john07
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Post by john07 on Apr 19, 2024 13:38:43 GMT
Labour supporters are a llaw unto themselves. Is llaw the Welsh for Law?
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Post by john07 on Apr 19, 2024 12:36:18 GMT
Apart from anything else the residential rule could easily be got around by moving in or acquiring an accommodation address within the constituency.
My former Constituency in Leicester East had this issue. Keith Vaz, a Christian born in Aden of Goan origin, living in London, was parachuted in by the party centrally to get the Asian vote. The sleazeball appeared to move into the constituency pretty sharply. He appears to be still chair of the CLP now.
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Post by john07 on Apr 19, 2024 8:18:27 GMT
It would mean massive competitions in seats with major maternity hospitals, and limited competition in some rural constituencies where local medical opinion strongly opposed home births. I noticed years back that a massive number of Scottish footballers appeared to have been born in Bellshill. This really puzzled me as to why. That was until someone pointed out that the main maternity hospital for Glasgow and much of the west central belt was in Bellshill.
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Post by john07 on Apr 19, 2024 0:53:52 GMT
Meanwhile, I'd love to know what prior link Yvette Cooper claimed to Pontefract, Normanton and Castleford, or indeed what the Norwich born and raised Ed Balls had to Morley and Outwood! Cooper was of course a well connected political insider appointed at the last minute by the NEC without the local party having a say - a common occurrence in the Labour Party. I believe her only tenuous connection was that her grandfather had been a miner. Bloody hell, do you have to have been born in a Constituency to stand there? That would rule out a very large proportion of MPs and candidates. Having said that there are serious problems with the current political culture in all parties. We all know that large numbers of candidates for Labour are parachuted in after being councillors in Islington or, more likely SPADs. That is the current trends that are increasing making being an MP somewhat restricted to political insiders. There is almost the creation of a political 'caste'. This may go some way to explaining why they sometimes make such a bollox of things.
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john07
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Post by john07 on Apr 18, 2024 22:16:42 GMT
The old County boundaries do not provide the best way to define economic zones. Glossop certainly is functionally part of the Greater Manchester conurbation along with the likes of New Mills. Dronfield would be a better fit for Yorkshire. Excluding Leicester from the East Midlands looks borderline insane. High Peak doesn't have council elections this year, I wonder how low turnout / how high protest votes might be in High Peak for the mayoral election. Of course being the bellwether Labour should win, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is a severe lack of enthusiasm from what is a traditionally high turnout area. I know BBC TV regions have their own sometimes ludicrous boundaries, but even Buxton, never mind Glossop, is part of the North West region. So they probably won't even get any news about the EMCA and will probably see more of Burnham day-to-day than any EMCA Mayor! Most of these issues can be traced back to the trashing of the Redcliffe Maud Report and cutting back the new Metropolitan areas to retain more of the shire areas. It took decades to sort the mess out and it is still not complete.
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Post by john07 on Apr 18, 2024 18:39:22 GMT
Mark Pack has an explanation of the differing figures. Please enlighten us.
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Post by john07 on Apr 18, 2024 18:31:24 GMT
Mad that this are will border with Greater Manchester. Another person for Andy to take pictures with. I wonder why Leicester wasn’t included too, as it’s often regarded as the remaining key city in the East Midlands (sorry Lincoln and Northampton, even if you’re not a city). And yes it feels a bit odd for all the rural northern hinterland to be included in a ‘metro mayor’ area but then again we will have York and North Yorks too. I blame it on the fact that the cities of Derby and Nottingham are sub-optimally right down at the south of their respective counties and not the middle like they should be, a la Leicester or Oxford (post-74!). I guess a more ‘metropolitan’ focussed mayoral area/CA ‘along the A52’ focussing on say Derby, Erewash, S Derbyshire, potentially Amber Valley, and Nottingham, Broxtowe, Gedling, Rushcliffe and Ashfield, would just cause conflict over the exact boundaries themselves. Given that the role primarily relates to transport and economic development a core East Midlands authority based on Nottingham, Derby, Leicester and their hinterlands would have made sense. Including Glossop, Chesterfield, Retford, etc in such an authority is utter madness. The old County boundaries do not provide the best way to define economic zones. Glossop certainly is functionally part of the Greater Manchester conurbation along with the likes of New Mills. Dronfield would be a better fit for Yorkshire. Excluding Leicester from the East Midlands looks borderline insane.
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Post by john07 on Apr 18, 2024 16:35:23 GMT
24% or 40%. That's more than the MoE isn't it. Yes, one must be pretty fundamentally wrong Or both?
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Post by john07 on Apr 18, 2024 14:28:54 GMT
Spotted in the Craven Herald & Pioneer: “Independent Keith Tordoff was originally the Yorkshire Party candidate but was deselected when he promised free chickens for 2,000 households.” It worked well for Mayor Daley (Senior) in Chicago. Mind you he had a cop go into the polling booth to make sure they voted for Daley first before handing over the chicken.
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Post by john07 on Apr 17, 2024 23:38:23 GMT
Since the housing problem is in the South, here's an idea, close Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, London City, Southampton, Bournemouth, Bristol and any I've missed, as well as the subsidised London Underground and Overground, build thousands of houses on the land, and make southern Liberal Democrats and Greens travel up to Birmingham and East Midlands to get their aircraft to Bali for their next conference on Net Zero. Bloody hell, you sound almost as deranged as slon!
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Post by john07 on Apr 17, 2024 23:24:26 GMT
Initially Blackpool was going to be a plate glass University. But Lancaster won through, given the Bailrigg campus. Rather too late for such now. If would be a better option to encourage the University of Central Lancashire to open a Blackpool campus. Cheap property prices could make it a decent option.
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Post by john07 on Apr 17, 2024 23:16:54 GMT
Fact of the day: Mark Menzies was on David Cameron's A List. A List of the Shite and the Perverts rather than the great and the good. Really where the hell to the Tories keep finding such MPs and candidates? I wonder if the Russians and Chinese have any involvement with such honey traps.
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Post by john07 on Apr 16, 2024 22:51:48 GMT
Which of these seats is consistent right the way through could someone please check some of these seats as the boundaries have been changed, if the majority of the seat it replaced voted for the governing party it should count. Since February 1974 Brighouse and Spenborough Northampton, North Portsmouth, North Since 1979 to be generous Basildon Brighouse and Spenborough Belper Hertford and Stevenage Dartford Loughborough Brigg and Scunthorpe Northampton, North Portsmouth, North Rossendale Staffordshire, Lichfield and Tamworth Watford Yorkshire (West Riding), Sowerby Going back to February 1974 is a rather rubbish way of identifying key marginals now. Back then the likes of Manchester Withington, Moss Side, etc. were seen as key seats. Equally once safe Labour mining constituencies have shifted to the Conservatives. The next election will probably rip-up the map of safe seats and marginals. I suspect that Labour will make sweeping gains in the South but the Conservatives may prove more resilient in some seats in the North. Scotland is very unpredictable and the Conservatives could actually gain a few seats if the predicted SNP to Labour shift happens. It could be a very fascinating election?
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Post by john07 on Apr 16, 2024 22:09:53 GMT
I have been to Blackpool many times, largely for Labour Party National Conferences, Regional Conferences, and other Party events. I did even go on holiday there as a child. The decline was there to see from the mid-1970s onwards. Both Blackpool seats were solid Conservative back then largely due to the ‘landladies vote’.
Over time they disappeared as more accommodation moved to self-catering lets. Meantime the place went consistently downhill. These trends have been mirrored in many coastal constituencies although the Brighton Constituencies and others in the South have bucked these trends.
Regenerating places such as Blackpool will be a major challenge for an incoming Labour Government.
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Post by john07 on Apr 16, 2024 17:17:30 GMT
I think that the only way that Street can win is to effectively distance himself from the national Conservative leadership. He has done a pretty decent job of edging towards that so far. But I am not sure that will be enough in the current climate.
Several of the MDCs in this area have certainly moved towards the Conservatives especially Walsall and Dudley as compared to when I lived in the West Midlands in the late 1970s.
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Apr 16, 2024 16:58:53 GMT
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Post by john07 on Apr 16, 2024 16:58:53 GMT
I know you don't use them - that's why Murray is further up the crank scale than you are. But, he does. Do you agree with what he says? You have implied that he's just anti-Zionist, but surely a formulation such as this says a great deal more than that. As I have said I don't think about the "crank scale". It's unlikely any party would support the Workers Party. Similarly I don't agree such about the 40% cabinet office. I don't agree about Starmer's views. I'm sure some left wing MP's disagree. Generally I supported Corbyn's views. Yet you initially supported Andy Burnham as party leader on here before switching to Corbyn when he started to build up support.
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Post by john07 on Apr 15, 2024 22:31:46 GMT
Liz Truss comparing herself to Brian Clough is utterly absurd, for the simple reason that prior to his 44-day stint at Leeds, Clough had already been incredibly successful by winning the League title at Derby County. What had Truss achieved of a similar magnitude prior to her 44-day stint in No. 10?? I can’t imagine what the staunch left-winger, Brian Clough, would have said if he was compared to a right-wing Pop-Con nut job.
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Post by john07 on Apr 14, 2024 23:30:27 GMT
I voted for Ed Miliband when he stood and was elected.
I voted for Yvette Cooper against Corbyn.
I then voted for Owen Smith although I now can’t recall who he was or what he stood for.
I certainly did vote for Keir Starmer.
As for Deputy Leaders I am struggling to recall who I voted for.
I have vague recollections of voting for Caroline Flint and later for Angela Rayner.
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Post by john07 on Apr 14, 2024 23:00:54 GMT
It looks like a proper effort given one of their candidates gives an address in Durham (I suppose Sunderland is in Durham). It was, anyway, and in pre-1983 general election studies both Sunderland constituencies were listed under County Durham. Also Durham City and the surrounding area was noted as an area for Sunderland support as opposed to Newcastle United. It is on Wearside after all! It’s rather different now due to outmigration to County Durham from Newcastle to areas such as Chester-le-Street. Sorry hijack the Black Country thread.
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Post by john07 on Apr 14, 2024 22:49:00 GMT
He's in the Lords isn't he So was Alec Douglas Home and Tony Benn?
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