Now Councillor Diviani is miffed with East Devon's electors

Credit to Save Our Sidmouth http://saveoursidmouth.com/ for valiantly listening yesterday to East Devon District Council (EDDC) Leader Paul “Kim Jong Un” Diviani on BBC Radio Devon yesterday where another of those BBC “leftie” radio interviewers followed up on the story from the evening before of the EDDC vote on the proposition from the East Devon Alliance (EDA) Councillors http://www.eastdevonalliance.org.uk/ that the sale of, and relocation from the Knowle should be postponed.

Save Our Sidmouth report on the radio interview with “Kim” Diviani and the EDA’s Councillor Cathy Gardner thus –

Cllr Diviani “a bit miffed” with the electorate?

Radio Devon’s Simon Bates had this impression, in his interview this morning with Councillors Cathy Gardner and Paul Diviani, following last night’s Extraordinary Council Meeting to debate relocation (link given below), at which SOS was present.

Link to this morning’s Radio Devon interview here: http://bbc.in/1G90QAz – the relevant debate is between 01:06:03 to 01:14:59.

Zorro is right in observing that Councillor “Kim” Diviani really doesn’t like the fact that a large number of East Devon’s electorate are not toeing his Party’s line. Oh dear Councillor Diviani, democracy hurts doesn’t it!

It’s still time for challenge!

Councillor Diviani savages local press bias

Zorro is starting to see some themes emerging from East Devon’s Conservatives. They have berated the electors for their stupidity in not realising that the only true defenders of democracy locally are the Conservative Party and its East Devon District Councillors, they have attacked the democratically elected East Devon Alliance Councillors for their temerity in challenging them, and now we have the local “left wing” press bias.

Zorro yesterday chastised ex- Conservative East Devon District Councillor Tony Howard for his criticism of that bastion of Soviet style reporting the Ottery Herald and Express for not publishing his recent ramblings in full in its newspaper.

Councillor "Kim Jong Un" Diviani. Seeing Reds under every bed!

Now we have EDDC Leader Councillor Paul “Kim Jong Un” Diviani sniping at the local press for its bias around the recent local elections. It seems that the East Devon Conservatives believe that the “left wing bias” that their Party constantly say pervades the corridors of the BBC has now managed to work its way down the A303 into the very heart of East Devon.

 

Pulman's View. Or is it really Socialist Worker?

In this week’s Pulman’s View newspaper the erstwhile editor Phillip Evans, in his editorial headlined “Ruffling Tory feathers”, takes Councillor “Kim” Diviani to task over his ridiculous and paranoid comments about the local press. Link to Pulman's View editorial -
http://sites.google.com/site/realzorro1/2.6.15PulmansViewEditorial.pdf

Pulman's View Editor Phillip Evans. Clearly ruffling Tory feathers

As Phillip Evans says, he is a lifelong Conservative voter, and he is proud of his newspapers’ broad reporting of local political activity and events. Zorro is pleased to have an abundance of local newspapers within East Devon through which electors can be kept up to date with what is happening across the District. Zorro would be even happier if they all reported issues in the way that I would do, but that’s not how it works Councillor Diviani!

Maybe however “Kim” Diviani knows something that we don’t! Perhaps he has discovered that the editor of Pulman’s View is really a sleeper for some rabid anti establishment party such as the Socialist Workers Party!  Zorro will leave this up to readers to judge for themselves.

As Zorro suggested in yesterday’s posting, not only should ex-Conservative Councillor Tony Howard go and have a lie down in a darkened room, but perhaps Councillor “Kim” Diviani might want to join him too.

Any more from the East Devon Conservative ranks want to kick out at those who are deliberately undermining their true blue politics?

It’s still time for challenge!

Ex-EDDC Conservative Councillor tries to savage dead sheep (well the EDA)

Zorro seems to recall that until the latest East Devon District Council (EDDC) elections last month there was an ineffectual Conservative Councillor who represented the Ottery St Mary Rural Ward by the name of Tony Howard. So ineffectual was Tony that Zorro really had to wrack his poor old memory bank to recall him.

Ex-EDDC Conservative Councillor Tony Howard

However, Zorro does now recall who Tony Howard is. In the 2011 District Council elections in the Ottery St Mary Rural Ward he came second behind a smart young independent candidate Claire Wright http://www.claire-wright.org/. When Zorro says that Tony came second what I really mean is that he came a dismal second behind Claire polling over 60% less votes than her and just squeezing past the other Conservative candidate Sara Randall Johnson.

Tony Howard seems to reside in the West Hill part of East Devon which is also where Claire Wright lives. Tony is a member of the West Hill Conservatives which have a nice notice board that some of the members liked to use to post updates about what Claire Wright was doing that annoyed them.

Who can forget the anonymous posting on the West Hill Conservative notice board last November that read “Clr Claire Wright has today been reported to the authorities for allowing the publishing of offensive and threatening comment (sic) towards the Conservative Party councillors of East Devon District Council”? Come on Tony, own up! It was your posting! it has all the same hallmarks of the ungrammatical language that you have displayed!

 

This related to the Conservative Chief Whip Phil (getting them in a) Twiss on EDDC referring Claire Wright to the Devon and Cornwall Police for an innocuous, and now infamous, political “cull” comment which the police told “Oliver” Twiss to find something more important to bother them about as they were too busy and overstretched due to Tory cuts looking for real villains. Hat tip to Devon and Cornwall Police – try looking in at EX10 1SG!

Zorro likes to wander around the various parts of East Devon observing what is happening and my curiosity took me back to the West Hill Conservatives’ notice board the other day. Blow me, if there wasn’t another interesting piece of information posted there. This time it was a missive posted by ex-Councillor Tony Howard. Perhaps “rant” is a more accurate description of what he had placed there. But Zorro will let readers be the judge of that – have a look at the posting that is set out below in two parts.

Tony Howard's posting - page 1

Tony Howard's posting - page 2

In a rant aimed at the East Devon Alliance (EDA) http://www.eastdevonalliance.org.uk/ Councillors on EDDC dear old Tony starts off by randomly referring to “teamwork”. He then decides to state that the EDA Councillors have mandate that “seems to be to disrupt the business progress (sic) of the majority Conservative Party members”. Zorro offers Tony Howard space in this blog to justify that claim.

Apart from the whole posting being a bit grammatically challenging Tony seems to be a bit miffed at the EDA having the temerity to put up a challenge to East Devon’s natural born rulers the Conservatives.

Tony then claims that the EDA Councillors are “driven to punish” the Conservatives. Come on Tony “disrupt” “punish”. What you really mean is “hold to account”.

Tony then changes tact and argues that the EDA Councillors having been “duly elected” “have a right to express their individual arguments”. How gracious of Tony to recognise the blindingly obvious but it appears Tony doesn’t accept that the EDA Councillors have a right to voice their collective arguments, just their individual ones! Perhaps Tony that’s what you really meant but couldn’t quite articulate it!

Tony really goes for the EDA by bemoaning the loss of so many “experienced” Councillors which to his mind will lead to “chaos”. Zorro apologies as momentarily I mixed Tony Howard up with Hugo Swire when referring to “chaos”. That's an easy mistake to make mind you.

Tony claims that the sad loss of these “experienced” Councillors, which is a subtext for “Conservative” Councillors, will “likely damage the business and financial prospects of EDDC”. Zorro offers Tony Howard space in this blog to justify that claim.

Tony then turns his attention to the shortcomings of the local press and the press apparatchiks at EDDC. Between them they “allowed the misunderstanding of events (at EDDC) to fester and attract wild speculation”.

So there we have it. Conservative EDDC Councillors – good.  Local press and associated journalists, and bloggers and Tweeters – bad. Electors - just plain stupid.

Tony clearly doesn’t have a high regard for his majority Conservative Group colleagues on EDDC as he is “fearful that East Devon residents will suffer a retrograde performance from the newly formed council as a learning curve is played out, together with a “Punishing” objective from EDA members”.

Zorro now has a vision of hordes of EDA Councillors and their rent-a-mob middle Englander compardres from across East Devon running a mock both during EDDC meetings and through their brain washing vindictive that an ever compliant local press will publish with glee!

Tony adds a post script to his posting by saying that his “fears may become a reality” because some Councillors had the gall to call a special Council meeting to seek to overturn the proposed move from, and sale of, the Knowle. Err...Tony; some Councillors were elected with that objective in their manifestos. Err....Tony; that’s called democracy!

Zorro asks one of Tony’s friends or neighbours to make sure that he now goes and has a lie down in a darkened room as I fear that he will not be able to cope with the next four years. Unless that is the EDA Councillors see sense and, in Tony’s inestimable words begin “acting in a constructive team spirit and not as individuals out for revenge and damage to EDDC with the inherent adverse cost levels”.

In other words Tony wants the EDA to stop doing what they were elected to do and to just do what the Conservative Group wants. As the advert says “simples”. This frankly, is how dear Tony Howard comes across.

Finally, Zorro repeats his genuine offer to Tony to give a reasoned and detailed summation of all of invective and alarmist comments that his posting has made. If Tony does that, then Zorro will do what the EDA lackies on the Ottery Herald and Express failed to do – reproduce his words in their full unedited glory!

Over to you Tony!

It’s still time for challenge!

New Statesman article shines spotlight on independent East Devon

Since the outcome of the general and local elections Zorro has mused about how local issues influence national political outcomes. East Devon is very much a case in point here and this has been espoused on a few occasions in recent months and the general election result locally seems to support the argument that the two are very much intertwined.

Claire Wright’s http://www.claire-wright.org/ high profile political campaigning whilst an East Devon District Councillor stood her in good stead when, as the local independent candidate, she challenged Hugo Swire for the Westminster seat. Polling in excess of 13,000 votes by any candidate in any seat is a credible result, but for a first time rooky candidate without any party machine or money behind her was a truly remarkable achievement.

However, this result told us more than Claire’s ability to win over a substantial number of electors. It demonstrated that local dissatisfaction with the politically arrogant Conservative majority of the District Council was able to be translated into votes for someone who had shown a commitment to championing local issues on behalf of local residents.

Claire’s District Council activities, alongside a number of other prominent non-Conservative District Councillors had created the environment from which East Devon Alliance formally created a framework within which independently minded residents could be offered an alternative vision of local politics from the politically arrogant Conservative dominated world that has inhabited the District Council for far too long.

So, what we saw at the general and local elections this time around in East Devon was a symbiotic relationship that provided a platform from which independent politics could challenge the established order. In both elections this produced good results. It also produced the spring board from which independent activity can grow and become stronger. Bloodless revolutions don’t often happen overnight and independents in East Devon need to be patient and dig in for the long haul.

The latest edition of the New Statesman magazine carries an interesting article about independent politics. In the article it majors on Claire Wright’s general election campaign and her local political activity. It also draws comparisons with other significant independent political activities including citing where independents have managed to take control of their local councils, most notably in a neighbourhood not too far away.

Zorro has previously highlighted the fact that in Frome the independent candidates won all the local council seats in the recent elections and now have total political control in Frome. Zorro has also commented that lessons could be leant from the way in which independents in Frome have built a successful local alternative political narrative.

For East Devon the starting point has to be two-fold.

Firstly, making sure that the East Devon Alliance District (EDA) Councillors http://www.eastdevonalliance.org.uk/ do now actually respond to the wishes of the local residents and that the EDA builds a meaningful political base within the wider East Devon electorate. This will solidify support and votes in the next bout of local elections and allow a wider set of targeted District Council seats to be won because the East Devon Conservatives are unlikely to find political humility during the next four years!

Secondly, there is a real opportunity in light of both the East Devon general and local election results to start to build a broad alliance across those parties and independents who have a common goal of turning East Devon’s politics at the Knowle and in Westminster from the deep blue hue that has been the local colour for so long to something that is more in keeping with what electors prefer.

Local and national issues are so often intertwined. Local issues can influence how local residents vote. Building a local political based is very much the key to changing the political direction in a locality. The short New Statesman article reminds us of that and is worth reading, if for no other reason than to take inspiration from the actions of Claire Wright, the EDA and successful independents elsewhere.

One day maybe instead of the Guardian newspaper reporting the 7 May Frome independents’ local council victory as “Welcome to the People’s Republic of Frome” it will be able to say “Welcome to the People’s Republic of East Devon”!

The News Statesman article is at – http://sites.google.com/site/realzorro1/NewStatesmanArticle.pdf

It’s still time for challenge!

Normal service to resume

Normal service will return to this blog once Zorro has managed to find time to give away from elderly parental duties.

EDDC relocation documents start to see light of day - finally

Zorro is trying to catch up with East Devon District Council events. The District Council has tried very hard to keep key documents related to decisions surrounding the proposed sale and relocation of its headquarters site at the Knowle in Sidmouth away from the prying eyes of the public that it is meant to serve.

Literally on the eve of polling for this year’s District Council elections the Information Commissioner published his decision in respect of the request for public disclosure of Knowle related documents by local resident Jeremy Woodward under the Freedom of Information Act. The Information Commissioner determined that the actions of the District Council had effectively delayed the conclusion of the Commissioner’s considerations for 9 months. This allowed the outcome of the Commissioner’s investigations and the publication of documents to be delayed until electors had gone to the polls on 7 May.

More on the outcome of the decision by the Information Commissioner to find in a damning manner against the District Council will be covered by Zorro.

Following the Information Commissioner’s decision the District Council has started the process of releasing documents related to the relocation. On 15 May it published documents covering the period 2009 to 2013. This was reported in the Exmouth Journal and the Sidmouth Herald on the same day –

http://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/news/eddc_makes_relocation_and_knowle_documents_public_1_4074894

 The first tranche of relocation documents are accessible at –

http://eastdevon.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/council-business/moving-and-improving/project-document-archive/

Unelected EDDC Conservative candidates' comments - local people hit back

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

EDDC Conservative candidates brand electors - foolish & wrong for having betrayed them!

Oh dear! The fallout locally from the East Devon District Council elections hits the local press! Some of our, now ex, Conservative Councillors really are sore losers. Perhaps they arrogantly assumed that the electors would just forgive and forget. Clearly in some Wards the electors didn’t do either and the losers have shown their real colours.

Last week’s Sidmouth Herald covered the outcome of the local elections and obviously for that newspaper and its readers the results of the elections were, as its front page headline said “Bombshell? It’s as nuclear blast”. The headline reflected the clearout of Conservative incumbents on the District Council in Sidmouth and the Sid Valley generally that the electors had brought about.

In the Sidmouth Rural Ward incumbent and (previously) influential Conservative candidate Christine Drew was trounced by Independent candidate David Barratt. Apparently Christine Drew was “devastated”. Indeed she saw the result as “The people in the Sidmouth Rural Ward have out of the blue voted for the independents”.

Zorro thinks that it was less "out of the blue" Christine but more the blinking obvious given the shenanigans that there has been about the proposals to build an industrial estate on AONB land at Sidford. Perhaps if you had listened and acted on local electors concerns then 800 plus people wouldn’t have voted against you!

Not only was Christine Drew out of touch with the electors, she also showed her true feelings for them when she told the Sidmouth Herald “I think it is the wrong decision, and they (the electors) will realise that”.

So Christine, 813 electors in the Ward that you were contesting as the incumbent candidate got it wrong! How humble and gracious of you! Christine must be regretting her tactical decision to stand down from Sidmouth Town Council to concentrate on her District Council work after all she was the District Council’s Vice Chair! That was clearly a gamble that failed!

Also in the Sidmouth Herald last week unelected Conservative Councillor Sheila Kerridge, who had contested Sidmouth Town Ward, was even more condescending and derogative towards the electors in Sidmouth. She said “They targeted us over the Knowle relocation – it’s just one tiny thing when you think about what we have done”.

Oh dear Sheila! It was just the Knowle relocation was it? The Knowle relocation is “just one tiny thing” is it? Think again back to what and how you and your Conservative peers acted over the previous 4 years. Think about the impact on Sidmouth from the loss of the Knowle to the town. Even the local stalwarts of local business, Sidmouth Chamber of Commerce, opposed the Knowle sale and relocation. And what about all those “Save our Sidmouth” signs that popped up all over the town? What was all that about? Perhaps that related to “just (another) one tiny thing” or two, or three.....

Sheila was there nothing else that persuaded the electors in the Ward to cast 1495, 1704 and 1832 votes respectively for the three Independent/East Devon Alliance Independent candidates who was elected was 384? As you say “it’s just one tiny thing”! Or perhaps hundreds of tiny things.

Ex-Councillor Sheila Kerridge also told the Sidmouth Herald “I think that the people of Sidmouth are going to feel a bit foolish – I feel they have put the wrong people in. I feel as though we were betrayed”. Hopefully the 1500 plus electors who voted against Sheila and her fellow Conservative candidates will remember this. Perhaps it was the electorate of Sidmouth Town Ward who felt betrayed Sheila, hence the fact that, as you say, they determined to “put the wrong people in”.

And Sheila Kerridge and her Conservative colleagues wonder why so many people went to the polls across East Devon to try to eject them from power!

Even ex-Conservative Councillor Chris Wale who stepped down at this election hadn’t understood that whilst many electors were resentful about the way that the decisions about the future of the Knowle had been conducted, as well as the outcome of the decisions, this had not been the only reason why so many Conservative candidates failed in and around Sidmouth and the Sid Valley.

Chris Wale seemed to blame the Knowle fiasco for the reason that many failed to be elected as he told the Sidmouth Herald “One local issue (Knowle) has robbed the Sid Valley of some good Conservatives who served to the best of their ability”. Chris, it wasn’t just the Knowle that did for the Conservatives! And frankly, perhaps the electors realised that “the best of their ability” just wasn’t good enough!

Zorro leaves the East Devon Conservatives to ponder how they will fare in four years time at the hands of the electors when the Sidmouth Herald supplementary headline for its District Council election report that reads “Robbed, betrayed and devastated – the verdict of ousted Conservatives” dusted off. Humility costs nothing, but can save votes! For some of you that lesson has passed you by!

It’s still time for challenge!

Only 1,820 days until next general election!

Hurrah! Only 1,820 days until the next general election.

The countdown starts now!

Hugo Swire's website puts spin on his election result!

Here we go! Hugo Swire has only just been re-elected to parliament and he is already spinning about his result.

His website claims that Hugo Swire was returned at the latest election “after increasing his majority”. This is factually correct. What the website fails to mention is that, as Zorro showed in yesterday’s posting, his actual vote and percentage share of the vote went down in this election.

This is how Hugo Swire’s website spins the election result –

Hugo Swire's website - spinning his election result!

Compare and contrast Hugo Swire’s website information with the facts posted yesterday by Zorro. It will show you a different story to the one portrayed by Hugo Swire.

So, Hugo Swire yes your majority did increase but your popularity decreased! Your popularity bucked your party’s national trend. How embarrassing must that be! Your majority increased not due to you or your party’s efforts or popularity, but rather the broader challenge that there was to you from four other candidates!

So, even before you return to parliament please stop the spin Hugo, it’s not a trait that your electors like! It’s unbecoming for you an MP to try to gloss over a decrease in your popularity in this way.

It’s still time for challenge!

Hugo Swire comes out of 2015 election less popular than going into it!

The dust is settling on the elections held last Thursday and this now allows some introspection of what happened locally.

In the parliamentary election we know that the Conservative candidate for East Devon, Hugo Swire was re-elected. In this election Hugo Swire was challenged by Claire Wright (Independent) and Steve Race (Labour), Stuart Mole (Liberal Democrat) and Andrew Chapman (UKIP).

At the same time we know that nationally the Conservative Party was elected to govern on its own, with its previous coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats taking a real hammering, to the point of verging on being wiped out. We know that the Labour Party was all but wiped out in Scotland where the Scottish Nationalists were all conquering. UKIP, managed to produce a reasonable showing as an overall percentage of votes cast in the election, but failed to make the breakthrough in turns of parliamentary seats that it had both predicted and expected.

Zorro was intrigued to understand what lay behind the East Devon parliamentary voting figures. This was particularly as in his acceptance speech Hugo Swire said “I am deeply honoured to have had an increase in (my) vote; my majority is at its largest since I was first elected back in 2001”.

Zorro has pulled together the election results for East Devon for the past four elections since Hugo Swire was first elected, covering 2001, 2005, 2010 and 2015. This has then been compared election upon election and for the 2015 election the local voting per candidate has been compared with how their parties (where this is applicable) fared this time.

East Devon General Elections 2001/2015 – votes per political party

	2001	2005	2010	2015
Conservative	22,681	23,075	25,662	25,401
Liberal Democrat	14,486	15,139	16,548	3,715
Labour	7,974	7,598	5,721	5,591
UKIP	2,696	3,035	4,346	6,870
Green	n/a	n/a	815	n/a
Independent	n/a	400	n/a	13,140
Total voting	69,542	49,247	53,517	54,717

East Devon General Elections 2001/2015 – percentage of total votes per political party

	2001	2005	2010	2015
Conservative	47.4%	46.9%	48.3%	46.4%
Liberal Democrat	30.3%	30.7%	31.2%	6.8%
Labour	16.7%	15.4%	10.8%	10.2%
UKIP	5.6%	6.2%	8.2%	12.6%
Green	n/a	n/a	1.5%	n/a
Independent	n/a	0.8%	n/a	24.0%

What this information tells us is that Hugo Swire got it wrong in his acceptance speech on the morning of 8 May. In this election he polled less votes than in the last one, therefore he is less popular coming out of the election than going into it. Indeed, Hugo Swire’s percentage of the votes cast is in 2015 at the lowest percentage (46.4%) than in any previous election.

Hugo Swire’s lack of popularity is interesting when one recognises that this election we saw the Conservative Party nationally increase its share of the vote by 0.8%. So Hugo Swire did worse locally than his party did nationally. That tells a story in itself.

Hugo Swire’s loss of popularity has to be compared with the fact that the Independent candidate (Claire Wright) polled remarkably well at 24% of the votes, and that the Labour Party, in a constituency that is well away from its traditional heartlands, also did well to more or less maintain its previous share of the vote. The big losers in East Devon, as with elsewhere, were the Liberal Democrats whose voting share plummeted to just under 7% of the vote; a long way from its heyday when it received just under a third of the votes.

East Devon General Elections 2010/2015 – change in vote share

	2010 East Devon	2010/2015 % Change East Devon	2015 National	2010/2015 % Change National
Conservative	46.4%	-  1.9%	36.9%	+  0.8%
Liberal Democrat	6.8%	- 24.4%	7.9%	- 15.2%
Labour	10.2%	-  0.6%	30.4%	+ 1.5%
UKIP	12.6%	+ 4.4%	12.6%	+ 9.5%
Green	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Independent	24.0%	n/a	n/a	n/a
Turnout	73.7%	-	66.1%	-

In comparing the voting in East Devon against the national turnout for the political parties this shows that Hugo Swire dropped his vote by almost 2% at a time when his party nationally increased its share of the vote by just under 1%.This shows that there is some unpopularity with the Conservatives in East Devon at a time when the Conservative Party nationally is riding high.

Equally, the Labour Party in East Devon produced a percentage increase in its vote, therefore outperforming its position nationally. This was probably due to the local dissatisfaction with the Conservative Party, but more importantly, the local and national flight away from the Liberal Democrats.

At the same time UKIP’s vote in East Devon was unable to increase at the same rate as its national party did. This suggests to Zorro that its local candidate’s under performance reflected his lacklustre and poor campaign. East Devon should have been a prime constituency for UKIP to do well in, particularly when the local Conservative Party was performing so badly in the way it was running the District Council.

But, the candidate who really has most to cheer about as a result of this election is the Independent candidate, Claire Wright. Against a national backdrop of an overall improved outcome for the Conservative Party, she came from nowhere and stormed in to take a quarter of the vote. This is particularly impressive when one considers that she had no political party apparatus or funding behind her, and the past four elections have not had a consistent independent challenge. Over the three previous elections a total of 400 votes had been garnered for an Independent candidate.

Zorro remains of the view that a collaborative coalition that works hard over the next five years could mount a credible challenge to the Conservative Party which does not command the support of 50% or more of the voters, let alone electors in East Devon. Indeed, if you tally up the votes for the progressive candidates – Independent, Labour and Liberal Democrats – Hugo Swire barely scrapes through with a majority. There is a real lesson to be learnt here!

It’s still time for challenge!