Long-promised plans to close the gap between rich and poor parts of the country have been announced by the government.

The strategy, unveiled by Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, will take until 2030 and aims to improve services such as education, broadband and transport.

Mr Gove said it would "shift both money and power into the hands of working people".

But Labour said the plans contained no new money and little fresh thinking.

Mr Gove told the BBC the strategy was not aimed at providing new funding but ensuring it is spent effectively on local priorities.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60216307

Which means that Conservative areas will be provided with sufficient funding (so long as their MP hasn't been mean to, or about, Boris Johnson) and will have plenty to show.

Labour areas will be starved of funding but blame will be firmly placed on local leaders who have clearly failed to address local priorities effectively. :rolleyes:

Quite amazing to hear a Tory minister talking about their mission to ‘save forgotten communities’ as if we live in a parallel universe where they haven’t spent the last 12 years brutally cutting their way through those communities.

Well yes, they only have themselves to blame for not voting Tory!

It's all still Labour's fault. As someone (you ?) pointed out with respect to the NHS, but which can be applied across the board, Labour should have had spending so high that a decade of Conservative cuts would still have left sufficient in the budget :rolleyes:

Just to show how "levelling up" spending really works: https://www.theguardian.com/inequali...rdian-research

Aaaaaah, those bleak post-industrial wastes of Bromsgrove, where Sajid Javid just happens to be MP...Poverty-stricken Hambleton, which just happens to include chunks of the Richmond constituency, "home" of Rishi Sunak...Oh, what about the desolation of Mid-Bedfordshire? Wait, who's MP there? Why, Nadine Dorries!

What has Tory Girl Trevelyan done to offend? Berwick could certainly do with some extra dosh, 'cos all governments ignore us - they think we are in Scotland...

Leveling up areas where the Tory majority was marginal was the plan.
it does seem to have gone awry. I was brought up in Sunak's constituency. Classic, stick a blue rosette on a sheep and it will be elected territory. Don't know why they need the Tory vote boosting.
Is your constituency is solid blue or alternatively has it already been written off by Tory HQ?

Berwick was Liberal and then Lib Dem for quite some time when Alan Beith was the MP; it was ignored for spending.

Tory Girl was elected in 2015 after Beith stood down. The Tories had long been second.

Many folk who'd voted for Beith, self-included, felt betrayed by the coalition, which was essentially making us complicit in a Tory government we never wanted - own fault for not taking the Orange Book more seriously. So we stopped voting Lib Dem. The Lib Dem vote did collapse in 2015.

Some just gave in to their inner Tory and voted for Talent-Free Zone Trevelyan. We're still ignored for spending.

I do seriously believe that many folk think we are in Scotland - the old "North of Hadrian's Wall" thing - so they don't have to consider what happens in much of Northumberland. This is allied to the regular misuse of "Northumbria", which is akin to me never calling Dorset Dorset, but always Wessex.

That would be the area around Citta di Castello then?

Boris Johnson is facing further calls to resign, as Tobias Ellwood became the latest Tory MP to say he wants to oust him from office.

The Bournemouth East MP said he would be submitting a letter of no confidence in the PM, amid the ongoing row over lockdown parties in No 10.

He joins colleague Peter Aldous, who said on Tuesday he had done the same.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60227531

Establishing the kingdom of Northumbria would help with levelling up!

Anthony Mangnall and Sir Gary Streeter have put in letters of no confidence.

It means a total of nine MPs have now said publicly they have taken this step.

A further three have publicly called on Mr Johnson to resign, although they have not revealed whether they have sent in letters of their own.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries attacked the latest MPs to put in letters, claiming they were "a handful of egos [who] want to make it all about them. It's selfish, doing Labour's work and it's really not helping their constituents."

Nadine Dorries tweets
@NadineDorries
· 1h
The defining mission of the PM & this government is to level up the whole of the UK. On the very day we are setting out steps to make this happen, a handful of egos want to make it all about them. It's selfish, doing Labours work and it’s really not helping their constituents.

Impressive to see Tories saying Starmer was to blame for the actions of the CPS at the same time as saying Johnson is not to blame for the actions of Downing Street.

deleted

Today's the day that people will find out how much more expensive their energy is going to be.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60234732

I understand that the UK government has no control over global wholesale gas prices and the laissez-faire attitude to managing the UK's generation mix has meant that there's no control over electricity prices. Nevertheless, this combined with the inflationary effects of Brexit and the upcoming National Insurance increase will, as usual, end up hitting those who are least well off, hardest. :mad:

I hope people remember this when they step into the polls but I fear that they'll just blame everything on a Labour Party which by then hasn't been in office for 15 years.

Just yesterday someone called into LBC & stated that they voted for Johnson to get the country out of the doldrums caused by the previous Labour government. FFS....

Most people don't pay very much attention to what is going on and are likely under the impression that the government before the current one was a Labour government on the grounds that they just take it in turns. :rolleyes:

If you're that uncurious then you're not going to look beyond your usual media and friends to get different information and even if you do find out that Labour hasn't been in power for more than a decade, you'd be disinclined to believe it because it simply doesn't "feel right" (in the same way it doesn't "feel right" that 1970 is as long ago from today as 1918 was to 1970).

Gut feel seems to be remarkably resilient in the face of facts.

And Labour had no control of the 2008 crash but the Tories still managed to pin the blame on them. Sadly I doubt Labour will do the same in reverse.

Meanwhile the Government's levelling up white paper:

https://assets.publishing.service.go...hite_Paper.pdf



Spurious and repetitive dusting of irrelvant facts - On brand for Johnson. Presumably he thinks it helps.

...which are, it appears, copied directly from Wikipedia.

Dave

And itself

Good to see those Eton fees go to waste!

The Bank of England has raised interest rates in an attempt to control galloping inflation:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60197463

IMO that's not going to do too much to help reduce inflation, just make people's mortgage payments higher, the very last thing someone who is already reeling from increases in energy prices, general inflation and the pending increase in National Insurance.

That's not to say that I wouldn't like to see interest rates back up to their long-term average, but this may not be the right time to do it what with all the other problems going on.

And BlowJob's head of policy resigns over him slandering Starmer, just after BlowJob's non-apology for said slander.

Odd how BlowJob made that slander under Parliamentary privilege rather than even in the street outside the Houses, which would have allowed Starmer to sue the ******* arse off him. Not just weaselly, but cowardly, which is all we can expect from this twat.

And at the same time as announcing the "levelling up" paper, Sunak cuts most folk's council tax bill for next year, thus preparing the ground for the councils getting the blame for "levelling up" not working because they won't spend enough money, given that a load of the other money isn't new but re-labelled money they already have or were due to get anyway...

How ******* stupid do they think we are?

Oh, wait a mo...I think we have answered that one with PJ's LBC caller, my "I just like him!" eejit from Blyth, and other similar tales from other regulars in this thread.

Rise in energy bills in France capped at 4%.
Here in the UK we are getting a £200 loan and the bills are going up by 54%

Munira Mirza, the Downing Street head of policy, has resigned over Boris Johnson’s Jimmy Savile attack on Keir Starmer

Eddie Hughes MP tweets
@EddieHughes4WN
· Feb 1
The PM makes the right call on the big decisions, so it's great to see him in #Ukraine after the British government sent the HMS Defender to the Crimean shores and provided anti-tank missiles to Kyiv when other countries rejected the supply of weapons.

And another two since then

Three since then!

Jumping before they are pushed in the fallout from Partygate?

Four senior aides to Boris Johnson have resigned from Downing Street within hours of each other amid growing pressure on the prime minister.

Director of communications Jack Doyle confirmed his exit shortly after the departure of policy head Munira Mirza.

They were followed by the chief of staff Dan Rosenfield and senior civil servant Martin Reynolds.

The top aides' resignations come as Mr Johnson faces increasing questions over his leadership from within his party.

Mr Doyle told staff that "recent weeks have taken a terrible toll on my family life", but that he had always intended to leave after two years.

However, Ms Mirza quit over the PM's false claim that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile when he was director of public prosecutions, and his refusal to apologise.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak publicly distanced himself from the PM's original comment, saying: "Being honest, I wouldn't have said it."

And asked if Mr Johnson should apologise, he said: "That's for the prime minister to decide."

A statement from a No 10 spokeswoman said Mr Rosenfield had offered his resignation to the PM earlier on Thursday, but would stay on while his successor was found.

Mr Reynolds - who was the principal private secretary to the prime minister - will do the same, but then return to a role at the Foreign Office.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60253231

Boris lied about reduction in crime?

Are we surprised?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60250678

He fraudulently claimed a reduction in crime by omitting fraud as one of the crimes being counted! You see, THAT'S what I'm talking about; Trump couldn't be half that entertaining if he set his own underpants on fire! :D

:):thumbsup:

Nadine Dorries shortly to appear on her front lawn in her nightie clutching a pint of wine to tell us that they were all bastards who jumped before they were sacked.

I see that The Fail and The Spectator are joining the rat platoons, swimming to safety.

I hope the stench of this lingers to the next GE, and I strongly suspect it will. Sunak will inherit a poisoned chalice.

Boris flew in a private jet to Blackpool for a photo op today. He shaved an estimated 20 minutes off the time it'd have taken by train

He also avoided plebs and journalists during the journey.

We need to start installing walk-in fridges on trains.