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?

And now Mebyon Kernow (Cornish Nats) have a second ward... but no more for Labour yet.

What do you mean no? It’s simply a fact that jab procurement policy was entirely down to Kate Bingham and the taskforce she gathered. The rollout was down to the NHS. Both aspects bypassed government. That’s why it was a success unlike the test and trace which failed abysmally.

That people around you credit Boris suggests they don’t read the papers.

They see it as the government was in charge and enabled the rollout. I don't see it that way but a lot of people I talk to in the SW see it that way.

@Peregrina

I find it difficult to see why women like Boris Johnson.

Imagine if someone posted on MN - I thought my fiance would marry me as soon as his divorce came through, but so far, Covid restrictions obviously causing delays, he's shown no move to do so. I would be his third wife, and I know that he already has 6 children by three different women, including me, plus another woman admits to aborting his baby. I am in my early 30s. Should I be worried or should I cut my losses?

The answer would be LTB while you are still young enough to find someone else.

A lot of English people, men and, are in thrall to an upper class accent. If Johnson or Mogg had Brummie accents they would never have reached the heights they have.

*men and women

Boris, or rather his government, appointed Kate Bingham. They were criticised at the time. Her husband is a Tory MP.

I’m English but live in Scotland and a Labour voter. I was disappointed but not surprised with Hartlepool. The elections of late have turned yorkshire (where I’m from) and the north east into somewhat of a Tory heartland.

Serf culture. God help England.

Kate is also a school friend of his sister Rachel.

It’s one of the only crony appointments that paid off.

The procurement would have done a fat lot of good without the NHS roll out. We have to be thankful that Johnson didn't put that out to his Chums.

The Mebyon Kernow result is interesting, although I think Cornish Independence is a long way off. Independents are an interesting bunch. Sometimes they are disgruntled people who have fallen out with their local party, sometimes genuinely independent. You can never tell.

I briefly moved back from Scotland to the north, I lasted less than 7 months.

I’d say the part of Yorkshire where I’m from, and the part I briefly moved to are culturally right wing. Divide and rule, lots of benefit claimant bashing, a long with deep set xenophobia, anti traveller sentiment, homophobia. A lot of glorification of Churchill, the military and flags. This sentiment even snuck into hospital staff rooms. I got out and back to Scotland (which although not perfect is in my experience much better)

Which is why I spoiled not switched.
My missing vote is one less vote for labour though.

@LetSophieGo

haha watching this thread unfold is like witnessing a giant tory group walk. with hamstersarse supplying free lube from a tube with a Union Jack on it

Insightful, that's sure to get people voting Labour again.

I think Hartlepool and the NE are similar ^

IIRC, the person's view was that only graduates should be allowed to vote.

Which is ageist, as before the 1990s, and even more before the 1960s, only a minority of people had the opportunity to go to university.

Turkeys voting for Christmas

@Tagaagajavdv,sounds hideous.I sometimes go for a holiday and have detected a small minded,xenophobic attitude.

Well done, you.

@Andante57

I read Miljea's comment up-thread and winced but I don't think she was the first to suggest it

She wasn’t. There was a whole thread devoted to the idea after the referendum which had few objections.
I think the ‘simple test’ they had in mind was ‘Will you be voting Leave or Remain in the forthcoming referendum?’ and anyone who ticked Leave would have their vote withdrawn.

I had friends in RL saying this.

@musingloud

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

All of this.
The effect of EU immigration on affluent middle classes is very different from the effect on already under-pressure marginalised communities. If the middle classes would stop crying ' racist' long enough to listen then may succeed, as they love to tell others to do, in 'educating' themselves.

Quite.

And then think about people like Emily Thornbury who decided it would be a good idea to denigrate someone for having a white van on their drive and the George cross displayed on their house (during the football World Cup).

That's 99% going to be a traditional working class person who a senior Labour figure is sneering at. "Traditional Labour voters no longer welcome", writ large...

For all that the Cons are unlikely to do much to benefit the traditional working classes, what you don't see in public is the cabinet, or other senior parliamentary figures, openly sneering at the electorate. They at least have the good sense to do it out of the public eye for the most part.

Ahhhh we're onto the "write whole areas of the country off as bigoted" part of the tantrum now, are we? Jolly good.

@UserEleventyNine, my reaction too.

Restricting the franchise to graduates would have disenfranchised my father and FIL (both retired pilots) my mother and MIL (both SRN/SRCNs), DH who has spent 30 years creating a business, and my sister who was at the time an HR executive at a Big4 accountant.

And yet it’s the Tory Party members (50% was it?) who said they were firmly against a Muslim PM and that “Islam was a threat to the British way of life”. Which is the Party of hatred, sorry?

And that is exactly the type of grown up conversation that the Left cannot tolerate without throwing around accusations of islamaphobia.

If you cannot see a potential culture clash between islam and British culture, you are living in a dream world. Homosexuality being just one such potential clash.

@TatianaBis

To be clear Boris did not get anyone the jab, Kate Bingham got people the jab. Surely everyone knows this.

Are you actually being serious? I genuinely can’t tell anymore. Kate Bingham who famously rocked up, unannounced, and said I’ll give getting some jags a go. Or was she actually appointed, by Boris Johnson’s government and told ‘do what you need to do to save lives’? You seem quite keen on Kate despite, at the time the Labour Party accusing the stories of cronyism after appointing her, and calling on the Cabinet Office to carry out an “urgent and swift investigation” into her spending. Although to be fair they weren’t quite as down on her as the Lib Dems Ed Davey (yet another ‘Sir’, the left, so down with the people): ‘Someone from the Tory clique wastes money, provides no useful function, gets caught and then Boris Johnson does nothing about it, Kate Bingham must resign’ Hmmm.