Thirty-seven households in East Devon have so far come forward to offer homes for Ukrainian refugees.

JOE IVES Exmouth Journal

East Devon District Council (EDDC) says its private housing team is undertaking property inspections and Devon County Council (DCC) is carrying out safeguarding checks.

Under the Government-run Homes for Ukraine scheme, upper-tier local authorities will be paid £10,500 for every Ukrainian refugee housed in their area, with a top-up to help support children’s education. Individuals who provide accommodation to Ukrainian refugees will be paid £350 per month for up to a year. Speaking at an EDDC cabinet meeting, John Golding, the council’s strategic lead for housing, health and the environment, said: “We are totally committed to playing our part in the scheme and are fully engaged in what is quite a rapidly developing project. “We are also appreciative of the generous offers from sponsors or host households that have come forward in East Devon to provide a home for people fleeing from the horrendous violence that we’ve been seeing in Ukraine.” Addressing cabinet, Trevor Leahong from the Ottery Refugee Response Group said his organisation was working to set up a local community support system to help arrivals. He also asked for an update on what EDDC was doing to help Afghan refugees, many of whom are still without homes after fleeing the Taliban last year.

Mr Golding said 55 Afghan refugees were still at a `bridging’ hotel in Exmouth, organised by the Home Office. He added: “Our housing responsibilities as a district council are pretty much limited to providing a safety net if arrangements fail in the bridging hotel. We work closely with Devon County Council, Exmouth Town Council and local voluntary community groups to settle Afghan evacuees into Exmouth. I think that’s gone particularly well.” However, EDDC has very few suitable properties and has directed the Home Office to housing association partners. Leader of the council Paul Arnott described the situation as ‘absolutely heartbreaking’. He said, despite EDDC’s own housing crisis and the long waiting lists for homes, ‘this council will do everything it can to help people from Ukraine and the existing and potentially future Afghan refugees’.

April Fools Day saw the biggest rise in gas and electricity prices in living memory. On average, we are now paying almost £60 a month extra. 

Martin Shaw, Chair East Devon Alliance www.midweekherald.co.uk

Even before this huge hike, many people in East Devon were finding it very difficult to keep their homes warm. 

Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis had warned that some people could ‘freeze or starve’ as soaring fuel prices combine with relentless general inflation – likely to reach 10 per cent this summer – to make life impossible for those on modest incomes.

Just imagine you’re trying to keep a family with young children together on low wages, like too many people in Devon, or on benefits, which Rishi Sunak – a multimillionaire married to a billionaire, who own together three huge homes and four cars – already cut by £20 per week last year. 

Or a widow or widower relying on the state pension to keep your retirement home comfortable.

Sunak has chosen to give people only minimal protection from the energy price rise, offering only a one-off grant of £150, i.e. a couple of months’ increases, to people living in lower council-tax-band properties. 

Boris Johnson has defended oil and gas producers like Shell and BP who are making huge windfall profits, and is refusing to take the obvious step of taxing these gains to subsidise people’s bills. 

Compare France, where the government has restricted rises to 12 per cent, not the astronomical 54 per cent we are having to pay.

On top of this, Sunak and Johnson have chosen to go ahead with this week’s National Insurance tax rise and have forced local government to implement council tax rises to pay for social care. 

Despite the Ukraine war making energy prices even worse, Sunak offered no further relief on energy bills in his recent statement. It seems as though he has no conception of what these rises mean for so many people.

Meanwhile the energy providers are doing their own bit to add to the misery. 

I wrote a couple of months back about British Gas trying to flog me a ‘cheap deal’ which was even worse than the price-cap rate. 

Now I find that, even though my account is substantially in credit, their app won’t let me reduce my monthly payments. 

Effectively they’re forcing me to pay up front for the energy they think I’m going to consume at the monstrous new prices.

Possibly, energy providers are worried that by the time of the next scheduled increase in October – which is likely to be closer to another £100 per month on top of this month’s rise – customers simply won’t be able to afford to pay if the companies haven’t collected extra money in advance. 

The government’s offer for October, when the weather gets colder again, is a ‘loan’ of £200, to be repaid when gas prices fall. By then, £200 is likely to be less than one month’s energy bill for the average household.

East Devon Conservatives are also adding insult to injury, pushing out a glossy leaflet to households (paid for with Russian oligarch money, one wonders?) which fails to even mention the cost of living. 

Instead of pressing their government to do more about the £60 per month people are having to pay, MPs Neil Parish and Simon Jupp are bravely hammering East Devon District Council for putting an extra 50p or £1 on parking charges – modest increases which most Conservative councillors supported!

Local businesses are indeed under threat, but not from EDDC. As well as facing the same increased energy costs as consumers, they are worrying that their customers simply won’t have cash to spend, or even to fill up their cars to drive into town.

This is the worst cost of living crisis in a century: when will our MPs take notice and make sure the government acts?

Staggering – Owl

Anna Isaac www.independent.co.uk 

Rishi Sunak’s millionaire wife has claimed non-domicile status in order to save on her tax bill while her husband was chancellor, The Independent understands.

Akshata Murthy, whose family business is estimated to be worth around £3.5bn, has continued to use the valuable tax status even after Mr Sunak was put in charge of setting taxes for the country in February 2020, according to two people familiar with her financial arrangements.

It is not known exactly how much has been saved by Ms Murthy but sources told The Independent it could have saved her millions of pounds in tax on foreign earnings over several years.

The Treasury declined to comment. A representative for Mr Sunak did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

In a statement issued after publication, a spokesperson for Ms Murthy claimed that she had to use non-dom status because of her Indian citizenship.

The spokesperson said: “Akshata Murty is a citizen of India, the country of her birth and parent’s home.

“India does not allow its citizens to hold the citizenship of another country simultaneously. So, according to British law, Ms Murty is treated as non-domiciled for UK tax purposes. She has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income.”

The decision to pay less tax through non-dom status is optional.

So-called “non-dom” status is entirely lawful and can save an individual from paying UK tax on income from dividends from foreign investments, rental payments on property overseas or bank interest. The status also means that you avoid UK inheritance tax.

Meanwhile, most people who live in the UK must pay tax on all their income, wherever it comes from. Unlike non-residents, non-doms can live in the UK for 365 days a year.

Tulip Siddiq, Labour’s shadow economic secretary to the Treasury, called for Mr Sunak to “urgently explain how much he and his family have saved on their own tax bill” at the same time as raising taxes for millions of people during the cost of living crisis.

She said: “The chancellor has imposed tax hike after tax hike on the British people. It is staggering that – at the same time – his family may have been benefitting from tax reduction schemes. This is yet another example of the Tories thinking it is one rule for them, another for everyone else.”

The news comes as Mr Sunak’s popularity with voters plunged amid continuing debate over the government’s reaction to surging living costs.

A YouGov poll found more than half of Britons now have an unfavourable opinion of the chancellor, compared with 28 per cent who view him in a positive light.

Mr Sunak raised the tax burden on UK taxpayers to its highest level since the 1940s in his spring statement last month, even as living standards face their sharpest decline on record.

In the latest evidence of the chancellor’s personal wealth it was revealed on Tuesday that the couple donated more than £100,000 to Winchester College, the exclusive private school he attended.

Ms Murthy, who met Mr Sunak while the pair studied at Stanford University in the US, holds investments in a range of companies, and is the daughter of an Indian billionaire, Narayana Murthy.

The No 11 resident is also a director of Catamaran Ventures UK, which is described as “a family office” venture capital and private equity business that operates out of Bangalore and London. Her father is the chair of Catamaran’s Indian arm.

Alongside an MBA, Ms Murthy has a range of business experience and speaks four languages, according to her LinkedIn profile.

One of Ms Murthy’s investments is in Infosys, an Indian company founded by her father that is listed in New York, which generated billions of dollars of revenue last year and has drawn fresh media attention in recent weeks.

The company recently closed its operations in Russia. The step followed criticism about the contrast between its ongoing presence in the country and Mr Sunak’s public call on all companies to “think very carefully” about maintaining any investments in Russia, following the Putin regime’s violent invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Sunak has not declared his wife’s shareholdings on the Register of Members’ Interests and previously said he has ”followed the ministerial code to the letter”.

The ministerial code states that ministers “must ensure that no conflict arises, or could reasonably be perceived to arise, between their public duties and their private interests, financial or otherwise”. It adds that on appointment, ministers have to provide a list of all interests that “might be thought to give rise to a conflict”, this should also cover “interests of the minister’s spouse or partner and close family”.

Dividends from Infosys calculated from Ms Murthy’s stake in the company, of 0.93 per cent suggest the payments could have totalled around £11.6m in the past year.

As a non-dom, Ms Murthy would not have had to pay tax on these dividend payments in the UK. That compares to an ordinary UK resident, who, paying tax on dividends at the so-called “additional rate” (for all dividend payments over the personal allowance) would have to pay tax of 38.1 per cent on the payouts.

The special status could therefore have saved her a bill of around £4.4m in tax, although she may have incurred tax liabilities overseas. There is no suggestion the chancellor minimised his own tax bill.

Yet despite the huge economic reward it can offer individuals, there is no statutory definition of what non-dom means. Instead, HMRC makes a determination taking into account whether they or their father was born outside the UK, or they have lived outside the UK for a number of years.

Notable examples of non-doms in public life have included former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, who is Canadian. Lord Goldsmith, minister for the Pacific, who faced controversy over his non-dom status when he ran in the London Mayoral elections in 2016, and Tory peer Lord Ashcroft who gave up his status to remain in the House of Lords.

Among those aged 55 and over, the estimated prevalence on 31 March stood at 8.31%. “This is around 20 times higher than the average for that group across the whole period from May 2020 through to March 2022, so these are absolutely unprecedentedly high levels.” 

Overall the south-west had the highest infection rate at 8.13%.

These findings come from the REACT study that the government will no longer fund.

In the absence of any viable Public Health “test, track and trace” system, random studies such as this, and the ONS study, provide vital data on the spread of the disease. 

Remember, very early in the pandemic, on March 12, 2020, Public Health ceased Covid testing in the community and retreated to testing principally within hospitals. 

It seems that this government doesn’t like to be bothered with facts and figures, especially inconvenient ones that get in the way of policy making. – Owl

Covid deaths in England may rise as cases in over-55s increase

Linda Geddes www.theguardian.com

A rise in Covid infections in the over-55s could see an increased number of hospitalisations and deaths in the coming weeks, experts have warned.

Imperial College London’s latest React-1 study found that while infections appeared to be slowing down or plateauing in most younger age groups in England, they were rising in over-55s, with no clear sign of when they will peak.

According to their latest data, the average prevalence of Covid-19 across England stood at 6.4%, based on swabs collected between 9 and 31 March from a random sample of nearly 100,000 people. “That’s by far the highest we’ve seen at any time since [the study began] in May 2020,” said Prof Paul Elliott, who led the research.

The south-west had the highest infection rate at 8.13%, and West Midlands the lowest at 5.28%, with reliable increases in infections observed in all English regions apart from London.

Among those aged 55 and over, the estimated prevalence on 31 March stood at 8.31%. “This is around 20 times higher than the average for that group across the whole period from May 2020 through to March 2022, so these are absolutely unprecedentedly high levels,” Elliott said.

“Obviously there’s the vaccination programme, which has been hugely important in protecting us as a population, but if you see more infection, you would generally expect to see more severe outcomes [such as hospitalisations and deaths],” added Prof Christl Donnelly at Imperial College London, who was also involved in the study.

“We don’t yet know when we’ll see a peak in the over-55 age group, and because those people are at higher risk of severe outcomes that is a particular worry.”

The team also identified eight cases involving “recombinant” forms of the coronavirus, which can occur when a person is infected with two variants at once, including five of the XE variant, a combination of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2. Separate data has suggested this is spreading about 10% faster than BA.2 in the UK, with 637 cases identified as of 22 March.

The figures came as the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that Covid-related deaths in England have jumped to their highest level since mid-February.

There were 780 deaths where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate in the seven days leading up to 25 March – up 14% on the previous week. This increase follows several weeks where deaths appeared to have levelled off.

Coronavirus infections have been rising across the UK since early March, driven by the Omicron BA.2 variant. Prevalence of the virus is currently at a record high, with ONS figures suggesting approximately 4.9 million people had Covid in the week to 26 March. This increase may now be having an impact on the number of deaths, which typically lag behind infections by several weeks.

The death toll is the highest since 18 February when 863 deaths were recorded – although this is still lower than at the peak of the first Omicron wave when 1,484 deaths were registered in England and Wales in the week to 21 January. It is also well below the 8,433 deaths registered at the peak of the second wave of coronavirus in the week to 29 January 2021.

In total 190,053 deaths have now occurred in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, according to the ONS. The number of people in hospital in the UK with coronavirus is close to the total reached at the start of this year but is still far below levels recorded in early 2021.

This relatively low number of deaths and hospitalisations largely reflects the success of the vaccination programme – in particular the rollout of booster doses at the end of 2021. A fourth “spring booster” dose of vaccine is being offered to people aged 75 and over, care home residents and those aged 12 and over with weakened immune systems.

Wednesday’s React-1 figures are the last that will be published by the study group, as the government has now axed funding for the project. Throughout the pandemic, it has played a key role in tracking the spread of Covid-19 infections in the community, alongside the ONS study, which will continue.

Elliott said he was “extremely proud” of what the study had achieved, providing “very rapid, real-time information that we endeavoured to report very quickly to the public, to the press, as well as to the government.

“There will be a bit of a loss. But I’m very hopeful that with the [ONS study] continuing we will still be ahead of other countries in terms of population level surveillance.”

We paid for them but we can’t see them, what do they show? – Owl

Rowena Mason www.theguardian.com 

Ministers are refusing to disclose any pictures taken by official No 10 photographers of illegal gatherings held inside Downing Street, prompting Labour to call on Boris Johnson to “come clean and release these photos”.

The Cabinet Office refused to confirm or deny the existence of any photographs of events in the cabinet room, leaving parties, and a party in the prime minister’s Downing Street flat, after official pictures of the gatherings were requested under freedom of information laws.

It said disclosing such information could prejudice the investigation, and contravene the principle of “fairness” under data protection regulations.

It has been reported that photographs taken by taxpayer-funded official photographers for No 10 are among the evidence handed to Sue Gray for her investigation into the parties, including one of Johnson’s birthday gathering on 19 June 2020, where he is allegedly holding up a beer towards the camera in a toast.

“The Downing Street photographer is funded by the taxpayer. The public have every right to see the photos that their hard-earned money has paid for,” she said. “By blocking their publication, Boris Johnson is trying to cover up his own rule breaking.

“As this government inflicts crippling tax hikes on working families during a cost of living crisis, the least they can do is be honest about what that money is being spent on. Boris Johnson must come clean and release these photos.”

It comes as the government is under fire over its lack of transparency over who has been issued with fines over the Partygate scandal. The government is not requiring civil servants to disclose to the Cabinet Office if they receive penalties after a police investigation. Only Boris Johnson and Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, have committed to revealing whether they are hit by fines.

Jill Rutter, a senior fellow at the UK in a Changing Europe thinktank, wrote on Tuesday that Partygate “should not degenerate into a Whitehall version of Cluedo … the Met should stop dribbling out fines; there should be a commitment to name the most senior civil servants and all ministers fined”.

Helen MacNamara, the former head of propriety and ethics in the Cabinet Office, issued an apology after a leak named her as one of the 20 people issued with fines as part of the Met investigation.

A leaving party for Kate Josephs, who ran the Covid taskforce, has also attracted fines in the first wave of penalty notices. Josephs is now on paid leave from her job as chief executive of Sheffield city council pending an investigation and it is not known whether she has personally received a fine.

Gray has the power to name senior civil servants in her report although she may choose not to use it. In her interim report, she named no names and referred only to the “senior official whose principal function is the direct support of the prime minister” – thought to be an allusion to Martin Reynolds, the principal private secretary.

The number of deaths involving coronavirus registered each week in England and Wales has jumped to its highest level since mid-February.

By Ian Jones, PA www.inyourarea.co.uk 

A total of 780 deaths registered in the seven days to March 25 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This is up 14% on the previous week and follows several weeks where deaths appeared to have levelled off.

The latest figures could signal the start of a new upwards trend.

Coronavirus infections have been rising across the UK since early March, driven by the Omicron BA.2 variant, and prevalence of the virus is currently at a record high.

This increase may now be having an impact on the number of death registrations.

The total for the week to March 25 of 780 is the highest since 863 deaths in the week to February 18.

During the previous surge of infections at the start of this year, which was caused by the original Omicron variant, Covid-19 deaths registered in England and Wales peaked at 1,484 in the week to January 21.

But this was well below the 8,433 deaths registered at the peak of the second wave of the virus, in the week to January 29 2021.

The relatively low number of deaths during recent months reflects the success of the vaccination programme, in particular the rollout of booster doses at the end of last year.

A fresh campaign is now under way to give a “spring booster” – a fourth dose of vaccine – to people aged 75 and over, residents of older adult care homes, and those aged 12 and over who are immunosuppressed.

Fourth doses of vaccine can be given to people who are at least six months on from their most recent jab.

Figures published last Friday by the ONS showed prevalence of Covid-19 in the UK is at a record high, with an estimated 4.9 million infections in the week to March 26.

The number of people in hospital in the UK with coronavirus is close to the total reached at the start of this year, but is still far below levels seen during the second wave in early 2021 – again reflecting the impact of the rollout of vaccines.

Overall, 190,053 deaths have now occurred in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, the ONS said.

The highest number on a single day was 1,487 on January 19 2021.

During the first wave of the virus, the daily toll peaked at 1,461 on April 8 2020.

Around nine in 10 deaths with Covid-19 on the death certificate since the start of the pandemic have coronavirus as the primary cause of death, with a minority listing the virus as a contributory factor.

Households in rural areas will be worst affected by rising energy bills, according to new Labour analysis. The party found that rural households will pay around a third more to heat their homes on average as prices rise, partly due to a higher proportion of low-energy-efficiency homes in those areas. Shadow DEFRA Secretary Jim McMahon said the government’s £200 energy discount/loan would “do nothing to tackle the bill hikes people in rural communities have been facing every year.”

POLITICO London Playbook Tuesday 5 April

A suitable post for the day taxes go up for many – Owl

British MPs have charged taxpayers £420,000 for energy bills in their second homes over the last three years, openDemocracy can reveal.

Martin Williams www.opendemocracy.net 

The government has refused to step in to curb record high energy costs as millions in the UK face bill hikes of 54%. Senior Tories also blocked proposals for a windfall tax on energy firms.

Yet government ministers are among the 405 MPs who have claimed expenses for their heating bills since April 2019. They include foreign secretary Liz Truss, two senior Treasury ministers, and even a minister from the department for energy.

Meanwhile, ordinary consumers have been hit with an extra £700-a-year cost for heating their homes. Official figures show 40% have already been finding it difficult to afford gas and electricity.

George Freeman, who is a minister in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, claimed £1,565 for electricity and other fuel.

Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, claimed £1,548 for gas and electricity.

Treasury ministers Simon Clarke and John Glen also claimed expenses for household energy.

Meanwhile, the government’s attorney general, Suella Braverman, racked up a £3,945 energy bill, which she charged to taxpayers.

And the disgraced former health secretary, Matt Hancock claimed a staggering £4,800 on energy costs – mostly during the pandemic.

But Labour MP Liam Byrne claimed the most on energy in his second home, charging taxpayers some £7,808 over three years.

Under the expenses system, MPs are allowed to claim for utility bills at their second homes if their constituencies are outside London.

Last week, MPs also got a £2,212 pay rise, bringing their standard salary up to £84,144 a year.

In reality, many MPs earn far more than this, as they are often paid extra for taking on additional roles like being a minister or chairing a select committee.

In November, openDemocracy also revealed that MPs had earned £6m from second jobs since the start of the pandemic.

But outside Westminster, the UK’s poverty crisis is deepening – and the government has faced calls to rein in energy companies by introducing a windfall tax.

Last month, openDemocracy revealed that the Big Six energy companies had made more than £1bn in profit ahead of the bill hike.

Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng dismissed proposals for a windfall tax, saying it would be “completely the wrong message to send investors”.

“We believe a windfall tax would be a tax on jobs, would destroy investment and would add to the uncertainty in oil markets,” he said.

Speaking in a Commons debate on the issue, Tory MP Andrew Bowie said the tax proposals were “stunts”. But records show that he has claimed expenses for almost £1,300 of electricity bills since 2019.

The energy price rise has sparked fresh concern about the UK’s spiralling poverty crisis, with low-earners, elderly and disabled people being hit the hardest.

The total cost to taxpayers for MPs’ energy bills is expected to rise even further as not all claims for last year will yet have been made.

(Tweets in text below)

1. Grant Shapps (who has more identities than Jason Bourne, somebody else people would travel halfway round the world to punch) was ooooh, livid about P&O, and demanded workers be reinstated.

2. He tweeted “P&O Ferries has ripped up 800 workers’ rights and hung them out to dry”.

3. P&O’s owners pointed out that they’d told Shapps they were going to do this a year ago, and he’d implicitly given them the go-ahead for the sackings, telling them “you will need to make commercial decisions” that are best for P&O.

4. Boris Johnson told parliament P&O had broken the law – and he hates that kind of thing – so “We will take them to court to defend British workers”.

5. This week the government dropped plans to take P&O to court, leading experts to say “it looks like they’ve got away with it”.

6. Last month’s relaxation of public health measures has been so successful that this week Covid infections reached a record high, and hospitalisations of older people are 15 per cent up on the last Omicron peak.

7. So, obviously, from today, free Covid testing has been scrapped too

8. And funding for tracking Covid has been axed, cos if you don’t look, it isn’t really happening.

9. When presented with the option of reintroducing basic public health measures, the health secretary instead went with advising primary school children to “socialise a bit less”.

10. The “protective ring” thrown around care homes was breached (again) as the cost of tests for visitors rises to £73 per month, and becomes voluntary.

11. And then, to thank health staff for their work, sacrifices and avoidable deaths, Sajid Javid scrapped their free parking.

12. So, sad news for the NHS, but fabulous news for Tory peer Michelle Mone.

13. She was reported to have directly lobbied government ministers to place orders for PPE from a company she was secretly involved in, via a tax haven – cos you wouldn’t wanna pay tax on your profiteering.

14. The Mone-adjacent company bought PPE for £46m, then sold it to the government at three times the price, and pocketed the difference.

15. And the PPE was never used cos it failed inspections.

16. And it looks like the PPE was somehow – surely by accident – issued with fake approval certificates.

17. And the entire thing had been negotiated between Mone and ministers using private email accounts, so there would be no papertrail.

18. Government guidelines forbid the use of private emails for government business. But they also forbid illegal profiteering, and look where that got us.

19. Rosa Klebb tribute act Priti Patel didn’t want to miss out, so made a “flagrant breach” of ministerial code by intervening to get a PPE contract for a company represented by her friend and former advisor.

20. Startled turbot Michael Gove was involved in granting the contract.

21. That company’s profits jumped from £38m to £166m.

22. After the last lobbying scandal – and I know it’s hard to keep track – the PM said he would “crack down” on the practice, and put a cap on MPs’ earnings from second jobs.

23. This week he quietly scrapped those promises.

24. And so ex-social care minister Caroline Dinenage immediately took a lucrative second job at a social care business owned by a Tory donor.

25. The Met continued their Cosmo-questionnaire-based approach to crimefighting, and issued 20 fines for people involved in PartyGate.

26. The fines coincided with the opening of the Covid Memorial wall, and also with the day Tory MPs chose to throw a jolly party for themselves; what larks!

27. Tories entered the shindig via a line of mourners from Covid deaths, and not one Tory MP looked at them. Not one. [Another question for you Neil and Simon: did you “avert your eyes”?- Owl]

28. Follicular fire-hazard Michael Fabricant, having experienced this, was moved to tweet his outrage – not about the flatly ignored mourners, but about the wine at the party being merely a “passable” House Merlot, and not up to his usual standards.

29. On the way in he said “We’re going to have a lot of fun”.

30. On the way out, clearly briefed by somebody smarter, such as the animal corpse on his head, he said it “wasn’t a party, just colleagues having dinner and drinks”, which is exactly what they just got fined for.

31. Months ago, as PartyGate kicked off, Solicitor General Alex Chalk put it in writing that he would resign if there was “a scintilla of a suggestion” anyone had broken the law over Downing St parties.

32. Alex Chalk has not resigned as Solicitor General. I know! I’m amazed, too

33. Boris Johnson suggested the fines simply showed that he was being honest when had told parliament “There was no party and no rules were broken”.

34. The ministerial code says “Ministers who knowingly mislead Parliament will be expected to offer their resignation”.

35. Dominic Raab, the kind of Justice Minister you’d expect to find on Gumtree, admitted laws had been broken.

36. Johnson listened politely, then said he would remain “pretty firmly on his position” that no laws were broken.

37. And then Number 10 said laws had been broken.

38. But Johnson refused to admit laws were broken.

39. To help out, the police said laws had been broken.

40. Number 10 then had some sort of episode, said “we do not formally accept laws were broken”, and began denying Raab had said laws had been broken. Which he had said. On TV.

41. Number 10 then claimed the PM denying parties wasn’t a lie, even though police had fined 20 people for those parties.

42. Faced with a paradox hard for any mind to handle, let alone his, Raab said the PM’s bullshit was merely him “telling the truth, to the best of his ability”.

43. And then, in a magisterial challenge to irony, Raab complained we “can’t believe a word that comes out of Putin”.

44. So, off to the NATO summit, where our world-leading PM, Sir Plankton Churchill, was ignored by everybody, and ended up alone, gazing forlornly at the ground.

45. The government boasted it had sanctioned 18 oligarchs, cos we don’t want dodgy Russian money queue-jumping honest visa-applicants.

46. 8 of those 18 got into this country via the Tory policy of “golden visas”, using dodgy Russian money queue-jump honest visa-applicants.

47. Rishi Sunak, the rejected first-draft of an Aardman sidekick who is pretending to be a chancellor, said “I want to make it clear that there is no case for UK business investing in Russia”.

48. His family has a £727m stake in Russian business, but he blamed his wife for that.

49. He said anyone blaming his wife should be ashamed, but at least he hadn’t gone all Will Smith on their ass.

50. He’ll go slap-happy when he finds out the ministerial code says ministers “must ensure no conflict arises between their public duties and their private interests”.

51. Sunak told MPs he was a “tax-cutting chancellor”, and to prove it he introduced the biggest rise in taxes since the 1950s.

52. Energy bills rose 54%, so his brilliant plan for people with terrifying fuel debt was to force them into deeper debt, with a mandatory £200 loan.

53. He then – and bear in mind he’s supposed to be an expert on this stuff – said just because he was lending money to people who then had to repay it, that didn’t mean it was a loan.

54. David Davis – so good they named him once – said Sunak is “making the economy worse”

55. To celebrate this glowing review, Sunak, who’s primary skill appears to be taking his jacket off, got his official photographer to snap him (jacketless) posing as he filled up his very own Kia Rio.

56. Except he’d borrowed the Kia from a supermarket worker.

57. But he paid for the fuel, bless him, although it wasn’t easy. Footage showed the guy in charge of our nation’s money battling heroically as he got confused between a credit card and a can of coke, while desperately attempting to negotiate a till at a petrol station.

58. After his wily Kia Rio ploy fell through in about 4 seconds, he told MPs he really drives a “battered old Golf”.

59. He seems to have forgotten about the Range Rovers and 3 other luxury cars he owns, some of which he keeps at his modest, man-of-the-people pad in Santa Monica.

60. He told MPs it was impossible to say whether Brexit had hurt the economy, mainly cos he didn’t give a shit, what with him being massively rich.

61. Then, seemingly having cleared the cache in his brain, he told MPs it was “always inevitable” that Brexit would hurt the economy.

62. At the last general election Rishi Sunak had campaigned for a party promising their Brexit would make every person in Britain £993 a year richer.

63. It’s made every household £3,600 a year poorer.

64. That’s very nearly enough money to fill up a Kia Rio.

65. Research found the £20 Covid increase in Universal Credit lifted 400k children out of poverty, so, naturally, Sunak scrapped it.

66.And then, in a major shock to those who have been observing his levelling up plans, it was shown his changes to student loans hurt the poor most.

67. He’s clearly holding his levelling-up-o-meter upside down.

68. Economists said his plans leave one fifth of the UK in poverty.

69. He said “I am comfortable with the choices I made”.

70. 3 hours later, he was reported to be “panicked” into considering throwing his entire plan away.

71. As previous Tory decisions to scrap green investment added £190 a year to energy bills, an SNP MP asked Johnson in parliament how people in Scotland could afford to heat their homes.

72. Johnson – the actual Prime Minister – responded by calling him a fatty. In parliament.

73. Priti Patel, the Gnome of Sauron, promised a “fairer, more compassionate” Home Office after a report found her department was cruel, incompetent, and badly managed.

74. This week the report’s author said in 2 years since then, Patel had done almost nothing to fix her department.

75. Only 8 of 30 recommendations have been even partly implemented, and the report said it was “disappointed” 13 times.

76. So Patel, stalwart in her adherence to reality, said she was “pleased the report says significant progress has been made”.

77. She also designed a scheme for EU citizens to keep living in the UK, which is so good it means 2 million of them now face deportation.

78. A new independent (but Tory) head of Ofcom was announced, responsible for overseeing social media regulation and protecting broadcasting.

79. He immediately said he wants to privatise Channel 4 and scrap the BBC funding model.

80. The man now in charge of regulating social media ,proudly stated that he’s never used social media, but “is aware of it” because his children told him about TikTok.

81. He went on to say how much he admired Laurence Fox, that waxy, lurching manifestation of entitlement and stupidity, because “I know his family”, which I think we can all agree is a GREAT reason to support Fox constantly undermining public health in a pandemic.

82. Nadhim Zahawi, a child’s drawing of pure greed superimposed onto a competitively evil gonad, announced he would force all schools to become academies by 2030.

83. This was because “evidence” showed academies “deliver the best possible outcomes”.

84. The “evidence” actually shows academies perform 23 per cent worse than council-run schools.

85. Then Zahawi proudly announced a bold new idea – never tried before, not at any parents’ evenings ever – of getting teachers to tell parents if their kids were doing badly in school. Cool.

86. Local elections are coming, and the public need honest communications about what they’re voting for.

87. So the government was found to have illegally spent £100,000 of public money on “Tory Propaganda” ads on Facebook, targeted on areas where they are defending small majorities.

88. Etch-a-sketch thunderc*nt Dom Raab was back, with a new bill of human rights to guarantee free speech.

89. But you have to exercise your free speech in monastic silence, cos Priti Patel has simultaneously banned any protests that is loud enough for anybody to hear.

90. Patel, the Shetland Pony of the Apocalypse, was also found this week to have breached human rights by her policy of literally stealing phones off asylum seekers.

91. More human rights news, as Johnson promised to ban conversion therapies that claim to “cure” gayness.

92. He then did a U-turn on that promise.

93. Then he did a U-turn on the U-turn… do we need to coin the phrase “W-turn”?.

94. But he hasn’t banned conversion therapy for being transgender.

95. And then Tory MP Jamie Wallis came out as transgender.

96. And so, as a consequence all this, Jamie Wallis is now a member of a political party with a stated policy – at least for the next 10-15 minutes – of “curing” Jamie Wallis of being Jamie Wallis.

Stressed Out Community GIF

OK, so… first, an apology, cos that must have been a nightmare.

But if you like nightmares, consider supporting my forthcoming book, which has more jokes and less stress, and at least you can burn it for heat when you run out of furniture.

Originally tweeted by Russ Jones (@RussInCheshire) on 01/04/2022.

A new government-backed body set up to police the building industry faces claims that it lacks representation from architects, ordinary homeowners and BAME communities whose Covid-19 death rates have been linked to poor housing standards.

Ben Quinn www.theguardian.com 

Labour had claimed the New Home Quality Board [NHQB] lacked independence as it was chaired by a Tory MP and Conservative-linked developers sit on the board alongside her. On Friday it announced a new CEO and chair as it moved to what it described as its “full operational stage”.

The body has published a code of practice for the housebuilding industry and is working to oversee the creation of the New Homes Ombudsman Service, due to launch in the Summer, with the stated aim of providing “robust independent redress” for new-build buyers who have “issues with their new home or developer”.

However, the NHQB was criticised by Ben Derbyshire, a former president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, who questioned what he described as an “inexplicable absence of anyone with a design background or training on the board”.

“Design in British housing, especially speculative mass housing, is generally very poor. The exceptions to this represent the minority of housebuilding and renovation but these exceptions should become the rule. Good housing architects are notably absent from housebuilding and that is never going to change so long the profession is not represented on the New Homes Quality Board,” he said.

He expressed concern about the extent of representation of people from BAME communities on the board after the pandemic had showed up the correlation between poor housing standards, overcrowding, disadvantage and death from Covid among ethnic minorities.

Cym D’Souza, a chief executive of Arawak Walton Housing Association, an organisation specialising in the needs of Black and minority ethnic communities, said: “What I would question, is how this board would have any lived experience – apart from perhaps Gillian Cooper of Citizens Advice, of what it is like for the ‘ordinary’ person to go up against large developers when they are unhappy with their homes and ultimately how the framework supports the building of new quality homes in this respect?”

From April, the NHQB’s new CEO will be Leon Livermore who was formerly the chief executive of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) for eight years.

Rob Brighouse, an engineer and Network Rail board member, has been named as the replacement for Natalie Elphicke MP, who had come under the spotlight for having a second job earning £3,000 a month for spending around eight hours a week as chair of the board.

The HomeOwners Alliance – which has been particularly critical of the NHQB since it was launched in 2021 with support from the then housing minister, Robert Jenrick – said the new appointments were a step in the right direction.

“Although on balance the board looks fairly one-sided as there are already at least four industry appointments, such as Taylor Wimpey,” added Paula Higgins, the HOA’s CEO.

“What is missing from the board is the actual perspective of the buyers and owners of newly built properties. Who will be attending that has the ear of the consumer and who really understands the problems buyers face when buying and owning a new-build – from developers reneging on reservation agreements because of rising house prices, to poor quality after-care?”

A spokesperson for the NHQB said it was set up with the specific objective of ensuring the homebuyers’ experience improves, adding that it was committed to delivering this and consumers will have access to free, independent redress through a new ombudsman.

“The development of the code was subject to a full public consultation, and the appointment of the New Homes Ombudsman has been subject to full open procurement processes” they added.

“The new board appointments have been made following a publicly advertised and professionally managed recruitment process, and include a mix of representatives from consumer bodies, housebuilders, warranty providers, lenders and independents, which ensures it will not be dominated by any one group. The Board is fully committed to diversity and inclusion and it continues to be central to recruitment decisions.”

More than one in four bus services in England have been cut in the last decade, with the pandemic accelerating the decline, a transport charity has found.

Gwyn Topham www.theguardian.com 

Almost 5,000 routes have been axed since 2012, with the north-west and east of England the two regions worst affected.

Research by the Campaign for Better Transport showed that 27% of bus services, measured by mileage, have disappeared in a decade, while the number of services on official registers in England dropped from almost 17,000 in March 2012 to just over 12,000 last March.

The sharpest drop in bus miles came during the pandemic, falling 18%, compared with a 10% decline in the years to 2019.

The charity called for a national, government-led campaign to encourage people back on board routes across the country, while urging ministers to prioritise investment in buses and cutting fares instead of cuts to fuel duty for motorists.

Paul Tuohy, the chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: “Buses are relied upon by millions of people and should play a central role in a green transport future, but they have been struggling for some time, and the pandemic has made things much worse.”

“Last week’s spring statement included a tax break for car drivers with a 5p cut in fuel duty, but nothing for public transport users, despite fares having risen at a far higher rate than fuel.”

The charity highlighted moves in other countries to incentivise public transport use after Covid lockdowns had ended. Germany and New Zealand have both cut fares, while Wales last week launched a campaign including fare deals to get passengers back on board.

Fares in England for buses – like trains – have risen far above the growth in average pay for workers over the last decade, as well as outstripping the price rises in fuel, even after the recent surge at the pumps. According to the RAC Foundation, bus and coach fares rose 58% in the last decade, while petrol went up 19%.

Plans from the government to reverse the decline in buses have faltered during the pandemic. Shortly before the first lockdown, the government announced its intention to publish a national strategy with £3bn of additional funding. The strategy, Bus Back Better, was published in 2021 but much of the money has gone in emergency funding for operators after passengers were told to avoid unnecessary travel.

Fears that the networks could be slashed further when Covid emergency funding ended in April were averted temporarily, with the announcement of a further £150m support from the Department for Transport last month.

However, ministers have made clear the funding will expire in October 2022, encouraging services to then be adapted to meet demand, which is about 80% of pre-pandemic levels.

The Urban Transport Group, which represents regional cities with major bus networks, called on the government to “use the next six months to put in place a long-term, enhanced and devolved approach to funding bus services” of the kind outlined in its strategy. It also urged the government to campaign for people to return to buses, after warning them to stay off public transport due to Covid.

How many times has Boris Johnson, our Prime Minister, the one who made the rules we all followed, told us that these rules were not broken by him and his staff in Whitehall?

‘All guidance followed completely’

Photos ‘show people talking about work’ (the Downing Street garden party)

‘Thought it was a work event’ (ditto)

Did not see or receive the email

‘Nobody told me it was against the rules’

‘Ambushed with cake’

Rules ‘broken in most homes’ 

Now: ‘Misled by his staff’ (So, in fact, Boris is the victim in all this!)

(See www.theweek.co.uk for comprehensive list)

PM ‘didn’t lie about parties, he was misled by his staff’

Chris Smyth www.thetimes.co.uk 

Boris Johnson did not mislead parliament about Downing Street parties but was given “wrong information” by his staff, Jacob Rees-Mogg said.

Downing Street again refused to acknowledge that rules were broken, but the argument from the Brexit opportunities minister hints that Johnson will seek to avoid the charge of misleading parliament if he is fined by suggesting the blame lies with staff.

Last night The Daily Telegraph reported that fines had been issued to people who attended a leaving do at the Cabinet Office on December 17, 2020, when London residents were prohibited from socialising indoors, apart from with their household or support bubble.

The party was for Kate Josephs, who was head of the unit responsible for implementing Covid-19 restrictions at the time. Josephs, who is now chief executive of Sheffield city council, apologised when the event came to light this year. It is not known who has been fined for attending the party.

Helen MacNamara, the former civil service ethics chief, apologised yesterday for an “error of judgment I have shown” after she was fined for breaking Covid-19 laws by attending a party.

She is one of 20 people who have been fined by Scotland Yard so far. Fines have also been issued to staff who attended leaving parties on the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.

Johnson is not among them and allies say that the prime minster is confident he will avoid a fixed penalty notice by arguing that he was at work events in his own home.

On LBC radio Rees-Mogg stood by his comments that the parties were “fluff” compared to Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis. “Those words in the context of what’s going on in Ukraine are completely reasonable,” he said. “I don’t think the issue of what may or may not have happened in Downing Street and what we are now finding out is fundamental. What I think is fundamental is that we look in the [Covid-19] inquiry at how the rules were devised and the effect that they had, because I think some of those rules were inhuman.

“The fact that the prime minister was given the wrong information doesn’t mean he misled people,” he said.

Deputy Mayor left ‘devastated’ and calls for new council leader to be suspended after leaked ‘cruel and hurtful’ comments.

Tories fighting amongst themselves. Looks like it’s getting nasty, very nasty.

A third of the seats are up for election in May. – Owl

Carl Eve www.plymouthherald.co.uk

A city councillor said she feels ‘deeply hurt’ after learning that the new leader of Plymouth City Council compared her to Saddam Hussein’s notorious right-hand man, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.

Conservative councillor for Moor View Maddi Bridgeman – who is still Deputy Lord Mayor for Plymouth – has now called upon the Plymouth Moor View Conservative Association to carry out an investigation into comments made by Cllr Richard Bingley which were leaked to the public via Twitter.

Cllr Bingley, who was voted in as leader of the council last month following a vote of no confidence was carried at the full council meeting, was heard to call his predecessor a “weak, two-faced git”. The recordings, understood to have been made in February, before the vote was taken, suggested that plans were afoot to oust Cllr Kelly as leader.

He also went on to compare Cllr Bridgeman to Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri describing her as Cllr Kelly’s “cheerleader” and “Nick’s best friend on rocket boosters”. He added: “You know when Saddam Hussein was in Iraq he had that ludicrous minister of the interior? … That’s Maddi Bridgeman for Nick Kelly.”

Cllr Bridgeman told PlymouthLive she had now written to Moor View association – who in January chose to reject Cllr David Downie’s request to be allowed to continue to stand as the candidate for Budshead – citing Cllr Bingley’s “cruel and hurtful comments” towards not just her but also other senior councillors. She said she called upon the association to suspend him “with immediate effect” or request he resign from the Conservative party.

In a letter to the association she accused Cllr Bingley’s comments towards her as “completely unfounded – to compare me with a mass murderer? His sexist comments about me being a ‘cheerleader’’? I am devastated, broken.

Cllr Bridgeman stated “I have worked hard for eight years. I have been professional and caring and have given everything to support my residents. I am receiving a tremendous amount of support from the residents of Moor View but how can I continue to work for a councillor that treats women and other members of the council with such contempt?”

Cllr Bridgeman, who has been a city councillor since 2014, said she has also asked for Cllr Rebecca Smith – Chair of Violence Against Women and Girls Commission – to launch a full investigation into this matter. Cllr Bridgeman told PlymouthLive: “This has deeply, deeply hurt me.

I have worked so very hard for my constituents, whilst also carrying out my duties as Deputy Lord Mayor. I have always been civil, polite and professional. “I was elected as a Councillor in 2014. On Tuesday, I was summoned to a meeting with Cllr Bingley and told that the cabinet position, which I have been doing for the last 11 months, was being withdrawn and given to two male councillors, both of whom have not even been councillors for a year.

He said that it wasn’t because I’d done a bad job, it was because it was considered too much for one person. “I’ve worked 80 hours a week for 11 months.

I’ve really put my heart and soul into the role. I wanted to experience exactly what it is our council staff do and what our residents need. I joined the refuse crews being a loader, collecting dog poo from the bins for five hours and returning to base absolutely stinking.

“I worked alongside the leaf blower crew in the city centre, starting work at 6am. I got back to the base and the team awarded me a certificate as “Councillor Qualified Blower” – while I knew they were having a joke with me, it still made my day and they respected me for being on the front line with them.”

Cllr Bridgeman said she has also been out planting trees and campaigning consistently since even before she was a councillor to get the airport open. She said she had also worked closely with neighbourhood police and the hospital to ensure the new multi-storey car park opposite Glenbourne was safe and secure and not a suicide risk.

She said: “I’m proud to have left a legacy of working incredibly hard and helping people – and then I’m dismissed as a mere cheerleader and compared to a mass murderer. It’s two-faced and it’s cruel. How can he be leader of the council when he behaves like this and makes comments about women like that?

If this is how he talks to someone on the phone he hardly knows, God only knows what he’s saying in the company of others who know him well. How can anyone have trust in him? He needs to resign with immediate effect.”

Cllr Maddi Bridgeman is up for re-election in the May elections. PlymouthLive has asked Cllr Bingley for comment. He has not responded to any of the requests.

• Replacement of existing multi-use storage area with provision for covered bin storage, linen trolley storage, swimming pool plant items and other insulated storage. Sidmouth Harbour Hotel Manor Road Sidmouth EX10 8RURef. No: 22/0679/FUL | Validated: Fri 25 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Certificate of lawfulness application to demonstrate the use of Acorns as a dwellinghouse without an agricultural occupancy condition. Acorns Northcote Hill Honiton Devon EX14 9THRef. No: 22/0678/CPE | Validated: Fri 25 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T002 (0758) Sycamore – section-fell to ground-level T003 (0759) Scot’s pine – selective pruning to include: reduce 2 x lowest primary limbs to S aspect by approx. 2-3m to suitable subordinate growth; reduce primary limb 10m to S aspect by approx. 2m to suitable subordinate growth; remove primary limb at 13m to parent stem; reduce crown-height by approx. 2m to mitigate for pruning/altered exposure, to suitable subordinate growth points T004 (0760) Sycamore – reduce west (lineside) stem to a height of approx. 5m to suitable subordinate growth; reduce crown height of remaining 2 stems to mitigate for pruning/altered exposure T005 (0761) Ash – remove primary limb at 8m to W aspect back to parent stem; remove 2 x secondary limbs at 11m and 14m, west aspect back to parent limbs T007 (0763) Beech – Light prune tertiary growth to upper crown only, E aspect (max pruning wound diameter 25mm) to provide clearance above the proposed new conductor route G1 Hazel – ‘high coppice’ one small group to approx. 1.5m to provide clearance from new electric apparatus Reason – to enable installation of new overhead 11kv cable Harcombe House HarcombeRef. No: 22/0680/TRE | Validated: Fri 25 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of detached double garage and demolition of existing detached garage. Southcote Convent Road Sidmouth EX10 8RLRef. No: 22/0669/FUL | Validated: Fri 25 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition & clearance of existing conservatory. Erection of single storey rear extension with internal alterations & re-arrangements 9 Walls Close Exmouth Devon EX8 4LYRef. No: 22/0674/FUL | Validated: Fri 25 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Certificate of lawful development for a single storey side extension54 Canterbury Way Exmouth EX8 5QQRef. No: 22/0664/CPL | Validated: Thu 24 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replace UPVC door for new timber half-glazed double doors, renovation of raised garden wall and works to clad existing raised decking area structure Anchor Inn Old Fore Street Sidmouth Devon EX10 8LPRef. No: 22/0661/FUL | Validated: Thu 24 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of a single storey rear extension with flat roof and parapet walls to 3 sides, which would extend beyond the rear wall of the original house by 4.30 metres, for which the maximum height would be 3 metres, and for which the height of the eaves would be 2.85 metres. 3 Englands Close Sidford Sidmouth EX10 9QSRef. No: 22/0682/GPD | Validated: Thu 24 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replace UPVC door for new timber half-glazed double doors, renovation of raised garden wall and works to clad existing raised decking area structure Anchor Inn Old Fore Street Sidmouth Devon EX10 8LPRef. No: 22/0660/LBC | Validated: Thu 24 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1, Oak : Prune primary limb growing north west back to 2nd growth point from main stem, approximately 4m distal from union, maximum diameter of cut 125mm; prune primary limb growing north east by 1.5m, maximum diameter of cut 30mm; remove hazardous deadwood. Reason for works: The Oak tree had a limb fail during the high winds of February and has left the remaining limbs exposed to wind stress and a large tear out wound on the north westerly limb. Limb reduction works to reduce stresses on the limbs remaining. Inglenook Rockbeare Hill Rockbeare Exeter EX5 2EZRef. No: 22/0654/TRE | Validated: Wed 23 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Variation of condition 14 (approved plans) of planning permission 13/0945/FUL (Change of use and conversion of coach house building to form holiday accommodation unit; alterations and adaptation of agricultural building for bat mitigation and storage purposes; construction of driveway and ancillary works) to allow for changes to the interior layout, external elevation treatment, roof line and the footprint/extent of the proposed extension Land At The Old Coachouse Widworthy Devon EX14 9JSRef. No: 22/0650/VAR | Validated: Wed 23 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey side/rear extension and first floor extension above existing garage to include a side dormer. 7 Gulliford Close Lympstone Devon EX8 5DGRef. No: 22/0655/FUL | Validated: Wed 23 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Porch to rear extension 3 Drakes Avenue Sidford Devon EX10 9QYRef. No: 22/0643/FUL | Validated: Fri 25 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Two storey extension to side elevation. 11 Coleridge Road Ottery St Mary Devon EX11 1TDRef. No: 22/0646/FUL | Validated: Tue 22 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Sycamore (T1) Tree has previously been pruned badly and therefore further management options are limited. The tree presents low amenity value due to its lack of visibility by neighbouring properties or from public areas. Fell tree and replant with species of client’s choice. The Hills Sid Road Sidmouth EX10 9AQRef. No: 22/0641/TRE | Validated: Wed 23 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Front and rear hip to gable roof conversion 2 Dene Close Exmouth Devon EX8 4DFRef. No: 22/0644/FUL | Validated: Tue 22 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Removal of 2m section of hedgerowLand West Of Woods Farm Bowd SidmouthRef. No: 22/0640/HRN | Validated: Tue 22 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1, Crab apple on west boundary near back door between log store and garden shed : cut to ground due to outgrowing the space. T2, Pittosporum on western boundary approximately level with front of house : crown reduced to 16 feet (24 feet at time of applying). Reason is to prevent crown getting too leggy and sparse 7 Cliff Terrace Budleigh Salterton EX9 6JYRef. No: 22/0638/TCA | Validated: Tue 22 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of deck to the rear of existing bungalow. 13 Underhill Crescent Lympstone Exmouth EX8 5JFRef. No: 22/0657/FUL | Validated: Tue 22 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Removal of entrance canopy and porch to front. 6 Oak Tree Close Broadclyst Devon EX5 3NBRef. No: 22/0628/FUL | Validated: Wed 23 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Two storey side extension. 12 Tipton Vale Metcombe Devon EX11 1RWRef. No: 22/0633/FUL | Validated: Mon 21 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Addition of a first floor with side dormer and and alteration to fenestration. Beechwood Lower Broad Oak Road West Hill Devon EX11 1XHRef. No: 22/0626/FUL | Validated: Mon 21 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed single-storey rear extension. 3 Bystock Mews Bystock Exmouth Devon EX8 5EPRef. No: 22/0636/FUL | Validated: Mon 21 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single storey side extension. Torwood Cottington Mead Sidmouth Devon EX10 8HBRef. No: 22/0632/FUL | Validated: Mon 21 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of a single storey rear extension, which would extend beyond the rear wall of the original house by 4 metres, for which the maximum height would be 4 metres, and for which the height of the eaves would be 3 metres. Ferndale Exeter Road Honiton EX14 1AURef. No: 22/0629/GPD | Validated: Tue 22 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Two storey side extension to dwelling, variation of single storey extension granted under 21.2464.FUL. Work on the approved single storey element only has commenced in accordance with the current approval, but is in abeyance pending consideration of this variation. First floor works have not commenced. 102 Granary Lane Budleigh Salterton EX9 6EPRef. No: 22/0613/FUL | Validated: Wed 23 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of a timber pergola, festoon lights to front and addition of a picket fence Farmhouse Inn Churchill Road Exmouth EX8 4JJRef. No: 22/0603/FUL | Validated: Wed 23 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Remove the existing sunroom/conservatory addition to East Lodge North, (added circa 1970), and replace it with a conservatory using materials and construction sympathetic to the character of the house East Lodge North Rousdon Lyme Regis DT7 3XURef. No: 22/0598/LBC | Validated: Wed 23 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Remove the existing sunroom/conservatory addition to East Lodge North, (added circa 1970), and replace it with a conservatory using materials and construction sympathetic to the character of the house East Lodge North Rousdon Lyme Regis DT7 3XURef. No: 22/0597/FUL | Validated: Wed 23 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replace the existing staff room porta cabin which has been in place for the past five years with a new staff porta cabin. Crawley Farm Yarcombe Honiton EX14 9AYRef. No: 22/0588/FUL | Validated: Tue 22 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

• Restrospective planning to install a 1.2m timber fence around front garden. 71 Normandy Close Exmouth EX8 4PBRef. No: 22/0583/FUL | Validated: Fri 25 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of a replacement two storey 5-bed dwelling and erection of a double detached garage, demolition of existing house and annexe. 14 Foxholes Hill Exmouth EX8 2DFRef. No: 22/0585/FUL | Validated: Mon 21 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use of ground floor from E(b) sale of food and drink for consumption to C3 dwelling house. 1 Rolle Road Budleigh Salterton EX9 6JZRef. No: 22/0571/FUL | Validated: Tue 22 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of new retaining walls and steps to form a new parking bay and demolition of existing boundary wall. 2 Mount Hill Beer Seaton EX12 3HXRef. No: 22/0566/FUL | Validated: Tue 22 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Application for approval of Reserved Matters (appearance, landscaping, layout and scale) pursuant to outline permission 18/1653/MOUT for the erection of 71 residential units, wildlife corridors, open space, formal area for play, drainage and footpath/cycleway and discharge of associated conditions Land North Of Moonhill Copse West Clyst ExeterRef. No: 22/0559/MRES | Validated: Tue 22 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Installation of a drop kerb and enlargement of driveway. 6 Redside Terrace Cowley Exeter EX5 5ETRef. No: 22/0563/FUL | Validated: Mon 21 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Certificate of existing lawfulness to demonstrate that the land has been used as a camping touring caravan and motorhome site for an period in excess of 10 years Axmouth Caravan And Camping Site Church Street Axmouth Seaton EX12 4AFRef. No: 22/0544/CPE | Validated: Fri 25 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replacement of existing external glazed screen to south-western elevation of ancillary wing. 9 Cowley Place Cowley Exeter EX5 5DGRef. No: 22/0532/LBC | Validated: Mon 21 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of detached garage and store with home office within roof space Coxs Cottage Farway Colyton Devon EX24 6DFRef. No: 22/0520/FUL | Validated: Fri 25 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use of a ground floor room currently used as a professional office (Use Class E) to residential C3 such that the whole building reverts to residential use (C3). 206 High Street Honiton EX14 1AJRef. No: 22/0464/FUL | Validated: Thu 24 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

• New balcony and steps and external alterations. 59 Hamilton Lane Exmouth EX8 2LWRef. No: 22/0461/FUL | Validated: Fri 25 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replace 2no. window casements (W5 & W6) at first floor North elevation; create new opening in rear of discovered kitchen cupboard from bathroom and block up cupboard from kitchen side; install fire barrier/curtain in attic between properties; install acoustic and fire separation barriers in ceiling of master bedroom at first floor, repair joists and replace ceiling. 2 Sprydoncote Cottages Budlake Exeter EX5 3JNRef. No: 22/0450/LBC | Validated: Mon 21 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Dismantle redundant signal box and part of stone wall (C) and re-locate out of district to Wallingford, Oxfordshire Stoke Canon Signal Box Chestnut Crescent Stoke CanonRef. No: 22/0412/LBC | Validated: Fri 25 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of a two-storey dwelling for agricultural workers Hayne Farm Plymtree Cullompton EX15 2LERef. No: 22/0383/FUL | Validated: Fri 25 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Reserved matters comprising layout, scale, appearance & landscaping for the erection of 9 dwellings, Discharge of conditions 4 (drainage), 6 (ground infrastructure), 8 (external lighting), 9 (landscaping), 10, (finished floor levels), 11(ecological recommendations), 12 (refuse storage) and 13 (materials) in respect of subsequent outline application 18/2588/OUT Southbrook House Southbrook Lane Whimple Exeter EX5 2PGRef. No: 22/0405/RES | Validated: Mon 21 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Temporary change of use of land for siting of 28m observation wheel for three years Beach Gardens Esplanade ExmouthRef. No: 22/0216/COU | Validated: Fri 25 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of a two-bedroom semi-detached cottage. Land Adjacent To Leighton Cottage Longmeadow Road LympstoneRef. No: 21/3265/FUL | Validated: Wed 23 Mar 2022 | Status: Awaiting decision

In the story that perhaps sums up the Partygate scandal best so far, the government’s former head of propriety and ethics Helen McNamara has been fined by the police for attending a lockdown-breaking party in the Cabinet Secretary’s Office at 70 Whitehall. The Telegraph’s Martin Evans, Ben Riley-Smith and Tony Diver got the scoop, reporting that McNamara’s karaoke machine was used at a “raucous” bash on June 18, 2020, and she’s been given a £50 fine. The paper reports: “Among those in attendance during the early part of the evening were Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s former senior adviser and Sir Mark Sedwill, the former Cabinet Secretary — who before leaving warned partygoers not to mess up his office.” McNamara left government last year and now works on corporate affairs at the Premier League.

Politico London Newsletter

The apparent confirmation that Covid laws were broken inside No 10 will lead to further questions over whether Johnson misled parliament about the dozen parties under investigation.

He told Keir Starmer during prime minister’s questions on 1 December 2021: “What I can tell the right honourable and learned gentleman is that all guidance was followed completely in No 10.”

Aubrey Allegretti www.theguardian.com 

Downing Street staff have been issued with fines by police over a party that took place the night before Prince Philip’s funeral, in the first decision by Scotland Yard that Covid laws were broken inside No 10 at the heart of government.

After the Guardian revealed that fixed penalty notices were handed out to those who attended a leaving do for an aide to Boris Johnson in the Cabinet Office in June 2020, sources said those who partied into the early hours in No 10 on 16 April 2021 had also been warned they would receive fines.

The event caused consternation due to the contrast between it and the Queen’s strict adherence to social distancing rules by sitting alone at the funeral of her husband of 73 years.

Meanwhile, Downing Street staff were said to have got so drunk that they broke the swing used by the prime minister’s son, Wilf, in the No 10 garden, while a staff member was sent out to a local supermarket to pack a suitcase full of wine and another acted as a DJ.

Two parties took place that evening – one to mark the departure of Johnson’s director of communications, James Slack, and another for one of Johnson’s personal photographers.

At the time, England was in step two of the strict roadmap out of lockdown, meaning all indoor mixing was banned.

Many of those who partied in No 10 on 16 April were sent questionnaires by the Met asking them to provide a reasonable excuse for their attendance.

But in an email, the Operation Hillman team investigating the string of lockdown-busting events told some of them that it had been “assessed that there are reasonable grounds to believe that you committed an offence in contravention of the regulations”.

The notification, which was received by some late last week, added: “In light of this, you are to be reported for the issuance of a fixed penalty notice (FPN), offering you the opportunity of discharging any liability to conviction for the offence by payment of a fixed penalty.”

The Met said further correspondence confirming the details of the fine would be sent by ACRO – the criminal records issuing office.

Downing Street declined to comment. No 10 apologised to the Queen in January after details of the parties were reported.

The apparent confirmation that Covid laws were broken inside No 10 will lead to further questions over whether Johnson misled parliament about the dozen parties under investigation.

He told Keir Starmer during prime minister’s questions on 1 December 2021: “What I can tell the right honourable and learned gentleman is that all guidance was followed completely in No 10.”

Meanwhile it also emerged that Helen MacNamara, the Cabinet Office’s then head of ethics, had attended the June 2020 leaving do for No 10 aide Hannah Young. It is understood she supplied a karaoke machine that was used at the gathering by revellers until the early hours.

Three sources also told the Guardian there was a drunken brawl at the event, held in the office of Mark Sedwill, who was cabinet secretary at the time. The Telegraph reported that MacNamara had been fined, while ITV said Johnson would not be interviewed by the police.

Scotland Yard said it would not confirm which events fines had been issued for, or the identity of anyone who received a fixed-penalty notice.

A spokesperson for the Met told the Guardian: “Unlike other incidents of Covid regulation breaches, the investigation under Operation Hillman remains ongoing, and as such we are not releasing further information at this time.

“At its conclusion, we will review what information can be released whilst still working to the NPCC [National Police Chiefs’ Council] principle of not releasing information that will lead to any individual being identified.”

Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the revelation that fines were to be issued for the 16 April 2021 event “confirms what the British public have known all along” – that Johnson was “a liar and must resign”.

She told the Guardian: “The emotional images of the Queen sitting alone at her husband’s funeral were the hallmark of the British spirit through the pandemic.

“Boris Johnson’s Downing Street didn’t show an ounce of respect for this country. There can be no more cover-ups and no more lies. For the good of the country, and for all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic, he must go.”

It is believed the fines handed out to those who attended the 16 April 2021 party were among the initial tranche of 20 announced by the Met on Tuesday.

The only two people No 10 have committed to identifying if they are fined is Johnson and the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, who had to be recused from leading the internal Whitehall partygate investigation after it was discovered a gathering was held by his team in December 2020.

A Labour frontbencher on Sunday called for everyone fined to be publicly named.

Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, told Sky News that anyone who is issued with a fine – including the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson – should have their identify made public.

“I think anyone who’s been in Downing Street should be named if they have been part of this.

“Because there’s been so much dishonesty, so much obfuscation from the people at the top in Downing Street, from the prime minister and his immediate circle downwards, I think people just want to know what really went on. Let’s have some transparency, let’s have some honesty.”

… that thinks of Delores Umbridge (from Harry Potter) when they see Priti Patel?

Priti Patel furious Ukrainian visa scheme chaos

Furious Priti Patel is said to have ‘torn strips’ off her civil servants over the slow progress of the visa scheme for Ukrainian refugees hoping to come to the UK. Relations between the Home Secretary …

Read more in the Daily Mail

The Survation survey of Cornwall, Cumbria, North Yorkshire, Norfolk and Gwynedd, Wales found that 36% of voters in the countryside now intend to vote Labour at next month’s local elections, two points behind the Tory vote share.

Nigel Nelson www.mirror.co.uk (Extract)

Dominic Cummings has accused Boris Johnson of encouraging attacks on junior civil servants over the “partygate” scandal in order to protect himself and his wife, Carrie.

Throwing them under the Boris bus – Owl

Harry Taylor www.theguardian.com 

The prime minister’s onetime senior aide said senior officials had “turned a blind eye” to his behaviour. He referred to briefing against one No 10 private secretary, Hannah Young. It has emerged that her leaving party on 18 June led to the first fines announced this week.

Reports after some of the parties involving civil servants included a staff member breaking a swing in the garden belonging to the Johnsons’ son Wilfred, a suitcase of alcohol being purchased from a nearby Co-op and one staff member acting as a DJ.

A total of 20 fixed-penalty notices have been issued to staff who broke lockdown rules. Johnson had previously told parliament when the allegations first came to light in November 2021 that “all guidance was followed completely in No 10”.

In his latest blog, with an excerpt posted on Twitter, Cummings said: “It is deeply, deeply contemptible that not just the PM but senior civil servants have allowed such people to have their reputations attacked in order to protect the sociopathic narcissist squatting in the No 10 flat.

“Not just ‘allowed’ – everybody at the centre of events also knows that the PM encouraged the media attacks on junior officials in order to divert the lobby’s attention from him and Carrie breaking the law. Some very senior officials have turned a blind eye.”

Carrie is reported to have had parties in their Downing Street flat, while Boris had a surprise birthday party in 2020 attended by up to 30 staff, as well as the couple’s interior designer, Lulu Lytle.

Young “did a truly phenomenal job”, and “made us all safer” during Covid and while coordinating a response to a terrorist incident, Cummings said.

On Friday officials in Downing Street started to get emails saying they were being fined £50 for attending parties, days after the Metropolitan police confirmed they were handing out the notices.

Detectives are investigating 12 events in 2020 and 2021, six of which Johnson is said to have been at. The Met has said it has received more than 300 photographs and 500 pages of documents after a Whitehall inquiry by senior civil servant Sue Gray.

In an appearance before a parliamentary select committee and in statements from his spokesperson after the fines this week, Johnson refused to accept that the law had been broken.

In response to a question from the Scottish National party MP Pete Wishart during his Commons liaison committee session, Johnson said: “I have been, I hope, very frank with the House about where I think we have gone wrong and the things that I regret, and I apologise for, but there is an ongoing investigation.

“I understand the point you’re making, but … I have been very clear I won’t give running commentary on an ongoing investigation.”

Cummings also criticised fines for junior officials over Johnson’s then principal private secretary Martin Reynolds, despite having organised and attended a party in the cabinet secretary’s office. “Over the last few days, many junior officials have been fined for attending an event that the PM’s PPS organised.

“The PPS … was responsible for ensuring that events in No 10 were consistent not just with the rules but with basic ethical standards.”

No 10 has been approached for comment.

Neil Parish and Simon Jupp, Owl would like to know, for the record, your answers to  these three simple questions:

1. Did either of you attend the widely reported “champagne bash” dinner party at the Park Plaza Hotel near Westminster Bridge, hosted by Boris Johnson for Conservative MPs last Tuesday, 29 March?
2. On your way did you have to pass a protesting group of bereaved families of Covid casualties who shouted “shame on you” and “off to another party, are we?”
3. If you did attend the bash, did you laugh at his extensive and tasteless “partygate” jokes? One senior Tory present at the dinner is reported as saying: “The number of jokes Boris devoted to partygate showed that he is either monumentally insensitive or monumentally self-confident.” (or both)

Boris Johnson contemplates resigning 

After months of pulling the wool over our eyes, will the prime minister do the decent thing?