dpb

[QUOTE=Felix.;12065082]And who do you suggest as an alternative?

Labour - One minute they are recruiting 10,000 police (costing £300,000) then suddenly its 25,000 costing £80m. They will also negotiate a brexit deal and vote against their own deal in the commons.

Lib Dem - Tuition fess, Chuka Umunna who changes his mind daily

[/https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.i...131.html%3famp


if I were you I’d fact check everything,first

dpb

Got to love lafarge , doing his best for another referendum

coolangatta

Farage has just sabafaraged Brexit.

trails

iTrader: (41)

Closet remainer

BMWhere?

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/a...ns-market-bets

This is why Boris was so insistent on leaving on Halloween, he was trying to protect is friends investments!

coolangatta

I'm out. Always have been and proud of it.
There's nothing to hide about being a remainer. It's as legitimate as being a leaver.
Do you think it's somehow subversive?

trails

iTrader: (41)

Ouch. That will have hurt. Shame

trails

iTrader: (41)

Probably best to go read at least the last couple of pages before getting your junk out on the bar

coolangatta

Oh I see! Touche! ��

trails

iTrader: (41)

dpb

Tories rather flog off vhasly under funded NHS to yanks or indeed anybody

over taxing thier well off voters

horrendous

Felix.

In a general election I have always voted to elect my local mp based on local issues

BMWhere?

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-50294569

So why doesn't Boris want us to see this before the election?

trails

iTrader: (41)

And there is this related piece of mind-boggling fek-wittery too

Felix.

A problem you might find is that on local issues, the conservatives have the better policies etc etc

Our current labour MP for example has done nothing that was promised back in 2017 and the conservative candidate is now campaigning on things that the local community want.
So where we are, most will favour a conservative MP

dpb

So in the local elections you'll be voting on the whoever holds the right message nationally?

Felix.

No, I'll be voting for who ever holds the right message locally, as local issues will effect me daily.

trails

iTrader: (41)

Do you mean "the conservatives are more closely aligned to the way I think things should be" because policy being better is subjective.

Campaigning at election time, well who would have thunk it; they all do that Felix

I am zero political allegiance btw; I'm a devil's advocate floater

Felix.

Our current Labour MP in 2017 promised loads of things which simply have not happened:

Cut local GP waiting times - they have gone up
Easier access to GP - local surgeries closed down and longer waiting times
Safer & efficient A&E departments - nope, less staff, less security, more locked doors so everyone is herded into a small waiting room

to name but a few

So, why should I vote for their re-election?

BMWhere?

Actually, on many local issues, it is the local council that has more impact on local issues than your local MP does. There is also lots of party political gamesmanship that go on at a local council level, particularly if your local council is run by the opposition party, they pass blame onto the government when in reality its the local council that is failing and the public rarely blame the council.

It isn't always like that though. My home town of Preston has a Labour council and a Labour MP for the city centre and they are doing a fantastic job - The high street is booming and there is fantastic local investment and development supported by the local council. The principle of what they are doing in Preston was taken from Cleveland (USA) and has been adapted for the local needs and is known in the UK as the Preston model. I don't get home very often, but it means I really notice the difference when I do go back - I visited the city centre in June this year and the previous visit to the centre was probably around 6 years before that, the change to the city centre is amazing and really bucking the trend of the decline of the high street. It is now Labour policy to implement the Preston model throughout the UK. It takes some time for the benefits to become apparent and it may not work everywhere, but they are certainly doing something right in Preston!

Here's a couple of interesting articles about the Preston model.
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...k-back-control
https://neweconomics.opendemocracy.n...pal-socialism/
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2...very-rust-belt

What is interesting, is this was not Labour policy when they introduced it, it was the idea of one young Labour Councillor who had the charisma to sell the idea to the council who were then willing to take the risk and give the idea a go and it is now paying dividends. I wouldn't vote for Corbyn in a general election, but I would now vote for Labour in a local election because they're doing a great job in my home city. For me, home is actually in a village 10 miles out of Preston, but the effects of the Preston model are even starting to pay dividends there too with new businesses also opening in the village and a thriving village life that I haven't seen since the early 90's!

The point is, not everything that is going wrong locally is the governments fault. Local councils also have a big say in local policy, but like the government passes the buck for their failures onto the EU, local councils blame their failures on the government - it's always easier to blame the next one up the chain than admit responsibility for your own failures!

trails

iTrader: (41)

It's entirely down to you who you vote for, it's really of no concern to me at all...but what I will say is Tory austerity for us poor peons has influenced all your examples, so do we need a money tree?

Felix.

Well Theresa May said she had one once

Felix.

That's great and good to hear - so your local MP and Council are doing a good job. Are people are seeing the proof of their hard work
So I would suggest that the majority of people we re-elect in December

Now, if Preston had a Conservative MP and Council and achieved similar results - you would imagine that they would get re-elected

In our local area the opposite is true, the current MP (Labour) has not fulfilled any of his promises and the council (Labour) have not implemented anything either.

So I think where we are, there will be a change

BMWhere?

The issue is, any local MP will generally have little influence in tackling local issues that are in essence local council policy. It is not your local MPs job to influence local policy, but to influence national policy in the interest of the local population. The big problem is, the majority of people are not aware of what is local policy and what is national policy and often vote for their MP based on local issues which they have almost no ability to change.

dpb

2 years is a very short amount time to turn anthing around

btw I think youll find waiting lists are up and surgery places are down almost everywhere - cos gps would rather retire early


our local gp is going to Aus next year

trails

iTrader: (41)

I'd imagine you would keep quiet if you did have one...

Felix.

But nothing has happened in those 2 years - in some cases things have got worse.

BMWhere?

The Preston model has taken nearly 10 years to see the benefits and turn things around. Things got worse before they got better!
Even if changes have been made locally, if things are in serious decline they will continue to decline until the policy changes have a chance to take effect.

The conservative governments policy of Austerity and American style free market capitalism has certainly had a massively negative effect on the country and Tory infighting and inability to compromise over Brexit for the last three years means many serious issues are just not being addressed. Universal credit, while being a good idea in principle, has also been a total disaster in its implementation and made things much harder for many people. The Tories and their party infighting have been an absolute disaster for the country over the last 10 years and they need to go!

Sadly Corbyn is a terrible alternative (where is Blair when you need him!). While his current direction for Brexit may be a sensible compromise for both remain and leave sides, his other policies are largely crazy and could be equally as damaging for the UK as Brexit is. The Lib Dems offer the best economic balance at the moment, but even as a remainer, I don't really agree that article 50 should be directly revoked (although I wouldn't necessarily complain if it was!) - if we want to revoke article 50, then the fairest way would be as a result of a direct referendum on a specific deal (rather than the all encompassing unicorn of the last referendum) or remain - actually Labours election policy. Maybe a Lib/Lab coalition would be the best result!

dpb

I dearly hope Swinson isnt mad enough to rule this out

dpb

Boris and the brick

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...homes-17201102