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Bucks has said that he is happy with how things stand politically at the moment and how Starmer, like Corbyn, is out of touch. That has got me thinking about Tory complacency towards the voters they won. There are signs that they do not fully understand why the red wall went to them, and this article hits it on the head for me:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/boris-s-red-wall-is-crumbling-before-his-eyes
Now, I am perfectly happy for the Tories to stick fingers in their ears, cover their eyes and take everything for granted, but I put this as a sign that you can’t speak on behalf of everyone else because the working classes voted for you when their values mismatch with what the party is doing. You can’t just blindly label everyone else an elite when your own views are elitist, as apparent with how the north has been treated.
Anyone up for the North declaring independence and appointing Andy Burnham as President? We’ve got Catterick Garrison and a good number of RAF bases and the submarines at Barrow.
Worth a try surely?
Makes sense to me NI. The article is good BRI, but it completely fails to address the main reasons why people in northern towns voted for the Tories.
It was Brexit, and the politicians Johnson, Gove, Raab, Rees Mogg and Farage knew what buttons to press. We all know what those buttons were and still are!!
The hatred in the north for MPs who argued against Brexit like Cooper and Creagh has not gone away. The Brexit disciples have now added Covid conspiracy theories to their sudden political awakening. Not only are they experts on world trade and surviving on tariffs, they are now self appointed masters of microbiology and pandemics.
Their hatred of migrants has increased and Ms Patel knows this !!
So it’s far too simplistic and also a mistake to assume that the red wall has fallen in 2 weeks and that Burnham and Rotherham are the new heroes. And whilst Starmer has put Johnson under a lot of pressure with his seemingly can’t lose argument for circuit breakers, there are many northerners that are not happy with the current restrictions. It’s not clear that Burnham and Starmer are arguing for the same way forward.
Starmer can continue to make a case for circuit breakers, but he needs to be a lot stronger on what he proposes for financial support. He’s not helped much in this by Dodds, who doesn’t impress as shadow chancellor.
I understand your point about Burnham NI, but I’d rather not put him up on a pedestal for Johnson and his wretched set of carpetbaggers to take pot shots at and single him out. He’s representing the GMCA and the decision to resist going in to tier 3 has been taken the 10 council leaders of Gtr Gtr Manchester, including the tory MP for Bury South. He’s the spokesperson yes, but this demonising of Burnham by the Cabinet is inaccurate but tactical. And how the Bury South MP must love his fellow 20 southern tory MPs for that ‘We’re alright Jack’ letter! What a lovely bunch they are.
Makes sense to me NI. The article is good BRI, but it completely fails to address the main reasons why people in northern towns voted for the Tories.
It was Brexit, and the politicians Johnson, Gove, Raab, Rees Mogg and Farage knew what buttons to press. We all know what those buttons were and still are!!
The hatred in the north for MPs who argued against Brexit like Cooper and Creagh has not gone away. The Brexit disciples have now added Covid conspiracy theories to their sudden political awakening. Not only are they experts on world trade and surviving on tariffs, they are now self appointed masters of microbiology and pandemics.
Their hatred of migrants has increased and Ms Patel knows this !!
So it’s far too simplistic and also a mistake to assume that the red wall has fallen in 2 weeks and that Burnham and Rotherham are the new heroes. And whilst Starmer has put Johnson under a lot of pressure with his seemingly can’t lose argument for circuit breakers, there are many northerners that are not happy with the current restrictions. It’s not clear that Burnham and Starmer are arguing for the same way forward.
Starmer can continue to make a case for circuit breakers, but he needs to be a lot stronger on what he proposes for financial support. He’s not helped much in this by Dodds, who doesn’t impress as shadow chancellor.
Polls do suggest that the majority of the public do back tighter lockdown measures. The issue comes when there is a feeling that one region is being unfairly singled out over the others. Right now it seems that the north, the north-west in particular, has been unfairly hit and the resultant economic impetus to drive back recovery once it’s over is unlikely to be forthcoming. It’s the lack of clarity in reasoning as to why there is potential disgruntlement. When Exeter has been hit hard and is in tier one it rankles when northern areas are in tier three, despite being no worse.
There’s a bit of ire towards Manchester for opting out of tier 3, while Merseyside and Lancashire have seemingly accepted. I can understand the frustration, but it would be better served if these areas put up a united front to demand answers together, I feel.
Lancashire have accepted tier 3 because they believe they were offered a good enough financial package. Gtr Manchester don’t believe they have comparably to population. Also, Liverpool and parts of Lancashire like Burnley are reaching a critical point with hospital beds and key staff. Gtr Manchester isn’t, just yet, so their council leaders and Burnham are able to resist and fight for a decent and fair package. Steve Rotherham has reluctantly put Liverpool in tier 3 because he felt he had no choice. He has still produced a letter with Burnham and the North East equivalent (who I can’t remember the name of now) pleading with the government for another national lockdown. So, they are presenting a united front BRI, but some regions are not in a position to resist tier 3 without jeopardising lives. That would be politicising for the wrong reasons.
Burnham is right. The financial package for workers is not good enough. It only applies if you work 33% of the time and then the Government provides a contribution up to 67%. Gove and others are making it sound like they are paying 67% – they aren’t!!
Labour need to attack this useless Government- Gove today said it was OK to be paying daily rates of £7350 for consultants when the private test and trace is contacting less than 66%. Public Health teams are achieving 98% contact – yet 1 week’s fees for a Serco exec is about a year’s wage for the public sector.
I was thinking more of a united front among the public there rather than the Labour MPs alone.
Aye, I know NI. I’m just sensitive to the Tories demonising of Burnham.
Take your point BRI.
Look, I think Johnson will put Gtr Manchester in to tier 3 tomorrow and due to the worsening situation the GMCA will have to accept it. I would doubt very much council leaders would tell residents and businesses to ignore it.
So does anyone have a clue what the last 10 days of demonising Burnham and wasting yet more of taxpayers money paying “negotiators” to come up with a “deal” for Manchester was all about?
Burnham told them that businesses in Manchester needed more money, but Johnson and Hancock said that was out of the question. Johnson acts all “I’m in charge” and imposes the “deal” on Manchester on Tuesday.
And then sod me, Sunak announces on Thursday most of the support Burnham had been asking for over the wasted 10 days, not just for the Mancs but for the whole country!!
Johnson tries to make out that he couldn’t give Burnham more because he had to be fair to other areas. He’s turning out to be as thick as treacle and not very good at politics, confounded again by giving Rashford an MBE and then 2 weeks later refusing to pay for the free school meals. Political stupidity!!
And finally, we have today’s press conference where Johnson tries to claim that there are positive signs that his Tiers 1, 2 and 3 are starting to work.
Trouble with that is then Vallance presents a series of graphs showing skyscraper gradients and then making it clear to all that there are no signs of it working at all and deaths would rise fast and catch up in a couple of weeks time!!
Too stupid to know what’s going on and after 5 minutes off erring, Johnson states a circuit breaker national lockdown wouldn’t possibly work to get the RRRRRR down.
“We will get the RRRRRRRRRRRR down together. We’ve got the ŔŔRRRRRRRRRRRRRR down before and we will do it again” he boasts.
So stupid that he can’t remember that we got the ŔRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR down last time with a national lockdown.
“A national lockdown will never work” claims again our genius leader.
The 12 billion conservative donor £7320 per day consultant job creation world beating test and trace system is “helping a bit” he says. Working a bit????
In an early reminder that “Johnson claimed it will be alright by Christmas” is nearly here, Vallance makes it clear to all that “OH NO IT ISN’T”.
Not even a tiny weeny incy bit!!!
Last week David Davies said on Peston that the R rate went down in the first wave not because of the national lockdown but because it was seasonal. And now Johnson won’t say or doesn’t know what indicators will enable a tier 3 area to be downgraded to tier 2 or 1. Is it an R rate of less than 1? What is it?
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