Category Archives: Neil Parish

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5 Dec 2019

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Accountability, Democracy, General Election, Hugo Swire, Neil Parish, Tories

Neil Parish 640th worst constituency MP out of 650 (Swire 649th!)

These are the rankings of all south-west MPs for how good they have been as constituency MPs. As noted in an earlier post (with 1 being top and 650 being bottom) Swire came 649th!

Just as interesting is the ranking of Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) who came 640th.

Basically, East Devon had two of the worst constituency MPs in the House of Commons with one of them (Parish) almost certain to be re-elected and able to spend more time on his Somerset farm at our expense.

AND no doubt if (heaven forfend)Jupp and his boss Raab get in, Jupp would no doubt be spending most of his time cosying up to Raab in London.

#56 Luke Pollard Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport Devon Labour
#103 Sarah Wollaston Totnes Devon Liberal Democrat
#149 Anne Marie Morris Newton Abbot Devon Conservative
#175 Geoffrey Cox Torridge and West Devon Devon Conservative
#306 Gary Streeter South West Devon Devon Conservative
#343 Mel Stride Central Devon Devon Conservative
#453 Kevin Foster Torbay Devon Conservative
#511 Ben Bradshaw Exeter Devon Labour
#528 Johnny Mercer Plymouth, Moor View Devon Conservative
#612 Peter Heaton-Jones North Devon Devon Conservative
#640 Neil Parish Tiverton and Honiton Devon Conservative
#649 Hugo Swire East Devon Devon Conservative
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31 Oct 2019

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Accountability, Claire Wright, East Devon Tories, General Election, Hugo Swire, Neil Parish, Voting

How to vote tactically in East Devon if you are a Remainer

Vote Lib Dem in Tiverton and Honiton (Neil Parish)

DO NOT VOTE LIB DEM IN EAST DEVON (Hugo Swire) – vote Claire Wright (Independent)

Tactical voting site says vote Lib Dem in Tiverton & Honiton constituency and Claire Wright, Independent, in East Devon

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31 Oct 2019

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Accountability, General Election, Hugo Swire, Neil Parish, Voting

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General election, Hugo Swire and Neil Parish

East Devon Watch will NOT report any “good news” stories from Hugo Swire or Neil Parish between now and the election unless it can be proved (by very strong evidence) to be accurate – and not just convenient pre-election speculation.

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29 Oct 2019

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Claire Wright, East Devon Tories, General Election, Hugo Swire, Neil Parish, Voting

“Professor John Curtice Makes Surprising Prediction For General Election 2019”

East Devon: be a trendsetter – elect Claire Wright – Independent!

“Professor John Curtice Makes Prediction On General Election 2019

The UK’s leading election expert Sir John Curtice told LBC he expects parties other than the two major ones to have a record number of MPs in the upcoming General Election.

The UK is expected to go to the polls on 12th December after Jeremy Corbyn told Labour MPs to back Boris Johnson’s proposal for an early General Election.

Sir John is the man who predicted Brexit and has been in charge of the accurate exit polls in the recent elections in 2015 and 2017.

And speaking to Shelagh Fogarty, he gave a surprising prediction of what we can expect.

He said: “I think the safest prediction is that we will have a record number of non-Conservative and non-Labour MPs in this parliament.

“The SNP look set to win the vast majority of seats in Scotland. The Liberal Democrats given their position in the polls should do extremely well. We expect Caroline Lucas and the Green Party to hang on to her seat.

“We could have more than 100 MPs that do not belong to either of the other two parties.

“That matters for two reasons. The first is that it makes it difficult for either Conservative or Labour to win an overall majority if you’re taking the fact that 100 of the seats are already spoken for.

“Secondly, it matters because this is an asymmetric election. It’s an election that Boris Johnson has to win. If he does not get a majority or something very close to it, he will not be able to stay in government because the Conservatives do not have any friends elsewhere.

“The Labour Party, by contrast, at least has the possibility of doing a deal with the SNP, a deal with the Liberal Democrats, getting support of the Greens and maybe even the DUP not standing in their way.

“Bear in mind, this is not an election that Labour have to win to stop Brexit, but it is an election that they and the other opposition parties simply need to deny the Conservatives a majority.”

https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/shelagh-fogarty/professor-john-curtice-makes-surprising-prediction/

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13 Oct 2019

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Accountability, General Election, Neil Parish

Oh Lord! “Stupid” Neil Parish nearly got shot by local police!

PLEASE, PLEASE someone stand against this “stupid MP”!

The Evening Standard headline reads:

The Londoner:
‘Stupid’ MP in car chase caper
Tory MP nearly shot after tailing Jeremy Hunt’s armoured convoy in Volvo

“The Conservative MP Neil Parish risked being shot by police protecting Jeremy Hunt earlier this year after the Tory politician joined the then foreign secretary’s motorcade without authorisation. “They were not that far from f***ing shooting him because he was tailing the foreign secretary and they didn’t know who the f*** he was,” a source tells The Londoner.

Hunt, who was running for Tory leadership at the time, met Parish at a cheese farm shortly before a hustings in Exeter, near Parish’s constituency of Tiverton and Honiton, on June 28. “My intentions were honourable,” Parish told The Londoner this morning, before conceding: “I’m the guilty party. It’s a good job they didn’t shoot me.” As they travelled to Exeter, Parish “attempted to join the then foreign secretary’s convoy of three armoured police cars. Big, reinforced, five-and-a -half-tonne Land Rovers.

“He tried to join it in his Volvo because he thought it would be a quicker way to get into the venue,” the source said.

A second source explained: “The cops began to take evasive measures like running red lights and speeding over the limit. And he just kept up. And assumed he was allowed to be part of the convoy.”

The first source added: “The police officers in the convoy had gone, ‘What is this all about? Who is this d***head behind us?’ They were this close to calling in a full-on SWAT team.

“Fortunately, Devon and Cornwall Police were called to the scene. They pulled him over to one side and they screamed at him.”

“I am quite impulsive, I just did it. My biggest mistake was I didn’t tell them I was going to do it,” Parish told The Londoner.

“Then afterwards I thought, ‘Well, that was bloody stupid wasn’t it?’

“I’ve learnt my lesson, I will not be doing that again.”

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/the-londoner-stupid-mp-in-car-chase-caper-a4259251.html

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11 Oct 2019

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Accountability, Climate crisis, Environment (local), Green (local), Hugo Swire, Labour ( Devon), Lib Dem (local), Neil Parish, Spin, Tories

“Tory MPs five times more likely to vote against climate action”

Neil Parish scored 17%: was present for 12 votes and voted positively in 2

Hugo Swire scored 25%: Swire was present for 12 votes and voted positively in 3

Boris Johnson score 0% (yes, that’s right zero), Jacob Rees-Mogg scored 17%, Jeremy Corbyn 92%, Caroline Lucas 92%, Exeter’s Ben Bradshaw 75%, Jo Swinson 50%, Oliver Letwin 17%.

MORAL OF THIS TALE: If you believe in climate change and want to see something done about it, don’t vote Tory, be wary of Lib Dems and vote Labour or Green (or Independent in East Devon)!

“Conservative MPs are almost five times more likely to vote against climate action than legislators from other parties, a Guardian analysis of 16 indicative parliamentary divisions over the past decade has revealed.

The Tories also registered many more donations, shares, salaries, gifts and tickets to sporting events from fossil fuel companies, petrostates, aviation companies and climate sceptics, according to declarations made in the parliamentary record of MPs’ interests between 2008 and 2019.

The Guardian, in collaboration with the investigative environmental journalism group DeSmog UK, rated MPs from 0% to 100% based on 16 parliamentary votes since 2008. The selection sought to cover a range of measures that would affect the UK’s carbon emissions, with an emphasis on votes where MPs were willing to break ranks and put the climate before their party.

The analysis shows that although most politicians publicly express support for ambitious long-term climate targets, when it comes to short-term measures to reduce the UK’s carbon footprint, those in power are less likely to make this a priority.

The scores are not intended to be a definitive evaluation of an MP’s green credentials – both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrat parties complained they had been hard done by.

But experts said the scores were an important tool for voters to make a choice through a climate prism with a potential general election looming. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/11/tory-mps-five-times-more-likely-to-vote-against-climate-action?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

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10 Oct 2019

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Accountability, General Election, Hugo Swire, Neil Parish

“MP Neil Parish wants to hear from you”

Isn’t it strange that, just before elections, our MPs want to know what we think and the rest of the time they barely give us a thought!

Meanwhile, departing MP Hugo Swire has never really cared what we thought anyway and cares even less now so don’t expect any of thissort of electioneering from him!

“MP for Tiverton and Honiton, Neil Parish, is asking the members of his constituency to share their views on a number of topics – including the impending Brexit deal.

It’s a chance for the people of Honiton to voice their opinions on what is currently taking place within government and what roll-on effect this could potentially have on lives and businesses.

Neil Parish said: “As your local Member of Parliament I am keen to hear your views on the issues that matter to you, so I can continue campaigning to get a good deal for you.

“I am proud of all the work our local Conservative team has done so far. But there is more work to do.

“Please complete this survey so that you can have your say and make sure your interests are protected now and in the future.”

https://honiton.nub.news/n/mp-neil-parish-wants-to-hear-from-you-1570624544

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27 Sep 2019

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Environment (local), Neil Parish, Post-Brexit Adjustments

“A no-deal Brexit could be very bad news for rural businesses, with fears that one in four could go bust”

Who is the best person to “reassure” us about this? Neil Parish MP – farmer and Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee … hello Mr Parish, HELLO …

“Our environment correspondent Fiona Harvey explains:

Farmers are particularly vulnerable to a no-deal Brexit because tariffs would be levied on exports, imports of cheap food could flood the market, and because decisions must be made now which will have an impact for the next year. Arable farmers are putting crops in the ground now for spring, and livestock farmers are preparing to breed sheep and other livestock for next year.

Tim Breitmeyer, president of the Country Land and Business Association, said farms and the rural businesses that rely on them were not in a position to absorb the shock of Brexit, and estimates suggested a large number would be in danger.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2019/sep/27/chinese-factory-profits-slowdown-bank-of-england-brexit-stock-markets-oil-business-live?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

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26 Sep 2019

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Accountability, Claire Wright, Democracy, East Devon Tories, Hugo Swire, Neil Parish, Tories

How do you purge Parliament of the spreaders of hatred (and muck)?

If you found the language and behaviour used by Boris Johnson and his cronies objectionable, how do you object? How do you change things?

You can’t write to MPs Swire (retiring) or Parish as they will stick up for him.

You can’t write to most local, regional or national newspapers because they are his sycophantic mouthpieces. And the people who need to know it is objectionable and why don’t read newspapers critical of him.

You can demonstrate, but those demonstrations will be ignored or misrepresented.

Just one thing left – get a decent (and I mean decent) candidate to oppose him, make it a STRAIGHT fight between him and that candidate in his constituency and make every effort to persuade the voters there to

VOTE HIM OUT

Use the democratic processes he scorns and despises to oust him.

The same way a Tory candidate should be in a straight fight with Claire Wright in East Devon and even (hope beyond hope here) against Parish in Tiverton and Honiton.

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21 Sep 2019

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Accountability, East Devon Tories, Neil Parish

Neil Parish to stand again for Tiverton and Honiton

Tiverton and Honiton Conservative Association has announced that Neil Parish MP has been [unanimously] re-adopted to stand as the Prospective Conservative Candidate for the next General Election.

Well, it’s a nice, easy job just a short hop from his Somerset farm …

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11 Sep 2019

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Accountability, Democracy, Neil Parish, Post-Brexit Adjustments

Finally, Parish on Brexit …

Owl isn’t convinced!

“With the current unrest in Parliament – linked to indecision around Brexit – Honiton Nub News contacted local MP Neil Parish to find out his thoughts on what is going on.

He said: “I supported the PM in his call for a general election, so the country can decide who deals with Brexit.

“Parliament is not functioning properly.

“There is no majority for the executive, MPs are not respecting the referendum result – and are now refusing to face public opinion.

“It can’t go on. After Party conference, the impasse must be broken at the earliest opportunity.

“I want to get on with leaving the EU, recruiting 20,000 extra police officers, providing a £14 billion cash boost for schools, 20 new hospital upgrades and transformative infrastructure investment on transport and superfast fibre broadband.

“These are all things which are crucial for our area.”

https://honiton.nub.news/n/local-mp-neil-parish-shares-his-views-on-brexit-and-the-current-state-of-parliament

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4 Sep 2019

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Accountability, Democracy, Hugo Swire, Neil Parish, Tories, Voting, West Dorset

East Devon MPs and West Dorset MP now on opposite sides – Letwin expelled from Tory Party and now an Independent!

Swire and Parish, of course backed Boris Johnson this evening. However, Sir Oliver Letwin, in the adjoining constituency of West Dorset, who has held the seat for the last 22 years and who has been a Cabinet Minister, has been expelled from the Tory Party tonight for rebelling (along with several former Cabinet Ministers and Sir Winston Churchill’s grandson, Sir Nicholas Soames).

So, Letwin is now an Independent!

Rum old world … wonder what Swire has to say about that!

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28 Aug 2019

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Accountability, Democracy, Hugo Swire, Neil Parish, Tories

Top Tory on prorogation of Parliament

Still no view from our MPs Swire and Parish.

Pro-European Micheal Heseltine makes some strong points, whatever your view on Brexit:

“… A government which is frightened of parliament is frightened of democracy. I hope that every member of parliament in feeling this humiliation will use every legal and constitutional weapon to obstruct a government proposing to force on the British people a historic change for which they have long since lost any mandate.

To abandon parliamentary scrutiny is a constitutional affront. My party, the one I have worked for all my life, told the British people about the new role that Britain could play in the world. Britain has helped to change Europe from Fascist and Communist dictatorships to Parliamentary democracies. And now I am told by the leader and the cabinet of that same party that we were all wrong – that we now must become some subordinate vassal state to the United States.

This is outside anything I could ever have believed that the Conservative party would propose, and I hope that large numbers of Conservatives, as well as friends from other political traditions, will join together to resist it. …”

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15 Aug 2019

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Accountability, Environment (local), Neil Parish, Post-Brexit Adjustments, Rural communities

“UK must accept US food standards in trade deal, says farm chief”

Hello, Mr Parish, HELLO …

“The UK must accept US food standards as part of any future trade deal with Washington, the head of America’s farming lobby has said.
Zippy Duvall, head of the American Farm Bureau, said US farmers were keen to trade with their British “friends”.

But he said fears over practices such as washing chicken in chlorine and using genetically modified (GM) crops were not “science-based”.

The US has said the UK will be “first in line” for a trade deal after Brexit.

But some fear the UK will have to compromise on standards currently enshrined in EU law in order to secure a deal with Washington.

Mr Duvall, himself a poultry farmer in Georgia, said he wanted to have “a conversation” about US food standards given the concerns in the UK.

One of the most controversial practices is washing chicken with chlorine to kill germs, which is banned in the EU. This is not because the wash itself is harmful but over fears that treating meat with chlorine at the end allows poorer hygiene elsewhere in the production process.

“You know, here in America we treat our water with chlorine,” Mr Duvall told the BBC’s Today programme.

“So there is no scientific basis that says that washing poultry with a chlorine wash just to be safe of whatever pathogens might be on that chicken as it was prepared for the market, should be taken away.

“If there was something wrong with it our federal inspection systems would not be allowing us to use that,” he added.

Harmful competition?

In London this week, Donald Trump’s national security advisor John Bolton suggested that the US could strike trade deals with the UK after Brexit on a “sector-by -sector basis” to speed up the process.

But asked whether he could envisage a trade deal with the UK that did not include agriculture, Mr Duvall said it would be seen as a betrayal by US farmers.

“To have a trade treaty and not discuss agriculture would be turning your back on rural America and that’s where a big part of our population lives. …”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49353220

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14 Aug 2019

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Accountability, Hugo Swire, Neil Parish

Anyone seen Neil Parish MP recently?

The pro-Brexiteer seems to have gone rather quiet since Boris Johnson became PM and hadn’t told us what (as a farmer) he thinks about a no-deal Brexit.

Sure, our MPs are all on holiday in this time of constitutional crisis (whatever happened to parliamentary sovereignty?) but surely his constituents deserve to know what he thinks and what he is planning to do on behalf of his Tiverton and Honiton voters?

After all, we do know what Swire is up to, even if some of us don’t approve!

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17 Jul 2019

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Accountability, Neil Parish

Parish backs Johnson because “he has plans for the south west”

A garden bridge over the Tamar?
An international airport at Lands End with a runway going out to sea?
A cable car between Cranbrook and the Science Park?

Boggled mund …

https://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/honiton-and-tverton-mp-is-impressed-by-his-brexit-plans-1-6165434

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13 Jul 2019

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Accountability, Axminster, East Devon economy, East Devon Tories, EDDC, Hugo Swire, Neil Parish, Regeneration

Tory Councillor blames Tory Government for abandoning Axminster and pleads with Parish and Swire for help

Axminster Conservative Councillor Ian Hall has challenged the area’s two Conservative MPs to press for more credible support from Westminster after the town suffered another in a series of economic setbacks.

The Conservative district councillor, who was re-elected to represent the town in May, despite his party losing control of East Devon after 45 years, says he feels the Tory administration in Westminster has abandoned the town.

This follows news that the Government has rebuffed Axminster’s application for help from a Future High Streets Fund grant at the second stage.

The former Conservative administration at EDDC applied to Westminster in March for Axminster to receive a share of the £675 million set aside as part of Government’s Our Plan for the High Street.

It became clear that Axminster had lost out when the shortlist of successful bids for up to £150,000 was announced last week, with the nearest places to go forward being Taunton and Yeovil.

Ian Hall said: “Axminster seems to be the forgotten town of East Devon when it comes to any kind of support from Central Government. There’s been a catalogue of decisions going against us, which have left those of us who are working hard to revitalise the town during challenging economic times feeling like nobody in power cares about us.

POSITIVE ACTION

“I’ve now contacted our two local MPs – Neil Parish and Hugo Swire – challenging them to press colleagues in Government to recognise that Axminster will be in dire straits if it doesn’t see some positive action”.

In March, Ian Hall described a Whitehall decision to backtrack on an earlier promise of a £10 million grant for the proposed Axminster Relief Road as a ‘betrayal’ because changing the grant to a loan rendered the entire Axminster Masterplan unviable.

Since then, there’s been more gloom for Axminster, with Goulds announcing an autumn closure of the town’s Trinity House department store and McColls newsagent in Victoria Place expected to cease trading.

An angry Ian Hall said: “Enough is enough. Axminster is fighting for its life at the moment. There are people in this town – and I’m one of them – working incredibly hard to keep ourselves afloat against really tough odds. But all we’re getting from this Government [HIS GOVERNMENT!!!] is one kick in the teeth after another.

FIGHTING

“There’s only so much people here on the ground can do. I’m fighting Axminster’s corner at district and county level. But our local efforts can only make a difference if we get support from central funds. No one at Westminster seems to understand the desperate position we are in – let alone care about it. If you take away people’s hope, why shouldn’t they just give up?

“I’m hoping the two men who local people elected to protect our interests [!] will start rattling some cages in Westminster. We will soon have a new Prime Minister and a fresh administration in Whitehall. I’m challenging our MPs to get Axminster on their radar and to secure some tangible recognition of our town’s fantastic record of self-help.

“Meanwhile, we also have a new administration running East Devon. I also challenge them to do their bit, as a matter of urgency, to help our fantastic town to thrive and prosper”.