Blackpool on the news

Wizaard

Well-known member
Damning indictment of policies in the lead up to the pandemic, and Blackpool has many of the factors that exacerbate it.
 
I won't mince my words. Ten years of Tory Governments buying their way out of austerity on the backs of the poor. How much have the super-rich paid towards easing austerity? I'll tell you. The square root of sod all.
Wasn't the idea of the post war consensus supposed to be an enlightenment of the Beveridge end to the five demons: freedom from want, disease, squalor, ignorance and idleness? Well, post-war, everyone was up for it. Now, it's I'm alright Jack and blame benefit scroungers for the state of the country.
It's shaming. And who is to blame? The Conservative Party. The party of selfishness, greed and nastiness. The party that has run down education so far that every ignorant beggar who registers to vote will blame themselves for the country's torpor.
No doubt, posters will come up with a few debating points about how wrong I am. Well, I ain't wrong. The country need levelling up- from the poor to the well off, from the North to the South, from the female to the male and from the racial minority to the white. A country that 80 years after the war against biggotry, for God's sake, needs a damnn good shake up, so that people living on Grange Park can do so with pride instead of in shame.
 
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I won't mince my words. Ten years of Tory Governments buying their way out of austerity on the backs of the poor. How much have the super-rich paid towards easing austerity? I'll tell you. The square root of sod all.
Wasn't the idea of the post war consensus supposed to be an enlightenment of the Beveridge end to the five demons: freedom from want, disease, squalor, ignorance and idleness? Well, post-war, everyone was up for it. Now, it's I'm alright Jack and blame benefit scroungers for the state of the country.
It's shaming. And who is to blame? The Conservative Party. The party of selfishness, greed and nastiness. The party that has run down education so far that every ignorant beggar who registers to vote will blame themselves for the country's torpor.
No doubt, posters will come up with clever, clever, Sixth form debating points about how wrong I am. Well, I ain't wrong. The country need levelling up- from the poor to the well off, from the North to the South, from the female to the male and from the racial minority to the white. A country that 80 years after the war against biggotry, for God's sake, needs a damnn good shake up, so that people living on Grange Park can do so with pride instead of in shame.
The whole world needs levelling up but we can start in Blackpool.
 
I won't mince my words. Ten years of Tory Governments buying their way out of austerity on the backs of the poor. How much have the super-rich paid towards easing austerity? I'll tell you. The square root of sod all.
Wasn't the idea of the post war consensus supposed to be an enlightenment of the Beveridge end to the five demons: freedom from want, disease, squalor, ignorance and idleness? Well, post-war, everyone was up for it. Now, it's I'm alright Jack and blame benefit scroungers for the state of the country.
It's shaming. And who is to blame? The Conservative Party. The party of selfishness, greed and nastiness. The party that has run down education so far that every ignorant beggar who registers to vote will blame themselves for the country's torpor.
No doubt, posters will come up with clever, clever, Sixth form debating points about how wrong I am. Well, I ain't wrong. The country need levelling up- from the poor to the well off, from the North to the South, from the female to the male and from the racial minority to the white. A country that 80 years after the war against biggotry, for God's sake, needs a damnn good shake up, so that people living on Grange Park can do so with pride instead of in shame.
Meanwhile in Blackpool we lived under Labour government for 13 years and since they came to power in 97 and apart from 4 years had a Labour council all that time they have been bloody awful for the town.
 
Meanwhile in Blackpool we lived under Labour government for 13 years and since they came to power in 97 and apart from 4 years had a Labour council all that time they have been bloody awful for the town.
In power? What power? Osborne crippled local council budgets. Blackpool has far more infrastructure and human welfare problems than. it can fund adequately. As I wrote in my post, there will be people coming on here doing their political best to prove me wrong - but I don't believe I am.
 
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In power? What power? Osborne crippled local council budgets. Blackpool has far more infrastructure and human welfare problems than. it can fund adequately. As I wrote in my post, there will be people coming on here doing their political best to prove me wrong - but I aint.
The O/P title has Blackpool in it and when Labour where in power they did fuck all for the town and since 91 apart from four years has been run by the them so you can babble on how terrible the Tories are but equally your party have been worse for us.

They allowed thousands to move here after getting kicked out of their estates stuck illegals in to run down hotels now both gladly stopped and you wonder why we've problems.

Blackpool recently has had green shoots of recovery and the council have done some good things but then again have wasted millions on tram tracks,putting on pop concerts and buying a shopping centre when the high St is on the decline.
 
The O/P title has Blackpool in it and when Labour where in power they did fuck all for the town and since 91 apart from four years has been run by the them so you can babble on how terrible the Tories are but equally your party have been worse for us.

They allowed thousands to move here after getting kicked out of their estates stuck illegals in to run down hotels now both gladly stopped and you wonder why we've problems.

Blackpool recently has had green shoots of recovery and the council have done some good things but then again have wasted millions on tram tracks,putting on pop concerts and buying a shopping centre when the high St is on the decline.
Great post and bang on the money. As someone who works in the squalor and ghettos I can agree with this,where many are have come from Manchester,Glasgow and Liverpool to exacerbate an already critical situation.

There should be a law that makes these 'transients' be accountable to the towns and cities that they come from, so the money for social security,housing etc comes from that budget. Just to recall too that London is effectively gentrifying its suburbs so the poor are being forced out,
and the problem is being passed onto the regions.
 
I won't mince my words. Ten years of Tory Governments buying their way out of austerity on the backs of the poor. How much have the super-rich paid towards easing austerity? I'll tell you. The square root of sod all.
Wasn't the idea of the post war consensus supposed to be an enlightenment of the Beveridge end to the five demons: freedom from want, disease, squalor, ignorance and idleness? Well, post-war, everyone was up for it. Now, it's I'm alright Jack and blame benefit scroungers for the state of the country.
It's shaming. And who is to blame? The Conservative Party. The party of selfishness, greed and nastiness. The party that has run down education so far that every ignorant beggar who registers to vote will blame themselves for the country's torpor.
No doubt, posters will come up with clever, clever, Sixth form debating points about how wrong I am. Well, I ain't wrong. The country need levelling up- from the poor to the well off, from the North to the South, from the female to the male and from the racial minority to the white. A country that 80 years after the war against biggotry, for God's sake, needs a damnn good shake up, so that people living on Grange Park can do so with pride instead of in shame.
This has all happened in the last 10 years?? I won’t mince my words....you’re not balanced in what you wrote. Much if what you said may be true but they are much bigger issues than which party is in power
 
In power? What power? Osborne crippled local council budgets. Blackpool has far more infrastructure and human welfare problems than. it can fund adequately. As I wrote in my post, there will be people coming on here doing their political best to prove me wrong - but I aint.
Sorry that’s a great stance you have repeating that “I ain’t wrong” ...let me see if I can pull it off.....”you are wrong”......yes it’s quite easy 👍
 
Sorry that’s a great stance you have repeating that “I ain’t wrong” ...let me see if I can pull it off.....”you are wrong”......yes it’s quite easy 👍
As I wrote...6th form debating tactics.
You put in your opening post that anyone who disagrees with you will be using 6th Form debating tactics and then state that when someone replies.......comes across as a bit “I know best” and if I may add very pompous old Boy. I’ll bow out purely because I couldn’t care less what you think. You are a serial moaner about anything to do with your Country and any Countrymen (6th Form thinkers) that don’t agree with your viewpoints
 
This has all happened in the last 10 years?? I won’t mince my words....you’re not balanced in what you wrote. Much if what you said may be true but they are much bigger issues than which party is in power
it is the Party in Government that has enormous central powers. labour used theirs to achieve a huge improvement in welfare, employment, health, education and human rights for the people of the UK. For instance, in 1997, after 18 years of Conservative government, the NHS was in a terrible state of disrepair. Hospitals were falling apart, more than a million patients were on waiting lists, there were too few staff and care varied widely in quality. Labour turned this around:
  • The introduction of targets, including four hours in A&E and 18 weeks for hospital treatment, significantly reduced waiting times.
  • The ban on smoking in public places tackled the damage done by second-hand smoke and will save lives – how often do governments manage that?
  • Deaths from cancer, strokes and heart attacks fell substantially.
  • Rates of MRSA and C. difficile dropped.
  • Mental health, access to drugs, infant mortality, life expectancy, access to GPs — all improved.
In other areas of social and employment policy labour made additional significant achievements:
  • Over 1 million social homes were brought up to standard.
  • Section 28 was scrapped and Civil Partnerships were introduced.
  • The New Deal - helped over 1.8 million people into work.
  • 600,000 children were lifted out of relative poverty.
  • The national minimum wage was introduced – now called the National Living Wage by the Tories because it sounds better.
  • A million pensioners were lifted out of poverty.
  • This period saw over 36,000 more teachers recruited in England along with 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants.
  • And, Labour introduced and delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children’s Centres.
On the International front:
  • The Good Friday Agreement was achieved and devolved Government was reintroduced to Northern Ireland.
  • The Overseas Aid budget was more than doubled, and
  • Up to 100 per cent of debt owed by some of the world’s poorest countries was written off.
This is not an exclusive list and, yes, mistakes were made as well. Blair should never have allowed himself to get as close as he did to Bush. It clouded his judgement over Iraq. Also, the policy of (extremely) light-touch governance of th financial markets and institutions played a part in contributing to the world-wide financial crisis of 2008. Even so, this list shows just some of the things that a reforming, social-democratic Government can do to help the lives of the country's less well-off of its citizens. I am proud of those achievements and it saddens me to watch these achievements being undone or not being built upon by successive Tory -led Governments since 2010.
 
You put in your opening post that anyone who disagrees with you will be using 6th Form debating tactics and then state that when someone replies.......comes across as a bit “I know best” and if I may add very pompous old Boy. I’ll bow out purely because I couldn’t care less what you think. You are a serial moaner about anything to do with your Country and any Countrymen (6th Form thinkers) that don’t agree with your viewpoints
Yes, we have to take the brickbats on here if we're going to be forthright. I accept that and, yes, you have a point about the 6th form tactics thing being condescending - I withdraw that suggestion forthwith.
 
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it is the Party in Government that has enormous central powers. labour used theirs to achieve a huge improvement in welfare, employment, health, education and human rights for the people of the UK. For instance, in 1997, after 18 years of Conservative government, the NHS was in a terrible state of disrepair. Hospitals were falling apart, more than a million patients were on waiting lists, there were too few staff and care varied widely in quality. Labour turned this around:
  • The introduction of targets, including four hours in A&E and 18 weeks for hospital treatment, significantly reduced waiting times.
  • The ban on smoking in public places tackled the damage done by second-hand smoke and will save lives – how often do governments manage that?
  • Deaths from cancer, strokes and heart attacks fell substantially.
  • Rates of MRSA and C. difficile dropped.
  • Mental health, access to drugs, infant mortality, life expectancy, access to GPs — all improved.
In other areas of social and employment policy labour made additional significant achievements:
  • Over 1 million social homes were brought up to standard.
  • Section 28 was scrapped and Civil Partnerships were introduced.
  • The New Deal - helped over 1.8 million people into work.
  • 600,000 children were lifted out of relative poverty.
  • The national minimum wage was introduced – now called the National Living Wage by the Tories because it sounds better.
  • A million pensioners were lifted out of poverty.
  • This period saw over 36,000 more teachers recruited in England along with 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants.
  • And, Labour introduced and delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children’s Centres.
On the International front:
  • The Good Friday Agreement was achieved and devolved Government was reintroduced to Northern Ireland.
  • The Overseas Aid budget was more than doubled, and
  • Up to 100 per cent of debt owed by some of the world’s poorest countries was written off.
This is not an exclusive list and, yes, mistakes were made as well. Blair should never have allowed himself to get as close as he did to Bush. It clouded his judgement over Iraq. Also, the policy of (extremely) light-touch governance of th financial markets and institutions played a part in contributing to the world-wide financial crisis of 2008. Even so, this list shows just some of the things that a reforming, social-democratic Government can do to help the lives of the country's less well-off of its citizens. I am proud of those achievements and it saddens me to watch these achievements being undone or not being built upon by successive Tory -led Governments since 2010.
All very well your party political broadcast on behalf of the Labour party because you obviously don't live in Blackpool and see the years of neglect caused by both Blue and Red parties in the town.

Thirteen years under Labour and when everyone was tarting up the cities we got nowt and left to rot, finally the last few years things are improving but it's about flaming time.
 
All very well your party political broadcast on behalf of the Labour party because you obviously don't live in Blackpool and see the years of neglect caused by both Blue and Red parties in the town.

Thirteen years under Labour and when everyone was tarting up the cities we got nowt and left to rot, finally the last few years things are improving but it's about flaming time.
Is it that obvious?....[strolls to the local bäckerei for a Vollkornbrot to have alongside my jaeger schnitzel and kellerbier this evening.]
 
All very well your party political broadcast on behalf of the Labour party because you obviously don't live in Blackpool and see the years of neglect caused by both Blue and Red parties in the town.

Thirteen years under Labour and when everyone was tarting up the cities we got nowt and left to rot, finally the last few years things are improving but it's about flaming time.
The point is, local government has nothing to spend and the boom in charity shops means no business rates. Central Government has all the power but for the last decade investment has been at the other end of the country.
 
All very well your party political broadcast on behalf of the Labour party because you obviously don't live in Blackpool and see the years of neglect caused by both Blue and Red parties in the town.

Thirteen years under Labour and when everyone was tarting up the cities we got nowt and left to rot, finally the last few years things are improving but it's about flaming time.

I would agree that the national picture hasn't been conducive to progress for a long while. But successive councils have made it worse with their lack of strategic vision, poor decision making and inadequacy in lobbying for support.

I think the area needs a multi-agency approach, coalesced around a big idea. I'd love to see some proper proposals for a local university, for example (even a new extension to UCLAN would do). The town is isolated, has too few strings to its bow and is hamstrung by having a low-skills economy / workforce. You need a big paradigm shift to break out of it.
 
I would agree that the national picture hasn't been conducive to progress for a long while. But successive councils have made it worse with their lack of strategic vision, poor decision making and inadequacy in lobbying for support.

I think the area needs a multi-agency approach, coalesced around a big idea. I'd love to see some proper proposals for a local university, for example (even a new extension to UCLAN would do). The town is isolated, has too few strings to its bow and is hamstrung by having a low-skills economy / workforce. You need a big paradigm shift to break out of it.
Basilrobbie you are right about the need for university in the town. These attract young people to area and often they remain if they can find a job related to their degree. You only have to look at similar seaside towns such as Bournemouth and Brighton ( which has two) to see what a benefit they bring to the area.

We had our chances in the past to set up universities but failed to take them.
 
All very well your party political broadcast on behalf of the Labour party because you obviously don't live in Blackpool and see the years of neglect caused by both Blue and Red parties in the town.

Thirteen years under Labour and when everyone was tarting up the cities we got nowt and left to rot, finally the last few years things are improving but it's about flaming time.
Poolseasider, I'll put away the national political jousting and say that I do live locally and it pains me to see what has happened to our town. Towns up and down the country have been decaying for some time - especially in the centres - and this needs a change of focus both locally and nationally to address the social and economic impact of digital technology. Town planning is important, alongside social and welfare policies in reinventing how we look at urban centres. Blackpool, in addition, has some unique issues to address. The town was built very quickly in the 19th and early twentieth centuries to deal with the huge explosion of holidaymakers - even breaking planning laws in place at the time. This resulted in very densely packed buildings (hotels, guest houses and apartments) that are now in bad states of repair as they are no longer required for their original purpose. We also have a large transient population that brings with it poverty, youth offending and significant child safeguarding issues.
I agree with you wholeheartedly about these problems and the fact that they grew and persisted during the Labour years in Government. That said, I think councils of both political persuasions have been hidebound by lack of funding from central government. It seemed that the casino bid was the only plan we had and once it fell through, we had nothing original or farsighted to put in its place.
 
Meanwhile in Blackpool we lived under Labour government for 13 years and since they came to power in 97 and apart from 4 years ha had a Labour council all that time they have been bloody awful for the town.
So agree with you, and in general elections vote Labour. But the local party has been atrocious for the town and have not voted for them in years. I voice my opinion on social media about the importance of local government and elections. But still a lot of people out there that will just vote for a candidate down to their political alliance and not looking at the local government and what it delivers. I
I would suggest local elections are more important than general ones. But it shows in turn outs how little value by many people the importance is. Just look at that wanker Blackburn that the majority of the town were moaning about but people couldn't be arsed to vote or just voted Labour because they do in general elections.
 
We need an influx of Blacks, Asians and other minority groups inhabiting Blackpool. Get us on the news for all the right reasons.
 
So agree with you, and in general elections vote Labour. But the local party has been atrocious for the town and have not voted for them in years. I voice my opinion on social media about the importance of local government and elections. But still a lot of people out there that will just vote for a candidate down to their political alliance and not looking at the local government and what it delivers. I
I would suggest local elections are more important than general ones. But it shows in turn outs how little value by many people the importance is. Just look at that wanker Blackburn that the majority of the town were moaning about but people couldn't be arsed to vote or just voted Labour because they do in general elections.
Fair argument. I don't think local elections are the more important although the impact on each voter is more personal.
 
Boris is a bit of a maverick why don’t we present the case for 3 super casinos on the front, he’d probably go for it. That would massively regenerate the town and put it on the world map. This in addition to the Tower, Pleasure Beach, Piers, Illuminations etc would pull millions of people to the town. You’d get your big stars playing in these casinos and return some showbiz glamour to the resort.

The dogooders will as usual moan about gambling etc but any casualties will unfortunately just have to be classed as collateral damage. The pros massively outweigh the cons.
 
I would agree that the national picture hasn't been conducive to progress for a long while. But successive councils have made it worse with their lack of strategic vision, poor decision making and inadequacy in lobbying for support.

I think the area needs a multi-agency approach, coalesced around a big idea. I'd love to see some proper proposals for a local university, for example (even a new extension to UCLAN would do). The town is isolated, has too few strings to its bow and is hamstrung by having a low-skills economy / workforce. You need a big paradigm shift to break out of it.
There was talk of putting a campus on the Mecca site. Has that been indefinitely postponed.
 
Boris is a bit of a maverick why don’t we present the case for 3 super casinos on the front, he’d probably go for it. That would massively regenerate the town and put it on the world map. This in addition to the Tower, Pleasure Beach, Piers, Illuminations etc would pull millions of people to the town. You’d get your big stars playing in these casinos and return some showbiz glamour to the resort.

The dogooders will as usual moan about gambling etc but any casualties will unfortunately just have to be classed as collateral damage. The pros massively outweigh the cons.
The super casino came and went in 2007.
 
There was talk of putting a campus on the Mecca site. Has that been indefinitely postponed.
They where also supposed to build it at Bispham college but these plans come out year on year and sod all comes of it someone is making plenty of coin out of it.
 
They where also supposed to build it at Bispham college but these plans come out year on year and sod all comes of it someone is making plenty of coin out of it.
It will be the same model makers and technical drawers who used to churn out super stadia for the Oystons.

Money for old rope.
 
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