I think someone in Scotland should ask Sunak why he thinks it's OK for him to live in [perhaps one of the most famous] LTNs, but it's not OK that the rest of us get the opportunity.
Obviously Sunak travelling in his usual style and will be flying to Scotland by private jet
Very fitting, from a carbon footprint point of view
He was pulled up by a Scottish journalist this morning and started blabbering on about not wanting to stop people flying and going on holiday. Fair play to the journalist who was having none of that and pointed out that there was quite a significant difference between getting on a package holiday to Spain with hundreds of other passengers and flying a private jet the length of the country and back, pretty much on your own, to give a speech
He then started waffling about this being the best use of his time, like thats the only thing of any importance. His sense of entitlement is right up there with Liz Truss. Absolutely off the ****ing chart!
Unfortunately for Rishi Sunak Liz Truss toxified the Tory brand so much that he didn't really have much of a honeymoon period.
The most that Rishi Sunak has managed to close the gap with Labour occurred about April this year, quite a while after he became PM.
https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/united-kingdom/
Unfortunately for Rishi Sunak Liz Truss toxified the Tory brand so much that he didn’t really have much of a honeymoon period.
The retoxification of the Tory brand (if it was ever detoxified) started the day Dave and Gideon walked into number ten and its been downhill ever since, particularly since the utter stupidity of June 2016. Rishi was very much part and parcel of the whole shambles. Liz Truss was just the most flagrent example of it, but every one of them was responsible for it, particularly one who was chancellor of the exchequer.
I'm finding his ludicrous, smiley upbeat manner when he speaks, like some deranged Butlins red coat, makes me want to slap him around his tiny little smiley face with a wet fish
He then started waffling about this being the best use of his time, like thats the only thing of any importance.
I do wish some journalist would ask him if a photo op was really the best use of his time.
Most of these urgent helicopter trips seem to be so he can have his photo taken somewhere and get back to London as soon as possible.
Heres the exchange where Rishi tries to compare his private jet use to people going on holiday...
https://twitter.com/PoliticsJOE_UK/status/1685956063474905089?s=20
Tory ****, I wish someone would take a swing at him and rearrange his smug ****ing face.
He left that conversation pretty quickly!
He's crap at that stuff isn't he. Obviously they've got an attack line ready in case he gets challenged for the needless jet flights, since it's been more and more a talking point with his ministers flying around for no reason, and he just blurts it out without any sort of thought or framing. Of course a lot of people will never hear the full quote or know what the question was, they'll just get the response, filtered through their chosen press and repositioned to not just seem like a premature ejaculation
He really doesn't want to run the risk of interacting with the public does he, I mean he knows he's going the catch a load of flak doing this yet he goes ahead anyway when it could easily be avoided by a scheduled flight or the train. He's as much a coward as Johnson and equally mendacious.
The climate crisis is the new populist tact! Woke and small boats obviously not enough. The sad thing is, it will probably work as Starmer has alluded too.
I'm far from a fan of Rishi's but the underlying issue here is his position as PM is very weak, he might have a majority in the House but he knows his two predecessors we're ousted from within and he's in a weaker position than either of them (about the only thing going for him is the 1922 committee et al know they've already scraped the bottom of the barrel and he's probably the best chance they have of not getting completely decimated at the next GE). So essentially it's not Rishi's preferred policies we're seeing, it's the ones his right-wing masters have told him are acceptable to them. What an utter sham of a representative democracy we have...
On the other hand, if you ever think your vote isn't meaningful, just remember that time 500 voters in a byelection was enough to burn every pro-environment policy to the ground
On the other hand, if you ever think your vote isn’t meaningful, just remember that time 500 voters in a byelection was enough to burn every pro-environment policy to the ground
Yes. And if ever there was a time to write to your MP in support of environmental policies, this is it (or your constituency party of whatever stripe).
Slight snag is if you're in the same boat as me, ie. having a useless Tory sock puppet with a majority of 600, who's already said he's standing down before the voters get to boot him out and so won't care.
just remember that time 500 voters in a byelection was enough to burn every pro-environment policy to the ground
Aside from it wasnt really. It was the right wing rags pushing this claim and all the politicians folding.
Otherwise they could have stepped up and asked why if it was the key factor had the anti brigade done so badly in local and mayoral elections.
Christ only knows who this simpleton Tory MP is on channel 4 news. Craig McKinnley apparently, whoever he is. He’s a full on climate change denier who, in light of what’s happening in the world, sounds truly unhinged!
He’s from the ‘Net Zero Scrutiny Group’ which is obviously the latest name for the backbench Tory headbangers and fruitloops who brought us Brexit
Sounds like Rishi is happy to do their bidding as I’m sure he agrees with them
God help us!
John Crace sums it up perfectly, as always…
https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1686083885182894080?s=46&t=1lK7Dw1b6RqGJyvufO-trQ
Any slight hope Rishi isn't as unhinged as his predecessors has definitely left the building. Whatever your politics climate change is real and the current levels of denial are surreal. Rishi banking on new oil licences as our future fuel strategy is nuts. Mind he'll be insulated from the worst of the mess he's perpetuating.
On the other hand, if you ever think your vote isn’t meaningful, just remember that time 500 voters in a byelection was enough to burn every pro-environment policy to the ground
Follow the money. The donors, investments and dodgy procurement will drive these decisions more than the electorate
Aside from it wasnt really. It was the right wing rags pushing this claim and all the politicians folding.
I think you’ll find thevright wing press and the right wing government are pretty much interchangeable.
Though the ownership of the Press and its influence should be a major talking point in the run up to the next election
The Scottish Daily Fail had the headline today that Rishi was creating 21,000 green jobs… It’s like when tobacco companies were trying to make cigarettes out as healthy. Next they’ll be telling us pumping raw sewage into rivers is actually good for them.
Sunak is a total ***t isn't he?
So much for the integrity bollocks and all that crap he spewed out when he became PM.
I just hope it serves to remind everyone why it's so important to get them out at all costs then concern ourselves with pushing Labour or Lab/Libdems toward the direction we need.
Get the Tories out at all costs first.
Decimation (the loss of one in ten) would actually be a good result for the Conservatives.
Sunak is just the dafty who wanted to be PM so much he didn't care what state the party and country were in, i doubt he's pushing much, it'll all be done for him, i'm more disappointed in Just Stop Oil, their tactics over the last couple of years has been to annoy and antagonise the public, you do that and just like politics, you get a bit more apathy from the left and centre, and the right are spewing and skewing the argument, it's just made it easier for government and their backers to pull something like this, knowing any counteraction from JSO will be even more negatively viewed by the public.
Sadly the tories have the power for now, and aren't afraid to use it for their own means, there'll be more of this in the coming months i'd bet.
Sunak is a total ***t isn’t he?
That anyone should be in the least surprised about that is a testimony of how the large amounts of money he spent on his image was money well spent - Rishi Sunak comes from the right-wing of the Tory Party.
https://www.tatler.com/article/who-is-cass-horowitz-rishi-sunak-special-advisor-social-media-guru
As general election Armageddon approaches Sunak will undoubtedly become more erratic, unpredictable, and employ high risk tactics, as he desperately tries to stop the ship from sinking.
Some of the tactics they are likely to use they would never normally use in a less desperate situation. A good example of this IMO was the Sadiq Khan v Zac Goldsmith mayoral election.
When it became obvious that the Tory candidate was the underdog with little chance of winning Zac Goldsmith in an act of complete desperation turned to islamophobia, with the full support of David Cameron.
The tactic simply backfired, it made Zac Goldsmith appear to be a grubby bigot unfit to be mayor of a hugely multicultural and cosmopolitan city. Londoners knew that the whole premise that Sadiq Khan was a Islamic extremist was absurd.
I am not sure if Goldsmith later regretted scraping the gutter looking for votes or whether like Sunak today he simply felt it was worth it as he was desperate and had nothing to lose.
Personally I believe the size of the defeat is hugely important so the possibility of tactics backfiring, even in a desperate situation, should be considered.
Edit: Meant to post this to highlight just how desperate things are for the Tories - Labour's share of the vote is now consistently almost double that of the Tories. And if anything the gap between the two is getting larger.
https://twitter.com/DeltapollUK/status/1686044529776795652
Don't know how to link this, but,
https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1685582472262602752
Freedom! Fatcha! Breathing fumes! It's just a miracle he didn't say "hard working families"
<edit- well blow me down, the embed html doesn't work but if you just put the link thing there it turns into the thing by itself! Science!>
i’m more disappointed in Just Stop Oil, their tactics over the last couple of years has been to annoy and antagonise the public, you do that and just like politics, you get a bit more apathy from the left and centre, and the right are spewing and skewing the argument, it’s just made it easier for government and their backers to pull something like this, knowing any counteraction from JSO will be even more negatively viewed by the public.
While I don't disagree that JSO have probably alienated a chunk of the public, you're maybe selling the wider electorate short. I think they understand better than the meeja and Tory MPs think.
Lil' Rishi has rediscovered the air of smug condescension that I assume comes naturally to billionaire bankers. I think he's managed to keep that mostly hidden over the last couple of years to some extent. But now that he's having to do more press as PM and defend the increasingly indefensible (like pissing all over environmental measures as Greece literally burns), he's coming off like more of a sneering bellend than ever.
They're definitely cuing up environmental issues as the next front for the UK culture war; you can have your Range Rover and fly to Florida twice a year for hollibops because apparently we'll lock all the carbons up under the North sea (feels like a wildly oversold project).
Yeah that'll show those filthy hippies!
The Tory offering is going to be a claim that they'll maintain our existing, fossil fuelled standards of living (recent interest and COL spikes not withstanding) while labour will ULEZ all over your face and trap you in the terror of 15 minute city hell!
The thing is I think climate change denial is a shrinking trend, and Rishi has badly miscalculated people's desire to ignore the effects and just carry on burning dino-juice.
There's more of an air of gallows humour about it amongst the public currently, part of that is the simple recognition that our government really doesn't seem to give a shit, and their buddies are still coining it off late stage hydrocarbon driven capitalism...
It's not so much the scales lifting as inevitable cynicism when yet another a Tory PM now literally promises you the Earth in return for your vote next year, eventually people start to notice a pattern.
Polling of 3,000 adults by Opinium found that, for voters who voted Tory in 2019 and planned to vote Labour next year, 57 per cent felt the prime minister had “not gone far enough” on tackling climate change. Only 9 per cent thought he had gone too far, 25 per cent thought he had it about right and 10 per cent did not know.
That is just one poll concerning the very people whose support Rishi Sunak desperately needs to hang onto. Plenty of other polls show overwhelming public concern for climate change.
Similarly there is huge public support for LTNs:
These facts should, and will be, readily available to Rishi Sunak. But like an addicted gambler he chooses to ignore the evidence believing, or more likely desperately hoping, that he has now found a winner.
He is misreading the lesson to be learnt from the Uxbridge by-election because doing so fits his preferred narrative.
He wants to believe that he has found the issue that will stop the Tories being annihilated next general election, even if sensible people are telling him that he hasn't.
I'm really supprised that labour are so far ahead of the tories, given that Labour are also a racist, pro-brexit, Anti-EU party.
I mean, go big or go home, vote tory for gods sake.
Especially given that Labour are now the anti motorist party and the majority of people are motorists aren't they.
I am sure Starmer will have something progressive to say about all this stuff.
Why would anyone in their right mind think that 20mph speed limits in urban areas are a bad idea?
Had a look online and the RAC dismiss a casualty reduction of 22% as insignificant.
In total, road traffic collisions fell by 3% and 15%, respectively, over the one and three year periods after the policy took effect.
Over the same time frame, casualty rates fell by 16% and 22%, respectively.
Who the **** are these people?
I doubt even Clarkson would oppose 20mph urban speed limits!
Why would anyone in their right mind think that 20mph speed limits in urban areas are a bad idea?
I did a speed awareness course a while back (my fault, sorry...) and half the room were raging that anyone dare pass judgement on their driving or their God-given right to drive a car. One guy was incensed by 20mph limits. He thought, and I'm not making this up, because the casualty rate drops it makes pedestrians less fearful and therefore more likely to get hit. So speed limits in towns should be increased to keep people scared. He'll be loving this.
Watching Newsnight last night it was clear that whilst the Tories will say anything to try and grab votes, Labour are quite scared of this tactic and are refusing to commit one way or the other. The Labour politician last night refused to say they'd roll back on these licenses. They're as bad as each other I fear. But because of our ridiculous first past the post voting system we're stuck with them. Wholesale reform of Westminster is essential to stop this sort of nonsense. How many people would vote for a more progressive party if they could? I know I would but round here it would be a wasted vote.
Heres the Axis of Stupid on that you're up against.... A winning combination of Priti Patel and The Sun...
https://twitter.com/pritipatel/status/1686131293564661760?s=20
It looks like further attack lines being drawn for the general election, with any restrictions placed on anyone being portrayed as a 'war on motorists'
A winning combination of Priti Patel and The Sun…
For the latter I would like to see the definition of "the public".
I did a speed awareness course a while back (my fault, sorry…) and half the room were raging that anyone dare pass judgement on their driving or their God-given right to drive a car.
I did one years back and the host/lecturer was verbally slagging off cyclists during the "spot the hazards" session. Didn't consider them a vulnerable road user just a liability.
Reduced speed clearly reduces severity of accidents, particularly with pedestrians. Blanket 20 zones like Wales is bringing in dont really reduce speeds unless they are rigorously enforced, in fact they normalise speeding. Do it properly or leave it alone.
Expect the Tories to attacking sneaky speed camera vans next, according to the local knuckle daggers on our town Facebook group they are equivalent to the mafia.
I did a speed awareness course a while back
Did an online one a couple of weeks ago, only 2 of us (out of 7) knew all the speed limit questions...
Also had a discussion about 20mph zones, and when one of the folk complained how hard it was to drive so slow the Instructor suggested using a lower gear.
I live in the Scottish Borders and every village & town has now 20mph zones in the majority of the streets, no big deal - far safer for pedestrians & cyclists etc.
Blanket 20 zones like Wales is bringing in dont really reduce speeds unless they are rigorously enforced, in fact they normalise speeding. Do it properly or leave it alone.
Disagree, only needs one vehicle to drive at the speed limit.
It's made a real difference here as far too many people seemed to drive at 40mph EVERYWHERE, whether in a 30 or a 60 - it's definitely brought their urban speeds down.
I've noticed that people who would normally go at 35 or more in a 30 will go at 25-30 in a 20mph zone. So that's some kind of win, I guess.
Some collisions with pedestrians in urban environments are unavoidable, but the point of 20mph zones is to turn a fatal speed at impact into a surviveable one.
If drivers opposed to 20mph zones actually totted up how much time they 'lose' by driving through town at 20mph as opposed to 30mph, they will probably find they have cumulatively wasted a lot more whining about them.
anecdotally the 20 mph limits have significantly changed driving behaviour. Far less unsafe overtakes when I am on my bike. yes some folk ignore them but I would bet average speed have droppeds
One of the wierd things is 20 mph limits have virtually zero effect on the time taken to drive a distance across a city. thats because the amount of time spent between 20 and 30 mph is not much and traffic flows more smoothly
If drivers opposed to 20mph zones actually totted up how much time they ‘lose’ by driving through town at 20mph as opposed to 30mph, they will probably find they have cumulatively wasted a lot more whining about them.
It takes 3 minutes to travel a mile at 20mph and 2 minutes at 30mph. So no significant difference at all.