The Labour Government

[The Future’s Blue!]

Have they had a reshuffle yet?

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

He’ll change his mind……

 

[Hertzblue]

Is it the Russian Home owners that you are objecting to ? The ones who funded the Conservative Party so they could acquire close on 2000 mansions ..... no thought not

Mansions owned by Russian oligarchs including 'Billionaire Row' pad

So many billionaires from the former Soviet Union have bought property in the capital it’s got the nickname ‘Londongrad’

www.mylondon.news

Social housing v Oligarch size mansions . Wtf are u talking about ?

 

[hilts]

He’ll change his mind……

Guy doesn't know what a women is, a disability is or being cold feels like. He's an adult though.

And when he comes out from under his four poster bed he'll sort it out in an adult fashion.

 

[Hertzblue]

Some people bring facts and figures to an argument, others bring a ‘haha’. Got anything more substantial?

You don't practice what you preach Bob.
Here is my reply to you from some weeks ago, still no reply from you on facts and figures.


A bit less hand wringing and a bot more maths please Bob. I don't doubt you could put your mind to it but you know won't like the conclusion.

 

[Hertzblue]

I absolutely agree that it's changed - and I'm not disagreeing that it's not a great place to be poor. But do you think it's poor immigrants who have driven the situation?

Over 50% sounds high, but not sure it's unfairly so. The last census had the figure at 47%, which is high, but then the foreign born population of London was around 41% at the time. Given the huge numbers of very poor people in London, I'd assume foreign born people are overrepresented at the poorer end, so even 47% may well mean they're underrepresented in terms of taking up social housing.

But I doubt we'd be in this situation if London hadn't been gobbling up wealth, house prices hadn't rocketed to match the higher paid jobs, social housing hadn't been sold off, and the "middle" hadn't been forced out of the city. You don't get poor people from other parts of the country moving to London, but the beast sucks in poor and young people from around the world to support the service sector. They may end up as London's new poor, but they're their because nobody else is desperate to move into poor quality, shared accommodation, and work for minimum wage (or less).

An ex-City boy like Farage made his money in London, but prefers the poor to blame other poor people, rather than take any responsibility himself.

Given what I told you in my previous reply of my location I would have thought it might have been prudent to move away from telling me how it is in London. But no...
I don't think you get the London thing and I haven't time but correct me if If I am wrong ...

You are saying that that over 50% of social housing in London being occupied by foreign born tenants isn't enough, they should be given more .
Really ?

 

[Don Karleone]

Have they had a reshuffle yet?

Not yet, but it sounds like it's on its way.

 

[inbetween]

Not that Im particularly bothered about Lincolnshire, but where do you get the impression that they didnt want motorways ? The M180 motorway runs across north Lincolnshire so they were pretty poor at not wanting them. The reason they dont have motorways is because the population density is low, hence it wasn't a viable investment when the major motorways were built in the 50s and 60s.

The main industry in Lincolnshire is agriculture, this is historic as the land is fertile and in turn it produces 30% of the nations vegetables and 18% of the nations poultry. Greater London on the other hand produces zero. The adage you dont judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree comes to mind, construct it a fish ladder though and it can have a go (this is what investment does). Maybe areas outside London should charge a very large tariff for generating all the electricity or for supplying them food, that might start to push money into other areas of the UK.

As regards overall investment, if motorways were the answer then Castleford (again somewhere I dont give a toss about) should be a mecca for investment. M1 less than 4 miles away, A1M less than 2 miles away, M62 runs through it. Does it get high tech industries, banking, high value jobs ? Nope it gets low paid warehouse jobs. It remains somewhere that was left to rot when the mining industry closed.

The only reason London and the South East generate so much money is because of the investment over many decades, M25 and the major arterial roads, fast and efficient rail networks and the trickle down economy within and from London. Hell HS2 was canned for the northern section, but surprise, surprise the bit from Birmingham to London is horrendously over budget and still being built, most of the cost due to nimbys in the home counties. Crossrail (Elizabeth Line) was horrendously over budget, but because it was in London, well it had to be done whatever it cost. The latest investments Lower Thames crossing, 3rd Runway at Heathrow will just increase the disparity.

Meanwhile, Transpennine keeps cutting back on what it was intending to do, the Northern Powerhouse funding for rail and road is getting cut back and probably more following the spending review. Yet Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds all have great universities, with a pool of talented people. Do they stay in the area and build companies and wealth for the area ? No they graduate and work in London, just like I did at one point, because outside of working on a building site or in a factory there were bugger all opportunities and many years later its still the same, but the factories are replaced by warehouses.

Dont get me wrong I like London its a great city and I have plenty of friends who live there, but bring them out of London and let them use the shite infrastructure we have up north and they soon get frustrated when trains and buses run once an hour, not to mention how dilapidated most of it is.

The greatest problem in the UK and Europe for that matter is access to capital. This is why the US has such a powerful tech sector where even a risky startup there can grab a few million without breaking a sweat. That happens because venture capital in the US stakes on 10 horses with 1-2 hitting the jackpot. There is no equivalent in the UK unless you went to private school and can lean on your mate who knows a friend of his dad.

People here therefore really have to believe that the only chance of getting the minimum capital for their startup is through risking it all themselves first only to then hand most of it over to those tossers on Dragons Den.

I don't know how to fix this. An infrastructure boom would be ideal but we're so far behind that I'm not sure if we're already a lost cause, maybe we always have been and that's why we get nothing. You only have to travel to places like Germany where the regionalisation is fantastic and it's sad really how horrendous things are in comparison.

London will always continue to dominate whilst we feed off the scraps and without huge change the only impact that big government has is whether those scraps are miniscule or tiny. To people in the north it therefore really doesn't matter whether the government of the day is the Tories, Labour or Willy Wonka.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

You only have to travel to places like Germany where the regionalisation is fantastic and it's sad really how horrendous things are in comparison.

To be fair, there's still a huge split between former East and West Germany on most measures of prosperity. Admittedly they've got more of an excuse than us.

 

[Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese]

To be fair, there's still a huge split between former East and West Germany on most measures of prosperity. Admittedly they've got more of an excuse than us.

Interesting as that wealth inequality is also leading to the rise of the far right in the poorer areas.
I wonder how far the super wealthy are prepared to push us all towards that precipice.

 

[blueinsa]

Interesting as that wealth inequality is also leading to the rise of the far right in the poorer areas.
I wonder how far the super wealthy are prepared to push us all towards that precipice.

All the country wants and needs is a Labour government to wake up and smell the coffee.

They have it within their power to make the next 4 years a relative success and whilst the global picture is difficult, they can still make sound and morally right decisions domestically that the majority can look at and say they have at last, a government that cares about the majority and not just the few.

 

[BlueHammer85]

All the country wants and needs is a Labour government to wake up and smell the coffee.

They have it within their power to make the next 4 years a relative success and whilst the global picture is difficult, they can still make sound and morally right decisions domestically that the majority can look at and say they have at last, a government that cares about the majority and not just the few.

But they will constantly be attacked and no recognition of any success will be acknowledged.
Already they've come in a stopped the NSH strikes, Train strikes, reformed the workers rights bill, increased minimum wage, increased national living wage, launched housing reform and security for tenants, renters rights bill, breakfast clubs being introduced in schools, interest cuts dropping like a stone, binned the failed Rwanda plan, record deportations, working on getting border control bill through parliament, set up child poverty taskforce, NHS waiting list coming down... and more.. yet who gives a shit ? it's just 'we want something different' and 'they're letting migrants stay in hotels' so basically whatever Labour achieve won't be enough, just years of outrage and moaning from the likes of Big Joe on here until we get the one slimy twat who has caused more harm to this country than anyone in power.

 

[bluenova]

People working hard, getting on and paying a shit load of tax are to blame then?

Have I really reduced you to such a simplistic argument ;)

If you read my initial post, "London" is to blame. It sucks in the countries wealth but then distributes is in a ridiculous way. The OP was blaming immigrants for living in social housing in London, and taking that away from people who were born in the UK. I disagree, because it's simply a symptom of the broken city.

If you want me to play your game, then, on balance, the people with the power are more responsible than those at the bottom without it. Immigrants doing low paid service sector jobs aren't the ones who have driven regular Londoners from the city over the last few decades. It's almost impossible to work in retail, hospitality, security, cleaning or any of the other sectors that London needs to survive, and have anything like the kind of living conditions that would be normal elsewhere in the UK.

 

[blueinsa]

But they will constantly be attacked and no recognition of any success will be acknowledged.

Welcome to the world of politics.

As for the rest of your spin doctor, scripted regurgitated post, listen to the mood music and the public. The vast majority are not feeling any sort of benefit. Too many are feeling even more pain from a government they never thought would hurt them financially.

Roll back on WFA, PIP immediately and start to tax those that can most afford it and not go after the lowest in society.

This is a Labour government in name only as things stand!

 

[bluenova]

Given what I told you in my previous reply of my location I would have thought it might have been prudent to move away from telling me how it is in London. But no...
I don't think you get the London thing and I haven't time but correct me if If I am wrong ...

You are saying that that over 50% of social housing in London being occupied by foreign born tenants isn't enough, they should be given more .
Really ?

You could live on the moon, and still not understand it's geology :)

That's a joke by the way - I wasn't being critical of your post, or the realities of life - simply that I don't believe immigration is the reason that London is in that situation, and I explained why I thought that was the case.

If you disagree, why not tell me how you think immigrants are driving the situation in London? If they all left, would people from the surrounding areas rush in to fill those service sector jobs, and live in poor quality shared housing?

ps. With social housing, I said that the most recent stats I could find, are that 41% of the population of London are foreign born, and 47% live in Social Housing. Given that social housing, particularly in London, ends up with the poorer sections of society, and immigrants are more likely to be poor, I was suggesting that it doesn't seem to unfairly allocated to people not born in Britain (and bear in mind that doesn't mean they're not British citizens).

 

[Kompany Car]

To be fair, there's still a huge split between former East and West Germany on most measures of prosperity. Admittedly they've got more of an excuse than us.

There is still a significant split between the south and north of what was the old West Germany but the difference in inequality based on Gini coefficients is far less than in the UK. As you rightly point out the old East Germany is significantly poorer but it is only 35 yrs since reunification and what they inherited was in a pretty shoddy state and as such it impacts Germany's Gini coefficient overall.

 

[blue for life]

But they will constantly be attacked and no recognition of any success will be acknowledged.
Already they've come in a stopped the NSH strikes, Train strikes, reformed the workers rights bill, increased minimum wage, increased national living wage, launched housing reform and security for tenants, renters rights bill, breakfast clubs being introduced in schools, interest cuts dropping like a stone, binned the failed Rwanda plan, record deportations, working on getting border control bill through parliament, set up child poverty taskforce, NHS waiting list coming down... and more.. yet who gives a shit ? it's just 'we want something different' and 'they're letting migrants stay in hotels' so basically whatever Labour achieve won't be enough, just years of outrage and moaning from the likes of Big Joe on here until we get the one slimy twat who has caused more harm to this country than anyone in power.

That is spot on but you know move along nothing to see here

 

[blue for life]

Welcome to the world of politics.

As for the rest of your spin doctor, scripted regurgitated post, listen to the mood music and the public. The vast majority are not feeling any sort of benefit. Too many are feeling even more pain from a government they never thought would hurt them financially.

Roll back on WFA, PIP immediately and start to tax those that can most afford it and not go after the lowest in society.

This is a Labour government in name only as things stand!

Fair point but unfortunately they are for some reason shit scared of upsetting those who can afford it the most.

 

[hilts]

And is SW Scotland one of those places most against immigration despite having few immigrants?

Why would a place low or high on immigration have to affect one's opinion on the matter?

I don't need to live in the countryside for example to not want it concreting over for housing estates or dual carriageways.

It's not very forward thinking to only consider issues after they've happened.

That kind of fuckwittery is why we have politicians in charge:-)

 

[hilts]

If Labour was bold enough to reform the voting system to PR now, while they have the chance, who would it favour the most, a consensus of the centre, right or left?

Would it limit the potential for extremist policies as without an absolute majority any party would have to compromise?

I believe Labour members wanted it, as would anyone who believes in democracy and preventing huge majorities to undeserving parties. Normally someone like Starmer and his team would be all over it but he got an undeserving majority and thought fuck that I can be the man for years.

Nothing will turn someone into a **** quicker than making them PM.