Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Probably not worth our time. But OK then. Here's the founder, who's an academic apparently. Here he shows the eye for detail and depth of thought you'd expect.

If I had to write an essay for him, I'd submit it in the form of an imaginary conversation between a bunch of caricatures in my head.

This is odd. Seems to be like the Good Law Project, except he's going to use it for libel cases against people who he won't name. Libel is famously cheap and easy to win.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/nip/

Not even the worst of Mr Proudfoot’s musings. He’s a piss artist, I suspect.

Clearly, this guy is a longstanding socialist, but where did the "northern independence" bit come from? He's got loads of policies, but no clear sense I can see of how devolution is supposed to work. I expect the answer to that would be it works for as long as people want socialist devolution.

The policy has trifling commitments in like returning women's pensions to 60 and cancelling all student debt And much else. As a spiteful centrist with whom it's not possible to have a conversation, I think these are two really bad and regressive priorities.

Also take a look at the north. Densely populated strips on the left, right and bottom, and fuck all in the middle except hills. Good luck with that.

Yep. I think unless you have a very strong sense of what a "region" is- Scotland, Wales, Cornwall all work for lots of people- it's very hard to overcome a very understandable "no more politicians, thanks!"

I think devolution to conurbations work too, though that might just be me having grown up with Greater Manchester, West Midlands etc in my map book.

I like unitary authorities too- I live in Herefordshire, and feel we don't need a district council. Looking at the North, Cumbria could work as a unitary, I think. Northumberland and Durham are already unitaries.

Beyond that, it doesn't look particularly easy or desirable. You might just as well argue that the Treasury give existing stuff more money.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Sat Jul 03, 2021 3:56 pm Clearly, this guy is a longstanding socialist, but where did the "northern independence" bit come from? He's got loads of policies, but no clear sense I can see of how devolution is supposed to work. I expect the answer to that would be it works for as long as people want socialist devolution.

The policy has trifling commitments in like returning women's pensions to 60 and cancelling all student debt And much else. As a spiteful centrist with whom it's not possible to have a conversation, I think these are two really bad and regressive priorities.

The cancelling student debt seems to have been copied and pasted from American politics.

Jez flirted with that then never mentioned it again, quite rightly.

Unfortunately he fell hook line and sinker for the pensions thing. Poor old Starmer will have to junk this, proof again he's "right wing", rather than just somebody who thinks £58bn is a lot of money that could be spent better.

Cumbria's currently 6 district councils. Its main problems are an almost absolute absence of a middle class, concentration of population around the coasts, and the two massive dividers of the Lake District and the M6. Very easy to forget that there's a big chunk of the county to the east of the motorway, all too often overlooked. Oh yes, and seasonal weather can be an issue.

Much of the economy is seasonal and low paying. Much of the rest is very high paying and elite. As my boss said to me earlier this week, it's a very poor area with some very rich people in it.

A unitary authority could save a lot of money, and lead to more even distribution of funds. But sadly that's the one cost-saving measure councils are not allowed to make. Because nobody wants loads of freshly unemployed district councillors kicking up a stink in the local press.

Yeah, the pissed off district councillors must be a big deterrent to parties with unitaries.

I don't know the county at all, but it doesn't seem to me like Carlisle would be too dominant in a unitary.

Haven't checked out Mr Proudfoot for a while. Here he demonstrates his attachment to Corbynite "issues not personalities", while heeding the lessons of recent elections where Corbyn romped home in NW Durham and Mansfield.

Was he always a polls man, or are these polls different to the ones Jez used to trail in all the time?

What we are seeing here is a classic case of projection.

Who are the people he has in mind? Someone like Neil Coyle seems unnecessarily provocative to the left. but as far as I know he's not against Keynsian investment, like a lot of them were under Milliband. Liz Kendall set herself up as a cut the deficit type back in the day, but I don't think she bothers with it now. I don't think Mandelson or Blair care much about that, if that's who he means.

The sage of the North writes.

Fair point about lots of the Tory support in yougov being down to abstaining Tories, not direct switching to Labour. But I'm not sure there was a "promise" to be 20 points ahead on the back of direct switching by now. Major was massively preferable to Johnson, but he wasn't very careful of his base. Johnson's so far kept his eye on the Kipper voters and had the impact of Brexit disguised by Covid.

Yeah I'm really struggling to remember a promise to be 20 points ahead. Also why is the leader of the Northern Independence Party so concerned about Labour's poll ratings?

Be fair, he also talks about policy for N England. Or rather he talks about how they'll have some when they've worked out what they are.

It's time to come together and fix the North-South divide ourselves

By breaking away and declaring independence from the rest of England.

Tit.

Their name isn't intended literally, I don't think.

But I'll believe these transformative policies when I see them. Levelling up isn't easy. And when you adjust for housing costs, London isn't outstandingly rich.

Might as well just group in with this new Corbyn party that’s effectively what it is just northern.

Also Cheshire and Merseyside hmmm, also based in Brighton and County Durham?

All you're missing here, Thelma, is a fake quote from Peter Hitchens.

Push pulling consisting of "who would you vote for in an election?"