The Johnson Government 2019-2022

[smuts]

Yeah to be honest a quick Google of Tunbridge Wells throws up nuggets like second poshest town in the country, safest major town in Kent, unemployment well below the national average etc.

[-DL-]

Try Googling the Sherwood area of Tunbridge Wells. It's in the top 50% of deprived areas.

Nice to try and trip me up though. Around Tunbridge Wells Town is very affluent indeed - you're right. The suburbs, not so much.

I did notice as I was catching up that another poster has also mentioned it - funny how he wasn't jumped on so much.

Sherwood: https://www.uklocalarea.com/index.php?l ... &wc=29UQGT

Broadwater: https://www.uklocalarea.com/index.php?l ... &wc=29UQGD

Southwood & High Broom: https://www.uklocalarea.com/index.php?q ... &wc=29UQGU

[smuts]

I know they spent quite a bit regenerating the Sherwood area as I knew a few blokes that worked on it.

If it's still rough fair enough.

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

How about something like this? …

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... re-poverty

… or do you think we are in such a wonderful position that we can afford for these ***** to spend months and months doing zip?

They could do that but there will be another one along as soon as the new leader is chosen. Parliament isn't sitting so can't debate or vote on it so an emergency budget achieves what exactly?

How are Truss and Sunak going to agree on a budget? Tax cuts or tax rises, ni stays or goes, spending or not, targeted help or for everyone

What's needed is a shorter time frame for these bloody elections. How can it take longer to elect party leaders than to run a general election.

[smuts]

Agree Sammy. Irrespective of party this needs to be sorted for the future.

The whole issue of paliament shutting down for a big holiday never sits right either.

[mumbles87]

Agree Sammy. Irrespective of party this needs to be sorted for the future.

The whole issue of paliament shutting down for a big holiday never sits right either.

The whole system of MPs just doesn't relate to the common man / women at all.

How many pay their energy bills anyways? And not covered by expenses

Travel costs covered (agree they should be for reasons but when cost of rail and petrol rise it bearly effects them to notice)

Big shut down for holidays (isn't it every single half term? So they get the time with their families. Less childcare issues that way) again it's just unrelatable to the common man / women

[RichieRiv]

So this is not a case of professional politicians who took their career decisions whilst at Oxford? It's about the length of recess and not understanding what it's like to pay a gas bill?

[simon hammer]

So what do you suggest? You've dismissed the more equitable options - what's your favoured option? Communism? Totalinarianism? Dictatorship?

Easy to object, harder to come up with something constructive, innit?

Never said, or even suggested, that I had the answer.

I'd suggest starting with a question, and thinking long and hard about it:

Why do we need to be governed?

[MB]

Proportional systems where 43% of the votes equates as closely to possible to 43% of the seats are so obviously fairer and more democratic, it's the reason why every European state uses one except us and Belarus.

More proportional systems provide more collaborative less adversarial government, do better with long term planning and stability, score higher on voter turnout & satisfaction and mean less safe-seats, less wasted votes and more variety in representation.

Would Johnson have got away with his law-breaking, corruption and incompetence if there had have been a coalition party's ministers in cabinet? Of course not.

Time for an upgrade.

It solves certain things, but causes other problems. How often are other European countries in deadlock? Sometimes coalitions collapse multiple times in a year.

There is also the problem of the lack of local representation and that the major parties could put some unelectables on their lists safe in the knowledge they will get a place regardless.

Compromise isn’t always the best way to make policy either.

FPTP isn’t great, but proportion systems aren’t without fault either.

[MB]

Try Googling the Sherwood area of Tunbridge Wells. It's in the top 50% of deprived areas.

Nice to try and trip me up though. Around Tunbridge Wells Town is very affluent indeed - you're right. The suburbs, not so much.

I did notice as I was catching up that another poster has also mentioned it - funny how he wasn't jumped on so much.

Which all sounds like a reason to look at what happens to local funding currently rather than to provide additional central funding.

[mumbles87]

Never said, or even suggested, that I had the answer.

I'd suggest starting with a question, and thinking long and hard about it:

Why do we need to be governed?

no without any kind of leadship who sticks to things? why pay tax, why not rob from someone

take covid, the vast majority followed the law but a few didnt.

without leadership who would have at all?

plus with all thats come out now who would follow it again?

you need accountable and respectable leadership. neither truss or sunak seem to offer that unfortunately

[Collison Theory]

Try Googling the Sherwood area of Tunbridge Wells. It's in the top 50% of deprived areas.

Nice to try and trip me up though. Around Tunbridge Wells Town is very affluent indeed - you're right. The suburbs, not so much.

I did notice as I was catching up that another poster has also mentioned it - funny how he wasn't jumped on so much.

Sherwood: https://www.uklocalarea.com/index.php?l ... &wc=29UQGT

Broadwater: https://www.uklocalarea.com/index.php?l ... &wc=29UQGD

Southwood & High Broom: https://www.uklocalarea.com/index.php?q ... &wc=29UQGU

I'm not "trying to trip you up", I genuinely think what Rishi boasted about doing, taking money from deprived inner city areas and redirecting it to relatively well off areas, is disgraceful. But that view is based on the assumption that these inner cities are in fact poorer than places like Tunbridge Wells- if that isn't true my view would change.

Thanks for the links, that's a really interesting website. It's fair to emphasise there are genuinely deprived areas of Tunbridge Wells, but I'd still say that's pretty good if Sherwood is the most deprived area. For example I just checked Brighton, which is generally a well off city, and several areas of Whitehawk are around the bottom 1%.

https://www.uklocalarea.com/index.php?l ... &wc=00MLNF

[delbert]

Which all sounds like a reason to look at what happens to local funding currently rather than to provide additional central funding.

Up until the government put a stop to it my load of incompetents were happy to spend loads on banners and newsletter extolling how brilliant they were, it was like North Korea.......

[smuts]

Up until the government put a stop to it my load of incompetents were happy to spend loads on banners and newsletter extolling how brilliant they were, it was like North Korea.......

They all do it. Havering is the same.

[simon hammer]

no without any kind of leadship who sticks to things? why pay tax, why not rob from someone

take covid, the vast majority followed the law but a few didnt.

without leadership who would have at all?

plus with all thats come out now who would follow it again?

you need accountable and respectable leadership. neither truss or sunak seem to offer that unfortunately

When was the last time we had accountable and respectable leadership? When was the last time a politician said " sorry, I've done something wrong so I have resigned"? Has anyone since ww2 offered anything even close to accountable and respectable leadership? Why have we allowed the people we elect to manipulate things to such a degree that they don't even have to tell us where our tax money is going?

Why pay tax? Why not rob from someone? That's what governments have been doing for years.

[smuts]

Maybe your hatred of Brown left you unable to focus on and take in the article and words in my post. To help you out …

I didn’t suggest that Gordon Brown should take the reins.

Gordon Brown wasn’t suggesting that he should take the reins.

Brown is suggesting that Johnson, Sunak and Truss, you know, the actual government, put together an emergency budget this week.

Brown’s suggestion sounds fairly sensible to me given what an unprecedently, huge percentage of the country now face.

Even nutty old Trevor Kavagnah is saying the same...

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19445106/ ... -minister/

[Kentish Hammer]

I'm not "trying to trip you up", I genuinely think what Rishi boasted about doing, taking money from deprived inner city areas and redirecting it to relatively well off areas, is disgraceful. But that view is based on the assumption that these inner cities are in fact poorer than places like Tunbridge Wells- if that isn't true my view would change.

Thanks for the links, that's a really interesting website. It's fair to emphasise there are genuinely deprived areas of Tunbridge Wells, but I'd still say that's pretty good if Sherwood is the most deprived area. For example I just checked Brighton, which is generally a well off city, and several areas of Whitehawk are around the bottom 1%.

https://www.uklocalarea.com/index.php?l ... &wc=00MLNF

But that's not what Sunak was doing.

He was simply saying that the Labour directive of directing this funding purely to deprived inner city areas wasn't right and that instead of dismissing areas as "posh" and "wealthy" because the Daily Star says they are we need to recognise that deprivation exists in all areas and that some of this funding needs to be allocated there too.

Tottenham will still get a lot more funding than Tunbridge Wells. It's just that Tunbridge Wells will get a bit more to recognise that there are people struggling there too.

[delbert]

They all do it. Havering is the same.

True, but Havering isn't too bad, Dagenham's a toilet......

[Kludgehammer]

There is also the problem of the lack of local representation and that the major parties could put some unelectables on their lists safe in the knowledge they will get a place regardless.

But that same problem exists now, and far worse, because of safe seats: how else do lickspittles like Micheal Fabricant get elected, or creatures of the night like Rees-Mogg? Even proportional representation won't totally offset gerrymander constituencies, but it has a far greater chance of unseating an unpopular MP by tactical voting, whereas now a safe seat with a large majority is pretty much a job for life unless the MP is caught with his hands down the wrong set of underwear.

[DaveWHU1964]

When I saw this video I naturally assumed it was a weird piss-take out of Sunak’s ever greater desperation to out-Truss the midget Maggie. But no, it’s genuine.

Is it too fanciful to think that the pile of shredded paper at the end of it is meant to remind us of Johnson’s unruly mop?

https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/e ... 40820.html