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You get what you vote for – politicalbetting.com
You get what you vote for – politicalbetting.com
Following his by-election win, George Galloway has compared himself to Cristiano Ronaldo. presumably because the Middle East is the only thing keeping both their careers going pic.twitter.com/XxQWWbiQOh
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https://inews.co.uk/opinion/furious-rochdale-result-labour-candidate-paul-waugh-2934742
It woz Galloway's campaign video wot won it
Luuuuuuxuuury!
https://www.mancunianmatters.co.uk/news/01032024-david-tully-who-is-the-surprise-dark-horse-of-the-rochdale-by-election/
https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/elections/election-pitch/1743/david-tully
Also, 4.9 out of 5 for his car repair business on Google reviews.
(And didn't realise he was entitled to a free election mail shot.)
I’ve never been to Rochdale, and doubt I ever will.
In theory though, it’s nestled nicely into the Pennines and is well-situated to be a prosperous commuting suburb for both Manchester and Leeds.
I presume the housing stock is v poor, and the place has been de-invested to fuck. And brand “Rochdale” is about as bad as it gets.
Sad.
US man extends record for most Big Macs eaten in a lifetime to over 34,000
Don Gorske, 70, becomes one of Guinness World Records’ longest-running holders with intake of two McDonald’s burgers a day
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/01/most-mcdonalds-big-macs-eaten-lifetime-world-record-don-gorske
"He has kept a receipt of every single Big Mac he’s eaten every day since that first one, and he’s retained each of the burgers’ containers..."
Electoral calculations often don't lead to wise decisions, but they are certainly dominating political decision-making at the moment.
That's on us. We the voters determine the nature of British politics so blaming some kind of nebulous "system" which is in decline.
It's us, all us.
With better transport infrastructure that might even become a reality one day.
(*I used got go to a climbing gym there a decade or so back.)
And there's this terrible combination of the awful things done to left-behind places and the awful things they do (at some level) to themselves. And that makes the problems very hard to fix.
Reheated Big Macs
The article is also troublingly silent on what he has done with all those containers.
Then get rich flogging new houses to the people working at the factory.
Anyone who objects can get a foundational position in the factory.
This is probably why I shouldn't be absolute dictator of Britain.
I'm thinking of seats like Sheffield Central, or the new Leeds Central and Headingley. Both have plenty of Muslim voters, but not enough to swing a result by themselves.
As you say, it’s nowhere near Leeds really.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/28/tata-confirms-somerset-battery-factory-bridgwater
Lovely situation for transport and so on, but very grimy these days.
Hodge Hill or Bradford West perhaps ?
I can't see the problem really...
(You can really write, btw)
What saddens me about this is that the same story could surely be written of two dozen British towns, at least. And I don't think they will ever get better, in my lifetime, unless AI performs a miracle (because Labour or the Tories certainly won't)
https://x.com/WhatScotsThink/status/1763505188944351241?s=20
"New @Survation poll for @Quantum_Comms
SNP 38 (+2)
Lab 33 (-1)
Con 15 (-1)
LD 8 (n/c).
Fwork 14-20.2 (ch since 23-25.1)."
They were built for the industrial revolution, now that has gone and is never returning. AI will destroy the few jobs left
Probably the best thing that could happen is that they are all levelled, and returned to grass, and farms and woods. Depopulate the north, it's not worth saving
What that means is that in the winter the weather can be fun! The M62 gets shut down by snow. More people commute west than east. And with respect to the town an awful lot of people don't commute that far...
It’s a great national tragedy, and seems just a permanent and permanently-accepted feature of British life.
Like corruption in Italy, gun laws in the US, and the schoolgirl knicker fetish in Japan.
Make it easier for people to move to where there is work, and shrink the places people leave behind so that they work for a more sustainable smaller size.
For example, if you build huge amounts of social housing in places like Cambridge, Milton Keynes, etc, then people with social housing tenancies in places like Rochdale will be able to transfer their tenancy to somewhere they can also find a better job.
We shouldn't regard the population distribution created by the Industrial Revolution as something we have to preserve for ever.
Checks notes.
26 point lead.
The irony is that Britain delivers as much - maybe more - in funds to its deprived regions than Germany does to East Germany.
But instead of productivity-generating infrastructure, it comes in the form of social services and sickness benefits.
Desperate places with no obvious remedy
However at least in America there is that sense of freedom, if you live in Shit-hole Indiana, just get in your car and drive south and west. And Italy has the sun which helps - tho it can still be fucking grim even in the sun, in parts of Sicily and Calabria etc
In rundown UK you have a unique combo of shit weather, hopeless economics, and a sense of being trapped. And lots of ugly red brick new builds making it EVEN WORSE
Britain needs a population of about 25-30m, with 10m in London (which still functions well). Pull down every ugly town and turn them into forests
The good news is that AI will create productivity and profit and provide the cash to fix problems.
But that still leaves the question of what so many towns are for. Rochdale isn't getting its cotton industry back. Gosport isn't going to be serving the Royal Navy again. Romford isn't getting a massive, town-defining market back.
Suitably done up, they all have potential as agreeable places to live while workers commute to Manchester/Portsmouth/London. But what town wants to be a commuter dormitory, or a hub for digital nomads? It may be rational, but it's not emotionally desirable.
And a lot of the appeal of British Populism is older people lamenting their lost youth. Even when it's their decisions at the ballot box and the checkout that brought us here.
Make it easy for people to move to the work, instead of futilely trying to bring work to where people happen to live because of an accident of history.
(thanks, RP, really good piece)
He said that his reception was pretty much "We don't want your factory" - it sounded as if, to him, that the local politicians didn't want change.
Then he went to the Far East. At check-in at Heathrow, he discovered that his Business Class ticket had been upgraded to First by the government of the country he was going to look at.....
See also voting for cesspits like Johnstone and Farage cos anti democratic Libtards are stealing our Brexit etc. Strangely those voters tend to get more sympathy on PB.
Will be interesting to see how London HQ and Slab relationship develops, as the central control will be even tighter. It's not as if most of the candidates have a track record as MPs, so haven't been through the mill yet.
Median age of 27, almost no fat people, constant fast growth, superb food, and still plenty of kids (TFR: 2.7)
You have to go somewhere like that to truly understand how depressing life is becoming in the West (it's not just the UK, by any means)
It is so annoying to see Galloway back. But, hopefully it will be just a short encore for a fairly dismal man.
I get that the Israel / Gaza situation is terrible, but I don’t think Galloway will be able to exploit over the longer term in the way the RESPECT party could surf on a wave of anger about the war in Iraq. When all said and done we aren’t doing the fighting. And even though RESPECT were a coherent party for a time I think they only picked up a few councillors in addition to Galloway’s seat in Bethnal Green and Bow.
So while Rochdale Pioneers is right that this may frighten Labour into timidity. I don’t think they should be. This feels like a passing shower.
Mind they should make sure they get a bit better on the vetting. As I have said before what I found annoying was not simply that the prospective Labour candidate said something anti-Semitic, it was also so dumb.
Labour, assuming they win, are going to inherit a tough situation - and the current administration appear hell bent on salting the earth. The country will need a higher calibre of ministers than we currently have to turn the corner. I appreciate the by-election was unplanned. But if this is calibre of folk Labour are putting up for safer contests god help us.
IF you are trapped in Rustbucket, Indiana, then it’s a mighty long distance to somewhere else. Nonetheless, you’re absolutely correct that America always offers someplace better, often down south where housing costs are cheap.
Britain makes it very hard to move (housing costs, stamp duty, council housing waiting lists etc).
And I have to agree on the ugly red brick new builds. Is that what aspiration looks like in the UK, now?
What the hell is the point of bettering yourself when what’s on offer looks like that Nottingham “executive home” posted before, on sale for nearly £600k?
What if it's Boris?
Another red herring, among many.
As for Galloway. Like Mike Harding said. "It's hard being a cowboy in Rochdale".
Evesham has been weirdly crap for quite a long time
We have fucked the country with mass immigration on a spectacularly thoughtless scale, and from all the wrong places. That's really all there is to it. There is no point in lying to ourselves any more. The election of a sectarian MP campaigning on aggressively Muslim issues simply underlines this
And this is unfuckable. Roll on the AI Apocalypse
Am on the (overground) train. Ticket inspector (guard?) came through. Opposite me is a young (18-25 I'd say), IC3 male, sort of not quite an afro, smartly enough dressed, backpack on the seat next to him. He showed his ticket and then the guard asked him for his railcard.
So far so good.
Then he asked for my ticket, which I showed him (on my phone, @Anabobazina don't panic) and....HE DID NOT ASK ME FOR MY RAILCARD.
(And without doxxing myself, and for reference, I am not a young IC3 male.)
If we imagine an alternate reality of low immigration to Britain, Rochdale would still be in an awful mess.
Ellwood said the contest should have been an “easy win for Labour”. He added: “I read some of his literature — they are so full of hate. They are designed to rally fear, they are designed to cause division.”
Ellwood concluded: “This was a very, very horrible by-election to watch.”"
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/by-election-results-live-rochdale-tory-labour-latest-news-george-galloway-azhar-ali-d5lqr0k37
P.S. I used to have a 'SOUTH EAST RAILCARD' – on my phone, praise be, so I never forgot it.
For really cookin' it, use a core made from "civil plutonium". A 20% core will radiate 100 watts....