Westminstenders: Welcome to 2019

[RedToothBrush]

Welcome to 2019.

Bit of a different thread starter; instead of me speculating what are your predictions for the coming year politically? Will be interesting to see how people are viewing things right now.

How is Brexit going to play out?

Who is going to be framed as the scapegoat for whatever scenario you think likely?

What are going to be the biggest political issues that the media / politicians push (as opposed to what the real issues are)?

What is going to be the most shocking thing that will happen either here or abroad?

What will happen with Trump?

Who will be the next Tory leader and when?

Whats on the cards for the various political parties in general?

RTB we spent time with family in the NW and had to travel a fair bit locally by car for various reasons. I was shocked by the congestion - much worse than I remember it. My DPs were talking of occasions they had abandoned intended journeys and returned home due to weight of traffic

Northerner been li

Northerner, living in London for a decade who does give a bunch of figs about hs2 - in the sense of it annoying the hell out of me - over that time have had several projects needing a regular commute to brum. Have always found Chiltern line infinitely preferable to west coast - wider, much less crowded trains, Marylebone & snow hill/Moor St much less hassle than euston/new St and you can easily get a cab at snow Hill.

Alleged downside is a longer journey - boils down to 10mins in most cases and better WiFi makes it a no-brainer.

Yet hs2 is promoted to increase capacity and shorten time - feels like plenty of capacity on Chiltern and 10mins is neither here nor there. (avoiding the elbow banging on pendolino is another plus)

Journey times in rush hour into Manchester have probably increased by about a third in a decade I reckon.

The idea of a congestion charge area won't help as the public transport system isn't sufficient to replace that capacity. It'll just cost people more. And all attempts to improve that end at the County border so you will still get bottle necks trying to get there. Or it will push up house prices in certain areas and force out the poor who have no where else to go.

It's a right state.

We know a lot of the rat runs into the city. Always have done. But they are also getting worse.

DH if he's not cycling (he's been ill / injured lately) prefers to leave after 9am now and leave late. Which is just adding to an extended rush hour.

Out of rush hour it's 35mins in. At height of rush hour 1h 20mins.

Getting across the city centre of late with the road works on Regent Road have been farcial. We've been stuck for over an hour to go 2 miles on more than on occasion lately. On a weekend.

They are currently talking about banning some of the buses that go across town to reduce pollution. Which makes my mind boogle at the logic. No thought to simply improve bus emissions.

There was a local referendum on a congestion charge. It was soundly defeated.
Also live in Manchester area.

I get on the M60 by 7.00 otherwise it's too late to even try.

My patch is the M27
20,000 new homes, one new school, no new access to the trunk roads
Whiteley is the largest cul-de-sac in the UK
A year ago there was a gridlock where cars were stuck in the same place on local roads for two hours :-(

@Mrsr8, well done on the swearing, you said exactly what I think on a regular basis!!

HNY all. I've spent today with DH's family, who have decided to ignore Brexit since the referendum and chortle at the idea that anything will change much this year. I've spent much of today biting my tongue and wishing that their complacency was even slightly likely to reflect what's actually going to happen.

Glasgow is introducing a Low Emission zone which will mean that (iirc) one in 5 buses will need to meet these new standards - and by 2022 all buses will have to meet them.

Scotland's first low-emission zone launched in Glasgow
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-46714705

Just watched the extended trailer for C4's feature length 'Brexit: The Uncivil War' on next Monday.

Looks interesting!

It does look interesting.
I spent part of this afternoon taking an inventory of what we have in stock food and medication wise and planning what we need to improve. Happy New Year.

Hope you had a good Christmas and wishing you all a Happy New year!

ILs have been steadily complaining about the Archbishop of Canterbury for preaching unity and an end to divisions within our nation (or something like that). 'In your dreams, mate! You are wrong on everything!' was the reaction. Since when are unity and dialogue controversial?! I am really downbeat about Brexit.

MrsR8 You've done absolutely all you personally could 💐
Now try to chill and concentrate on self-care

elenade Were your ILs hoping for a sermon on "Hate your neighbour ?"

Interestingly my kids (both at Uni, one currently living abroad with Erasmus) are utterly certain that the UK will blink and that Brexit will not happen.
They chat to their friends up and down the country and across the continent and all believe that March 29 will be a damp squib.
My god I hope they are right.

OhYouBadBadKitten, I've done that too. And spent today going through my seeds and ordering more... New Year's resolution to be a better gardener!

JasJas
...the father of a good friend of mine suggested over a birthday party meal a few weeks ago that uk should stop foreign aid as that "would thin them out abit & they'd then be able to feed themselves!"

This hearkens right back to attitude at the time of the Irish famine of the mid 1840s.

Re the earlier discussion about London, it is important to remember that wealth & income divisions within London
can be as shocking as between London and rUk.

I was surprised to find stats that poverty in London - presumably distorted by housing - is higher than elsewhere in England
(a bar chart for all UK regions would be useful)

Just watched Blackadder Goes Forth. Plus ça change.

BCF that certainly fits in with my experience of living here for 25 years. Some of the poverty that I saw in my job was absolutely shocking.
There are no areas of London that are completely free of poor people unlike in some other countries where rich people can ensure that they never have to encounter any proles - even Chelsea has pockets of social housing.
There was a particularly unpleasant undertone post Grenfel from some people - basically asking why all these people, most of whom weren’t white, could afford to live in the richest borough in London when they could never afford to live there despite having a decent job.
I have been listening to an LBC phone in where various callers are frothing about Sadik Khan’s ‘political’ NYE fireworks display which a Brexit MEP described as an affront to democracy