Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party.

jfollows · 25 Feb 2024

I was speaking to an old friend last week who lives in Altrincham & Sale West, Graham Brady's Conservative constituency, Brady will not be standing at the next election and it's pretty much guaranteed to go to Labour anyway.
He's got a young son and circulates with all the middle-class mummies at school.
His observation is that "everyone" hates the Conservatives now, and the Conservatives are in denial about how visceral this hatred is, and they stand absolutely no chance at the next election.
I think he's right. The Conservatives are now blamed for everything, the lack of services from local councils, the poor quality of schools, the bad press about fools like Anderson just confirm their beliefs even more.
From my perspective, I simply don't know what Conservatives stand for any more. They appear to leap on every populist bandwagon in a desperate attempt to appear to be "caring" without any thought other than potential short-term electoral gain.
And Liz Truss blathers on from the sidelines, I've said before that I think she's missing some connections in her brain, her failure is because she's an incompetent fool who never achieved anything before becoming PM (other than a lot of noise) and it's nothing to do with a left-wing cabal as she maintains. And I think most people share my view, not hers, and those that share her view are too much in a minority to make a difference.

RailUK Forums

Typhoon · 25 Feb 2024

Busaholic said:
Do you think Ashfield will want to be let back into the party anyway? I believe he's been wanting to play the martyr and be sacked for some time now. Like Reg Prentice and John Horam before him, he'll probably be a serial leaver of political parties. If he's a real fantasist, which is quite possible, he might even see himself as emulating Winston S.Churchill in that regard. If he does join Reform I'm sure it'll be on the condition that he becomes their candidate for Ashfield.

The current Reform candidate seems to have very good background credentials - one of the best I have seen from Reform - former services, served in Afghanistan as a combat medic, Police trainer, college lecturer, now an owner of a small business, plenty of voluntary work. As a person I don't have a clue but twenty odd years ago that would make him the ideal Conservative candidate He's done things, none of that SpAd nonsense. If he has already put time into the constituency, he may be reluctant to move elsewhere.

Lost property · 25 Feb 2024

Typhoon said:
The current Reform candidate seems to have very good background credentials - one of the best I have seen from Reform - former services, served in Afghanistan as a combat medic, Police trainer, college lecturer, now an owner of a small business, plenty of voluntary work. As a person I don't have a clue but twenty odd years ago that would make him the ideal Conservative candidate He's done things, none of that SpAd nonsense. If he has already put time into the constituency, he may be reluctant to move elsewhere.

The occupations are, to a certain extent, irrelevant.

Subscribing to the ideologies however is far more relevant....and concerning

takno · 25 Feb 2024

Typhoon said:
The current Reform candidate seems to have very good background credentials - one of the best I have seen from Reform - former services, served in Afghanistan as a combat medic, Police trainer, college lecturer, now an owner of a small business, plenty of voluntary work. As a person I don't have a clue but twenty odd years ago that would make him the ideal Conservative candidate He's done things, none of that SpAd nonsense. If he has already put time into the constituency, he may be reluctant to move elsewhere.

Please for the love of something can we not be rescued from the small-business-owning Tories of 20 years ago. Witless idiots like Hunt, Hammond, Shapps and the like had a wildly inappropriate level of confidence in their own abilities and absolutely no clue how to run an actual full-sized economy. That's how we ended up with endless austerity utterly hollowing out the economy for 10 years before Covid, Brexit and Truss even got near it.

ChrisC · 25 Feb 2024

nw1 said:
He seems to be listed as the Tory candidate for Ashfield on Wikipedia, with some other person as the Reform candidate. But now, who knows?

That said, Ashfield seems to be swinging Tory more than the UK average, going against the grain in 2017 which was relatively poor for the Tories, with a tiny Labour majority in 2017 against a healthy one in 2015. It wouldn't surprise me if Ashfield is one of the seats the Tories manage to hold; with a 70% Brexit vote it does seem to be a highly small-c conservative trending area. Plus, Labour dropped to as low as third place in 2019, behind the Ashfield Independents' candidate. So, assuming he's let back into the party, I suspect Anderson will still be in Parliament in 5 years' time.

The situation regarding the people of Ashfield voting Tory in recent years is very interesting. I don’t live in the Ashfield constituency, but just a few miles over the border in the Sherwood constituency. However, it’s an area I know very well, and a number of my family were from that area.

It‘s an ex coal mining area, where going back 30+ years, it would have been unthinkable that it would not have a huge Labour majority. My grandmother used to say that if the Labour Party put a pig up for election the people of Ashfield would still vote for it! Since the closure of the coal mines Ashfield has changed, many areas have become very depressed and run down, whilst there are also areas which large new new housing developments which have certainly brought new people into the area.

What I’m going to say now are huge generalisations but I think this is part of the reason Lee Anderson has been quite popular in Ashfield.

The traditional Labour voters of Ashfield were very much Old Labour of the Harold Wilson and Dennis Skinner type. The change in the Labour Party with Tony Blair’s New Labour and much that has succeeded that has not gone down well in Ashfield. The London Islington type of Labour and their supporters have little in common with many of the people of Ashfield. Sir Keir Starmer and indeed Sadia Khan are not the Labour Party that the people of Ashfield knew. Lee Anderson, with his straight talking local accent, although Tory, has been attractive to many Ashfield voters. Although I think his latest outburst has been completely wrong and disgusting, I’m afraid many people in Ashfield will agree with him. He’s playing a game to try to hang on to his seat which is in big danger of being lost to Labour at the next election. Hopefully it will all backfire on him, but if you go into some of the pubs in Ashfield, sadly you will find them full of Lee Anderson’s.

Gloster · 25 Feb 2024

Ashfield was actually won by the Conservatives at a by-election in April 1977. Whether they were fed up with the Labour government or whether they were annoyed that David Marquand had gone off to Brussels to be an adviser to Roy Jenkins, or what, I do not know.

ChrisC · 25 Feb 2024

Gloster said:
Ashfield was actually won by the Conservatives at a by-election in April 1977. Whether they were fed up with the Labour government or whether they were annoyed that David Marquand had gone off to Brussels to be an adviser to Roy Jenkins, or what, I do not know.

I’d completely forgotten about that 1977 by-election.

Snow1964 · 25 Feb 2024

Rishi is having another of his sop to the north PR stunts tomorrow

The Prime Minister is set to chair a Cabinet meeting in the Yorkshire & Humber region tomorrow (Monday 26 February).

It comes as the Transport Secretary is set to announce the funding allocations of the Local Transport Fund across the North and Midlands which empowers local authorities to invest in the transport projects that matter most to their communities.

This investment package has been made possible through reallocated HS2 funding and will deliver an unprecedented long term transport funding uplift across the North and Midlands.

At Cabinet, the Prime Minister will call on ministers and MPs to hold local authorities to account to ensure the funding is used appropriately and that the voices of local people are heard when decisions are made on where this funding goes and how this funding is spent.

The Transport Secretary is expected to update Cabinet on the delivery of Network North and how the Government is sticking to the plan to better connect communities through improved transport infrastructure across the country.

The Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and ministers across government will also meet with communities, businesses, and organisations across the North and Midlands to discuss their priorities for the Local Transport Fund and how their area can best benefit from the funding.

PM to host Cabinet meeting in Yorkshire and the Humber

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will chair Cabinet meeting in Yorkshire and the Humber on Monday, confirming unprecedented transport funding package for areas in the North and Midlands.

www.gov.uk

SteveM70 · 25 Feb 2024

Snow1964 said:
Rishi is having another of his sop to the north PR stunts tomorrow

PM to host Cabinet meeting in Yorkshire and the Humber

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will chair Cabinet meeting in Yorkshire and the Humber on Monday, confirming unprecedented transport funding package for areas in the North and Midlands.

www.gov.uk

Bet he still arrives by helicopter, even if he's coming from Kirby Sigston

jfollows · 25 Feb 2024

Snow1964 said:
Rishi is having another of his sop to the north PR stunts tomorrow

PM to host Cabinet meeting in Yorkshire and the Humber

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will chair Cabinet meeting in Yorkshire and the Humber on Monday, confirming unprecedented transport funding package for areas in the North and Midlands.

www.gov.uk

And it’s too late; he cancelled HS2 months ago in Manchester, which voters will remember, and nobody will believe his promises for re-spending the money now, he will only cancel it again anyway.

dgl · 26 Feb 2024

and how many of these announcements are designed to stuff Labour up, with them having to cancel the plans when they get into power as there's no money for them, thus making them look like the bad guys.

AM9 · 26 Feb 2024

dgl said:
and how many of these announcements are designed to stuff Labour up, with them having to cancel the plans when they get into power as there's no money for them, thus making them look like the bad guys.

In a nutshell, probably all of them. For sure, they have no intention of actually carrying through any of them except the road improvement ones.

brad465 · 26 Feb 2024

ChrisC said:
The situation regarding the people of Ashfield voting Tory in recent years is very interesting. I don’t live in the Ashfield constituency, but just a few miles over the border in the Sherwood constituency. However, it’s an area I know very well, and a number of my family were from that area.

It‘s an ex coal mining area, where going back 30+ years, it would have been unthinkable that it would not have a huge Labour majority. My grandmother used to say that if the Labour Party put a pig up for election the people of Ashfield would still vote for it! Since the closure of the coal mines Ashfield has changed, many areas have become very depressed and run down, whilst there are also areas which large new new housing developments which have certainly brought new people into the area.

What I’m going to say now are huge generalisations but I think this is part of the reason Lee Anderson has been quite popular in Ashfield.

The traditional Labour voters of Ashfield were very much Old Labour of the Harold Wilson and Dennis Skinner type. The change in the Labour Party with Tony Blair’s New Labour and much that has succeeded that has not gone down well in Ashfield. The London Islington type of Labour and their supporters have little in common with many of the people of Ashfield. Sir Keir Starmer and indeed Sadia Khan are not the Labour Party that the people of Ashfield knew. Lee Anderson, with his straight talking local accent, although Tory, has been attractive to many Ashfield voters. Although I think his latest outburst has been completely wrong and disgusting, I’m afraid many people in Ashfield will agree with him. He’s playing a game to try to hang on to his seat which is in big danger of being lost to Labour at the next election. Hopefully it will all backfire on him, but if you go into some of the pubs in Ashfield, sadly you will find them full of Lee Anderson’s.

Gloster said:
Ashfield was actually won by the Conservatives at a by-election in April 1977. Whether they were fed up with the Labour government or whether they were annoyed that David Marquand had gone off to Brussels to be an adviser to Roy Jenkins, or what, I do not know.

In 2019 the vote was very split between 3 parties: Anderson won with only 39% of the vote. Of interest is the presence of a strong independent party, which after first standing in 2017 (coming 3rd), came 2nd in 2019 just ahead of Labour. The vote share Labour lost was almost identical to the share the Ashfield Independents gained, so it could be argued the only reason Anderson won was due to vote splitting in his favour.

takno · 26 Feb 2024

dgl said:
and how many of these announcements are designed to stuff Labour up, with them having to cancel the plans when they get into power as there's no money for them, thus making them look like the bad guys.

That's probably a factor, but I'm not sure it's really all that cunningly planned. I suspect Sunak genuinely thought that just cancelling HS2 was a no-brainer populist decision that would have the whole country swooning at his ability to make the big decisions in their interests.

Now he's continually on the back foot trying to demonstrate that he doesn't hate the north and isn't a purely short term thinker. Since he actually does appear to be a short term thinker who hates the north, he's having to just accept whatever anybody comes up with to counter that.

Sadly the people he's surrounded with aren't themselves any better, so you get a mix of Houchen insanity, roads which are often moderately popular in the local area but are toxic nationally, and civil servants having tremendous fun getting to call potholes in London a Network North project.

It's all such desperate flailing.

DarloRich · 26 Feb 2024

takno said:
Sadly the people he's surrounded with aren't themselves any better, so you get a mix of Houchen insanity, roads which are often moderately popular in the local area but are toxic nationally, and civil servants having tremendous fun getting to call potholes in London a Network North project.

Have you seen the tory MP for Darlington, Peter Gibson ( maj 3,294) going round the town highlighting potholes accompanied by a picture of him looking stern.

There is, of course ,the famous picture of me, Sunak and Houchen plus what I assume is the Tory lead on the borough council looking at potholes.

The country is burning and they are looking at potholes. ffs. Here is a plan: fund local councils to fix these things.

dgl · 26 Feb 2024

Maybe they think that if they look at the potholes sternly enough they'll realise they are not wanted and disappear!

Busaholic · 26 Feb 2024

dgl said:
Maybe they think that if they look at the potholes sternly enough they'll realise they are not wanted and disappear!

I'm sure if Margaret Thatcher or Norman Tebbit had given them one of their stares/glares they'd slink away and fill themselves in.

edwin_m · 26 Feb 2024

Busaholic said:
I'm sure if Margaret Thatcher or Norman Tebbit had given them one of their stares/glares they'd slink away and fill themselves in.

Might have broken Tebbit's bike first.

DC1989 · 26 Feb 2024

DarloRich said:
Have you seen the tory MP for Darlington, Peter Gibson ( maj 3,294) going round the town highlighting potholes accompanied by a picture of him looking stern.

There is, of course ,the famous picture of me, Sunak and Houchen plus what I assume is the Tory lead on the borough council looking at potholes.

The country is burning and they are looking at potholes. ffs. Here is a plan: fund local councils to fix these things.

I'd still love to know who in government thought that canning the nations biggest infrastructure project to fill potholes once would be a vote winner

I can only assume that they thought - people hate potholes = 2. People in general think hs2 is a waste of money = 2.

2+2 = 5

Snow1964 · 26 Feb 2024

Siemens welcomes UK Prime Minister and Cabinet to the Goole Rail Village - London Post

Siemens was honoured to host the Prime Minister, Rt Hon Rishi Sunak and the Cabinet at the Goole Rail Village in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Before chairing the Cabinet meeting in our Components Facility, The Prime Minister met Siemens Mobility’s UK & Ireland Joint CEO Sambit Banerjee and...

london-post.co.uk

Busaholic · 27 Feb 2024

DC1989 said:
I'd still love to know who in government thought that canning the nations biggest infrastructure project to fill potholes once would be a vote winner

An idiot, so we're no closer to identifying the culprit!

brad465 · 27 Feb 2024

Snow1964 said:
Siemens welcomes UK Prime Minister and Cabinet to the Goole Rail Village - London Post

Siemens was honoured to host the Prime Minister, Rt Hon Rishi Sunak and the Cabinet at the Goole Rail Village in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Before chairing the Cabinet meeting in our Components Facility, The Prime Minister met Siemens Mobility’s UK & Ireland Joint CEO Sambit Banerjee and...

london-post.co.uk

Did Sunak take them to that workshop to see if they can fix cabinets?

edwin_m · 27 Feb 2024

brad465 said:
Did Sunak take them to that workshop to see if they can fix cabinets?

A collection of ghouls in Goole.

3141 · 27 Feb 2024

DC1989 said:
I'd still love to know who in government thought that canning the nations biggest infrastructure project to fill potholes once would be a vote winner

Each filled pothole will be required to have a label stating "The repair of this pothole was financed with money saved by cancelling the extension of HS2". Perhaps the tar that's used will be specially coloured blue to remind you, as you drive over it, how you should vote.

jfollows · 27 Feb 2024

GusB said:
Is another by-election in the pipeline? The standards committee has recommended a 35 day suspension for Scott Benton.

Potential by-election as ex-Tory MP Scott Benton faces Commons suspension

Scott Benton committed a "very serious breach" of parliamentary rules, standards watchdog finds.

www.bbc.com

35-day suspension approved today without the need for a vote.

jon0844 · 27 Feb 2024

3141 said:
Each filled pothole will be required to have a label stating "The repair of this pothole was financed with money saved by cancelling the extension of HS2". Perhaps the tar that's used will be specially coloured blue to remind you, as you drive over it, how you should vote.

Will the pothole repairs last 100+ years or a fortnight?

The Ham · 27 Feb 2024

jon0844 said:
Will the pothole repairs last 100+ years or a fortnight?

Most likely closer to the later than the former.

(Based on the assumption that the road is more than 20 years old, and with an anticipated total lifespan of 60 years, the best to be expected is 40 years, however as there's already been a failure it's more likely to fail again, which would reduce these maximum time, it's reasonable to assume less than the current age of the road by some margin, as such within the next 25 years would be highly likely, although if there's an issue with groundwater then it could be significantly shorter than that).

Typhoon · 28 Feb 2024

3141 said:
Each filled pothole will be required to have a label stating "The repair of this pothole was financed with money saved by cancelling the extension of HS2". Perhaps the tar that's used will be specially coloured blue to remind you, as you drive over it, how you should vote.

Yes please, anyone from Central Office reading this, dash along and let Rishi know about your great idea. No need to read on.

It will only be a matter of time before just one of the repairs breaks up, the media will be on to it like a flash, photo on the front page along with one of a motorist frowning and pointing, 'Even Rishi's repairs don't stand up' or something similar.

(I appreciate the sentiment of the post but it would just be so typical of this administration if that happened.)

jon0844 · 28 Feb 2024

Potholes fixed this year will likely reoccur as most (not all, but most) are rather suspect repairs that mean cracks will re-appear and soon open up once it gets cold again. So, if not later this year if we get more cold weather, absolutely next winter. I suppose Labour will then get all the blame.

Thirteen · 28 Feb 2024

There's a side of me that think we need an election ASAP just so there can be a clear out.

Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party.

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