It's amusing how the Telegraph put Truss in the FMBs next to the 'PM' headline as if she already had the gig.
It's a fascinating photo. Truss is projecting the trappings of high office. Yet there's this overwhelming sense of fake - the gilt chairs and Truss herself.
It looks like the usual suspect press is setting up Truss to take over from Johnson, based on these photos.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
The most important aspect of Boris going should be Gove bring relegated to the back benchers. This rush to lockdown in the face of all the evidence against has his finger prints all over it.
It’s hard to see how anyone sees Truss as a future PM. She’s clearly ambitious, but beyond that seems devoid of ideas, integrity, talent or a connection with the public.
And we've just tried that.
How is Andy Street getting on in Birmingham? It would be good to have national leaders who have achieved something in real life before politics. Not always a guarantee of success I grant you.
Somebody who could achieve something in politics would be mildly helpful.
It is depressing when you look at the paucity of leadership in the western world, which seems to have become worse every time you look up. Leon is right, we should just submit ourselves to government by AI and / or aliens.
There's a Mr Icke who lives round these parts who thinks we already have.
I found the book the government uses…
I had one of those and I loved it.
Shame Commodore fell to pieces afterwards.
I had a rubber key Spectrum 48k, but loved playing Elite on my mate's C64. Except that I always crashed when manually docking.
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Completion of the M67 would be well noticed up here, as would a woodhead rail line. We'll take either.
They *cannot* build the M67. Not because of the issues building across the Pennines - because of the two ends. There is literally nowhere for the traffic to go.
At the western end the M67 would have distributed traffic both onto the M66 (what is now the M60) complete with the A6(M) extension past Hazel Grove, and onto the Manchester Inner Ring motorway. With most of that network unbuilt the motorway would dump its traffic out at Denton Island.
At the eastern end the M67 would have joined the M1 roughly where the A616 joins. That part of the network is now over capacity, and other ideas like extending to the A1(M) also creates its own problems...
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Worryingly I think this is Truss’s only way to become PM - so it will probably happen in April /May
Gideon Rachman @gideonrachman Prediction: in a few months time, Truss resigns as Foreign Sec, accusing Johnson of not being tough enough with the EU; repeating exactly what Johnson did to May & for same reason: to position for a leadership bid, knowing Tories will always chase rainbow of perfect hard Brexit
It will merely prove how much the Tories need the bogeyman of Europe as cover for their own shortcomings.... and we will have another blond non-entity as PM.
Liz Truss was of course a big supporter of Remain at the time of the referendum.
"Liz Truss @trussliz I am backing remain as I believe it is in Britain's economic interest and means we can focus on vital economic and social reform at home. 1:01 PM · Feb 20, 2016"
I don’t see why people think this is a point.
She backed remain for logical reasons. The voters decided they had other priorities so put more weight on other factors. She has knocked down and implemented the voters instructions to the best of her ability
Indeed. But the problem, as ever, is that the ‘instructions’ as they are, are an inchoate mess. How you perceive them depends on your own ideological views.
I know one guy, seriously, who voted Leave because he doesn’t like Peugeot cars. How do we respect his ‘instructions’?
The instructions were to leave. We’ve done that. Everything else is up to our elected representatives - and their decisions will be judged at the next election
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
You mean if you're just looking for political kudos and not to actually help people?
Updated normalised cases, admissions and deaths for Gauteng. Gauteng 7DMA cases (incl reinfections) peaked 9 December at 97% of Delta wave. 7DMA admissions peaked 12 December at 47% of Delta wave. Deaths at 8% of Delta wave but still rising.
Maybe SAGE could try a model with that data? Might give them a slightly different answer. (And I accept that the deaths data will not be complete yet).
From a self-centred point of view as I see it the future holds either -
1) No Christmas and soon no Johnson; or 2) Enjoy Christmas and keep Johnson.
Ignoring the public health implications (and, let’s face it, I’m hardly the only one) it’s a tough choice. Long term I think keeping Johnson in place is best for removing the Tories so I think I marginally favour (2).
Balance always helps people believe you, Scott. The next para from your story.
A total of 21,594 new infections were announced on Sunday, down on the previous three days, which may raise hopes that Londoners being more cautious are stopping the rise, though figures at weekend are sometimes lower.
People's incapacity to learn is truly astonishing.
Nearly two years into the pandemic, people are still saying "but the numbers went down on Sunday".
Yes and no. True the media definitely haven't learned about day of week effects, but on the other hand last week the daily rises were so sharp - 2 day doubling - that they were completely overwhelming the usual DOW effect. So just getting back to a state where we're regularly 50% above the week before counts as a slowdown in Omicron terms.
We are effectively in a voluntary semi-lockdown here in London already, so I'd be surprised if there isn't an effect on cases. Most people I know are either self-isolating with Covid already, or locking themselves away for fear of the dreaded 2 red lines spoiling Christmas.
Just been speaking to colleagues in Denmark where it is also really ripping through, London-style. Everyone knows several people who have it.
Last Sunday (the 12th) the Sunday figure reporting day figure was below the Saturday. And then Wednesday still saw the traditional reporting day step change jump from the previous week (that's when it jumped from ~55k over the week to 78k on Wed)
The surge hasn't hidden the trad reporting day cycle at all so far.
Worryingly I think this is Truss’s only way to become PM - so it will probably happen in April /May
Gideon Rachman @gideonrachman Prediction: in a few months time, Truss resigns as Foreign Sec, accusing Johnson of not being tough enough with the EU; repeating exactly what Johnson did to May & for same reason: to position for a leadership bid, knowing Tories will always chase rainbow of perfect hard Brexit
It will merely prove how much the Tories need the bogeyman of Europe as cover for their own shortcomings.... and we will have another blond non-entity as PM.
Liz Truss was of course a big supporter of Remain at the time of the referendum.
"Liz Truss @trussliz I am backing remain as I believe it is in Britain's economic interest and means we can focus on vital economic and social reform at home. 1:01 PM · Feb 20, 2016"
I don’t see why people think this is a point.
She backed remain for logical reasons. The voters decided they had other priorities so put more weight on other factors. She has knocked down and implemented the voters instructions to the best of her ability
People who backed remain but now don't are the worst people. Worse than those idiots who have backed Brexit all along. It's like the opposite of repentant sinners or something.
Worryingly I think this is Truss’s only way to become PM - so it will probably happen in April /May
Gideon Rachman @gideonrachman Prediction: in a few months time, Truss resigns as Foreign Sec, accusing Johnson of not being tough enough with the EU; repeating exactly what Johnson did to May & for same reason: to position for a leadership bid, knowing Tories will always chase rainbow of perfect hard Brexit
It will merely prove how much the Tories need the bogeyman of Europe as cover for their own shortcomings.... and we will have another blond non-entity as PM.
Liz Truss was of course a big supporter of Remain at the time of the referendum.
"Liz Truss @trussliz I am backing remain as I believe it is in Britain's economic interest and means we can focus on vital economic and social reform at home. 1:01 PM · Feb 20, 2016"
I don’t see why people think this is a point.
She backed remain for logical reasons. The voters decided they had other priorities so put more weight on other factors. She has knocked down and implemented the voters instructions to the best of her ability
People who backed remain but now don't are the worst people. Worse than those idiots who have backed Brexit all along. It's like the opposite of repentant sinners or something.
The last Brexiteer standing. Mad as a box of frogs. Anti establishment. Well connected. Done with the kids.
Could he do it?
Not popular.
I think Sunak, Hunt, Javid or Mordaunt.
None of those are exactly popular either. Gove has Impeccable Brexit credentials and perhaps able to draw on the dark arts of Cummings.
If he wants it, surely he’s a candidate.
Unlike any of the others mentioned in the previous post doesn't Gove come over as wierd and therefore not a good selection.
Not to me - he seems competent and proactive, unlike a number of his colleagues. Lots of politicians are not conventionally handsome, but people get used to them. The last really good-looking PM in the classical tradition was arguably Anthony Eden.
I was about to reflect on how much better looking their French counterparts are but then realised the presidency is the exception to the rule. Sarkozy, Chirac, Hollande, Mitterrand - all somewhat below par by French political handsomeness standards. Only Macron really fits the mould.
Back in Britain if we extend to leaders of the opposition things look just as bleak. The lookers are all in the Lib Dems and their predecessors: Nick Clegg, Paddy Ashdown, David Owen, Jeremy Thorpe.
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
No looks value to me at 1.75. Bit of a wait, but trading opportunities assuming mask mandates are lifted much sooner. I'd put the odds of a mask mandate in the middle of summer six months from now much lower than 56%. Even if Omicron is as bad as some fear, it will surely have burned out well before then. Existing vaccine coverage plus boosters mean we are in a different situation. DYOR, of course (the equivalent bet a year ago would have lost, I think, by a couple of weeks).
It's amusing how the Telegraph put Truss in the FMBs next to the 'PM' headline as if she already had the gig.
It's a fascinating photo. Truss is projecting the trappings of high office. Yet there's this overwhelming sense of fake - the gilt chairs and Truss herself.
It looks like the usual suspect press is setting up Truss to take over from Johnson, based on these photos.
It reminds me of the Garde Republicaine and the Elysee Palace. Ms Truss is a (former) republican. One almost wonders if she wants to be President of the Britannic Republic.
but of course Brexit is over because we are no longer part of the EU, and we are not going back.
If Brexit was over we wouldn't need Truss to negotiate Brexit...
She's not. She's negotiating a trading arrangement with the EU. Its complicated by the GFA. There is no easy solution.
Brexit is the trade deals. While some people may think Brexit is over - it really isn't. Wait until January 1st when the real paperwork is required for both sides and France really start to be anal about errors.
Something they have vast experience in. The whole point of the single market was to remove their ability to act like utter twats.
+1 For the French there is literally zero downside to being arsy with the paperwork. You only have to arrive at CDG once to discover that fact.
Or queue for Air France check in.
Not had a problem with an Air France check in - mind you ever time I've been I've been Platinum from my AMS flights. So it was walk to the posh check-ins and then priority service to the lounge.
Immigration and the hideousness of CDG transfers are however outside Air France's control.
CDG and Air France are very much avoided at all costs. Always have to check carefully when booking KLM flights, that they are actually KLM flights through Amsterdam, and not code-share Paris transfers on AF.
Worryingly I think this is Truss’s only way to become PM - so it will probably happen in April /May
Gideon Rachman @gideonrachman Prediction: in a few months time, Truss resigns as Foreign Sec, accusing Johnson of not being tough enough with the EU; repeating exactly what Johnson did to May & for same reason: to position for a leadership bid, knowing Tories will always chase rainbow of perfect hard Brexit
It will merely prove how much the Tories need the bogeyman of Europe as cover for their own shortcomings.... and we will have another blond non-entity as PM.
Liz Truss was of course a big supporter of Remain at the time of the referendum.
"Liz Truss @trussliz I am backing remain as I believe it is in Britain's economic interest and means we can focus on vital economic and social reform at home. 1:01 PM · Feb 20, 2016"
I don’t see why people think this is a point.
She backed remain for logical reasons. The voters decided they had other priorities so put more weight on other factors. She has knocked down and implemented the voters instructions to the best of her ability
People who backed remain but now don't are the worst people. Worse than those idiots who have backed Brexit all along. It's like the opposite of repentant sinners or something.
Well, not really, they can put together a fairly sound argument about bowing to therwilloftherpeople. My own view is that Brexit confirms what I have said all along, that we aren't a democracy, we're an elective oligarchy, and a bloody good thing too, but that's an argument people tend to be unhappy with.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
Which is probably way a number of MPs are trying to rush Boris's collapse forward rather than waiting for the point it becomes obvious.
Mind you there is a secondary consideration - what do you want Local Government to look like if you are forcing them to absorb major cuts - do you want the Tories running the council or an opposition you can point the blame at.
Between 1 Jan and 31 Oct 2021, the monthly age-standardised mortality rates (ASMRs) for deaths involving #COVID19 have been consistently lower for people who received a second dose of the vaccine at least 21 days ago compared with unvaccinated people http://ow.ly/kabn50Hfeuq....
Over the whole period (1 Jan to 31 Oct 2021), the age-adjusted risk of deaths involving #COVID19 was 96% lower in people who had received a second dose at least 21 days ago compared with unvaccinated people http://ow.ly/kabn50Hfeuq
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
And no one will remember that in 2 years time...
Should we only be doing investment so that people remember it, or because it works?
No wonder this countries f***ed with its investment if that's the priority.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
And no one will remember that in 2 years time...
Should we only be doing investment so that people remember it, or because it works?
No wonder this countries f***ed with its investment if that's the priority.
We don't do investment in this country - that's the problem.
Look at how Manchester has boomed compared to Liverpool - that's because it got given money and spent it wisely.
A significant chunk of disposable income inequality in Scotland comes from travel costs and time.
People in cities tend to benefit from public expenditure on buses/trains etc, while the costs of owning and running a car in rural areas just keeps increasing (tax on fuel etc). It's quite a regressive balance.
Even living inside/outside the cooncil-owned Lothian Buses area makes a noticeable difference in terns of exposure to unregulated bus fares and reliability of bus services, including the sudden elimination or change of services by the commercial firms.
Indeed. Though, on the other hand, a reason people on higher incomes have increased their savings rate so much during the pandemic is lack of expenditure on their cars. There are three groups, maybe:
1 - Rural poor, dependent on cars 2- city dwellers who benefit from subsidised transport 3- richer people who drive even when there is decent public transport available.
We need to hit group 3 while leaving group 1 alone
Ban Bentleys. Rollers and all forms of Chelsea Tractors? Reintroduce the Mk1 Mini as the only car allowed in Britain.
Parking would be easier and more cars would fit in the same car park. Economies of scale for parts would result so they would be incredibly cheap and speeding would be reduced because they did not go all that fast.
From a self-centred point of view as I see it the future holds either -
1) No Christmas and soon no Johnson; or 2) Enjoy Christmas and keep Johnson.
Ignoring the public health implications (and, let’s face it, I’m hardly the only one) it’s a tough choice. Long term I think keeping Johnson in place is best for removing the Tories so I think I marginally favour (2).
The chances of Johnson being Tory leader at the next election must be about 0.1%. The only question is when it happens.
It's amusing how the Telegraph put Truss in the FMBs next to the 'PM' headline as if she already had the gig.
It's a fascinating photo. Truss is projecting the trappings of high office. Yet there's this overwhelming sense of fake - the gilt chairs and Truss herself.
It looks like the usual suspect press is setting up Truss to take over from Johnson, based on these photos.
"It was a work meeting" says Number Ten, forgetting that the video of them laughing and saying that was the excuse they'd use if it ever became public has already been made public. https://twitter.com/LJDLabour/status/1472862082337017857
but of course Brexit is over because we are no longer part of the EU, and we are not going back.
If Brexit was over we wouldn't need Truss to negotiate Brexit...
She's not. She's negotiating a trading arrangement with the EU. Its complicated by the GFA. There is no easy solution.
Brexit is the trade deals. While some people may think Brexit is over - it really isn't. Wait until January 1st when the real paperwork is required for both sides and France really start to be anal about errors.
Something they have vast experience in. The whole point of the single market was to remove their ability to act like utter twats.
+1 For the French there is literally zero downside to being arsy with the paperwork. You only have to arrive at CDG once to discover that fact.
Or queue for Air France check in.
Not had a problem with an Air France check in - mind you ever time I've been I've been Platinum from my AMS flights. So it was walk to the posh check-ins and then priority service to the lounge.
Immigration and the hideousness of CDG transfers are however outside Air France's control.
CDG and Air France are very much avoided at all costs. Always have to check carefully when booking KLM flights, that they are actually KLM flights through Amsterdam, and not code-share Paris transfers on AF.
+1 - if the choice is CDG (especially on an outward leg) any other option including 2 hours to Manchester made more sense.
Air France CDG got very good at quickly processing my rerouting.
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
And no one will remember that in 2 years time...
Should we only be doing investment so that people remember it, or because it works?
No wonder this countries f***ed with its investment if that's the priority.
We don't do investment in this country - that's the problem.
Look at how Manchester has boomed compared to Liverpool - that's because it got given money and spent it wisely.
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
And no one will remember that in 2 years time...
Should we only be doing investment so that people remember it, or because it works?
No wonder this countries f***ed with its investment if that's the priority.
We don't do investment in this country - that's the problem.
Look at how Manchester has boomed compared to Liverpool - that's because it got given money and spent it wisely.
Which is precisely my point about the roads.
Maybe £18 billion in investment on crossrail was wise, but if so comparatively there should have been hundreds of billions not tens invested in roads.
Similarly if HS2 is worth over a hundred billion then comparatively there ought to be trillions getting invested in roads.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
And no one will remember that in 2 years time...
Should we only be doing investment so that people remember it, or because it works?
No wonder this countries f***ed with its investment if that's the priority.
We don't do investment in this country - that's the problem.
Look at how Manchester has boomed compared to Liverpool - that's because it got given money and spent it wisely.
It did need the IRA to kick things off though...
If only we didn't need terrorism to trigger investment and just did based on potential gains rather than invalid and biased economic models. Then the North wouldn't be in the state it was in.
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
I was going back through the quotes then to check what Dawn Butler had said re road versus rail investment!
Then I saw the news from the cricket and it made sense 🤦♂️
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
And no one will remember that in 2 years time...
Should we only be doing investment so that people remember it, or because it works?
No wonder this countries f***ed with its investment if that's the priority.
We don't do investment in this country - that's the problem.
Look at how Manchester has boomed compared to Liverpool - that's because it got given money and spent it wisely.
More likely it is because Manchester sits on the intersection of the road and rail routes for that part of England. If you want to go in any direction, it is a good place to start from.
Much as I like Liverpool (and it is a far, far more pleasant city than Manchester) it really is out on an extreme. If you want to travel anywhere from Liverpool you wind up going back towards Manchester first.
Yesterday someone was asking why are all the photos arriving now. I think this answers the question incredibly well
JP Asher @jp_asher On May 15 last year, I was alone in a hospice room with my cancer-stricken wife, a young mother who, due to Covid restrictions, had had to have goodbye visits from our two small children one at a time. She died in the night a few hours after this photograph was taken.
There is now zero chance Boris is going to be prime minister at the next election. If there was much chance these stories would be being kept back and published in the run up to the next election.
And remember there are millions of these stories all of which say one rule for Boris and another for everyone else.
The thing about these stories is that they are all totally one dimensional - “I had an awful time therefore nobody else should, especially politicians”.
When my father died in November 2020 he had spent the previous three months in hospital whilst slowly on his way out. His last months outside of hospital were grim as he was very vulnerable and so shielding and so had no joy in his life (me being his son didn’t help….) and then his last months of life in hospital were such that visits were limited and the last times he spent with his family we were covered in masks and gloves etc so he couldn’t even feel our touch or see our smiles.
I wouldn’t want this situation for anyone but…..
To compare and criticise a bunch of people sitting outside their office, fairly well spaced, having a drink after work is nuts. Of course everyone in hospital couldn’t “mingle” and have a carousel of visitors as it would put them and other patients at risk. It’s ridiculous to say “I couldn’t do this at a very sad time so they shouldn’t have been doing that in a completely different circumstance”.
I get that the majority of people don’t gather for a drink after work in their office garden but I would imagine that if most could they would.
This morning I even heard one of the today presenters, Robinson no doubt, level the complaint that they were sitting there with smiles on their faces whilst people were suffering - ffs, is everyone supposed to be in sack-cloth and ashes and permanently miserable during Covid??
So people went through grim times. People would have gone through grim times at some point anyway and whilst made easier without covid restrictions they would still be grim times. I don’t want the world to stop and people stop living - in fact if anything covid is an argument for living as much as you can whilst you can.
The parties last Christmas were bloody stupid, Boris is a shit PM but to compare and contrast after work drinks in Downing Street garden with limits on loved ones in hospital is silly.
What about, for example, being able to attend a funeral at that time?
What about it? Would them not having drinks change that? My father’s funeral had to be very small and distanced and a small wake after - he was an immensely popular man who would in normal times have had a very heavily attended funeral.
It didn’t change the fact he died.
I have missed family funerals in the past for various reasons (not choice) and it’s not ideal but life (and death clearly) isn’t ideal. Throughout history people haven’t been able to attend funerals of their loved ones - so again not sure everyone should be banned from having an after work drink and smiling……
Your initial argument seemed to be based on:
"Of course everyone in hospital couldn’t “mingle” and have a carousel of visitors as it would put them and other patients at risk."
But the point, as you must know really, is that the people setting the rules weren't following the rules themselves. This is bad. The fact that a lot of people made real sacrifices (and not just not being able to visit hospitals) in order to follow the rules obviously makes it a lot worse.
Worryingly I think this is Truss’s only way to become PM - so it will probably happen in April /May
Gideon Rachman @gideonrachman Prediction: in a few months time, Truss resigns as Foreign Sec, accusing Johnson of not being tough enough with the EU; repeating exactly what Johnson did to May & for same reason: to position for a leadership bid, knowing Tories will always chase rainbow of perfect hard Brexit
It will merely prove how much the Tories need the bogeyman of Europe as cover for their own shortcomings.... and we will have another blond non-entity as PM.
Liz Truss was of course a big supporter of Remain at the time of the referendum.
"Liz Truss @trussliz I am backing remain as I believe it is in Britain's economic interest and means we can focus on vital economic and social reform at home. 1:01 PM · Feb 20, 2016"
I don’t see why people think this is a point.
She backed remain for logical reasons. The voters decided they had other priorities so put more weight on other factors. She has knocked down and implemented the voters instructions to the best of her ability
Indeed. But the problem, as ever, is that the ‘instructions’ as they are, are an inchoate mess. How you perceive them depends on your own ideological views.
I know one guy, seriously, who voted Leave because he doesn’t like Peugeot cars. How do we respect his ‘instructions’?
The instructions were to leave. We’ve done that. Everything else is up to our elected representatives - and their decisions will be judged at the next election
A simple and clear truth. Which is where the difficulties start. There was no fully formed plan for Brexit before the referendum, and with UK cooperation but without public consent we were in an EU which was in various ways impractical to leave.
Our elected representatives just about got us out, though still without a plan that made much sense. So as a whole and for all parties they have failed us - Brexit being a national issue like WWII rather than a party preference game.
So how would the next election judge it?
FWIW it was and is obvious that the task of parliament was to coalesce around the only plan which had a chance - some version of Norway for now while a stage by stage future was planned over years. Cross party agreement was essential because of the difficulty of selling it to the public.
Balance always helps people believe you, Scott. The next para from your story.
A total of 21,594 new infections were announced on Sunday, down on the previous three days, which may raise hopes that Londoners being more cautious are stopping the rise, though figures at weekend are sometimes lower.
People's incapacity to learn is truly astonishing.
Nearly two years into the pandemic, people are still saying "but the numbers went down on Sunday".
Yes and no. True the media definitely haven't learned about day of week effects, but on the other hand last week the daily rises were so sharp - 2 day doubling - that they were completely overwhelming the usual DOW effect. So just getting back to a state where we're regularly 50% above the week before counts as a slowdown in Omicron terms.
We are effectively in a voluntary semi-lockdown here in London already, so I'd be surprised if there isn't an effect on cases. Most people I know are either self-isolating with Covid already, or locking themselves away for fear of the dreaded 2 red lines spoiling Christmas.
Just been speaking to colleagues in Denmark where it is also really ripping through, London-style. Everyone knows several people who have it.
Last Sunday (the 12th) the Sunday figure reporting day figure was below the Saturday. And then Wednesday still saw the traditional reporting day step change jump from the previous week (that's when it jumped from ~55k over the week to 78k on Wed)
The surge hasn't hidden the trad reporting day cycle at all so far.
You're right, sorry. I've been too focused on the London numbers (which show a near-vertical line for Omicron vs Delta DOW cycles).
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
Investment isn't a problem - it's throwing money at day to day spending for pet projects that was Brown's and Labour's problem.
Prime example - to hit our CO2 commitments we need 50% of freight going via rail.
That requires HS2E and NPR to hit those commitments and we cancelled those within a month of COP26 to be replaced with nothing to fixes the commitment.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
You might like to look up the CV of Rachel Reeves.
Thinking this through, if we’re gonna be locked down in Jan then ideally you want to catch omicron then, so you don’t have to do isolation while everyone else is out to play. Someone should start an App called “covid party near me”.
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
The further advantage of new roads is that it allows development along it not just at either end.
Build a new road and new housing, business parks, industrial estates, leisure facilities will be built alongside it.
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
And no one will remember that in 2 years time...
Should we only be doing investment so that people remember it, or because it works?
No wonder this countries f***ed with its investment if that's the priority.
We don't do investment in this country - that's the problem.
Look at how Manchester has boomed compared to Liverpool - that's because it got given money and spent it wisely.
More likely it is because Manchester sits on the intersection of the road and rail routes for that part of England. If you want to go in any direction, it is a good place to start from.
Much as I like Liverpool (and it is a far, far more pleasant city than Manchester) it really is out on an extreme. If you want to travel anywhere from Liverpool you wind up going back towards Manchester first.
Which is part of the problem with the lack of proper road investment. We had this discussion the other day but if you want to get from one part of the north to the other, then the very limited road network means that you need to go often via Manchester etc due to the limitations of the motorway network.
We should have many, many more motorways. We should build enough motorways to link every major city and town to each other and not via forcing people onto the same few trunk roads like the M6 or M62.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
You might like to look up the CV of Rachel Reeves.
I like Rachel but not labour's throw billions at each and every problem
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
Investment isn't a problem - it's throwing money at day to day spending for pet projects that was Brown's and Labour's problem.
Prime example - to hit our CO2 commitments we need 50% of freight going via rail.
That requires HS2E and NPR to hit those commitments and we cancelled those within a month of COP26 to be replaced with nothing to fixes the commitment.
Why do we need any of our freight to go via rail? Let alone 50% of it when rail is currently from memory just 4%?
Investing in electric HGVs surely gets us there instead.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
You might like to look up the CV of Rachel Reeves.
I am told by people that know Rishi from his finance days that’s he’s very impressive (ie the opposite of Javid).
Rachel Reeves’ CV is just another another state sector careerist. No thanks.
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
And no one will remember that in 2 years time...
Should we only be doing investment so that people remember it, or because it works?
No wonder this countries f***ed with its investment if that's the priority.
We don't do investment in this country - that's the problem.
Look at how Manchester has boomed compared to Liverpool - that's because it got given money and spent it wisely.
More likely it is because Manchester sits on the intersection of the road and rail routes for that part of England. If you want to go in any direction, it is a good place to start from.
Much as I like Liverpool (and it is a far, far more pleasant city than Manchester) it really is out on an extreme. If you want to travel anywhere from Liverpool you wind up going back towards Manchester first.
Which is part of the problem with the lack of proper road investment. We had this discussion the other day but if you want to get from one part of the north to the other, then the very limited road network means that you need to go often via Manchester etc due to the limitations of the motorway network.
We should have many, many more motorways. We should build enough motorways to link every major city and town to each other and not via forcing people onto the same few trunk roads like the M6 or M62.
You can't because the economic benefits don't exist - as has been pointed out multiple times before
Build a direct road from Liverpool to Wigan - cost £1bn economic benefit using the existing models tuppence ha'penny.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
Investment isn't a problem - it's throwing money at day to day spending for pet projects that was Brown's and Labour's problem.
Prime example - to hit our CO2 commitments we need 50% of freight going via rail.
That requires HS2E and NPR to hit those commitments and we cancelled those within a month of COP26 to be replaced with nothing to fixes the commitment.
Why do we need any of our freight to go via rail? Let alone 50% of it when rail is currently from memory just 4%?
Investing in electric HGVs surely gets us there instead.
What electric HGVs? They don't exist and given the market for them you would expect them to already be here.
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
And no one will remember that in 2 years time...
Should we only be doing investment so that people remember it, or because it works?
No wonder this countries f***ed with its investment if that's the priority.
We don't do investment in this country - that's the problem.
Look at how Manchester has boomed compared to Liverpool - that's because it got given money and spent it wisely.
More likely it is because Manchester sits on the intersection of the road and rail routes for that part of England. If you want to go in any direction, it is a good place to start from.
Much as I like Liverpool (and it is a far, far more pleasant city than Manchester) it really is out on an extreme. If you want to travel anywhere from Liverpool you wind up going back towards Manchester first.
Which is part of the problem with the lack of proper road investment. We had this discussion the other day but if you want to get from one part of the north to the other, then the very limited road network means that you need to go often via Manchester etc due to the limitations of the motorway network.
We should have many, many more motorways. We should build enough motorways to link every major city and town to each other and not via forcing people onto the same few trunk roads like the M6 or M62.
You can't because the economic benefits don't exist - as has been pointed out multiple times before
Build a direct road from Liverpool to Wigan - cost £1bn economic benefit using the existing models tuppence ha'penny.
You can.
You need to change the models. The models are bullshit.
It's amusing how the Telegraph put Truss in the FMBs next to the 'PM' headline as if she already had the gig.
It's a fascinating photo. Truss is projecting the trappings of high office. Yet there's this overwhelming sense of fake - the gilt chairs and Truss herself.
It looks like the usual suspect press is setting up Truss to take over from Johnson, based on these photos.
It reminds me of the Garde Republicaine and the Elysee Palace. Ms Truss is a (former) republican. One almost wonders if she wants to be President of the Britannic Republic.
Astute. All that gilt is very French, and expected over there, so nothing remarkable. If you compare with the real Queen, who has been practising this for nearly a century - she's got that balance of expensive dowdiness, which seems genuine.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
You might like to look up the CV of Rachel Reeves.
I like Rachel but not labour's throw billions at each and every problem
Better than ignoring every problem while bunging billions to your mates.
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
And no one will remember that in 2 years time...
Should we only be doing investment so that people remember it, or because it works?
No wonder this countries f***ed with its investment if that's the priority.
We don't do investment in this country - that's the problem.
Look at how Manchester has boomed compared to Liverpool - that's because it got given money and spent it wisely.
More likely it is because Manchester sits on the intersection of the road and rail routes for that part of England. If you want to go in any direction, it is a good place to start from.
Much as I like Liverpool (and it is a far, far more pleasant city than Manchester) it really is out on an extreme. If you want to travel anywhere from Liverpool you wind up going back towards Manchester first.
Which is part of the problem with the lack of proper road investment. We had this discussion the other day but if you want to get from one part of the north to the other, then the very limited road network means that you need to go often via Manchester etc due to the limitations of the motorway network.
We should have many, many more motorways. We should build enough motorways to link every major city and town to each other and not via forcing people onto the same few trunk roads like the M6 or M62.
You can't because the economic benefits don't exist - as has been pointed out multiple times before
Build a direct road from Liverpool to Wigan - cost £1bn economic benefit using the existing models tuppence ha'penny.
You can.
You need to change the models. The models are bullshit.
The models won't generate the returns you think they do because a trunk road and A1 roads will always be cheaper and provide similar benefits.
Oh and even that isn't enough - there is a prime example of a road improvement locally - Northern Bypass for Darlington J59 to A66. Adds space for 5,000 homes and removes 2000 lorries a day from residential homes.
Economic value is £xm but the cost is £ym so it's not a priority this round as others provide a greater return.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
I don't see how never having had to worry about money equates to 'he knows how to deal with finance' tbh.
In my later life, after many years of working hard, scrimping, budgeting and saving, I somehow have slipped into a position of reasonable affluence (nothing like Sunak's level, mind).
I now realise how true it is that 'money attracts money' - once you reach a certain level of affluence it take absulutely no skill whatsoever to become ever wealthier.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
Investment isn't a problem - it's throwing money at day to day spending for pet projects that was Brown's and Labour's problem.
Prime example - to hit our CO2 commitments we need 50% of freight going via rail.
That requires HS2E and NPR to hit those commitments and we cancelled those within a month of COP26 to be replaced with nothing to fixes the commitment.
Why do we need any of our freight to go via rail? Let alone 50% of it when rail is currently from memory just 4%?
Investing in electric HGVs surely gets us there instead.
What electric HGVs? They don't exist and given the market for them you would expect them to already be here.
They are on their way. Electric or hydrogen HGVs, there's plenty of investment in both.
From memory rail carries 4% of all freight and HGVs carry about 80% of all freight, so if your solution for "net zero" is rail investment instead of clean HGVs then you've got as much chance of getting that right as you do removing a headache by banging your head against the wall.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
Investment isn't a problem - it's throwing money at day to day spending for pet projects that was Brown's and Labour's problem.
Prime example - to hit our CO2 commitments we need 50% of freight going via rail.
That requires HS2E and NPR to hit those commitments and we cancelled those within a month of COP26 to be replaced with nothing to fixes the commitment.
Why do we need any of our freight to go via rail? Let alone 50% of it when rail is currently from memory just 4%?
Investing in electric HGVs surely gets us there instead.
What electric HGVs? They don't exist and given the market for them you would expect them to already be here.
Tesla are due to make their first delivery of all electric semi trucks to Pepsi Co this month. The constraint isn’t the truck or its specs, it’s battery availability. But it looks likely that 2023 will be for electric HGVs in the US what 2018 was for the Model 3.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
Investment isn't a problem - it's throwing money at day to day spending for pet projects that was Brown's and Labour's problem.
Prime example - to hit our CO2 commitments we need 50% of freight going via rail.
That requires HS2E and NPR to hit those commitments and we cancelled those within a month of COP26 to be replaced with nothing to fixes the commitment.
Why do we need any of our freight to go via rail? Let alone 50% of it when rail is currently from memory just 4%?
Investing in electric HGVs surely gets us there instead.
What electric HGVs? They don't exist and given the market for them you would expect them to already be here.
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
And no one will remember that in 2 years time...
Should we only be doing investment so that people remember it, or because it works?
No wonder this countries f***ed with its investment if that's the priority.
We don't do investment in this country - that's the problem.
Look at how Manchester has boomed compared to Liverpool - that's because it got given money and spent it wisely.
More likely it is because Manchester sits on the intersection of the road and rail routes for that part of England. If you want to go in any direction, it is a good place to start from.
Much as I like Liverpool (and it is a far, far more pleasant city than Manchester) it really is out on an extreme. If you want to travel anywhere from Liverpool you wind up going back towards Manchester first.
Which is part of the problem with the lack of proper road investment. We had this discussion the other day but if you want to get from one part of the north to the other, then the very limited road network means that you need to go often via Manchester etc due to the limitations of the motorway network.
We should have many, many more motorways. We should build enough motorways to link every major city and town to each other and not via forcing people onto the same few trunk roads like the M6 or M62.
You can't because the economic benefits don't exist - as has been pointed out multiple times before
Build a direct road from Liverpool to Wigan - cost £1bn economic benefit using the existing models tuppence ha'penny.
You can.
You need to change the models. The models are bullshit.
The models won't generate the returns you think they do because a trunk road and A1 roads will always be cheaper and provide similar benefits.
How does that affect what I said when "change the models" is what I said.
It's amusing how the Telegraph put Truss in the FMBs next to the 'PM' headline as if she already had the gig.
It's a fascinating photo. Truss is projecting the trappings of high office. Yet there's this overwhelming sense of fake - the gilt chairs and Truss herself.
It looks like the usual suspect press is setting up Truss to take over from Johnson, based on these photos.
Poor Chile. After the socialist Michelle Bachelet they had the conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera for 4 years and now are back with a leftwinger again
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
And no one will remember that in 2 years time...
Should we only be doing investment so that people remember it, or because it works?
No wonder this countries f***ed with its investment if that's the priority.
We don't do investment in this country - that's the problem.
Look at how Manchester has boomed compared to Liverpool - that's because it got given money and spent it wisely.
More likely it is because Manchester sits on the intersection of the road and rail routes for that part of England. If you want to go in any direction, it is a good place to start from.
Much as I like Liverpool (and it is a far, far more pleasant city than Manchester) it really is out on an extreme. If you want to travel anywhere from Liverpool you wind up going back towards Manchester first.
Which is part of the problem with the lack of proper road investment. We had this discussion the other day but if you want to get from one part of the north to the other, then the very limited road network means that you need to go often via Manchester etc due to the limitations of the motorway network.
We should have many, many more motorways. We should build enough motorways to link every major city and town to each other and not via forcing people onto the same few trunk roads like the M6 or M62.
You can't because the economic benefits don't exist - as has been pointed out multiple times before
Build a direct road from Liverpool to Wigan - cost £1bn economic benefit using the existing models tuppence ha'penny.
You can.
You need to change the models. The models are bullshit.
The models won't generate the returns you think they do because a trunk road and A1 roads will always be cheaper and provide similar benefits.
How does that affect what I said when "change the models" is what I said.
Change the models just changes the return.
It may result in more work being done (it won't) but it will still result in the cheapest solution winning and the cheapest solution will always be to improve the existing network a bit.
Remember we can't even justify a new railway or motorway between Oxford and Cambridge via Milton Keynes and Peterborough - i.e. 4 of the richest and fastest growing towns outside London.
The railway is coming but its seemingly by stealth rather than design.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
You might like to look up the CV of Rachel Reeves.
I like Rachel but not labour's throw billions at each and every problem
She was very unspecific on R4 this morning: "What would Labour do?" "What ever it takes to protect the NHS" "Specifically, what? Waffle, waffle, waffle.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
You might like to look up the CV of Rachel Reeves.
I like Rachel but not labour's throw billions at each and every problem
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
You often say things like this, Big_G, and I don't bother to pick them up every time, but it's factually untrue, and perhaps you should reconsider your stereotype? My understanding is that Starmer is not allowing any major commitments whatsoever, on the basis that nobody really knows what the economy will look like at the next election and it's unwise to make rash promises.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
His record as CotE would suggest the opposite. Spaffer in Chief
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
You might like to look up the CV of Rachel Reeves.
I like Rachel but not labour's throw billions at each and every problem
She was very unspecific on R4 this morning: "What would Labour do?" "What ever it takes to protect the NHS" "Specifically, what? Waffle, waffle, waffle.
Why are we cursed with such sub par politicians. Last night I gave at least half a dozen simple and practical steps that could be implemented immediately, at low cost (financial and social) that would have tangible benefits at slowing spread and reducing hospitalisations.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
Investment isn't a problem - it's throwing money at day to day spending for pet projects that was Brown's and Labour's problem.
Prime example - to hit our CO2 commitments we need 50% of freight going via rail.
That requires HS2E and NPR to hit those commitments and we cancelled those within a month of COP26 to be replaced with nothing to fixes the commitment.
Why do we need any of our freight to go via rail? Let alone 50% of it when rail is currently from memory just 4%?
Investing in electric HGVs surely gets us there instead.
What electric HGVs? They don't exist and given the market for them you would expect them to already be here.
£30 billion in roads that carry 90% of all transport and £18 billion in just one rail line that only a tiny proportion of people use relative to the roads means that we're not investing fairly.
On the other hand, if you're looking for clear symbolic "we are spending money to Level Up the North" projects then you should probably prefer to funnel it into one big obvious project rather than spread it out in hundreds of barely-noticed tweaks, road maintenance and minor bypasses...
Yep - the local projects are a bypass round Tow Law (essential but annoyed the locals as they wanted a larger one bypassing West Auckland as well) and some A19 improvements (it's the A19 so any improvements are better but I only use it when absolutely unavoidable).
The advantage of rail is that people remember the before and remember the after. And the after for a lot of people will be a lot more frequent services into their local city and a significant improvement in the number of people within an x0 minute commute.
The same advantage exists for roads, with the added bonus that people actually use them too, whereas next to nobody outside of the big cities uses rail.
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
And no one will remember that in 2 years time...
Should we only be doing investment so that people remember it, or because it works?
No wonder this countries f***ed with its investment if that's the priority.
We don't do investment in this country - that's the problem.
Look at how Manchester has boomed compared to Liverpool - that's because it got given money and spent it wisely.
More likely it is because Manchester sits on the intersection of the road and rail routes for that part of England. If you want to go in any direction, it is a good place to start from.
Much as I like Liverpool (and it is a far, far more pleasant city than Manchester) it really is out on an extreme. If you want to travel anywhere from Liverpool you wind up going back towards Manchester first.
Which is part of the problem with the lack of proper road investment. We had this discussion the other day but if you want to get from one part of the north to the other, then the very limited road network means that you need to go often via Manchester etc due to the limitations of the motorway network.
We should have many, many more motorways. We should build enough motorways to link every major city and town to each other and not via forcing people onto the same few trunk roads like the M6 or M62.
Think of the houses you'd have to demolish to achieve that. Price of the remaining ones would go through the roof.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
You might like to look up the CV of Rachel Reeves.
I like Rachel but not labour's throw billions at each and every problem
She was very unspecific on R4 this morning: "What would Labour do?" "What ever it takes to protect the NHS" "Specifically, what? Waffle, waffle, waffle.
For better or worse it would be similar in both style and substance to Sturgeons approach rather than Johnsons.
The last Brexiteer standing. Mad as a box of frogs. Anti establishment. Well connected. Done with the kids.
Could he do it?
Not popular.
I think Sunak, Hunt, Javid or Mordaunt.
None of those are exactly popular either. Gove has Impeccable Brexit credentials and perhaps able to draw on the dark arts of Cummings.
If he wants it, surely he’s a candidate.
Unlike any of the others mentioned in the previous post doesn't Gove come over as wierd and therefore not a good selection.
Not to me - he seems competent and proactive, unlike a number of his colleagues. Lots of politicians are not conventionally handsome, but people get used to them. The last really good-looking PM in the classical tradition was arguably Anthony Eden.
But Nick you are not a typical voter. You are looking past the superficial. The average voter will see his appearance and be repeatedly shown during an election the odd stuff like the nightclubbing and wobbling while leaning against the speaker's chair and I suspect that has more impact than any dry policy stuff. Most of the competition doesn't have that (Truss and cheese accepted).
For what it is worth I attended several of his counts in Surrey Heath and chatted to him and read a few of the bits he put out when first a candidate (I lived in Surrey Heath then). I noted the following:
a) He was very pleasant to speak to at the count even though he knew I was in the opposition camp. b) His acceptance speech was really excellent and off the cuff. c) I saw him get really angry with someone and that was a bit scary (not something I have seen elsewhere). Can't make up my mind if that is good or not. Passionate or control issue? d) He wrote an argument about some local issue by referencing Greek/Latin history/myths. My thought was what a tosser. I only know one other person who does that which is Boris and Boris can pull it off with his humour. Never seen him do it again.
The whole point of the single market was to remove their ability to act like utter twats.
Thatcher's greatest achievement.
Utterly destroyed by those who worshipped her...
What was the UK's trade balance with the EU in the single market ?
The answer being a deficit of £852bn between 1999 and 2019 compared with a surplus of £290bn between the UK and non-EU countries.
So it is their fault that we bought too much from them?
I know someone who voted leave because she thought we would only leave the EU but remain in the EEA. I doubt she was the only one.
That reminds me of an American being interviewed on TV about his support for ditching ObamaCare because the Affordable Care Act existed. Why have two schemes?
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
Investment isn't a problem - it's throwing money at day to day spending for pet projects that was Brown's and Labour's problem.
Prime example - to hit our CO2 commitments we need 50% of freight going via rail.
That requires HS2E and NPR to hit those commitments and we cancelled those within a month of COP26 to be replaced with nothing to fixes the commitment.
Why do we need any of our freight to go via rail? Let alone 50% of it when rail is currently from memory just 4%?
Investing in electric HGVs surely gets us there instead.
What electric HGVs? They don't exist and given the market for them you would expect them to already be here.
The problem is with electric HGVs - assuming battery power - is that they will move freight far more slowly and expensively than their equivalent on rail, which can draw power from overhead wires and do 75mph with no trouble at all pulling 40 large containers. Once you factor in the extra power for hauling the weight of the battery as well, they"re not likely to be as favourable in a comparison for longer haul as rail. They still, of course, score massively in terms of flexibility in delivery to final destination.
Plus, of course, HGVs do a great deal more damage to roads than freight trains do to railways.
I think we would see a shift to more rail freight in the medium term if there was capacity. At the moment, there isn't, and until a new government green lights HS2E that will remain an issue for the NE.
I think Stuart’s right. In 10 years time nobody will remember having voted for it. Not even Charles.
Boris is a corpse, too. He’ll be lucky to last into Spring.
What a frabjous day, though it’s a bit chilly here in Portugal after several days of balmy, t-shirt weather.
I don't see how brexit is dead. Its over. We are out. To make brexit dead surely implies rejoin?
Indeed we will be dealing with it forever. Brexit might one day be over as a state of mind, but the fact of it remains.
I'm not convinced a Tory coup where anti lockdown Truss or Sunak gets chosen in the midst of a pandemic meltdown is optimal timing.
The quicker Johnson is gone, the better. Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
I suspect his mps want him to continue for a while to absorb the flak and I would expect post the May locals they will act
I agree with you. Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
I prefer Rishi but that choice is upto his mps and then the members which this time I will not be one
Rishi represents the polish and connections that money can buy. If you like that and think that's helpful in solving the nation's problems then go for it. I think that there others that might be a little more connected.
It would also suggest he knows how to deal with finance unlike labour whose only answer to any question is spend billions and billions with no care as to how it is paid for
You might like to look up the CV of Rachel Reeves.
I am told by people that know Rishi from his finance days that’s he’s very impressive (ie the opposite of Javid).
Rachel Reeves’ CV is just another another state sector careerist. No thanks.
Sunak is smart and good at the day to day politics. He doesn't see the bigger picture, however, nor does he have what you might call the common sense, to keep him grounded. Hence quite a few mistakes such as the bungled social care policy..
Nevertheless much better than Johnson and almost certainly better than Truss.
Also add. Interesting and apparently automatic assumption that someone working in the "finance industry" is better qualified to run the state than someone working for the state.
Comments
Even Rishi and Truss are improvements.
Neither will restore Tory fortunes; but that’s a different matter.
At the western end the M67 would have distributed traffic both onto the M66 (what is now the M60) complete with the A6(M) extension past Hazel Grove, and onto the Manchester Inner Ring motorway. With most of that network unbuilt the motorway would dump its traffic out at Denton Island.
At the eastern end the M67 would have joined the M1 roughly where the A616 joins. That part of the network is now over capacity, and other ideas like extending to the A1(M) also creates its own problems...
Where I live a by-pass was recently built near where I live meaning my route is no longer used as a rat run to Liverpool. As a result, the traffic on the road has collapsed while people going on the by-pass are able to drive faster too.
Buttler what an idiot!!! 🤦♂️
Also best for Truss, as the NI changes will have kicked in.
Give me night or give me Ben Foakes...
1) No Christmas and soon no Johnson; or
2) Enjoy Christmas and keep Johnson.
Ignoring the public health implications (and, let’s face it, I’m hardly the only one) it’s a tough choice. Long term I think keeping Johnson in place is best for removing the Tories so I think I marginally favour (2).
The surge hasn't hidden the trad reporting day cycle at all so far.
Back in Britain if we extend to leaders of the opposition things look just as bleak. The lookers are all in the Lib Dems and their predecessors: Nick Clegg, Paddy Ashdown, David Owen, Jeremy Thorpe.
https://smarkets.com/event/42508513/politics/uk/coronavirus/masks-on-public-transport-in-england-2022
No looks value to me at 1.75. Bit of a wait, but trading opportunities assuming mask mandates are lifted much sooner. I'd put the odds of a mask mandate in the middle of summer six months from now much lower than 56%. Even if Omicron is as bad as some fear, it will surely have burned out well before then. Existing vaccine coverage plus boosters mean we are in a different situation. DYOR, of course (the equivalent bet a year ago would have lost, I think, by a couple of weeks).
Mind you there is a secondary consideration - what do you want Local Government to look like if you are forcing them to absorb major cuts - do you want the Tories running the council or an opposition you can point the blame at.
Over the whole period (1 Jan to 31 Oct 2021), the age-adjusted risk of deaths involving #COVID19 was 96% lower in people who had received a second dose at least 21 days ago compared with unvaccinated people http://ow.ly/kabn50Hfeuq
https://twitter.com/ONS/status/1472862516598521856?s=20
No wonder this countries f***ed with its investment if that's the priority.
Two years of unpopularity followed by a humiliating defeat. Much smarter to rebuild in opposition...
Look at how Manchester has boomed compared to Liverpool - that's because it got given money and spent it wisely.
Parking would be easier and more cars would fit in the same car park. Economies of scale for parts would result so they would be incredibly cheap and speeding would be reduced because they did not go all that fast.
Available in patriotic Red, White and Blue only
https://twitter.com/LJDLabour/status/1472862082337017857
Air France CDG got very good at quickly processing my rerouting.
She also had a belief in living within your means.
Which is what you need if you want ever freer trade.
What we've had for the last 20+ years are governments which live beyond their means and encourage voters to do likewise.
With the consequence of ever more debt funding a permanent trade deficit.
Maybe £18 billion in investment on crossrail was wise, but if so comparatively there should have been hundreds of billions not tens invested in roads.
Similarly if HS2 is worth over a hundred billion then comparatively there ought to be trillions getting invested in roads.
Then I saw the news from the cricket and it made sense 🤦♂️
Much as I like Liverpool (and it is a far, far more pleasant city than Manchester) it really is out on an extreme. If you want to travel anywhere from Liverpool you wind up going back towards Manchester first.
"Of course everyone in hospital couldn’t “mingle” and have a carousel of visitors as it would put them and other patients at risk."
But the point, as you must know really, is that the people setting the rules weren't following the rules themselves. This is bad. The fact that a lot of people made real sacrifices (and not just not being able to visit hospitals) in order to follow the rules obviously makes it a lot worse.
Our elected representatives just about got us out, though still without a plan that made much sense. So as a whole and for all parties they have failed us - Brexit being a national issue like WWII rather than a party preference game.
So how would the next election judge it?
FWIW it was and is obvious that the task of parliament was to coalesce around the only plan which had a chance - some version of Norway for now while a stage by stage future was planned over years. Cross party agreement was essential because of the difficulty of selling it to the public.
Prime example - to hit our CO2 commitments we need 50% of freight going via rail.
That requires HS2E and NPR to hit those commitments and we cancelled those within a month of COP26 to be replaced with nothing to fixes the commitment.
Build a new road and new housing, business parks, industrial estates, leisure facilities will be built alongside it.
We should have many, many more motorways. We should build enough motorways to link every major city and town to each other and not via forcing people onto the same few trunk roads like the M6 or M62.
Great news
Investing in electric HGVs surely gets us there instead.
Rachel Reeves’ CV is just another another state sector careerist. No thanks.
Build a direct road from Liverpool to Wigan - cost £1bn economic benefit using the existing models tuppence ha'penny.
You need to change the models. The models are bullshit.
If you have to do that to increase your spending you have to increase your income.
You are thus continually required to look how you can do that.
When instead you become addicted to extra borrowing to fund your extra spending then earning extra income can be neglected.
Oh and even that isn't enough - there is a prime example of a road improvement locally - Northern Bypass for Darlington J59 to A66. Adds space for 5,000 homes and removes 2000 lorries a day from residential homes.
Economic value is £xm but the cost is £ym so it's not a priority this round as others provide a greater return.
Ed Balls on where the photo was shot 'I'm pretty sure this is the view from the 11 Downing Street first floor balcony.'
https://twitter.com/edballs/status/1472685913364905988?s=20
In my later life, after many years of working hard, scrimping, budgeting and saving, I somehow have slipped into a position of reasonable affluence (nothing like Sunak's level, mind).
I now realise how true it is that 'money attracts money' - once you reach a certain level of affluence it take absulutely no skill whatsoever to become ever wealthier.
From memory rail carries 4% of all freight and HGVs carry about 80% of all freight, so if your solution for "net zero" is rail investment instead of clean HGVs then you've got as much chance of getting that right as you do removing a headache by banging your head against the wall.
They are too busy looking over their shoulders at the Conservative party to provide the leadership our country needs.
https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1472867591140036612
Coming 2023
It may result in more work being done (it won't) but it will still result in the cheapest solution winning and the cheapest solution will always be to improve the existing network a bit.
Remember we can't even justify a new railway or motorway between Oxford and Cambridge via Milton Keynes and Peterborough - i.e. 4 of the richest and fastest growing towns outside London.
The railway is coming but its seemingly by stealth rather than design.
Also it requires a whole new infrastructure so the lorries charge at night - look forward to seeing that created.
You a homeowner?
For what it is worth I attended several of his counts in Surrey Heath and chatted to him and read a few of the bits he put out when first a candidate (I lived in Surrey Heath then). I noted the following:
a) He was very pleasant to speak to at the count even though he knew I was in the opposition camp.
b) His acceptance speech was really excellent and off the cuff.
c) I saw him get really angry with someone and that was a bit scary (not something I have seen elsewhere). Can't make up my mind if that is good or not. Passionate or control issue?
d) He wrote an argument about some local issue by referencing Greek/Latin history/myths. My thought was what a tosser. I only know one other person who does that which is Boris and Boris can pull it off with his humour. Never seen him do it again.
Plus, of course, HGVs do a great deal more damage to roads than freight trains do to railways.
I think we would see a shift to more rail freight in the medium term if there was capacity. At the moment, there isn't, and until a new government green lights HS2E that will remain an issue for the NE.
Nevertheless much better than Johnson and almost certainly better than Truss.
Also add. Interesting and apparently automatic assumption that someone working in the "finance industry" is better qualified to run the state than someone working for the state.