[satnav]

I don't understand why he would give an interview knowing that he had nothing positive to say. He could have easily offered some crumbs to the residents of Scampton such as extra policing or extra GP's. Calendar had already aired a report which showed that locals felt that the Home Office were not listening to them something like that can be easily remedied.

[Tubby Isaacs]

They never get it, do they?

These young journalists are as tenacious as starving beasts, and are doing their best to land themselves a career-defining job on a national outlet.

Sunak and co. only ever see those who have been both bought/brought in to the "client" fold and have been hand-picked by their media operation. Add to that, these are northerners and therefore as thick as education-deprived pig shit.

Long may it continue!

Yep. See also Liz Truss.

They think local journalists aren't as clever as their mates at the Telegraph, or else they'd be... on the Telegraph. Didn't they learn from the English Democrat Mayor of Doncaster when he showed up for an interview on Radio Sheffield? Mr Mayor found out that he didn't have the power to do stuff he'd promised in his manifesto, and one of the things he could do (defund Doncaster Pride) was probably a bad idea seeing it brought thousands of people to Doncaster on a Sunday.

[Youngian]

So Sunak has never driven on the A64. ‘I live in Northallerton’ is not a substitute for answering yes or no.

[Abernathy]

So, Sunak is about to announce a number of reforms in favour of “motorists”, in order somehow to try to attract voters to his party in anticipation of the coming election.

It strikes me (not for the first time) just how odd that term “motorists” is. It seems antique, descriptive of an obsessive hobbyist whose life is dominated by an interest in “motor” cars.

Like many others, I own a car, and drive it somewhere or other nearly very day. But I wouldn’t call myself a “motorist”.

It seems to mean just “people who drive cars reasonably regularly”. Is that really a viable or coherent group for the Tories to be targetting? After all, those “motorists” have plenty of other pressing concerns too, without being consumed by deliberately exaggerated grievances about ULEZ, LTN measures, congestion charges, and so on.

As a driver I’ve experienced frustrations related to LTN measures or 20mph zones, but really, they are trivial and fleeting, and have quickly become just routine and habitual. i’m biased, of course, but I just can’t get energised about measures to help “motorists” - certainly not enough to induce me to vote for a party whose record in government has basically ruined everything good about this country.

I suppose all it really is is the old, old Tory tactic of appealing to naked self-interest, and screw the rest of youse. Will it bite? Well yes, I think it may succeed and might even enable Sunak marginally to narrow the polling gap. But of what worth are marginal “motorist” centred benefits to anyone if you’ve still got to live in a country whose economy is still in the bin, that has inflicted massive disbenefits on itself by deciding to execute Brexit, whose international reputation is in tatters, that seeks to resile from affording desperate humans fleeing war and oppression basic human rights, and where just about everything, including our heath service, is frankly, shit? Add to that the imminent cancellation of most of the most important transport infrastructure project in generations.

It is, I dare say, a mark of desperation on Sunak’s part.

[davidjay]

It is all the things Abers says, but the reasoning is to drive another wedge between Labour and You the public. We are decent, law-abiding, hard-working folk. They are anti-everything We hold dear. They are after stopping you from using your car, just like They are making you eat halal, want to ban Christmas and don't know what a woman is.

[Boiler]

So Sunak has never driven on the A64. ‘I live in Northallerton’ is not a substitute for answering yes or no.

No, but he'll have flown over it...

[Andy McDandy]

When they turned the M6 through Birmingham into a smart motorway, I knew a fair few people who hated the idea. Being forced to pootle along at 50mph, how dare they?

If I pointed out the alternative was to do a few hundred yards at 70, slow to a crawl for a junction, get past the junction, slow down as a lane closed, back up to 70 for half a minute, that the smart motorway meant they were getting through the city at a constant speed and faster than before, I got an earful about choice, shit drivers, and speed isn't everything (yes, yes, I know).

It seems that the right has copied the American trick of dressing everything up in freedom - nothing new there, we saw in the wake of Jo Cox's assassination the likes of Hopkins saying "Jo Cox believed in free speech, therefore you can't shut me up as I call for race war, as you'd be shitting on her memory". I recall seeing either the Express or Mail hailing the return of duty free shopping as one of the new freedoms of Brexit - ignoring the reason it had died out on cross-channel ferries was that in the single market it was obsolete.

But that's the thing about freedom - it's one of Hoggart's ridiculous reverses. You can't argue against freedom, so if you say we now have the freedom to swim in shit, cruelly denied to us under the regime of the hated EU, some twats will buy it. None of that dreadful choice! Just one or two honest British options!

The other thing Sunak seems to be doing is making "the motorist" another "in the real world...". You might get worked up about air pollution and road safety but in the real world, countless motorists just want to take the kids to work, get to school on time, aren't interested in your thinking shit.

[RandomElement]

Trying to rabble rouse against ULEZ, LTN and 20MPH zones also shifts expectations from actually fixing the dreadful state of the roads. Which would benefit all road users more than what the Tories are proposing.

[Boiler]

Trying to rabble rouse against ULEZ, LTN and 20MPH zones also shifts expectations from actually fixing the dreadful state of the roads. Which would benefit all road users more than what the Tories are proposing.

Some time ago, when the stories of Rod Stewart and others filling in potholes themselves broke, a campaigner was brought in who'd done it himself but advised against it because public liability.

However, he made a valid point; as a rule, roads have a service life of about forty years but most in the UK are now over sixty years old. Nobody wants to spend scarce resources on full road replacements - round here its just pour some bitumen on, dress with grey chippings and carry on. As a result - and with the main road here now being downgraded to a B-road since the bypass was built - the surface has broken up to the extent that it's pretty bad in a car so Lord alone knows what it's like on a bicycle...

Meanwhile, today: "Sunak claims ‘anti-motorist’ policies are against British values as he aims to limit 20mph speed zones"

Really? How, Mr Helicopter Man?

[Youngian]

Meanwhile, today: "Sunak claims ‘anti-motorist’ policies are against British values as he aims to limit 20mph speed zones"

Poor Rishi has worked too hard all his life to get in with the lads from the rugby and golf clubs. ‘Frothy ales all round on me, stout yeoman’

[Boiler]

Meanwhile, today: "Sunak claims ‘anti-motorist’ policies are against British values as he aims to limit 20mph speed zones"

Poor Rishi has worked too hard all his life to get in with the lads from the rugby and golf clubs. ‘Frothy ales all round on me, stout yeoman’

Didn't Johnson make a comment about "foaming nut-brown ale"?

I was pretty surprised whilst in the pub partaking of a fine Thai lunch the other day to see a ruby ale from a brewery most well known for its pale gold ales... it was very nice too, cask-aged.

[Andy McDandy]

Meanwhile, today: "Sunak claims ‘anti-motorist’ policies are against British values as he aims to limit 20mph speed zones"

Really? How, Mr Helicopter Man?

FREEDUMB!!!!

[Boiler]

Parp! Parp!

(Gambon played the part of Badger in this)

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ha ha. Same in Kent, apparently.

[Boiler]

Just as an aside:

It strikes me (not for the first time) just how odd that term “motorists” is. It seems antique, descriptive of an obsessive hobbyist whose life is dominated by an interest in “motor” cars.

You may enjoy these magazine covers from 1934 then.

https://practicalmotorist-magazines.co.uk/

(Another one of "Camm's Comics", I note)

Motor magazine is even older, dating back to 1903.

[davidjay]

Meanwhile, today: "Sunak claims ‘anti-motorist’ policies are against British values as he aims to limit 20mph speed zones"

Poor Rishi has worked too hard all his life to get in with the lads from the rugby and golf clubs. ‘Frothy ales all round on me, stout yeoman’

I wonder how much of Sunah's attitude us down to being an Asian in a constituency of northern white men, and trying too hard to fit in.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Not really. This comes from party central planning, and it's all part of their wedge strategy.

[Andy McDandy]

Richmond doesn't care what your skin colour is, as long as you're rich.

[Youngian]

Like Newmarket, not much Islamophobia when Muslims own stallions and oil wells.

[Yug]

About that vote-winning idea to make councils wind their necks in and stop picking on poor innocent motorists...

People are holding coordinated protests across UK towns and cities this weekend against what they call a “climate of fear” on the roads, and an “epidemic” of careless and dangerous driving that is curbing children’s freedoms and putting lives at risk.

The protests come amid reports that Rishi Sunak will announce a so-called “plan for motorists” at the Conservative party conference on Monday, which will limit the number of 20mph speed restrictions and favour drivers over bus passengers.

“Parents say they do not feel their children are safe walking and playing in their neighbourhoods,” says Sarah Chaundler, who lives in Birmingham with three teenage children. “There are a lot of people who are angry about this and the impact it’s having on our lives.”

The Safe Streets Now network began life in Birmingham with protests over the summer against speeding and red light-jumping drivers after a string of fatal hit-and-runs. A growing number of groups across the UK are calling for action in their areas, with protests planned on 30 September in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester, Bristol, Oxford, Cardiff, Norwich, Havering and Bedford, and more potentially joining...

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... us-driving

It would appear that the geniuses of Tufton Street have got it very wrong. Again.