You’re also assuming that the selling is all above board!
Well I haven't got into any conspiracy theories yet, so yes that is precisely what I am assuming.
And yes I also assume that those involved the HS2 project have a vague idea of what they are doing. If there was a complete lack of joined up thinking it would never get built in the first place.
If there was a complete lack of joined up thinking it would never get built in the first place.
Well it hasnt been built yet and has gone massively overbudget and been trimmed in scope. So I am not sure that specific argument adds up.
Well in that case Rishi Sunak's latest announcement is completely irrelevant, none of it will be built.
3yrs ago to the day, somebody updated Rishi Sunak's wikipedia page thus...
[img] 
?_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=gl2C20fgUGsAX9GVhL6&_nc_ht=scontent.fbrs1-1.fna&oh=00_AfBbqkIvxYun2UzKaCvmSJYH_r9HbmMn4orERInPLDh5Jw&oe=6547C2A1[/img]
"Rishi Sunak (born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who has been rightfully called a turd by legend Liam Gallagher."
Seems even more relevant now than ever!
yes Sunak seems to have actually tweeted a picture of himself flying back from Manchester on a private jet....
https://twitter.com/MittensOff/status/1710378242052366606?t=jMK_xRbobLhflpkPqIHX8A&s=19
yeah im posting this again
but how is he so clueless?
https://twitter.com/Otto_English/status/1710403169048485891?t=IBBWR8xjxBmPgg0u0THO2w&s=19
I'm always 'working for you' - ring binder open, pen at the ready, serious face.
Yeah, right.
Yes of course he is trolling why not guy became prime minster without the public voting for him, remember this is the help to eat guy!
Ok all honesty, if he was trolling it was almost be more human. You are genuinely looking at a guy that doesn't see any hypocrisy in a pic like that. He doesn't remotely live in the same world as us. To him his job is a Sunday game of Monopoly. Doesn't matter how out goes, has no impact on him. Or rather, the only impact will be positive for him once he moves permanently to the US once he's finished with us.
Also I'm a little concerned that he holds his pen upside down.
Kudos for getting a sanctioned benefits claimant to hold a Union flag out on the wind though. No doubt the owner of the guide dog he was pictured with a few days back. "You just stand here luv, hold this and brace yourself, might get a lightly gusty but knock on the window if out gets a little bracing and I'll tell the pilot to slow down a bit."
The simple answer is that he has the same psychopathic tendencies that a lot of leaders and people in senior positions have. In his head he is doing the right thing, we just don't understand him and he doesn't need to care about that as what he is doing is always right.
Its amazing though whoever runs his social media account didnt point out to him that its possibly not the best image to portray.
Do you think that might be deliberate? After all, none of them are going to want to inherit this shit show next term.
After all, none of them are going to want to inherit this shit show next term.
I am not sure thats relevant for the social media account manager. Although that said considering how fast they churned through PMs i guess they could end up with that.
Anyway more shocking news.
The country is going to have to go into crisis mode.
Failing Grayling has announced he is standing down at the next election.
How will the country cope without his leadership. All those takeways dreaming of becoming ferry lines.
Nah, this is Rishi doing all he can to cling onto power, its the act of desperation. There's more than one commentator suggesting that he using the same team of advisers that Johnson used - Lynton Crosby and Dom Cummings, and the word salad coming out of No.10 in the last couple of weeks, "Change candidate", "Getting rid of the consensus politics" "Making the hard decisions" is entirely their sort of language.
It won't make any difference of course, the Tories are ****ed and they all know it. Half of them are behaving like they're in opposition already the party is so divided, but I think Rishi likes being PM, and the power that gives hmi to make sure he and his family and friends stay wealthy. At the very least, we all know he wants to stay on and he won't, and that'll piss him off personally. Small comfort I know.
So as well as my earlier bet for a spring election, my side bet is that he'll **** off to Silicon valley where he belongs with all the other of the dysfunctional right wing ghouls, there's no way he'd stick around and be a back-bencher.
Agree, we won't be seeing him as a back bencher which tells us what we already know about why he is in politics.
In which case gives him strong similarities with Tony Blair, who on the same day resigned both as prime minister and MP to pursue other lucrative career opportunities, despite there still being another 3 years before the next general election.
It certainly banished any doubts I might of had concerning what motivated Tony Blair, when he decided that providing advice to murderous despots was more important than providing advice to his constituents. And that he was too special to sit on the backbenches.
Blair was certainly mainly motivated by wealth and power
If they ban cigarettes, what will they use to work their policies out on once fag packets are no more?
The funeral shrouds of the poor they've sent to early graves
Hey, at least little Rishi's successor as Tory leader won't surely be as bad? It's not as if someone like Farridge is suddenly in the running for it?
Oh... Hang on...
Its amazing though whoever runs his social media account didnt point out to him that its possibly not the best image to portray.
He hasn't got any other image to portray. Same with all of them - Liz "instagram" Truss was the same, any/all of them once they don a hard hat and a hi-viz on some construction site somewhere. Farage has some mate/lacky who does regular pics of him too - yes they get ripped to shreds on some aspects of social media but they also get likes and shares from the mouth-breathing morons that looks up to these shysters.
The social media people are in the same bubble - job description is to fly around in Rishi's helicopters and private jets and take photos of him "hard at work". Bring it on. Better than following SKS around on a train or coach! 😉
*s****s*
The little fella was interviewed by Jeremy Vine today and it's been reported that, when asked about 'Network North', he said the list of schemes he announced were 'illustrative'.
So, not real then; same as Network North.
If only it could be described as a shambles but it's a thousand times worse.
Source: Paul Waugh.
That is a great line. I'm gonna use that!
"But you said you could fly a plane!!!!!!!!"
"ahhhh, but you see that CV of mine was illustrative....you know, just showing what a CV could look like 'if' you had actually hired a pilot"
What a ****
Think I might try booking the local tory club for a party.
"ahhhh, but you see the amount I agreed to pay was illustrative. Have a tenner instead".
So without anything to show we've spent £1.25billion on the cancelled project - that's somewhere between £10-14million per mile of not built track.
Staggering.
In both how much money this thing was costing (and I struggle with that) but also what he has how walked away from.
No great surprise to see the Conservative Party Chairman Greg Hands exploit the current situation to whip up some choice islamophobia:
on Monday, Tory party chair Greg Hands wrote to his Labour counterpart Anneliese Dodds demanding that Apsana Begum, the MP for Poplar and Limehouse, have the whip withdrawn on the grounds that she had “tweeted her ‘solidarity’ with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC)”. Begum had not in fact tweeted anything; instead, the PSC had thanked Begum via its own X account for her pre-arranged visit to the stall on Saturday.
.
Hands’ letter unleashed a torrent of misogynistic and Islamophobic abuse at Begum both online and offline, some of it describing Begum as a “bitch”, “female slave” and “part of the caliphate”. The attacks, which are currently being investigated by the police, led Begum’s staff to fear for her safety. Begum decided to leave the conference on Monday.
The Tories are so morally bankrupt, and so desperate in face of the inevitable electoral catastrophe which awaits them, that they feel obliged to trawl the gutter.
This did put a smile on my face though:
Labour lord Alf Dubs, a Jewish Holocaust survivor and refugee rights advocate, also visited the PSC stall.
And there is a lovely photo of holocaust survivor Alf Dubbs holding a "Free Palestine" placard.
Ladies and Gentlemen… the party of law’n’order…
You couldn’t make it up. Maybe our alleged Home Secretary could spend the odd hour or two doing her ****ing day job instead of purely concentrating on her leadership campaign and giving speeches to right-wing nutjob US thinktanks
Our distribution grid is way behind where it needs to be and needs massive and rapid investment. The government know as well and have no intention of addressing the issues.
We can’t expect anything useful from Sunak, but is any of this moving in the right direction do you think…?
Some good news for the little fella.
Latest post-conference polling shows a 23 point Labour lead and his personal poll ratings went down 5 points in a week after his conference speech to their lowest ever.
https://twitter.com/politlcsuk/status/1712738732309184513?s=46&t=1lK7Dw1b6RqGJyvufO-trQ
https://twitter.com/politlcsuk/status/1712748242801242319?s=46&t=1lK7Dw1b6RqGJyvufO-trQ
@Kelvin, yep a lot of what Starmer is saying on the enrgy front ticks big boxes for, just needs to get into power and do it. The UK needs infrastructure projects, tax take is higher than its ever been and weve nothing to show for it. The Tories sure as hell wont invest in anything, party of low taxes and fiscal prudence my backside.
unlocking £200bn of private investment
So more privitisation of the power generation and network despite its privatization being a total disaster. thats really going to help
sector deal for the automotive industry as part of their modern industrial strategy which will give British industry its future back.
Errmmm - private cars are the past not the future
Just popping in to remind everyone that with war raging in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Sunak's annointed Secretary of State for Defence is Grant Shapps.
A man who is out of his depth on a wet pavement.
so labours promises on green issues worth nothing? The end of the private car is in sight. Labour should be looking to the future
A man who is out of his depth on a wet pavement.
To be fair, he's been shit hot all week on haranguing BBC journalists for not directly describing Hamas as terrorists.
A sitting government publicly telling the 'state broadcaster' how their news should be broadcast. Such a good look if you're trying to avoid the closet fascist tag...
The end of the private car is in sight
For people like you who live in city centres with decent public transport, maybe.
For the rest of us who live in the real world where public transport is virtually non-existent, not a ****ing chance!
The reality for most people is that you NEED a car. Maybe in some future utopia we can all rely on public transport but I’ll just remind you that this government has just given up on building a railway line from Manchester to London as being just too difficult to manage, so I won’t hold my breath for this golden age of car free travel eh?
Sunak visited by brother in laws ship for a photo op
im loving his body language here (hes a scouser from Garston who somehow ended up captain & does not have a high opinion of the government)
Tell someone to * off without actually telling them to * off! 😂
If my previous post comes across as being vaguely supportive of the multinominal fraudster, please be assured that was definitely not the intention...
If my previous post comes across as being vaguely supportive of the multinominal fraudster, please be assured that was definitely not the intention…
It's unpatriotic not to be supportive of the UK government's finest at a time of international turmoil. Suella will be along shortly with her plans for re-education camps.
It’s unpatriotic not to be supportive of the UK government’s finest at a time of international turmoil.
And yet Sunak has been strangely silent on the subject at the top of the news. Why is that I wonder?
PS this is not an attempt to reopen that debate, I just find it odd that our prime minister has had so little to say on the subject. It clearly doesn’t fit with his preposterous ‘every thing is great’ narrative.
For the rest of us who live in the real world where public transport is virtually non-existent, not a ****ing chance!
So you don't have regular public transport to central Manchester?
Meanwhile where I live there is (& I am
not exaggerating) one (1!) bus a week past my house (on a Wednesday lunchtime..)
funnily enough I rely on my car not public transport……
binners
Full MemberThe reality for most people is that you NEED a car. Maybe in some future utopia we can all rely on public transport but I’ll just remind you that this government has just given up on building a railway line from Manchester to London as being just too difficult to manage, so I won’t hold my breath for this golden age of car free travel eh?
The end of the private car isn't going to be traditional public transport, it's going to be the public car. As soon as real autonomous cars come along that's the end of the argument for most people to own their own, it won't even be slow. Not quite there yet but just a matter of time. It'll just be weirdos like me who still want to own an expensive stupid old car instead of just subscribing.
ceepers
Meanwhile where I live there is (& I am not exaggerating) one (1!) bus a week past my house (on a Wednesday lunchtime..) funnily enough I rely on my car not public transport……
One more than we have here. To anywhere...
(admittedly we're a rural village, but do have two large towns less than ten miles away and a decent sized city around 15 miles away - not so isolated as to make public transport difficult and there are two major A roads less than 5 miles from us)
funnily enough I was having a similar discussion earlier today.
it’s not that I don’t want to use public transportation/ car share, it’s that outside the Centre of the big cities, it’s way too consuming of time my life doesn’t allow to use it.
I can either drive to work And back (10mins) , cycle each way (30 mins)” on average
pr catch a bus one way once a week and hitchhike? Back / every other day?!!
until it’s as quick / quicker to use public transport everywhere as it is to use the tube to get around London, people will want / need their own cars to Service their lives / keep all their “balls in the air”
And yet Sunak has been strangely silent on the subject at the top of the news. Why is that I wonder?
Unless you have another subject in mind I don't think that's true at all. In fact not remaining silent might have got him in a spot of bother:
The British government could be complicit in war crimes in Gaza if it does not do more to “restrain” Israel, a senior Conservative MP has warned.
Crispin Blunt, a former chair of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, has written to Rishi Sunak warning the UK is in “legal peril” on account of his “apparent unqualified support to the policy of the government of Israel”.
The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, which Mr Blunt co-chairs, has issued a notice of intention to prosecute UK officials and says there is “clear evidence that Israel has committed war crimes”.
To be fair to Rishi Sunak he is caught between a rock in a hard place. He is now in "legal peril" for supporting Israel when there is "clear evidence that Israel has committed war crimes”, and yet if he criticises Israel we all know that he would be accused of anti-semitism.
It's really a no-win situation for him, and as if he didn't have enough to worry about already.
He is probably thinking now that it's proper crap being the leader of the Tory Party.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/gaza-war-crimes-uk-rishi-sunak-b2429728.html
Labour: 44% (+2)
Conservative: 28% (-1)
Liberal Democrat: 10% (-1)
That's disappointing, the Labour conference bounce doesn't appear to have been much better than the Tory conference bounce.
I had felt sure that it would be 🫤
Errmmm – private cars are the past not the future<br /><br />
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’ve been spouting that same, tired old mantra about as long as I’ve been on here, and it’s utterly meaningless, coming as it does from someone with easy access to public transport in a city.
Unless you’re suggesting a reverse Pol Pot solution and force all rural communities to live in ghettos in big cities, then please, be quiet.
I can, and do, use public transport, as I have a bus pass. However, it doesn’t get me free transport on national coaches, nor does it get me free transportation on the railway network, and neither are convenient for travel after certain times, for example, if I want to go to a concert in London or Bristol. Most concerts finish around 11.00pm, the last train east from Bristol is 10.32pm, with at least a 30 minute walk from the nearest venue. In London, the last train to Bristol, which I need to catch, is 11.32pm, and the average tube journey, from somewhere like The Roundhouse, is 35-40 minutes. The Pixies gig I went to at The Roundhouse was still going when I left at 10.50, having had to get the security people to pull me over the barrier so I could get out along the front of the stage, and I managed to get on board the last train home at 11.28pm; four minutes before it left. The next train would be seven hours later, and require me to fork out another £100 for a ticket.
That’s the convenience of public transport in my world, not your fantasy land.
Oh, and if I want to go to Bristol to just wander around the docks and just have a day exploring, there’s no bus directly from Chippenham to Bristol, which is roughly a forty-five, fifty minute drive, I have to catch a bus to Bath, then catch another to Bristol, which takes two hours. To travel thirty miles!
For the rest of us who live in the real world where public transport is virtually non-existent, not a ****ing chance!
We are currently at the start of a transition I think, with semi autonomous EV's and Hybrids...
The real future of 'personal' transport will be fully autonomous taxis, for want of a better phrase. You schedule one to turn up at your location, and can order a small/large/disabled acess vehicle for example a bit like you call an Uber.
Said car turns up, takes you to where you are going and then goes off to the next customer, unless it needs recharging or cleaning or servicing, in which case it will head back to a depot for the work to be done.
Probably won't be government/public funded though... more likely a colab between Amazon and Uber or something similar.
Sunak visited by brother in laws ship for a photo op
Is it just me or are his shoes about 4 sizes too big? Rishi, I mean, not the chap with the chunky safety boots.
If you exclude his ankle and kneecap, his feet are near as dammit as long as his shins 😀
Ahh, is it a notorious photoshop that I'm oblivious to? Or has he gone full Tom Cruise?
That’s disappointing, the Labour conference bounce doesn’t appear to have been much better than the Tory conference bounce.
Yep, even trying to be as objective as I can (as someone who detests tories) the Labour conference was a way better conference than the tory conference to the average voter. The question is though how many average voters look at anything coming out of any conference? From the polls after conferences it looks like not many, which is somewhat understandable.
Labour conference was a real non event IMO. No debate just refusal to commit to any policies. I'm not surprised there was no bounce - there was nothing there to be enthused about
For the general public do not forget the malignin fluence of the right wing press.
The end of the private car is in sight.
Or the death of rural communities.
Or just perhaps a solution like mattyfez suggests?
Its obvious the age of the motor car is coming to an end - the question is do we plan for the transition or do we let circumstances dictate?
With Labour that far ahead the conference needed bounce would have needed dyed kn the wool Tories to get excited about it, they didnt. It did what it needed to do at this stage, not screw up. For the politicaly active on here the average punter doesnt care about policy detail, its all about tone and how they are feeling. At the moment its about 13 years of Tory misrule, no money in peoples pockets and the tiny billionaire popping up to say he we change it all. The crux of the next election is whether people buy into Rishi's fever dream, polling suggests they dont. Its Starmers election to lose, his best strategy has been to purge the noises off and left wing head bangers whilst allowing the gibernment (typo but im leaving that in) to keep screwing up.
Labours conference was overshadowed by the hamas attack, normally the rw press would give it some front page negative coverage, they didn't even get that!
Anyway its by-elections week , I expect some nonsense from Sunak, what do we think it will be, blocking the mid beds meat tax or legislating to prevent ULEZ expansion to Tamworth?
Unless you’re suggesting a reverse Pol Pot solution and force all rural communities to live in ghettos in big cities, then please, be quiet.
Do get a grip.
Its obvious the age of the motor car is coming to an end
Really? It may look obvious to you from your city centre ivory tower, you’d get laughed out of town if you suggested it in a place like, where the car is literally the only game in town if you want to get from A to B
If I want to go from where I live, into Manchester City centre there’s on bus an hour, if it actually turns up. If I want to go anywhere else other than moan Hester city centre, using public transport, forget it. I get in my car. Full stop. There are no other realistic alternatives. As is the reality for millions and millions of people
You really are completely detached from reality
Any political party would have to be insane to stand on such a ludicrous platform
Really? It may look obvious from a city centre ivory tower, you’d get laughed out of town if you suggested it in a place like I live in , where the car is literally the only game in town if you want to get from A to B
As many people have said now...I think he's referring to car sharing taking over. If fully autonomous becomes a reality then far fewer cars will need to be made as they will be able to operate at much higher utilisation (although reduction would be limited to whatever is required for rush hour). I don't buy into this being a reason not to invest in automotive though. There are plenty of good companies in the UK with skin in the autonomous game, investing in this will produce high quality jobs. Whether or not fully autonomous will ever happen is maybe a separate discussion.
That or other solutions which may appear. Its not the status quo ( so all the whataboutery of " only one bus a fortnight where I live" is irrelevant) - its a change coming. autonomous cars, better public transport, better urban planning, changes to working patterns etc etc
Already a large part of the population are priced out of owning a (legal) car despite the massive subsidy to car drivers. Car driving is only going to get more expensive and also the greenhouse gasses produced need to be addressed. Congestion is only going to get worse.
Its really simple - we either have the change forced upon us or we plan for and adapt to it. The change is coming in the next generation or two.
Are those suggesting autonomous cars aware of who will be using them?
The Great British Public.
The first weekend they are in use will have most of them covered/filled with all manner of bodily fluids/stomach & colon contents. Handy if you are the person using that ‘service’. Less handy if you are the person discovering it on the next go.
That or vandalised to oblivion
Why do you think there would be a big bounce after Labour conference.. it was overshadowed and most people have decided the current government are hopelesss (that's a polite mimmum description), and have moved vote already
If I want to go from where I live, into Manchester City centre there’s on bus an hour, if it actually turns up
Oh, does the tram not run from Bury anymore?
autonomous cars, better public transport, better urban planning, changes to working patterns etc etc
Also car clubs. Our car does 4k miles/yr. It's used once a week at most, and spends most its time taking up space. I'd happily chop it in for one of those car club setups, if they were more flexible around weekend rates and one-way hire. I'm sure we'll get there at some point.
its a change coming. autonomous cars, better public transport, better urban planning, changes to working patterns etc etc
That change, if it ever gets to exist in anywhere else other than your head, will take decades!
We all want the change (well… a lot of people don’t, actually) but it will take huge investment and take years
Anyway… why on earth are you rattling on and on about this on a thread that’s (apparently) about a man, presently running the country, who travels everywhere by private jet and helicopter FFS!!
There’s none of the change that you want coming from him, that’s for sure!
I mentioned it in response to another post about Starmers conference speech. Just a throwaway line to point out that once again Starmer is looking backwards and pleasing lobby interests not looking forward and leading the country into the future
That change, if it ever gets to exist in anywhere else other than your head, will take decades!
We all want the change (well… a lot of people don’t, actually) but it will take huge investment and take years
correct. I never said it wouldn't
I mentioned it in response to another post about Starmers conference speech. Just a throwaway line to point out that once again Starmer is looking backwards and pleasing
lobby intereststhe majority of voters who actually live in the real world, not looking forward and leading the country into the future
FTFY
Oh, does the tram not run from Bury anymore?
It does. I can get into Manchester easily, like I already said. If I'm going to Manchester I always use the bus or tram or I ride in. You'd have to be mental to drive.
But let me give you an example of the reality of trying to go anywhere else other than Manchester City Centre from where I live
I was working in Burnley a few years ago, at Turf Moor. A town (and hardly a small one) 14 miles away. I would ride in a couple of times a week, drive the rest of the time. My car was in for a service, the weather forecast was absolutely grim (the ride is over high and exposed roads), so I thought I'd use public transport
On looking into it, the only way I could do it was to get a bus or bus/tram into Manchester, then get a bus or train from Manchester back out to Burnley. On a good day, if everything was on time and actually turned up, I'd be looking at a 1 hr 45 min journey time each way, in the real world; probably over 2 hours+. To travel 14 miles in each direction, but would become 30+ miles on public transport. The drive took 20 minutes. If I rode: 1 hr 15 (1500ft+ of climbing)
That is the brutal reality of the public transport options available to millions and millions of people in this country, who unlike TJ don't live in their countries capital city
How do you fix that? Autonomous cars on the way out? Get real! Not around here they're not. You'd be totally ****ed without one. Thats the reality.
Anyway.... this thread is meant to be about our diminutive, multimillionaire PM, whos solution to personal transport issues is to jump in his helicopter 🙄