Theresa May

As an aside, or maybe not. I am finding it a bit weird being on the same side as durhamjen and others so to speak.
And there is more animosity and bad posts to them than I realised.

Wasn't around much yesterday, so not sure my post is now relevant, or even answering the right question.
I dont like mayors anywhere of any description[admittedly I dont know that much about them], because more levels of bureacracy, and staff and red tape.
To my mind, everyone has managed quite happily without them before. Although it could possibly be argued that if there is a mayor, people talk about that particular city more, which can be no bad thing? But still too much money to just achieve that.

You live in the right bit of the north, bags. Lots of us want to move the border south so we are in Scotland.
Your schools are better, your health service is better.

Why would HS3 to Newcastle be a good idea? It will be an extension of HS2. To get to Newcastle you would have to catch a train to Birmingham, then Leeds or Sheffield - they haven't decided which yet - then Newcastle.
What's wrong with having better and more trains on the lines that are there already?

Not at all patronising, POGS. Just wondered if you lived in the North. You don't have to tell us if you don't want to, which you obviously don't.
Most people don't mind. Hey ho, as someone else would say.

The reason a Northern powerhouse has been suggested is because there is already a southern powerhouse. It's called London and the home counties.
We don't mind having some of our money back, but nobody likes being blackmailed.

Our council has a newspaper it gives out quartery so the residents know what's happening. The autumn one has just been delivered.
There is a chart of how much the county is given by central government.
In 2011/12 it was £223 million.
In 2015/16 it was £100 million
In 2016/17 it will be £77 million
In 2019/20 it will be £28 million

While the government is cutting the amount of money it returns to the council, it expects the council to do more with the money.

I feel really sorry for anyone in the council who has to make these cuts without cutting frontline services to the residents.

But that won't matter so long as the government can spend on HS3.

So Theresa May wants grammar schools so we've all got to go along with that, have we?
well, I don't think that she will be forcing parents to send their children to grammar schools or faith schools if they are resolutely against them.

Well I will be in good company.

Corbyn's grammar school conversation with TM is the only real opposing he has done. I'm happy to give him credit for that but it's not a great showing for a whole year. It wouldn't be a good showing for anyone else in his position either.

Don't worry, pogs, I don't live in the right bit of the north either. We can be castigated together for that fault.

roses, I think you are right.

Meanwhile, brick walls notwithstanding, I really hope Newcastle gets its HS3 (or its equivalent in other Good Stuff) and that lots of other good stuff comes out of the Northern Powerhouse idea that was started by a Labour think tank before being purloined by Osborne.

And I daresay all of this post will be wilfully misunderstood too. Hey ho.

Durhamjen. 13.30

"Where do you live, POGS? Why are you so interested in the Northern Powerhouse?"

Not sure what purpose that question serves to be honest. It is as patronizing as the posts that give the impression you shouldn't post unless you are a devotee of the political party the thread is talking about. Very weird on an open Forum.

Reading some posters comments I am assuming the Northern Power House idea is not in their opinion worth a grain of salt. I know one thing for sure, I would put a bet on had it been declared by the government to be a ' Southern Power House ' there would be the usual voices saying 'Typical, never bloody care about the North do they'. I guess time will tell but it seems to me the government can never win.

bags good (last) post.....but you are beating your head against a wall, on here.

This has just arrived in my inbox.

www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/matthew-taylor-blog/2016/09/why-policy-fails-and-how-it-might-succeed/

According to him Scotland got devolution because of the 18 years of hostility to the Conservative government.

'Many factors were at work, not least hostility in Scotland to the eighteen years of Conservative Governments that came between the referenda, but any history of this shift would have to credit the work of the Scottish Constitutional Convention. The Convention was an association of Scottish political parties, churches and other civic groups. It not only built a broad consensus for devolution but also undertook the hard graft of developing a blueprint for the establishment of the Scottish Parliament. So well did the Convention do this tricky, painstaking work, that by 1997 it felt that the referendum and legislation that followed was not so making change as confirming it.'

From the article.

Which is what the opposition is trying to do. Did you listen to Corbyn questioning May about grammar schools? He produced a whole range of expert opinion and statistics to show that no-one believes in them and they do not provide the excellent results they claim to. The approach is "we do not like this policy we will oppose it and make sure it does not pass easily through the House" May incidentally had no come back relying on the "We want clever children to achieve" chestnut.

I am not particularly impressed with her so far. I actually was very prepared to keep an open mind after her initial speech, but I think she is already loosing her way, with little/no evidence of focus and strategy/plan. Disappointing.

So Theresa May wants grammar schools so we've all got to go along with that, have we?

I also think that, since we have a Tory government for god knows how long, there's no point trying to resist what the government is going to push through anyway so the best thing to do is to try and work what is imposed to one's own advantage. There's no point in taking the "I don't like this game; it's a rotten game" approach. What's needed is to win the game.

This, yet again, is what the current leader of the Labour Party, doesn't seem to understand, which is why we're in the position of a very long term of Tory government. Vicious circle.

To keep his name in people's minds, to create a personal fiefdom (I think that was your suggestion, djen), political manoeuvring because he wants to be PM one day. Whether you or I or anyone else wants him as PM ever is beside the point really.
Which is why I think Labour MPs should fight every inch of the way into those mayoralties and get some political manoeuvrability with which to counteract his.

I said May said that in August, so it was an August Times.

An extra layer of government which is not needed but we have to pay for. The North East is already working together. Why does he see the need to change that if it's not to take control from Labour councils?

Well, I read three articles. Lot of blether and a lot of speculation. Same old, same old. It looks like a wait and see game to me.

And I still don't understand the antagonism to the elected mayor thing. That looks to me like a way for Labour to get more power while the Tories are in government. Why would anyone with even a trace of leftie leaning be against that? Rhetorical question.

S'okay. I found it. Off to have a read.

In today's Times?

It was seen as a threat to the Northern Powerhouse as money promised would be diverted elsewhere.
There's an article about it in the Times, but I can't link to it again.

The thing is, if Osborne 'carries off' the Northern Powerhouse thing some of the credit for its success will reflect on him. So get in there, would be Labour mayors, and get some of the glory too!

Further to Osborne's politicking and power seeking in order to keep up his chances, as he sees it, of one day becoming PM... er... politics is about power so... er... well, yeah! Of course he's trying to get some value points under his belt so to speak. So would any serious politician.

This is what makes Corbyn's behaviour so weird: he doesn't seem to be interested in actually ennabling the election of a Labour government.

I agree that moving the pffice of the Northern Powerhouse from Sheffield to London certainly seemed odd and still does.

I agree about Osborne probably still wanting to be PM. Why shouldn't he? Or anyone else who thinks they're in with a chance some time in the future?

May said: ...business to increase everywhere outside London and the South East, not just the north, which was seen as a threat to the Northern Powerhouse..
Why was this seen as a threat to the NP?

I think Osborne is trying to set up a fiefdom of his own with a view to challenging May for leadership in a few years time. He's a lot younger than she is.
In August May said that she wanted business to increase everywhere outside London and the South East, not just the north, which was seen as a threat to the Northern Powerhouse.

The person who was put in charge of the North Eastern part of the Northern Powerhouse by Osborne was a Tory MP from Teesside.

The person who wanted to be the elected mayor for the North East who was a Tory left the party to claim he was an independent. There's a problem with Tories and the North East.
We are a suspicious lot. There are always too many strings attached.

Just after he announced the Northern Powerhouse In 2014, the steelworks was closed on Teesside. Then the Sheffield office of the Northern Powerhouse was closed and moved to London.
Why shouldn't we be suspicious?