feel momentum will only be seen amongst labour activists in the same way as the right wing of the tory party is. both have captured the central ground to be more electable to the wider british public who have little interest in the voices or both the left and the right. unfortuntly its given us the uni party of boring grey politicians who could cross the house with complete ease.

Just look at the trouble this last government have faced from within. Their own Members have ruffled far more feathers than the opposition have managed. The leftists will have rid of Starmer at the drop of a hat. I'll be very surprised if he sees out the term. There is already discontent from the Unions with the civil service bunch threatening endless strikes if Sir Keir doesn't meet their demands of a total restructuring of their pay structure. We ain't seen nothing yet.

As the election hots up there has been a few good quotes by politicians.
The one i heard today was "dont give the matches to the arsonists again"

AND

Starmer describing the PM manifesto to that of Corbyns.

think he will have plans already to counteract that because he know its going to happen. more or less these left wingers have nowhere to go anymore as they have not got a winnable party to support. same with the right wing tories, but at least they have reform as a slight alternative.

The left wingers are already attached to a winnable party if all the polls and forecasts of a Labour victory are anything to go by. The problem is with Starmer's plans is he keeps changing them. Now that most of the manifesto's have been produced, Starmer and co will no doubt be frantically looking to "adjust" theirs and perhaps pinch one or two ideas from the others, claiming them as their intentions. To be brutally honest I am at a loss who to vote for as all I can see at the moment is a change from couldn't to wouldn't. I am attracted to the promise of a £20k threshold before paying income tax though.
The trouble is will we be faced with "well it was our intention to carry out what we promised but, having seen the books, we just can't afford to do anything that would appear reckless under the circumstances". I think we can expect quite a bit of that scenario.

Plans always change once the action starts and whoever gets in charge will have to adapt to circumstances so i dont hold on to much to promises made especially by politicians.
I vote for who i think is generally going in the right direction.

Thought the Tories were trying a mini revival with the 2p cut to NI.
Then 12 hours later say it will happen in 2027.



Brain dead.

To be honest Kevin, Think Nige was a really bad choice and done more harm than good. Just my opinion.

She’s been pushed into firing line as Tice ‘packed up his troubles in his old kit bag’ and buggered off…to quote the song.
So he encouraged no one in the end in Hartlepool, the fly by night soon scarpered for better prospects in Boston & Skeggy.
Great example to set.
Tice is as stiff as an ironing board and couldn’t lead a dog to a butchers.
He’s boring and tends to wander when speaking, not inspirational and a disappointment to those in the town who were going to vote for him.

Went out and came back to just the dogs in the house…unfortunately the ‘ Chief Inspector’ had went out with her mates, leaving the door to the hallway open and…… a pollster had been…now I like a good political begging letter, gives me a laugh, but Ratboy attacked it, shredded it and Ruby dined on the debris.
I still haven’t been able to make out who it’s from

Some bedtime reading.
https://find-and-update.company-informa ... y/11694875

Ok lets address the thing no one dares talk about.

I would be willing to pay 1% more in income tax to invest in public services. Its a small amount individually but a massive amount nationally.

Anyone else?

Ok lets address the thing no one dares talk about.

I would be willing to pay 1% more in income tax to invest in public services. Its a small amount individually but a massive amount nationally.

Anyone else?

I'd be OK with it if I thought it would improve services, it wouldn't it would pay for more diversity managers, or straight free zones in the workplace, or some other farcical use.
Most public services are well enough funded they're just run by incompetents imo.

Agree. The Public Sector employs folks in none jobs like diversity manager or DEI monitor. They get paid tax payers money and serve no purpose other than to ensure a certain agenda is seen to be followed. I would pay the suggested 1% extra tax but I would want a guarantee the money was spent on front line staff.

Beth Rigby tried her best to get something out Sunak n Starmer last night in Grimsby.
Deffo a classic case of a lot more questions than answers.
Welcome to higher taxes from 5th July for sure.

they always have been like that. none departments and assistants for assistants etc. its the weakness of the public sector thats carried on for generations with little or no change. if they were ran closer to the private model there is no reason that the services provided would fall but their staffing levels would.

Spot on, pay top wages to attract top businessmen and women to sort out public services. Ex military logistics and planning personnel would get most public service operations in a better place without aimlessly throwing more and more money at worsening public services.

The public sector always use the same excuse we have to pay top dollar to attract the right people that’s why Hartlepool Council pay their executives in excess of £100k !
Hartlepool Borough Council:
Chief Executive: £160,191
Director of regeneration & neighbourhoods: £116,810
Director of children's and joint commissioning services: £114,268
Director of resources and development: £110,907
Director of adult and community based services: £109,535
All will have gold plated pensions and redundancy packages over and above their salaries.

A very close relative of mine works at the front line of the NHS. They have a person who is employed to do admin so they are free to do their patient care with the burden of the paperwork mostly removed. The problem is that the person emplyed to do the admin has poor literacy skills and is not capable of doing the job propely. So my relative and colleagues have to do their own admin because their assisstant makes too many errors. Why was this person employed in the first place? Why were they not sacked? Currently taking home a salary for doing a job they cant do. This situation has persisted for a number of years because it is close to impossible to get sacked in the NHS unless you do something to endanger patient safety. In the private sector, this person would never have been employed and if they had been they would have been sacked pretty darn quickly. Obviously, this is only one example but what is the betting it goes on throughout the NHS?

It all went wrong when the town like every other town changed the title of the top man from humble ‘Town Clerk’ to ego fuelled ‘Chief Executive’….fancy title, fancy wage….blame the Counicillors.

what happens at hartlepool is just a mirror image to whats happening across the whole of the country. there are actually people who want to increase their powers and not lower them. god help us as devolution and more regional powers have done more harm than good. give em more responsibility you,ll end up with more silly job titles and there assistants assistant coming into being.

And don't rule out a few palms creased to sell of f the Vic n surrounding areas to property development.

Some say its an undesirable area for property.
So was about 6/7 other areas of the town before development.

As for CEOs they all know how to look after themselves.
Sort of legal theft.

I'd happily pay an additional 1% if it was ring fenced for defence spending.

Noticed how with Councils the actual work force shrinks, that’s the ones who do the physical graft at all levels, yet the administrators gazing into their screens increase to compensate…bit like a ship with 50 crew on the bridge and two crewmen with one in engine room and one on deck to make the thing work.

When it comes to defence spending I wouldn’t trust either of them. In fact it galls me to say it, but the Tory’s have been the worst by a country mile since the 80’s….the Falklands only occurred because Knott the Defence Secretary had revealed huge defence cuts which would be beneficial to Argentina to take their opportunity.
They also went a bit wild with the cuts after Russia collapsed calling it their peace dividend, another assumption that went tits up.

This fella Peter Hitchens says vote anyone but Labour, they have a hidden agenda,
https://youtu.be/c6MrtxOuCxs?si=kDAY6t8aiBbVC1-C

if you do not want to get elected then promise that. people just hate paying income tax but rarely moan about VAT thats the same percentage for a billionaire as it is for someone on benefits. more money you earn the more tax you pay if you are PAYE. think some look at the amount of tax thats been deducted before they look at their take. home pay. its an obsession to many. increase it alongside closing loopholes for tax avoidance and the amazons of this world paying their just dues.

whats the point of spending anything on defence as if like border force they,d escort an enemy towards our shores as they might enrich us all.

Yes me too we could do with 2 top quality full backs.

Surely BORDER FARCE.….If Hitler was coming across the channel today they’d be helping them.
No chance of fighting them on the beaches, more like welcoming them onto the beaches. Barbecue anyone…?

At least the Euros are a distraction from this endless party campaigning.
On Thursday the leaders are all on Question Time (leaders special) at 8pm. So is Spain and Italy and thats what i will be watching.
The viewing figures will be interesting.

You'd miss out on our Nigel in his union jack waistcoat ?? ...Saying that ,i have Italy in the works sweepstake..

I avoid them like a cabbage water hot tub……. The waxworks have more appeal.

Both parties wordtwistery n refusing to answer the question regarding an increase in council tax which means its going up.
5% on gas + Leccy bills will be staying as will the outrageous 3.9%+ inflation every April for phone n Internet bills.
Tax thresholds not going up till 2028.
Fcuken salad bowls in Morrisons £2 a few months back now £3.
And they feeding us this stick to the plan bullshit that inflation is down to 2.3%.
Well Aye.
And these freeloading boat people. You never see them in the pub to keep the economy ticking over.
UTP.

and you see less and less of us doing the same apart from at weekends where its classed as a treat now instead of an every day event. shopping now has become similar to countries that have rationing. not because there is a shortage but looking constantly for a so called bargain.

Who in Hartlepool eats salad bowls?
The price of Greggs pasties are the barometer of inflation in Hartlepool.

The reason salads are so expensive is you will find most of the produce is imported although lots of the stuff in it has to be grown greenhouses in the U.K. and with the bad weather they need heat which costs money hence the increase in cost.

If you can find a pub…a decent local pub.

There's a Greggs in Benidorm now, i had to look twice..plenty of porkies were in there last week

I remember when Greggs were ‘Greggs of Gosforth‘, proper high class bakers.
Their only branch in the town was in Binn's on the ground floor.

they,ll be the first to put a shop on the moon or mars. do not know what they sell, how good or bad it is as we refuse to enter the place. there are still other establishments you can go into. wish taylors would open a branch down my way, but then greggs were similar to them at one time.

I am starting to get a bit pissed off by all this election stuff on the tv/radio.
Surely 2 weeks would have been enough to hear all the views. Thank god for the Euros.

Whens the Vanarama fixtures out?

Agreed, Sunak may be a useless plank who’s political days are numbered but he did us all a favour for calling an election when he did thus providing an ready escape route to the Euros from the annoying rhetoric, bullshit and downright lies from the respective parties.

Soon i hope so we have something else to talk about.

Yep agree.

I think it's the 10th July, so that's 3 weeks today.

First fixture prediction, Sutton or Yeovil away!!

southend away who we,ll hammer only for the points to be deducted a few weeks later when they go bust.