On election day - vote Independents to make a change in East Devon

Tomorrow, as everyone knows is, election day. In East Devon that means that there are two sets of elections taking place simultaneously. Both of these elections are equally important for different reasons. They are also set to create very significant political earthquakes in East Devon.

Voting for change on 7 May

Parliamentary election

East Devon, or to use its correct parliamentary constituency title “Devon East”, has had as its MP for the past two electoral terms, Hugo Swire, a Conservative.

Hugo Swire hasn’t lavished the Constituency with too much attention. Indeed, a visit from Hugo Swire to the Constituency is a rare occasion even less rare is any intervention or comment by him upon locally important matters. You only have to look at Hugo Swire’s website to see how little he says about anything, let alone matters that local people are concerned about.

Hugo Swire doesn’t even bother to live in the Constituency that he represents, instead, in addition to his London home, he resides within the Central Devon Constituency with abuts East Devon. Surely, any MP worth their salt would want to have some residential base in their Constituency, if for no other reason than to have a feel for what is happening around them. It’s difficult to do that from outside the Constituency’s boundary. It also reinforces the view that electors could get that Hugo Swire is only playing lip service to his total commitment to the Constituency.

Independent Claire Wright. Doing the Wright thing

In contrast Claire Wright http://www.claire-wright.org/ is very much a local person having lived in the Constituency all her life. Claire Wright is rooted in the issues that affect local people through her role as a County Councillor and until the local election was called, as a District Councillor.

Claire Wright has been campaigning to become the Constituency’s MP since she announced her decision to fight for the seat last summer. Since then Claire Wright has listened to the electorate and produced a manifesto that reflects local concerns. She has gone right across the Constituency (several times) meeting local people on the doorstep and on the street. She has held public meetings and attended all of the public hustings. Claire Wright has showed her passion for the constituency.

Claire Wright is fighting this election as an Independent. All of the top bookmakers have Claire’s odds on being elected as around 9/2. Those odds have dropped from 66/1 when she initially announced her candidature. At the same time as her odds have shortened, Hugo Swire’s have lengthened. Claire Wright’s odds are the best of any Independent parliamentary candidate in Britain.

The press have also recognised that Claire Wright can unseat Hugo Swire. Yesterday the Daily Telegraph ran a piece that excitedly considered the possibility of Claire Wright overturning a “safe Conservative seat”, something that Hugo Swire likes to tell us repeatedly. Recently the Western Morning News highlighted Claire Wright’s credentials, particularly reminding us that when Claire won her Devon County Council seat she beat the then Conservative leader of the County Council. So, Claire Wright has form in beating well placed incumbents.

Daily Telegraph – http://t.co/sOLtjGCmml

Western Morning News – http://t.co/1zk9hTzRji

Independent Claire Wright. A real change for East Devon

There are three other candidates standing in the election. UKIP has Andrew Gardner. One might ask who is he and where has he been all through the election campaign period? He really has been the invisible man.

The Labour Party is standing Steve Race who seems far keener to campaign in support of other Labour candidates elsewhere than to spend regular time campaigning in East Devon. Similarly, the Liberal Democrat Party candidate Stuart Mole has managed to maintain an incredibly low profile throughout the campaign.

It is absolutely clear that the only candidate who can change the political colour of East Devon in this parliamentary election is Independent Claire Wright.

Zorro says very clearly – Claire Wright is the only choice! Claire Wright is the Wright choice!

District Council election

The East Devon District Council has been a bastion of Conservative representatives, and should be one of those very safe Conservative Councils. It would not doubt have been so if the current Conservative majority group hadn’t decided to run the District Council as its very own rotten borough.

The Conservative majority group has had such a large majority that it appeared to forget, or perhaps not care, that it was accountable to the electorate. Over the past four years the Conservative majority group on the District Council has, at every turn, stuck two fingers up to the electorate. This has alienated them from those who elected them and created an environment where at this election what was once an unassailable Conservative majority is now facing a very significant opposition from Green Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, the odd (literally) UKIP, as well as a tranche of Independent and Independent East Devon Alliance candidates http://www.eastdevonalliance.org.uk/.

Independent East Devon Alliance - bringing change

In this election the Independent and Independent East Devon Alliance candidates are taking the fight to the Conservatives in virtually every Ward in the Constituency. Local electors have an opportunity to ride East Devon of the politically arrogant incumbent Conservative Councillors and to restore some civic pride to East Devon.

Zorro supports the Independents and the Independent East Devon Alliance candidates.

Let’s make tomorrow an election day – parliamentary and District Council – that will be remembered for a long, long time.

It’s time for challenge! It’s time for change!

Plea to East Devon Labour & Liberal Democrats - do the Wright thing on 7 May

In the East Devon parliamentary election on 7 may there is only one candidate who has can unseat Hugo Swire, and that is the Independent candidate Claire Wright http://www.claire-wright.org/.

Independent candidate Claire Wright. The only real challenger to Hugo Swire

 All that the Labour Party and Liberal Democrat candidates can do is to take votes from Claire Wright. If both these Parties let that happen then they increase Hugo Swire’s chances of being returned to Parliament as a Conservative MP. Not only will that be a terrible thing for the electors in East Devon, but it will also help put David Cameron and George Osborne back in charge for a further 5 years. You both know that will be a dreadful thing not just for East Devon’s electors, but also for the country as a whole.

Let Hugo Swire win & this will be a consequence for 5 more years

Both Steve Race (Labour Party candidate) and Stuart Mole (Liberal Democrat candidate) have, even at this last moment in the election, an opportunity to see the bigger picture. Both have an opportunity to support the anti-Conservative tide that there is in East Devon at this moment.

Both Claire Wright, through her high profile campaign as an Independent candidate, and the candidates who are standing in the District Council elections as Independents and Independent East Devon Alliance http://www.eastdevonalliance.org.uk/ candidates, have between them all a very real opportunity to change the political course of East Devon, both in the Knowle and in Westminster.

Zorro has made a plea to both the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats previously, and makes no apology for making it again. Neither of you have any hope of winning the East Devon parliamentary seat on 7 May. You both know that. Now is the time to urge your supporters to back Claire Wright.

Independent Claire Wright

Labour Party and Liberal Democrat voters in East Devon should now be deciding to vote tactically on 7 May. A tactical vote will be a winning vote for Claire Wright.

Even senior Liberal Democrat politician Mike Simpson, who was born in the Constituency has called in his blog for Liberal Democrat's to support Claire Wright on 7 May - https://t.co/1U5iXBB4Q0.

So, come on Steve Race and Stuart Mole, do what is the Wright thing for East Devon, and make it harder for David Cameron to form a government.

 Vote Claire Wright!

Make sure that Claire Wright's votes are maximised on 7 May

It’s time for challenge! It’s time for change!

East Devon a "safe Conservative seat"? Daily Telegraph disagrees!

For what Conservative candidate Hugo Swire calls a "safe seat" for the Party, East Devon's Independent candidate Claire Wright has attracted her fair share of reasons as to why she should feel positive about taking the seat from him on polling day.

The Labour candidate Steve Race seems, from his Twitter account, to spend all his time campaigning for other Labour candidates in other seats. As Zorro commented about him early in the campaign, he's not a serious contender. but then neither is the Liberal Democrat candidate who is equally as invisible across East Devon. The problem however that having both their names on the ballot paper is that  they can attract anti - Conservative votes. These are ones that could bolster Claire Wright's tally .

But the bigger positive reasons for Claire Wright's expectations to cause a major upset on 7 May come from the press and media coverage. She has been gathering more and more coverage as her campaign has blossomed. Now, the high priest of Conservatism, the Daily Telegraph, has today written about how she could cause a major political upset. The Telegraph's piece is at -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/politics-blog/11570165/Meet-the-Ottery-independent-candidate-who-could-take-one-of-the-Tories-safest-seats.html#disqus_thread.

https://www.facebook.com/claire.l.wright.7/posts/10152835260741659.

And don't forget Claire Wright's odds are widely quoted at major bookies. She is now quotes at 9/2 to win.

All great odds and great press coverage for someone who Hugo Swire and East Devon Conservatives have been all too keen to dismiss and attack in equal measure. Be clear; they are worried. They are rattled. Not just by Claire Wright but by the credible and significant challenge to the Conservative majority on the District Council from the East Devon Alliance of Independent candidates.

Come 7 May East Devon is highly likely to hit the political headlines for good reason. The Conservative "safe seat" is about to disappear into the annals of history!

It's time for challenge! It's time for change!

Axminster Tory District Council candidates in desperate attempt to defeat East Devon Alliance

We know that when things start to get difficult for the Conservatives on East Devon District Council they have no worries about turning on their opponents, whoever they are.

In recent years we have seen the Conservative majority group on the district Council have attacked opposition Councillors when they have challenged the Conservatives actions. Zorro would be the last to object to robust political challenge, but the Conservative group have often relied upon personal attacks and bullying to ensure that anyone opposing them are dealt with.

The Conservatives attacks have not been restricted to their elected political opponents. Remember when 4,000 residents marched through Sidmouth in opposition to what the Conservative group were proposing to do? Remember when residents banded together through campaign groups such as Save Our Sidmouth? For their efforts these concerned residents were denigrated by the Conservatives.

Earlier this year we have the spectacle of Councillor Twiss, the Conservative District Council whip, the man responsible for ensuring that his colleagues kept to the Party line on issues, reported Claire Wright to the Devon and Cornwall Police for a throw away comment that a  member of the public had posted on her website. The crime? The member of the public had called for a political cull of Conservative Councillors at the impending local election.

Judge for yourself whether such a comment could in any way, as Councillor Twiss claimed, be a call to arms for someone to do physical harm to local Conservative Councillors. Or was it a crude and deliberate attempt by Councillor Twiss to try to politically damage Claire Wright, someone who he and his Conservative colleagues clearly dislike and fear?

But this North Korean style approach to politics as espoused and demonstrated by the Conservative group on the District Council has not just remained amongst them. The Conservative candidate in the general election clearly doesn’t like challenge either as we have seen in this election. Anyone who has attended any of the election hustings will have so clearly seen the clear disdain that Hugo Swire has exhibited towards his challengers, particularly Claire wright, his Independent opponent. Indeed Hugo Swire made his disdain so clear when a few weeks ago he wrote to the Express and Echo and attacked all of his opponents.

As we moved towards the point where local people had to decide whether they were going to stand as candidates in the local election on 7 May we saw the creation of the umbrella local party, East Devon Alliance, which allowed those who wished to stand as a co-ordinated set of Independent candidates to do so and to do so within the bounds of electoral rules.

As this was happening we saw Councillor Twiss pop up again to try to attack the EDA as a front for other political parties – Labour, Liberal Democrats and Greens. This attack, whilst being palpably untrue was clearly designed to try to inflict damage on what has become a ground up opposition to the dominance locally of the Conservatives. If the EDA was a front for all of these political parties then given that each of those three parties are also standing candidates, often in opposition not just to the Conservatives, but also the EDA, shows either their collective political incompetence or their individual political independence.

Zorro has previously called for the EDA and the Labour, Liberal Democrats and Green Parties to form a grand coalition in order to not split the anti-Conservative vote in the District Council elections. Indeed, Zorro has also called upon the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties not to stand in the general election in East Devon in order to provide Independent candidate, Claire Wright, with the greatest opportunity to beat Conservative Hugo Swire. Regretfully, these two parties have maintained their political independence.

As we enter the final week of the local election campaign we now have the local conservatives returning to type. In Axminster Deputy Council Leader Andrew Moulding, a person at the heart of the political decisions of the District Council ruling majority group,  and his Conservative colleague Stephanie Jones who are both standing locally in the local elections issue another attack on the East Devon Alliance.

This time, in a poorly produced and written leaflet these two Conservative candidates think that the way to beat the EDA is to describe them as a group of Sidmouth residents. Whilst there is nothing wrong with being a group of Sidmouth residents, in this case it is untrue. This is an attempt to try to make it look as if the EDA is only interested in, and representative of, Sidmouthians. They will find out on 7 May how untrue this childish attempt to dismiss the EDA challenge is.

Equally in this leaflet these two Conservative candidates tried to explain that the EDA will operate as traditional political group, such as operated by the Conservatives on the District Council if elected. Err…. But we have been told time and time again that the Conservative group on the District Council did not operate as an organised political group! Andrew Moulding and Stephanie Jones seem to want to have their cake and to eat it! So, despite the previous protestations from Conservative group Whip Councillor Twiss the conservatives on the District Council did enforce political discipline amongst their Councillors.

Zorro was intrigued that in the rest of this leaflet these two conservative candidates have the brass neck to try (unsuccessfully) to defend the Conservative group’s decisions to delay the production of the Local Plan and the relocation and sale of the District Council Headquarters from the Knowle.

It is clear to Zorro that in Axminster the Conservatives are so rattled and worried about the EDA’s challenge that they have resorted to petty and inaccurate political attack through a poorly produced leaflet.

It’s time for challenge! It’s time for change!

East Devon - one man, three jobs. What can possibly go wrong!

Zorro is not usually someone who criticises the staff who work for a council but sometimes you have to question the ability and competence of people when things don’t go well.

East Devon District Council (EDDC) shares a Chief Executive with South Somerset District Council. One man, Mark Williams, two important jobs. Or is it two jobs? No, Mark Williams is also, in his spare time the electoral Returning Officer for East Devon. So, it’s one man, three important jobs!

Zorro has turned his attention to Mark Williams because he is responsible, presumably in his spare time, for the smooth running of local and national elections within East Devon. East Devon’s electoral affairs were placed under scrutiny by a Parliamentary Select Committee last year. This was all to do with the fact that some 6,000 electors had fallen off of East Devon’s electoral roll.

Mark Williams was summoned to the Select Committee  following a report by the Electoral Commission which identified EDDC as falling short of canvassing requirements to register households in person ahead of changes to the registration format in June last year.

As the East Devon Returning Officer he was responsible for how the local electoral activity was undertaken. This issue was covered by Pulmans View at the time -

http://www.viewfrompublishing.co.uk/news_view/33945/20/1/district-councillor-asks-%E2%80%98why-weren%E2%80%99t-we.

Now Mark Williams, as Returning Officer, has hit the headlines again. And again, not for the right reasons. Postal voters in the EDDC elections have now been given the wrong advice about completing their ballot papers. So far it appears that information correcting this wrong advice has not been widely distributed amongst electors.

The local press have covered this latest embarrassing debacle:

Sidmouth Herald –http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/election/electors_sent_wrong_guidance_on_number_of_votes_to_cast_1_4050497

Express & Echo – http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Apology-issued-East-Devon-postal-voters-affected/story-26395839-detail/story.html

Pulmans View from Sidmouth (page 8) – http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?pbid=b553c14a-f023-4ec6-a5ac-b9d745b0d550

This situation is very worrying as it isn’t the first time that a local election has had to be run. Zorro cannot understand how or why the advice to voters this time has been got wrong. Perhaps the Returning Officer has been distracted by having to also run two District Councils!

Mind you, EDDC has not exactly been a beacon of efficiency and hasn’t been without its controversies over recent years. The latest, and ones that will be at the forefront of electors’ minds on 7 May, will be the lack of a Local Plan (still) and the intention to sell the District Council’s headquarters and to relocate it over a split site.

Zorro has predicted that the new District Council will not be Conservative controlled on 8 May. That prediction, more than ever, stands.

It seems to Zorro that one of the first actions that the new Council leadership will need to do is to have Mark Williams in and to discuss what he sees his future being. Too many things in East Devon haven’t gone smoothly and without controversy be it in elections or just the running of the District Council.

Things need to change! In so many ways.

East Devon Alliance - showing Conservatives how to reach the electorate

Zorro has exposed the paucity of the East Devon Conservatives website and other means of communication with the electors of East Devon. Until now the Conservatives have been the Party which has fielded the most number of candidates in the District Council elections and has been able to control the District Council by having the largest number of seats on it.

This situation over recent years has seen a real and significant backlash against the East Devon Conservatives as they have barged ahead in their own sweet way on a number of very significant local issues including the Local Plan and the move away from its Headquarters site in Sidmouth. These, and other issues, have led to reactions from residents that one would not have expected from an area of the country such as East Devon.

The upshot of residents’ reactions to what can only be described as political arrogance by the majority Conservative group on the District Council has been the creation of a number of organisations locally who have challenged and held the District Council to account. One of those groups who have consistently challenged the District Council and the Conservative majority group has been the East Devon Alliance (EDA).

The EDA was initially formed in April 2013 as a loose coalition of people who were seeking to challenge what the Conservative group was doing on East Devon District Council in the electors’ name. It became apparent that there was an appetite amongst many electors for there to be a more co-ordinated political challenge to the Conservative group than was able to be effectively mounted through the valiant attempts by the Independent Councillors on the District Council a long side the Liberal Democrats.

The idea to form a federation or a “Party” of independents who would step forward to fight for seats on the District Council started to take shape and at the beginning of this year EDA was reborn. This time EDA it would re-formed as an umbrella group to support candidates wishing to stand at the District Council election on 7 May.

Now as we head towards the final leg of the local election campaign we have 24, out of the 29 Wards to be contested, being fought by Independent candidates. In total 37 Independent candidates are standing across the District Council. Of these 22 will be described as “Independent East Devon Alliance” on the ballot papers and 15 will be shown as “Independent”.

This broad backlash against the Conservative group on the District Council has also led to 19 Liberal Democrats, 6 Labour Party and 5 Green Party candidates also contesting seats. There are even 9 UKIP candidates! Unfortunately in some Wards we have non Conservative candidates fighting not only the Conservatives but also themselves. It is disappointing that a broader coalition could not have been formed to really exert pressure on the Conservative Party. But Zorro should not be too churlish as the fact that for the first time there are far more non Conservative candidates fighting the elections than there are Conservative candidates.

The Conservative Party must be wondering what on earth is going on in an area of the country where everyone said in the past that if you stood a donkey in a blue rosette in an election it would win! The Conservative Party really has misunderstood how angry local electors are with them. Even twice elected Conservative MP Hugo Swire is facing a formidable challenge from the local Independent candidate Claire Wright in the general election.

Zorro has posted about the awfulness of the East Devon Conservatives’ website and its lack of a presence on social media. Or anywhere across the Constituency to be honest. So, Zorro decided to check out what the EDA had to offer electors by going to its website at –http://www.eastdevonalliance.org.uk/

The first thing that you notice about the EDA website is that is clearly set up to inform. For a start it was easy to find out who is standing in which Ward under the EDA banner –http://www.eastdevonalliance.org.uk/candidates/.

 In contrast from the Conservative website you would have no idea that the local election was looming. You would have no idea who their candidates are.

The EDA website gives you links to videos produced so that you can hear firsthand why 14 of their candidates think that they should be elected. This link takes you directly to the 14 video thus far produced by the candidates –https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4u0Y35b6xJGQEgWEyI_W8A.

There is a handy election countdown clock on the website. Zorro was very jealous about this as his blog provider would not effectively support such a clock!

The website provides ample information about key local political issues and what the EDA thinks about them. This information is also provided by locality. It feels as if the EDA know what’s going on, want you to know what’s going on and what they think ought to happen. None of this is available from the Conservatives’ website.

The EDA also make it very easy to become a member, it gives detailed information as to how the EDA came to be formed, who to contact and what the EDA stands for.

Zorro is clearly biased when it comes to local politics. The creation of a broad non Conservative alliance is very much to be welcomed. The District Council Conservative group has brought the challenge to their “one Party State” upon themselves.

The EDA’s website is a welcome addition to the various online sites where someone living in East Devon (or beyond) can find out what’s happening across the District and who is doing what about it.

Zorro wishes God speed to the EDA and its candidates on 7 May. The EDA has captured the mood of the electorate and now is the time to turn that into votes and seats at the local election. A fresh start for East Devon can be achieved and politics in East Devon can stop being the dirty word that the Conservatives have made it.

Voting can change everything.

It’s time for challenge! It’s time for change!

Where does Hugo Swire really live - London, East Devon or Central Devon?

Having forced both East Devon Conservatives and Hugo Swire to update their websites (well just a teenie weenie bit) Zorro’s next task is to try to find out where Hugo Swire really resides.

Aspiring East Devon MP Hugo Swire. Where does he really live in Devon?

On the information set out on the ballot paper it gives him as residing in the Central Devon Constituency. However, if you look at the national Conservative Party online information about candidate Swire
https://www.conservatives.com/OurTeam/Prospective_Parliamentary_Candidates/Swire_Hugo.aspx this gives Hugo as residing in East Devon!

Central Devon Constituency. Does Hugo Swire live here?

East Devon Constituency. Does Hugo Swire live here?

So where does Hugo really live? We know that he also has a place in London, so therefore does he actually have three homes? It is all very confusing. It could also be a bit greedy!

London. Hugo Swire does live here.

But if your family comes in at number 42 in the Sunday Times Rich List with an amassed fortune of £2.4bn (an increase of £250m in the past year alone) I suppose you cannot really have to worry about where you live.

26 April 2015 Sunday Times Rich List. A family called Swire in at number 42 on list.

Zorro tweeted Hugo Swire last night to point out the discrepancy between these two sources of information about where he lives and to ask Hugo to clarify where he actually does live in Devon – in the Central or East of the county. So far no reply has been received. Perhaps he’s too busy commuting via all of these homes. To do so I am sure that he is making good use of the sat nav that he bought out of expenses and at tax payers expense (recent Zorro posting).

Conservative Party. Does it know where in Devon Hugo Swire lives?

Zorro has also again checked the national Conservative online information and its still claims that Hugo lives in East Devon. Do Hugo and the Conservatives really not care about making sure that the East Devon electors know the truth about where he lives? Or are they just incompetent? Either way it doesn’t engender trust and confidence in a Party and a candidate seeking the support from the electors.

It’s time for challenge! It’s time for change!