I wasn't sure if to put this here or in the Labour thread, but I think it says more about Tory machinations. https://www.theguardian.com/politic...-puts-inquiry-into-sue-gray-departure-on-hold In short, Tory ministers spent the weekend briefing their friendly journalists all about the likely outcome of this Cabinet Office investigation. Leaks galore and the findings were everywhere. Then nothing appeared and it now seems a decision has been taken not to publish the outcome. Some might think this was suspicious behaviour in an election week... And that's before we dig into why Boris' man Simon Case is carrying out a parallel investigation which seems to be designed solely to provide ammunition for the government to use against Labour, given the actual appointment is being looked at by a quasi-independent body.
Hopefully, we shall hear what happens tomorrow. Because, if I’ve learned nothing else over the past decade, it’s that Boris Johnson is a man of his word.
He looks like he could do with a bit more fibre in his diet. Unfortunately Meister Manor is not having elections so we can't oust the albino ape and he himself will not be voting either.
Starting to feel rather desperate for the Tories when Sunak has to use stuff like this at PMQs: Rishi Sunak said the Conservatives are "delivering" locally with "lower council tax, lower crime and fewer potholes". Would be amazed if this kind of thing matches with a single voter's experience. And very weird/tone deaf to mention potholes - there are few things at a local level that annoy people more, and roads are clearly in a far worse state than a few years back. It's something that people really do notice too, as they drive over them every day, shuddering their bones. Don't tell me you're sorting potholes out across the country when I've had two punctures this winter from hitting giant potholes in poorly lit roads!
To be honest certainly for meister manor the Tory council are doing a decent job. Council tax bills were static for circa 10 years until the last round and only a modest rise. I've twice reported potholes in the last year and both times they've been fixed within a fortnight. We get rubbish, recyling, garden waste and kitchen waste collected once a week for no aditional cost. Neighbouring council Harrow recently turned Tory from Labour due to financial issues, poor services and rising prices. On a local level Sunak is right, certainly as far as my area is concerned. There's no voting in London boroughs however and the shitshow that is the national leadership may well kill off decent performing local councils.
Nothing the Tories like better than feathering their own nests. Have a look into how funding of Tory councils compares to funding of non-Tory councils. Labour councils were hit hardest by cuts related to austerity policies. The banding of Council Tax also favours councils with a higher proportion of the more valuable properties. A rigged system really ought to be able to convince those who are already going to vote Tory that they're getting a great deal. Incredible how fixing a couple of potholes quickly will do it. Anyone would think they are already several steps ahead of you in knowing what works for them.
Shamefully this works. Starve a Labour authority of funds and then feed on the resentment of local people to get them to vote them out. Then when you have a Tory leader, put a little more in, especially vanity projects. Levelling Up has thoroughly characterised the Tory approach to governance. It’s not a mission to help the Country. It’s simply money to reward their mates, their POV, their votes. Someone will doubtless be along soon to claim (without evidence or logic) that’s just politics, Labour does the same etc. but this is a particularly Johnson and post Johnson phenomena.
They seem to go to a lot of effort to mend the potholes but five minutes after the workmen have packed up and gone home the craters are back
Eventually there will be so many craters we can live in them, as in this prophetic, visionary sci fi.
That’s what I liked about it. Existential loneliness on a tiny planet, unable to comprehend an indifferent and enormous universe, eating nothing but soup. Waiting for Godot for kids.
I can’t stand the current Tories, but if I were a betting man I’d have a tidy sum that these labour councils hit hardest due to “austerity” policies were the ones that did very tidily out of the Blair/Brown years and you are just cherry picking your dates.
I’ve not looked up the data for those years, mainly because public services were not cut to the bone then. Maybe Labour’s central government did fund Labour councils well. The main difference was that back then the non-Labour councils were not simultaneously starved of cash for ideological reasons and their communities allowed to decay. It just strikes me that this sort or “yeah but what about” argument gives a free pass for bad policies that make things worse. The evidence is in front of our eyes. A disruptive, destructive central government has led not to an exciting, go-ahead Gordon Gecko-type country but simply to disruption and destruction. Compared to 15 years ago, this country is an absolute mess and, in the main, we shrug and let the people who designed it to be this way carry on.
The politicisation of funding appears to have accelerated. Cameron’s Government hacked away at funding across the board during austerity, but when he wrote to his own Council asking why they were cutting services it was clear from the reply he received that his Tory Council felt aggrieved at the cuts it had to make and had received no special favours. Since Johnson, however, every penny is political. It’s been a cynical attempt to punish Labour voters and reward Tory cronies, with the Levelling Up Fund the worst example. So, yes, you can only claim they are all as bad as each other if you are happy with the current state of affairs.
Just toddled down to the polling booth to vote. The tellers sitting there, as ever, asking for information they're not entitled to and watching as voter after voter assumes they're some sort of vital part of the democratic process. As I came out, an older lady was reaching into her purse for her ID. 'You don't have to show these guys anything. Just go straight through if you want to vote.' She looked stunned and said: 'Oh I thought I had to show my ID.' It's not up to the tellers to say what is or isn't permitted ID, I said. Funny how a photographic student ID card isn't a permitted form of ID too.
If you are turned away outside. nobody records it. If you ask for a voting slip and they refuse because no ID they have to record it. Which polling station was this? I've got a few hours to kill.
I wasn't really a fan of that either. I'll try to watch a few episodes on Youtube this afternoon and see if I was being a bit hasty
We are living in a perfectly normal country and in perfectly normal times, pass it on: https://twitter.com/jonlis1/status/1655280878728237057
8-1 to 13-2 is not odds being ‘slashed’. It’s a mild market move that could be occasioned by a few hairy-eared old gents in the shires putting down £20 each because they fancy her rotten. The fact that wasp chewing, hate mail in shoes, Kemi Badenoch is favourite is way more indicative something is badly awry.
Rishi Sunak and Mrs Rishi spotted in Rickmansworth this morning. Driving a white Range Rover with the number plate 'R15HI'. Oh dear
Boris Johnson reported to have ‘squared up’ to the then Prince Charles last year after he had criticised Johnson’s Rwanda plan as ‘appalling’. This from Johnson’s former Press Chief, Guto Harri. Apparently there was considerable animosity between the two after one occasion when Johnson left Charles waiting for him when they were due to meet. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...ng-over-rwanda-plan-claims-former-press-chief
I know relations are frosty between the Palace and De Pfeffel (the government?) over the prorogation omnishambles as when Buck House raised concerns over the legality of it they were assured that the decision was "...watertight...".
I'm not sure this stuff isn't just the latest saga is "Operation Save Big Dog" - remember De Pfeffel's 'career' (sic.) is pretty much over with the pronouncements to come in a fortnight: Boris Johnson became 'suspicious' of Sue Gray as she carried out her inquiry, says Guto Harri
Sue Gray may or may not have been totally impartial, but there isn’t a possible universe where Johnson wouldn’t have felt threatened, because he so obviously lied. No 10 was ‘Party Central’. However, if the Tories felt Gray wasn’t impartial, surely they didn’t need to endorse her report and the facts therein? Strikes me they felt she was establishment and would pull her punches. However, is Harri really part of ‘Save Big Dog’ or is he just a hack, running out of options and cashing in?
Remember De Pfeffel's "Darius Guppy tape" (and I'm commenting on the tape's content merely the recording's existence)? De Pfeffel's renowned for always keeping the 'receipts'.
