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.

But public transport in some areas has been shit for decades (including under Labour Governments), even if the buses are frequent the routes are just insufficient if you expect people not to use cars.

If I wanted to get to my workplace which is in the next town, I can either drive 20 minutes or I can walk/drive 2 miles to the train station, get a train into London, get the tube a couple of stops, get the train back out of London, get a bus from the train station, walk 15 minutes from the bus stop. Not only would that cost the best part of £50, it would also take about 3 hours each way which is just not realistic.

I can't cycle because part of the journey is on the motorway and to go round would take about 90 minutes (we have no shower facilities at work, and hotdesk so have to carry all of our equipment)

Having a car is not a choice, it is a necessity if you actually want to have a job. So anti car policies have a big impact - it wasn't the 'rich or stupid' (as per pp) that object to the ULEZ expansion because they already had cars that were ULEZ compliant, it was the minimum wage workers already on the bones of their arse who have no other options and need their car to be able to make a living

Why did we do it then? All that angst and parliamentary time for something that made no difference to anyone? Fuckwittery of the first order.

You realise that speeding fines don't go to the people who set the limits, right?

The expansion of the London ULEZ was something Shapps insisted Khan did as part of the TfL bailout deal during the pandemic.

As for LTNs, how would anyone make any money?

My village is fighting for a 20mph speed limit. We aren't fooled into thinking this will stop lorries and inconsiderate car drivers hammering through, but it might slow them down a bit. Certainly nothing to lose.

"I don’t believe for a moment that air quality or safety is behind any of this."

• *What is the evidence that air pollution leads to around 4,000 premature deaths? | London City Hall

"The current ULEZ in central and inner London is projected to help avoid one million air pollution-related hospital admissions and save the NHS and social care sector £5bn by 2050. "

lastchance the Tories have been shafting women for years. Their inability to enforceme the CSA and the 2 child limit / rape clause in the benefits system was a pretty big kick in the teeth.

It is very difficult to impossible to buy a ULEZ compliant family car under £5,000. This is the price point for many people.

We’ve got one. Nobody takes a blind bit of notice.

I'm amazed some poster think that Labour don't have anything to offer that different from the Tories, here are just a handful that I can post a few that would improve the quality of life for a lot people.

• Renationalising the railways as existing franchising contracts expire
• Ban zero-hours contracts, end qualifying periods for basic working rights, and strengthen rights and legislation around the self-employed and 'self-employed', repeal anti-union legislation passed since 2010, a guaranteed 'right to switch off' after work like France has, introduce criminal penalties for fire and rehire practices, and reintroduce sectoral bargaining.
• Creating GB energy, a sovereign wealth fund, £28bn a year in green energy transformation, net zero by 2030.
• Compulsory monitoring of sewage outflows and automatic financial penalties possibly leading to criminal charges for CEOs
• Scrap planning laws to allow councils the means to build hundreds of thousands of new social housing
• Allow the Bank of England to act essentially as guarantor in putting down the deposit for a mortgage for those who can afford the monthly payments but not the lump sum.
• Radical devolution, abolition of the house of lords, creation of an elected second chamber responsible for legislative scrutiny, constitutional protections, and upholding the ministerial code as a matter of legal obligation
• Closer ties with the European Union especially over trade and R&D
• End to VAT exemption for private schools, money used to provide free breakfast clubs at all schools and train more teachers
• Reform childcare system to drive down costs for families
• A broader education curriculum with more of an emphasis on skills like music, drama, and sport, as well as a modernised and updated approach to digital skills across the curriculum rather than expecting everyone to become programmers
• Greater rights for tenants, including abolishing no-fault evictions, introduce national database of landlords, a right to speedy repairs, a right to modify and improve your home, and a presumption in favour of allowing pets.

I still think the Tories will win though and it will be 1992 all over again - FPTP will see to that. It feels they have set the narrative on issues that are emotional to people especially around immigration, Brexit and government spending. I still find it bizarre that people look at government and infrastructure spending in the same way as household spending thinking that the money just disappears into the ether.

These are just your ideas, Labour haven’t offered to do any of these things. How on earth would we afford to renationalise the railways?!

@sally037

creation of an elected second chamber

Do you mean as US do?

Why do you welcome that

Negative impact

I disagree they are the ONLY main party to recognise that women do not have penises, and to protect our single spaces is the conservatives.
Labour are in bed literally with the trans activists, which is why they refuse to recognise women’s rights. Too many donors coming from the wrong places. Think about how they have treated Rosie, she is the best of Labour.

By bringing them into public ownership as the franchises expire. It would likely work out cheaper to run them as government subsidies would then not be needed for those franchise owners for profits too.

I don’t know what that means. You said it made no difference to anyone so why did we waste all that time and money on it?

https://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/over-16000-civil-servants-now-working-on-brexit-sedwill-and-manzoni-reveal

https://www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/what-london-assembly-does/questions-mayor/find-an-answer/cost-brexit-0#:~:text=Bloomberg%20found%20that%20Brexit%20is,economy%20each%20year%20since%202020%3F

In the long term it will hugely benefit us and our children.
I am NOT getting into a brexit row. I am sick to death of it, and Starmer raising the prospect of yet more years of arguments and division will surely put off all but the crazy die hards.

https://www.cityam.com/labour-re-commits-to-nationalising-rail-if-it-wins-the-next-election/
https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/12/angela-rayner-gives-cast-iron-promise-of-bill-banning-zero-hour-contracts
https://labour.org.uk/issue/clean-energy-by-2030/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/08/13/polluting-water-companies-automatically-fined-under-labour/

I could go on but can't be arsed. Open a bloody newspaper occasionally. This stuff shouldn't have to be spoon fed to you.

As for claiming there was no negative impact from Brexit

www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2022/l-December-22/By-the-end-of-2021-Brexit-had-already-cost-UK-households-a-total-of-5.8-billion-in-higher-food-bills-%E2%80%93-new-LSE-research

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-cost-uk-gdp-economy-failure-b2246610.html

www.itv.com/news/2022-12-20/brexit-costs-government-40-billion-a-year-in-lost-tax-revenue

That's not true.

As I understand it, an elected house of lords will be PR, so people will be free to vote in independent experts.

No, it’s not.

Including the extremes of the political spectrum

What has surprised me is that there is a lot more support for the conservatives than I realised.

I’ve no idea about gearing. I drive an automatic anyway.

But what you say about driving at 20mph is just plainly wrong. You either don’t drive; or you drive at 20mph on roads with little chance of being done for speeding, so you don’t watch v carefully; or you know this is shite but spout it anyway. Try driving at 10mph and not do 11pm, or 15mph and not doing 16mph. It’s obvious to any driver that small changes, including gradient, have a bigger proportional effect on speed at lower speeds. It’s common sense.

From what I have seen here 20mph seems to stoke up a lot of anger and rage. It’s counter productive.

It does nothing to improve air quality as the cars are running for longer, and the lost productivity of net millions needs to be factored in.

Apart from anything I don’t want to live in a bloody nanny state like Wales under Drakeford. It’s suffocating.

I’ve no idea about gearing. I drive an automatic anyway.

So do I. And the gearbox absolutely hates 20.