us. We’ve just booked a holiday. Neil wanted to go from Dover to Dunkirk. It ended up being Dover to Calais. It’s only down the road so it doesn’t matter but we aren’t very good on computers at all.”

Mr Parish’s resignation as an MP prompted the Tiverton and Honiton by-election, where Boris Johnson suffered a crushing defeat, losing the seat to the Lib Dems for the first time in nearly a century, the Mirror reports.

Mr Parish claimed he had accidentally stumbled upon the X-rated videos while searching for farm machinery, before doing so deliberately a second time.

Mr Parish said his wife Sue of 41-years “always says I’m oversexed – I don’t know if I am but I have a healthy appetite. She used to say when I was a little too amorous, “I’ll get the scissors to you if you don’t behave yourself. Snippety, snip.”

Mrs Parish corrected him to say she had, in fact, chased him around the kitchen with “burdizzos — the things you use on cattle to crush their b***s.”

Earlier this week, Mr Parish appeared on ITV programme Lorraine, where he admitted he experienced a “moment of madness”. Speaking on the show, Mr Parish said: “I think there are moments of madness in your life and this was one of them and of course, you know, one has plenty of time to regret afterwards. I did the right thing, I’ve apologised and I left parliament.”

But the interview seems to have left the former MP with some fans as left viewers in stitches with one person calling it “one of the funniest interviews” on Lorraine.

The Conservative Party faces two key questions as it begins the process of electing a new leader. First, how much distance should it put between itself and Boris Johnson? Second, what policy stances should it take in the post-Brexit, post-Covid world that threatens the biggest crisis in living standards since 1945.

John Curtice www.thetimes.co.uk 

The controversy surrounding Johnson’s judgment and ethics that has dogged the party over the last six months has not only damaged his personal reputation, but also harmed its electoral standing. On the eve of Johnson’s eventual downfall on Thursday, the party stood at just 33 per cent in the polls, seven points behind Labour.

But will simply replacing Johnson be enough to reverse the damage? Certainly, the new leader will need to have a different style — to be seen to show more regard for due process, a greater sense of collegiality, and a greater readiness to provide a direct answer to tough questions than was characteristic of Johnson.

However, will voters be willing to warm to anyone who was a member of Johnson’s cabinet through thick and thin until earlier this week? And will the spectacle of a near collapse in the government this week have raised questions in voters’ minds about the ability of the party collectively to provide effective government? Certainly, support for the party is down on average by another three points in the first polls to be taken since Johnson’s resignation, leaving Labour as much as 11 points ahead.

One way in which the next leader might hope to reverse the damage done to the party’s reputation in the eyes of voters is to provide it with a renewed sense of direction. In truth, the party has found itself in an uncomfortable place in the wake of a pandemic that has resulted in record levels of spending, taxation and fiscal deficit, a trio now overlaid by a “cost of living crisis”. Many Conservative MPs feel they did not come into politics to preside over a significant growth in the size of the state, and the debate over how best to respond had opened a gulf between Johnson and his chancellor, Rishi Sunak.

The reaction among many in the party has been to reach for the familiar ideological lever of tax cuts, arguing that such a step would immediately help put money in voters’ constrained pockets. Yet those advocating this course have yet to spell out the implications of such cuts for both the management of the fiscal deficit and public expenditure.

Is the party ready to abandon the spending on infrastructure that was central to Johnson’s “levelling-up” agenda, from which Leave voting areas in particular are meant to profit? And will tax cuts — rather than trying to repair the damage done by Covid to the NHS and schools — have a sufficient appeal for an electorate that has already shown signs of concern about the impact of a pre-Covid decade of fiscal austerity on the funding of public services?

Equally, there is debate within the party about how Johnson’s principal legacy as prime minister — Brexit — should now be managed. Some Tory MPs appear keen to seize more vigorously what they regard as the opportunity afforded by Brexit to deregulate the economy by divesting the country of many an EU regulation. Yet research suggests that voters, including many Leave voters, value much of the consumer and environmental protection that has been put in place by the EU and are inclined to evaluate regulation on an unideological, case-by-case basis. Meanwhile, although even many Remain voters do not want to see a return to EU freedom of movement, voters do not necessarily want to see immigration cut at the expense of being able to deal with the labour market shortages that have evolved in the wake of Covid.

Hanging on to old verities will not necessarily provide the Conservatives with the direction they need to persuade voters that the party can govern effectively in the midst of the very different and complex challenges that Britain now faces. Rather, the party needs to be willing to think afresh rather than simply resort to its comfort zone.

John Curtice is Professor of Politics, Strathclyde University, and Senior Research Fellow, NatCen Social Research and ‘The UK in a Changing Europe’.

“At least three current candidates would be worse than Boris.”

The Tory civil war has begun. 

On one level it will be hugely entertaining but from a national perspective very damaging. 

Also, our local porngate saga continues:

Read in a separate EDW post: ‘Porn MP’ Neil Parish is ‘oversexed’, wife claims – but he says it’s just ‘healthy appetite’

Caroline Wheeler www.thetimes.co.uk 

No sooner had Boris Johnson announced his resignation last week after a series of scandals rocked Downing Street than the fresh mud-slinging begun.

The bitter civil war engulfing the Conservatives looks set to deepen as the party braces for what is likely to become the dirtiest leadership campaign in history.

So divided is the party that at least two rival leadership campaign teams have passed the Labour Party a digital dossier containing a series of lurid allegations about their potential opponents. Last week tongues were set wagging when a prominent supporter of one of the frontrunners in the race was seen meeting a senior Labour official at the White Horse pub in Soho, central London.

The documents include a catalogue of claims about the likely runners and riders, including allegations about their private lives and financial arrangements, among them the use of tax dodges and loans. At least one private investigator has been hired to dig into some of the candidates’ financial arrangements. There are also claims of drug taking and the use of prostitutes.

A senior Tory party source said: “There are rumours being widely circulated about candidates getting involved in bondage, domination and sadomasochism, claims of inappropriate relationships and compromising explicit photographs that could be used as kompromat.

“It has even been claimed that one of the contenders requests that staff deliver their government papers to them while they are in the bath.”

The negative briefing has sunk to such depths that even the staff who work for candidates are being targeted. One aide is accused of regularly attending orgies, something that is alleged to have precluded them from receiving the highest level of security clearance.

Details of alleged extramarital affairs are also being widely shared with Labour by Tories desperate to discredit their opponents. Hostile briefings between the rival camps raises the prospect of blue-on-blue attacks escalating during the course of the contest.

Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s former aide, has already gone public with some of the claims about affairs between the leadership hopefuls and their special advisers, known as spads.

In a tweet posted on Friday, he wrote: “At least three current candidates would be worse than Boris. At least one is more insane than Truss, clearly unfit to be anywhere near nuclear codes. At least one is a spad shagger.”

He later tweeted: “Sorry, correction, I’m informed by Cabinet Office at least two spad shaggers . . . would be very Westminster for Boris to get the bullet cos of lies over sex/groping . . . only to be replaced by someone actually shagging their spad!”

Guto Harri, Johnson’s director of communications, has already been forced to deny that he has been briefing against Rishi Sunak’s campaign. He called the campaign team on Saturday morning to reassure them that he was not the source of hostile briefings against the former chancellor.

According to the Financial Times, Johnson’s allies aim to stop Sunak becoming leader and are accusing the former chancellor of treachery for triggering the prime minister’s premature exit. More than 50 Conservative MPs quit the government after Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid resigned on Tuesday, leading Johnson to step down as Tory leader two days later. Close allies of Johnson said there was “huge anger” in Downing Street over Sunak’s resignation. One senior No 10 official called Sunak “a treacherous bastard”.

A government source said the skullduggery had reached new depths and was symptomatic of a party where scandal had become commonplace.

Last week it was claimed that Chris Pincher, the former deputy chief, whip, had groped two men in a private members’ club, triggering a chain of events that eventually led to the prime minister’s downfall. Pincher denies the claims. It was the latest sleaze scandal to hit the Conservative Party, which has now lost four MPs over allegations of sexual misconduct, with a fifth being investigated by the police for rape.

A senior MP said: “Everybody is desperate for this sordid period of our party’s history to end and for us to elect a new leader with bags of integrity who can draw a line under this disastrous episode. But that does mean that scandal now has a currency in the forthcoming leadership elections, which will likely make this the dirtiest campaign in history.”

Many of the candidates who have declared, including Sunak, have avoided the traditional campaign launches and interviews with leading media outlets. Sunak launched his campaign by posting a video on Twitter.

It is understood this is to avoid the candidates being asked too many difficult questions as they progress through the first stages of a swift campaign.

Penny Mordaunt, the trade minister, is expected to run on a “zero-tolerance” ticket promising to clean up politics. One source feared this could make her vulnerable to a dirty-tricks campaign.

“If she is going to make this a dividing line, surely her rivals will do whatever it takes to undermine her and make her look like a hypocrite,” they said.

Last night the briefing against her had already begun, with one Tory source claiming that Mordaunt had spent months priming allies for her resignation, only to remain in government and let others finish Johnson off. “Tom Hunt and Lee Anderson resigned from the government before she did. She’s still there,” they added.

“When it comes to the crux of it she has done absolutely nothing in government. There’s a reason she’s known as ‘Penny Dormant’.”

Meanwhile, Lord Goldsmith, a close ally of Johnson who has thrown his weight behind Nadhim Zahawi, has broken ranks to accuse Mordaunt of failing to heed concerns about the environment.

As international trade secretary, Goldsmith claimed that colleagues “couldn’t persuade her of the importance of nature”, adding: “You can do all the development you want, but lose the Congo Basin and hundreds of millions lose their rainfall and food and there’s an unprecedented refugee crisis.”

The Brexiteer candidates, who are all trying to win the support of the European Research Group and Common Sense group, are also turning on each other.

In one hostile briefing, Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, has been accused of not reading her own Northern Ireland Protocol Bill and staying quiet during key meetings. “It’s important to remember, when she is flashing her Brexit credentials, that Liz campaigned for ‘project fear’ and the emergency budget. She also supported Theresa May’s deal,” a source in a rival camp added.

There have also been claims that whips, who have been ordered to stay neutral, have been ringing around on behalf of candidates, including Ben Wallace, the defence secretary.

With the field wide open and the potential for more than a dozen candidates to run in the contest, the knock-out rounds, which could start as early as Tuesday, are likely to be particularly brutal.

Previously, the parliamentary stage of the contest has lasted for weeks, but it is likely the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs will announce on Monday that the slate is to be whittled down to the final two by the time the Commons rises for the summer recess on Thursday, July 21.

One source close to the 1922 Committee said active discussions are under way to truncate the second stage of the process, when party members vote for their preferred candidate. This could last for just three weeks, meaning a new Conservative Party leader — and prime minister — will have been elected by mid-August.

A Tory MP said: “The candidates will only have a matter of days to make their mark. The gloves are going to have to come off pretty quickly.”

Candidates vying for support from the same wing of the party will be particularly eager to pick each other off in order to hoover up their rivals’ support and make it through to the final two.

Previously, candidates have been accused of lending others support in order to ensure they knock out their closest rival. In 2019, supporters of Michael Gove accused Johnson’s campaign team of “dirty tricks” after the former housing minister was narrowly eliminated in the battle for No 10.

In 2016, Theresa May’s aides are alleged to have drawn up a dirty dossier on Johnson at a time when he was considered her fiercest rival. It was not used because his campaign imploded. The document, which was seen by The Sunday Times, contained a string of allegations about Johnson’s sexual liaisons, quips from him about cocaine, and damning assessments of his character.

“If only we had taken more heed of that dossier,” said one aide. “Maybe we would not have got into this mess in the first place.”

If you are a Tory and need Johnson’s flat makeover items on the cheap, the Daily Mail is always there to guide you:

Budget stores (and even John Lewis) have VERY convincing copies of Lulu Lytle’s expensive pieces

Harriet Johnston www.dailymail.co.uk (Extract)

While Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie may have been billed £200,000 for their flat revamp in Number 11 Downing Street by Lulu Lytle, the couple could have picked up high street alternatives to their purchases – for a fraction of the cost. …..

…FEMAIL can reveal that many items similar to those for sale on the exclusive Soane Britain website can be purchased from high street stores like John Lewis, whose furnishings Carrie apparently rejected, as well as Wayfair and Dulemn – without the hefty price tag. 

On the other hand a more sophisticated critique is offered by Oliver Wainwright in the Guardian:

A £200,000 paean to French knock-offs and gilded tat

…..Beyond the sense of fortified desperation, the shopping list reflects other sides of the prime minister’s worldview. In keeping with Boris’s talk of “piccaninnies” and “watermelon smiles”, Lytle’s aesthetic has been criticised for its colonial undertones, with patterns featuring exotic animals and Orientalist motifs. She has defended her designs as the result of “30 years of research” and said in one recent interview that she was “completely baffled by the idea that having a woven lion on my wall from Nepal could be anything other than respectful”.

Instead, she likes to think she is following in the footsteps of William Morris, the socialist artist and designer who saw craftsmanship as a route to fundamental social change (he later realised he had spent his life “ministering to the swinish luxury of the rich”). Like Morris, Lytle sees her work as championing a revival of lost traditions, peddling a Brexit-friendly message as “the Boudicca of British craftsmanship”, as one antique dealer described her.

Foremost in her crafts crusade is rattan, a material with its own allusions to colonial verandas, and the Johnson bill includes several such items of rattan furniture – the £3,650 Leighton table and a £3,800 Hurlingham bookcase, which would both be at home on the terrace of a Raj-era governor’s palace. When Britain’s last rattan workshop, Angraves in Leicestershire, went into administration in 2011, Lytle bought the machinery and hired two of the staff. In another exquisite piece of Johnsonian symbolism, she also acquired the rights to Dryad – the company that designed rattan seating for the Titanic.

Theresa May’s No 11 decor might have been dismissed as a “John Lewis nightmare”, but that sounds infinitely preferable to being stuck inside this folksy, chintz-laden sinking ship.