04 June 2024

Nothing will change if you vote for a politician - So DON'T

I’m Liam Mullone. I’m a neuro-divergent married dad of three and I’ve been a gravedigger, a bin man, a journalist on the Times newspaper, a motor trader and a stand-up comedian. In 2018 I founded Newton Says No to fight overdevelopment, and later this became the South Devon Alliance - now the second-biggest party in the area and the clear winner in Newton Abbot in the 2023 District Elections. We have seats at Town, District and County. A seat in Parliament would mean REAL change.
And we need it! The Liberal Democrats have been so illiberal and undemocratic that council officers locked down Forde House to keep them out. The ‘pro-business’ Conservatives have stuffed our shopkeepers and Labour aren’t putting up a fight here.

The South Devon Alliance has three priorities, and pursuing them has made us a lot of powerful enemies. We've been subject to threats, intimidation and even physical assault in the council chamber.Yet our support flourishes,not because we're good at politics but because we genuinely dislike all politics, pomp and pretension.

Our 3 Priorities

#1 Serve Devon, Not London

All other parties are run from Westminster, parroting policies created in the corridors of power by party bureaucrats. The attempts of our politicians to transplant Westminster dinner-party policies onto Devon have been an utter failure: ‘Levelling-up’ schemes that just wreck our towns, like the plan to gut the Alexandra Theatre. Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods that cost millions, increase pollution and have to be put back as they were (see Totnes, Paignton, Exeter and now Queen Street NA).
Cash pots for boom-and-bust projects like Newton Abbot’s now desolate Market Walk. This is the legacy of LDs and Cons trying to please their party masters, burning through money while our schools and services remain among the most underfunded in the country. Dawlish and our villages get almost NO investment while millions are spent giving Newton Abbot things it doesn’t want. We can have an MP who’s a cheerleader for this mess, or we can try someone new: someone who will demand the things we actually need in return for the taxes we pay.

#2 Stop Over development

Westminster's National Planning Policy Framework uses an equation to work out how many houses we need. It takes no account of our protected coast or moors, and it forces development on cherished green spaces, rewards bad practice in housebuilding and is smashing Teignmouth and Dawlish into one another. It is ruining the character of our towns and villages while throwing up new estates of unaffordable executive houses rather than the starter homes and social housing we actually need.
For years South West Water has failed to keep up with this urban sprawl, preferring to 'deliver shareholder value' and being allowed by Lib Dem and Conservative authorities to pollute, poison and patronise us . The result is the increasing degradation of our county.
Influx from other parts of the UK is distorting prices. Houses need to be built to meet only LOCAL demand, with a local tie provision that makes mew houses available to people who grew up here FIRST.
Demand could then be properly met with brownfield sites. We must rewrite planning law so we build houses for the benefit of local people, not national housebuilding cartels.

#3 End Corruption

The idea that corruption only happens in other countries was truly buried under the Covid PPE contract scandals. But while the rot at the top of the tree gets headlines, the rot here at the root doesn't. Since we were elected, we have witnessed unexplained six figure payoffs, hidden conflicts of interest and character assassinations that have mentally and physically destroyed those who speak out. In 2022 the Local Government Ombudsman at last sanctioned the Lib Dem-run Teignbridge District Council for breaking the law and breaching section 11 of the Human Rights Act in its attempts to silence dissent.

We have whistle-blown fraudulent planning decisions, identified huge payouts to local landowners and learned of the transfer of public assets to Councillors; all of which the Conservatives and LibDems won't address.Transparency International has reported a shocking culture that enables fraud within local administrations, and ours is a too-frequent star of Private Eye's 'Rotten Boroughs'. Let's shine a light!

VOTE WITH YOUR HEART!

This is not a general election where the result is in doubt. Although they won’t make any impact here, nationally Labour will win. Pollsters are predicting a victory bigger than the ‘97 Blair landslide. Our next government is a done deal, which in some ways in liberating. You won’t be voting for a PM, just for the person who will best represent YOU. You don’t have to hedge your bets. You don’t have to vote ‘tactically’. And you don’t have to believe the nonsense that voting for THIS person really helps THAT person. This time you get to vote with your heart, not just your head. So consider someone who wants to fight for our home, and make sure Westminster serves Devon for once.

liammullonesda@gmail.com