Options
Will Sunak’s “help the motorist” wheeze help turn the polls round? – politicalbetting.com
Will Sunak’s “help the motorist” wheeze help turn the polls round? – politicalbetting.com
Is this a vote winner or a vote loser? https://t.co/9vkxhZuPlc
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
We pretty much all seem to be in agreement that large infrastructure projects cost *way* too much. Yet I think recent conversations seem to indicate one reason for this.
Apparently road schemes need to fully cater for the pepparami-in-lycra brigade and have a massive cycle network alongside them that they can whizz along on at 40 MPH.
Apparently railways should not touch any 'ancient' woodland, and instead be buried thousands of metres underground.
It's easy to take something we care about and say that a scheme has to preserve or enhance it. The problem is we all have things that we want to preserve and protect, and therefore the scheme has to pay for that, even if the things are f-all to do with roads or railways.
Say I want to protect the Lesser Farting MarsuLizard, one of which was reported as being seen by a pond by a drunken cleric in 1853. It just so happens I run a charity to help protect and raise awareness of the Lesser Farting MarsuLizard, and so I insist that the pond and all its environment is moved away from the scheme - and of course, I'll need funding for providing my expertise.
Now, I'd argue that many of these are good ideas, and ideally would be catered for. But they also cost. And a few million here; a few million there; and we soon reach significant sums.
The film sounds worth a watch, and he's still on firm at 90.
Along with John Standing.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/sep/29/im-90-i-worry-if-im-gonna-make-it-to-lunch-michael-caine-and-john-standing-on-wives-war-and-feeling-like-the-queen
..At the heart of The Great Escaper is another enduring marriage, between Bernie and Irene, played by Glenda Jackson in her final film. She and Caine first worked together 48 years ago. “She was very young and pretty,” he says. “Very attractive. Bloody good actress. But a left-wing socialist and I’m all for making money because I come from a very poor background.” They never talked politics – bit busy making the movies. He saw her five days before she died in June: “She seemed fine.” He’s relieved it was quick..
...“Michael, darling,” says Standing, “I said to someone the other day: ‘Have you heard of Peter O’Toole?’ She said: ‘Well, I know the name.’ Once you are dead, you are dead. You think of Bogart! But young people only know Goose. What’s he called? Gosling. Big names in the theatre – Gielgud – mean nothing.”..
I mean, I'd never refer to keen cyclists as 'Pepparami in lycra'...
Ultimately it won't really turn the dial though. Most people have made up their minds and the missing phantom 2019 vote ain't comin' back to Rishi.
This reactionary right drivel means that in 10, 20, 50 years time Rishi Sunak, if he's remembered at all, will be at the foot of the British PM league table alongside his immediate predecessor. What a farcical period of political life this has been.
At least Boris Johnson achieved things.
This is clearly all part of a desperate pitch to the 'core' F.U. element of the tory right (Labour has it too on the left). You put it perfectly yourself just a few minutes ago:
'It's a desperate attempt to appeal to emotions in certain people'
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/702248/#Comment_702248
Turned out I was right, but never in my wildest nightmares did I imagine the Republican candidate who benefited would turn out to be as mad as Trump is.
I suspect it won't be transformative, though. Whatever the Conservative press think, people aren't downrating Sunak because he is too mean to drivers. And the whole thing looks desperately cynical and calculating.
Oh, and there's plenty of potential for it to fall apart once it touches the real world. Like most of Sunak's ideas.
Edit. Oh the cycling part? Still not really the point.
Look, I'm in a charitable mood today.
PR Man 1: "That's lovely, Rish, but the focus group indicated you shouldn't grin so much. Could you cover your teeth up please?"
PR Man 2: "(Whisper) What did the focus group say about him looking so smug?"
Outside of the so called metropolitan bubble I don’t think this will do them any harm in the towns and the boroughs.
The default speed limit in built up areas in Wales is now 20mph
Asked in July last year, 48% of Britons supported a shift to 20mph in urban areas, compared to 39% who were opposed
https://x.com/yougov/status/1703718003710583029?s=46
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-66934308
Thatcher to Major worked. So did May to Johnson. Did any others?
(My working theory is that those changes addressed specific soluble problems; the Poll Tax and the Brexit impasse respectively. Changing PM because the incumbent in a bit rubbish or shopworn... rather less so.)
For trains the question is how many hundreds of billions should be spent on new tracks to build capacity.
For motorists the idea of being pro is apparently to merely not be actively hostile, and to fix potholes?
That's just neutral, that's not pro. Want to be pro motorist, then let's talk about some long overdue investment in new roads etc rather than simply fixing potholes in roads in our network that last had significant upgrades fifty years ago when our population was considerably lower?
Johnson was a disaster for the party, majority or not.
Getting the numbers right matters, when it comes to setting monetary policy, and in terms of people making investment decisions, so it’s a problem (of long-standing) that the ONS keeps underestimating growth.
Durham council have put some cycle paths in which make absolutely no sense whatsoever. The council had a budget allocated from central govt so they used it rather than lose it. With little thought. Which is bizarre as Some of the cycling provision in Durham is good and rather well thought out.
https://twitter.com/ONS/status/1707636332833456540?t=bVWukEtd2bo_Rr3VHuE_sQ&s=19
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/26/james-cracknell-predicts-britain-will-rejoin-eu/
Well 2 pieces of bad news yesterday: son lost job after challenging health & safety conditions at work during recent high temperatures - people fainting etc (appealing but holds out little hope so looking for other jobs) and someone v dear to us has been diagnosed with very early chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia. Bugger.
Dread what today will bring. Everything seemed to be going ok .... I should have realised it wouldn't last.
The controversy continues unabated in Wales but in the last few days speeds in 20mph zones have increased to circa 25mph and in some cases back near 30mph unless a driver is following the 20mph when the traffic soon backs up
The legislation has its place, but the implementation is the issue here in Wales no more so than the difference between Arfon and Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Gwynedd) and in Delyn and Alyn and Deeside as explained in this article
I expect changes will be made by LA's but it is a live issue here and needs sensible compromise
The one Welsh county where 20mph backlash is muted
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/part-wales-not-seeing-20mph-27798570#ICID=Android_DailyPostNewsApp_AppShare
The large revision you refer to was the pandemic, a very atypical time.
Also the interesting implication of the revision for the pandemic years was that the lockdown was less economically damaging than thought.
https://x.com/davidlammy/status/1707294507341849026?s=61&t=s0ae0IFncdLS1Dc7J0P_TQ
I think he is unlikely to get elected though. On current polling Colchester looks a clear Labour gain.
Their only chance is securing funding imminently.
And note the divider between footpath and cyclepath is a solid white line, which will have the angry cyclists insisting that any pedestrian who dares to step over into 'their' space be arrested immediately...
https://www.ft.com/content/4ee301ce-e6ba-45ab-8fd5-0cbe3e5c5980
People may not like the principle of inheritance tax, for example, but that is very different to wanting to abolish it - or even reduce the thresholds. And on immigration - people may say there is too much, but ask about the issue on a sector by sector basis and only a minority want it reduced. And so on.
It turns out that what seems to matter most is competence. Whoever would have thought it?
Furthermore, as I said enforcement is not taking place outside the 20mph zones around schools that were 20mph long before the legislation
It is also interesting that the article did refer to the political landscape that the parts of North Wales that voted for the Labour Welsh Government at the Senedd election in 2021 are the most rebellious on this issue
And we all know how that one ended.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fail-to-build-and-britain-will-hit-the-buffers-2j7hlj8g9
As long as I can remember there have been increasing restrictions on motorists, and a consequent fall in the numbers killed or severely injured on the roads. It would appear that the present government, or at least its leader thinks this is a Bad Thing!
And best wishes to Ms Cyclfree for a swift end to the run of bad luck; preferably by her son, finding another job which suits him. I’m not sure that winning his appeal, desirable or not, will in the long term break to his advantage with that employer!
Under the latest Highway Code pedestrians now have priority. This doesn’t just affect motorists if impacts cyclists too.
They'd be flamed the other way round, rather than just very mildly embarrassed, so they keep undercooking it to be on the safe side.
Incentives drive behaviours.
https://x.com/spajw/status/1707643656780263748?s=46&t=rw5lNVUgmRPVyKpxfV_pPQ
Hope things get better soon.
Europe up in 3 and tied in 1 in the opening foursomes
I liked your comment but not the possible consequences for you
Since 2019 the Conservatives have introduced more tax rises than any other government, with the £100 billion cost bigger than anything outside wartime, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said.
Britain is making “a decisive and permanent shift to a higher-tax economy”, the think tank said in a judgment that will intensify pressure on Rishi Sunak to reverse the trend....
...The rise of 4.2 percentage points in the tax burden is comfortably bigger than that during Tony Blair’s first term, from 1997-2001, when a series of stealth taxes led to a 2.9 point increase. Margaret Thatcher’s first term from 1979-83 and Harold Wilson’s two terms from 1964-70 and 1974-76 led to rises of more than two points
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tory-shift-to-higher-taxes-may-never-be-reversed-msqcs3b9j
IMV the problem is selfishness. I'm a car driver, and I'm unwilling to wait ten seconds to pass this cyclist safely. It's *my* ten seconds that are being stolen. I'm a cyclist, and I have the right to cycle at thirty MPH down this dual-use path - and woe betide anyone - pedestrian or cyclist - who dares impede my speed!
We are all road users, and in most cases we don't have exclusive rights to use the space available. We all need to muddle along, and realise that our fellow users might actually have rights as well. That means showing others - even pedestrians - the same sort of respect we demand for ourselves.
Seat-by-seat analysis of voting intention by the Stonehaven research and strategy consultancy suggested that the Labour Party would win a comfortable majority of 90 seats and 39 per cent of the votes if the next general election were held tomorrow. Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, was among the ministers who would be unseated by the Liberal Democrats.
The MRP poll used demographic and other data to build a constituency-by-constituency projection showed that support for the Conservatives would collapse to 26.3 per cent of the vote, from 43.6 per cent won by Boris Johnson in 2019.
Rishi Sunak’s projected 196-seat tally would be the worst recorded by any Conservative leader since William Hague’s 166 in 2001. Labour’s 372 seats would give Sir Keir Starmer a comfortable working majority of 90, the party’s biggest since 2001.
Highlighting the Tories’ vulnerabilities in their traditional southern heartlands, the Liberal Democrats would be returned with 36 seats and 10.8 per cent of the vote, a marked improvement on the 15 seats they hold at present.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/six-cabinet-ministers-set-to-lose-seats-at-next-election-tw9708pq6
The Tories are portraying themselves as the anti-immigration, anti-green policy, anti-rail infrastructure, despite spending over a decade in power with high immigration, promoting green policies and having started the infrastructure they are now cancelling.
I'm sure there is a constituency for such a change in direction, but personally it feels like reversing course on areas where the government were trying to have a positive impact, while doing little to address other areas of underinvestment. It isn't a compelling vision.
Labour's vision at present consists of be less shit than the Tories, which is a hurdle they are clearing comfortably by doing nothing, such that they will likely get a majority. So the question is whether they take the easy route in power, or invest for the future such that they don't end up on the same place.
I think 196 seats for the Tories would be a good result for them.
Remember too, Tim's glee about "Osborne's triple dip recession", in 2012, which turned out to be growth of 1.6% in the end.
Furthermore the article gets to the hub of the controversy and provides the resolution
But in a change election the tidal surge sweeps way past the targets...
Not sure of the etiquette of this, but you don’t ask you don’t get, so…
Tomorrow I’m doing the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge. 24 miles and 5200ft worth of climbing over Yorkshire’s three highest peaks in under 12 hours. I, and around 20 other willing victims, are doing it memory of a friend of mine’s son, Isaac, who died in April at four months old after enduring four open heart surgeries.
We’re raising money for a charity called the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund, which supports the Leeds Congenital Heart Unit at Leeds General Infirmary.
I know times are hard for many, but if you would like to donate you can do so here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/isaac-phoenix-davison?utm_source=whatsapp&utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=isaac-phoenix-davison&utm_campaign=pfp-whatsapp&utm_term=a5d00617328744428695a5496d68e55f
I might be cheeky and drop this link in again later and tomorrow, so please bear with me. If you’re lucky and the phone signal holds up I might even post some pictures of trig points and heavy autumnal rainfall on bleak Yorkshire fells.
That’s 7.4 seats per percentage vote share. They currently have 8.1 seats per percentage share.
Largely because the pollsters have Labour on only 39% in this MRP.
They went from ~50 to ~10 in one election. Why can't the same happen in reverse?
It all depends upon how people vote. The biggest problem is they're not appearing positively appealing, not that there's a ceiling.
And we all know why they wear backless gloves.
I agree with the Conservative MS here that open lists are a better system.
We either have a pre-revolutionary situation here...
... Or someone is fiddling the petition by putting in postcodes that aren't theirs.
In 1997 a lot of LD and Lab seats were won unexpectedly, but having been active in the 1997 election the feel is very different now. The Tories are looking very dog eared and fixated on internal battles the same as 1997, but there isn't the same mood of optimism for Starmer that there was for Blair.
This is interesting for @RestIsPolitics - voters think @UKLabour and
@Conservatives will both increase taxes - but are far more likely to think Labour would spend more on public services
https://twitter.com/benatipsos/status/1707650092436447502/photo/1