The man is a Muppet

Published: 6:00 AM April 12, 2014 Updated: 6:46 PM November 7, 2020

Last week, during Prime Minister’s Questions, David Cameron referred to Ed Miliband and Ed Balls as “a couple of Muppets”. No problems with that – not for me anyway!

However, in my opinion, it would appear we have our own, local Muppet. None other than Paul Diviani, the Tory leader of East Devon District Council.

When the planning inspector returned the local plan, declaring it to be “unsound with serious failings”, Mr Diviani’s in-depth response was “pretty much what we expected”. What a pity he didn’t share these misgivings before the draft plan was put forward!

By way of explanation, Councillor Diviani went on “at some point you have to jump in and see how close you are to what the Government wants to see”.

That’s a bit like diving into a pond of unknown depth to see if you crack your head on the bottom!

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The fact of the matter is there are a lot of people who put their lives on hold and campaigned to get their views across to the inspector, and the council, only to read that it was “pretty much what we expected”.

Those people will now, quite reasonably, say “What a waste of our time”. To which I would add “What a Muppet!”