In recent times the sad and unedifying events surrounding #knowlegate
have turned East Devon politics into something that is more reminiscent of
Stalin’s Soviet Union, isolationist North Korea under the Kim dynasty, or an
English rotten borough. You can choose which best applies. To me they all seem
appropriate.
Many local people have become more and more horrified at the high
handed attitude and approach to key local issues and the associated politics
demonstrated by the local Conservative EDDC Councillors. Much has been written about
all of this in the local press, and many local commentators have critiqued all
of this as things have unfolded over recent years.
In the entire maelstrom of political shenanigans that have seemingly become
the norm in how EDDC business is conducted by local Conservative politicians,
there are those honourable local elected politicians who have tried to act as
the voices of, and in the interests of, the local electorate. Because of the
large inbuilt Conservative majority on EDDC it would appear that many amongst
their number believe it is their inalienable right to do whatever they want to.
And as time has gone on they have shown more and more, like Stalin or a North
Korean Kim, that they will take any step necessary to stop other elected
representatives, or the electorate, from either scrutinising their actions or
commenting upon them.
One the very significant and controversial local political issues of
recent times is the plan to relocate EDDC’s headquarters. Skypark was bizarrely
chosen as the intended site for the headquarters to relocate to from the Knowle
in Sidmouth. Hence #knowlegate. This decision did not carry local support and
was greeted with absolute incredulity by the public. But, that didn’t stop the
local Conservative grandees in pushing on with their ridiculous plans to
relocate to Skypark.
Then suddenly out of the blue last week came the news that the relocation
to Skypark was off. So, one of EDDC’s independently minded Councillors, Claire
Wright, chose to report this on her blog http://www.claire-wright.org/. For
anyone who really has not been paying attention to East Devon matters for
several years you need to know that Claire was elected in the last EDDC elections
with the highest popular vote of any Councillor of any party, and she is an
Independent. So, all in all she is a danger to EDDC Conservatives.
Over her period of office Claire Wright, along with many others, has been
challenging the EDDC Conservative group on matters that she and many of the
electorate believe need to be challenged. This has made Claire Wright the local Conservative’s
number one hate figure, and in many ways they have made her political life
incredibly difficult. One has to muse as to whether if Claire Wright was a man they would
have acted the way they have. I don’t suppose misogyny comes into it, does it?
I’m sure that breaching the Equality Act on the grounds of sex discrimination
wouldn’t apply either!
To add insult to Conservative injury, Claire Wright decided earlier this year
to announce that she intended to challenge the incumbent local Conservative MP
for East Devon, Hugo Swire, at next year’s general election. This has obviously angered
local Conservatives who clearly are out now to try in every way to try to
damage Claire Wright’s chances at the general election.
A tip for anyone who likes the
occasional flutter at the bookies – Claire Wright is now 16/1 to win the East Devon
seat! The odds keep shortening so place your bet as soon as you can.
Back to #knowlegate. On 25 November Claire Wright blogged on the decision not
to relocate to Skypark under the heading “EDDC
drops HQ move to Skypark. We’re going back to Honiton now, says it all”. Claire
then set out clearly why she believed the whole #knowlegate saga had been a travesty.
In her piece Claire also said “The
conservative leadership (on EDDC) should
pay a very high price for this – preferably with their seats at the next
election”. This is a pure unashamed acceptable political knockabout
comment. And why not!
Someone then posted an unsolicited comment on Claire Wright’s blog story “Cull all Tory Councillors”. This was probably
a sentiment from that person’s heart and a comment that many in East Devon
would concur with. Again, this is an accepted political knockabout comment that
is widely used in political and media commentaries across the UK. So how do I know that this comment was made?
One Councillor Phil Twiss, who coincidentally is the EDDC Conservative Group’s
Whip, said so in an email at 8.51am on 27 November.
Also in Councillor Twiss’ email he demanded that Claire Wright “remove the threatening comment immediately
from your blog or I will place the matter in the hands of Devon and Cornwall
police today”. The threatening comment was the one made by someone other
than Claire which, again according to Councillor Twiss, said “Cull all Tory Councillors”. I have to
rely upon Councillor Twiss’ email to know of this comment, which obviously
Claire Wright must have removed, as it isn’t there anymore. Personally, if I was
Claire I would have left the comment on the blog as it is nothing more than a
third parties' strong, but politically acceptable, view.
Blow me, if only 11 minutes after he emailed Claire Wright, Councillor
Twiss emailed all EDDC Councillors at 9.02am on this matter. In this he really
went over the top in his verbiage. It is worth setting his email out in full –
“Please see
below where Cllr Claire Wright has seen fit to publish a threatening and highly
offensive comment against Conservative Party Councillors (sic) which
I am sure you find as appalling and distasteful as me.
No matter
how much we disagree on various issues to knowingly publish a comment in likely
breach of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 such as this is below contempt
and I trust you will join me in condemning this action”.
So yet again, Councillor Twiss shares with others this “threatening and highly offensive comment”. A
comment that he believes is a “likely breach of the Malicious Communications
Act 1988”. Err... surely sharing this “threatening and highly offensive comment” with around 60 other people, as he
did, and doing so by providing them all with the direct link to the “threatening and highly offensive comment”, Councillor
Twiss himself at that point had committed a
“likely breach of the Malicious
Communications Act 1988” which he
argued Claire Wright had! Not a bright lad clearly!
A further 4 hours and 51 minutes later dear old Councillor Twiss is
back emailing all EDDC Councillors again about this matter. This time he
confirms that Claire Wright had removed the “threatening
and highly offensive comment” from her blog site. Congratulations
Councillor Twiss on your vigilance, and managing to get her to see the error of
her ways! Other Conservative Councillors on EDDC could now surely sleep soundly
in their beds.
Ah, but Councillor Twiss wasn’t finished yet with that mischievous Claire
Wright. His email informed all the other EDDC Councillors that he had now passed
“the details of the blog together with
those of a resident of Feniton to the Devon and Cornwall Police Cyber unit for
comment”. I bet that the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary were glad of this
important piece of policing that Councillor Twiss handed to them.
But why did Councillor Twiss at this point decide to report Claire Wright
to the police? Hadn't she had acceded to his request to remove the “threatening and highly offensive comment”? If
you recall 5 hours and 2 minutes earlier in his first email of the day on this
matter he had said to Claire Wright that if she didn’t “remove the threatening comment immediately from your blog or I will
place the matter in the hands of Devon and Cornwall police today”. By this
time she had done as he had asked, but still he reported her to the police. Why?
Surely, by this point he hadn’t decided that he might try and inflict political
damage on Claire Wright? As the manipulative (Tory) politician in the political drama
House of Cards used to say “you might
possibly say that, but I couldn’t possibly comment”.
In case you can’t believe that a political representative, such as
Councillor Twiss, would do all of this, have a look at the emails that he sent
on this matter -
http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/eddc_tory_whip_reports_me_to_the_police_for_a_comment_on_this_blog
So, has Councillor Twiss just over reacted?
Has Councillor Twiss decided to try to damage Claire Wright by linking
her to the “threatening and highly
offensive comment” posted by someone else?
Is this part of an ongoing campaign by EDDC Conservatives to try to
derail Clair Wright’s popular general election campaign?
Has Councillor Twiss applied double standards to this matter by
publicly repeating the “threatening and
highly offensive comment” and providing others with the link to the
“threatening and highly offensive
comment”?
Has Councillor Twiss breached the same Malicious Communications Act
that he claimed Claire Wright had done?
You can make up your own minds on all of this I’m sure.
