People of Newcaste...

What the actual **** happened?!?!

Sunderland expanded and let our dross spill over eroding the Tynesiders?

I daredn’t watch. We have a lot of “proudly ignorant” up here. Makes me sad and angry in equal measure.

There's deluded ****s everywhere now, even up here. I think they're just happy brexit got done* and forrin-hating is more acceptable now.

*It hasn't, they're just deluded ****s.

I know! Only thing I'd say is that Newcastle isn't easy to label as one of the poorest parts of the country; there's a real mix of affluent and deprived areas.

Bear in mind that BBCQT have form for picking audiences from the Denied Boarding list of any cheap flight to Alicante outside of school holidays, so it may not be wholly representative.

I was about to post similar on the BJ thread but thought I'd check the subject hadn't gotten a three of its own, seeing as it is possibly the thickest audience I've ever seen.

If he's watching this, I fully expect Johnson to keep on chucking the Red meat out, this mob would eat it raw.

Just spoke to my mate who grew up in Blyth, says he feels like an alien amongst his own kind these days! He grew up in a very deprived household, he says when he was old enough to go out his mates would hit on his "older sister" (his Mum was only just 17 when she had him, and doesn't know his Dad), didn't have a penny to his name until he started doing a little better for himself in his mid 30's, yet he is significantly outnumbered by the wilfully ignorant sadly. He's never been politically motivated in his life, but now feels so strongly at 42 to do something about getting Boris and the Tories out, that he's contemplating his options for getting involved in local politics just to make the slightest bit of difference!

We have a lot of “proudly ignorant” up here

This is I think the crux of the problem... People who wear their ignorance as a badge of pride, and tonights QT audience was full of those! I live in a traditionally staunchly Conservative voting area (although barely anyone will actually admit to voting Conservative, they're mostly deafeningly silent when it comes to admitting their own self interest) that has just wholeheartedly rejected the Tories at the recent council elections for the first time in literally forever, because even they can only be pushed so far until their conscience finally kicks in. But when the people are openly bragging about voting for Boris because he's different and doesn't follow the rules, and that they see his litany of misdemeanours as an added bonus as it doesn't making him a boring stiff... I can only conclude that the ability to think critically has been genetically washed out of people in the North East, or it's something they put in the water... 🤷🏻‍♂️

I was about to post similar on the BJ thread but thought I’d check the subject hadn’t gotten a three of its own, seeing as it is possibly the thickest audience I’ve ever seen.

If he’s watching this, I fully expect Johnson to keep on chucking the Red meat out, this mob would eat it raw.

I can only say that if the BBC are trying to turn BBCQT into a satirical parody of itself, tonights episode is going to take some beating!

If Boris watched that he doesn't need to worry about chucking them some red meat to eat raw... He's no doubt already curling out another massive steamer for them to digest with glee, whilst he sells it to them as the finest delicacy they will ever have tasted! 🤦🏻

The people the BBC chooses to portray Geordies in the news would have the audience screaming if they set the same standards for the rest of UK or the world.

Every French article with a beret sporting onion salesman, every German one in Lederhosen. For those London based stories they would have get Dick Van Dyke back into character. It really is that bad.

Points taken relating to the adversarial style that QT has seems to have adopted and how audience selection for different regions can be manipulated but....

That was a pretty poor showing from Newcastle, it reminded me of that scene from 'Get Carter', where Michael Caine goes back to a Newcastle bar that seemed to belong to the Dark Ages, or that scene in the pub on the moors in 'American Werewolf in London', though the Yorkshire folk do seem to have moved on somewhat in the interim.

Many of those characters in the audience will have been staunch Labour for generations though you can see that they will never go back, they'll stick with Boris or his similar replacement. Should the Tories return to the centre these voters will most likely turn further right rather than return to the Labour Party.

And those Tories that mboy is talking about, who vote Tory but are liberal at heart (like where I grew up in South Oxfordshire), they'll be up for grabs at the next election, especially if they were watching that pretty ugly display on TV tonight..

I don't see Labour coming out with any radical policies aimed at the Northern working classes soon. On tonight's evidence it would be time and effort wasted, better go for those conservative voters in the Shires and the like who still have a moral compass.

I watched the first 15 odd mins and that was enough for me so I think I’d better keep my opinions to myself.

Can't help but think Labour needed Angela Rayner on the panel for this one, she would have torn into some of those clowns in a way that the metropolitan, middle class Labour panelist couldn't.

Haven't watched the Newcastle one, but I thought the good people of Dorking accounted for themselves well last week.

the Tories have turned into the GOP - they have managed to get the turkeys voting for Christmas.

For balance we are not all like that. 😢

There is a reason why populism is popular. Everything is more complex than it appears. Everything. And the people just don’t care for nuance. Only the Iceland CEO and the SNP MP gave a decent account of themselves. Labour tried to do nuance and detail. The Tory newly minted PPS was a parody. As were many of the audience. I imagine the producer thought “job done”.

I don’t see Labour coming out with any radical policies aimed at the Northern working classes soon. On tonight’s evidence it would be time and effort wasted, better go for those conservative voters in the Shires and the like who still have a moral compass.

I suspect that's the case.

We make a mistake if we think politics runs from Left to Right on a straight line. It bends round in a circle, so the far Left and far Right touch and overlap. Much as it's unpopular to say it, you can be "for" the downtrodden working class AND be racist. Plenty of examples from around the world in relatively recent history.

The Tories have figured it out and given that element of the mob their scapegoats and turned Boris into the non-thinking man's hero.

I grew up in Blyth and lived through the miners strike etc... My Grandad used to say '...if they put a Monkey up for Labour they'd vote it in'. I was just as shocked as anyone when they turned conservative. My oldest school mate was livid. His Dad was miner and he was off work for the full duration of the strike. It turns out his Dad voted Tory! He wanted Brexit sorted because he was '...fed up with Brexit and just wanted it done'.

I grew up in Blyth and lived through the miners strike etc… My Grandad used to say ‘…if they put a Monkey up for Labour they’d vote it in’. I was just as shocked as anyone when they turned conservative.

Same where I grew up in Bassetlaw. For years (ever?) labour - Joe Ashton. I was gobsmacked when it swung to Tory. @batfink is right, it's like rednecks and the GOP.

I’m from that part of the world and from my own experience I think most people would previously have regarded themselves as traditional Labour voters, but (and I hate myself for saying this) there are a lot of people who are ignorant and/or racist. I think that Boris and the current crop of Tories appeal to their ignorance and racism, and that outweighs any labour-leaning tendencies they may have had. I have close family members who aren’t interested in nuance or detail who think that Boris is doing a great job and couldn’t care less about the lies because “all politicians do that”, or if you point out our appalling death rate from COVID, for example, they respond with “well it would have been worse with Corbyn “. I despair.

When people talk about Boris’s misdemeanours losing him the ‘red wall’ seats at the next election, I’m not optimistic that that will happen.

Yeah, we're not all ike that up here. That said, I'm from a very poor family yet my grandad voted tory for whatever ****ing stupid (probably racist) reasons and my mam did up (she voted for brexshit too) until very recently, although that was more just 'because her dad did' (FFS) than being racist (she's very much not racist). She voted Green at the last GE though, so there is some hope.

I was propping up the bar at The Office, Morpeth, a couple of weeks ago and got chatting to some very switched-on socialist locals. Ace beer too! Ian Lavery MP seems pretty good. All is not lost.

I think they bussed in a load of morons from Hartlepool.

Also - I was previously of the opniion that the Iceland boss was a decent bloke, but with the additional data provided last night it seems I was wrong and he is as big a dickhead as any other supermarket boss.

I'm from Sunderland. My only regret is that I didn't leave much sooner and go much, much further away.

People I know think Brexit is just something that happened 5 years ago and it was all about their team beating our team. The consequences or long term implications are just something that people don't know or talk about. It was ages ago and the losers need to get over it.

One thing I did learn, growing up in a 100% white school, in a 100% white pit village in an almost 100% white town is that everything in England was fine until the darkies turned up and ruined it.

I was propping up the bar at The Office, Morpeth, a couple of weeks ago and got chatting to some very switched-on socialist locals. Ace beer too! Ian Lavery MP seems pretty good. All is not lost.

Morpeth's different to Blyth though, it's much more affluent so can 'afford' (for want of a better expression) to think about things further ahead than the next payday.

Also – I was previously of the opniion that the Iceland boss was a decent bloke, but with the additional data provided last night

Yep, me too - Of the few minutes I watched I shouted at the screen "just answer the ****ing question" , he's a tory enabling fence sitter.

According to what I've read on Twitter today, seems QT audiences are set up with equivalent proportions to mirror the number of MP's (not votes, but MP's).

There's your answer.

"Also – I was previously of the opniion that the Iceland boss was a decent bloke, but with the additional data provided last night"

I've seen him be neutral when asked political questions before and given him the benefit of the doubt, thinking he has a huge business with thousands of employees to run during a time of pandemic and Brexit.

He let himself down badly last night though, damaging the brand even, putting him in the company of Mike Ashley / Phillip Green rather than the likes of Theo Paphitis.

As for the performance of the Dorking crowd the other week? they acquitted themselves rather well I thought and represented the sentiment I recognised in Oxfordshire where I grew up. (interestingly, also 99.9% white)

The contrast in audience input from the different regions explicitly underlined the non linear pivot in politics that More Cash alludes to. Having spent the first 20 years of my life living down South and the next 30 Up North I've come to realise that many of the stereotypes about the North that I grew up with stiĺl hold true.

On a more philosophical note, I can see how the cultural and social revolutions that occurred during the 60's and 70's impacted on the lives of my parents and their like in a way that differentiated them massively from their own parents, the divide was huge.

I'm not sure the cultural and social revolutions of previous generations had the same impact in the North, the difference in attitudes between each generation being far more incremental.

Emma Kennedy summed it up perfectly in her tweet,

https://twitter.com/emmakennedy/status/1537558005562200065?s=21&t=qPw7vmwkvpXSAWWjPWq2Rw

They select audiences based on the result of the previous election, not current polling. Newcastle voted Remain in the referendum, but anyone still backing the Tories is likely to be an ardent Leaver?

I have been living in the North East,County Durham,for the past 11 years. In the past i have lived in Spain and Yorkshire. We are now seriously looking to move.
Great countryside with Teesdale and Weardale a short distance away and Hamsterley Forest on my doorstep.
But some of the people inhabiting these small ex pit villages drag the areas down.
Its not poverty,and the education is there if you want it.Its attitude. Some are quite happy to live in a rundown area with a new Merc,Ranger Rover,etc parked out front. On finance of course.Scamming the social security system,and bragging about it,makes them proud,its an achievement in life.Racism is ingrained.Unbelievably to me my neighbour agrees with Putins actions and that Hitler had the best ideas of dealing with " foreigners ".
Drugs,and the easy availability,is another big problem.
Two pubs and a WMC nearby but i would not set foot inside any unless i wanted to hear foul language shouted by men with fat red faces and stained white vests.
There are nice,honest genuine people here,but their life is affected by a " don't give a toss " mentality of what seems to be a growing minority.

Stop it joeegg, you're making me homesick.

Sharkattack ! You just need to turn up in your unleterred white ford transit pick up,with chrome wheel trims,and you would fit in nicely !

Watched it, it was woeful. Its truly embarrassing to be English if that's what we've become. The level of wilful ignorance is apparent every time one of those red faced bloated sweatygammon's gobs flaps open. Will strike it off as another part of the country I've no interest in ever visiting.

Will strike it off as another part of the country I’ve no interest in ever visiting.

It's a shame if you do that based on the attitude of a QT audience. Newcastle and Northumberland is well worth a visit.

Where are you joeegg im in a small northeast place and dont see that.

Endoverend, mad to say that based on what 200 people but in a way its a good thing that people think the north east is horrendous.

Ive seen a lot of the uk and i find the north east to be a cracking place to live, everywhere has horrible places and idiots,sometimes the idiots are the supposed educated and informed.

There are areas in the north east of enormous wealth ive seen it through work, quite astonishing tbh

As far as biking is concerened its a treat both mtb and road.

And if you like coast well.....northumberland is superb, natural tho so if folk prefer manicured and pretentious please go elswhere

EhWhoMe. I am in a small village outside the trackie bottom capital of the UK.Bishop Auckland .

Bish Vegas

One thing I did learn, growing up in a 100% white school, in a 100% white pit village in an almost 100% white town is that everything in England was fine until the darkies turned up and ruined it.

I grew up in a north east pit village. Sherburn Village. We had one lad in our school who’s skin was a different colour. Made no difference, never heard or saw any racist comments or actions against him, he was just another pupil who mixed with everyone & vice versa.
This was in the early 1970’s.

I am in a small village outside the trackie bottom capital of the UK.Bishop Auckland

My Dad was from Coundon. He may have been a Tiny bit racist.

F***** hell! I see there's a new home on here for unabridged snobbery and condescension. I grew up on one of these ex-pit white working class villages (Camperdown/Burradon for those who know the area). Yes it's rough and ready, racism and mysogyny are rife and they don't suffer fools and outsiders gladly, but there are far more genuinely generous and friendly people than there are idiots. Yes they can be a bit ignorant on issues around race, sexuality, women's rights etc compared to middle class metropolitan cosmopolitan types, but that's mostly a function of lack of exposure to anything different. If they're insular that's because for time immemorial they've had to stand on their own two feet as they get no help from anywhere else. Not that they want help, all they want is the ability to earn a living to bring up their families and give their kids opportunities they didn't have.

But some of the people inhabiting these small ex pit villages drag the areas down.

You can blame the local authorities and government for that. Back in 90s after the Tyneside riots the council demolished the sink estates and distributed everyone who lived in them across other communities. In my village that resulted in an influx of drugs, petty crime and all sorts of other anti-social behaviour that the locals couldn't deal with. Instead of solving the problem of deprivation in places like Meadow Well they exported the problem everywhere else.

Even the people up here are outraged at the choice of people on that show. To say it represents Newcastle is not a fair judgement at all (some other parts of the NE maybe not so much). https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/bbc-question-time-misrepresenting-newcastle-24255139

The big problem the NE has is inequality of wealth distribution and its getting worse. Housing is becoming ghetto-ised with whole communities left without any kind of uplift in facilities or value while others are described in national newspapers when an MP moves there as 'Chocolate Box idylls' and the like. Example is the house three doors up from mine. Based on its value as it hit the market yesterday, my house (which is in a desirable area for buying) will have increased 2-3 fold in value since I bought it just 5 years ago.

I saw another one that we looked at when moving into the area that was around £300k 5 years back sell for over £500k recently. I thought they were taking the p*** with that price when it went up, but apparently not. Sold within the month. The north east is a new hotspot for crazy pricing on houses it would seem - something that will only serve to cement the already glaring divisions in wealth distribution in the area.

Hmmmmm Dazh and I may well have met in years gone by.

To say it represents Newcastle is not a fair judgement at all (some other parts of the NE maybe not so much).

I came to post this.

I love the people of Newcastle, and the surrounding areas, but social attitudes vary A LOT between the city and areas within easy cycling distance.

Yup I know Burradon and Camperdown. My grandmother lived in Pegswood in one of the colliery rows. It seen similar deprivation and became very ran down. It’s marginally better now but still has a lot of social issues.

 But some of the people inhabiting these small ex pit villages drag the areas down.

You’re thinking of some ex-miners in general not just the NE. I’m on Facebook page for mining history. The self entitlement of some of them is unbelievable, still think mines should reopen, still can’t fathom they weren’t economical and still in belief they were poorly paid.

I think you'll find that snobbery works both ways dazh.

When you say "middle class metropolitan cosmopolitan types" I take it that you are referring to a group of people for whom the social and sexual revolutions of the 60's had an Impact?

You describe the underlying bigotry of the region yourself, yet you excuse it by choosing to blame Thatcher for a regional mindset that hasn't moved on much in 50 years.

Traditionally, middle class metropolitan cosmopolitan types have formed a compact with working class types who "don’t suffer fools and outsiders gladly" in order to get the Tories out. When the later starts voting Tory that compact starts to disolve.

Call it snobbery if you wish, or could it be that it's just middle class types demonstrating that they too "don't suffer fools gladly".

I was born on Tyneside and lived there until 28.
Wallsend until 18 where the major employer was Swan Hunters shipyard which had been in inexorable decline for years.
There's a high level of ignorance on this thread about the area and far too many judgemental and uninformed posts.
For those who've said they wouldn't visit - that's great news as you can continue living with your bias and prejudice.
Inkster - your comment about a pub scene in Get Carter is laughable; the scenes portayed in that pub were typical of many pubs in former industrial towns and cities. They persisted in Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow until into the 1980's as I know from having been in some of them.
It's possible there may have been one or two in Oxford.

+1 frank

My mum's side of the family are all Wallsend and Walker, my auntie still lives there, my great uncles worked in SH (Uncle Walter got dementia and would go missing, and turn up there and the lads would sit with him in the tea room and call my auntie to go and collect him). And although I was the posh side of the family, going to University and the like (family nickname 'Professor') when I went to visit my Gran and Grandad and we went down to the Bottom club or the Buffs with him - sure they were tough men and women, no nonsense and quite embittered by the decline of the shipyards, but I don't recognise what i saw in that BBCQT audience as being representative of my auntie, cousins, or the friends I met when visiting them.

Mind, the nights I went out with my cousins to the Bigg Market and on then to the Tuxedo Princess..... I felt like an outsider then! Not in a bad way, just to a well brought up lad from the countryside it was 'eye opening' shall we say 😉

Recently moved back to the NE and very happy to do so. Was a bit disconcerting when someone smiled and said hello. As an ex-Londoner I realised it was a trick to distract me while they stole my wallet, so I quickly crossed to the other side of the street to safety. Apart from that, all good 🙂

Was a bit disconcerting when someone smiled and said hello. As an ex-Londoner I realised it was a trick to distract me while they stole my wallet, so I quickly crossed to the other side of the street to safety.

My BIL & his partner have just moved up from London to Northallerton, he’s from Durham originally she’s from Darn Sarf.
She made a comment that she thought Northerners were weird cos they were staring at her. My Mrs pointed out that it was eye contact, something she hasn’t experienced much before.
Turns out she’s a paranoid weirdo anyway.

For those who’ve said they wouldn’t visit – that’s great news as you can continue living with your bias and prejudice.

For some balance, as the OP of this thread, I was lucky enough to spend a bit of time in Northumberland recently for the first time in a long time. Every time I go there I am stunned by its beauty and magnificence! That and the people are mostly very friendly, the beer doesn't tend to be watered down in the pubs and people seem to value the more important things in life (friendships, family, the outdoors etc.) much more than down south...

So the whole "Blue Wall" thing was a bit of a shocker in the first place when it happened, but Thursday Night's QT audience was absolutely disgraceful!

The company that makes QT for the BBC are, well, selective rather than objective… in many ways, including how they choose the audience. Anyone who thinks that any audience chosen by them is in any way genuinely reflective of the area they are drawn from should probably stop watching the programme. It’s a good idea anyway. You’ll think better of people if you give it a miss. I used to watch it every week… not seen a single episode for four years now. It became just trash. Whereas Newcastle and the people there are a bloody treasure trove of aceness. Love it.

Any intelligent person who thinks the audience on QT represents the average or typical view of the populace of the area in which the program is shot, really isn't very intelligent at all.

Newcastle and the people there are a bloody treasure trove of 8-aceness.

FTFY

Wether people feel the QT audience was representative of the people of the NE that they know personally or not, what we can say is that they were broadly representative of how the NE voted the last time they went to the ballot box.

The shift from Labour to Nationalism that has occurred in the Red Wall seats is the most significant shift we have seen in our lifetime. Would you rather the BBC had stuffed the audience full of liberals (which they are often accused of)? Or do as they did and assemble an audience that represents the political shift that we have seen in the region?

Newcastle is a stunning city, as is the surrounding countryside and swing as neither get the opportunity to vote I would advise that anyone can visit either with a clean conscience.

Doesn't mean the knuckle daggers of Newcastle don't exist though.

Every time I go there I am stunned by its beauty and magnificence!

Lies. Utter, flagrant lies. Its grim. Grimy. Wet. Dank. Miserable. Not worth considering a visit ever... Honest guv 😜

Well said ben.

But yes please stay away its horrible leave us to suffer the horribleness...😇😇😇

I worked on the elections in the polling stations for many years in Sunderland for the pocket money (and a day off work...) a while ago.

I'd say from experience a lot of the 'hardcode' Labour voters back then probably held 90% of Tory values if truth be told but were often told what party to vote for - many shouts of 'Dad, who do I vote for again?' could be heard. As generations pass 'dad' isn't there to decide and I'm not surprised the Tory vote is rising in these areas.

a bloody treasure trove of 8-aceness

👏🏼

Doesn’t mean the knuckle daggers of Newcastle don’t exist though.

Newcastle is still overwhelmingly Labour. And full of open hearted people. All your comments may be partly true about areas of the “NE”, but not Newcastle.

I used to live there as a child. From about aged 4 till 6 when we moved to Glasgow.

Here we are, No62 Southway.

https://www.google.com/maps/ @54.9807133,-1.6983362,3a,41.7y,292.34h,89.27t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s-Sw5AQhOXP6NX-WERUcApA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Not sure what the area is like but it looks quite nice. I think the area is Denton, possibly east Denton, but i admit I know little about it.

Denton is rather nice, yes.

Newcastle is still overwhelmingly Labour. And full of open hearted people. All your comments may be partly true about areas of the “NE”, but not Newcastle.

Yup it has had a labour council for decades. I’ve no idea how people come up with the conclusion a few people on TV represent several counties.

I think it flip-flops between Lib Dem and Labour.

Liberals don't get much of a look in round here. Not sure why qt selected that crowd, it's very much redwall still east of the A1. West of the A1 is blue nowadays but the population is thin out in the boonies where we are. Newcastle, Gateshead, Washington, Sunderland still all labour. Farther south in Redcar / Stockton the conservatives broke through in those urban areas in 2019, but again by population it's still the thin end of the wedge.

It's worth noting most areas have been conservative within the lifetimes of many people. It's only Thatcher era politics that cemented labours stronghold, and whether better or worse for voting intentions, most people I meet have moved on from those days. Banning fake tan, that would cause outrage. Closing mines, not so much nowadays.

For all you that live that way. Do they not do school trips to the mining museum? Can’t believe anyone would vote for Boris after a trip there.

After a few trips North of the Thames it’s certainly not representative of what I have seen there.

For all you that live that way. Do they not do school trips to the mining museum? Can’t believe anyone would vote for Boris after a trip there.

Yeah to Woodhorn. It’s almost 40 years since miners strike, it’s probably time to move on.

I think it flip-flops between Lib Dem and Labour.

They held it for a few years in early 2000s

It’s worth noting most areas have been conservative within the lifetimes of many people

When I was at school The Evil Rotter (Neville Trotter) was our MP. As a radical communist (in my head anyway) in sixth form I remember going out for lunch and bumping in to the Rotter's crew in Monkseaton campaigning. I managed to get told to move on by the 'security' as I, and a couple of mates, armed with chips threatened civil disturbance by shouting at him.

Interesting to hear breatheasy's perspective / experience. I think it underlines the general theme of the issue not being wether people vote for the Tories or Labour but how underlying values in the NE have always been more conservative than we have allowed ourselves to believe.

Anyhow, I don't really see them as voting for the Tories as such, they voted forJohnson and the Nationalist s**t-show that his administration offers. It is the least diverse region in the country yet it seems to respond to every anti foreigner policy put forward by the government with greater enthusiasm than any other region.

As has been mentioned before, the old divisions of left and right don't cut it anymore as the axis shifts to Nationalist vs humanist.

Yeah to Woodhorn. It’s almost 40 years since miners strike, it’s probably time to move on.

I think it'll take my generation's (b. 1975) dying for that to start happening. I was born in and grew up in North Shields and remember one of my sister's friends staying with us for a couple of nights when the Meadowell riots were happening. I live in East Durham now, very near Easington Colliery and the miners' strike and bitterness over the closures are still very much at the fore of my generation and older's minds (not mine, it didn't affect us at all because nobody in our family worked in the mines.) My OH's dad voted to leave the EU 'because of Tony Blair', ffs.

Sunderland still all labour.

I work with a lad from Sunderland, 49 years old and thick as two short planks, still lives with his mother, extremely racist, loves Boris and Trump, totally supportive of Brexit yet has just voted for Labour at the local elections. When I asked him why the answer was ' me daar (dad) would turn in his grave if I voted for anyone else'. Sunderland voted overwhelming for brexit yet the recent elections saw Labour increase their hold on the council. A lot of people these days don't have a clue what they're actually voting for

I was watching a youtube video by ADiffentBias last week that had something else I'd not really thought about - The Redcars/Hartlepools etc. (and to be fair a lot of other rundown towns) - the youngsters who are more likely to vote Labour start leaving for unis/better jobs darn sarf/better areas start draining away the pool of Labour supporters and you're left with a dried out town with predominantly Tory elderly voters so its in the Tories interests to keep them run down.

And to be fair Labout have some blame in this too, took them for granted all those years too, the usual pin a red rosette on a donkey and it'll get elected and they've let/kept them run down too.

I’d say from experience a lot of the ‘hardcode’ Labour voters back then probably held 90% of Tory values if truth be told

I think there's a lot of truth in that. My grandad was a Mail reader and if you looked into his opinions on any topic you'd quickly come to the conclusion that he was a natural Tory, but he voted Labour because .. some tribal allegiance? Dunno, and it's too late to ask him now.

I was watching a youtube video by ADiffentBias last week that had something else I’d not really thought about………………

Been happening for years in Dumfries & Galloway, it’s little more than a retirement home for Tory voters, out of 26 houses in my mums street in kirkcudbright 17 have been bought by folk from down south as holiday lets at vastly over asking price so poorly paid locals don’t stand a chance.

"A lot of people these days don’t have a clue what they’re actually voting for"

After the last few years do any of us?

I think it’ll take my generation’s (b. 1975) dying for that to start happening.

Nah! I’d say our generation are bored of hearing about them. The ridiculous thing is it was a small percentage who voted to strike and wasn’t an official national ballot.