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“PEDIGREE CHUM”

Owl says: due diligence (lack of) and “chumocracy” – we know a LOT about that in East Devon!

“More than a week after Toby Young quit from the Office for Student Regulator, it has emerged that ministers turned down three other ‘appointable’ candidates in order to give the provocateur-journo his post. Labour MP Kevin Brennan, who got the facts in a Parliamentary answer, accuses ministers of ‘jiggery-pokery’.

Tory MP Robert Halfon said the appointment of Young “smacks of the elite” and was the “chumocracy at work”. There are concerns over the due diligence failures in the case and how more ‘suitable’ candidates were overlooked. It’s unclear when Young’s replacement will be chosen.”

Source: Huffington Post, “The Waugh Zone” online

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Is it the Conservatives we are supposed to trust with business?

“[John Manzoni the civil service chief executive]said [to the Public Accounts Committee] that it was not until November that officials “really started to notice” the problems at Carillion, whose chairman, Philip Green, is an adviser to the prime minister on corporate responsibility.

Between July and November, Carillion issued three major profits warnings and its shares crashed by 91%.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/15/carillion-fallout-deepens-as-workers-face-pay-being-stopped-in-48-hours

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How much more sleazy can the Carillion privatisation mess get?h

This is from the Daily Mail “This is Money” on 12 September 2017:

“Troubled engineer Carillion introduced tougher rules that protect bonuses paid to bosses – just months before it was embroiled in an accounting crisis that wiped £600million off its shares.

The firm changed the wording of its pay policy to make it harder for investors to claw back bonuses paid to executives in the event it ran into financial difficulty.

In recent days Carillion has been under pressure from investors to recoup some of the millions of pounds in bonuses paid to former chief executive Richard Howson and ex-finance chief Richard Adam when they were in charge.
A probe by the Mail has found that previously bosses could have been forced to hand back their annual bonus and share awards in ‘circumstances of corporate failure’.

But in the group’s 2016 annual report this wording was tightened.
It says deferred bonuses may be reduced in circumstances of corporate failure but goes on to say the so-called ‘malus’ and ‘clawback’ provisions can be applied in two circumstances: if results have been misstated or the participant is guilty of gross misconduct.

The changes to clawback rules, if interpreted as being a higher bar, could save bosses millions.

Howson, 49, stepped down from his role as chief executive on the day of the disastrous trading update. He had been in the post since 2009.

He is still with the company as chief operating officer but is due to leave next year. He has made £1.9 million in cash and share bonuses during his tenure, only not getting an award in 2012, according to Mail calculations.
Last year he pocketed a £245,000 bonus in cash and shares as well as a £346,000 long-term incentive award.

Adam, 59, has had up to £2.6million in extra cash and shares since starting in 2006, according to Mail calculations.

Last year he was handed a bonus of £140,000 and long-term incentive awards worth £278,000.

After leaving Carillion in December 2016, he faced a revolt from shareholders at First Group when he joined the transport company’s board. More than a fifth opposed his appointment.

Carillion is still one of the most shorted stocks on the market, suggesting investors are expecting worse to come. But shares closed up 3.7 per cent yesterday, or 1.6p, at 44.76p.

The company declined to comment.”

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-4873710/Carillion-protected-bosses-4m-bonuses-crisis.html

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“Nick Clegg claims £115,000 annual expenses allowance previously only granted to former Prime Ministers”

“Sir Nick Clegg, the former Deputy Prime Minister, has reportedly claimed almost £115,000 from an expenses allowance previously only granted to former Prime Ministers.

The former leader of the Liberal Democrats was given access to the public duty cost allowance after the 2015 general election.

The allowance provides for the office and secretarial costs for former premiers. …

… A recommendation to give him a reduced rate under the allowance was ignored, according to an internal memo released under freedom of information laws and reported by The Sunday Times. …”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nick-clegg-claims-annual-expenses-allowance-deputy-prime-minister-liberal-democrats-public-duty-cost-a8158781.html

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“Rogue landlords making millions out of housing benefits”

Owl says: Chances of this government legislating to stop this – zero. They couldn’t even pass a law saying rented housing should be habitable:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-vote-down-law-requiring-landlords-make-their-homes-fit-for-human-habitation-a6809691.html

“Highly organised gangs of rogue landlords are making millions every year out of the housing benefit system by enticing desperate local authorities to place single homeless people in micro-flats in shoddily converted and dangerous former family homes.

Three-bed houses, where the maximum weekly housing benefit for flat-sharers is under £100 a person, are being converted into as many as six tiny self-contained studios – as little as 10 sq m in size. Each then qualifies for housing benefit of £181 a week, enabling a landlord to squeeze £56,000 a year in rent from a property on London’s fringes, all paid from public funds. The £56,000 compares with the typical £6,200 annual rent on a three-bed council house.

A previously unpublished government report into a £700,000 project to tackle the scam, released this week under freedom of information laws, shows that councils are struggling to contain the spread of the “lockdown” model, which has taken hold in at least 12 London boroughs since 2015.

It warns of “well organised but unscrupulous landlords” profiting despite some councils – including Hackney, Bexley and Greenwich – launching prosecutions, raids and prohibition orders. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jan/13/landlords-housing-benefit

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John Lewis pension fund investing in controversial home leaseholds

“Thousands of young homebuyers remain trapped in virtually brand-new homes made unsaleable by spiralling ground rents and abandoned by developers such as Taylor Wimpey, despite a ban on the charges promised by the government.

Guardian Money can also reveal that the £5bn John Lewis pension fund is behind the soaring rents that have made the lives of some homeowners a misery. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jan/13/ground-rent-young-homebuyers-charges

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Theresa May accused of buying Tory MPs’ support – nearly half Tory MPs getting pay perks

“Theresa May has been accused of “buying the loyalty” of Tory MPs by paying nine of them about £10,000 a year extra to be party vice-chairmen.
Labour’s Chris Bryant claims the cash, which comes from Conservative Party funds, amounts to “hush money”.

The jobs were handed out to the MPs, including some who had lost ministerial posts, in Mrs May’s reshuffle.

According to The Times, they are being paid varying amounts depending on their past experience.

A Conservative spokesman said: “Our new team of vice chairs bring a diverse range of experience to the party.

“The party has decided to offer some remuneration for these positions, reflecting both the importance of these roles and the commitment expected of them.”
The new vice-chairmen were appointed by Mrs May as part of a shake-up of Conservative central office aimed at attracting more young people and ethnic minority voters to join the party.

Brandon Lewis was installed as the new party chairman, with James Cleverly as his deputy.

The vice-chairmen include junior ministers, such as Chris Skidmore and Marcus Jones, who were sacked in the prime minister’s reshuffle and will, therefore, have lost their ministerial salary of £22,000 a year, which comes on top of their £74,962 MPs’ pay.

The new vice-chairmen come in addition to the party’s existing four vice-chairmen and others given what Chris Bryant described as “semi-government” jobs, such as the 15 MPs acting as trade envoys.

“It has never been done before as far as I am aware,” said Mr Bryant, a former Labour minister, of the new vice-chairmen.

“It is basically a means of keeping them on board and extending the prime minister’s patronage.”

“It means they can be sacked,” he added, if they voted against the government or showed disloyalty.

The size of the so-called “payroll vote” – backbench MPs whose independence is supposedly compromised by being given paid or unpaid roles in government – has been a source of controversy under successive governments.

The Ministerial and Other Salaries Act 1975 says the maximum number of paid ministerial posts should be 109, with the size of the cabinet limited to 21 ministers.

Prime ministers can also appoint MPs to unpaid roles, such as Parliamentary Private Secretaries, or invite ministers to attend cabinet without being full members – there are six ministers in this category in Mrs May’s new line-up.

The BBC estimates that there 105 Tory MPs – out of a total of 316 – on the “payroll vote,” following Mrs May’s reshuffle, but that is before the new list of Parliamentary Private Secretaries has been released, which could take the total to 150 MPs, nearly half of the Parliamentary party.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42633471

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Electoral Reform Society publishes four hard-hitting articles

There’s a lobbying scandal brewing in the House of Lords”

“As if the House of Lords did not already look like a private members’ club, an investigation by The Times has revealed that peers can continue to use the House of Lords’ subsidised dining rooms even after they retire.”

That means former politicians, who were not elected but selected for the role – are enjoying cheap food and drink thanks to taxpayers’ hard-earned cash. …”

https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/theres-a-lobbying-scandal-brewing-in-the-house-of-lords/

Referendum spending is a murky world – when it should be crystal clear

“Negotiations on the UK’s exit from the European Union will dominate much of the political agenda this year. But 18 months on from the Brexit referendum, questions are still being asked about whether campaigners played by the rules when it came to spending. …”

https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/referendum-spending-is-a-murky-world-when-it-should-be-crystal-clear/

Political parties are too reliant on big donors – and it has to change

“The Mirror today published research findings showing that 39% of all cash donations to the Conservative Party declared so far this year are from 64 individuals and their businesses.

The 64 in question are all members of an exclusive donor club with a £50,000 annual membership fee.

This grants them access to senior party figures via swanky dinner events. Ministers who have attended in the first half of this year include Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Philip Hammond and Jeremy Wright. …”

https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/political-parties-are-too-reliant-on-big-donors-and-it-has-to-change/

Ministers are ignoring the elephant in the room when it comes to boundaries

“Because of the current winner-takes-all voting system for electing Members of Parliament, 22 million votes were wasted at last year’s General Election – that’s 68% of the total votes cast.

So no matter what the size of your constituency is, most votes went into the black hole of our voting system.

That means 22 million people not just being under-represented – but not being represented at all in Parliament’s elected chamber.

Their votes are being thrown on the scrapheap – and the result is a highly distorted legislature that fails to represent the country. …”

https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/boundaries-need-reforming-but-the-real-affront-to-democracy-is-first-past-the-post/

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Another LEP, similar to our own, has serious questions to be answered

Owl has only just come across this article from August 2017, but how interesting!

“Controversial LEP Chairman combines top jobs for himself at Board, Executive and Sub-committee levels

The roles of Chair and Chief Executive have been combined and Mark Reeve is now the Executive Chairman of the LEP, the local body allocated £150 million of public money.

In addition it appears Mr Reeve is also still chair of the LEP’s sub-committee on investment and sub-committee on agri-tech – although the LEP website remains silent on this.

As such the boss of the local funding body awarded £150 million of taxpayer funds appears to be in charge at three different levels – Board, Executive and Sub-committee levels.

This unprecedented concentration of power in someone unelected by the public is despite Mr Reeve failing to explain why his own business annual accounts for his building firm Chalcroft, had financial irregularities in the same year he became boss of the LEP. Mr Reeve personally signed the accounts which record these financial irregularities.

The decision to extend Mr Reeve’s power was proposed by John Bridge – who coincidentally will also decide on Mr Reeve’s salary as the new Executive Chairman. Mr Bridge chairs the remuneration committee which will decide how much public money to give Mr Reeve.

Any constituent who wants more information on these arrangements should contact John Bridge direct at j.bridge@cambscci.co.uk”

http://stevebarclay.net/controversial-lep-chairman-combines-top-jobs-for-himself-at-board-executive-and-sub-committee-levels/

Update: he resigned the post in November 2017!

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Andrew Marr defends NHS and confronts May

“BBC presenter Andrew Marr confronted Theresa May over the state of the NHS, suggesting he could have died if he had waited five hours for an ambulance following his own stroke.

The political broadcaster, 58, who suffered a stroke in January 2013, pressed the PM on the crisis, which has led to thousands of routine operations being cancelled in January as the health service struggles to cope with winter pressures.

It comes after the East of England Ambulance Service apologised following the death of a pensioner, 81, in Essex who was left waiting nearly four hours for a crew of paramedics.

Appearing in a pre-recorded interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday morning, the Prime Minister acknowledged more needs to be done, telling the interviewer: “Of course nothing’s perfect and there is more for us to do.”

Mr Marr claimed funding was not the sole issue facing the service and said the cancelled operations were “part of the plan”.

Presenter Mr Marr challenged her, saying he would not be interviewing her if he had experienced the same delays following his stroke.

“If I’d been waiting for five hours before I’d seen a doctor after my stroke I would not be here talking to you,” he said.

“This is about life and death and up and down the country people are having horrendous experiences of the NHS,” he added, before asking what the PM would say to the daughter of an elderly woman who waited hours to see a doctor.

Mrs May replied: “Obviously you’ve raised an individual case with me which I haven’t seen the details of and I recognise that people have concerns if they have experience of that sort.

“If we look at what is happening across the NHS, what we see is that actually the NHS is delivering for more people, it is treating more people and more people are being seen within the four hours every day than has been a few years ago.

“But of course nothing’s perfect and there is more for us to do.”

On funding, it was suggested to Mrs May that she had done nothing to address increased pressure on the social care system.

The PM replied: “Well yes, we have done something about it, Andrew. I’m sorry, you’re wrong in that.

“We have put extra funding into the social care system and we have worked with hospitals and with local authorities to identify how we can reduce those delayed discharges, ie patients being kept in hospital when they shouldn’t be.”

Mrs May said the Government is working on its long-term plans for social care but would not be drawn on whether there is a need for a brave and radical look at how the NHS is funded.

Asked about whether she agreed with Mr Hunt’s suggestion of a 10-year funding plan, Mrs May replied: “Of course what we’re operating on at the moment is the five-year forward view for the NHS which is the forward view that the NHS themselves came forward with.

“They brought those proposals together.”

Pressed further on cash, Mrs May said: “You keep talking about the money but actually what you also need to look at is how the NHS works, how it operates.”

Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth said of the PM: “She hasn’t got a plan to get those people off the trolleys and corridors.”

He added to the same programme: “Her only plan apparently is to promote this Health Secretary. They should be demoting this Health Secretary.

“If she promotes this Health Secretary tomorrow it’s a betrayal of those 75,000 people in the back of ambulances.”

Franz Ferdinand drummer Paul Thomson, performing at the end of the programme, appeared to show his support for the health service by wearing a t-shirt with the NHS’s logo above the Nike tick.”

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/bbcs-andrew-marr-confronts-theresa-may-on-nhs-crisis-as-he-warns-he-could-have-died-without-fast-a3733866.html

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“A THIRD of Tory donations come from a tiny group of rich men who enjoy lavish dinners with Theresa May”

Owl says: The Conservative Party – DEFINITELY for the FEW and not the MANY!

“More than a third of donations to the Tories last year came from a tiny group of super-rich men who enjoy lavish secretive dinners with Theresa May.

Research reveals how much Britain’s party of government depends on a band of millionaires for survival.

And it comes despite Mrs May vowing in 2007: “To restore public trust we must remove the dependency of the political parties on all large donors.”

Labour analysed donations by the 64 people – 62 of them men – who attended ‘Leader’s Group’ dinners, hosted by the Prime Minister and other senior ministers, in the first half of last year.

The Conservative Party trousered £12.9million from these donors or their firms in 2017, Labour’s research shows – 39% of all cash donations to the Tories across the year declared so far.

More than a third of the dinners’ attendees were on the Sunday Times Rich List, which brings together the 1,000 wealthiest people in Britain.

And almost half were from the world of finance including hedge fund bosses Sir Michael Hintze, a billionaire knighted under David Cameron who gave £345,000, and Andrew Law who gave £604,000.

Financiers at the dinners gave £4.5million between them – while £3.7million came from Brexit backers.

Ferrari-collecting JCB billionaire Lord Bamford and his family, the 35th-richest people in Britain and prominent donors to Vote Leave, topped the list by giving £2.5million to the Tories personally and through their firms in 2017.

Major donor diners also included Addison Lee cab firm founder John Griffin, housebuilding billionaire John Bloor, and spread-betting tycoon and former Tory co-Treasurer Peter Cruddas.

Other attendees were oil tycoon Ian Taylor who rejected a knighthood in David Cameron’s 2016 ‘crony honours’, and Arbuthnot private bank boss Sir Henry Angest and Tory chief executive Sir Mick Davis – both knighted under Mr Cameron a year earlier.

The only two women among the 64 diners gave £328,000 between them.

Socialite, philanthropist and friend of Bill Clinton Alisa Swidler gave £87,000 while Lubov Chernukhin, the banker wife of Russia’s former deputy finance minister, gave £241,000.

David Cameron denied Ms Chernukhin was a “Putin crony” in 2014 when it emerged she had paid £160,000 for a tennis match with the then-Prime Minister and Boris Johnson.

The Conservative Party website boasts tycoons can pay £50,000 to join the Leader’s Group and attend private dinners with Theresa May and ministers as part of efforts “to defeat the rise of socialism”.

Despite David Cameron promising to publish regular lists of attendees, those for the first half of 2017 were only released several months late after pressure from the Mirror.

We revealed Theresa May dined on lobster and beef with several donors at a secret London venue hours after confirming millions of people’s benefits would be frozen.

No minutes of the dinner meetings are ever published, and the Conservatives refuse to say what is discussed at them.

And the meals are limited to a tight circle of ministers, with only Mrs May, Boris Johnson, Philip Hammond and five other Cabinet ministers taking part in the first six months of 2017.

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett said: “The Prime Minister once said her party needed to remove its dependency on large donors and that she would not be driven by the interests of the rich and powerful.

“But after having to wait almost a year for the Tories to come clean about who is buying access to her and her senior ministers, we can see that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“As always with the Tories, the real decisions are made with a small group of wealthy backers.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/revealed-how-third-tory-donations-11798246

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House of Lords: “best day care centre for elderly in London”

“As if the House of Lords did not already look like a private members’ club, an investigation by The Times has revealed that peers can continue to use the House of Lords’ subsidised dining rooms even after they retire.

That means former politicians, who were not elected but selected for the role – are enjoying cheap food and drink thanks to taxpayers’ hard-earned cash.

In all, £1.2million per year is used to subsidise food and drink in the House of Lords.

A menu from the chamber, published following a Freedom of Information request in 2013, revealed a pint of draft beer cost £2.60 and a bottle of House of Lords claret is £14.80.

Meanwhile a two-course table d’hôte lunch costs £15.50, with main courses including sirloin beef and whole sea bream stuffed with olives and tomatoes.

Is it any wonder that Lib Dem life peer, Lord Tyler, described it as “the best day care centre for the elderly in London” in an interview for the BBC’s documentary Meet the Lords last year? …”

https://t.co/OLnjKDxSq9

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“MPs To Block Ex-IPSA Chief Sir Ian Kennedy From New Watchdog Post As ‘Revenge’ For Expenses Crackdown”

“MPs are blocking a new taxpayer-funded job for former IPSA chief Sir Ian Kennedy as “revenge” for his crackdown in the wake of Parliament’s expenses scandal, HuffPost UK can reveal.

Tory and Labour backbenchers are set to deploy little-used Commons procedures to stymie plans to appoint Kennedy to the board of the Electoral Commission.

Kennedy, who led the drive to reform the system after the 2009 MPs’ expenses affair, has been recommended as a new Commissioner for the elections watchdog, a four-year post which carries a salary of £359-a-day.

But MPs plan to shout ‘object’ when a formal procedural motion on the appointment is tabled in the Commons next Monday, its first day back after the Christmas recess.

The rebels, who only need one objection to delay the motion, plan to continue their protest indefinitely, forcing the Commission to either withdraw the appointment or leave the post vacant. …”

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/mps-to-block-election-commission-appointment-of-ex-ipsa-sir-ian-kennedy-as-revenge-for-mps-expenses-crackdown_uk_5a4ce876e4b0b0e5a7aa1d9

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“Damian Green to receive £17,000 pay-off after being sacked for ‘lying’ about pornography on his computer”

What can you add to that headline? Except – can you imagine what May and her MPs would say if this was a politician from another party?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/damian-green-sacked-pay-off-receive-money-porn-claims-computer-images-a8124386.html

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DUP funding to stay secret

Owl says: What a surprise! Remind me – isn’t the DUP a fundamentalist “Christian” party? Oooohhhh … wait for the fire and brimstone – not.

“Labour has criticised an attempt by the government to allow the DUP to conceal details of past political donations, including during the EU referendum, despite a 2014 law that extended party transparency rules to Northern Ireland.

The government has announced it will bring into force new transparency rules for Northern Ireland’s political parties to allow the Electoral Commission to publish details of donations over £7,500.

The provision for the new rules, which will bring Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK, was first introduced in legislation in 2014, with the wide understanding it would be applied from that year.

However, the Northern Ireland secretary, James Brokenshire, said he intended the act to be applied from 1 July 2017, which would mean donations during the EU referendum in 2016 are not made public.

Campaigners have raised questions over the DUP’s spending on the EU referendum in June 2016 – including a £435,000 donation from a group called the Constitutional Research Council (CRC), chaired by Richard Cook, a former vice-chairman of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party.

The source of the cash was revealed by the DUP after a series of articles published by OpenDemocracy, though details of the CRC’s source of income are still opaque. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/19/labour-criticises-move-past-donations-dup-hidden

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Rank and file Tories fear for the end of their party

This appears to be a legitimate Conservative party group whichis highly critical of attempt to de-democratise their party. The views are their ownand are shown verbatim:

From the blog of:
http://copov.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/last-chance-to-save-conservative-party.html

CAMPAIGN FOR CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRACY
(COPOV: Conservative, One Person One Vote)

“Friday, December 15, 2017
Last Chance to save the Conservative Party

Changes to the Conservative Party Constitution
or
How to give more power to the hierarchy

At a meeting of the National Convention held on 25th November in Birmingham the following changes to the Conservative Party Constitution were discussed and passed to be formally proposed at the next National Convention meeting on 16th March 2018. About 100 members turned up on 25th November for this meeting out of the 1,000 members of the Convention. For only the second time in the last fifteen years ordinary Party members were excluded from the Convention even as observers.

If these rule changes go through you may as well bring down the final curtain on the Conservative Party and on it will the written:

The Tory Party. The End

1) “Constituency Associations” are abolished.

In future we will just have “Associations” which will consist of one or more Constituency Associations.

This is a sad day. For 150 years the Constituency Association has been the building block of the Conservative Party. No longer. This is the management of decline.

2) The Annual Meeting of the National Convention to be abolished.
Voting for Officers of the Convention will now be done “online”. Officers will give reports “online”

This means that there will be no hustings meeting at which the candidates will speak. It also means that there cannot be questions to the candidates. In the early days of the Convention a motion was passed calling for hustings at which the candidates were questioned. The motion was passed overwhelmingly. The Officers ignored it. Now there is no chance. Also no opportunity to question the Officers on their reports. This is North Korean style democracy.

Why don’t they just abolish the National Convention and have an Annual General Meeting to which every member is invited and at which the Party Chairman is elected by the members?

3) Selection of Candidates to be centrally controlled.

15 SELECTION OF CANDIDATES

15.1 The selection of all candidates, including Parliamentary, Police Commissioners, Elected Mayors and local government candidates shall follow a process in accordance with rules and guidance published from time to time by the Committee on Candidates of the Board of the Party (as established under Schedule 6 of the Party Constitution)

All further articles up to and including 15.2.5 to be removed

The entire section of the Constitution which spells out the way in which candidates are to be selected has been deleted. All selection will now be determined by the Committee on Candidates which will also determine the procedures for selecting candidates. So a small group of appointed people unaccountable to the membership will now determine all candidates. This small group of unaccountable people will effectively decide who shall become a Conservative Member of Parliament and from them who will be in Government. What happened to democracy? This is disgraceful. It shows complete contempt for the people. What have we come to?

By adopting this proposal the last vestiges of any rights for Party members has been eliminated. Now they have no rights at all!

4) Conservative Policy Forum
Under the existing Constitution:

65 The Board shall appoint a Director of the Conservative Policy Forum whose responsibilities shall include the formation of a structure to co-ordinate the activities of the Political Deputy Chairmen of the Area Management Executives and Constituency Associations.

This is to be replaced by:

65 The Board shall appoint a Director of the Conservative Policy Forum on the recommendation of the Chairman of the National Convention, whose responsibilities shall include co-ordinating the policy-related activities of the Associations and Area Management Executives.

Why should the Chairman of the National Convention recommend the Director of the Conservative Policy Forum – to increase his power or a nice bit of cronyism?

66.3 Three representatives elected by the Political Deputy Chairmen of the Area Management Executives in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 5 .
This provision of the Constitution was never adhered to so instead of enforcing it what did they do? Delete it! So now, every member of the Council of the Conservative Policy Forum is appointed. Jobs for the boys!

5) Area Councils
The Constitution states:

4 Any member of an Association within an Area may stand for election within that Area to the Area Management Executive provided they are proposed and seconded by members of an Area Council in the Area in which they are standing for election.

5 The election shall take place at the meeting of the Area Council. The election shall be by secret ballot. The Returning Officer shall be a member of the professional staff of the Party, nominated for the purpose by the Board.

The only problem is that there is no requirement for members to be told when the date of the meeting of the Area Council is or indeed who are members of it, so they have become self perpetuating oligarchies.

6) National Convention
The existing Constitution states that:

5 Any nominee for any such office or post referred to in Paragraph 2.2 herein shall have been a Member of the National Convention for not less than two years.

This is now replaced by:

5 Any nominee for any such office or post referred to in Paragraph 2.2 herein shall have been a Member of the National Convention for not less than the two years preceding the date of close of nominations.

So you cannot stand for office until you are in the third year as a member and are currently a member The effect of this is that none of the officers will have any long term historical knowledge of the workings of the Convention

6 Any nominee for the office of President shall have been an elected member of the Board for one year.

This is changed to:

6 Any nominee for the office of President shall have been an elected member of the Board for one year preceding the date of close of nominations.
Same comment as above

It is time for the Conservative Members of Parliament to stop being so supine and get off sitting on their hands and oppose these changes. If they don’t, then at the next General Election the only activists left in their constituencies will be themselves!
Posted by John Strafford at 9:32 AM”

http://copov.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/last-chance-to-save-conservative-party.html

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The disgraced ex-EDDC Tory Councillor Graham Brown “If I can’t get planning, nobody will” scandal refuses to die

Remember the disgraced ex-Councilor Graham Brown scandal?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9920971/If-I-cant-get-planning-nobody-will-says-Devon-councillor-and-planning-consultant.html

Well, it refuses to die.

The Sunday Times today (page 29, main paper) mentions it in passing in an article entitled “Bricks, Bribery and Planning – the flaw built into our planning rules” (full text to follow shortly).

“But the depressing truth is that corruption is endemic in Britain’s bureaucratic planning system. In every corner of the country, you can fund stories of bribery, with local councillors and officials rigging the planning system for their own gain.

Doncaster, Enfield, Greater Manchester, EAST DEVON – these are just a handful of local authorities where corrupt practices have been discovered in planning departments. In other words, the corruption is systemic and it’s caused by the inadequacy of Britain’s property rights”. …”

Brown, at various times, headed up the East Devon Business Forum, was also highly influential in the early stages of the Local Development Plan (which wasted two years or more mostly visiting big development sites owned by prominent businessmen and which had to be abandoned and re-started under the later chairmanship of Councillor Philip Skinner).

Brown held many other posts throughout his long career as an EDDC councillor, mostly related to planning, while running his local planning consultancy business – a fact of which other Tory majority party councillors and officers were very well aware, but did not perceive as not being a conflict of interest – until the Daily Telegraph sting.

His only censure was to be kicked out of his local Tory party – local police refused to be involved with an inquiry due to insufficient evidence. Were local planners and councillors – or even the Daily Telegraph or Anna Minton – asked for evidence? We have no idea.

Brown features (as does East Devon generally – a whole chapter) in the Anna Minton expose “ Scaring the Living Daylights Out of People: The Local Lobby and the Failure of Democracy” (Section 3: The Local Mafia: Conflicts of Interest in East Devon”) :

Click to access scaring-the-living-daylights-final.pdf

As a final insult to injury, after his departure from EDDC he attempted to get the agricultural tie lifted from the farmhouse in which he lived (which would have greatly increased its value by up to 40%) until a local investigation (led by East Devon Alliance) uncovered the fact that he had been receiving EU farming subsidies to the tune of at least £850,000 throughout the period he said he was no longer farming:

https://eastdevonwatch.org/2014/09/22/ex-councillor-browns-facts-disputed-2/

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Commons committee urges greater council scrutiny

A subject close to this East Devon’s heart and the cause of many sleepless days …

“A report by the Commons Communities and Local Government Committee has warned that a lack of effective scrutiny of the decisions of council leaders and elected mayors risks contributing to “severe” failures in public service provision.

The study found that funding cuts have reduced the resources and staff available to help councillors examine and challenge their activities.

The committee urges changes to Government guidance and increased funding to ensure proper oversight arrangements are in place. It also says a change of culture in local authorities is needed to prevent executives using issues of “commercial sensitivity” to hide details of deals with private companies from councillors.”

Source: Yorkshire Post, Page: 1

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Half of Parliament’s sleaze watchdog panel have themselves breached its code!

“Half of the members of a sifting panel for the appointment of a new Commons sleaze watchdog have themselves broken parliamentary rules. …

The disclosure prompted fresh concerns last night for the appointments process for the role and the principle of MPs “marking their own homework …”

Sunday Times (paywall)