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It’s clear that whichever civil servant they gave the crayons to isn’t too hot on the geography of the north
https://twitter.com/miss_mcinerney/status/1709627679912206762?s=46&t=1lK7Dw1b6RqGJyvufO-trQ
It’s almost as if somebody just chucked something together in 5 minutes on the back of a fag packet
trailmonkey
Full Member
Then you’re ignoring the historical fact that the NHS has always been better under Labour.No, I’m just aware that historically, Labour was a left leaning party that would prioritise public services and nothing that they say now makes me think that they still are.
Or, for that matter that they are any more trustworthy than the Tories, given Starmer’s own history of abandoning promises and pledges.
First and foremost let me say I'm sorry to hear you are struggling. It's not a good time to be in need of help, particularly with mental health issues. Many of the safety nets that were once there are gone.
I can empathise, genuinely. I definitely have skin in this game.
However, i have absolutely no doubt in my mind what Labour will attempt to "fix" the massive problems within the NHS and social care. Will it be a quick fix, will they even succeed? To the former, no, to the latter, I can only hope so.
What i am absolutely positive about is that another term of a Tory government threatens the very existence of the NHS as there is no will at all from the Tories to improve matters. If anything its a potential huge money maker to let it fail.
Let's not forget that Sunak wasnt even registered with an NHS GP till it came out in the papers. The NHS is for little people, not a Tory PM it seems.
How HS2 is being reported by CNN; the author is international managing editor for CNN Business.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/05/economy/hs2-railway-uk-economy/index.html
Footage of the HS2 replacement has surfaced.
(just north of) Wormwood Scrubs to Birmingham it is then :/ nice for brummies with family doing stir 🙂
frankconwayFull Member<br />How HS2 is being reported by CNN; the author is international managing editor for CNN Business.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/05/economy/hs2-railway-uk-economy/index.html/blockquote >
Wow. We know it's bad, but to hear it from someone well outside the westminster bubble makes for difficult, if frank reading.
And now this?...
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/leamside-line-hs2-government-dropped-b2424862.html
I mean, it's just word salad now, really, isn't it.
They are literally just making it up as they go along and blurting out any old shite just to try and make it to the end of the week
Absolute ****ing clowns!
https://twitter.com/bethrigby/status/1709947021157933227?s=46&t=1lK7Dw1b6RqGJyvufO-trQ
So let me get this straight:
Despite it being undecided until the day before they managed to produce a 40 page report into the new plan.
The announcement of alternative improvements includes stuff that's already been built.
They have already cancelled one announced project, within 24 hours.
They have included a map that gets the geographical placement of a major city completely wrong and with no connections to it.
They promise to fix potholes but nowhere near the North.
The bit to Euston is now to be privately funded.
Is this them answering the question: How low can they go? We all know the answer is that there is no limit but even for that answer this is mind-bogglingly crazy.
Whichever junior mug of a Tory MP is on Question Time* (I’ve never seen him before and have no idea who he is) is presently getting torn a new one by pretty much everybody about HS2. He looks like a rabbit in the headlights
* now available on iplayer from 8pm onwards on a Thursday
Despite it being undecided until the day before they managed to produce a 40 page report into the new plan.
Originally I did think it was all written up well in advance alongside his video but given the state of the report it is believable that was produced the day before after a boozy dinner.
I live right on the border of Durham and Sunderland and have often wondered about the leamside line, it pretty much just needs tracks putting back down, we talked about it last week ,it woud be fantastic to link that back up, into Newcastle.
It really highlights the staggerring hoarded wealth of the country, The line would revolutionise the north east rail and metro for 745million...sunak has 730million himself....he could pay the 700million and still have 30million left ffs...granted that only gets you a very average footballer which again shows the ludicris world which we live....ararrrgghhhhhh
Whichever junior mug of a Tory MP is on Question Time
Richard Holden, who is able to display all the knowledge you'd expect for a Transport Minister.
Andy Burnham has accused them of knocking it up in a Manchester hotel room the night before
It looks like he was right. I’m picturing the episode of Peep Show where Johnson leaves Mark and Gerrard in a hotel room overnight to come up with ‘Project Zeus’
Rishi is actually quite Johnson-esque
Or a slanderous statement made by the political leader of a country who should know better
It's not slanderous. It's perfectly accurate. Sturgeon might go down. The courts have to decide. It could happen. It might not.
44 seats is not fringe
Doh! Alba has two seats in the Commons and has never won an election. Its leader is a man eho has spent most of the last decade on Putin's payroll. Maybe you should read up more on Scotch politics 😉
Scots law is different. Sunank has technically broken the law
He hasn't. It's not illegal to comment on ongoing proceedings. It has never been. Neither is it illegal to take the piss out of former First Ministers - although with the SNP being so keen on criminalising different types of speech, maybe it will be soon in Scotland.
What’s the betting that one of his donors has the contract for that part of the build and if he cancels it before a certain date they don’t get paid? Once that date passes and it triggers a cancellation fee, most likely in the multiple millions, then he will confirm it with some half-assed excuse about why he couldn’t make the decision earlier.
Not how any of this works. (Also, he’s not organised enough to pull it off).
I hate being right when it costs us multiple millions...
(From the link above)
Mark Harper, the transport secretary, also conceded on Thursday that paying off contracts previously awarded for the cancelled HS2 sections would cost hundreds of millions of pounds.
He told BBC Breakfast that the cost of pulling out of the agreements would “broadly balance out” with money recovered from selling land and property acquired for the high-speed railway.
I can't say it enough: Bunch of absolute ****s.
The Iceland boss on Question Time tonight - who would clearly know a thing or two about this kind of thing - made the point that any company entering into any future government contracts will now be demanding clauses of massive sums of money in compensation if the government suddenly decides to pull the plug
Or maybe they just won’t bother as it’s more trouble than it’s worth
Anyway we got 40 hospitals didn't we.
Bloody fake homeless organised begging gangs everywhere. They don't know what poor is in this country. They wouldn't need to use food banks if they didn't spend all their money on iphones, drugs, booze and fags, or heaven forbid just got a job.
They're all liars anyway. Imagine if that Russian commie sympathiser got in it would av bin worse. Open door to any immigrants, Snow Black Trans you name it, moped knife gangs in every town!
Bloody single mothers, don't know how to do shopping or cooking right. Out of control youths with aggressive music am I right eh, weeding whiting and aromatherapy am I white!
Chester - you are lee anderson and I claim my £5; now, truck right off back to ****in mansfield which is the arsehole of the western world.
I think Chester was taking the piss
Yes I know he was - as was I.
crazy-legs
Full MemberEntertainingly, they promised an extension to the Manchester tram network to serve Manchester Airport. Manchester Evening News have taken great delight in pointing out that it already exists and opened in 2014.
They did the same with Nottingham, suggesting that the ££££ they were going to throw at the region could be used to extend the tram to Clifton South – an extension which has been in full service for 8 years already.
I mean this is really funny but when they inevitably uturn and cancel these plans it's going to be messier than usual
It'll be great when they build the undersea connection to France to ease continental freight and tourism.
Ooh, that's a good Idea!
Maybe they could pop a railway line through it and then build other rail lines in this country to connect to it?
So let me get this straight:
I get the feeling HS2 was essentially canned a while ago, but the important bit, the justifications and the pretend alternative spending and re-announced stuff really wasn't thought of untill the very last minute.
Makes you wonder about the return of Dom...
A government that commits to a bipartisan, decades long, 90bn project, enact multiple pieces of legislation for it, then has its unelected prime minister shitcan it without even seeking cabinet, let alone Parliamentary approval. Why should any citizen, business or international ally trust a word we say?
politecameraaction - are they a plant?
Anyway back to the news, looks like Sunak is definitely going for a crash & burn exit but he'll be flogging off everything he can to pals & backers AKA out to **** the next Govt, whoever they are.
#NeroDecree
Sunak’s ‘spiteful’ sale of land intended for HS2 dashes hopes of revival | HS2 | The Guardian
Yes I know he was – as was I.
Hard to tell, you were right about Mansfield!
The Clifton tram extension announcement was a shock. Either they were lying again or the "artists impression" that i travelled on was bloody realistic.
A government that commits to a bipartisan, decades long, 90bn project, enact multiple pieces of legislation for it, then has its unelected prime minister shitcan it without even seeking cabinet, let alone Parliamentary approval
It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if it was actually found to be unlawful or at the very least in breach of multiple contracts.
The contractors will be after hundreds of millions in compensation.
A government that commits to a bipartisan, decades long, 90bn project, enact multiple pieces of legislation for it, then has its unelected prime minister shitcan it without even seeking cabinet, let alone Parliamentary approval. Why should any citizen, business or international ally trust a word we say?
Its kind of symbolic of the now complete process, going on since the Brexit vote, of completely shredding the UK's international reputation and turning us into a total laughing stock of a banana republic
They must be laughing their tits off at us all over Europe as they get around on their high speed rail networks
Question Time said something like £2bn in costs to cancel ( if i heard correctly)
anyway I know there's a lot of other things going on in Scotland regards the byelection last night, but Tories losing their deposit a day after the conference finished is pretty funny!
Makes you wonder about the return of Dom…
It's not the first time I've heard his name being mentioned as some-one advising Sunak. But this also has the fingerprints of Lynton Crosby's mob all over as well, so it's hard to tell which bunch of charlatans had this stunningly short sighted idea
Either they were lying again or the “artists impression” that i travelled on was bloody realistic.
Which just goes to show how dumping HS2 was the right move. That was dragging on vs Sunak being able to deliver the Clifton tram and several other pieces of infrastructure overnight.
He should be being praised for this lightning fast delivery.
Its kind of symbolic of the now complete process, going on since the Brexit vote, of completely shredding the UK’s international reputation and turning us into a total laughing stock of a banana republic
As if Brexit hadn't made it difficult enough to invest in the UK, this has completely turned off any future investment. Who would want to take on any Government project now, knowing that they'll be screwed around with contract changes, at constant risk of cancellation and with inflation running as high as it is?!
Never mind stopping the boats, he's single handedly stopped all future foreign investment.
Except the Russians I imagine. Maybe the Chinese too...
I hate being right when it costs us multiple millions…
You're not right, tho. Obviously cancellation is going to cost squillions.
That's not what you said - you said Sunak was pretending to dither on cancellation because it would earn Tory donors more money. That's not true. And cancellation isn't lucrative for consultants and contractors: they don't get the full amount, it costs them money to wind down and stop work (from making sites safe to making people redundant), and on these projects the margins are so fine that you only make a profit at the end of the project. Cancellation is not as profitable as doing the current work - let alone doing the future work that hasn't even been contracted yet.
You can't simultaneously believe HS2 was initiated as a corrupt conspiracy by Tory donors AND that binning HS2 was a corrupt conspiracy by Tory donors!
I never said it was initiated as a corrupt conspiracy, for a start it was originally a project of Labour under Gordon Brown.
This is what I think happened - he has planned this for a while but wanted to make it his big gammon-pleasing announcement at conference.
Some total bastard/Russian spy/plucky reporter/disgruntled staff member/his wife leaked it, and even with all the negative reactions he decided to stick with it.
It’s not the first time I’ve heard his name being mentioned as some-one advising Sunak. But this also has the fingerprints of Lynton Crosby’s mob all over as well, so it’s hard to tell which bunch of charlatans had this stunningly short sighted idea<br /><br />
I thought it was common knowledge that the tories are using the same folk who worked for Lyndon Crosby as chief advisors along with Cummings, do a search for who is involved and what other foreign counties elections in which they’ve been involved, you’ll be ****ing apoplectic with rage. I’m on phone at hospital otherwise I’d link to the bastards
disgruntled staff member/his wife leaked it
Behind his back?
Cheeky!
I remember a time when Tory politician's wives were loyal partners.
It'll be interesting to see if there were any sales of the previously compulsory purchased land/properties in the last month or so...
There are rumblings some stuff has already been flogged ahead of the announcement.
If that is indeed the case it should be remarkably easy to establish, public bodies are publicly accountable, and not least to parliament.
There are rumblings some stuff has already been flogged ahead of the announcement.
Would anyone be remotely surprised if that was the case? Or that the company buying up the property had links to his wife?
That should be fairly easy to establish too