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4 Oct 2019

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Accountability, Local Enterprise Partnership, Post-Brexit Adjustments

3 weeks before Brexit our Local Enterprise Partnership wakes up!

“A No Deal scenario, without a comprehensive and cross-Government mitigation plan in place, could create conditions that have not been seen in our rural communities since Foot and Mouth.

A letter from the Heart of the South West Joint Committee and the Heart of the South West LEP, sent to Michael Gove, the No Deal Brexit minister, says that without comprehensive mitigation in place, a No Deal Brexit could result in significant business closures and a fundamental impact on Devon and Somerset.

The Heart of the South West Joint Committee and the Heart of the South West LEP are a partnership of sixteen local authorities, two national parks, two CCGs and the LEP and represent 1.7m people and 80,000 businesses across Devon and Somerset.”

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/no-deal-brexit-as-bad-3393648

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4 Oct 2019

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Affordable and Social Housing, Universal Credit

Could you afford to rent a home in East Devon if you were on Universal Credit?

To afford the cheapest 30% of rented accommodation in East Devon, you would need £72 per month more Universal Credit than you would get (assuming landlords would be prepared to rent to you):

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/afford-to-rent-housing-benefit-calculator_uk_5d95be48e4b0f5bf796fba8f?

With many retail outlets closing and big companies like Thomas Cook goung under, some families in East Devon are closer to homelessness than they might imagine … through no fault of theirs.

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4 Oct 2019

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Accountability, DCC, Fire Service (local), Martin Shaw, Tories

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DCC Tories block discussion of fire station closures

From the blog of DCC East Devon Alliance councillor Martin Shaw:

“Yesterday I tried to propose a motion to Devon County Council to halt the fire station closures. The grainy photo (on his blog) taken from the webcast shows the Conservatives voting as a block to stop it even being discussed. They wanted to refer my motion to the Cabinet who would amend it and bring it back to the Council in December. By then, the Fire Authority – chaired by Colyton’s former county councillor, Sarah Randall-Johnson – will have decided on its proposals at a meeting on 8th November.

Following this disgraceful episode, there can be little doubt that Tory councillors on the fire authority are preparing to vote through the fire station closures. Local people need to increase pressure on all the individual members of the Authority, change their minds. …”

This is the moment the Conservatives voted to stop Devon County Council even discussing fire station closures – you have been warned, they are preparing to vote them through at the Fire Authority

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4 Oct 2019

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Accountability, Fords of Sidmouth, Sidford Business Park

Sidford Business Park – campain group meeting 15 October 6.30 pm

“Despite the Planning Inspector having given the go ahead for the Business Park there still is work that we can all do as the detailed plans have yet to be decided upon.

That is why there will be a

Campaign Public Meeting
on
Tuesday 15 October,
starting at 6.30 pm
at the
Stowford Rise Community Centre

Please come along and help us decide what we ought now to be doing.

We will also be updating you on what took place at the Planning Inquiry, what we have been doing subsequently and what we have spent our funds on.

Don’t forget to also bring your purses and wallets with you as we need to pay for the hire of the hall.”

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4 Oct 2019

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Accountability, Local Government Finance

Councils losing enthusiasm for commercial land and property acquisition

“The recent boom in council spending on land and buildings slowed last year, indicating that the craze for borrowing to invest in commercial property may be reaching its peak.

The government last week released final capital spending and receipts outturn figures for 2018/19.

The data showed spending in the “acquisition of land and existing buildings” category rising 8% to £4.4bn during the year.

However, this is a much smaller rise than recent years – spending in the category quadrupled from just over a billion pounds in 2014/15 to £4.1bn last year.

It is impossible to say how much of the spending in the category relates to commercial property.

However, when the provisional outturn data were released earlier this year, a source told Room151: “It is difficult to get figures that prove it, but the latest set of data seem to indicate a rise in commercial property investment by councils.

You just can’t prove it definitively.”

Speaking this week, Richard Harbord, former chief executive of Boston Borough Council, said: “I think it shows that it is levelling off.

“There are fewer opportunities and many authorities are prudently going as far as they are going to go on this.

“But also it is the continuing of austerity and the fact that as capital schemes which often take years to complete finish, councils are not replacing them with new schemes to assist the revenue effect.” …”

Rise in council spending on land and buildings slows

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3 Oct 2019

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Accountability, Asset sweating, EDDC, High Street decline

Car park charges and whelk stalls – a councillor comments

From the blog of East Devon Alliance Sidmouth Rural Councillor John Loudoun, who comments:

  • “I attended last evening’s District Council Cabinet meeting to join 23 other Councillors in voicing our opposition to the proposed increases in parching fees at some car parks and changes to the number of publicly available spaces at others.
  • In particular I was concerned about the proposals as they will detrimentally affect the car parks in Sidbury and Temple Street, as well as the Ham East, Ham West, Roxburgh and Mill Street car parks.
  • The meeting ended up in a farce as the Cabinet carried out a Dutch auction when it came to trying to agree by how much it would increase the parking fees. It was no way to run a whelk stall!”

“Last evening the District Council’s Cabinet met to consider a much-trailed report on changes to car parking arrangements and fees across East Devon. Those of us who are not Cabinet members, about 48 of us, are able to attend and make comments on any of the issues under consideration.

In total 24 non-Cabinet District Councillors spoke on this issue. Because there were so many of us wanting to speak, we were restricted to only two minutes to say what we wanted to.

Before any of us spoke we heard from two members of the public, one of who was James McClean who owns Sidmouth Pets in Temple street who made an impassioned set of arguments as to why the Temple Street car park should not be changed from a free car park to a pay and display one. James is collecting signatures, so please pop in and sign his petition.

I spoke out against the proposal to increase the price of parking in Sidmouth’s Ham East, Ham West, Roxburgh and Mill Street car parks. The proposal is to encourage drivers to use the Manor Road car park instead as it will remain at the current fee.

Not only might an increase, of, as proposed 50% mean that less people use our car parks, but this could lead to less people shopping in Sidmouth. Sidmouth and its traders don’t need this as the shops across Sidmouth and other local high streets are struggling.

It could also mean that drivers might decide to use the private car park opposite the Bedford Hotel as its closer to the town centre than the Manor Road car park is.

I also spoke against the proposal to turn Sidbury’s small free car park to one where only permit holders or residents who have paid for a reserved space can park there. This is a ridiculous proposal! The car park is well used every day and also during many evenings.

It is used to visit our two shops, our Church our Village Hall, our Parish Rooms and Sidbury Primary School. Without our free car park visitors to all of these venues would be forced to clog up Ridgeway, park on the A375 making access through the village even more difficult, or park in other parts of the village where residents will be hugely inconvenienced.

Sidbury’s car park is also used by many who live in the centre of the village and who either don’t have either off road parking spaces or have space outside or nearer to their homes.

After all of the 24 non-Cabinet members had spoken the Cabinet then debated the proposals. Oh dear! This turned into a complete farce as different Cabinet members proposed various amendments to the proposals and the Leader, Ben Ingham, who was chairing the meeting, totally failed to keep control of the discussions and in so doing added to what was already a confusing Cabinet debate.

After what seemed to be forever, the Cabinet, although not by a unanimous vote supported a set of slightly amended proposals keeping the intent to increase parking fees, although by not quite as much, in all the various car parks identified. The Cabinet settled on a 20% increase in these car parks after the Leader had in effect carried out a Dutch auction with numbers appearing to be plucked out of the air.

This was no way to make decisions which include increasing parking fees. Instead of pulling the report and reviewing it in light of the total opposition of the 24 Councillors who spoke against the proposals we ended up with a set of Cabinet decisions taken through a bidding process.

This matter will not end here. The Cabinet Minutes which will record last evening’s decisions on car parking will be presented to Full Council on 23 October. Councillor’s will have the opportunity to challenge the Minute and even vote against it, thus rescinding the decisions made by Cabinet.

Members of the public too can attend the Full Council and put across their points of view on this and any other matter.

Alternatively, a Motion could come from a Councillor which calls for the car parking proposals to be scrapped. This is set to run for a while longer!

If you are interested in reading the full proposals that were discussed last evening at Cabinet follow this link –

Click to access Car%20Parking%20Tariff%20Review%20-%20Careful%20Choices.pdf

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3 Oct 2019

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Accountability, DCC, EDDC, Local Government Finance

“Town Hall Rich List 2017-18”

“In 2017-18:

There were at least 2,441 council employees who received total remuneration in excess of £100,000. That’s 135 more than in 2016-17.

607 council employees earned over £150,000.

A total of 28 local authority employees received remuneration in excess of a quarter of a million pounds in 2017-18.

The local authority with the greatest number of employees receiving remuneration in excess of £100,000 was Essex council with 55 employees in total earning over this amount. Essex also had the highest number of employees earning over £150,000 at 13.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) presents the Twelfth Town Hall Rich List, the only comprehensive list of its kind, with council-by-council breakdown.

Praised in the past by politicians from across different political parties, it is the go-to guide for local government executive pay deals. It details the full remuneration and many of the names of all local council employees whose remuneration exceeds £100,000.

Many senior managers at local authorities have performed well in tough financial times. There are many reports of residents seeing no difference in the services they receive despite the necessary savings being made. However, the Town Hall Rich List also showcases the executives who have overseen failing departments, or received bumper pay-offs after poor performance in the job.

The research is a vital tool for taxpayers wanting to judge which authorities are delivering the best value for money.”

Full report here:

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/taxpayersalliance/pages/16524/attachments/original/1555592082/Town_Hall_Rich_List_2019.pdf?1555592082

Data – alphabetical by council:
https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/taxpayersalliance/pages/16524/attachments/original/1555590752/Town_Hall_Rich_List_2019.xlsx?1555590752

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3 Oct 2019

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Accountability, Developers/ Development, Planning System, Scrutiny, Transparency

“RIBA slams moves to extend permitted development rights”

“The government’s ambition to simplify the country’s planning system will be wrecked by ministers’ determination to persist with extending permitted development rights, the RIBA has warned.

Alongside a number of other housing initiatives announced earlier this week, including plans to change energy regulations and introduce a new housebuilding standard, the housing secretary Robert Jenrick said the government would be looking to reform the planning system, “making it faster and more efficient for everyone, from households to large developers”.

The government wants to allow homes to be built above existing properties and is seeking views on demolishing old commercial buildings for new housing, a move it claimed would revitalise high streets in the process.

An accelerated green paper on planning reforms will be published next month, outlining ministers’ thinking.

But the RIBA president Alan Jones pointed to a “huge contradiction” at the heart of the government’s ambitions and said moves to create “a planning system that works for society would be undermined by the proposal to extend permitted development rights”.

Jones said the RIBA said it would continue to urge the government to reconsider its plans, since these “would only lead to more homes that sidestep vital quality and environmental standards and inhibit any plans to incite a ‘green housing revolution’”.

The architects’ trade body has been a vociferous critic of those developers who used permitted development rights to turn redundant office and commercial space into residential properties, many of which do not meet minimum space standards.

It backed a Children’s Commissioner report, published in August, which the RIBA said provided “further evidence of the damaging effect that current regulations have on people, including families with children, who end up living in these poor-quality homes, often through no choice of their own”.

Other organisations have warned that prolific use of permitted development rights to convert offices and warehousing space into homes would create the “slums of the future”.

The Labour Party has committed to scrapping permitted development rights if it gets into government, while the Royal Town Planning Institute believed such rights “put housing affordability and design quality at risk” and undermined the planning system.

At the Conservative Party conference earliest this week housing minister Esther McVey said the government would tweak the permitted development rights’ regime but ruled out rolling it back.”

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/riba-slams-moves-to-extend-permitted-development-rights/5101950.article?

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2 Oct 2019

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Accountability, Ben Ingham, Developers/ Development, Exmouth, Exmouth Queen’s Drive Delivery Group

“Yet another delay in reveal of Exmouth seafront future plans”

“A report on the current position was due to come to tonight’s Cabinet meeting – but there is no sign of it.

September’s East Devon District Council Cabinet meeting saw an urgent item brought forward to dissolve the Exmouth Regeneration Board and replace it with the Exmouth Queen’s Drive Delivery Group.

Although not initially on September’s agenda, it was brought forward at the last minute so that they could meet that month and receive the latest information, with a report to come to the October cabinet meeting outlining the current position and a timetable of next steps.

Explaining why it was adding as an urgent item, Cllr Ben Ingham, leader of the council, said that had they waited until the next meeting, it would have caused a further delay in progressing the plans.

But the cabinet agenda for tonight’s meeting (October 2) does not include any items on the Queen’s Drive project. A council spokesman has said though a public engagement event will take place in November.

They said: “A cabinet report will come forward later on regarding progress and next steps on the delivery of Queen’s Drive Phase 3. A public engagement event will be taking place in November led by Hemingway Design who have been leading on a new vision for the Queen’s Drive site. More information on this will come forward shortly.”

Consultation with the public was undertaken by HemingwayDesign in the summer of 2018 and it was hoped and expected by senior councillors that their report on the options for phase 3 would have been published this summer, but that date has passed.

Phase 1 of the Queen’s Drive project, the realignment of the road and the new car park, was completed in June.

Phase 2, the new watersports centre, is set to open in time for the summer of 2020, and the hoardings have been installed around the new, upcoming watersports development, Sideshore. …”

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/yet-another-delay-reveal-exmouth-3385751

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2 Oct 2019

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Cranbrook, Developers/ Development, EDDC

Cranbrook: one multi-purpose DCC building triggered – maybe, if money available

But no plans for anything else.

“If all goes to plan the community facilities building will include a flexible space for children’s, youth, adult and library services with potential use for public health and highways services, as well as town council working space.

The building could be completed within two years, if funding is secured.

The trigger point for the provision of the children’s centre facilities – 2,000 homes being occupied – has been met which means the Cranbrook consortium of developers have to construct the children’s centre facilities no later than June 10, 2021.

The existing planning agreement also requires them to provide town council offices in the town centre by June 2021, and youth facilities and a library when the 3,450th home is occupied, currently expected to be in 2025.

But council officers are recommending the agreements be renegotiated so that a multi-purpose building can be built.

Nearly 2,000 homes in the new town are currently occupied and while the town has a primary school, an allthrough school, a multi-purpose building with GP surgery space and a train station, the only building that has been provided in the town centre is a the pub Cranberry Farm.

Other facilities such as additional town centre shops and a food store are commercially led and will likely only come when there are more people living in the town. There are no fixed timescales for when it may happen. …”

https://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/tow-centre-community-building-plan-at-cranbrook-revealed-1-6302771

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2 Oct 2019

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Rural communications, Rural communities

Yet another broadband promise …

Owl teserving judgment … but does note Swire’s constituency set to get it long before Parish’s … if it happens.

“More than 300,000 properties are set to benefit from a £250m project to improve broadband connections across the South West.

Jurassic Fibre, which is leading the fibre-optic project, says it is specifically targeting rural communities instead of cities.

Initial testing is being launched in parts of Devon in the autumn before the full rollout in early 2020.

Speeds of 20 times faster than the average UK household are expected.

Michael Maltby, CEO and founder of Jurassic Fibre, said the investment would “radically change” internet options.

He said the plans will reduce the “digital divide” between cities and smaller, rural areas, offering speeds of one gigabyte per second to homes and 10 to businesses. …”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-49900477?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/england/devon&link_location=live-reporting-story

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2 Oct 2019

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Accountability, Claire Wright, Hugo Swire, NHS (local)

Swire making promises he can’t keep before he exits

Swire says the only community beds in his constituency that have closed may have a brighter future ahead.

This comes from a speech made by the Health Secretary at the Tory Party Conference about ALL community hospital beds in England, not just the one in his constituency. It was a very vague statement about cons “no further cuts”.

That’s as much as Owl will report on this except to say: seeing is believing, don’t believe any promises made at any party conference just before a possible election – and especially don’t take any notice of Swire, whose only job now is to sabotage the (excellent) chance of Claire Wright replacing him …

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2 Oct 2019

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Accountability, Education (local)

That “outstanding” school could be a complete failure

“Analysis of official data revealed 24 schools had gone without inspection for more than 13 years.

There are 1,010 “outstanding” schools that have not had a visit from Ofsted in a decade – up from 296 in 2017.

The Department for Education (DfE) plans to lift an exemption on routine inspections for outstanding schools.

It has been in place since 2012 but watchdog Ofsted called for it to end amid concerns about falling standards.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said inspecting all schools would ensure they were not “failing or at risk of decline”.

It said parents would find it harder to compare schools without recent reports available.

Meanwhile, the Labour party has said it would scrap Ofsted if it won the next general election.

There were 24 schools that had not had an inspection since September 2006, all of them graded “outstanding”.

Chart showing how long since outstanding schools were last inspected by Ofsted. …”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49579520

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2 Oct 2019

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Accountability, Air pollution, EDDC, Sidford Business Park

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Air pollution: “buck being passed to local authorities”

So, what will EDDC do with the buck of Sidford “Fields” Business Park (henceforth the “Fields” misnomer will be dropped)?

“… More than four in five urban areas have illegal levels of air pollution despite government promises to tackle the problem.

There was almost no progress last year in cutting the number of areas that breach the limit for nitrogen dioxide largely produced by diesel vehicles.

The limit came into force in 2010. It will not be met for another decade in some areas, according to analysis by the campaign group Client Earth of official projections of NO2.

The level of NO2 in London last year was more than twice the legal limit, which is 40mcg of NO2 per cubic metre of air. The next most polluted area was South Wales which was 1.6 times the limit, while Glasgow and Birmingham were 1.5 times, Southampton 1.4 and Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh and Sheffield 1.3.

The figures are in the annual submission the government must make to the European Commission under the EU’s ambient air quality directive.

The submission covers 43 large urban areas and data shows 36 had illegal NO2 levels last year, one fewer than 2017. A small general decline in NO2 emissions, partly due to older diesel vehicles being retired, resulted in Birkenhead, Merseyside, falling under the limit.

This newspaper’s Clean Air for All campaign is calling for clean air zones in all cities with illegal levels of air pollution, with the most polluting vehicles charged daily entry fees as in London. The campaign calls for a Clean Air Act that would require the government to meet the World Health Organisation’s recommended limit for fine particles everywhere by 2030.

The campaign will be the focus of an event in parliament today addressed by Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, mother of Ella, who died aged nine after asthma attacks which doctors linked to illegal air near her south London home.

Client Earth, which won three High Court rulings ordering the government to produce stronger plans to improve air quality, said ministers were “passing the buck” to local authorities.”

Source: Times (paywall)

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1 Oct 2019

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Accountability, Tories

Unfortunate juxtaposition of Home Secretary and slogan

This is the woman who took a secret trip to Israel, passing it off as a “holiday” without informing the Foreign Office, daughter of immigrants who hates immigrants, former consultant to a tobacco company, and, after being appointed Home Secretary, began working for Viasat in India as a strategic adviser on a salary of £5,000 a month for five hours’ work a month, without seeking prior approval from the government’s Advisory Committee on Business Appointments – leading to accusations that she has broken the ministerial code for a second time.

So, maybe that juxtaposition isn’t as unfortunate as it first might seem!

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1 Oct 2019

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Accountability, Claire Wright, East Devon Tories, Phil Twiss

Sky News headline brings back memories …

The headline:

“John Lewis culls top jobs with Waitrose management merger”

https://news.sky.com/story/john-lewis-culls-top-jobs-with-waitrose-management-merger-11824503

The memories:[

https://eastdevonwatch.org/2015/01/28/twissgate-londons-victoria-and-albert-museum-makes-claire-wright-famous-and-councillor-twiss-infamous/

and

https://eastdevonwatch.org/2014/12/19/cullgate-spreads-through-the-blogosphere/

and

https://eastdevonwatch.org/2014/11/28/councillor-twiss-gets-his-dictionary-in-a-twiss/

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1 Oct 2019

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Post-Brexit Adjustments, Scrutiny, Sleaze, Tories

“Boris Johnson Has Handed £100,000 Of Taxpayers’ Cash To One Of His Main Donors”

“Boris Johnson’s government has awarded £100,000 of taxpayers’ money to a company that donated to his leadership campaign in order to help it “prepare for Brexit” — despite the firm having already declared itself “Brexit ready”.

Bristol port will receive the six-figure payment to “help their preparations for Brexit on 31 October”, the Department for Transport told BuzzFeed News. It is one of 16 ports across the UK that has received a share of a £10 million funding pot, and the only one in the west of England.

The decision to hand Bristol port a large sum of taxpayer cash will raise conflict-of-interest questions, because just four months ago the Bristol Port Company made a £25,000 donation directly to Johnson ahead of the Conservative party leadership contest.

Johnson then stoked controversy when he endorsed a report calling for a Singapore-style tax-free port at Bristol during his campaign.

The payment will also raise eyebrows because, despite Transport secretary Grant Shapps saying the money is about “ensuring they are ready for Brexit”, the Bristol Port Company has previously insisted it is already “ready” for the UK to come out of the EU. …”

https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/boris-johnson-bristol-port-cash

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1 Oct 2019

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Tories

Tory conference Day 3

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2019/oct/01/brexit-latest-news-boris-johnson-conservative-conference-interviewed-as-ireland-dismisses-uk-border-plan-as-non-starter-live-news?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Well. Mrs Thatcher did say there’s no such thing as society!

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1 Oct 2019

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Economy, Tories

“Capitalism Isn’t Working And People Are ‘Pissed Off’, Says Tory Former Minister”

“Capitalism is in crisis and and the government must radically reform the UK because “people are pissed off”, a Tory MP has said.

John Penrose said it is “clearly true” that the system “isn’t working well enough” for ordinary people and has not been since the financial crash.

The former heritage minister said people feel crushed by large corporations and angry at the “illegitimate corrupt wealth” of mansion-owning foreign oligarchs who are “some of the nastiest people on the planet”.

Penrose, who is Boris Johnson’s anti-corruption champion, also hit out at rising inter-generational inequality, with the number of pension-age people growing while the tax-paying working population who “pay for the benefits we have promised ourselves” was “shrivelling”.

“Pretty soon everyone under 40 will feel like the system is a conspiracy and it is a conspiracy against them,” he said.

But Penrose, the MP for Weston, was told by one Tory activist at the Conservative Party fringe event, organised by The Enterprise Forum, that he “sounds like a Labour MP”.

With a snap election on the horizon, however, Penrose said his party must acknowledge the current market system had faults.

“We can’t just sit there saying, it’s all working perfectly because it manifestly for quite a lot of people for the last ten years hasn’t been working, and they are hacked off,” he said. “They are pissed off.”

He added: “It is clearly true, clearly true, that at the moment capitalism, corporatism, business, call it what you like, free markets, isn’t working well enough for enough people in our society.”

Penrose said the “danger is that the devil has all the best tunes” and voters could turn to Labour’s socialist agenda as an “answer”.

“Roughly once every ten years, once a generation, something goes wrong with British capitalism, with Britain’s economy, quite fundamentally, and we have to remodel ourselves,” he said. …”

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/capitalism-isnt-working-says-tory_uk_5d929cf8e4b0019647ad810e