Current Affairs The General Election

[Catfish Blues]

Little bit of snow to keep the foe at home would be nice.

If is snows, and the Tories have a majority, then I reserve the right to call the youth of the country "snowflakes".

 

[Paris]

But this is the direction of travel of the Labour party for 5 years now... It's a party to represent public and third sector workers in the south east.

Indeed and all it does is alienate those who don't live in that little bubble.

How am I meant to hit the streets and convince voters in the Midlands that Labour cares for their problems when they come out with utter guff like this?

 

[Moomin]

When your car wheel gets damaged by potholes just remember your post.....

The local authority deals with potholes , and they have been forced to make massive cuts since 2010.

 

[Aberblue]

But this is the direction of travel of the Labour party for 5 years now... It's a party to represent public and third sector workers in the south east.

Indeed - most of Labour's big beasts represent London seats - Corbyn, McDonnell, Abbott, Thornberry, Starmer .....

 

[abelard]

Indeed and all it does is alienate those who don't live in that little bubble.

How am I meant to hit the streets and convince voters in the Midlands that Labour cares for their problems when they come out with utter guff like this?

HS2 to Scotland, HS3, and funding + municipal control of buses ought to get the conversation started.

Also, people outside London use trains. Verging on conspiracy theory, I know, but I HAVE SEEN IT!

 

[tsubaki]

What an utterly idiotic policy to come out with. Mann, who has more Labour blood in his little toe than the London-centric establishment lot, is bang on.

lol

John Mann is someone who was bought off by Theresa May at her least powerful and someone who "went after the nonces" along with Watson and the rest (but bizarrely doesn't get mentioned as such), so lets not pretend he is Labour fruanfru.

This policy will benefit the south-east, that is true. It will also benefit anyone who uses the railway to travel anywhere, including from and to those proud coalfield communities. Reunifying the network will also probably allow money to be spent on upgrading and expanding the network, (edit) again benefitting those communities.

Indeed - most of Labour's big beasts represent London seats - Corbyn, McDonnell, Abbott, Thornberry, Starmer .....

You'd have a bit of a point there, but for the fact that in four out of five of those constituencies bus and tube use is far more convienient than the railway.

 

[Paris]

I appreciate that you may not be able to see it given that you presumably live in a London bubble, Tsubaki, but everyone else can.

 

[Paris]

HS2 to Scotland, HS3, and funding + municipal control of buses ought to get the conversation started.

Also, people outside London use trains. Verging on conspiracy theory, I know, but I HAVE SEEN IT!

You may have a point but the vast majority of investment will be in the South East, so sadly you don't.

 

[abelard]

the vast majority of investment will be in the South East

No it won't.

Anyhow, if politics has deteriorated so far that there's nothing left apart from balancing petty regional spite, just tell them gruff Northern and/or Midlands coal types that a Labour majority would leave @Bruce Wayne seriously discountenanced, and Mansfield shall again surrender herself to the light.

And if we're playing that game, then this:

I think what's needed is a bloody revolution in which every one who earns more than £40k a year gets their head chopped off

would also dramatically improve evenings out in London, while leaving Stoke virtually unaffected.

 

[bluebark]

You may have a point but the vast majority of investment will be in the South East, so sadly you don't.

I mean is that not fair enough given the circa 20m people it’s likely to service? The issue is not who gets the most investment but ensuring that the best marketplace in the country is reachable and feasibly available to people from everywhere so the money doesn’t end up locked up in London, to my mind at least.

 

[tsubaki]

I appreciate that you may not be able to see it given that you presumably live in a London bubble, Tsubaki, but everyone else can.

"London bubble"?

Every time I go home I have to travel two hours on what was Branson's appalling, overcrowded, overpriced "service" until I get to Chester, where I have to get a bus which takes an hour to do a ten mile journey that would probably be 25 minutes if the railway hadn't been torn up. Wrexham (eleven miles away) is fifty minutes to an hour away by a worse bus, or forty-five minutes by a combination of bus and a train if you can catch the hourly service just right. If I wanted to get to Liverpool (20 miles away), it would take between an hour to an hour and a half (bus to Buckley, train to Bidston, Merseyrail to Lime St).

I know how bad public transport is away from the "London bubble". I also know that if it comes down to the party Mann is shilling for and Labour, only the latter are going to even attempt to make it better at home.

 

[Paris]

No it won't.

Anyhow, if politics has deteriorated so far that there's nothing left apart from balancing petty regional spite, just tell them gruff Northern and/or Midlands coal types that a Labour majority would leave @Bruce Wayne seriously discountenanced, and Mansfield shall again surrender herself to the light.

And if we're playing that game, then this: would also dramatically improve evenings out in London, while leaving Stoke virtually unaffected.

Yes it will be, ever since the beginning of time. The Labour bigwigs given that they're all cockneys will ensure that continues and you'd be naive to think otherwise.

London has had more than enough investment, it's time that money was diverted to the areas that are in desperate need of it.

 

[abelard]

Yes it will be, ever since the beginning of time. The Labour bigwigs given that they're all cockneys will ensure that continues and you'd be naive to think otherwise.

London has had more than enough investment, it's time that money was diverted to the areas that are in desperate need of it.

You obviously weren't around to compare things before and after New Labour got into power.

But fine, vote for the Tories or the Lib Dems again and see what five more years of that does for the North instead

 

[tsubaki]

Yes it will be, ever since the beginning of time. The Labour bigwigs given that they're all cockneys will ensure that continues and you'd be naive to think otherwise.

London has had more than enough investment, it's time that money was diverted to the areas that are in desperate need of it.

and yet you appear to oppose Labour doing that?

 

[Paris]

"London bubble"?

Every time I go home I have to travel two hours on what was Branson's appalling, overcrowded, overpriced "service" until I get to Chester, where I have to get a bus which takes an hour to do a ten mile journey that would probably be 25 minutes if the railway hadn't been torn up. Wrexham (eleven miles away) is fifty minutes to an hour away by a worse bus, or forty-five minutes by a combination of bus and a train if you can catch the hourly service just right. If I wanted to get to Liverpool (20 miles away), it would take between an hour to an hour and a half (bus to Buckley, train to Bidston, Merseyrail to Lime St).

I know how bad public transport is away from the "London bubble". I also know that if it comes down to the party Mann is shilling for and Labour, only the latter are going to even attempt to make it better at home.

Mann is a proper Labour man. I understand that you don't like him, presumably because he confronted Ken Livingstone and brought his vile racism to the fore, something which made him persona non grata for those who think that the sun shines out of Corbyn's backside, but I'd far rather him than someone who is away with the fairies.