Tuesday 6 April 2021

Tories lead in Hartlepool

Life is sometimes a puzzle isn't it?  At least it is for me. I look at stuff in the news and wonder about my fellow citizens.  The Times this morning carries the results of a survey of voters in Hartlepool about the forthcoming by-election on 6 May. It gives the Conservatives a seven point lead. The poll was commissioned by the anti-Starmer Communications Workers Union so may not be wholly reliable, but it was done by Survation by telephone so should be reasonably accurate.

"....it puts Jill Mortimer, the Tory candidate, on 49 per cent, up 20 percentage points on the party’s showing at the general election. Labour’s Dr Paul Williams is on 42 per cent, up only four points on the opposition’s 2019 vote share."

I confess I am amazed and will be truly shocked if it turns out to be correct.

Dave Ward, the CWU leader says, “Working people want the real thing . . . politicians that have a moral backbone, that can tell you what they believe because it’s an integral part of who they are and not because it was approved by a focus group and a handful of the political elite.”

As ever, those on the left think working class voters reject Labour as being not quite far enough to the left and in protest, vote for parties of the far right. I have never understood this.

The government is sinking under a tsunami of sleaze, led by an incorrigible liar and is laying waste to sections of the UK economy while building a mountain of debt, risking the break up of the United Kingdom and sparking off a return to the troubles in Northern Ireland. Yet Johnson's popularity goes from strength to strength.

I don't even think it is part of some clever masterplan. The electorate seem to like being governed by an imbecile.

Against this backdrop, I note today the Good Law Project has launched yet more legal proceedings against Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick which claims taxpayer money is being used to favour Tory held seats. This is the Levelling Up Fund of £4.8 billion which will go disproportionately to areas with Tory MPs using a highly suspect methodology which doesn't include deprivation.  Hence Richmond and Newark get money while Barnsley and Salford don't.  

The claim also references the Towns Fund, a separate £3.6bn pot established ahead of the 2019 general election where ministers have admitted choosing 61 of the 101 towns selected to bid for money, including Newark, the 270th most deprived area in the country. Other better-off towns selected by ministers included marginal constituencies such as Cheadle, Milton Keynes and Lewes.

I wonder if the voters of Hartlepool think this might be a good opportunity?  If so, they are mistaken,

I am beginning to wonder if the right wing press think Johnson's time is nearly up. The Telegraph uses a picture on its front page this morning of Boris Johnson looking as if he's cracked up. Someone posted on Twitter about it and suggested that newspapers spend a huge amount of time and effort choosing the image on the front page.

I don't think it was an accident. And The Times uses the same picture of a wild eyed Johnson:


What does it tell us?  Are the proprietors starting to worry that Johnsonism has gone too far?  Some see Gove's hand behind it and he is probably devious enough.

Unfortunately, if Hartlepool is anything to go by, the prime minister's appeal will only increase. Voters appear to be in favour of government by corrupt clowns.  I despair.

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