|
|
Post by andrewteale on Jan 16, 2017 0:10:24 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on Jan 16, 2017 7:41:04 GMT
I think this is time to revive my proposal that the obvious place to send MPs while the Houses of Parliament are being renovated, is Stoke. It's got all the facilities of a city, housing is cheap, communications are good, it takes the pressure off London, and surely it would be a vote winner in Stoke itself, as well as acquainting many of our Conservative MPs with what the rest of the country looks like. Or indeed any MPs. I'm sure plenty of Tories know exactly what Stoke looks like given that it's nearly surrounded by Tory seats for whom Stoke is the regional centre... |
|
The Bishop
Labour
Down With Factionalism!
Posts: 38,952
Member is Online
|
Post by The Bishop on Jan 16, 2017 10:41:12 GMT
Shame he isn't going for the Labour nomination, tbh. |
|
|
|
Post by gwynthegriff on Jan 16, 2017 13:32:54 GMT
I think this is time to revive my proposal that the obvious place to send MPs while the Houses of Parliament are being renovated, is Stoke. It's got all the facilities of a city, housing is cheap, communications are good, it takes the pressure off London, and surely it would be a vote winner in Stoke itself, as well as acquainting many of our Conservative MPs with what the rest of the country looks like. Or indeed any MPs. I'm sure plenty of Tories know exactly what Stoke looks like given that it's nearly surrounded by Tory seats for whom Stoke is the regional centre... Not sure many Tories see Stoke as their regional centre. |
|
|
|
Post by timokane on Jan 16, 2017 20:49:24 GMT
Hope he gets the nomination. Can just see the spin doctors claiming he is only doing it for a shorter working week as a GP.  |
|
Foggy
Non-Aligned
Yn Ennill Yma
Posts: 6,137 
|
Post by Foggy on Jan 16, 2017 23:29:30 GMT
Hope he gets the nomination. Can just see the spin doctors claiming he is only doing it for a shorter working week as a GP. On the basis of that description of himself, 'Liverpudlian' and 'honorary Cubano' could certainly be spun against him too. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2017 23:45:38 GMT
I think this is time to revive my proposal that the obvious place to send MPs while the Houses of Parliament are being renovated, is Stoke. It's got all the facilities of a city, housing is cheap, communications are good, it takes the pressure off London, and surely it would be a vote winner in Stoke itself, as well as acquainting many of our Conservative MPs with what the rest of the country looks like. Looking at a political map of England and Wales it seems to me you are never that far from a Tory seat, whereas Labour are absent or almost absent from vast swathes of the country. Thus suggest it is Labour that needs to better acquaint itself with the country. |
|
Richard Allen
Banned
Four time loser in VUKPOTY finals
Posts: 19,052
|
Post by Richard Allen on Jan 17, 2017 0:51:20 GMT
Related: most people there do not spend all day raging about how ANGRY they are with THE ESTABLISHMENT and venting their DISILLUSIONED status. That's fantasy; pure middle class projection of one sort or another. Most people who don't vote (or don't vote often) in Stoke are like people with the same habits elsewhere; i.e. barely political and not interested. There is a certain element in the local electorate that is generally annoyed with the universe and votes all over the place to prove it, but it is a minority and quite a different set of people to those who barely/never vote. What really irritates me about the attitude displayed by some in this thread, and plenty of other elsewhere, is that Stoke is even less deserving of it than a fair few other post industrial northern/midlands cities and towns. If I were asked to list cities or towns that I would describe as angry, resentful or hostile to the outside/modern world then Stoke certainly wouldn't be in the top 10. As with most places that have seen a significant economic decline there is obviously a degree of anger and more than a touch of parochialism but not to the degree you can find elsewhere and certainly not to the degree that so many seem to assume. Some people seem to think that anywhere that elected BNP councillors is a simmering pot of resentment and hatred when in this case it was more reflective of the political dysfunction in the city than anything else. |
|
|
|
Post by Adam in Stroud on Jan 17, 2017 1:00:04 GMT
Related: most people there do not spend all day raging about how ANGRY they are with THE ESTABLISHMENT and venting their DISILLUSIONED status. That's fantasy; pure middle class projection of one sort or another. Most people who don't vote (or don't vote often) in Stoke are like people with the same habits elsewhere; i.e. barely political and not interested. There is a certain element in the local electorate that is generally annoyed with the universe and votes all over the place to prove it, but it is a minority and quite a different set of people to those who barely/never vote. What really irritates me about the attitude displayed by some in this thread, and plenty of other elsewhere, is that Stoke is even less deserving of it than a fair few other post industrial northern/midlands cities and towns. If I were asked to list cities or towns that I would describe as angry, resentful or hostile to the outside/modern world then Stoke certainly wouldn't be in the top 10. As with most places that have seen a significant economic decline there is obviously a degree of anger and more than a touch of parochialism but not to the degree you can find elsewhere and certainly not to the degree that so many seem to assume. Some people seem to think that anywhere that elected BNP councillors is a simmering pot of resentment and hatred when in this case it was more reflective of the political dysfunction in the city than anything else.I don't know Stoke or its famously odd politics, but instinctively that seems right, and true of a number of other political phenomena too. I suppose it is easier to say the electorate are embittered (= "wildly unreasonable") rather than admit that the place has been badly run. I would only modify that by saying that sometimes it is hard to run a place well if there are structural problems. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2017 1:04:38 GMT
Related: most people there do not spend all day raging about how ANGRY they are with THE ESTABLISHMENT and venting their DISILLUSIONED status. That's fantasy; pure middle class projection of one sort or another. Most people who don't vote (or don't vote often) in Stoke are like people with the same habits elsewhere; i.e. barely political and not interested. There is a certain element in the local electorate that is generally annoyed with the universe and votes all over the place to prove it, but it is a minority and quite a different set of people to those who barely/never vote. What really irritates me about the attitude displayed by some in this thread, and plenty of other elsewhere, is that Stoke is even less deserving of it than a fair few other post industrial northern/midlands cities and towns. If I were asked to list cities or towns that I would describe as angry, resentful or hostile to the outside/modern world then Stoke certainly wouldn't be in the top 10. I'm not sure I would have it in the top 10 in Staffordshire. |
|
|
|
Post by Merseymike on Jan 17, 2017 8:32:57 GMT
Everyone who says Tristram Hunt didn't fit Stoke Central should note that his Labour predecessors were an Old Etonian playwright, a university lecturer, and a Czech-Jewish doctor. And Stoke South MPs included a Cambridge graduate TV producer. Yet a pretty good case can be made that Fisher was a much better representative of the people of Stoke-on-Trent Central than Hunt has been. They were certainly different politically. Though a Tory MPS son Mark Fisher was always on the left of the Labour party. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2017 9:39:41 GMT
Whoever wins this may do so on a very low vote share.
|
|
The Bishop
Labour
Down With Factionalism!
Posts: 38,952
Member is Online
|
Post by The Bishop on Jan 17, 2017 11:36:26 GMT
Whoever wins this may do so on a very low vote share. Maybe, maybe not. |
|
|
|
Post by Devil Wincarnate on Jan 17, 2017 19:02:11 GMT
Related: most people there do not spend all day raging about how ANGRY they are with THE ESTABLISHMENT and venting their DISILLUSIONED status. That's fantasy; pure middle class projection of one sort or another. Most people who don't vote (or don't vote often) in Stoke are like people with the same habits elsewhere; i.e. barely political and not interested. There is a certain element in the local electorate that is generally annoyed with the universe and votes all over the place to prove it, but it is a minority and quite a different set of people to those who barely/never vote. What really irritates me about the attitude displayed by some in this thread, and plenty of other elsewhere, is that Stoke is even less deserving of it than a fair few other post industrial northern/midlands cities and towns. If I were asked to list cities or towns that I would describe as angry, resentful or hostile to the outside/modern world then Stoke certainly wouldn't be in the top 10. As with most places that have seen a significant economic decline there is obviously a degree of anger and more than a touch of parochialism but not to the degree you can find elsewhere and certainly not to the degree that so many seem to assume. Some people seem to think that anywhere that elected BNP councillors is a simmering pot of resentment and hatred when in this case it was more reflective of the political dysfunction in the city than anything else. Quite. It's a very friendly place despite its lot in life, deeply proud of its history of craftsmanship. It was unfortunate to be badly battered not just by its dependence on dying heavy industries but on changing fashions that did for mass production of quality pottery. If people want to see parochial nonsense and targetless anger, there's enough of that in the large cities north and south of it on the M6. |
|
|
|
Post by andrew111 on Jan 17, 2017 19:22:18 GMT
Well, i do not know Stoke at all but I sense it is rather similar to Sheffield, where I come from: a place of proud, friendly independent people but still trying to find an identity after the industry that sustained it for a couple of centuries largely disappeared..
I am still strangely proud of coming from "the Steel City"
Stoke has inexplicably enjoyed greater success in football for the last few years however!
|
|
|
|
Post by greenhert on Jan 17, 2017 19:37:19 GMT
Whoever wins this may do so on a very low vote share. I think that whoever wins will poll in four figures - I'll be surprised if anyone breaks 10,000. Definitely-Stoke-on-Trent Central has an electorate of around 60,000 and I estimate turnout will be lucky to reach 30% in this by-election in spite of the attention it will likely receive. Nevertheless this is one to watch. |
|
timmullen1
Labour
Closing account as BossMan declines to respond to messages seeking support.
Posts: 11,823
|
Post by timmullen1 on Jan 17, 2017 19:51:55 GMT
As a born and bred Stokie, who's lived here for 51 of my 51 years and 11 months, I'd say that there is a parochialism that holds us back; I'd go as far as saying even someone from Stoke North/South/Newcastle-under-Lyme would be regarded as an outsider.
Just a point on the Mark Fisher/Tristram Hunt comparison, I don't think Tristram's background particularly worked against him in the electorate, he worked hard to immerse himself in local issues and probably "talked Stoke up" more than either Fisher or the other outsider, Rob Flello, and attracted less criticism locally than Fisher who was something of an absentee landlord type MP. His problem, as Phil Burton-Cartlege outlines in his blog, was the manner of his "imposition" left a lingering resentment within the CLP that never went away. I
|
|
|
|
Post by greenchristian on Jan 17, 2017 19:56:41 GMT
As a born and bred Stokie, who's lived here for 51 of my 51 years and 11 months, Where did you live for the other 11 months? |
|
|
|
Post by gwynthegriff on Jan 17, 2017 19:56:56 GMT
As a born and bred Stokie, who's lived here for 51 of my 51 years and 11 months, I'd say that there is a parochialism that holds us back; I'd go as far as saying even someone from Stoke North/South/Newcastle-under-Lyme would be regarded as an outsider. Indeed. It's the sort of place where newly-weds get a nosebleed if they move more than 3 streets from their parents' home. And where Stoke fans get more pleasure from a Vale defeat than from a Stoke victory, and vice-versa. |
|
|
|
Post by gwynthegriff on Jan 17, 2017 19:57:57 GMT
As a born and bred Stokie, who's lived here for 51 of my 51 years and 11 months, Where did you live for the other 11 months? 44 years of Potters' holidays? |
|
