Politics

[Nowack]

2 minutes ago, kent_white said:

He IS going to 'passionately bring honesty' though 😁

Seriously - does nobody proof read these things? 

Only singling him out because he's won. The rest were just as shite. 

Agreed. I am sure plenty have been surprised and relieved about how little they actually matter or influence.

[dave2980]

3 minutes ago, kent_white said:

He IS going to 'passionately bring honesty' though 😁

Seriously - does nobody proof read these things? 

Only singling him out because he's won. The rest were just as shite. 

John Walsh can't have been that bad, given that he was the longest serving council member!

The conservatives are the only ones who seem to do anything or have any visibility in Astley Bridge.

[athywhite1958]

38 minutes ago, kent_white said:

It is a heavily right wing party. Basing this on the fact that they want to....agree

Start mass deportations of irregular migrants..agree, start with stopping further migrants via the small boats, or any other route they may take 

Scrap net zero and increase gas/oil drilling...Net zero by 2030 was far too ambitious, a slower controlled option would have been better and allow some oil/gas drilling

Have tougher sentencing, more police, expanded stop and search... agree, far too many scrotes carrying weapons without a deterrent 

Leave the European Convention on Human Rights and repeal the Human Rights Act...agree

Cut NHS funding by £26 billion and offer tax breaks for private healthcare... nope, nurses and general hospital staff should be paid more, money could be made by cutting the number of managers/executive roles

Cut public spending by nearly £300 billion... no chance of that ever happening, a lot to do with the benefits bill which is unbelievably high and funding illegal migrants

Most Reform voters stop reading after the first point though, sadly. Never even thought of voting Reorm, Independent locally and I'll make my decision when the next GE is

My answers which are MY own opinion

[Ani]

As much as I dislike Reform and their policies. 
 

People have to admit with turn out generally up across the country and lots more people from poorer segments of society getting involved and in some cases being elected it is hard to argue that they do not have a strong mandate to get on and deliver.

Do they have the experience and nous to do this ? We will see. 

[Nowack]

Not much they can deliver on though. What they can do is look at policy and set budgets, both long term and strategic with no immediate gains. What they immediately do is act as a "voice for residents" and act as a conduit between officers and the public. What could get tricky is if they start a public slanging match, like our successive governments seem to like doing with the civil service. 

[kent_white]

1 minute ago, Nowack said:

Not much they can deliver on though. What they can do is look at policy and set budgets, both long term and strategic with no immediate gains. What they immediately do is act as a "voice for residents" and act as a conduit between officers and the public. What could get tricky is if they start a public slanging match, like our successive governments seem to like doing with the civil service. 

They can cause a lot of harm as well. Public Health sit under councils nowadays. 

So this will mean you have a PH team who are in charge of making sure the people of the town are as near to fully vaccinated as possible - sitting under a party who invite vaccine sceptics to their national conference. 

You might as well put a homeopath in charge of running A&E. 

[Nowack]

I see no evidence that Councillors, even a majority party or leader of the council can direct or overrule public health officials or vaccination policy. 

"You might as well put a homeopath in charge of running A&E. "

The council funds the fire service, but Councillors don`t tell them how to out out fires.

[kent_white]

Just now, Nowack said:

I see no evidence that Councillors, even a majority party or leader of the council can direct or overrule public health officials or vaccination policy. 

"You might as well put a homeopath in charge of running A&E. "

The council funds the fire service, but Councillors don`t tell them how to out out fires.

You'd be surprised....... They can delay, cause pressure, ask stupid questions which waste time, cast doubt and obfuscate. They can also choose or affect where PH puts it's resources locally. 

And when they're in power nationally - they can absolutely influence it. 

[mickbrown]

2 hours ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Still suggesting that Reform is this heavily a right wing party.

Yet it has gained numerous voters from Labour.

Almost entirely down to the immigration issue.

Immigration isn't (or shouldn't) be a political issue in terms of left or right.

Many of the voters clearly don't see it thar way, yet traditional parties don't grasp it.

Are you seriously suggesting it’s not a right wing party? And it’s not even a party yet is it?

[mickbrown]

2 hours ago, kent_white said:

It is a heavily right wing party. Basing this on the fact that they want to....

Start mass deportations of irregular migrants 

Scrap net zero and increase gas/oil drilling

Have tougher sentencing, more police, expanded stop and search 

Leave the European Convention on Human Rights and repeal the Human Rights Act

Cut NHS funding by £26 billion and offer tax breaks for private healthcare

Cut public spending by nearly £300 billion

Most Reform voters stop reading after the first point though, sadly. 

Never a truer word spoken 

[mickbrown]

Just now, mickbrown said:

Never a truer word spoken 

And given those last two points especially, it’s deffo a case of turkeys and Xmas. 

[Zulu]

2 hours ago, kent_white said:

What this does tell me is that there is still hope for a charismatic, unifying leader to emerge in the centre before the next election. 

With the exception of Andy Burnham, I cannot see any member of the Parliamentary Labour Party with the skills necessary to pull that off. Burnham’s main problem? Has he got the balls to step down from his current role and risk it all on a by election? There’s not many ‘shoe-in’ seats for Labour in the current political climate. 

[kent_white]

1 minute ago, Zulu said:

With the exception of Andy Burnham, I cannot see any member of the Parliamentary Labour Party with the skills necessary to pull that off. Burnham’s main problem? Has he got the balls to step down from his current role and risk it all on a by election? There’s not many ‘shoe-in’ seats for Labour in the current political climate. 

I think you're probably right. Although I do think he has got the balls to do it - as he recently tried to do in that by-election that the Greens won (Gorton was it?)

I think you're right about shoe in seats though. I doubt there's many of them left anywhere. 

[DirtySanchez]

2 hours ago, Nowack said:

Ryan`s in for a bit of a shock when he finds out their is nothing he can do about planning and carrying out roadworks. In fact I`m not sure he can do anything about the local issues that he raises.

He can do something about Planning 

He can call in planning applications in to be determined by the Committee 

Depending on the make up of the Committee, which if reform control, they can tow a party line 

Stuff the Planners who are professionally qualified and years of experience, let a bloke who has been the lollipop man for thirty years decide planning applications 

[BobyBrno]

3 hours ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Given that only a proportion of seats were available, that would be extremely difficult. 

The bigger picture shows a huge gain amongst those available. 

9 out of 20 in Bolton.

If that was to continue next time round, then the country would look very different. 

In Tameside, every seat available was won by Reform. Rayner's area.

Traditionally, a red wall, and one with a lot of Muslims.

To overturn that is remarkable. 

 

Only a third of seats were up for election. Standard policy. If they were all up for election it would have been carnage. Not just for the political consequences but practically as well. Imagine a huge input of new councillors and the resulting departing experienced councillors.

Never known such scrutiny of local councillors. We have 60 in Bolton. I know around 18 both current and previous of 4 different parties if you include independent. Sorry to see John Walsh go but his replacement is young and that’s what people seem to want these days. Good luck to him.

[Nowack]

They can call all the applications they want in and debate them. They must still have a lawful planning reason to approve or refuse them. If they don`t then the will get overturned on appeal for which the Local Authority will incur costs. What they can do is dictate the planning policy and local plan but again, this takes a lot of time and money as well as political will.

[frank_spencer]

Our Tory defecting reform councillor has got back in, no surprise really.

Let's see if he's still Reform come next election or he jumps ship if the tides turn again.

[frank_spencer]

Just now, Nowack said:

They can call all the applications they want in and debate them. They must still have a lawful planning reason to approve or refuse them. If they don`t then the will get overturned on appeal for which the Local Authority will incur costs. What they can do is dictate the planning policy and local plan but again, this takes a lot of time and money as well as political will.

This are usually over decades long so by the time they've made changes to the plan there will be another election and all change again

[Nowack]

1 hour ago, kent_white said:

You'd be surprised....... They can delay, cause pressure, ask stupid questions which waste time, cast doubt and obfuscate. They can also choose or affect where PH puts it's resources locally. 

And when they're in power nationally - they can absolutely influence it. 

Yes, local politics can be messy and disruptive at times.
No, that does not give councillors the power to control public health science or vaccination policy.

Nationally though it does, and if that`s what we vote for in a democracy then that is what we will get, but that is another discussion.

[Winchester White]

4 hours ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Still suggesting that Reform is this heavily a right wing party.

Yet it has gained numerous voters from Labour.

Almost entirely down to the immigration issue.

Immigration isn't (or shouldn't) be a political issue in terms of left or right.

Many of the voters clearly don't see it thar way, yet traditional parties don't grasp it.

Yeah the greens aren't left wing either.

Immigration absolutely is a political issue in terms of left and right, it is playing out Infront of us all.

[mickbrown]

Interesting…….

 

[Winchester White]

7 minutes ago, mickbrown said:

Interesting…….

 

Yep, still hanging their hat on Brexit.

It is Orwellian and will take our youth to save us from our mistakes.

[mickbrown]

Aye, calm the fuck down people 

 

[little whitt]

27 minutes ago, mickbrown said:

Aye, calm the fuck down people 

 

but i know 10 people 

who have NEVER VOTED in they lives 

all 10 VOTED REFORM 

[Cheese]

14 minutes ago, little whitt said:

but i know 10 people 

who have NEVER VOTED in they lives 

all 10 VOTED REFORM 

Wait a minute... If we base everything on the 10 people you personally know, and extrapolate that across the entire country...... it means 100% of first time voters voted Reform! 😲

Edited Friday at 16:38 by Cheese