They do, I was on board just last week. Plenty of folk using it as its quick to get to Excel centre
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It was a national effort and, while the mayor’s office was on the board, I’d be surprised if he personally had that much to do with the delivery.
To be fair, there was no guarantee at all that Burnham would have won the seat, given the unpopularity of Labour so the consequences could have been 1, Burnham losing and still not an MP 2, Manchester losing their excellent mayor.
I don’t think the Labour party are doing as badly as we are told by the , dare I say, Right Wing media; Leasehold changes, great news for tenants, I was a landlord and felt tenants were badly served, the move towards more sustainable energy sources, Miliband is doing an excellent job there, more free school meals, more apprenticeships, 2000 extra GP’s, more community based diagnostic centres opening, waiting lists going down, immigration going down and lots and lots more if one cares to look.
Yep, there are problems, but also lots of positives, the Tories left the UK in a real state. If the media had focused on these achievements and Labour were allowed to sell themselves in the media as other parties are then Reform and Kermit would be outta sight.
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The voters in England gave us the Last Tory bunch, then brexit and now seem destined to give us Farage. as PM. What on Earth is wrong with them?
They did give us the current gov, so maybe they’ve sobered up and this protest council vote is just to wake up Labour.
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I guess this pie chart shows me Labour still have highest % of council seats and Reform very few. Which makes the media focus on Kermit and his band of fascists all the more galling.
Never have local council elections received so much attention.
Perhaps it’s skewed because it’s showing the total seats and the majority of councils weren’t having elections but, of those that did, Reform did well.
I’m no fan of Reform or Farage, by the way… Just wanted to make that clear 
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What’s wrong with do-gooders? What springs to mind from history is slavery abolishionists, child labour abolishionists, suffragettes, proponents of free education and health services.
Doing good is a good thing.
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I didn’t think you were .
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A bit rich, really, as Rayner’s copy book is not unblotched where gaffs are concerned.
Haha, phew that’s good then 
I suppose it would be a bit strange for a Farage / Reform fan to be a member of this site.
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The name ‘Survive France’ would probably put them off. France = foreign.
But , all are welcome, one just has to be able to read and write and not be offensive!! Mmmm.
What we/they need more is a good spread of press opinion and not one dominated by wealthy owners who don’t even live in the UK. Even in the US media owners are obliged to be residents.
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Before lecturing Starmer on how to run the country it would be nice if Angela Rayner sorted out her tax affairs still lingering on from last year, I wonder if HMRC would be as lenient/patient with me?
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I know what you mean. It doesn’t seem that complicated and I wonder why it’s taking so long.
What I said in 2023 remains pretty much the same.
He had my backing in wiping out the Tories, and if I thought he had a hope in hell of keeping out reform he’d have my backing for that but without wishing to crow, ‘absolute empty husk of a man’ couldn’t have proved any more accurate in my view.
Unfortunately he was happy to bend himself into a figure 8 for the Labour Together faction of the party to get the job and sadly appears to have nothing else. He’s alienated the entire left faction of the party, the people who would vote for a goose if it was wearing a Labour rosette, and is now entirely reliant on the centre, a vast section sure, but many of which are traditionally Lib Dems or Tories and after a one off may well return there. Labour Together/ Blue Labour has been a disaster so far and he is either unwilling or unable to change course (the unable being perhaps that for a decade or so they’ve built a machine to run both the government and the party wider. It took years to dismantle New Labour it was so entrenched so I could understand that.)
But he’s got no one around who isn’t of the Labour Together faction, look at Mandleson fanboy Streeting, (the health secretary who had almost 60% of his private donations come from people with interest in the private heath industry) posturing for the job already, which is perhaps why i suspect if they did a complete change of course they might, as a government, be able to spend the next few years winning enough people back to scrape over the line, but they won’t. It will be full course ahead whether the husk at the top is Starmer or A.N. Other.
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‘Ordinary’ British people are NOT like us on SF, possibly having more in common with working class Americans these days: affluent to a degree, more interested in entertainment than learning, concerned about furriners taking over, probably finding the world outside irrational and out of control.
There’s also a reaction going on to the present liberal inclusive society, where often well educated individuals want to know what the rules are, a clear right and wrong. Labour, lib-dems and Greens are all part of the fundamentally wrong inclusive world, and are likely to be shunned in favour of an authoritarian, rules based politics. Those with a liberal viewpoint should not believe that educated equals a similar outlook, quite possibly the reverse.
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Don’t disagree, and TBH these days know much less about UK politics than previously. But one apparent difference between the UK and US is that in the former there isn’t the readily identifiable cohort of RW tech oligarchs, whereas in the UK despite it appearing to be a more ‘open’ society, the real manipulators and influencers (and I don’t mean those silly people on the internet) are far more shadowy.
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Another change now would be catrastrophic for the uk on the world stage in such a time of crisis! The uk is already seen as a weak link, especially after Brexit in terms of defence by the US and Putin. No further confidence issues would be a disaster.
I am pretty much up to speed on which SFers live in France, live in the UK, or have a foot in both camps.
Most know that I have lived in France for 18 years and was a french property owner for a further 15 years.
I have done my time and enjoyed every minute.
Now back in the UK, and enjoying it.
The labour party inherited a sh1t show from the conservatives and get continued bad press about how badly they are running the country. What Trump, Putin and Netanyahu are inflicting on the world is a no win for everyone so doesn’t help any government to prosper.
Maybe Starmer could do better but at least he is trying and provided those who think changing a country’s leader at the drop of a hat, stop, and give the current government’s next 3 year tenure a chance, the UK might thrive.
Personally, having now been back in the UK for 5 months, my experience is positive around all public services, and that includes the NHS.
I tend not to watch the daily news programmes as it seems to focus around ifs, maybes and personal predictions that fill the rank and file with predicted outcomes they quickly believe in, and that is not just in the UK.
I read a post the other day when the poste referred to the UK as the septic Isle and many other posters making similar comments.
My 5 months of experience of the UK after an 18 year gap is of a nation of people who seem more polite, more helpful and more accommodating.
Perhaps it is because I am now a 72 year OAP being treated with respect or, as I suspect, its because the UK is not the septic Isle that those who don’t live here think it is.
When the tories were in power, for many years here in SF ( I have been a member from the start) the commentary was towards getting them out and labour in. Now that as come to pass, its all about how bad labour are doing.
Armchair critics, always know best it seems.
Very little is posted around French politics on SF, if it were I suspect it would highlight the same stuck repetitive record I see here and in media commentary on tv, radio and the web.
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