To think this, is how the Tories could win?

[madamreign]

Sunak is setting out his stall as pro-car:

www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/28/rishi-sunak-expected-to-limit-powers-of-councils-in-england-to-curb-car-use-20mph-speed-limit-traffic-camera-fines

This could actually swing it for him. People sink vast amounts of time and money into their cars, they're aspirational status symbols. The UK loves it's cars.

A really close friend at school was killed by a speeding motorist outside our school in 1977.

I've no problem with lower speed limits. The more the merrier,

Sunak is toast. Slimey useless fucker

If it's popular it won't be simply because 'People sink vast amounts of time and money into their cars, they're aspirational status symbols. The UK loves it's cars.'

It would be equally popular in Ireland, where people don't particularly love their cars (partly I suspect because they're more expensive here). The reasons would include the disproportionate impact on people living in the countryside of anti-car policies, and the impact of forcing people onto unreliable and more dangerous public transport even in cities where it exists.

Complaints of anti-social behaviour on Luas up 27% last year to over 1,000 cases (breakingnews.ie)

Dublin workers at risk of losing jobs due to late buses, Dáil told | Independent.ie

Yep. He’s seen the results from Uxbridge - that’s what he’s basing his whole election campaign on. People pay lip service to the environment until it affects them and many people don’t even “believe” in climate change. We’d do anything to protect our right to drive as fast and as dangerously as we want. What an election it’s going to be 😬

We are a bunch of dicks who deserve this government then...

They are going to win. It's heartbreaking. I do have a tenner on it at 10/1 so I'll at least be able to drown my sorrows.

I might do the same. Fuck it

It's not "People sink vast amounts of time and money into their cars, they're aspirational status symbols. The UK loves it's cars.'"

It's because in most of the UK, public transport is absolutely crap, and cars are pretty much essential to having a normal life.

Not everyone lives in London and a handful of other big cities where public transport is cheap, reliable and with a useable timetable!

I hate Rishi, but he's tapping into the majority of people who are against the "war on motorists", just like Boris tapped into the forgotten Northern towns.

My son has just bought his first car. He's not remotely interested in cars, but on his first trip home for his first weekend home after starting his new job just 100 miles away (Northern city), the last train of the day to get him home was cancelled ("last" being 7:15!!!! so way too early!), and the alternative route offered would take 5 hours with 4 changes instead of the two hours direct route. That was after two weeks of buses being late/cancelled at no notice, meaning he'd been late for work on 4 days out of the first 10, despite being at the bus stop at 8am for a 20 minute bus ride on a service allegedly every 15 minutes (but in reality they turn up when the driver feels like it). He also wanted to join a 5 a side football team that played at a sport centre the other side of town, just 8 miles away - he can get there by bus, but it finishes at 9pm and there are no buses back "so late!!. After just a month, he's had enough and is now driving instead of relying on spectacularly useless public transport!

Most motorists aren't "petrol heads", they drive because public transport is too unreliable, too expensive, and doesn't operate an adequate timetable!

I hope it doesn't mean Rishi gets in, but it may increase awareness and may persuade other political parties to drop the war on motorists!

Turkeys voting for Christmas if people do vote for them.
Every area of life is worse under the Tories, highest taxes since world war 2 yet the worst services but hey at least they know what a woman is, people are honestly thick. Rape cases have increased and convictions decreased by the way so not like they are actually protecting women.

@user1497207191

Over half of the pop live in cities and most car journeys are less than three miles.

Are you saying that your son wants to commute, daily to a job 100 miles away?

Oh God can we have one, just ONE politics thread about something other than that?

@CurlewKate where are you getting those odds? I can only see 4-1

I think that if Starmer isn’t careful they will win. Labour certainly don’t have it in the bag. Look at the numerous posters up in arms on here about changing the charitable of private schools who don’t actually use them.
Saying that, MN is only a tiny proportion of the electorate. Labour’s lead in the polls which are far more accurate than 50 odd posters on here, has been pretty much sustained for months. Who knows ?
I do wonder whether at the Tory conference next week Sunak will out of the blue declare that HS2 is on and will suddenly gain an increase in his approval ratings. Now that would be a very canny thing to do.

It's weird because Uxbridge was a very narrow win, 495 majority with about 47% turnout. If the weather had been different, train strike, good telly on etc they could have lost it. It seems a weird thing to base a whole election campaign on.

Plus there are an awful lot of Asian people in Uxbridge, some of that vote might have been people enjoying having an Asian PM. Which means it's not necessarily repeatable throughout the country.

No, she's not.

If you read her post more carefully you'll see that the 100 mile trip was to go home for the weekend.

The word home, in this instance, meaning the family home and not where he actually lives.

If people do vote for them its clearly because they either want to.or feel there's no.alternative insulting them isn't going to.change their minds ,maybe you should ask why they don't vote for the alternatives?
I can guarantee that IF,conservative get in again their will.be a deluge of threads asking why and insulting the voters rather than finding out what stops people from voting for other parties.

Ulez and women’s rights mean they sadly stand a chance.

kier starmer is not the right man for the job, they stand their and go. I wish he was, but he isn’t.
you voted for more lockdowns
you didn’t prosecute saville
rotherham happened on your watch
you were in power in the last crash
Slough and birmingham have gone bankrupt under labour

every single claim they make needs to be combated with truths. If brexit taught us anything it’s that the public believe it and need it spelling out.

@Gloaming23 it was about 2 months ago. Interesting that it's 4/1 now. Glad I got in when I did!

FGS @x2boys no one’s insulting Tory voters. I’m sick of this victimhood that so many Tory voters display. Own your vote. You vote for Brexit. It’s a shambles, own it.
You vote for this shower, it’s a shambles. Own it. Rather than bleating about nasty people criticising you. At some point people have to take responsibility for their actions (as we are being told by many tories regarding life choices).
Any case, you live in the north. It’s a shit show. What’s your excuse 😂

Thanks to the housing crisis and cost of living, he may not have a choice.

As for the car/public transportation situation - it is crap. My ex doesn’t drive, he works 5 miles away from home and it takes an hour to get there on a bus that runs twice an hour if he’s lucky. He lives a mile away from the city centre so as urban as one can be. Public transport outside of London/other huge cities is abysmal.

As for the Tories winning, I’m not sure. I think it will be too close to call. All the parties are dire at the moment, I’m not sure any of them will have my vote currently due to their shitty policies and weak values.

You actually believe all that?

Honestly, truthfully, believe it?

Really???

I'm not going to go through it all because greater minds than mine have pulled it all apart many times.

Genuinely aghast.

My village has just had a 20mph speed limit "imposed" on it by the council with no consultation. People are actually pretty happy about it.

A speeding motorist clearly didn’t give a shit about the speed therefore a lower limit wouldn’t have made a blind bit of difference.

Yes, but not all cities have good public transport systems!

No my son just wants to be able to come home for weekends, which from just 100 miles seems perfectly achievable. But because we're in the North of England, public transport is utterly crap. He thought it would actually be possible to leave work at 5pm (official finishing time) and get home, just 100 miles away, but when leaving at 5pm he can't make the penultimate train over back home, so has to rely on the last train (they only run every 2 hours), and when that gets cancelled he's stuffed!

Of course, in London and the handful of other major cities with good public transport, a "last" train anywhere as early as 7:15 would be laughable, as would any service that only ran every 2 hours! But in the North, apparently it's fine!

That's why people outside a handful of big cities rely on cars. I appreciate for those of you living in London or other big cities, you won't be able to comprehend any city with such poor public transport. It's exactly why people in Leeds, Manchester, York, Liverpool and Newcastle have been complaining about lack of public transport (other than their city centre systems), for decades!

And we've not even started on large towns, small towns and rural areas with ever poorer public transport options. But it's obviously fine because Londoners have good public transport options!

@madamreign this is the problem. People actually lying or twisting the truth.