Anyone in Hartlepool - what on earth is going on

[Purplecatshopaholic]

Genuine question. (Apologies if this is in the wrong place, I don’t post much). I’m Scottish and in Scotland, and I am constantly aware these days of how different the views are of Westminster up here, to across the border sometimes. We also have our own Labour Party leader up here. But really? Is Keir Starmer that bad? Are other parties not available? Who on earth is still voting for Boris…? Any WHY?

One of the big problems is that Labour don't understand, and don't represent, the values and wishes of traditional working class northerners any more. They just don't.

Well turncoats have the next 5 years to discover that the Tories don’t give a fuck about working class northerners and never have. (Which is partly why parts of the north are in the economic mess they are).

@MrsWooster

There’s an appetite for a slightly left but central party-Blair2. Labour are wilfully throwing the country to the Tories.

So very true. I despair. Please, please give me a Party I can believe in and vote for. This is the second time I’ve spoilt my paper.

I spoilt my vote because amongst many, many other things, Labour are using women's officer positions to put natal men in charge. These posts were created to:
A) ensure that there was a certain percentage of female representation
B) ensure women's issues were represented by someone who understood them

That labour didn't create a similar role for trans people, but instead started filling up roles with men, show me they care for neither women or trans people.

I don't trust labour to represent me anymore, because their understanding of what makes a woman are backward and superficial.

Women's issues include maternity care, pay gap, DV.
If you were to take certain women's officers' word for it you'd think our chief worry is nail varnish.

@TatianaBis

One of the big problems is that Labour don't understand, and don't represent, the values and wishes of traditional working class northerners any more. They just don't.

Well turncoats have the next 5 years to discover that the Tories don’t give a fuck about working class northerners and never have. (Which is partly why parts of the north are in the economic mess they are).

Turncoats 😂😂

You can vote for whoever you want in elections. You can vote for different parties each time if you want.
This idea that people should remain loyal to a party regardless of their policies/ record/ actions/ statements is terrifying.

Brexit vote went Tory.
Left wing women don't know who to vote for now...for the first time in my life I don't know how to vote as nobody left of centre is protecting women. For me, that's the single most important issue facing us as the impact on our daily lives if all safe spaces go is huge. As a left of centre feminist who the hell do I vote for?

Re Angela Rayner not being the right kind of hard working w/c northerner, a loudmouth, poorly educated grandmother at 37 . I don't like her politics but to be honest that's so snobby and not exactly in the spirit of the 'salt of the earth w/c ' thread this is.

Labour need to hit a few pubs, buy a few beers, and listen to the conversations. Advice from Dominic Cummings. Forget the echo chamber.

Labour politicos could start by reading the Daily Mail. Have them spluttering into their coffee, but perhaps more healthy to read something you disagree with and work out why you disagree, than to allow the Guardian to affirm your current group think. It is so easy to sneer and say "Mail - bad" "Piers Morgan - bad" and so on. But they are speaking up for a good proportion of voters.

For example was Brexit because, as some of my urban affluent left leaning neighbours would tell me, the white working class are racist. (Some really hate the English working class.) Not because people had concerns about some of the realities of large inward movements of population and the resultant overloading of local public services etc. Room needs to be made for discussion about the detail and unwanted impacts of immigration, gender self ID, all sorts of things. But instead it is binary. Either you are on the side of "right" or not. And if not you are phobic, racist or a hater. And no one defines how "right" was arrived at, or allows any nuance.

I spend much of the last decade both working and running a small business, whilst caring for a mother with dementia, raising teenagers and contributing to the community by helping to run a local organisation. I could have been recognised as a contributor to society but instead I felt as if I was being constantly called out as a bad person. I sent my children to private school, I drove a "motorised vehicle", I was white, insufficiently on top of recycling, and I had my doubts about the French/German attempts to resurrect the Holy Roman Empire. By the time the gender thing came along, I was pretty "fuck it". I will never be good enough for the purists so why bother trying.

Thank you people of Harlepool. I don't care whether you voted Boris or a monkey. I hope you generate some self reflection within that woke urban bubble (and yes it absolutely exists). When did the left wing decide they had the right to be so judgemental?

You can vote for whoever you want in elections

Sure, and people who habitually change who they vote for are called floating voters. I was referring to core Labour supporters who voted Tory perhaps for the first time ever.

Although be fair both floating and core voters will regret their choice within 5 years.

SofiaMichelle

Angela Rayner is yet another example of why hordes of northern voters have deserted the Labour party. Speaking as a northern female, I can't imagine anyone I identify less with.

He told me he thought Angela Rayner being so senior in the shadow cabinet would be a boost and that we northerners would relate to her! shock

^^ YY awful, doesn't even matter if shes entirely different its just the concept is so incredibly patronizing. Most people look beyond the person. Its like saying Grant Mitchell is now in the Tories so he will bring in East end types.

"I think people vote Tory because of many reasons...but I fear 'not letting foreigners take our jobs' may be part of it

Its also this statement that will drive labour voters away.

@Peregrina, a lot of Falmouth students are in Falmouth; many didn't even go home at Christmas. DS returned end of January and was registered to vote both at home and at uni, so he voted in Falmouth.

Tatiana how insightful, not.

Maybe voters believe noone really rates the northern English areas and they're maybe be better off leveraging current government for investment?

I've certainly got this thread to thank for getting me to ask more about the Mayor in the area and what he's been doing.

@TatianaBis

You can vote for whoever you want in elections

Sure, and people who habitually change who they vote for are called floating voters. I was referring to core Labour supporters who voted Tory perhaps for the first time ever.

Although be fair both floating and core voters will regret their choice within 5 years.

The level of contempt you have for people daring to vote differently is quite chilling.

When did the left wing decide they had the right to be so judgemental?

^^ because they see themselves as the nice party and maybe in days of yore they were, but I didn't view Blairs Labour as particularly nice or kind AT ALL< and certainly NOT Corbyns.

*The last decade has been a fantastic example of how a state-supporting media can influence the electorate.

Murdoch tells the Tories to not worry, he can persuade 'em to believe whatever he wants 'em to.... and it's true. So much bullshit and so many lies and smear campaigns from Tory central. It works every time. Every Damned Time. "We want a change". SO you vote for the part who've spent the last decade in power, making damned sure that if you lost your job, chances are you'd lose your home, and struggle to feed your kids, too.*

Newspaper purchases have more than halved in the last 10 years. The most popular online newspaper website is The Guardian.

The level of contempt you have for people daring to vote differently is quite chilling.

^^ I have noticed this from hard left and especially after Brexit when it was being mooted that people with a so called certain level of education should be allowed to vote! It is chilling and I was concerned when it didn't seem to be picked up on, but I know now it is.

One of the big problems is that Labour don't understand, and don't represent, the values and wishes of traditional working class northerners any more. They just don't

Again I agree, but it's become a bit more complicated now so many of the "working class" have moved on from what they were once perceived to be
No longer down t'pit (because most have closed), or working in factories (often closed too), they've gone on to other things and even started buying their own houses - sometimes council houses, shock horror!!

Naturally this pesky aspiration doesn't suit the hard left at all, so they've moved on to a different type of "victim" who they believe might be more likely to stick with them ... and the traditional voters don't always feel an affinity with who they've picked

What is going to persuade people to vote Labour again? They didn't like Jeremy Corbyn, they don't like Keir Starmer. Is there anyone Labour voters will like enough to vote for? Surely Starmer is preferable to Boris Johnson? I don't get it (also not English or living in England)

The most popular online newspaper website is The Guardian.

I thought it was the Daily Mail.

There is some jawdropping ignorance on this thread. Brexit, racism yadda yadda. Not Hartlepool but very near by. Labour do not appeal to the ordinary working man and woman here. They do nothing for them in a practical way. People in the North East have no affinity with these wealthy Champagne socialists that call us racists and xenophobes and back any cause other than the one the party was created to back.

Now, the tories, whatever you think of them, have rewarded Hartlepool (and Teeside) with a Freeport for putting their faith in the tories at the last election. Neighbouring ports with hardcore Labour councils were sidelined in favour of those port towns willing to give the tories a chance.

Those ports, and other goodies, will bring jobs, wealth and dignity back to those areas. Kneeling Keir Starmer loathes people like us but thinks we're too stupid to see him, and his colleagues, for what they are. Which is over-privileged globalist marxists with no idea about the average North East person and what matters to them.

Maybe voters believe noone really rates the northern English areas and they're maybe be better off leveraging current government for investment?

Good luck with that. 😂

Tory stayed Tory.
Brexit voters went Tory.
Majority of newspapers full on nationalism / Tory messaging.
Tories getting votes from vaccination programme, despite dire number of deaths.
Labour have been struggling with messaging.
Young - away from home atm / need online voting

Sat in a waiting room last week listening to two retirees saying how wonderful Boris Johnson was and how they had been fully vaccinated, while wearing their masks down by their chin. Felt like saying that not everyone has been vaccinated.

Definitely, I'll vote for the first party to openly protect women's sex based rights.

Don't all rush at once.

I have noticed this from hard left and especially after Brexit when it was being mooted that people with a so called certain level of education should be allowed to vote! It is chilling and I was concerned when it didn't seem to be picked up on, but I know now it is

Miljea has said on this thread that voters should’ve been tested before they were allowed to vote in the EU referendum. I asked him/her what the questions would be but she hasn’t answered.

@Definately

What is going to persuade people to vote Labour again? They didn't like Jeremy Corbyn, they don't like Keir Starmer. Is there anyone Labour voters will like enough to vote for? Surely Starmer is preferable to Boris Johnson? I don't get it (also not English or living in England)

I'd vote for Tony Benn. Other than that, no. None of them appeal.

All self-serving, self-enriching hypocrites,.