They’ve just put a billion quid into public sector decarbonisation, which is directly benefitting schools, local authorities and hospitals.

The Salix money is in the form of loans, not actual funding, yes?

Could someone define for me what is a ” poor ” area ? Income,house prices,number of people on benefit ?
I live in what would be described as a poor area of the North East if £60k buys you a 2 bedroomed house.But I don’t see poverty here.
In fact over the last 10 years I can say that my neighbours,working and retired, seem to have actually more money coming in looking at the new cars and house improvements.Has the area drifted away from the Labour Party or has the party stagnated and only appeals to an eroded core vote.
Talking to neighbours Labour are just seen as a party for people on benefits with nothing to offer the working majority.Its difficult during the present situation but Labour need to put some hard and fast long term easily understood policies on the table .

Labour are just seen as a party for people on benefits with nothing to offer the working majority.

That’s the daft thing, (outside of pensions) the majority of benefits go to people who are in work
The last decade has seen in work poverty explode

it is about syphoning tax payers money off to the shareholders (the 1%ers)

I’m vehemently anti-Tory but even I can see that it’s not always that simple. I have a pension pot from when I was self employed and last year it went from £32k to £36k. Not exactly minted, but it grew over 12% and it’s based on stocks and shares.

Talking to neighbours Labour are just seen as a party for people on benefits with nothing to offer the working majority.

That is exactly what I hear. Putting Labour in the difficult position of finding ways of proposing help for those that need it most, while also shrugging off the (misplaced) public perception that they don’t want to also improve the lives of everyone else. The tried with “the many not the few”, and talk of the 1%, but that still made voters think they were the party of protest and special interest groups, not a party that will stand for them. Many people do vote selfishly, sadly, but based on a perception of who the parties will work for… rather than examining the sets of policies to see which will actually be in their interest.

Talking to neighbours Labour are just seen as a party for people on benefits with nothing to offer the working <span class=”skimlinks-unlinked”>majority.</span>

The same is happening in the UK as happened in the US long ago. Thatcher gave the working class a handout in the form of home ownership which made them feel middle class, and the bonds of solidarity with those at the bottom were broken. New labour was the response to that, and it worked for a while, but now that those new middle classes are seeing the gains they saw in the 80s removed, labour have no strategy to answer these issues. As I keep saying, in strategic terms the tories are about 20 years ahead of labour.

From my perception here in the (just about) working class Midlands, Labour’s issue is that they simply don’t seem to stand for anything bar “not Tory”.
Our Saturday night Zoom call turned to politics (yay!) and those supporting labour struggled to come up with a reason to vote for them bar “well look at what the Tory’s have done”, which is not an unfair way of voting but doesn’t help them convert voters.
Starmer and the party in general have been far to quiet on Brexit, and then far to quiet on Covid. I don’t understand why they aren’t getting themselves on to every major broadcaster, in every newspaper, and ripping the government apart. Why are they not showing outrage at the awarding of contracts? At the death rate? At the Brexit fiasco? And why are they not offering ideas and solutions as to what could have been done differently? And what they would do if they were in charge?
It’s like they don’t want to push the government on the big issues. Just saying something to differentiate them from other parties would be a start.
I know the press is right wing but come on, if Farage can get on TV and radio then Starmer can.

Why are they not showing outrage at the awarding of contracts? At the death rate? At the Brexit fiasco? And why are they not offering ideas and solutions as to what could have been done differently? And what they would do if they were in charge?

Because they’re more focused on purging the left from the party so they will never again lose control as they did in 2015. They have their prize, and they’re doing everything they can to keep it.

I’m vehemently anti-Tory but even I can see that it’s not always that simple. I have a pension pot from when I was self employed and last year it went from £32k to £36k. Not exactly minted, but it grew over 12% and it’s based on stocks and shares

Pension funds own less than 10% of stocks, syphoning tax money into the supporting private enterprise is a very inefficient way to support pensions, it would be far more efficient to just raise the state pension to benefit everyone. And that doesn’t even take into account the fact that the richer you are the more you benefit from the pension funds, so even that 10% is unbalanced to the benefits felt by the general populations.

 As I keep saying, in strategic terms the tories are about 20 years ahead of labour.

The tories grasped a long time ago that folk generally only vote Labour if 1. they “feel” like they can afford to. ie their job and family are secure enough to withstand the money that “Labour will spend” and 2. If Tory policies get so bad that mildly ring wing folks think it’s time for change in direction.

purging the left from the party

Who? Name names… who are these left wingers being “purged”, and how?

Who?

https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/mandelson-launches-attack-on-corrupt-far-left-and-urges-starmer-to-remove-remaining-antisemites-1.512732

The Salix money is in the form of loans, not actual funding, yes?

No, it’s new grant funding. Salix loans are a longstanding and separate facility.

There’s also £0.5 billion of new grant funding to LAs via the Green Homes Grant, which is targeted at fuel poor households.

No, it’s new grant funding.

Ooo.. that sounds good. Got a link to the details?

That Mandelson link again Dazh? Well, while he’s right about McCluskey… the leadership absolutely should be sidelining him… they should also sideline Mandelson. Both are noise boxes off stage that will only damage the party in the eyes of voters.

Removing antisemites from the party isn’t something I’d push back against, personally, whether they are part of “the Left”, or not. Not only is it the right thing to do, it’s also something that has to happen to win back the trust of voters.

Removing antisemites from the party isn’t something I’d push back against

You’re missing the point, Mandelson isn’t interested in anti-semitism, he’s just using it as an excuse to get rid of the pesky leftwingers who obstruct his mission of using the labour party to help his billionaire oligarch friends. Why only buy off one party of power when you can do both?

There’s also £0.5 billion of new grant funding to LAs via the Green Homes Grant, which is targeted at fuel poor households.

if its anything like the green homes grant t will be another massive con, as anyone who tried to apply for it will tell you

https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/uks-green-homes/104560/
https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/statistics-lay-bare-green-home-grant-failure

getting back to Hartlepool

green grants, arch-mage mandelson , even boring starmer are something of a sideshow

It will all be about the vaccine & easing of lockdown, the Tories & Johnson in particular know how to use a good news story, Hartlepool could well go Tory, but itll refelect the rest of the locals & crucially for the UK Holyrood elections too & it will be vaccine bounce that does it

At this point im not sure theres much STarmer, Sturgeon or anyone can do to stop Johnson as the economy & society opens up just in time for elections

if its anything like the green homes grant t will be another massive con, as anyone who tried to apply for it will tell you

It’s not. It’s a grant paid to local authorities, rather than a voucher scheme which as you say hasn’t worked at all well.

No, it’s new grant funding.

It’s not. It’s a grant paid to local authorities

Do you have a link to the details of both of those? Interested.

Here you go.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/green-homes-grant-local-authority-delivery-scheme-entering-a-bid

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-sector-decarbonisation-scheme-psds

Thanks for that. Enough info there to track down what’s planned locally in Calderdale with the money… ground and air source heat pumps to replace gas fired heating in galleries, museums and the indoor market. Seems a wise spend.