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I posted an earlier version of this a while back – inspired to do update following THAT discussion about all things ULEZ.
The “manifesto”, in terms of transport, only mentions stopping HS2, but there’s plenty on the usual right-wing obsessions: Brexit, immigration, veterans and climate change. I had another look because I worry about the ongoing decline of the two main political parties.
If the Cons stay wedded to Brexit, then we will go into the next GE with all the widespread impoverishment Brexit has ushered in – not helped by Covid, Putin, etc. People generally vote according to their pockets. I don’t get Labour’s current position on Europe either, but let’s see how that evolves, and even the Cons may also evolve, or even pivot, but time is already running out for them.
Several roads now lead to the horrors of a further lurch to the right in this country. Let’s hope Labour get the GE landslide the polls are predicting – but we’re still at least a year out from the real campaigning beginning.
A cycling angle? With the Reform Party and its ilk, Facebook Steve and Nextdoor Dave attain real political influence. It’s not spelt out in the manifesto, but you can see where this is probably heading and what it is likely to mean for cycling. You can bet that this lot are very much “on the side of hard working drivers” etc.
As you all know, Dave’s going to “sort the traffic” and no doubt show them lazy planners how it’s done: Steve thinks the Council are corrupt, the police blinkered and is, if he can fit it in to his busy schedule he’s going to “teach them Lycra’s a thing or two.” It won’t concern him that his Mondeo is 3 months out of MoT or that Mrs Steve sometimes drives the kids in it uninsured.
As vulnerable road users, vulnerable people, we rely a great deal on the rule of law for protection. The rule of law means that we understand what the laws are, they are in general fair, and how they are applied and to whom is even-handed and consistent.
The fascist position is broadly the opposite – it’s all off-the-cuff to support today’s particular agenda – that’s why the Iain Duncan-Smith “happy to see ULEZ infra vandalised” comment is, as an example, so very worrying. In the Conservatives, here is a party happy to send signals to enable the mob to attack RNLI stations, beat up immigrants, shout at teachers, doctors etc.
This right-wing stuff works by allowing/enabling significant privileged groups to to think of themselves as the downtrodden underdog and here is a way to fight back. The pro Brexit campaign played on people’s ignorance, fears and prejudices exactly as this does.
It’s all about freedom, innit, less regulation, less tax burden, and damn the climate. There’s more polar bears now, so it’s fine. Let’s have open-cast coal mining, lithium mining and fracking. The section on climate change stumbles around like a Friday night drunk, trying to explain he wasn’t being racist to the barman – a denier position emerges, unsurprisingly.
In places, the mask really slips: “We must keep divisive woke ideologies such as Critical Race Theory (CRT) and gender ideology out of the classroom.” – to be honest, I don’t even know what those two are.
The standard enemies are put up – the civil service, the BBC. Amid all the thrust and parry, there’s nothing about making a better, more inclusive and cohesive world to live in; arts, sports and culture don’t feature in this barstool view of the world: a dullard’s grim vision.
Don’t be a member of the wrong sort of minority would be my advice, should any of this come to pass.
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Reform UK’s Doge unit in
Reform UK’s Doge unit in discussions with Kent County Council bosses over £2.8 irregularities
The article let me read it once before going behind the paywall. So the opening gambit is the losses and special payments list, i.e. cases that are known about and the available actions against anyone who has committed fraud and the recovery of the losses will be have been taken. Working while sick, letting payments from your old employer continue to flow in – pretty standard stuff, I’m afraid.
The recruitment thing looks a bit on the pricey side in relation to payroll – they’ll need every ounce of whatever it delivers to get anyone in a lot of roles to work for Reform controlled KCC.
Gonna say it again, guys, you’ve got to decide whether a contract like this, with its £350m (4 years) price tag, is better than employing all those council staff to do it with their gold-plated pensions, union dues, rainbow lanyards, work from home, etc
While I agree with Hirsute
While I agree with Hirsute and quiff, the fact is that the rise of Reform plc in the localities they now control will very likely lead to less cycling and more deaths and injuries for cyclists, so I think it really matters to us as a topic.
If you are a cyclist, Road Addict, and this becomes an issue in national politics remember that many of the people who comprise Reform don’t want you to exist.
Sure, you can (as examples) in a Reform world just about be gay, black, trans, Muslim or a cyclist (I get that you can’t just stop being black in the same way as you could stop being a cyclist) but you need to accept your lot, humble though it may be, keep your head down, certainly don’t expect any special treatment, while the majority, whoever happens to be in favour this week, does as it pleases.
Do us a favour and read the
Do us a favour and read the forum descriptions before mouthing off. This is posted in the Tea Stop, which is described thus:
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