With the writ for the Henley Parliamentary by-election widely expected to be moved this week, Sunday’s BBC1 Politics Show broadcast another report on the state of the campaign so far.
Their previous report highlighted the splits in the Henley Conservative Party over the selection of their candidate (now John Howell), whilst yesterday’s featured the strong start to Stephen Kearney’s campaign, the slow start to the Conservative campaign and how Labour “haven’t get a chance in hell” (Cllr Terry Buckett, Henley Residents Group).
You can watch the full piece here, though one story that broke too late for the piece is that of senior Conservative MP Alan Duncan contradicting one of the key local Henley Conservative campaign promises.
UPDATE: John Howell has now come under scrutiny for his links to property developers.
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15 Comments
How relevant are planning issues in Henley? Are there proposals by house builders to alter the character of local areas with big developments? I ask this only because one bit of his CV that John Howell seems to be very sotto voce about is his work as “a consultant to the management team of Dialogue, a leading communications firm in the planning sector, and to Savills Hepher Dixon where he also provides communications and political lobbying consultancy on large and contentious land and property developments.” from: http://www.write-angle-pr.co.uk/about_us.html
In that context, does Mr Howell support the plans for a more extensive increase in housebuilding than that set out currently in the South East regional plan? (The SE regional plan is for a 10% increase & a possible axing of the Green Belt in South Oxford after a review). Cllr Howells appeared at a seminar organised by Savills Hepher Dixon in October last year, which discussed just these issues. He was there as a politician & county councillor but there appears to have been no mention in the publicity material for that seminar of the fact that Savills Hepher Dixon was also a client of his professionally. Why not? http://www.savills.com/planning/news_housing-debate.asp
Indeed, having just checked John Howell’s register of interests for Oxfordshire County Council, he does not list his (apparent) consultancy work for Savills Hepher Dixon, though he does does list work as a consultant with Media Presentation Consultants Ltd, in which he also has a “beneficial interest”. Their registered office, as far as I can work out, is in Liverpool:
http://www.creditgate.com/companysearch/MEDIA+PRESENTATION+CONSULTANTS+LTD.aspx
Perhaps this was an oversight on the register of interests on Cllr Howell’s part, or (and this is perhaps more likely) he bills various clients through a company (Media Presentation Consultants Ltd). However, even if so this provides much less transparency about exactly who Cllr Howells has been consulting for & what their policy aims are (if any) in Oxfordshire.
There will be readers of this site much more expert than me on the details of what councillors are required by law to register. But perhaps for the avoidance of any remote appearance of conflict of interest it would be better for Cllr Howell to make a fuller declaration of his interests.
The residents councillor even used the phrase two horse race…
Amazed at how lack lustre the Tory is…Certainly no charisma,after BJ he will be questioned if he is right for Henley and Thame…On the other hand Stephen Kearney looks the part,Labour supporters will flock to the Lib Dems in droves..I see another Tory is in trouble with expenses today so keep the pressure on Howell about his so called consultancy
Mike – I will. I’ve spoken to a national newspaper journalist who has specialised in alleged ‘sleaze’ stories in the past. THat journalist is following up – might well come to nothing but who knows…
Congratulations on discovering all this. I wish I were still able to support the LibDems, but wish to leave full membership of the EU, so cannot. Nor can I support UKIP who are so right wing as to want to abolish instead of reform Inheritance Tax. And the BIG John Howell Conservative poster facing our lane as it meets the main road, and the others on the way to Henley, miles away from the houses of the owners of the farmland on which they are stuck, remind me that the Conservative Party supports the interests of BIG money and land owners who like the EU CAP subsidies they receive from the rest of us for the privilege of owning land that they have inherited tax free.
How can a party that was once a Liberal Party support the CAP? And how else can we get out of that other than by leaving full membership of the EU?
Dane has an obsession with the CAP – too bad, that’s for him. The rest of us work for reform in a sensible way as with everything else in life. (Anyway the CAP was not all bad ans is not all bad).
The EU has been a tremendous force for good in the world and remains so.
Actually there are a lot of UK laws and systems that I don’t like and try to change. I don’t try to leave the UK as a result.
Tony Greaves
Hello Tony, Hope you are well. Do you by any chance have another copy of the New Outlook magazine with my original “Inheritance for All” article in it, please? I am afraid I seem to have misplaced the one you kindly gave – or maybe sold, I think? – to me before
I certainly think the CAP does not suit our country at all. Many agree with me. The French farmers would in their usual way thwart any “sensible” efforts at reform that affected their interests.
The EU has done some good, of course, but that is not to say that cooperative good would not have been done without it. I voted for the EEC in 1975, but failed at that stage to see the significance of “ever closer union”. I turned against it as the EEC turned into the EU and as the Iron Curtain fell: it was the solution to the problems of the past, not of the future. We do not need another bureaucratic empire. What we need are evolutionarily diverse, cooperative and progressive nation states. Read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Dimond.
The UK laws you don’t like – you have a chance of changing democratically. The EU laws you don’t like – you have no chance of changing democatically.
The obsession that I notice is that of the LibDems with the EU. A party that fights the Conservatives in the South and New Labour in the North has always had difficulties with have/have-not issues. So it grabs and holds onto issues that are not have/have-not ones, like the EU and regionalisation. The party policy appears to be stuck in the past and not to have changed with the changing character of the EU and the changing UK public perception of it.
Great news about the Irish No, it seems. I am really shocked that a Liberal political party, which is what I presume the LibDems still mean to be, can be so deceitful about the referendum, promising one on the Constitution and then imagining that we voters should be content with another on In or Out. Too bad, you will say, that’s for me. I wish it were not. But others notice too. The EU will do for the LibDems unless the LibDems wake up to the public view of the EU.
It’s a bit of a laugh to call liberals obsessive – if you said geekishly so then perhaps you might have a point, but we’re not raving fanatics as you might be trying to infer, Dane.
We tend towards being heavily considered (please, I hope you haven’t crossed swords with Laurence Boyce), so what we promote always bears significant debate.
If you want to get into asking what couldn’t have been achieved without the EU and increasing continental integration then I’ll happily argue against you on anything you might like or be able to raise… did you watch the Eurovision Song Contest?
‘Oranjepan’:
My experience and observation of the LibDems has been that they have become ‘EU right or wrong’. CAP is bad for our country. Never mind. Try to reform it. No luck. Never mind. It’s the EU. Must accept it. Cannot leave. Or even threaten to leave.
No idea what you mean by “heavily considered”. Nor do I know who Laurence Boyce is, bless her or his cotton socks. Now I see. You are saying that LibDems carefully consider their positions. Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they. As would others.
Are you really saying that the Eurovision Song Contest, which I have enjoyed but didn’t watch this year, apart from snippets afterwards, could not have been achieved without the EU and increasing continental integration? If so, that is a rather typical pro-EU argument. Like, we would have had a third world war without the EU, n’est ce pas?, nicht wahr?
Anyway, three cheers for the Irish. Let us now see how democratic the EU is. And I have been told that Stuart Wheeler has won his legal case in the High Court, but if so, then of course the Brussels Broadcasting Corporation did not report it this evening. What a complete scandal that the prestitigious New Labour are still going ahead with ratification without a referendum, backed by their DimLib hangers on. What kind of democrats are the Liberal Democrats these days, and what kind of people are you all these days, to accept the way your leaders lie as they do when they say that there is a significant difference between the EU Constitution and the Lisbon Treaty? And then pretend that they can get away with offering us an In or Out referendum instead. Let us have one in due course, but first things first, like keeping your word, and keeping your promises.
Disgusted from Henley/Oxford!
If anyone thinks that there is anything democratic about the EU they are living in a fools paradise. The German/French connection will railroad through whatever is in their own interest and sod the rules if they get in the way. Please let our people speak through a referendum to get us out of this lunatic asylum run by its inmates.
Dane, returning to this subject, the Eurovision Song Contest is a product of the European Broadcasting Union, itself a product of the Council of Europe and subsidiary developments all working in favour of continental integration. As is the EU (European Political Union).
We could argue over the value of the independence of Eurovision from EU regulatory oversight (something which detracts from gaining EU legitimacy and results from the lack of parliamentary mandate at European level), but similar to Uefa and their like, we can only enjoy the fruits of their existence because of the desire to work for continental integration – or don’t you watch the football either?
On an aside, it was informative to see how well UKIP performed – obviously the ‘anti-EU feeling’ was running very high on the agenda during this election, only days after the Irish referendum.
‘Oranjepan’
I leave you to contemplation of your theory that the Eurovision song contest and Euro 2008 (which I have been enjoying, thank you) would not have taken place without the EU!
Broadly speaking, the voting in Henley was:
Pro-promised referendum – Conservatives, Greens, BNP and UKIP – 66%
Anti-promised referendum – EU-fanatic LibDems and New Labour – 31%.
I think you are right, although you meant to be sarcastic. The ‘anti-EU feeling was running very high on the agenda’ – under the surface – ‘only days after the Irish referendum’ – and LibDem perfidy in the House of Lords and elsewhere.
Henley is a very bad result for the LibDems. Had they been on the EU-sceptic side, they would have done extremely well.
EU-fanatic LibDems betrayed UK democracy in the House of Lords. EU-fanatic LibDems would betray UK democracy again if they were ever given the balance of power at Westminster. This fact is gradually percolating throughout the country. It will become even more obvious and relevant in next year’s EU elections.
LibDems should try a little EU-scepticism in the meantime. It could work wonders for the party! Honesty and keeping promises would be good, too!
Dale, is the European policy of the Greens and BNP known as their major policy platforms? I can’t say it was prominent in many election leaflets from what I saw (but then I claim to have seen all the by-election leaflets, can you?).
As for the rest of your comment, ‘perfidy’ is excessive, inaccurate and provocatively rude (haven’t you commented on that subject?), and you’re continually guilty of assertion fallacy.
For a simple comparison our result in Henley was well ahead of our national polling figure, so it can’t have been too bad, eh?
Keep spinning!
‘Oranjepan’
I checked with the Green candidate at the Dorchester hustings. I would say that they are EU-critical rather than being fully EU-sceptic, but I intend to find out more. The Green leaflet has not left a lasting impression with me, but I had already decided who to vote for, having heard and compared the candidate with the others.
I had to vote Green since UKIP is so right wing and wants to abolish Inheritance Tax.
The BNP leaflet was very professional and very strongly in favour of leaving the EU, but obviously I could not vote for them. I was surprised, however, that the other candidates would not allow the BNP to join them in the Dorchester Abbey hustings.
I very seriously felt the lack of an EU-sceptic Liberal, but there it is!
I stick to my description of the LibDems behaviour over the Lisbon Treaty, which, sadly, disgusts me.