If you are claiming Covid is a Tory success you are sadly mistaken. It was an absolute clusterfck. I presume you don’t have relatives that died needlessly? Labour are far from perfect but they have inherited an absolute mess in 1997 and particularly last year and none of their making. It’s a shame some on the right weren’t as vociferous at the clusterfck of 2010-2024 whilst borrowing, taxation and immigration went through the roof.
Read my posts. I did not say covid was a success. I said the vaccine funding and speed of rollout was. There were many mistakes made during the pandemic, and we clearly were not well enough prepared. But that does not detract from the way we got the vaccines in arms. I remember distinctly my first jab, it was an ubelievably well run operation delivered at a speed thag was astounding. It was a success.
You can’t seriously be mentioning borrowing, taxation and immigration whilst ignoring the previous governments tenure? Net migration quadrupled under Labour 97-2010 (who actually introduced new laws into parliament making it easier to claim asylum here) and the tories inherited a nation in the midst of a recession.. whilst I agree 2010-24 was by no means glorious you can’t say the previous government was either. And using COVID is a pointless argument because nobody knows how any other government would’ve dealt with it. We dealt with it how pretty much every other major country dealt with it and you could argue a labour, Lib Dem, reform government etc could’ve made more of a meal of it. They have both let us down for the last three decades and that is why people are looking elsewhere. It’s nothing to do with evil geniuses brainwashing people. There is propaganda on both sides and both sides have people stupid enough to believe it. Our of curiosity how did you have relatives die needlessly?
I agree with that. Biggest fail was them lining up the wealthy to rip off our country and the biggest leap in wealth inequality.Opportunism during a national crisis isn’t a good look - now they’re using their ill gotten gains to fund Reform.
And the toxic Tory tribute act has the answers? Look who funds Farage and you see what the policies are. We all want robust immigration but thinking Farage has the answers is laughable,
Nobody said he has the answers but I’m sure plenty would argue trying the same thing that’s failed time and time again and expecting a different outcome is… stupidity? Labour need to get their act together or they’ll lose at the next election and nobody knows which way it’ll go, that’s the worry. But their voters will only have them to blame. I’m sure they’ll instead try and blame the likes of Elon Musk, Nigel Farage and Tom Skinner for posting a few videos on X though.
To be fair I think offering simple solutions loaded against scapegoats that throws people towards hateful answers has those mentioned plus Irish Lennon to thank. Of course social conditions - affordable quality housing, cost of living, accessible healthcare, community safety are the things that drive people towards blame and frustration and someone needs the knackers to sort out the latter. Reform will fail on both I’d suggest, especially the latter.
Fair enough but Farage and Musk are tw@ts of the very highest order and wouldn’t piss on the working class if they were on fire. Look at who is funding Farage gives you an idea.
I generally agree however the power of the right wing media is very strong. Some good stuff has come out in recent weeks such as breakfast clubs for kids, billions of investment securing snd creating jobs, locally the magnificent regeneration of Sunderland and the hillsborough law stuff but it has got little media traction as the bbc continues to parrot the Mail and express. Labour do need to step up and make sure its message is getting out above the right wing divisive noise.
Isn’t that what the other parties/shadow government always do though? Wait for something to fail then tell us all how it would’ve worked when it’s easier for us all to see anyway? Brexit and COVID were two massively complex issues to deal with and my own opinion is that no government would’ve navigated them perfectly. But it’s certainly a lot easier to sit there with no responsibility whatsoever and say, yeah you should’ve done this or that ie had we locked down instantly and it wasn’t as bad as it turned out to be they would’ve been accused of crashing the economy or scaremongering. British politics as long as I’ve known them, which is nowhere near as long as most of you here nor am I clued up as much, has been a bit of clown shown. It’s pissy point scoring and arguments rather than solutions.
Labour really need to push through the approval for the metro link to Washington to win voters on the fence back up here imo. It would make a significant improvement to travel links for our fans in the Washington/Chester Le Street area. The investment into the city argument is bollocks, most of it happened under the last government with a local labour council so if we’re contributing it to the local council then we can lay the blame with them for Sunderland being an underdeveloped **** tip for decades.
I welcome 100% the US investment. I am also long enough in the tooth to know these do not equate to cash in the bank. We arent suddenly better off. There will be all sorts of caveats with it. But nevertheless, we have done better than many out of the European investment commitment.
Record debts were the thing that stuck in my mind. That was, of course, until the Tories started paying ridiculous amounts to their chums for PPE during Covid.
Good to hear but very little to offset the Brexit economic disaster but well done Starmer and good news none the less. At least Brexit was worth it because it stopped immigration though. Argh hold on…record immigration. We economically shot ourselves in the foot for immigration and yet people still want to believe Farage. Listen to experts not lying grifters like Farage, Good to see this government starting to sort out Farage and the Tory party’s Brexit mess.
Michelle will be forever grateful for her yacht. Hancocks pub landlord had a good Covid. Shame about the 10,000s who died needlessly because the Health Secretary was more concerned about lining the pockets of his mates whilst also shagging his mistress.
I agree with the first part the metro extension makes sense. Regarding the second part I partially agree. As an outsider looking in, the regeneration of Sunderland is magnificent though I do share your view of the state of the city centre before that. However, the council were locked in a battle with Tesco for the land and whether you or me like it or not Tesco had the resources to fight the council for decades which obviously held up the works. Whilst everyone likes to have a go at the council, given the regeneration now taking place it was the right decision to take on Tesco but years were wasted in the process which was not Sunderland Council’s fault. Thankfully we haven’t an ugly Tesco supermarket on prime city centre land so well done Sunderland Council. You are also right re the Tory support to the Labour council and should be recognised - Jeremy Hunt in particular who initially agreed £25m and that was fully ratified by the Labour government and then another £25m was given I believe. Credit where it’s due, but it should also be recognised that local Tories told Hunt not to do it, which was shameful.
Listen to the anti Brexit experts Houses are going to devalue 50% the day after the vote Mines gone up 200% if I down size I’m bloody loaded man. Experts
We ended up with record immigration which let’s be honest is why most voted for Brexit. Farage and those that voted for it for that reason were wrong and those pesky experts were right. You know the ones Farage and Johnson told us to ignore. Sadly it’s legacy is a failing economy which means the excellent deals Starmer has secured this week are so important. And for the record I had no strong views at the referendum but took a measured look and listened to experts. A shame a lot more didn’t do what I did.
I must of listened to different experts to you. That’s why I’m going to be so flush when I move, I prefer my experts
