The manifesto is here:
Click to access GEManifesto2019FINAL5.pdf
NOTE: this IS a packed hall – no doctored photo such as Boris Johnson uses!
“Climate Emergency debate with candidates for Tiverton & Honiton constituency, 7 pm 28th November, Honiton Community College”
Climate Emergency debate with candidates for Tiverton & Honiton constituency, 7 pm 28th November, Honiton Community College.
Date changes for hustings in Exmouth and Sidmouth
Owl had transposed hustings – apologies – here is the correct information from a correspondent (thanks):
Just to say that the hustings on Thurs 28th Nov is in Exmouth at Exmouth Community College from 7 pm
Free, but tickets must be booked via Eventbrite
And the hustings on Fri 6th Dec is in Sidmouth at 7pm at All Saints Church Hall.
Exmouth: “Hemmingway vision” exhibition and talk-up
“… Thursday, November 14, at the Ocean Suite, a public exhibition will take place where Hemingway Design will present their vision.
Hemingway Design will outline the valued feedback they received from the online survey and how the views of respondents have guided the proposals, and the exhibition will also look at ways that these opportunities can be realistically made to happen.
On hand to advise on the deliverability will be commercial property advisors Lambert Smith Hampton, who have been testing the existing planning consent and new ideas against the current development market, i.e. under real market conditions. …”
https://exmouth.nub.news/n/plans-for-exmouth-seafront-to-be-revealed-to-the-public-this-week
Boris Johnson “obsessed with masturbation”
It’s said Boris Johnson us sex-obsessed. It seems so!
For those who are not in the know, “onanism” is used to describe either masturbation or withdrawal before ejaculation.
and if you are not convinced:
or this:
Read more here:
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/from-onanism-to-spaffing-boris-johnsons-obsession-with-masturbation-is-revolting-and-pathetic-996097
“Jo Swinson denies losing control over Lib Dem party*” * (she doesn’t have any control)
She can’t lose control – she’s never had it. Easy]t Devon has its credible Remain candidate – Claire Wright with 35% of the vote in 2017 – but Swinson has absolutely no control over the local East Devon Lib Dem candidate who has more reason to stand down than any other Lib Dem.
If she isn’t in control local groups – what is she in control? of? What is she Leader of?
Vote Lib Dem, Green or Labour and get (parachuted in, no local roots) Tory – again.
What is our Local Enterprise Partnership up to these days? They won’t tell us
“The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP) new local industry strategy featured prominently at its annual conference in Torquay on 4 November despite it not yet having been published.
It has been signed off by all the partners and seen by other stakeholders, but will remain otherwise unseen until it receives ministerial-level clearance in Whitehall. …”
And this picture of how our LEP compares to the 38 other LEPs is worth (at least) a thousand words:
Mental health benefit of national parks – nearly £5 TRILLION
That doesn’t seem to matter to our TiggerTory councillors who prefer to keep their tight personal hold over their planners and their cordial relationship with developers rather than thinking about the benefits of a Jurassic Nationsl Park on residents and visitors. Curious that.
“You can’t put a price on nature. You can’t quantify the uplifting effects of a walk in the Peak District or the way your soul soars at the sight of a stormy Cornish cliff.
Except, it turns out you can: it’s worth almost £5 trillion a year. Economists have calculated the mental health benefits of the world’s national parks, and concluded that on this measure alone they provide services amounting to a significant proportion of global GDP. And that is before you consider all the other environmental services they offer.
From the smooth cliffs of Yosemite to the jagged glaciers of Chamonix to the wild fenland of East Anglia, protected spaces improve our mood, reduce our work absences and keep us well. By quantifying the magnitude of this effect in Australia then using the tools of health economics to place a monetary value on it, researchers were able to extrapolate what they called a “conservative” global estimate of £4.67 trillion.
“Nature exposure improves human mental health and wellbeing,” the team from Griffith University, Australia, wrote. “Poor mental health imposes major costs on human economies. Therefore, parks have an additional economic value through the mental health of visitors.”
As unromantic as it sounds, economists believe that until nature has a value on a balance sheet it can be depleted and exploited without penalty. In recent years researchers have looked to calculate the value of the natural world in, for instance, flood protection, pollination and climate control.
The analysis, published in the journal Nature Communications, extended this further to consider mental health. The researchers looked at the improvement in wellbeing in 20,000 Australians that was attributable to visiting national parks, then translated this into quality adjusted life years, which is a measure of how easily people can live their lives. Finally, they extended the calculation to the world.
Dieter Helm, a University of Oxford economist who was appointed by the government to value Britain’s “natural capital”, has said in the past that figures such as these are by necessity imprecise, but not considering them in natural accounts is “precisely wrong”. He welcomed the new research.
“This is another bit in the mounting pile of evidence highlighting the huge health benefits, both mental and physical, from nature,” he said. There are great economic gains from investing in natural capital . . . It should be a major priority for the Treasury. It is not just concrete infrastructure that matters: green infrastructure has some of the highest returns.”
Source: Times (pay wall)
Why did Axminster fail to get Town Fund grant? Because it’s in a safe Tory seat
“The Conservatives have been accused of short-changing the poorest communities in favour of comparatively affluent towns to boost their election prospects.
The government promised that the multibillion-pound towns fund would “unleash the full economic potential of more than 100 places and level up communities throughout the country”.
However, 32 towns on the list fall outside the 300 worst-off in England according to rankings from the Office for National Statistics.
Analysis by The Times reveals the extent to which money has been directed towards wealthier areas that are marginal Conservative-held or target seats.
Among the least deprived locations given priority are Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire, where Angela Smith, who won the seat for Labour in 2017, is standing aside after 14 years, and Loughborough, where the Conservatives are defending a majority of 4,000.
Others include Brighouse, Kidsgrove, Cheadle, Worcester and Crawley, which all sit in constituencies that returned Tory MPs with majorities of less than 5,000 at the 2017 election.
Newark, which is ranked 298th in terms of deprivation, is in the constituency being contested by Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary. The list also features Darwen, the Lancashire constituency that Jake Berry, the northern powerhouse minister, is defending.
Andrew Gwynne, the shadow communities secretary, said: “This raises serious questions about the role that ministers and advisers played in robbing some of the poorest towns in the country to funnel cash into Tory target seats in a scramble for votes.
“The towns fund is an insult to communities across the country that have been forced to bear the greatest burden of austerity.”
Will Jennings, professor of public policy and researcher for the Centre of Towns think tank, said more transparency was urgently needed to justify why some of these towns had been included while places such as Tipton, Bootle and Sheerness had not.
The towns fund has also been criticised for failing to fulfil promises made in the Conservatives’ 2017 manifesto, which pledged to replace £30 billion of structural fund money from the EU with a “United Kingdom shared prosperity fund, specifically designed to reduce inequalities between communities”.
Lisa Nandy, Labour’s candidate in Wigan, said: “We were promised real investment, including billions through a shared prosperity fund. Instead we’ve seen money pushed towards marginal towns during an election campaign.”
Analysis of the towns fund was carried out using Office for National Statistics data on income deprivation, one of the key measures ministers were asked to consider when finalising the recipients. This showed that more than half the 100 towns (55) voted Tory in 2017, yet more than three quarters (85) of the 10 per cent of most deprived towns backed Labour at the last election.
The data revealed that the 100 areas chosen to receive funds had an average parliamentary majority of just over 6,000. This compares with an average majority of almost 11,000 in England’s 10 per cent most deprived towns.
Towns Fund money is going to 23 towns with populations below 25,000, the most widely used classification of a small town. One, Tory-voting Millom, in Cumbria, has just 5,887 people.”
Source: Times (pay wall)
Sidford: “Air pollution nanoparticles linked to brain cancer for first time”
“New research has linked air pollution nanoparticles to brain cancer for the first time.
The ultra-fine particles (UFPs) are produced by fuel burning, particularly in diesel vehicles, and higher exposures significantly increase people’s chances of getting the deadly cancer. Previous work has shown that nanoparticles can get into the brain and that they can carry carcinogenic chemicals. …”
Sidmouth hustings (28 November): free but must be pre-booked
“The candidates confirmed for the event so far are Simon Jupp (Conservative), Henry Gent (Green), Daniel Wilson (Labour), Eleanor Rylance (Lib Dem) and Claire Wright (Independent).
The event is organised by the Exmouth Journal (and sister titles the Sidmouth Herald and Midweek Herald), Exmouth Chamber of Commerce and Christians Together in Exmouth, with support from Exmouth Community College.
The hustings will take place in the main hall at the college’s Green Close site.
Sir Hugo Swire announced in September that after 18 years as MP for East Devon he would not be standing again.
County councillor Claire Wright finished second in 2015 and 2017, but with the election announced in a bid to break the Brexit deadlock, the result in East Devon will be harder than ever to predict.
The hustings is open to residents aged 16 and over – with a maximum four tickets per booking. There will be parking but only drive if absolutely necessary.
If you are attending and want to quiz the candidates from the front row, send your question to exmouth.editorial@archant.co.uk
The event will be filmed and broadcast live on Facebook.
Entry is free but places must be booked in advance by at
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/east-devon-parliamentary-hustings-tickets-81271652701
https://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/general-election-east-devon-hustings-exmouth-1-6371826?
More on East Devon Tory “parachute” candidate
The paywall seems to have been removed from this story in the Daily Telegraph for some reason … Owl would have liked to be at the selection meeting where this candidate – until recently competing for a seat in Bristol – was chosen!
“As we near the deadline for candidate nominations ahead of next month’s general election, both major parties are embroiled in an evergreen row. This is not just about being forced to dump individuals who have a record of unsavoury remarks or (in Labour’s case) allegedly antisemitic views. Both Labour and Conservative headquarters are also being accused of stitching up selection races for favoured insiders.
On the Tory side, disgruntled members cite the selection of several former Downing Street aides for safe seats. These include Andrew Griffith in Arundel and South Downs, James Wild in West Norfolk, and Danny Kruger in Devizes – all despite the Prime Minister’s team having only been in office, with a non-existent majority, for a few months. Nor does the run of advisers stop there: we also find Claire Coutinho, who previously worked for Rishi Sunak, in East Surrey; Simon Jupp, who advises Dominic Raab, in East Devon; and Anthony Browne, who served as an aide to Boris Johnson during his time as Mayor of London, in South Cambridgeshire.
This last is already the subject of controversy, with Browne facing calls to stand down over allegedly racist arguments he advanced in the Spectator – not helpful in a seat where local polling shows the Conservatives may already have fallen behind the Liberal Democrats. Mims Davies, meanwhile, stands accused of launching a “chicken run” from her current seat of Eastleigh, where the Lib Dems are again expected to do well, to Mid Sussex, the safe seat vacated by Sir Nicholas Soames. This has reportedly angered other MPs defending marginal seats, who feel neglected by CCHQ.”
Source: Daily Telegraph
Sidmouth hustings – 6 December 2019 – details
General Election Hustings in Sidmouth: 6th December
All the candidates for the East Devon constituency for the upcoming general election have been invited to a hustings event in Sidmouth.
On Friday 6th December
at 7pm
At All Saints’ Church Hall,
All Saints’ Road,
Sidmouth, EX10 8ES
They will be on stage and will answer pre-submitted questions.
The event is open to all members of the public and will be hosted and chaired by the Vision Group for Sidmouth.
Please send in any questions to
See: https://visionforsidmouth.org/event/general-election-hustings-in-sidmouth/
Why does it matter if your free NHS treatment was at a private hospital?
From Facebook:
“Reflecting on what was an unusual weekend.
On Saturday morning I got a knock on the door from a stranger to say that my partner had come off his bike at the end of our road. The panic must have been visible on my face. “He’s ok”, she said. “But he’s got a nasty gash on the side of his face. My husband’s with him. He’s ok. But he’ll need to go to hospital.”
Her husband, it turns out, is a firefighter. So fortunately knew what to do when he saw the head injury.
By the time I got to him, Kev was sitting on a chair outside their house, with kitchen paper held over the left side of his face. There was a lot of blood. He was conscious, but in shock. They told me it was probably best not to look at his wound.
The paramedics arrived within minutes and took us to Kings, where they have a specialist facial trauma unit.
Although he was wearing a helmet his face smashed into the edge of a sharp curb. So, as well as the deep lacerations around his eye socket, he’d broken his cheekbone in three places.
From the moment we stepped into the ambulance around 1030am to when that we left the hospital around 9pm, we were in the hands of the most amazing individuals.
In total, at least 20 different people were involved in caring for him: 2 paramedics, an A&E receptionist, 3 different A&E nurses, 1 X-ray receptionist, 1 radiologist, 1 A&E doctor, 3 facial trauma specialists, 1 facial surgeon, 2 porters, 1 neuro radiology receptionist, 1 neuro radiologist, 1 ophthalmic consultant, 1 head injury specialist, and an A&E discharge nurse. And these were just the people we met. There were probably countless others contributing behind the scenes.
We were so well looked after. Every single one of those people were calm, caring, cheerful, patient, professional, focussed and committed. They explained what was happening at every stage. They cared about doing the best for us.
Many of these medical professionals were working 12-hour shifts. Several of them worked beyond the end of their shift to care for us, including one facial trauma doctor who, although his cover had arrived, stayed to help her with the complex stitching that Kev needed, and chatted cheerfully to us as he worked.
Many of these NHS professionals were from other countries – Australia, Cyprus, Nigeria, Philippines and Poland, to name a few – working in what is the busiest A&E department in the whole of the EU.
Their expertise was incredible. We were seen by three different specialist teams – facial trauma, neurology and ophthalmology – all working together, seamlessly, under the same roof.
This is the NHS is all its magnificent glory.
At no point did we worry about the cost of this care. At no point did anyone ask us for an insurance number. At no point were we offered optional treatments with different price tags. Everything they did was the very best available treatment for that patient with that specific problem, no matter their background, or circumstances, or means. From my partner, to the elderly woman who‘d had a fall, to the young lad with a sports injury, and the chirpy flat capped guy with a suspected broken hip, and the loveable and slightly drunk homeless woman with a fractured wrist. They were all treated equally. They were all given the very best medical care available.
I am a huge supporter of the NHS. I marched to save Lewisham Hospital, where I gave birth. I was one of the people who swelled with pride and wept watching nurses bouncing on beds at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. And on Saturday I witnessed first-hand how brilliant and precious it really is.
But there are those in government who are keen to see market forces play a bigger role in our NHS, or who are at best extremely relaxed about it. They’ve already introduced a lot more private providers into the system.
You might think, “what does it matter if my routine surgery, my cataract operation or my knee replacement, gets done by a private health care company? So long as I’m not paying for it.” It matters because as the private sector cherry-picks the straight forward and more lucrative areas of care, it gets more and more difficult for NHS hospitals to function well.
There is something about the way hospitals are funded that means that, when money is diverted to private providers for routine treatments or elective surgery, it becomes more challenging for hospitals to provide emergency care and the more complex higher risk medical treatments.
So, this is to say that the concerns around private sector involvement in the NHS are multifaceted.
It’s not just a question of “well, as long as medical treatment is still free, it doesn’t matter who is providing it”. Gradual and almost invisible changes are already undermining and eroding the system. And if we aren’t careful, they’ll have such a seismic impact that we risk losing the NHS as we know it.
There are other people that have a much greater insight into all this than I do. And if you’re interested in finding out more more, a good starting point is to watch this video of Allyson Pollock’s TED talk on the privatisation of the NHS, or to visit the website Public Matters.
The NHS is at risk as never before. I knew that already, but this week I was reminded just how very precious it is, and how fortunate we are to have it.
Our family’s experience this weekend was stressful, but our worries were only for Kev’s health, well-being and medical prognosis. I dread to think how it would have been if we’d been worrying about whether we’d be able to access the specialist care he needed, or whether that care was available close to home. Or if we had been fretting about whether we’d be able to afford the treatment on offer. Or wondering if our insurance would cover it.
This weekend the NHS was there for my family and is going to be hugely important to us over the coming weeks as Kev continues his treatment on the road to recovery.
If the NHS is important to you, then fight for it. I will be.”
Daily Telegraph: “For the Tories, choosing candidates is a trade-off between parachuting in favoured sons and alienating grassroots members”
This is not Mr Jupp on his parachute into East Devon – just his boss … on a sort-of parachute …
The Daily Telegraph article (which, unfortunately is behind a pay wall) goes on to give the example of an adviser being parachuted in of “Simon Jupp, who advises Dominic Raab, in East Devon”.
Andrew Moulding joins election insults battle
Just about the only candidate who HASN’T joined the slag-fest is Claire Wright!
“Tories and Independent trade insults over former radio candidate.
Housing? Employment? Refuse collection? Regeneration of seafront towns? Any one of them could be top of the charts when it comes to issues of critical importance to East Devon. But Tory and Independent council leaders in the constituency are instead having a spat over whether ageing rocker Iggy Pop would do a better job than Conservative candidate Simon Jupp.
The former radio presenter and journalist won the selection battle to wear the biggest blue rosette at the weekend and took immediately to door-knocking to drum up support. He’s defending an 8,000 majority bequeathed to him by outgoing MP Sir Hugo Swire. But that majority itself was down from 12,000 on the 2015 election, with independent Claire Wright snatching a sizeable share of the vote.
Now East Devon District Council leader Ben Ingham, an independent, has told a local newspaper he thinks Mr Pop – who had a top 10 hit in 1986 with ‘Real Wild Child’ – would have been a better candidate. “People would be able to relate to him more than a DJ from Plymouth,” he’s reported as saying. Mr Ingham also says he’d thought of running for parliament himself because he’s disappointed by the area’s MPs.
That’s got the leader of East Devon Conservatives, Andrew Moulding, into a lather. He’s penned a 500-word response metaphorically telling Mr Ingham to wind his neck in. Being “a DJ from Plymouth [is[ not in itself a crime,” he claims (although he may not have met some of the profession in that city). If Mr Ingham thinks he can do a better job, he’s still got time to stand, he suggests. And “To compare [Mr Jupp] with Iggy Pop shows how out of touch with reality disaffected Conservative Ben Ingham actually is, stuck in some 1970’s time warp, where Simon Jupp will be nobody’s ‘Stooge’ and has a clear ‘Lust for Life’ (apologies to Iggy), working hard for residents of East Devon on both local and national issues.”
East Devon and its predecessors have been Conservative for more than a century. It’s considered a two-way battle in next month’s election between Mr Jupp and Ms Wright. “
Farage confirms Brexit Party standing down for Tories in East Devon
ANOTHER Lib Dem stands down to avoid Tory victory (NOT in East Devon)
And, in spite of the last paragraph below, East Devon now appears to be one of only a few seats where the Lib Dem and the Greens want to hand the constituency a Tory ex-DJ parachuted in from Bristol!
“Lib Dem candidate stands aside to avoid ‘nightmare’ of Tory win.
The Liberal Democrat candidate in a marginal Labour seat has unilaterally decided to stand down, saying that while the two parties could not agree on a pact he wanted to avoid the “nightmare” of handing the constituency back to the Conservatives.
In an article for the Guardian, Tim Walker said that while he did not trust Jeremy Corbyn on Brexit, he wanted to give Rosie Duffield, the Labour candidate who took Canterbury from the Tories for the first time in 2017 by just 187 votes, the best chance of winning.
The announcement of his candidacy had dismayed some Lib Dems, who argued that while there is no formal deal between their party and Labour it would be better to stand aside to help Duffield, who is strongly pro-remain. In 2017 the then-Lib Dem candidate received more than 4,500 votes.
The deadline for nominations in the 12 December election closes on Thursday. It is not yet clear if the Lib Dems plan to stand another candidate in Walker’s place.
It comes as the Lib Dem candidate in Boris Johnson’s seat, Uxbridge and South Ruislip, announced she was standing aside. In a statement, Elizabeth Evenden-Kenyon said this was because of family illness, and that the party would have enough time to select a new hopeful.
However, if the Lib Dems do not, it could boost Labour’s admittedly outside chance of unseating Johnson. He had a majority of just over 5,000 in 2017, with the third-placed Lib Dems getting more than 1,800 votes.
Writing in the Guardian, Walker, a journalist who formerly worked for the Daily Telegraph, said it had become clear that if he stayed in place in Canterbury, there was “a danger I’d divide the remainers” and allow victory for the Tory candidate, Anna Firth: a vehement Brexit supporter who worked with the Vote Leave campaign.
“I don’t trust Corbyn on Brexit, but I share with many members of my party locally a visceral dread of the Commons being filled with people like Firth,” Walker wrote. “Trying to stop that happening is now more important than ever, given Nigel Farage’s unholy alliance with Johnson.”
He added: “I’ve therefore asked that my local party withdraws my nomination papers to stand for Canterbury. Politics does not always have to be grubby and small-minded; sometimes it’s possible to acknowledge there’s something at stake that’s more important than party politics and do something that seems right.”
It was not an easy decision, Walker wrote, “but the nightmare that kept me awake was standing awkwardly at the count beside a vanquished Duffield as the Tory Brexiter raised her hands in triumph. I wanted no part in that.”
He went on: “I now wish Rosie well and urge her to fight for our country, and, when she hopefully gets to resume her seat in the Commons, to continue to think for herself.”
The Lib Dems are part of a so-called remain alliance, which has seen them, Plaid Cymru and the Greens give each others’ candidates a free run in 60 seats around England and Wales.”
The Brexit (not a) Party!
“Nigel Farage’s decision to unilaterally stand down more than half the Brexit party’s candidates has prompted fury from some of the hopefuls, with one candidate saying he only learned the news when a passing driver asked him why he was still campaigning.
Darren Selkus, who was the candidate for Epping Forest, said Farage had “betrayed my incredible volunteers and thousands of constituents who will have no one to vote for” by pulling out of all 317 Conservative-held seats.
In a statement on his local party website, Selkus said that as soon as Farage made the announcement at a rally on Monday in Hartlepool, he and other ex-candidates were immediately locked out of their Brexit party emails and supporter databases.
While a majority of the former candidates who took to social media to express opinions seemed to back Farage’s argument that the move was necessary to protect Brexit, a small but vocal group complained about the move.
Julian Malins, a barrister who was due to stand in the Tory-held seat of Salisbury, tweeted: “I thought I had enlisted in Caesar’s army but it turned out to be the Grand Old Duke of York’s.”
Although it is a registered party, the Brexit party is structured as a company, with Farage and the party chair, Richard Tice, having near-total control. Those who have paid the party’s £25 joining fee become “registered supporters” rather than members, with no say over policy or other matters. …”
Maybe not a good idea to build on flood plains …
“Poor management of the rural landscape along with global heating and building on floodplains are the main factors that led to the floods that have engulfed towns in northern England, according to experts.
Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster are among the places flooded, 12 years after they were badly hit when the River Don burst its banks in 2007. Many affected areas, including Meadowhall shopping centre, where customers were stranded overnight, lie within the river’s floodplain – low-lying land next to the river that naturally floods during high flow.
“This is only a problem if you develop floodplains by building houses, businesses and factories on them, which is obviously what we have done over the years, so to some degree it’s a problem of our own making,” said Roy Mosley, the head of conservation and land management at Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust.
The risk faced by floodplain communities is exacerbated by the management of land upstream of the city. Intensive animal grazing leads to short grass and compacted soil, which is less able to absorb and hold water. There are no longer enough trees and plants to absorb rain and stop it from running straight into the river, Mosley said.”
East Devon Watch 