Lee Anderson has joined the Reform UK political party!

GrannyGravy13

“Ambulances are in use 24/7, they are loaded to the gills with high tech equipment. There is little time for turnaround/essential maintenance/cleaning let alone standing time for charging.”

I completely see your point here, however Ambulances do perform different functions, some are used to take disable/elderly people home after discharge, so maybe it’s these transport ambulances to which they refer?

Oreo

It’s not unknown for Councils to waste money on unnecessary things.Birmingham Council, now bankrupt, included.Only the other day I read that a ‘diversity leader’ was being appointed on a salary of something in the region of £135,000 a year.
Am with those who want Councils to spend our money wisely,
Fill the potholes, clean road signs and repaint white/ yellow road markings with any left over cash.

I completely understand this and agree, however sad we even have to have “equality and diversity” staff at all! If we stopped discriminating we wouldn’t need people to educate and check!

growstuff

For a bit of balance, try reading this:

www.healtheuropa.com/nhs-is-trialling-electric-ambulances-to-help-the-planet-and-patients/117596/

Indeed. And this:

With hydrogen fuel cell range extenders, vehicles can cover up to 300 miles before refuelling.

With a 0-60mph acceleration time of around six seconds they can get to victims much faster where rapid intervention is vital e.g. cases of stroke and heart attack.

www.transportengineer.org.uk/transport-engineer-features/challenges-for-electric-ambulances/252629

Cossy

Oreo

It’s not unknown for Councils to waste money on unnecessary things.Birmingham Council, now bankrupt, included.Only the other day I read that a ‘diversity leader’ was being appointed on a salary of something in the region of £135,000 a year.
Am with those who want Councils to spend our money wisely,
Fill the potholes, clean road signs and repaint white/ yellow road markings with any left over cash.

No you’re not alone, I don’t think anyone wants to see wastage, I think everyone wants decent efficient services and no potholes etc.

Around one third of our councils are in deficit, a few are in very serious financial situations. This isn’t just due to mismanagement and wasted funds and councils run by both Labour and Conservatives are affected.

These financial issues are in part due to cuts in central funding and huge increases in social care costs, especially children in care and council funded senior residential care.

I agree, which is why it’s even more important than ever not to waste money on non essential jobs and training to do with diversity and trans gender programmes.

Actually, there’s been so much spending on this area already as Councils are only as good as their leaders and the fear of being labelled racist/ transphobic/ xenophobic has driven many Councils to waste money.

TinSoldier

growstuff

For a bit of balance, try reading this:

www.healtheuropa.com/nhs-is-trialling-electric-ambulances-to-help-the-planet-and-patients/117596/

Indeed. And this:

With hydrogen fuel cell range extenders, vehicles can cover up to 300 miles before refuelling.

With a 0-60mph acceleration time of around six seconds they can get to victims much faster where rapid intervention is vital e.g. cases of stroke and heart attack.

www.transportengineer.org.uk/transport-engineer-features/challenges-for-electric-ambulances/252629

Thank you, TinSoldier

I was going to point out that electric vehicle technology has improved somewhat since the 1950s. You've done it for me

My real point was that people then weren't making spurious fusses about the use of a different technology and the reasons for its use.

But then, in those days 'quality' newspapers reported on real news and didn't exist to pander to manufactured grievances.

Cossy

GrannyGravy13

“Ambulances are in use 24/7, they are loaded to the gills with high tech equipment. There is little time for turnaround/essential maintenance/cleaning let alone standing time for charging.”

I completely see your point here, however Ambulances do perform different functions, some are used to take disable/elderly people home after discharge, so maybe it’s these transport ambulances to which they refer?

That’s a possibility Cossy

I am all for new technologies.

Just had a thought, perhaps they could be top up charged whilst waiting outside A & E along with whilst they are being sanitised.

It has been reported that the actual range of electric vehicles in use is less than that recorded in formal tests.

Range also varies with the weather and range can be reduced by 20% plus in cold weather and even more if temperatures fall below freezing. Consumption goes up with speed. An important factor with emergency ambulances. Ambulance capacity will be reduced because of the needto find space for the battery. The problems of charging times has been pointed out by other posters.

That the way forward is electric, I have no doubt, but we must be realistic about the problems the use of the current generation of elelctric vehicles face.

Returning to Mr Anderson. An obviously-angry local in Ashfield, Nottingham, subjected him and Tice to a tirade of abuse during his tour today, ultimately telling him to f**k off.

I don't approve of expletive-ridden abuse levelled at politicians - however, Anderson himself has lowered the bar with his own use of the terminology, which garnered approval from some sections of the public.

I blame the current Tory government for allowing this defector into the party in the first place. For the sake of propping up the collapsing Red Wall, they welcomed this uncouth man into the fold.

I'm sure there was a time when Conservative party members in government had more - finesse - when making public statements.

The Reform Party mantra appears to be, judging by the news clip, "we just want our country back". Of all the meaningless slogans, that's got to be one of the most futile.

Hmm. Let's just, for a minute, imagine what the police would have done if a white person had followed a b l a c k candidate around for 15 minutes yelling foul abuse like that...
We all know the answer, and it proves that Lee Anderson is right.

Urmstongran

Hmm. Let's just, for a minute, imagine what the police would have done if a white person had followed a b l a c k candidate around for 15 minutes yelling foul abuse like that...
We all know the answer, and it proves that Lee Anderson is right.

👏👏

It happens to black MPs all the time. Try finding out about the level of abuse Diane Abbott has received Urmstongran,

Two wrongs don’t make a right though Casdon do they? She was pretty awful. Illustrates too “selective policing” at work. Sigh.

Anyway, I’ve just seen Lee on GBNews, great bloke, great news channel. Regards to all.

No, two wrongs don’t make a right. It does however illustrate that it’s not because it was a white male MP, because it can happen to any MP. The more controversial they are, whatever their sex, colour or political persuasion the more likely it seems that it will happen.

"...Anyway, I've just seen Lee on GBNews, great bloke..."

This sounds familiar, Urmstongran.
Have you gone off Boris then?

Casdon

It happens to black MPs all the time. Try finding out about the level of abuse Diane Abbott has received Urmstongran,

She gives it out though. West Indian women better mothers than white women, Jewish people don't suffer racism. Just two of her very unpleasant racist remarks.

Casdon

It happens to black MPs all the time. Try finding out about the level of abuse Diane Abbott has received Urmstongran,

Diane Abbot was incredibly racist towards white women when she said they had no idea how to bring up their kids.

What’s that got to do with the point Urmstongran made though Primrose53? I’m not defending Diane Abbott, just saying that the level of abuse she has received was equivalent to Anderson’s, which it was, if anything it has been worse because it’s been sustained over many years.

Yes, and was suspended from the Labour Party for anti-semitism and racist remarks about Irish and Traveller people and was offered the Whip back if she would go on a course of anti-semitism training, which she refused. She thought they didn't suffer racism to the extent that black people did.
She was wrong.

However, she didn't say people should be shot nor did she say she hated all Jewish, Irish and Traveller people.

Urmstongran

Hmm. Let's just, for a minute, imagine what the police would have done if a white person had followed a b l a c k candidate around for 15 minutes yelling foul abuse like that...
We all know the answer, and it proves that Lee Anderson is right.

If the Police are making exceptions to decisions to warn / arrest / or whatever it is they do to abusive locals during political-'walkabouts', then that is down to the 'top brass' ultimately.

I saw the video - but did not see a police presence - although they might have been there, but the footage was focused on the woman only.

However, the Home Office have released figures from 2019 which, when analysed, show that black people are 18-times more likely to be stopped under Section 60 than white people - so the Police are not afraid of being accused of racism in these instances.

Anyway, I don't condone her offensive conduct - heckling is one thing and I think politicians are quite used to it, but abusive and threatening behaviour is unacceptable regardless of who the politician is.

But he, himself, has helped to lower the bar by using the language of the gutter, and I don't think politicians should use inflammatory swear words to express an opinion. He's entitled to it, but he should really master the basic art of expressing himself without using such provocative rhetoric. Tensions are running at high level at the moment, and he's not helping at all, just encouraging further antagonism.

Interesting that he's now joined the very party he was quite critical of initially - he did say that voting for 'Reform' would be a vote for Labour! And someone in the party was initially opposed to him joining it (can't remember who he is) but anyway, he seems to also have changed his mind!

I don't think Reform are really going to capture enough support, single-issue parties seldom do. Immigration is important to people, but I believe at the moment there are other pressing matters, and focusing on immigration isn't going to solve them in any way.

I’m not particulary interested in what happened in Ashfield. Knowing the dirty trick that Anderson pulled when Michael Crick was filming him in 2019 (which backfired on him), this could have been another set up.

Someone has posted this on Twitter/X:

I was there and the racism thrown at her was absolutely disgusting. She was shoved and sworn at, with people accusing her of all sorts of stuff. She was angry and aggressive, but this is only half the story.

On the subject of Anderson’s attitude to Reform, a reminder of what was reported in November 2023 with a clip of Anderson talking at an event called Lager with Lee at Cambridge Rugby Club.

Here’s a link to the sound recording on Twitter/X.

twitter.com/hashtag/ledbygrifters?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

And the newspaper report:

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-lee-anderson-boasts-offered-31529945

Extracts:

In the audio, Mr Anderson said Reform UK "don't care about this country at all" and accused the people involved of being "mad". He claimed the party wants a proportional representation system so they can win seats in Parliament as he said he believed they would win "zero seats" at the next election.

"Now all they want, Reform, and I spoke to the leaders of Reform, they want PR, which is proportional representation. They are hell bent and want us [the Tories] to get hammered in the next election, because they firmly believe that Labour will bring in PR," Mr Anderson said.

"But the Labour Party won’t do that. This is what Reform wants. They don’t care about this country at all. They are mad, these people. For a party to want that to happen, they don’t care about this country. All they want is a bit of power in Parliament.”

Mr Tice claimed Mr Anderson had used the threat to negotiate himself a plum role as Tory Deputy Chairman earlier this year. “Desperate Tories will make desperate lies to save their skin,” he told the paper.

Mr Anderson hit back saying the accusation he had sought to gain leverage was "simply ridiculous". But he confirmed reports he'd been offered a guarantee if he stood for Reform UK but lost his seat at an election, the party would pay five years of his MP salary. This would be five times £86,584 so approximately £430,000.

Let me get this straight. The people who want their country back, whatever that means, are going to vote for a man who is on target, whatever happens, to earn £430,000 as a member of a party that he says doesn’t care about the country at all.

Great bloke??? Grubby grifter, more like desperate to make as much money as possible before his career finally implodes. Next stop - I'm a Celebrity.

Urmstongran

Hmm. Let's just, for a minute, imagine what the police would have done if a white person had followed a b l a c k candidate around for 15 minutes yelling foul abuse like that...
We all know the answer, and it proves that Lee Anderson is right.

What does it prove Lee Anderson was right about?

Go on! Spell it out - in your own words!

TinSoldier

I was there and the racism thrown at her was absolutely disgusting. She was shoved and sworn at, with people accusing her of all sorts of stuff. She was angry and aggressive, but this is only half the story.

As is often the case with these types of clips, we are then, presumably, only seeing part of the 'story' - the part the person uploading wants us to see? Was there a police presence?

Let me get this straight. The people who want their country back, whatever that means, are going to vote for a man who is on target, whatever happens, to earn £430,000 as a member of a party that he says doesn’t care about the country at all.

He's denied being paid to join the party - but, presumably, he will be paid now he's in it? So something's been 'negotiated'.

Disillusioned with Labour he defected to the Tories, where will he go when he becomes disenchanted with Reform?!

But, apparently, other Tory MPs are thinking of following him over to Reform... those that one former minister described as believing that being red-faced and shouty "is the way to be a serious politician".

Gone to Reform. Good riddance.

Dickens. Of the clips I have seen, there were more reporters and photographers than members of the public. Media reports say that “dozens” came out to see Anderson! I can see no police presence.

I do see that:

members.parliament.uk/parties/commons

now lists Anderson as a sitting member for Reform UK.

On the assumption that many people vote for political parties irrespective of the candidate, then that is something else wrong with our voting system (apart from FPTP); that someone can leave a party mid-term and sit as something other than Independent.

It has happened before when, for example, Shaun Woodward (Witney) defected to Labour in 1999 - a move that eventually gave the country David Cameron!

On that basis, any number of MPs could switch parties mid-term and shift the balance of Parliamentary power. Conservatives only have a working majority of 52.

Maybe this is the roundabout way that we get a General Election before January 2025.