Re: Man of the People : Fri Jan 24, 2020 12:07 pm  

wrencat1873 wrote:

You could be related to my friend from East Hull.
In relation to how long the planet has been turning, humans havent been around for very long at all but, we do appear to be bleeding the planet of most of it's natural resources and warming the place up, although some believe that the warming of the oceans is just part of the natural cycle of events.
Tbf, we are trusting the scientists, who, at best are looking only at the last couple of hundred years but, that could mean that things are even worse than some of the predictions.
The easy way is to do like Trump and just carry on regardless - burning fossil fuels and just disregard the science.
However, I dont have him down as any kind of decent scientist and his advice may not be the best on offer so, maybe we should hedge our bets a little.

TBF you are trusting the scientists that agree with you and discarding those who don't. Is the planet warming yes - will we run out of food, not a chance. How do we change - it needs to be a global effort - I don't see that happening anytime soon

Re: Man of the People : Fri Jan 24, 2020 5:17 pm  

Sal Paradise wrote:

TBF you are trusting the scientists that agree with you and discarding those who don't. Is the planet warming yes - will we run out of food, not a chance. How do we change - it needs to be a global effort - I don't see that happening anytime soon

Where we clearly differ is down to the effects of the planet warming.
As far as the food supply and the huge drive to try and persuade people to eat less meat. Yes, this may be connected to climate change but, I think this has more to do with the increasing population and longer life expectancy, rather than pure climate change issues.
As for who to believe Attenborough or Trump, mmm, lets think about that one, yes, Attenborough seems a fair bit more knowledgeable and somewhat more honest with the facts.
You could always join my friend from East Hull and just close your eyes and cover your ears - everything will be just fine.
We could just carry on, dismiss the science and be accepting of our fete or, make just a few changes to improve everyone's chances.

Having said that, in the modern capitalist driven world, there are some who would prefer to make money than consider the long term wellbeing of the rest and this does need addressing at some point.

Re: Man of the People : Sat Jan 25, 2020 12:36 pm  

Here's an early example of the tensions that will hit the Conservative party now they have MPs in former Labour areas in the north/midlands: https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... ing-review It seems this 'fair funding review' of local authority budget allocations is a legacy of the Theresa May era, and it looks like classic political gaming: transferring large sums of money away from areas with Labour councils towards Tory shires. So Grimsby, Keighley, Workington,Leigh, Bishop Auckland, Don Valley, Stoke-on-Trent, West Bromwich are getting their funding slashed and Hampshire, Surrey, Northamptonshire, Berkshire are getting an increase. Direct transfer away from deprived areas towards better off shires. I expect when this review was set in motion, the Tories didn't expect there to be Conservative MPs in some of those areas. The funding cuts will affect council services so aren't directly the responsibility of the MP, and they probably figured it would force Labour councils in to more unpopular decisions. The problem now though is that these new Conservative MPs campaigned on the theme that these areas have had Labour councils and Labour MPs for decades and have been in steady decline, so there needs to be 'change', so it will be hard for the MPs to avoid getting some comeback from angry constituents, if they are trying to use the line 'these issues are the responsibility of your council not the MP'. There will probably be some anxious new Tory MPs now lobbying No.10 to redo this review. Although Boris's constituency is in line for an £8.8million increase so it's not all bad for him!

Here's an early example of the tensions that will hit the Conservative party now they have MPs in former Labour areas in the north/midlands: https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... ing-review It seems this 'fair funding review' of local authority budget allocations is a legacy of the Theresa May era, and it looks like classic political gaming: transferring large sums of money away from areas with Labour councils towards Tory shires. So Grimsby, Keighley, Workington,Leigh, Bishop Auckland, Don Valley, Stoke-on-Trent, West Bromwich are getting their funding slashed and Hampshire, Surrey, Northamptonshire, Berkshire are getting an increase. Direct transfer away from deprived areas towards better off shires. I expect when this review was set in motion, the Tories didn't expect there to be Conservative MPs in some of those areas. The funding cuts will affect council services so aren't directly the responsibility of the MP, and they probably figured it would force Labour councils in to more unpopular decisions. The problem now though is that these new Conservative MPs campaigned on the theme that these areas have had Labour councils and Labour MPs for decades and have been in steady decline, so there needs to be 'change', so it will be hard for the MPs to avoid getting some comeback from angry constituents, if they are trying to use the line 'these issues are the responsibility of your council not the MP'. There will probably be some anxious new Tory MPs now lobbying No.10 to redo this review. Although Boris's constituency is in line for an £8.8million increase so it's not all bad for him!

Re: Man of the People : Sat Jan 25, 2020 11:05 pm  

sally cinnamon wrote: Here's an early example of the tensions that will hit the Conservative party now they have MPs in former Labour areas in the north/midlands: https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... ing-review It seems this 'fair funding review' of local authority budget allocations is a legacy of the Theresa May era, and it looks like classic political gaming: transferring large sums of money away from areas with Labour councils towards Tory shires. So Grimsby, Keighley, Workington,Leigh, Bishop Auckland, Don Valley, Stoke-on-Trent, West Bromwich are getting their funding slashed and Hampshire, Surrey, Northamptonshire, Berkshire are getting an increase. Direct transfer away from deprived areas towards better off shires. I expect when this review was set in motion, the Tories didn't expect there to be Conservative MPs in some of those areas. The funding cuts will affect council services so aren't directly the responsibility of the MP, and they probably figured it would force Labour councils in to more unpopular decisions. The problem now though is that these new Conservative MPs campaigned on the theme that these areas have had Labour councils and Labour MPs for decades and have been in steady decline, so there needs to be 'change', so it will be hard for the MPs to avoid getting some comeback from angry constituents, if they are trying to use the line 'these issues are the responsibility of your council not the MP'. There will probably be some anxious new Tory MPs now lobbying No.10 to redo this review. Although Boris's constituency is in line for an £8.8million increase so it's not all bad for him! You're right, they never expected to wipe out so many Labour seats and this would bite them right in the backside if it went ahead - which isn't certain by a long stretch. I expect plans will change. To give him credit, Boris is a 'listener'. Many who've worked with him say the same - he listens and reacts, and surely he realises he needs to feed the hand that voted him in. I hark back to local social media sites and there's plenty of hope that ousting (for example) Jo Platt from Leigh will be the start of turning things around, but many acknowledge the shambolic, corrupt, land-selling clowns of Wigan Labour council are a massive hurdle. The Tories need to pump investment into the 'red wall', and be seen doing it. If nothing changes before the next GE Labour will walk straight back in. They can bypass Wigan council by getting police on the streets (mind you the corruption in GMP is horrendous), but getting a Labour council to reflect Tory investment is going to be a challenge. Especially that despicable lot in Wigan.

sally cinnamon wrote: Here's an early example of the tensions that will hit the Conservative party now they have MPs in former Labour areas in the north/midlands: https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... ing-review It seems this 'fair funding review' of local authority budget allocations is a legacy of the Theresa May era, and it looks like classic political gaming: transferring large sums of money away from areas with Labour councils towards Tory shires. So Grimsby, Keighley, Workington,Leigh, Bishop Auckland, Don Valley, Stoke-on-Trent, West Bromwich are getting their funding slashed and Hampshire, Surrey, Northamptonshire, Berkshire are getting an increase. Direct transfer away from deprived areas towards better off shires. I expect when this review was set in motion, the Tories didn't expect there to be Conservative MPs in some of those areas. The funding cuts will affect council services so aren't directly the responsibility of the MP, and they probably figured it would force Labour councils in to more unpopular decisions. The problem now though is that these new Conservative MPs campaigned on the theme that these areas have had Labour councils and Labour MPs for decades and have been in steady decline, so there needs to be 'change', so it will be hard for the MPs to avoid getting some comeback from angry constituents, if they are trying to use the line 'these issues are the responsibility of your council not the MP'. There will probably be some anxious new Tory MPs now lobbying No.10 to redo this review. Although Boris's constituency is in line for an £8.8million increase so it's not all bad for him! You're right, they never expected to wipe out so many Labour seats and this would bite them right in the backside if it went ahead - which isn't certain by a long stretch. I expect plans will change. To give him credit, Boris is a 'listener'. Many who've worked with him say the same - he listens and reacts, and surely he realises he needs to feed the hand that voted him in. I hark back to local social media sites and there's plenty of hope that ousting (for example) Jo Platt from Leigh will be the start of turning things around, but many acknowledge the shambolic, corrupt, land-selling clowns of Wigan Labour council are a massive hurdle. The Tories need to pump investment into the 'red wall', and be seen doing it. If nothing changes before the next GE Labour will walk straight back in. They can bypass Wigan council by getting police on the streets (mind you the corruption in GMP is horrendous), but getting a Labour council to reflect Tory investment is going to be a challenge. Especially that despicable lot in Wigan.

Re: Man of the People : Sun Jan 26, 2020 12:21 pm  

Cronus wrote:

I hark back to local social media sites and there's plenty of hope that ousting (for example) Jo Platt from Leigh will be the start of turning things around, but many acknowledge the shambolic, corrupt, land-selling clowns of Wigan Labour council are a massive hurdle.

I also dislike the Labour councils down in London for selling off land and housing to generate money from new developments, displacing long standing residents out of their communities.

However we do have to remember that the reason these councils are doing that is because they have had their budgets slashed and been forced to be 'income generating' due to cuts from central government.

It is a classic political trick from the Conservatives to starve Labour councils of funding to force them in to being the ones making cuts and undermining the image that Labour cares about ordinary people. I wonder if Wales will be the next target area for politically driven austerity which could strategically undermine Labour.