Donors to parties …
Buck stops at councils for poor rural broadband
“A council-run broadband group has been branded “incompetent” for repeatedly terminating contracts and failing to deliver broadband after a decade.
Last month, Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) began its fourth procurement for a new supplier.
Graham Long, chairman of campaign group Fast Broadband for Rural Devon & Somerset, said the problems needed to be “lanced” and suggested bringing in new operators.
Council-run CDS declined to comment.
Campaigners have highlighted the lack of certainty around the roll-out due to funding arrangements with central government.
About £20m is needed to complete the work but this money was not set out in September’s Spending Review.
The review normally covers three years but this year only covered one.
‘Track record’
Farmer, Steve Horner, from Yarcombe, struggles with a slow internet connection.
“The only way they can recover is by replacing the current team in Exeter… they have to be replaced with competent people who have a track record.”
Mr Long said: “This is a boil that needs to be lanced and my suggestion of bringing in other operators is a way to lance it.
“My conclusion is CDS is currently gambling on that problem being solved by November next year when they expect to sign contracts, and whatever government we have at that time guaranteeing that money would be provided.”
The project is also subject to EU state aid rules and under the terms of approval the work needs to be completed by 2020.
CDS, which is run by Somerset and Devon county councils, has terminated three large contracts so far, twice with BT, and last year with Gigaclear.
People in affected areas believe any supplier would face the same problems as Gigaclear of laying cables underground.
“Some of the roads didn’t have proper foundations so they couldn’t use narrow trenches so had to do a lot more work,” Mr Long said.
Gigaclear connected about 3,000 properties before its contract was terminated.”
Meet Claire Wright in Exeter – 26 November 7.30 pm
Why Exeter?
Because part of the “East Devon” constituencty is in Exeter. Boundary changes gave East Devon the part of Exeter just south of Heavitree, and Topsham – even though for district purposes they come under Exeter City Council
You are invited to meet her for a Q&A session in Exeter, on
Tuesday 26 November,
19:30 – 21:00, at
St Peter’s Church of England High School.
Coincidentally the last day to register to vote:
https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote
This Q&A is open to all, including those who live elsewhere in the constituency. This is a fantastic opportunity to come ask your questions about the election and talk to Claire in a more informal setting.
Outbreak of manifestisis
“The prime minister is either an idiot or a liar. It is a difficult call for a spin doctor to make. So they went for idiot. It seemed safer.
Boris Johnson was only supposed to be churning out the “Get Brexit Done” spiel for workers at a fabrication firm (stop it) in Teesside. Instead he managed to blurt out a flagship manifesto pledge, which could cost as much as £10 billion.
He had been asked by Claire Cartlidge, a chemist: “You said low tax, do you mean low tax for people like you or low tax for people like us?”
Nice and easy one to bat away with talk of all being in it together, perhaps even a chance to tease the manifesto. Instead Johnson replied: “I mean low tax for working people. If you look at what we are doing and what I said in the last few days, we are going to be cutting national insurance up to £12,000.”
Klaxons. Sirens. Heads in hands. Glass smashed in emergency. Spin doctors, fresh from an earlier visit to a washing machine factory, were in a spin.
Had the prime minister accidentally scooped himself by leaking his own manifesto? Was it not true and he had got it wrong? Perhaps he was a big wally who couldn’t keep his mouth zipped.
Decisions, decisions. It was definitely not deliberate, the spinning spinners spun. But the policy was true. Sort of.
A briefing note was rushed out. In fact the policy was that the threshold to start paying national insurance contributions (NICs) would rise from £8,628 a year to £9,500, with an “ambition” for it to eventually rise to £12,500. He was, it turned out, tantalisingly close to being right.
To be fair this is a hell of a policy. It means taking NICs in line with when you start paying income tax (which was raised by the coalition, a Lib Dem policy which the Tories had dismissed as unaffordable in 2010, but let’s not dwell on that).
It would mean more than two million low-paid workers being lifted out of paying NICs altogether, eventually saving people £450 a year.
Johnson was putting a brave face on it. In an interview with The Times soon after, the PM insisted that he had not blundered. “No, no, no,” he starts. “I’ve been campaigning on this for months. If you’d been paying attention during the Conservative Party leadership election it will not have been news to you.”
As Francis Elliott writes: “The drawn faces of his aides tell a different story.”
This bit of clumsiness has also had the effect of overshadowing the Labour manifesto launch today, which Tory HQ will no doubt be furious about. If they keep drip-dripping policies out ahead of Sunday’s big launch, they could dominate the news cycle for six days.
For Labour, a harder task. Everything from 2017 has to stay, pretty much. They have not had the luxury of a change of leader to ditch the duff ideas or trim the expensive ones.
Instead Jeremy Corbyn’s focus is on the messaging. He hates billionaires. Billionaires are bad. And he is good. “I accept the implacable opposition and hostility of the rich and powerful is inevitable.”
A party conference policy to make the UK carbon neutral by 2030 will be watered down, but the BBC is reporting there will be a windfall tax on oil companies.
Corbyn will vow to press ahead with increasing the tax on the richest, raising the minimum wage to £10 an hour, building millions of homes, tackling climate change and nationalising the rail, mail, water and energy firms.
“And here’s a brand new one: I accept the implacable opposition of the private internet providers because we’re going to give you the very fastest full fibre broadband for free. That’s real change.”
The problem is that voters don’t think he will. New polling by James Johnson, the Downing Street pollster 2017-19, shows that voters don’t believe Corbyn will actually deliver on his flagship promises if he becomes PM.
It showed that only 13 per cent of people think that the promise of a four-day working will ever happen, and only 15 per cent think that the UK could have net zero carbon emissions by 2020, a policy that has been hotly debated in the party.
Just a quarter think that the free broadband policy will be delivered or that a scheme to give 10 per cent of the shares in every company to their workers will happen.
Meanwhile, over in Libdemland Jo Swinson is promising to legalise cannabis when she becomes prime minister. (It is not clear if the two claims are connected.) She unveiled the Lib Dem manifesto yesterday with pledges to stop Brexit, tax frequent flyers and launch a £130 billion capital investment programme. (The Times’s Oliver Wright unpacks the policies, and how they compared to previous manifestos, here:
So we have a prime minister making promises when he isn’t supposed to, a wannabe prime minister making promises that voters don’t think he can keep and a never-gonna-be prime minister making promises nobody expects her to have to honour.
Manifestitis comes in many forms. Symptoms include a rash of promises, verbal diarrhoea and delusion. A cure is not expected for another three weeks.”
Source: Red Box (Times)
“Leaders’ election TV debate cancelled after Boris Johnson refuses to take part”
Chicken – AND he’s refused to appear at the husting in his constituency!
Frit!
“A planned leaders’ debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn has been cancelled after the prime minister refused to take part.
The Channel 4 debate, which was scheduled for Sunday, would have been the second direct clash between Mr Johnson and the Labour leader after a contest on ITV this week.
But despite agreement from Labour, a producer announced on Thursday evening that the programme had been cancelled just days before it was supposed to air.
“Gutted we’ve had to cancel a planned Leaders debate on Channel 4 for this Sunday. Jeremy Corbyn had agreed to take part but, after many weeks of intense discussion, we were unable to secure agreement from Boris Johnson team,” said Channel 4 producer Louisa Compton.
Channel 4 News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy, who would have presented the debate, added: “Boris Johnson said he was in favour of debates and his team have been in detailed talks with us for weeks about format and rules right up until yesterday.
“They insisted they were engaged and wanted to take on Jeremy Corbyn on our channel. Corbyn said yes. Offer still stands.”
It comes as the Labour candidate in Mr Johnsons’s seat said the prime minister was ducking out of a local hustings event there, leading it to be cancelled as well.
Ali Milani tweeted: “Name any time that works for you. My team will organise the venue, details and all logistics. All you have to do is show up. Show an ounce of integrity. Come debate me. What do you have to worry about?”
Channel 4 says it will still hold a live debate on 8 December featuring “representatives” of seven major parties taking questions from an audience of undecided voters. The politicians would be questions about everything except Brexit.
Another head-to-head clash is expected to take place on the BBC on Friday 6 of December, with Question Time specials planned for this Friday and further events potentially in the pipeline.”
AND YET MORE TORY DIRTY TRICKS AND FAKE NEWS!
“The Conservative Party has bought a website called “labourmanifesto.co.uk” and are using it to attack the opponent party on the day of their manifesto launch.
The website, which some commentators suggest may appear to be an official Labour Party domain, has appeared at the top of some people’s Google search results as a paid advertisement. …”
Fake news – Tories at it AGAIN!
Tory HQ Has Been Accused Of Misleading People On Twitter – Again:
“A video appears to show Jess Phillips criticising Labour’s new manifesto – but she isn’t.
The Conservative Party has been accused of misleading voters again on social media, this time by tweeting a video of Labour candidate Jess Phillips with the wrong date on it.
The edited video, posted by the @CCHQPress Twitter account and now deleted, showed the parliamentary candidate saying: “You can never, ever deliver all of those things that you are pretending to deliver when you go to the electorate.”
@CCHQPress has dated the video November 21, 2019, giving the impression Phillips was criticising Jeremy Corbyn on the same day he launched Labour’s general election manifesto.
But the clip has been taken from an old interview, when Phillips appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on October 3 to promote her new book.
The video was reaired this morning during an interview with shadow education secretary Angela Rayner.
During the original interview, Phillips was questioned by Susanna Reid about keeping manifesto promises — before the general election was announced.
Phillips said: “I think there is an argument to be said that you can never, ever deliver all of those things that you are pretending to deliver when you go to the electorate.
“In reality, things change. Globally things change, situations change. Facts change.
″[We can’t deliver it] in all cases. I can’t control the trade war between America and China and I have to, each and every day, and at the moment it is on a day-by-day basis and it is not good, and I have to say: ‘What is the best thing, the best decision I can make today to make sure my constituents are better off?’”
The video also labels Phillips a “Corbyn ally” – in reality, the 37-year-old candidate for Birmingham Yardley has been a vocal critic of the Labour leader in the past, going as far as to say he wasn’t the “practical choice” for leader because people would not vote for him.
The edited video has been criticised on Twitter.
One person said: “You know she’s not just talking about Labour right, but all politicians? She’s speaking truth whereas you only pretend to use facts.”
Another added: “Edited and old. Get a grip.”
It’s not the first time the Tories have been accused of misleading the public with a video.
The same Twitter account came under fire just this week after it rebranded itself as “FactCheckUK” during Tuesday evening’s televised leaders’ debate.
The @CCHQPress page normally carries clear Tory branding and logos and is equally clearly named.
But as Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn went head-to-head on Tuesday, the account renamed itself “FactCheckUK” and minimised any references to Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ).
Twitter warned that a repeat of the incident would result in “decisive corrective action”.
On November 5, they were accused of unfairly editing a video of Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer, to make him appear unable to answer a question on Brexit. However, the party stood by the edit, PA Media reports.
The Tories have also purchased the website labourmanifesto.co.uk.
The website purports to showcase Labour’s manifesto but instead actually attacks the party’s policies. It accuses the party of promising “higher taxes” with “no plan for Brexit”.
The Conservatives came under fire for rebranding as a “fact-checking service” during Tuesday night’s televised election debate.
Twitter and the Conservative Party did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the video.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/tory-hq-twitter-jess-phillips_uk_5dd69210e4b010f3f1d3a842
Manifestos here, manifestos there …
“Experts say Tory tax plans will mostly benefit wealthier people, as minister faces derision for saying government ‘not to blame’ for poverty.”
AND
“IFS rejects Labour’s claim 95% taxpayers would not pay extra for its plans”
AND
“Lib Dem manifesto spending analysed: Eye-watering sums for young families but what about pensioners?”
Maybe try here – where they are all compared!
Click to access Carl%20Emmerson%2C%202017%20General%20Election%2C%20manifesto%20analysis.pdf
“Young people who have turned 18 since 2026 could decide this election”
“It’s up to young people to mobilise in this election. Labour has entered no electoral pacts; meanwhile, the Brexit Party has happily given one to the Tories. Sensible politics has been replaced by a singularly narrow focus on Brexit, with desperately needed policy debate on preventing climate breakdown sidelined, and no one seeming to care that it’s young people who will pay the price. The so-called adults won’t save us. We have to save ourselves. ….”
If you want to be a decider (of any age) go here:
https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote
before 26 November
It takes lessthan 5 minutes.
Tories not to blame for poverty under a Tory government says Tory Minister Priti Patel
“The Conservatives have come under fire after a senior minister gave a disastrous interview claiming the government was “not to blame” for poverty.
Labour said the comments from Priti Patel, the home secretary, were another example of the “cruelty” of the Tory government, in a fresh blow to Boris Johnson’s election efforts.
It comes as the Conservatives complained about an interview Michael Gove gave to Channel 4, where the top Tory accused the broadcaster of political bias.”
Note: this comes after news that Labour complained about bias at Sky where its general election set had “Brexit election” plastered all over it.
More Tory fake news – this time on housing policy
The Sun has this headline:
“Labour in La La Land
Jeremy Corbyn will force Brits to sell land at a fraction of the price so he can go on huge housebuilding drive’
“https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10389467/corbyn-seize-property-housebuilding-drive/
The reality:
Labour’s plan is for land to be sold to councils and developers at its value BEFORE planning permission can be applied for rather than as, at present, being sold AFTER planning permission has been granted.
That won’t please East Devon Green Party candidate Henry Gent, who currently stands to make millions of pounds on the option he has given to Persimmon to build hundreds of houses on his farm land.
If Corbyn gets his way, he would get only the agricultural value of the land – making it significantly cheaper to build houses.
They published their ideas in June 2019:
Click to access 12081_19-Land-for-the-Many.pdf
Kicked-out Tory Oliver Letwin understood the problem, but stopped short of offering a solution:
“Under the 1961 Land Compensation Act, councils are not permitted to buy agricultural land at its current value; instead they must pay a speculative “hope value”, based on the value of the land with permission to develop the site. That can easily make land more than 100 times more expensive than its actual worth. In his review of build-out rates (the report about the problem of land-banking that concluded that land-banking wasn’t a problem…), Oliver Letwin suggested that the residual land value of large sites should be capped at about 10 times their existing use value. Clearly better than paying 100 times the value – but does it go far enough?”
So this is both fake news and OLD news!
Cranbrook sports facilities not good enough – developers refuse to help
Penny-pinching in 2014, penny-pinching now.
“Cranbrook could be set to get a new bar and club room as part of facilities for the town’s sports hub – as the original plans for the site have been declared inadequate.
The sports hub at Cranbrook – known as Ingram’s field – has been up and running since May 2019, five years after it was initially conceived, and this summer finally saw football and cricket played in the new East Devon town.
The 2014 application for the site saw a design and layout for a changing room building also approved and five years later, the developers are finally in a position to deliver it.
However James Brown, Cranbrook New Community Manager, in a report to East Devon District Council’s cabinet, says that while it would meet the historic obligations, that design is not appropriate for today’s needs. …
He instead is proposing that the cabinet back plans that would see a bigger building built that would consists of six changing rooms, rather than four, and would also include a family room and a bar and club room.
The developers have said that they would invest only their original budget towards the newly enhanced pavilion and would not meet any additional costs, and have added that they are not prepared to undertake the design work and minor revisions to the building to bring it within budget. …”
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/new-bar-sports-facilities-planned-3558292
Tory candidate sucks up to Carters at Greendale
Anyone who reads this blog knows the contempt it has for the Carters and the Greendale empire, which spreads its ever-growing tentacles throughout East Devon. Just put “Greendale” or “Carter” in the blog search box to see how they control many industries and landholdings (which they are notorious for extending by retrospective planning applications for or exploiting planning loopholes).
Now we read this from the parachuted-in East Devon Tory candidate on his Facebook page:
“Great to welcome the Secretary of State for International Trade, Liz Truss, to #EastDevon. We visited two thriving businesses – Little Pod in Farringdon and Greendale Farm. I will always back business to create more jobs and opportunities. Check out the beard net!”
Why would anyone vote for someone who gives this group publicity and support?
Well, Swire had his office in one of their properties, of course …
East Devon hustings – more information
Claire Wright has circulated hustings information (Owl has had no hustings i dormation from other candidates):
Below are all the hustings announced to date for East Devon and Claire will be attending all three.
Entry to the events is free but please note the following details:
Exmouth
November 28th 7:30 at Exmouth Community College
Exmouth – tickets must be reserved via Eventbrite. If no tickets are left for the event and you would like to attend, some of us may have spares, so please email us at volunteers@claire-wright.org
Cranbrook
December 3rd 7:30 at Cranbrook Education Campus
Cranbrook – the event will be held in a large hall. Again, spaces will be allocated on a first come first served basis, so don’t forget to arrive a little ahead of schedule.
Sidmouth
December 6th 7pm at All Saints Church
Sidmouth – the event will be held in a room for 300 guests. Spaces will be allocated on a first come first served basis on the night, so please arrive a little early.
The campaign has a very positive energy and it is wonderful to see so many people showing their support. Please follow Claire’s social media handles for updates on the election trail so far and don’t forget to share any posts. Let’s keep the positivity going!
“Housebuilding data shows dearth of homes for affordable renting”
“The number of new homes classed as social housing and available at the cheapest rents from councils remained historically low at a mere 6,287, the second-lowest level in peacetime since council house building began in earnest in 1921.
The shortfall in new affordable homes is likely to fuel householders’ reliance on the private rental market. New research also published on Wednesday showed such housing is almost completely unaffordable in many areas for people who rely on housing benefit, which has been frozen since 2016.
In a third of areas of England fewer than 10% of homes are now affordable to welfare recipients, according to a study by the Chartered Institute of Housing and the homelessness charity Crisis. That meant increasing numbers of people were being pushed into homelessness or forced to live in emergency or temporary accommodation, the charity said. …”
“Guidance recommends sale of risky [council] investment properties”
“Councils should consider disposing of investment properties if they are unable to set aside enough reserves to cover potential losses, according to new guidance.
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) this week released long-awaited guidance on investment in property, prompted by concerns over the levels of risk being taken by local authorities in recent years. …”
Last night’s fake Tory “fact checking” site
Did our Tory candidate give his boss this advice?
Casino councils (EDDC would like to be one)
EDDC story:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2019/11/04/eddc-a-casino-council/
“Gloucester city council has bought a local retail park for £54 million, almost four times its net annual budget.
It acquired St Oswalds from Hammerson, the FTSE 250 shopping centre owner that is seeking to sell all its out-of-town properties. Tenants at the site include B&Q, Homesense and Mothercare, which went into administration this month.
A spokeswoman for the council said that it could not yet comment on the acquisition because of a non-disclosure agreement.
Councils have spent hundreds of millions of pounds on commercial property in recent years as they try to create a rental income stream to plug funding cuts from central government. Some have sought to buy neglected shopping centres in their areas as part of regeneration plans.
However, critics have raised concerns about the extent to which councils have tied their futures to an uncertain property market. Retail park valuations have fallen sharply as a series of well-known store chains have fallen into administration or have used insolvency procedures to close shops or lower rents. Hammerson reported a 10.9 per cent fall in the value of its retail parks in the six months to the end of June.
The Conservative-led local authority in Gloucester created an £80 million property investment fund in 2017 to help to make up for a £2.6 million deficit anticipated for the subsequent five years. It said that it would borrow 100 per cent of the cash for the fund, indicating that it would seek to find money from the Public Works Loan Board, the government body that issues loans to councils for capital projects.
The Treasury has started to crack down on risky property acquisitions by local authorities by increasing interest rates on new loans from the board. Before last month, the government charged an interest rate margin of 0.8 percentage points over the gilt rate; this has more than doubled to 1.8 percentage points over the gilt rate.
Last month Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, criticised local authorities that had used borrowing from the board to buy “quite risky assets” outside their areas. He cited shopping centres, which he said “may well not turn out to be good investments at all and [are] only possible because the taxpayer is providing such attractive loans through the board”.
Source: The Times (pay wall)
The fakest of fake (Tory) news
Was Owl the only one who found this reprehensible?
“Tories pretend to be factchecking service during leaders’ debate
The Conservatives have been accused of misleading the public after they rebranded their official Twitter account as “factcheckUK” during the televised leaders’ debate and used it to publish anti-Labour posts.
The public have increasingly turned to factchecking websites, such as the independent Full Fact, the BBC’s Reality Check, Channel 4 News’ FactCheck and the Guardian’s Factcheck, to verify claims made by politicians.
During Tuesday night’s debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, the Conservative party renamed their main media account as “factcheckUK”, changed its logo to hide its political origins, and used it to push pro-Conservative material to the public. …”
