The fall of the Tory party

Local councillor candidate turned the bye election into a single issue

They have form for this

The tories moaning about a young labour guy getting in and that it was like someone from the inbetweeners. Lack of life experience etc etc etc

It was Johnny Mercer, who appear to be having a slow motion mental breakdown with each tv appearance just recently. He's shitting it that he's going to loss his seat on the gravy train.

People winding up the gammons in comments by reminding them Churchill became an mp at 25 as well.

Yeah him, just another posh boy shitting it about losing the easy money.

Please call a GE.... Please call a GE....

Don't forget the ULEZ was also a Tory drafted policy.

Clean air, as envisaged by the various proposed ULEZ schemes around the UK is upon national legislation. ULEZ's are not optional.

Govt Stooge on radio this morning said the last Thurs of Oct 24 would be the GE.

It’s striking how differently the Wootton story is being covered compared to Hugh Edwards.

Realistically though, that's because the vast majority of people have no idea who he is. The story might be big in terms of where he has worked but in terms of the individual it's not much.

Gutted that the votes that went to single issue / novelty parties could have changed the U&SR result. GE might be accelerated if Rishi had been 0/3 for the night.

Until about last week I thought DW was some gossip columnist. Didn’t realise he had as much clout

Also pointed out on the socials that during term time there are 20,000 students housed in the Uxbridge constituency, so Tories were pretty lucky it's the hols.

Marina Hyde good on Wootton today https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/21/dan-wootton-catfishing-gb-news-tabloid-celebrities

Add in the mentions above about the age of the new Labour MP - as well as the make advisor, what about work experience Dame Charlotte Owen?

Tory cunts are both painfully unself-aware but also thick as fuck. Oh yes, and never meaningfully held to account so who is winning?

There's a letter from Grant Shapps to TFL mandating their funding is based on them implementing it and the Tories manage to get the message out it's the Mayor doing it

I'm assuming they will plan it to coincide with the last of the good weather to 1 allow for some goodwill and 2 make sure the blue rinse brigade can get out of the house (and haven't died from cold)

Almost like it was planned

Dft have demanded a lot from tfl for the COVID bailouts when they gave to the national rail companies fortunes without any conditions

i just had a conversation with my dad about this who started off by saying the ulez thing was a big problem of Sadiq's creation.

I suggested that it's about similar [driving dilapidated diesel vehicles which spew crap into that air] to the situation with water companies pouring sewage into rivers and seas (ie an attempt to reduce externalising costs /polluter doesn't pay) . He's big into wild swimming so this immediately changed his mind to the ulez expansion being a good thing :)

the odd part of it is that he runs a small business which has invested quite abit over the last few years in order to become ulez compliant so he's already on the right side of it but initially favoured the brethren of uxbridge...

In 2010 when I still lived in Central London I was considering emissions when I bought my car purely for economic reasons - parking permit cost, tax, expectations of congestion charge pricing being linked to emissions, etc. In 2018, now outside of the proposed ULEZ zone, ULEZ compliance was on the check list for our car. I'm not a fucking soothsayer or genius.

Johnson introduced this in 2015.

Pretty sure last time I checked there are cars as old as 2002 which are compliant. Maybe not a Transit - or more to the point for most of the whingers, a fash German barge with the sort of fuel economy and low tax they want - but cars for driving? There are loads.

A mate in Putney referenced his neighbour with an old landy who basically "can't" drive it anymore due to the cost - sorry mate if you want to farmer cozplay in Putney at the expense of peoples health then cough up for the privilege. A family friend's mate apparently can't drive in a certain direction from his house "without getting hit" - tenner says he just doesn't want to give up his green diesel German barge for something less prestigious. Again suck a dick.

The whole thing has been such a long time coming that putting aside every other argument, simply on an organisational level, I cannot muster up any sympathy for anyone affected.

Oh and there is a fucking scrappage scheme for those genuinely in need. And even though intrest rates are up, guess what? You can still cheaply finance vehicles.

If they can engineer a war for are boyz to go fight in between now & then they'll get the good old battle of britain they don't like it up 'em mentality crew behind them once more.

100% this.

Sadly the next election is going to be fought on a culture war basis.
https://archive.is/fmpXi

IMO there is a fag paper between Starmer and Sunak on actual policy (i.e. the economy). There is so little wiggle room for fiscal expansion that any tax cuts or spending are highly unlikely in the next parliament. Reeves dumping the green energy plan which had been trailed as the cornerstone of Labour industrial policy suggests that all we will see is the tinkering around the edges which appeal to focus groups. VAT on private schools is the new ban on foxhunting, serving little purpose other than to reassure the base. Both parties are bereft of any real ideas or policy to tackle structural problems in the UK. All that is left is playschool populism on ULEZ, trans rights and immigrants. This suits Labour just as much as the Tories.

Sadly, this seems depressingly accurate.

I had hoped for better but that hope has been eroded over the last 6 months of back tracking.

Is this the letter from Grant Shapps,
or,
is there a subsequent version or revision?

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1101713/tfl-long-term-funding-settlement-30-august-2022.pdf

When I looked, I could only find a story from 2020 that Shapps had insisted on extending the congestion charge zone to the same footprint as the original ULEZ.

They did also claim that it was Khan's idea in public while making it a requirement of TfL funding in private, so it's not implausible they'd try the same trick again.