NPR

The gay leader of the conservatives in the London Assembly was ejected from the conference hall yesterday for muttering that there’s no such thing as gender ideology.

Do you think he’ll realise the party is quite happy now to persecute him, has members who gladly see him chemically castrated, and that it’s now a radical right organisation? Or will he doff his cap and be one of their token gays that they can point to and pretend they’re not bigots.

Tichtheid wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 7:40 am Braverman getting photographed standing on a dog’s tail at the Tory conference is straight out of The Thick of It - “tell me it wasn’t a fucking guide dog… oh of course it was a fucking guide dog for fuck’s sake”

Caught some Tory being interviewed by C4 - crucifix prominently on display as she talked about a wave of illegal immigrants here to cheat the system, etc

They are going full bore and while they're pretty much guaranteed to lose the election, there's so much time before the next one that they can do incalculable damage before they get kicked out. It's incredibly distressing.

shaggy wrote: ↑Tue Oct 03, 2023 6:38 pm

I’m not interested in the politics of it all, only the impact it is having on people who cannot afford this level of change in such a short time.

So you'd be in favour of a green agenda and a massive ongoing redistribution of wealth?

Biffer wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 7:52 am The gay leader of the conservatives in the London Assembly was ejected from the conference hall yesterday for muttering that there’s no such thing as gender ideology.

Do you think he’ll realise the party is quite happy now to persecute him, has members who gladly see him chemically castrated, and that it’s now a radical right organisation? Or will he doff his cap and be one of their token gays that they can point to and pretend they’re not bigots.

"Heckler"

'Heckler' is being stretched to its absolute limits there.

Biffer wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 10:13 am 'Heckler' is being stretched to its absolute limits there.

Conservative party member for 50 years!!!!
WTAF were the police involved in that for?

Real 'leopards ate my face' territory here.

See also:


Time stamped it for a particularly relevant bit, but watch the whole thing for a snapshort of general delusion.

PoliticsJOE also did a long form intereview with Conservative MP Caroline Nokes yeterday that was generally interesting and she seemed to disagree with an awful lot of Tory strategy and policy from the last several years. It finished with her decrying culture war focus and saying that it won't help them win.



I can't imagine being in a party that's making these views I claim to disagree with a central part of their policy vision and electoral strategy.

Owen Jones doing gods work at the Tory Party Conference. Always good viewing.


[media] [/media]

sturginho wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 12:28 pm

And yet only yesterday and Monday we were being told "no decision has been made". So they expect us to believe they took this decision only in the last ~36 hours...while holding their conference in a city now deprived of its HS link?

Is he going to re-invest the money in new heliports perchance?

Meanwhile right-wing turd Loozer Fox is having a great day... Sacked by GeeBeebees News and then had his home raided and has been arrested.

I wonder who the Government will sell all the HS2 land that was subject to compulsory purchase now that they don't need it?

The cynic in me would suggest the chums, at a knock down price, a.s.a.p. so that even if Labour were to commit to reversing the policy, they couldn't.

Hal Jordan wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 1:46 pm I wonder who the Government will sell all the HS2 land that was subject to compulsory purchase now that they don't need it?

The cynic in me would suggest the chums, at a knock down price, a.s.a.p. so that even if Labour were to commit to reversing the policy, they couldn't.

Rebranding as low tax development zones beckons.

Insane_Homer wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 1:26 pm Meanwhile right-wing turd Loozer Fox is having a great day... Sacked by GeeBeebees News and then had his home raided and has been arrested.

Father Robinson got the boot as well.

Insane_Homer wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 1:26 pm Meanwhile right-wing turd Loozer Fox is having a great day... Sacked by GeeBeebees News and then had his home raided and has been arrested.

Well according to Twitter law experts, the arrest is completely unjustified...meanwhile:

Hal Jordan wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 1:46 pm I wonder who the Government will sell all the HS2 land that was subject to compulsory purchase now that they don't need it?

The cynic in me would suggest the chums, at a knock down price, a.s.a.p. so that even if Labour were to commit to reversing the policy, they couldn't.

There will be dozens of stories like this.

A man who says he was forced to sell his house by HS2 said the failed project has "destroyed his life".
Roly Bardsley learned his home in Stanthorne, Cheshire, was affected by the planned route when he received a letter containing a map of the line.
After being denied a compulsory purchase order, the 59-year-old said he had "lost everything".
"I tried to sell it and estate agents laughed at me. It was blighted forever," he said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-m ... -67006024

Labour should simply announce they will re purchase any of the sold HS2 land at a 20% discount via a parliamentary statute. This would kill any sell off instantly.

Well he should know about wrong decisions...

Today’s decision on HS2 is the wrong one. It will help to fuel the views of those who argue that we can no longer think or act for the long-term as a country; that we are heading in the wrong direction.

HS2 was about investing for the long-term, bringing the country together, ensuring a more balanced economy and delivering the Northern Powerhouse. We achieved historic, cross-party support, with extensive buy-in from city and local authority leaders across the Midlands and North of England. Today’s announcement throws away fifteen years of cross-party consensus, sustained over six administrations, and will make it much harder to build consensus for any future long-term projects.

All across the world, we see transformative, long-term infrastructure projects completed or underway. They show countries on the rise, building for future generations, thinking big and getting things done.

I regret this decision and in years to come I suspect many will look back at today’s announcement and wonder how this once-in-a-generation opportunity was lost.

SaintK wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 2:48 pm There will be dozens of stories like this.

A man who says he was forced to sell his house by HS2 said the failed project has "destroyed his life".
Roly Bardsley learned his home in Stanthorne, Cheshire, was affected by the planned route when he received a letter containing a map of the line.
After being denied a compulsory purchase order, the 59-year-old said he had "lost everything".
"I tried to sell it and estate agents laughed at me. It was blighted forever," he said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-m ... -67006024

Except he was not forced to sell his home for HS2. According to that article HS2 actually refused to buy it from him. His house was blighted by proximity to the HS2 line, but he was actually forced to sell as his business got into trouble. I do not see any indication that this was due to HS2.

At the same time Mr Bardsley's business got into financial difficulty. He was forced to sell the property and his business folded within months.

"I was now in financial distress caused by them," he said.

"I lost my business. I lost my livelihood. And I lost my home.

weegie01 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 3:49 pm

SaintK wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 2:48 pm There will be dozens of stories like this.

A man who says he was forced to sell his house by HS2 said the failed project has "destroyed his life".
Roly Bardsley learned his home in Stanthorne, Cheshire, was affected by the planned route when he received a letter containing a map of the line.
After being denied a compulsory purchase order, the 59-year-old said he had "lost everything".
"I tried to sell it and estate agents laughed at me. It was blighted forever," he said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-m ... -67006024

Except he was not forced to sell his home for HS2. According to that article HS2 actually refused to buy it from him. His house was blighted by proximity to the HS2 line, but he was actually forced to sell as his business got into trouble. I do not see any indication that this was due to HS2.

At the same time Mr Bardsley's business got into financial difficulty. He was forced to sell the property and his business folded within months.

"I was now in financial distress caused by them," he said.

"I lost my business. I lost my livelihood. And I lost my home.

Ok, didn't quite read it like that!
Nevertheless their must be dozens whose homes/land has been compulsory purchased who have suffered distress and upheaval uneccessarily

Is Penny Mordaunt running for Conservative Leader or Munster Head Coach?

When any of these fuckers bangs on about freedom I feel a blinding rage.

A party so devoted to freedom that they've curtailed protest and strike rights.

I like neeps wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 5:45 pm

Is Penny Mordaunt running for Conservative Leader or Munster Head Coach?

Wtaf?

I know that Party Conferences and the speeches are aimed mainly at reinforcing the support and commitment of the Party faithful and not at the wider general public ( except for the MSM adherents to repeat some details and soundbites ) but this has been truly quite mental. You'd think that all the other parties need to do is keep their conferences low key and straight to the point of being dead boring just to counterpoint the ludicrous theatrics of the last few days. and speeches that sound like someone input key words into ChatGPT and let it run without any kind of QC oversight.

SaintK wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 4:22 pm

weegie01 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 3:49 pm

SaintK wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 2:48 pm There will be dozens of stories like this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-m ... -67006024

Except he was not forced to sell his home for HS2. According to that article HS2 actually refused to buy it from him. His house was blighted by proximity to the HS2 line, but he was actually forced to sell as his business got into trouble. I do not see any indication that this was due to HS2.

At the same time Mr Bardsley's business got into financial difficulty. He was forced to sell the property and his business folded within months.

"I was now in financial distress caused by them," he said.

"I lost my business. I lost my livelihood. And I lost my home.

Ok, didn't quite read it like that!
Nevertheless their must be dozens whose homes/land has been compulsory purchased who have suffered distress and upheaval uneccessarily

I agree, which is why this kind of lazy journalism annoys me.

Telling not only did conference announce no new policies bar a handful from the PM, but just how many senior Tory figures stayed the fuck away, not just from the cameras but from the conference period.

tabascoboy wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 3:28 pm Well he should know about wrong decisions...

Today’s decision on HS2 is the wrong one. It will help to fuel the views of those who argue that we can no longer think or act for the long-term as a country; that we are heading in the wrong direction.

HS2 was about investing for the long-term, bringing the country together, ensuring a more balanced economy and delivering the Northern Powerhouse. We achieved historic, cross-party support, with extensive buy-in from city and local authority leaders across the Midlands and North of England. Today’s announcement throws away fifteen years of cross-party consensus, sustained over six administrations, and will make it much harder to build consensus for any future long-term projects.

All across the world, we see transformative, long-term infrastructure projects completed or underway. They show countries on the rise, building for future generations, thinking big and getting things done.

I regret this decision and in years to come I suspect many will look back at today’s announcement and wonder how this once-in-a-generation opportunity was lost.

What a facepalm, this guy promised constitutional reform then didn't do it. It doesn't matter if there's 15 years of cross party consensus through 6 administrations, all that counts for fuck all if the PM isn't happy. HS2 was scrapped without any local government input (when they claim they want to empower local communities), without any parliamentary input (when they waffle about parliamentary sovereignty), without any cabinet input (when the UK system is supposed to be a cabinet government), instead of all that democratic stuff the PM just said "this is finished" and that was the end of it. It's a quasi presidential system with almost zero checks and balances. We saw this during the Johnson era, then everyone said the system worked when he was removed, which missed the point a bit.

Nothing of any scale that requires long term commitment can be built under these conditions, especially when the costs are carried by central government on an ongoing basis and the benefit is deferred far into the future when the current administration is gone.

Sunak is now going to sell the land acquired for HS2, which will make it harder to ever restart (as the land will have to be reacquired all over again). He's also going to funnel the cost savings into things like pothole repairs that can be done quickly before the next election, to make it seem like he's doing anything.

McTernan (an advisor to Blair during the New Labour era) was on Newsnight, he outlined his solution would be PFI on a larger and deeper scale. Even said he would use PFI to restart HS2. In other words his solution is extremely expensive inflation linked debt that takes decades to repay. McTernan has also recently said Labour is the home of Thatcherites and is the real conservative party. If the critical infrastructure of the UK (he mentioned water, energy, transport, hospitals, schools) is going to be constructed using PFI, it would take so long to repay (the cost would be multiples higher than just borrowing the money) that it would probably create a generational oligarchy. 100s of billions maybe even trillions, being funnelled into private hands.

The New Labour PFI method does get around the constitutional issues though. There's a quasi president (a "Big Dog" in Tory speak) who it's nearly impossible to hold to account, he opens the massive PFI feeding frenzy, then all future administrations have the massive costs they cannot escape from or cancel. No unwritten consensus through 6 administrations and 15 years that can all fall apart at any moment.

Hal Jordan wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 1:53 pm

Insane_Homer wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 1:26 pm Meanwhile right-wing turd Loozer Fox is having a great day... Sacked by GeeBeebees News and then had his home raided and has been arrested.

Father Robinson got the boot as well.

It's not the good news it seems to be. The owners of GB News want to buy the Telegraph, to do this they need to clean up GB News a bit. The telling thing is they knew what these people were and employed them anyway, their task was creating an environment where facts didn't matter (GB News is legally an entertainment channel, not a news channel). The goal of the GB News owners is to create a media ecosystem that entirely captures the Tory membership so they can control the Tory party, they don't need to be broadly successful, they just needs to capture the Tory membership. The Telegraph is important because it's basically the Tory in house newspaper, it went loony years back so would fit with GB News.

Farage said at the Tory conference that GB news would decide who the next Tory leader was.

Rhubarb & Custard wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 11:10 pm Telling not only did conference announce no new policies bar a handful from the PM, but just how many senior Tory figures stayed the fuck away, not just from the cameras but from the conference period.

Didn't you find it interesting that Farage turned up? Wasn't it you that said something along the lines of "the UK has proven it can do thoroughly stupid things, so maybe Farage does become PM"?

The most popular events going by the media coverage were: Farage, Truss, Braverman. That's what the members were interested in and attended, they didn't attend anything MPs and cabinet ministers did, because it's irrelevant and they won't be in government in a year or so. the Tory membership seems more interested in what comes after Sunak, someone they rejected. Braverman is very obviously running a leadership campaign. Truss I'm less sure is, but maybe. Farage, has bizarrely popped up and could also be running a leadership campaign.

Farage could never win a Westminster seat running as a candidate for one of his Farage parties. But running in a rock solid Tory safe seat as a Tory, is a different matter. The first thing he needs to be is a Tory member, multiple Tory MPs and senior figures say they're okay with that. The next thing he needs is a base inside the Tory party, commentators close to the Tories have said if he runs the membership will select him above anyone else.

Farage/GB News/Reform UK are all attacking Sunak, Farage knows Sunak won't be around much longer and isn't liked by a majority of Tory members, Farage can safely attack him from the outside. Reform UK says it's going to stand in every seat to deny a Tory majority, for what they see as a betrayal (Brexit not hard enough, high taxes, businesses having to follow laws, immigration existing). Farage says the current Tory party are social democrats and no different from Labour. Tice is the leader of Reform, but Farage is still its president. You can bet it's the same people funding all this, it would be surprising if the people funding GB News weren't also funding Farage and Reform too. A large amount of Tory members seem to agree with these attacks coming from Farage and outside the party.

Farage wants to demolish the Tory party from the outside, so he can rejoin the party and reshape it around him as its leader. No clue how viable that is, but that seems to be his goal, he's not going away.

That was likely a quip about Farage more than even a vague actual consideration. But too I don't see the practical point now in noting someone even if you liked their politics is dramatically unsuitable to a role as party leader, Boris and to a greater degree Trump have changed the game, all we can do is take the piss and that doesn't do much.

We've already had Truss, we're bound to get more people similarly unqualified for a senior executive role.

Somewhat amusingly Sunak’s claiming that the money ‘saved’ from HS2 phase 2 will be spent on extending the Nottingham tram system to Clifton, which is funny because I could have sworn I was on a tram that terminated at Clifton on Monday

tabascoboy wrote: ↑Thu Oct 05, 2023 8:16 am

What do you mean "I'd rather take the train"

tabascoboy wrote: ↑Thu Oct 05, 2023 8:16 am

I'm heading to the shops 20 minutes away while I still can

Paddington Bear wrote: ↑Thu Oct 05, 2023 7:31 am Somewhat amusingly Sunak’s claiming that the money ‘saved’ from HS2 phase 2 will be spent on extending the Nottingham tram system to Clifton, which is funny because I could have sworn I was on a tram that terminated at Clifton on Monday

I saw this too:

What a total shower these cons are.

I like neeps wrote: ↑Thu Oct 05, 2023 8:48 am

Paddington Bear wrote: ↑Thu Oct 05, 2023 7:31 am Somewhat amusingly Sunak’s claiming that the money ‘saved’ from HS2 phase 2 will be spent on extending the Nottingham tram system to Clifton, which is funny because I could have sworn I was on a tram that terminated at Clifton on Monday

I saw this too:

What a total shower these cons are.

Just absolute bullshit they came up with in the hotel room in an attempt to diffuse criticism. Of the bits that might happen, the Midlands Rail Hub is already a work in progress or as you’ve pointed out some of these things are already built. For £2bn Leeds might get a couple of tram lines a la Birmingham and Nottingham, but it isn’t getting a metro network.

Network Rail weren’t consulted on “Network North”, and they’ve killed HS2 which was critical to adding the capacity they need to make any east/west link work.
And £2bn of the ‘long term’ money is to be spent on fixing potholes, last I checked that ought to be opex.

Oh, and given the majority of the money on phase 2 of HS2 wasn’t scheduled to be spent until the next Parliament anyway, any chance of things coming online quicker is pretty illusory anyway.

A national embarrassment that makes us all poorer. The press have to take a fair share of the blame for the fact this was even possible, the standard of their reporting on HS2 has been dismal, a phenomenally misunderstood project

Paddington Bear wrote: ↑Thu Oct 05, 2023 9:02 am

I like neeps wrote: ↑Thu Oct 05, 2023 8:48 am

Paddington Bear wrote: ↑Thu Oct 05, 2023 7:31 am Somewhat amusingly Sunak’s claiming that the money ‘saved’ from HS2 phase 2 will be spent on extending the Nottingham tram system to Clifton, which is funny because I could have sworn I was on a tram that terminated at Clifton on Monday

I saw this too:

What a total shower these cons are.

Just absolute bullshit they came up with in the hotel room in an attempt to diffuse criticism. Of the bits that might happen, the Midlands Rail Hub is already a work in progress or as you’ve pointed out some of these things are already built. For £2bn Leeds might get a couple of tram lines a la Birmingham and Nottingham, but it isn’t getting a metro network.

Network Rail weren’t consulted on “Network North”, and they’ve killed HS2 which was critical to adding the capacity they need to make any east/west link work.
And £2bn of the ‘long term’ money is to be spent on fixing potholes, last I checked that ought to be opex.

Oh, and given the majority of the money on phase 2 of HS2 wasn’t scheduled to be spent until the next Parliament anyway, any chance of things coming online quicker is pretty illusory anyway.

A national embarrassment that makes us all poorer. The press have to take a fair share of the blame for the fact this was even possible, the standard of their reporting on HS2 has been dismal, a phenomenally misunderstood project

When's the next general election again?

Can't come soon enough. Bloody shower of chancers.

Total back of a fag packet list of stuff that's already built, already funded and in progress or that won't actually happen. Doubt there's anyone left gullible enough to be expecting an infrastructure windfall in the North as a result of this.

Meanwhile the social media crew there are on fire as usual.