Westminstenders: Election Special 3

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The South of what?

Which bit of the M1? It goes up past Sheffield, where I was born, and that is not the South. It is Yorkshire or God's own Country as my grandparents thought. (I don't think so, because I never really lived there. Sheffield is a good city.)

Gove wheeled out Banff for his alliteration fest this morning I noted.

The north/south border has been conclusively mapped via Greggs stores.

Less than 25,000 people per Greggs is the benchmark to distinguish whether you live in the north.

thetab.com/uk/2017/08/02/weve-figured-exactly-north-plotting-every-single-greggs-store-map-44385

If you won a sports match you wouldn't hang out with the vanquished team...its rather weird.

To be fair, that is the norm in rugby The home team players even pay a match fee to buy a pint pay for the hospitality for the visiting team.

At the end of every game, both teams line up to shake hands and then walk off the pitch with first one then the other forming a corridor and applauding the team off. It's like a wee dance but they are "taught" it from very young and it is still my favourite bit of the game. It epitomises the ethos: a tough, physical gave on the pitch but respectful after.

I'm near the M5 and it's not the south - it's the Midlands

And Gove is Scottish - born & bred (even if hes turned his back on the country he was born in.

Ps I meant to put an emoji - as it sounds a bit stern my response

My dad has WhatsApped me fromSouth Africa to say, "So it looks like I can die sooner as independence looks more likely"

I wasn't aware of the details of Gove's early life beyond his being born and raised in Scotland, but I've just read about them. I can see why he might have distanced himself from that context as far as possible for many years (in his way of speaking, for instance, which is quite remarkable for an Aberdonian).
TBH, given what I now know, I'd rather exclude him from my list of examples, as I think there are reasons other than political ones for his accent and use of language.

lordashcroftpolls.com/2019/12/how-britain-voted-and-why-my-2019-general-election-post-vote-poll/
Lord Ashcroft's break down of how people voted

I point the following paragraphs

39% of all voters said they found their decision harder than usual. Labour (42%) and Lib Dem (56%) voters were more likely to say they found the decision harder than usual than those who voted Conservative (32%). Those who voted Conservative and SNP were the most likely to say they found the decision easier than usual, with 27% of voters for both parties saying they found it much easier than usual.

44% of Remain voters said they found their decision harder than usual, compared to 35% of Leave voters.

Tactical voting

Just over a quarter (26%) of all voters said they were trying to stop the party they liked least from winning, including 43% of those who voted Lib Dem and 31% of Labour voters. One in three Remain voters said they were voting to stop their least preferred party compared to 18% of Leave voters.

Overall, 72% said they were voting for the party they most wanted to win, including 82% of Conservatives, 74% of SNP voters, 67% of Labour voters and just over half (54%) of Lib Dems.

39% of those trying to stop their least preferred party voted Labour, 30% voted Conservative and 20% voted Lib Dem.

Having something to vote FOR is a massive motiver. People need to believe in something...

The M5 starts in the Midlands around Birmingham somewhere and the M1 starts around Sheffield.

Gove is a good speaker and has a remarkable past. I'd admire him if he hadn't done such huge damage to my profession.

On a side note , I met him when I was 18 and we discussed kilts. He was charming but very Tory boy. he had already tried to flatten out his accent to fit in with the Bullingdon types.

J1 of M5 is West Brom

The M1 goes across to Leeds; it doesn't start at Sheffield.

And I'd forgotten about the mine in Cotgrave and Clifton (I lived in the former). I worked out of Mansfield as a sales rep and used to go to the villages round there. They were more concentrated in that area, I think? Cotgrave has a totally different feeling to those villages.

We had to have a mining survey in West Bridgford though, so I should've thought more closely!

tobee I'd say south of the Thames

There's lots of commentary and excellent insight in dissecting what went wrong with Labour (bad leadership, wrong leader, anti-semitism, too London, too elite etc.), but I see it simpler than that...

For the Referendum and again for yesterday's election, hard right Tories created a simplistic simple message repeated ad nauseum (mostly on social media) that tapped into the same mind set we've amply witnessed on this very thread and elsewhere. 'Take back control' 'Get Brexit Done'. Meaningless in any real sense but incredibly effective.

How on earth can Labour replicate that?

The M1 goes across to Leeds; it doesn't start at Sheffield.

So it does! I guess Sheffield is where I stopped.

Having something to vote FOR is a massive motiver. People need to believe in something...

In the Referendum a significant number voted For more money for the NHS. I expect them to be disappointed - Johnson will weasel out.

Now they voted 'To get Brexit done'. It will be done in a way that few like.

But could we go back to Thatcher's time - significant numbers of people who voted Mrs Thatcher into power must have been voting For something. I imagine curbing the power of the Trade Unions was a big factor; I am pretty sure wasn't the wrecking of heavy industry in the north. As a result we now we have insecure work in a gig economy. Enough said.

Scotland has it's very own North East.

It's a place that's made the UK shotloads of money

And has been very much struggling since 2014. 160,000 job losses in the last 5 years in the UK oil and gas sector.

As for private school educated Gove, I’d say he’s posh Aberdonian (which is a long way from Doric). Working class Aberdonian is more vernacular.

Hmm. So it does! I guess Sheffield is where I stopped. Clearly not a northerner. For Newcastle and places towards the Scottish border, Leeds is almost in the south.

Of course what really distinguishes is what you call your evening meal - is it your tea or dinner? Or even, ( a southern permutation? ) supper.

Get Brexit done

Take back control

What will their next slogan be for the next election?

Still expensive houses.

And still good salaries even if they are less than they were.

Doric - now that is another language!!

It never ceases to amaze us how much driving there is to do between the border with England and Glasgow. It's a massive chunk of our journey. Beautiful, but seems to take forever! We mostly cheat and take the train these days.

There is a huge amount of land between the English / Scottish border and John O'Groats!

Not all northerners like
[[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07xsk78
The Tories]]

Even when they pretend to be 'One Nation Tories' as is what they are now singing from the party hymn sheet. The UK is 4 nations anyway!