PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATES IN CORNWALL

Here’s a list of prospective parliamentary candidates I am aware of so far for the six new Cornwall seats.

CAMBORNE AND REDRUTH
Conservative George Eustice, Labour Jude Robinson, Liberal Democrat Julia Goldsworthy MP, Mebyon Kernow Loveday Jenkin, UKIP Derek Elliot

The previous Conservative candidate for Camborne and Redruth, John Woodward, resigned 15 October 2008. Read about it here .

The Times of 25 September 2009 has an article, PR consultants who are working to become your Tory MP, which includes a reference to George Eustice.

NORTH CORNWALL
Conservative Sian Flynn, Liberal Democrat Dan Rogerson MP, Mebyon Kernow Joanie Willett, UKIP Ivor Masters

ST AUSTELL AND NEWQUAY
Conservative Caroline Righton, Labour Lee Jameson, Liberal Democrat Stephen Gilbert, Mebyon Kernow Dick Cole, UKIP Clive Medway

ST IVES AND ISLES OF SCILLY
Conservative Derek Thomas, Labour Philippa Latimer, Liberal Democrat Andrew George MP, Mebyon Kernow Simon Reed, UKIP Mick Faulkner

The MK candidate was Richard Clark but he had to leave the area for work reasons. The Green candidate was Tracy Stanton but she stepped down in November 2009 because of a change in personal circumstances.

SOUTHEAST CORNWALL
Conservative Sheryll Murray, Labour Bill Stevens, Liberal Democrat Karen Gillard, Mebyon Kernow Glenn Renshaw, UKIP Stephanie McWilliam

TRURO AND FALMOUTH
Conservative Sarah Newton, Green Lindsay Southcombe, Labour Charlotte Mackenzie, Liberal Chris Tankard, Liberal Democrat Terrye Teverson, Mebyon Kernow Loic Rich, UKIP Glen Corcoran

The previous MK candidate, Conan Jenkin, resigned because of increasing work and family commitments. Read the MK announcement here. The web has several writings by Loic Rich, just google his name.

Two current Liberal Democrat MPs, Colin Breed for South East Cornwall and Matthew Taylor for Truro and St Austell, are not standing again. The five Cornwall seats have been rejigged into six. There are three newly created seats: St Austell and Newquay; Truro and Falmouth; and Camborne, Redruth, and Hayle.

The parties have websites and details of the candidates are largely available. For example, see here for Derek Thomas and here for Philippa Latimer.

__________________________________________________

Original post 11 May 2008.

Related post

Unitary and EU elections in Cornwall

_________________________________________________

YEAH, RIGHT

Update 17 November 2009

Cornwall council has put out a media statement about waste disposal in Cornwall, Integrated waste management contract statement. It sets out the current position and does not mention EU taxes. A public inquiry looms about the St Dennis proposals and the future is very unclear and looks to be costly whatever happens.

Original post 30 March 2009

The argument about whether to build an incinerator in Cornwall for our rubbish has been settled, at least temporarily: the county council planning committee voted against on 26 March. What happens now is much more problematical as EU landfill taxes loom and there appears to be no ready-to-go alternative to an incinerator or landfill and the company may appeal against the decision to reject the incinerator.

Amid the celebrations and gloom of the decision Matthew Taylor, Libdem MP for Truro and St Austell, which includes the area earmarked for the incinerator, said the decision to reject the incinerator proposal showed that “Liberal Democrats are all about listening and democracy…”

What!

“All about listening and democracy” is a leaping generalisation too far: mia gar chelidon ear ou poiei.

As I argued in several posts here in 2007 and 2008 the Libdem-controlled Cornwall county council foisted the unitary council on us without engaging the people of Cornwall in full and open debate; refused to poll the voters of the whole county about it; was casually dismissive of the district polls that showed people didn’t want the particular unitary scheme; and obviously believed people in Cornwall shouldn’t be allowed to decide about their own local government. In short, in my view, about the unitary proposals over several months it was neither listening nor liberal nor democratic.

And now, we are assured, Libdems here are the party that listens and chooses the democratic approach.

Yeah, right.

(And let me degeneralise and say that some Libdems in Cornwall did oppose the unitary and bulldozer approach to local government change.)

__________________________________________________________

mia gar chelidon ear ou poiei (one swallow does not make a spring): Aristotle Nichomachean ethics
I cannot write Greek characters in the blog.

ELECTION SNIPPETS

Original post 31 May 2009
Some candidates have been accidentally missed off the 4 June ballots sent out to postal voters for the unitary council. A handful of candidates missed off apparently — the exact number seems unclear but is probably in single figures — and it is those with names that put them at the bottom alphabetically that have been lost. No one seems to know for sure how many postal ballot papers are affected though it looks like only a few and it isn’t every postal ballot paper in the affected wards. New ballot papers have been sent out to those known to be affected but I don’t know what happens if some people have already used the defective ones. In future every candidate should change his name to Aaron Aardvark.

A more positive story is that the West Briton and the Cornishman, weekly papers for central and west Cornwall, have published summaries of the manifestos from the main parties for the unitary council election; and I expect their sister paper in east Cornwall has too. Yes, Mebyon Kernow’s there and has rightly been on local radio and television so no more whingeing about lack of media publicity.

First addition
What will be another memorable incident of the elections is a leaflet which describes a candidate offensively as a “greasy haired twat.” The leaflet apparently came from the Liberal Democrats whose candidate says she never saw or approved it and whose agent has said the leaflet was not authorised by him and has apologised to the other candidate and the recipient voters and is investigating the circumstances of the leaflet’s birth. We shall perhaps know eventually exactly who wrote it and printed it and the attendant circumstances. The BBC has the story here. It will be interesting to see if there is any discernible effect upon the votes of the two candidates.

So will these be the lost candidates election or the swearing election?

Second addition
Oh dear, more chaos, hiccups, cock-ups. Since I began this post a few days ago electoral life here has worsened. The BBC reports that some voters in Cornwall haven’t yet received their postal ballots — it’s now Tuesday 2 June and the election is on the 4th. Apparently the council will send ballot papers to people by courier if necessary. A couple holidaying in Norfolk will get theirs by courier because they didn’t receive them in Cornwall time.

So now it’s the lost candidates or swearing or lost ballot papers election.

LIBDEMS FAIL CORNWALL

The new chief executive of Cornwall county and unitary councils, Kevin Lavery, has given a bleak assessment of the council’s record, referring to several official judgements on the council’s work, though he was upbeat about eventual success. From swamp to sunlit uplands, I suppose. You can read some of the outside judgements in the blog posts I have put at the end of this one. The parrot is now very pale indeed.

Note that the dismal judgements are, as I have explained in those earlier blog posts, not about Cornwall suffering from external and distant agency but about assessments of internal works.

Thus, there’s nothing surprising in Lavery’s assessment.

What is disturbing about this story is the response of David Whalley, the Liberal Democrat leader of the council. Whalley says that Lavery has highlighted what “we have known for a long time.” He went on to say that Cornwall county council “is a traditional council…resistant to change.”

He presumably means that though he and the Libdems saw the need for reform and sought it, some councillors and council workers resisted changes. Of course they did; every organisation and political party has, and needs, conservatives and reformers. It was Whalley’s job as leader to win over the traditionalists or disable their resistance and to rally the people of Cornwall to the cause of change.

The Libdem record in running the county council is at best like the curate’s egg and we now know, don’t we, that, despite some good work, they cannot deliver a twenty-first-century council and county.

The Liberal Democrat project has been weighed and found wanting. They have failed Cornwall.

___________________________________________________________

Earlier posts

One star Cornwall

Cornwall county council: the parrot is pale

Assessing Cornwall

Kevin Lavery’s speech is reported in ‘Cornwall’s troubles laid bare’ in the Western Morning News 28 January 2009

CORNWALL FIRE SERVICE TOP-OF-THE-LADDER NUMBERS

There has been a running debate – actually, a row – about the fire service in Cornwall. The county council Liberal Democrats have been accused of starving the service. I am looking in this post at two verdicts on the service.

First, Hansard 26 January 2009 column 110W gives some interesting data.

In 1997-98 there were 122 firefighters per 100 000 people in Cornwall. In 2007-08 that had declined to 115. However, those are way above the averages for England (92 and 88 for those years) and for 2007-08 Cornwall has the seventh best ratio of the forty six fire authorities in England, excluding the Scillies which are not strictly comparable with the others. In 1997-98 it was fifth.

There are other factors to be considered in judging the health of the service under the Liberal Democrats, including the overall budget, the proportion of fulltime and retained firefighters, and the number and location and hours of fire stations.

Second, there has just been a very critical report by the Audit Commission which cries out for improving action. But, while acknowledging other things, in the number of firefighters for its population Cornwall is doing very well compared to most of the England fire services. We should celebrate this.

A report by the BBC on the Audit Commission report is here.

WHO GROUNDED CORNWALL?

The RAF has run a military airport at St Mawgan, near Newquay; and for a while now Cornwall county council has at the same place run a commercial, civilian airport, called Newquay, Cornwall airport. The RAF provided the air traffic control. The county council was right to step in a few years back and take over the commercial part of the airport; it was costly to do this but right to ensure that in the twenty-first century Cornwall had an airport to help its economy and people. For this and for the continual development of the airport the county council deserve much credit.

In 2006 the RAF announced its decision to close down the military side in 2008; this was two years advance notice for the county council who was to take over the air traffic control and fire services there and obtain a CAA licence. In March this year the RAF delayed their withdrawal from 1 August 2008 until 1 December to help the county council. In a media statement the council said the delay would ensure a “seamless overnight handover” and a “seamless transition.”

However, two years later, December, and the council isn’t ready and the RAF has said its people are committed to other work elsewhere and their deadline cannot be altered again. The upshot is that at the last minute the airport has closed to passengers for about three weeks while the county council gets up to speed. The date of reopening is only a hope at present and not guaranteed.

Let’s get this clear. The county council is run by the Liberal Democrats who hold all the portfolio (executive or cabinet) posts; county council officers work under Liberal Democrat direction and supervision. At bottom, no matter what the part of others might turn out to be, this airport foul up is down to the Liberal Democrat administration at the county council which appears to have been surprised by the lack of readiness. Ironically the council’s newspaper for this month has a two-page spread on the council’s “masterplan” for the airport. The Libdem administration should accept responsibility for the foul up because it is responsible for it.

It isn’t just the airport, is it? This is the Libdem council that fouled up about the county’s fire service . This is the Libdem council that foisted the unitary council on to an unconvinced electorate, albeit with the active support of the Labour government. This is the Libdem council that took so long to agree on unitary councillor numbers that unitary elections have been postponed until, well, no one knows but perhaps June but probably autumn next year. This is the Libdem council that will probably not have all the unitary elements in place until even later than that. This is the Libdem council of whom assessment reports do not glow. Did I mention their council newspaper, Your Cornwall, delivered free to all households in Cornwall and which this month had only five job advertisements, though such advertisements were to help to pay for it?

Three months ago I put up a quiz about the Liberal Democrats in Cornwall after the unitary seats nonsense: was their county administration a pantomime, or a farce, a circus, an opera buffa, a burlesque, or a cabaret? That was before the shambles of the airport. Eventually, at some ever-receding date we shall get the chance to vote on this Liberal Democrat record.

Additamentum 18 December 2008
The Civil Aviation Authority has now granted Newquay Cornwall airport an operating licence and the airport will reopen on 20 December 2008.

CORNWALL DOES WELL BUT LIBDEMS DO ANNUAL WHINGE

In the local government finance settlement Cornwall council has got a rise of 4.82 percent in its formula grant over last year’s grant: the 2008/09 grant figure has been adjusted to enable like-to-like comparison with next year’s. See here for an explanation of the grant and here for the 2009/10 figures.

This increase was expected as the Labour government introduced a three-year settlement last year to give councils more financial stability and to facilitate sensible planning in advance.

Cornwall’s rise is the sixth largest in percentage terms of the fifty six all-purpose authorities. It is one-and-a-half times that of the average rise for councils in England and larger than the average rise for unitary councils (with fire services). By any measure Cornwall council has done well compared to other councils. And not this year only: the council’s own 2007/08 budget book said that last year’s grant was “above the English average” (page 16).

The response of the Liberal Democrat leader of the council is an unconvincing, routine, annual complaint that the council has not received enough money. I suppose casual observers might wander off from that into the victim agenda: Cornwall short-changed, Cornwall ill-treated while the rest of England drowns in hoards of central government gold, Cornwall done down financially by London again and our services starved while others wallow in plenty.

I repeat, the reality is that Cornwall has done well compared to other councils. Just look at those figures. We should be pleased we have done so well in nationally difficult times.

LIB PIG DEM POKE

The Liberal Democrat national conference has agreed to cut public spending and taxes. By how much? There are no figures in the relevant document they approved, Make it happen, which offers data-free vision and values, but by hint and clue and proclamation £20 billion off public spending and, added to a previously announced reduction, 6p off tax. Maybe. Is it sensible to announce a target and then say the details of what it means to whom will be announced much nearer the general election and when you are still identifying the spending cuts? Won’t people wonder where you get the target figure itself from? Is it wise to cut public spending in principle when by west European comparisons our NHS spending is far from extravagant and our average primary class size is among the largest?

Of course, this is theoretical in any case as they aren’t going to form a government and deteriorating government finances in the present crisis may make the Libdem cuts irrelevant. However, as they are currently the leading party in Cornwall, I am going to give a little time to this opportunistic, Tory-chasing nonsense.

The new policy is general and vague. No get-your-teeth-into details, just uncashable promises. Consider:

1 What public spending and investment will be cut? The Libdems have not produced a definitive list but hint that it will be bureaucracy and unloved Labour policies and “waste,” the last formula being standard in these circumstances. As is also standard in these circumstances, there is an assurance that frontline services will not be cut.

2 How much of this public spending cut will go to fund tax cuts? They do not firmly say. Do they know? I believe that no, they don’t.

3 How much of the cut in public spending will the low-paid get by way of tax cuts? They do not firmly say and I believe they do not know.

4 How will tax cuts help those too poor to pay tax? They won’t.

5 Who do the Libdems mean when they say the tax cuts will also be for people on middle incomes? What counts as a “middle” income for them? They do not say but their leader, Nick Clegg, says the rich will pay more and “nine out of ten taxpayers” will pay less so it must be up to something like £40 000 a year. In Make it happen they talk of tax cuts for “ordinary families,” a phrase which means whatever you wish it to. Libdems are tending to emphasise the tax cuts in terms of the low paid and the pensioners though I have no doubt that in the Tory south of England their emphasis will be on middle incomes.

Now for Cornwall. The median average fulltime pay in west Cornwall is about
£18 000 a year. That means half the workers get less than that, half more. How much would a Libdem tax cut be worth to someone on £18 000 a year? They do not say but I calculate that a 1p tax cut, which would cost about £2-3 billion, would give the average west Cornwall worker about £2.30p a week extra. When the Libdems give us more details we can work out the gain.

I think we are expected to forego detail. What they wish the voters to take in from all this is that the Libdems will cut income tax, the only party currently making that promise.

Forget the cloudy figures. Forget Nick Clegg, leader of the party that claims to be in touch with real people, saying on Tuesday that the pension for an individual was £30 a week (it’s £90, and £124 with the Labour add-on pension credit). The Liberal Democrats are selling their proposals, if warm vacuity can be called proposals, as a redistribution of spending and tax from the rich to the poor and middling, a rejigging in favour of equality and of wiser public expenditure and fairer taxes. Hmm, a lot of glittering generalities there.

Without the details, however, we cannot judge whether that is what the Libdem proposals amount to.

In short, the Libdems have bought a slash-and-cut policy that is a pig in a poke and want us to buy it too.

The Liberal Democrat party thinks the blowing wind is Tory and they are happy to jettison their social democrat principles in the hope of catching it. Remember Groucho: These are my principles; if you don’t like them, I have others.

____________________________________________________
Additamentum 18 September 2008:

You might to read Steve Richards in the Independent 18 September and
Peter Riddell in the Times 18 September on the Libdem new taxation and public spending policies.

Additamentum 21 September 2008:

See the Sunday Times and the Sunday Telegraph or today where there is a forecast of tax rises because of the financial crisis.

IS IT A PANTOMIME? IS IT A FARCE? NO, IT’S A LIBDEM CABARET.

Apparently the new unitary council for Cornwall, which comes into force next April, should have around 123 councillors. However, the unitary mahoffs in Cornwall have not got the necessary information to the boundary and electoral authorities for new wards to be made in time for the elections next spring, though the boundary authorities should be more energetic in their approach – their 123-seat consultation does not start until November. The first elections to the unitary council will therefore have to be for eighty two councillors based on the present county council seats. It isn’t clear whether the first council will run for a full term, 2009-2013, or will be cut short for replacement by a 123-seat council.

Is anyone surprised that Cornwall unitary council conceived in the irony of Libdem democracy should be born in chaos?

Another prizeless quiz. Tick one. This situation is a:
Pantomime
Farce
Circus
Opera buffa
Burlesque
Cabaret.

Let us be of good cheer. The Cornwall Libdems have promised their unitary council will save us £millions. What are you going to do with your share?

BEWILDERED IN THE MAZE OF SCHOOLS

As we glide effortlessly into the unitary set up, let me recall the present political disposition of Cornwall.

In 2005 there were elections for the eighty two county council seats and a general election for the five seats; in 2007 there were elections for the six district councils, elections for the whole council in five of the districts and for a third in Penwith. The results of these give us the present party make-up of Cornwall.

Overall nearly 800 000 votes were cast in the three sets of elections. Here they are in percentages:

General election 2005
Liberal Democrats 44.4, Conservatives 31.8, Labour 15.9, UKIP 5, MK 1.4, Greens 0.7, all others 0.9

County council elections 2005
Liberal Democrats 39.2, Conservatives 24.1, Independents 19.5, Labour 10.5, MK 3.2, Greens 1.3, UKIP 1.1, all others 1.1

District elections 2007
Liberal Democrats 36.1, Conservatives 30.7, Independents 20.0, MK 3.9, Labour 3.5, UKIP 2.5, Greens 0.7, all others 2.6.

There are caveats.

These figures do not compare the same seats over time but different seats. The aim is to give a general county snapshot using the latest figures available in the three sets.

In the county and district elections some seats had more than one councillor elected and so people had more than one vote. The percentages are based on totals of votes not ballot papers. The “others” include unlabelled candidates, Liberals (a separate party from Liberal Democrats), two BNP candidates, and Veritas. Uncontested seats are excluded.

The votes cast for a party depend in part on how many candidates stand for that party though how many candidates a party puts up reflects its organisational and membership health and its estimate of its chances.

The parties perform differently in the seats and these overall figures, which represent general averages of real votes, do not reveal those differences. A couple of very popular candidates do wonders for a small party’s total vote and percentage and make it difficult to assess that party’s general standing with the electorate. These considerations suggest that in local elections at any rate some people do not vote only for a party.

The general election throws up very different results so here are the two local government sets in percentages of votes cast, county 2005 and districts 2007, more than half a million votes:

Liberal Democrats 37.9, Conservatives 26.9, Independents 19.7, Labour 7.5, MK 3.5, UKIP 1.7, Greens 1.1, Others 1.7.

Finally, these figures are about people’s choices. Seats won are a different matter, about power.

The next elections are in spring 2009 for the unitary council.

_________________________________________________

Bewildered in the maze of schools: Alexander Pope (1688-1744) An essay on criticism