[Abernathy]

I don’t think people really appreciated or understood that Thatcher’s legislation explicitly prohibited councils from using the proceeds from council house sales to fund the replacement of lost social housing stock.

[Watchman]

Setting aside “historic emails” and utterances from the Reform plumber, even if all that had never happened, how did Reform manage to put forward such a thick twat

[davidjay]

I don’t think people really appreciated or understood that Thatcher’s legislation explicitly prohibited councils from using the proceeds from council house sales to fund the replacement of lost social housing stock.

Like most of her ideas, people didn't care that much. As long as they were better off right that minute she had their vote.

[Killer Whale]

I don’t think people really appreciated or understood that Thatcher’s legislation explicitly prohibited councils from using the proceeds from council house sales to fund the replacement of lost social housing stock.

Like most of her ideas, people didn't care that much. As long as they were better off right that minute she had their vote.

Fundamentally, the Thatcher years were about cashing in the investment of the post war years and spending it on shiny stuff. It was the lack of investment, in housing, in forward-looking industries, and yes, public services that was the biggest tragedy. Because once you've spent that on consumer goods that eventually wear out, what have you got left? Minimum wage jobs that leave you no money to spend on the trinkets to which you've become addicted.

[davidjay]

She sold off everything that wasn't nailed down in order to buy votes and make her people richer.

[Boiler]

Yet oddly enough, I believe she was opposed to privatising the railways. Mind you, if the Serpell report had been enacted there'd be nothing left now...

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1 ... ellReport)

[Yug]

It was opposed to privatising the railways simply because it couldn't see a logical way of doing it. It didn't want a John Major-type clusterfuck as part of its legacy.

[Bones McCoy]

It was opposed to privatising the railways simply because it couldn't see a logical way of doing it. It didn't want a John Major-type clusterfuck as part of its legacy.

Major enjoys a reputation as the "last sane tory leader".
Somewhat enhanced by his Pro EU stand and quiet opposition to the madness of King Boris.

We forget that his second round of privatisations was a poorly considered, damaging barrel scraping exercise.

Railways - bloody chaos, increased pricing and massive subsidies.
(I'm sure our resident rail enthusiasts can comment further).

NHS reorganisation - Massive costs, bureaucracy and the "This trust doesn't overlap your borough's social services" nonsense at the heart of so much bed over-occupancy.
Also destroyed NHS England's structures that should have delivered during Covid-19, replacing them with a bunch of McKinsey preppies.


Am I typing angry - you bet.

For me, not voting Tory (or any Tory spin-offs) isn't about personality or policy.
They aren't fit to be anywhere near the reins of power.
They lie, they cheat, they steal.
All driven by entitlement, without a scrap of remorse.

[Andy McDandy]

My abiding memory of Major's government was that after Black Wednesday and later, the death of John Smith, they basically gave up.

Back to Basics saw its wheels fall off almost immediately. All they had left was "If Labour get in, it'll be a bunch of incompetents running things and they'll tax you", to which the only sane response was "And?".

[Youngian]

Major enjoys a reputation as the "last sane tory leader".
Somewhat enhanced by his Pro EU stand and quiet opposition to the madness of King Boris.

His opposition to the social chapter certainly gave Delors a boost.
Major's robust geopolitical defence of the EU came post PM. He saw the EU in office as a neoliberal Dutch auction in which dynamic deregulated Britain was going to be the winner.

[mattomac]

Pretty depressing reading.

https://labourlist.org/2026/06/makerfie ... g-through/

The very first person I approached in the very first place I visited in Makerfield set the tone for the rest of my time talking to voters throughout the constituency. The scene was a proper greasy spoon café, the man was a railway worker eating an extremely good-looking fry-up.

Did he know much about the by-election? “Don’t really know what that is.” Did he have an opinion about Andy Burnham? “Not really.” At this point I started to talk to his friend, sitting opposite: she was a little more engaged. But then he piped up again. “I know about Rupert Lowe. He wants to send all the immigrants home.”

I am a seasoned political researcher, but my jaw very nearly landed in the brown sauce on the table.

The rest of the project followed much the same pattern, with the Public First research team becoming less and less surprised by Restore’s cut-through. In every town we visited across the constituency we found people who had not only heard of Restore, but who also referred to its leader by his Christian name and who could parrot his signature policy.

It will not come as much of a surprise that my main take-away from Makerfield was that the polling is not over-stating what is happening: support for Rupert Lowe is strong and his political strategy is evidently working.

All of which begs several questions. How has this come about? And why? Will it be replicated nationally? And what does it mean for Labour?

There are clearly several, broadly unrelated, factors that have come together to allow this to happen. Most obviously, there is some very clever social media targeting going on. Restore strategists have identified exactly who their target voters in Makerfield are and have scientifically targeted them on Facebook and Instagram – not that hard in a place that overwhelmingly voted for Brexit in 2016. Mainstream parties and mainstream media were weeks or months behind spotting this trend.

If replicated it’s 5 to 8% of people who would vote Reform.

I’m very dubious of Voxpops during the day but especially when they write up articles that sound like they are riding around 20%.

Of course they took the wrong type of take from it. 1 in 2 have no real opinion and don’t know what’s taking place and that is far more reliable take.

[Tubby Isaacs]

His opposition to the social chapter certainly gave Delors a boost.
Major's robust geopolitical defence of the EU came post PM. He saw the EU in office as a neoliberal Dutch auction in which dynamic deregulated Britain was going to be the winner.

The opposition to the social chapter was a disaster for Major personally, as it handed John Smith a reason to oppose the government on Maastricht (ie that it should only pass with the social chapter). That enabled Labour (who had just as many Kippers as the Tories on the backbenches) to stay united and inflict massive damage on the Government,

Conservatives across Europe didn't have any problem with the social chapter, I noticed.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I don’t think people really appreciated or understood that Thatcher’s legislation explicitly prohibited councils from using the proceeds from council house sales to fund the replacement of lost social housing stock.

I think that was widely appreciated at the time, and lots of people (even among her voters) didn't like that.

[Tubby Isaacs]

If replicated it’s 5 to 8% of people who would vote Reform.

I’m very dubious of Voxpops during the day but especially when they write up articles that sound like they are riding around 20%.

Of course they took the wrong type of take from it. 1 in 2 have no real opinion and don’t know what’s taking place and that is far more reliable take.

Yep, vox pops are lazy journalism at the best of times. You might as well do them in the queue for a night club as in a run down market.

I often mention this, but one of the few people to get this was Nick Clegg, who did a good report from Blaenau Gwent on Brexit. Even there, you could find people who didn't like Brexit. Master sleuth Nick turned up at a college where he found a bunch of outward looking young people.

[Youngian]

Can't get a job because of immigrants?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

It was opposed to privatising the railways simply because it couldn't see a logical way of doing it. It didn't want a John Major-type clusterfuck as part of its legacy.

Major enjoys a reputation as the "last sane tory leader".
Somewhat enhanced by his Pro EU stand and quiet opposition to the madness of King Boris.

We forget that his second round of privatisations was a poorly considered, damaging barrel scraping exercise.

Railways - bloody chaos, increased pricing and massive subsidies.
(I'm sure our resident rail enthusiasts can comment further).

NHS reorganisation - Massive costs, bureaucracy and the "This trust doesn't overlap your borough's social services" nonsense at the heart of so much bed over-occupancy.
Also destroyed NHS England's structures that should have delivered during Covid-19, replacing them with a bunch of McKinsey preppies.


Am I typing angry - you bet.

For me, not voting Tory (or any Tory spin-offs) isn't about personality or policy.
They aren't fit to be anywhere near the reins of power.
They lie, they cheat, they steal.
All driven by entitlement, without a scrap of remorse.

Don't forget fucking up education to appease the turnip Taliban. And keeping me in debt...

[Andy McDandy]

I remember seeing on one of those outtakes shows a vox pop team interviewing people about some recent scientific discovery and did they care. They go up to a big tattooed guy, and he replies eloquently and with enthusiasm, as he explains he's a research student in particle physics or whatever. Clip doesn't get aired.

[Youngian]

I remember seeing on one of those outtakes shows a vox pop team interviewing people about some recent scientific discovery and did they care. They go up to a big tattooed guy, and he replies eloquently and with enthusiasm, as he explains he's a research student in particle physics or whatever. Clip doesn't get aired.

Are you saying we shouldn't judge a book by its cover as the Rupert Lowe supporter pictured might be a quantum physicist at Cern?

[RedSparrows]

I remember seeing on one of those outtakes shows a vox pop team interviewing people about some recent scientific discovery and did they care. They go up to a big tattooed guy, and he replies eloquently and with enthusiasm, as he explains he's a research student in particle physics or whatever. Clip doesn't get aired.

This is one of the curious things about journos. They must all know the rules of the game. And yet they all act like Salt of the Earth types look, sound and think a very definite way, and everyone else is irrelevant. Do they just not put 2+2? Or do they not care?

[Tubby Isaacs]

I was featured on a vox pop on BBC Midlands in 2024, being vaguely nice about the Green Party. I'm not particularly outgoing, but I'm confident enough to speak a bit about politics on camera. I wonder if lots of people hanging about in the daytime are less than confident, so the journo ends up with the local "character".

As an aside, I watched some old election coverage from the 60s-70s a while ago. The vox pops cured me of any sense that there was a golden age of mass political discussion. They were mostly terrible. Um, I think it might be time for a chance, that sort of thing. Made me on BBC Midlands look like Michael Foot doing his "forgotten the rest of the trick" speech.