Westminster: the People’s Republic of South Devon’s influence reaches all the way to Westminster!

We’ve always known the PRSD was able to punch above its weight and get amongst it with the hoi oligo – a truth which is lately being reinforced by some po-faced comments on the site that seem to emanate from the Westminster Village itself!

Kudos to us for rattling some of the cages. And cheers to the commenter who has been taking their time to add their tuppence worth – see if you can spot who it is as you trawl through our comments.

It is all grist to our mill, and adds to the idea that the PRSD gets to places other independent left-leaning not-for-profit current affairs blogs of South Devon can’t.

If you’d like to contribute to the PRSD, take a gander at our guidelines and drop us a line with some biographical details. Or just comment on a story along with the Westminster élite.

(image: Some rights reserved by Seba Sofariu)

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PRSD Merchanise I sold out my principles and all I got was this lousy AV vote

We’ve bowed to pressure and sold out – there’s an event around the start of May which we reckon will be a merchandise bonanza, so we’ve created our first piece of stylised bumf in the PRSD shop to coincide with an ‘istoric event. Yup, the AV vote!

The PRSD design team was been burning the midnight oil to bring you the first of our event specific designs, and have so far added it to a white t-shirt, a badges, stickers, cards and of course, who can resist the cuddly bear (with its arms out stretched, it’s almost pleading ‘why did you betray me’)?

If you’d like our ‘I sold out my principles and all I got with this lousy AV vote’ design on any thing else, an apron, or perhaps pants even, drop us a line and we’ll add it to the store.

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With all this talk of pay walls for national and local press, no one’s quite faced up to how some local paper sites will deal with ‘the news’. The Express and Echo has picked up a story inspired by the PRSD on Tuesday – but even though we broke it on the web, you’ve got to buy the paper to read the story!

On Tuesday, December 15 we carried South West MEP Giles Chichester’s letter about Miss Gibraltar winning Miss World, with the headline: Pretty girls are a relief during climate change – Miss Gibraltar is Miss World!

Graham Watson, another of your South West MEPs, quoted our headline and story in his press release condemning Giles (see below).

Storm in a tea cup, you’d think so. But the Express and Echo thinks its worth pushing people to its printed copy for – and how have they covered it? A short column on page five (three paragraphs more than on the site – two of which are pulled straight from Giles’ letter) and the reprinted letter on page 18.

Now that’s what you call multi-platform coverage!

• The Western Morning News, whose editor hasn’t been keeping his blog up to date, tsk, tsk, has a better story, even getting extra quotes from both sides, with Graham saying ” While Giles is ogling women in his office, I will be in Copenhagen campaigning for a deal that will preserve our planet.”

And Giles saying Graham was a ‘miserable so-and-so’, and “He obviously left his sense of humour behind when he went to save the world, the poor, sad chap.”

Talking about Copenhagen, we carried daily updates from South West MEP Graham Watson while he was in Copenhagen.

South West MEP Graham Watson’s response to Giles Chichester and Miss World Kaiane Aldorino:

Local Tory Ogles Miss World whilst World Confronts Climate Change; and may need help removing foot from mouth

Serial climate change denier and Tory MEP Giles Chichester has attracted heavy criticism after heaping adoration on the newly crowned Miss World at the expense of climate change.

In an article titled “Pretty girls are a relief during climate change” by one internet news site, Chichester said;

“Midst all the messages of doom and gloom about climate change, there was one piece of good news on my desk this morning. Miss Gibraltar had won the Miss World title.

“Judging from her press photographs, the victory of the very beautiful Miss Kaiane Aldorino was well deserved.

“At this time of economic recession, her success is a reason for celebration.”

Lib Dem MEP and climate change activist Graham Watson commented from the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference:

“This is obviously an attempt at light hearted humour, but it is also gives a revealing insight into the Conservative Party.

“David Cameron claims the Tories have changed; that they understand the challenges facing ordinary people and want to take on green issues.

“However, this article shows just how ignorant some Tories are. I congratulate Miss Aldorino on her victory, but it will not put food on the table for struggling families, protect jobs or save the planet.

“Giles needs to get his priorities straight and focus on using his position to find a green route out of this recession.

“Needless to say, whilst Giles is ogling women in his office, I will be in Copenhagen campaigning for a deal that will preserve our planet.”

(image: a snippet of the Express and Echo’s web page with the PRSD-inspired story – below, when the Express and Echo put it online at the end of the day – worth getting the paper for?)

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If you’ve been coughing and spluttering your way around Newton Abbot recently, could be because the town has a a new Air Quality Management Area – a modern way of saying it’s polluted. It’s not like you can escape to Kingsteignton either – there are two Air Quality Management Areas there.

Air Quality Management Areas, or AQMAs as they are quaintly known – as if they were a quiz show with Stephen Fry – have been found in three areas in Teignbridge: Wolborough Street, Newton Abbot; Newton Road, Kingsteignton; and Oakford Cross, Kingsteignton.

That means these areas had higher levels of nitrogen dioxide in the air when they were last tested.

“The good news for areas designated as AQMAs,” says the Teignbridge press release, “is that there will be steps taken to improve air quality as part of an Air Quality Action Plan (required by the Environment Act 1995).” Every cloud of pollutant has a silver lining, donchaknow.

“Teignbridge is currently preparing an Action Plan for all of its AQMAs, and will be consulting on the plan in coming months,” it continues.

“The draft Action Plan has already been approved by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), and has been prepared alongside Devon County Council as the authority responsible for traffic and roads.”

Likely measures to help improve the air could include altering road junctions and looking at whether signal controlled junctions would improve traffic flow and reduce pollution.

The council could also call use planning agreements, known as Section 106 agreements, to secure money from developers for schemes that may have an impact on air quality.  This money could then be used to fund measures to reduce pollution.

Cllr Gordon Hook, Teignbridge Executive Spokesperson for Environmental Services told the PRSD: “We do our utmost to provide a clean environment, and while traffic is a fact of life, we do have a duty to make sure that pollution from exhausts does not have negative effects on residential communities. By identifying AQMAs we can clearly see where air quality is an issue and prepare plans to help make it better.

“I am concerned that the air we breathe can cause people, the very young and the elderly in particular, to suffer ill health. We can all do little things to improve air quality – drive cars less, walk, cycle or use public transport more. The council is very keen to explore with local communities ways of improving the situation and a full consultation exercise will soon follow.

“We all need to work together to drive pollution down, and we’ll be doing our bit to help.”

Hmm, don’t think driving is the answer, Gordon.

• How’s your air quality? If you know, let us know. Comments below, please.

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Some 520 people under 25 years olds, resident in Teignbridge, claimed job seekers allowance in September 2009, more than double the number in the same month last year and almost three times as many as in September 2007.

These figures come from the UK Statistics Authority in response to a parliamentary question put down by Teign Lib Dem MP Richard Younger-Ross and reflect the national trend that shows the rate of unemployment among young people for the three months to September is 18% – the highest since records began in this category in 1992.

Richard told the PRSD: “The impact of unemployment on the young can be dramatic.  I have witnessed the harm inflicted upon young people in the 1980’s by the Thatcher Government refusing to help them.”

“There is a danger that unemployment among the young can lead to a lifetime of unemployment.”

And with the data showing 1,050 young people in the Bay are out of work and receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance – around a third of claimants – Torbay Lib Dem MP Adrian Sanders said the figures released yesterday show ‘it is clear young people are those being hit hardest’.

• What are the prospects out there? Comments below, please.

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Residents in Ivybridge and Lee Mill are invited to attend a special public meeting about Viridor’s plans for an incinerator at New England Quarry at 2pm on Saturday, November 21.

Organized by residents opposed to Viridor’s incinerator, the meeting is taking place in the Community Room at Chapel Place, off Fore Street in Ivybridge.

The panel for the meeting includes Cllr Roger Croad, the Ivybridge councillor leading the search for a location for the new incinerator, Luke Pollard from Ivybridge Labour, who is leading the political campaign against a new incinerator, and Frankie Dolan, an Ivybridge resident who is leading the residents’ campaign against the incinerator.

Viridor have been invited to attend the public meeting.

Luke Pollard, Labour’s Prospective Candidate for South West Devon told the PRSD: “It is immediately apparent when you speak to residents in Ivybridge and Lee Mill that they have some very real concerns and questions that need answering about plans for an incinerator on their doorstep.

“An extra 120 trucks on the A38 every day delivering rubbish to an incinerator that will operate 24 hours a day is an alarming prospect. People need some proper answers to their questions.

“We need a proper public debate about the incinerator. This means more than an exhibition and a few leaflets – it means public meetings and real discussion. That is why we’re holding a public meeting to give local people a chance to have their voices heard.”

Frankie Dolan, an Ivybridge resident who founded the Eco Ivy incinerator awareness website, said: “This meeting could be the last chance that Ivybridge residents have to voice their opinion before Viridor submit their application for planning permission.

“Please don’t think that someone will speak on your behalf, you need to come to the meeting and make sure any of your concerns are heard. What is ultimately decided could shape our community for years to come and I fear that if the public don’t participate in the discussion then planning decisions may be taken that are not in the best interests of the local people.”

Luke added: “We have invited Viridor to attend the meeting and listen to people’s concerns. They know this meeting is taking place. The company is happy holding the occasional exhibition about their plans but the true test for them will be whether they will turn up and listen to local people. If they don’t turn up there will be an empty chair on the panel. That will speak volumes for how the company regards the opinions of people in Lee Mill and Ivybridge. I hope Viridor accept our invitation to attend.”

(image: Chapel Place, by Jeff Collins used under Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0)

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Do Fat Cats like water? Apparently so, if they are anything to do with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). According to Torbay Lib Dem Adrian Saunders ‘senior management and board members received on average a 15 per cent increase on top of a six figure salary’, while ‘frontline staff received a shocking average pay increase of just one percent’.

This week Adrian signed a Parliamentary petition that highlighted the unequal award of pay increases for Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) staff.

The top brass pay rises comes on the back of a long-running industrial dispute within the MCA. After the mass one-day strike in 2008, unionised MCA staff have recently voted in favour of a possible future strike.

Adrian told the PRSD: “During these difficult financial times, it is unacceptable that senior staff should enrich themselves while at the same time denying their staff the same salary awards.

“Frontline MCA staff already suffer a significant pay disparity when compared to those doing comparable jobs elsewhere in the emergency services sector.

“The MCA performs offers a vital service in protecting the UK’s shoreline and those who operate around it. The Government must learn the lessons from the Royal Mail strikes and  step in to settle this pay dispute fairly before the MCA’s vital service is adversely affected by industrial action.”

• Fair pay for all? Why should management get a larger slice of their already bigger cake? Comments below, please.

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Exeter’s Sound of the Sirens moved up one place this month to take the top spot in the Radio Free South West listeners’ chart with their track Shoelaces.

This month they have performed sessions on Exeter FM and BBC Radio Devon – you can hear tracks from their Exeter FM session on their MySpace page. Unsurprisingly the Sirens have already got gigs booked between now and December 2010! You can next catch them live at 11a Church Street, Exmouth at 8pm on Friday, November 13. And read their Q&A with the PRSD!

Cole Stracey takes the number two spot with his track I Met A Stranger. He is influenced by artists such as Paul Simon, Crosby Stills and Nash, and James Taylor. Cole will be headlining the Live & Acoustic charity event at the Ockment Centre, Okehampton on Friday, November 13. Other artists playing at this event include Dartmoor Singer-Songwriter Josie Lloyd, Offshore Drift from Tavistock, and The Sidewalk Anthem, an acoustic duo from Exeter.

Leo Morshead takes the number three spot with his track No More The Rolling Stone. Leo is influenced by artists such as John Martyn, Nick Drake and Bert Jansch. Leo is currently on vocal, guitar and dobro duties for Cedar Rose, a six-piece Bristol based country-folk band.

Radio Free South West TOP 10 SONGS for OCTOBER
Artist ~ Song ~ Album
1.    Sound Of The Sirens – Shoelaces – Sound Of The Sirens
2.    Cole Stacey – I Met A Stranger – An EP
3.    Leo Morshead – No More the Rolling Stone – Songs of Solace
4.    Lizzie Kirwan – Love Like In The Movies – Demos
5.    Slovakia – Octagon – Slovakia
6.    Rosie Eade – Set Me Free (To Laugh) – So Another Castle Falls…..
7.    Roscoe – Silver River – Silver River
8.    Pyrates! – High Barbary – Demo Sampler
9.    Matt Falk – VW Campervan – Demo
10.   Reset Yesterday – The Gathering – Reset Yesterday

Listen to Radio Free South West

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We’ve been musing on the Emma Thompson / Exeter University ‘racism’ story this afternoon – hence the headline above. Would you like to read some of our thoughts? Of course you would.

First up, Thompson was at an event she organised to discuss racism. Of course she was going to comment on Exeter University and the city itself. That was kind of the point.

Tindy apparently described two incidents when he was the victim of racist abuse – the first by a bunch of ‘nerds’ with nothing else to do and the second by ‘three or four tattooed and macho-looking bouncers at a club’.

Is Ben Bradshaw disputing these events when he says Thompson’s ‘comments about Exeter, racism and the BNP’ are ‘untrue’?

If you go back to the original Daily Mail ‘story’, it admits:

‘The university was at pains to point out that Miss Thompson wasn’t saying Nick Griffin would be happy at Exeter University.

‘A spokesman said: “She did say he might feel more comfortable in the South West of England because it is not as ethnically diverse as London.

‘Thompson spoke in very positive terms about the university’s efforts to encourage equality and diversity”.’

But now, apparently, Jonnie Beddall, president of the University of Exeter Politics Society, has launched a campaign to make Thompson apologise. So which is it?

None of this sounds particularly scandalous to us, but The Mail also managed to dig up a couple of aghast ‘Exeter residents’, who presumably weren’t even at the event.

Stephanie Johns is quoted as saying: ‘This is a classic case of reverse prejudice.’ (Ah, another one of those ‘classic cases of reverse prejudice’.)

John Miles (was ‘John’ the only name the Mail could think of?) said: ‘It’s very noble of her to adopt an African child but that doesn’t give her the right to tar us with the Nick Griffin brush.’ How magnanimous of him.

Perhaps Johns and John might like to get in contact with the PRSD and elaborate on their comments?

The WMN picked up the story and skewed things even further. Their article said:

‘Ms Thompson, 50, said the BNP leader would “love” Exeter University because there was so much “depressing” racism there’.

The actual Thompson quote was: “This is how we’re doing it [by talking about it]. It’s depressing when people think nothing is being done about it [racism]. Tindy had his experience and now we’re having a big week of educational events to try and help it.”

Thompson may not be eloquent but she certainly does not say ‘there’s too much depressing racism’ at Exeter Uni.

And talking of the WMN, do we really want to be taking racism advice from a paper which boasts annual coverage of Padstow’s Darkie Day? The answer is, of course, no. We don’t.

But wait, perhaps we’re jumping the gun and making unfair assumptions about the WMN. Maybe their famously dilligent readers picked up on the inconsistencies. What kind of comments did the story attract on their website?

‘Who gave anyone the right to change the makeup of my country? I was never asked about it. I do not apologise for slavery or forgive the treason that makes our land a mongrelised hell hole.’

‘Leon Trotsky coined the term “RACIST”. An insult to close down any debate. His disciples still use the same way.’

‘My comment about a beggar with a sign “Please help me. I am blind and I may be black” was deleted.’

‘I should like to send an invitation to Mr Griffin to come & enjoy the County Town of Devon – any damn time he pleases!’

Oh.

Youse lot will probably want to have a dig around and come up with some inconsistencies of your own… Comments below, please!

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Your South West European Parliamentary constituency includes Gibraltar, which is why this story of Gibraltar’s territorial waters being registered as a Spanish Site of Community Importance under EU environmental legislation popped up on the radar. It’s enough to shivver Sir Francis Drake’s timbers!

It turns out that the Spanish application for the water to be registered to them had been approved because the UK had not objected to it. But why not, surely they’d staked their title to the waters previously?

Over now to South West Lib Dem MEP Graham Watson (whose dad was in the navy in Gibraltar).

“I assumed this was an oversight on our government’s part, inexcusable but not unheard of,” he told the PRSD.

“On further study I have discovered that in the UK’s application for an SCI [Site of Community Importance], Gibraltar was positioned at longitude 5 degrees 22 minutes East of Greenwich. Yet Gibraltar is situated at 5 degrees 22 minutes West of the prime meridian.

“In other words the UK’s submission placed it in waters north of Algiers, which means that the Spanish application did not overlap with our SCI.”

Now Graham starts getting mad.

“The litany of UK bungling over matters regarding the Rock gets longer and longer. Which bureaucrat in the cuckoo’s nest of government policy-making is responsible?

“If the Spanish Armada had made such a basic error, they’d have foundered before Drake even had the opportunity to sink them.

“Were it not for the EU’s having abolished the death penalty, this government official might be hung, drawn and quartered for such a crass mistake!”

It’s all just another step towards Spain claiming the Rock for itself (whereas we all know it’s in the South West!)

“We should never have agreed to Spain joining the EU until they renounced their claim,” said Graham.

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In Devon, there are more than 40 climate action groups, and a delegation from Bovey Climate Action together with Moretonhampstead, Dunsford and Greener Teign will meet Teignbridge MP Richard Younger-Ross on Friday, November 13.

They will be handing over  photos of the events in Devon held on an International Day of Action, which took place on Friday, October 24, in the run up to the climate change conference in Copenhagen, and discussing the best way of increasing public awareness.

Also going along are children from Doddiscombsleigh School, who participated with great enthusiasm and creativity.

Richard told the PRSD: “Some great events took place on October 24th and many local people pledged their support to reducing carbon emissions.

“The Lib Dems are pushing the Government to show more leadership and commitment and I have personally committed to the10:10 campaign to cut my carbon emission by 10 per cent by the end of next year.”

He is also backing the We Support Solar campaign, and has signed an early day motion urging the Government to ensure that the potential of the technology to deliver significant carbon dioxide reduction in the built environment is supported in the final renewable energy document.

(image: Teignbridge MP Richard Younger-Ross)

• Got environmental actions going on? Get in touch! Comments below, please.

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A South Devon blog is questioning the veracity of a Herald Express front-page story about cleaning up sick on a bus.

On Tuesday, the Herald Express ran a front-page story claiming a young pregnant woman was charged £5 when she suffered morning sickness on the bus.

The busdriving blog, by David Banks was quickly on the the case.

On the day of the front page story, he wrote: “Stagecoach have no policy of charging anyone for being sick on their buses and a driver is most unlikely to try and implement such a policy on his own. If he did I expect he would be joining the growing crowd round the door to the Jobseekers office. For a fiver? I doubt that.”

He followed that up with: “CCTV cameras spotted her actually getting of the bus in Paignton Bus Station, two stops after the alleged incident. She was seen laughing and talking to other people, hardly the action of someone who had just been through the immensely disturbing ordeal she had described on the front page of the local paper.”

The Herald Express is part of the Daily Mail-owned newspapers in Devon, including the Western Morning News, the editor of which, Alan Qualtrough has come in for criticism from the PRSD.

• Is this an example of citizen reporting in action? Comments below, please.

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