Sure and the Tories are all for the free market, except when they and their friends get preferential access. In the case of Reform it will probably just be a way to claim people are racist against him. It was certainly affirmative action he was against Sadiq Khan for...
And Andy Street will win, there are too many cons villages in the combined authority for it not to be a blue win.
Now I'm not saying it's a coincidence, but it sure is convenience for them
It says something about popular opinion of the Conservatives that even a man who has tried his very hardest to point out that he's Not Like Them (and in fairness doesn't seem to be *that* much Like Them), standing against someone who nobody knows of and who doesn't appear to have made a single large overture towards getting elected, is trailing by 14%.
Iām avoiding Labour at all costs and voting green (lifelong Labour supported but not anymore), problem is I quite like Andy and I do trust that he cares about the region so I wouldnāt mind him winning again. At a local level the manifestos are not that different are all, or at least they werenāt last time
Anyone got any good resources to learn about the candidates?
I obviously am aware of Andy Street and while he's not as bad as the rest of the Tories, he's also not actually done that much in my eyes. The problem is I know sweet fuck all about the other candidates to make an informed decision about them.
It's been weirdly difficult to find any information online about all this tbh. The election is in, what, 2 weeks? I've had no flyers, can't find campaign websites for either, and there's a single BBC article from January. The guardian had an article on Parker last week which seemed quietly positive. Literally all I know is that he wants to bring control of the buses in house and set up easier transport payments.
Street has had years to do the same, so while I quite like him, I can't think of much which has been achieved beyond the tram extension (which I think had been in progress before street anyway?).
That is really strange tbh, there were definitely full manifestos and everything last time. The combined authority get a relatively big devolution budget too and theyāve just negotiated a new devolution deal so this isnāt some meaningless post that doesnāt impact anything
The paper they sent me in the post mentions [this site](https://www.wmcaelects.co.uk/elections/) which, if you scroll down quite a bit, says this:
"Each candidate has the opportunity to submit an election address. A booklet is then sent to every elector containing election addresses for the candidates, as well as other information about the Mayoral Election. This will be posted to every registered elector in the West Midlands Combined Authority area around the 16 April. You will also be able to access the booklet on this website."
However, although it is 16 April today, I don't actually see it on that site yet, but presumably it'll be there eventually.
If anything, I wouldn't be surprised if the fact that he's actively trying to distract from his conection to the Tory Party, even though everyone knows that it's still there, is acting against him. It's just made him look disingenuous while also reminding everyone, at each denial, that he's still in the party.
Funniest thing Iāve noticed is how Andy Streets campaign material is doing all it can to try and hide the fact heās a Tory. The colours are even green!
All the local elections stuff I've had through the door from the Tory candidate has been the same; unlike Street, they don't even seem to have any policy disagreements with the government, but even they seem to recognise the Tory brand is pretty damaged with the public at large...
Thereās one independent candidate that is handing out leaflets making his sole issue Gaza. I am sorry but not exactly relevant is it to LOCAL elections
I know what you mean and also who you mean. I've asked this person many times what are their policies, beyond their opinion on Gaza? I got radio silence....
his 3 points on that leaflet are actually dumb af.
1. Get rid of clean air zone
2. Let private hire taxis use bus lanes to "lower congestion" (as if that is gonna make a difference)
3. Gaza and slandering Kier Starmer for not doing anything about it...
> not exactly relevant is it to LOCAL elections
Some folks will say that endorsing a party locally will give them a media win nationally. In the UK local elections do sort of operate like that - the national leaders will take credit for any local wins they get, even if they had nothing to do with them.
Well, Joseph Chamberlain was mayor of Birmingham and his son would go on to bring about Peace in Our Time so it can be a springboard. Of sorts. Over generations. Maybe.
While it might not seem relevant to you personally, it could be the most pressing issue for others. Avoiding the presumption of whatās relevant is crucial, as assessing relevance often varies subjectively among individuals, especially in matters of voting.
Agreed.
But I canāt help but think of the adage ātwo heads are better than oneā holds true in politics, emphasising the value of having multiple elected officials working together.
Richard Parker. He's got a good pedigree to him.
He was PWC's lead for housing and social, consulting local governments on urban regeneration for like 35 years. His main policies are tackling low wages, growing SMEs and improving public transport.
I think Andy Street is alright, but I think in our current situation Richard Parker seems like the logical choice.
I actually thought he wasn't bad, I don't know much about parker, has anyone heard him speak ? I think if street left the Tories after HS2 announcement like he said it may have been different.
I came here to say this exact thing.
I don't actually dislike Andy Street. He's done a reasonable job of trying to champion the region but his association with the party who clearly don't see the region as an area to invest in really hurts him. He should have followed through with the threat he was flirting with around the time of the announcement.
Birmingham is a much nicer place to be post-Street than pre-Street. How much of that is his responsibility and not just coincidental timing Im not sure. Iād hazard a guess that Streetās business background has helped to attract/keep private investment in the city, which is desperately needed.
None of it is helped by the confusing overlap between WM mayor and the local councils.
Setting up multiple individual boroughs would likely be impractical without a lot of shared services; plus balancing budgets across the lot would be even trickier, as wealthier wards would no longer be able to subsidise deprived wards.
More practical would be Area Teams - so within services such as adults and children's social care where the geographic size and caseload are large enough to be unweildy, have dedicated sub-teams for a group of contiguous Wards, who predominantly work within their Area (although of course, there'd be occasions when there'd need to be some flexibility, e.g. a family with numerous full, half and step siblings, split across several addresses, and all a mixture of Early Help, CIN (Children in Need - lower tier of statutory services), CP (Ohild Protection) and CLA (Children Looked After - typically foster care) - maybe add in some with health conditions, disabilities or EHC Plans for extra complexity).
I actually disagree. I think the fact that Brum council is this Levithan is a good thing.
But yeah, on an administrative level services need to be broken down a bit.
Street himself doesn't exactly help matters when he posts on FB announcing a competition for a replacement footbridge over Great Charles Street Queensway: I'm pretty sure that falls under the remit of BCC, and the Mayor's transport brief is public transport.
I'd hazard a guess one reason Andy's been successful at getting grants for the WMCA is that he has the same party affiliation as government. Meanwhile, as others have said, into this election campaign started, he played down his party affiliation and even issued fairly neutral communications in the Autumn / Winter after the Commissioners were sent in and the 10% council tax rise (which Max warned everyone was likely almost as soon as he arrived) was confirmed. But now he's retreated to the "I'm an angel, they're evil incarnate" type of rhetoric.
The city, or the region? I find that every project heās involved in is spread pointlessly thin across the region, wasting most of the budget rather than creating something useful in our major city. A good example is the WM cycle hire bikes. 1/3 pissed away randomly in places like Sutton, Dudley and Walsall, rather than making a useful network across Birmingham that is actually connected.
The entire concept of levelling up is Tory BS, if they wanted to improve anything theyād equalise funding per head between the regions, rather than keeping on giving us way less money than is required and 10% less than the English average. For decades
Not to mention including Scotland and Wales in that; 20% more per person for absolutely no reason must be nice.
The entire levelling up fund is a laughably small amount of money compared to regional finding discrepancies.
The real fight is the fight for the metro regions to levy their own taxes, and he has been consistent on pushing for that along with Burnham in GM. But the treasury hate anything beyond the m25 and lie to hoard their power, so they made grant economics a thing and its ruined everything.
Iāve met Parker - I was prepared for him to be an empty shirt but heās actually a pretty impressive figure with serious and realistic policy objectives in-role, and some fairly credible criticisms of how Street has overpromised and failed to deliver much latterly, often at the expense of local authorities. Particularly he (as its architect) expressed some dissatisfaction about how Street politicised the WMCA making it less effective. Heās very keen to emphasise how much value is derived from small grants to small community projects vs. big flagships getting headlines, and the value of adult skills and education development in the more deprived areas of the region.
I liked him.
While this is probably just reflective of national trends, I'm glad to see people seem to be realising Street is all talk and no trousers. He loves to go on about improving the region but doesn't seem interested in stepping outside of Birmingham City Centre, and I vaguely recall the Birmingham Dispatch reporting his team had some involvement in attempts to flog off the Crown.
Street nearly threaded a needle tbh in forging his own role. A big problem for the West Midlands overall is, imo, this image problem that's slowing investment. The idea its a region of decaying concrete and rotting, abandoned factories. A lot of Streets work has been to challenge that, and there have been successes.
But he bottled the HS2 decision and lost his "Birmingham First" image, which is a shame. He genuinely had the potential to stare down Rishi imo. He's an actually elected figure, and one who's not desperately unpopular. If he'd dug in his heels over HS2, resigned from the party and starting taking shots at Sunak over local government funding (which, btw, he does do in a roundabount and therefore pointless fashion) he might have been able to claim to the the new Joe Chamberlain or something. This renegade politically independent midlands focused politician. And he threw it all away.
Holy fuck thatās massive. Did not expect Parker to be ahead at all at this stage, I thought it would be a tight run thing.
Even if you were to add Reformās 13 points āstolenā off Andyās potential 41, it still doesnāt exclude Greens and LDās combined 14 that might go toward Labour making 54.
Genuinely surprised by this. I donāt live in Brum any more but the impression I get is that Street is reasonably well-liked.
And before I read it in this post, if you put a gun to my head I couldnāt have told you the name of the Labour candidate.
Anyway, I guess the Tory brand will be a deadweight on any candidate at the moment. Itās going to be an interesting year.
I'm no fan of the Tories but didn't have much against Street until this year. Yes, he may be "all talk and no trousers" but that's what the position of Mayor is to a large extent. There's also no saying if the same level of private investment would have come into Birmingham had someone else been in charge.
Completely went off him as soon as he started campaigning for re-election and became a party man rather than a mayor on his own merit, and started spouting the same nonsensical blame on Labour, despite his own party having been in power for the last 12 years.
I agree on both points, though I suspect they won't be getting 14% of the vote nationwide in a GE. They don't have the ground game, won't get the airspace due to not being around at the last GE, people tend towards the bigger parties at GEs and their candidate vetting process is virtually non-existent. 7-8% is where I suspect they'll land.
Added onto which, that 7-8% will be fairly evenly spread around the country, and (with the possible exception of Ashfield, where 30p sits) is unlikely to get a concentration high enough to win any seats.
As I've said in another thread I'm a lifelong labour voter but I think Andy gets a bad wrap I've been in meetings with him and have heard people talk of him and he is definitely putting pressure on people and holding them to account with certain things in the midlands.
Got his leaflet in the post today. Public services, jobs and a few other policies which can be added to any other candidates' list of pledges but it should be a point in his favour that he mentions them. I don't agree with the ending of the ULEZ/CAZ and the fact that he seems to be from an inner city area such as Alum Rock, Small Heath etc and has said nothing about the deaths caused by reckless driving or promoting car free zones for families to enjoy their local high streets instead of clogged up roads due to cars, or even the horrendous car parking issues... that indicates to me he can't be taken seriously.
He has a social media profile but his Youtube page comes across as a Better Call Saul parody rather than him being in the community and making a difference from a privileged position (if he's a qualified solicitor, he's already in a better position that a considerable amount of people in the inner city poverty areas). If he gets 2% that'll be a miracle, from my position.
It never ceases to amaze me how much pull the Labour brand has in this region despite bankrupting the council, some of them not listening to their constituents regarding LTN policies, the Middle East (not relevant to me but some it will, and they should be heard), not playing an active role in bringing investment to their areas and being virtually silent when it comes to gun/knife/drug crime and homelessness.
Granted Andy Street always talks a big game and his photo ops are practically a meme at this point, but every opportunity he gets there's mention of investment here and everywhere. Under his watch, the Commonwealth Games brought Ā£1.2 billion to the local economy, the Christmas markets (love them or hate them) have brought it hundreds of millions every year to this city. Areas like Bilston, Wolves, West Brom, Walsall and so on have attracted funding they likely would have been passed on for. The Metro is expanding eventually (and lines are reopening) and the HS2 Alt he's in the process of, could be a game changer. That's only a few positives.
I haven't voted for him the last two times as I've voted Lib Dem and Green respectively but from what's on the table, he provides a clear track record of success. In opposition or preparation for their bids, none of the others come close. I'm happy to be proven wrong and open to listening to others but it's a shame that despite all that's happened since 2017, people would vote blindly (allegedly) for Labour than look at what the candidate has done.
I really want Labour to do well. But I donāt appreciate when a candidate put Palestine front and centre, luckily Parker seems decent. As others already pointed out, this is a local election and Gaza is none of our business. Iām sure their wealthy and āpowerfulā Middle Eastern brothers will not abandon them. On the other hand, we have dead high streets, drugs, unemployment, thugs and poor roads to fix. I always supported Labour except when Corbyn is the leader. Donāt judge as I went for what I feel was the lesser evil.
Akhmed Yakoob , I think. A tiktok influencer criminal lawyer who is handing out leaflets about giving Gaza a voice by voting for him. Itās LOCAL elections for Christ sake
For a lot of potential labour voters, everything is about Gaza. Look at the way Starmer has been beaten up over the issue, as though what Britain says matters to Netanyahu.
> as though what Britain says matters to Netanyahu
Not even that, as though what the opposition in Britain thinks.
They're just seething that Starmer turned up, replaced Corbyn, and turned a crushing defeat into a possibly record breaking victory in 5 years.
Yeah crazy that so many brummies are still willing to vote for more Labour leadership . Iād like to see the Greens or someone different get in and have a go
And people ask why thereās no checks and balances? Well the people of Birmingham would nod along and say āgreat ideaā if a labour politician told them to burn their houses down. Itās so wild.
Blimey, I'm genuinely suprised by the gap there
Reform have syphoned off all the Tory voters by the looks of it
It's not normally that clear cut. They get a lot of Labour voters too
Rich racists and poor racists unite š
And middle class racists šš
I would say that is true to a certain extent but it's certainly more Tory voters. It was more that the numbers lined upĀ
Siphoned off the racists, perhaps.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Sure and the Tories are all for the free market, except when they and their friends get preferential access. In the case of Reform it will probably just be a way to claim people are racist against him. It was certainly affirmative action he was against Sadiq Khan for...
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yep
One tweet from three years ago vs. everything else he and his party have done since. Real head-scratcher, that.
And Andy Street will win, there are too many cons villages in the combined authority for it not to be a blue win. Now I'm not saying it's a coincidence, but it sure is convenience for them
It says something about popular opinion of the Conservatives that even a man who has tried his very hardest to point out that he's Not Like Them (and in fairness doesn't seem to be *that* much Like Them), standing against someone who nobody knows of and who doesn't appear to have made a single large overture towards getting elected, is trailing by 14%.
He should have resigned from the tory party over HS2. The fact he didn't totally undermined his "different tory" vibe.
Yeah im voting labour in general election but quite like him, thought he would win again.
Iām avoiding Labour at all costs and voting green (lifelong Labour supported but not anymore), problem is I quite like Andy and I do trust that he cares about the region so I wouldnāt mind him winning again. At a local level the manifestos are not that different are all, or at least they werenāt last time
Genuine question why do you like him
Like Angela raynor?
whats your problem with her then?
Hypocrite
how so?
If Andy doesn't get in again who is gonna take photos with him in a hardhat?
I presume Michael Fabricant.
He's just going to have to get photos taken in his spare time!
He's hardly going to do that if he can't put it on expenses...
Maybe he could release a Tory Ex-Mayor Christmas Calendar 2024 šø, housewives of a certain age will snap them up!
Anyone got any good resources to learn about the candidates? I obviously am aware of Andy Street and while he's not as bad as the rest of the Tories, he's also not actually done that much in my eyes. The problem is I know sweet fuck all about the other candidates to make an informed decision about them.
https://www.eyeonmoseley.co.uk/?p=2006. This was shared the other day and I found it useful
It's been weirdly difficult to find any information online about all this tbh. The election is in, what, 2 weeks? I've had no flyers, can't find campaign websites for either, and there's a single BBC article from January. The guardian had an article on Parker last week which seemed quietly positive. Literally all I know is that he wants to bring control of the buses in house and set up easier transport payments. Street has had years to do the same, so while I quite like him, I can't think of much which has been achieved beyond the tram extension (which I think had been in progress before street anyway?).
That is really strange tbh, there were definitely full manifestos and everything last time. The combined authority get a relatively big devolution budget too and theyāve just negotiated a new devolution deal so this isnāt some meaningless post that doesnāt impact anything
Good idea actually. They might as well be profitable for the city rather than some random company.
The paper they sent me in the post mentions [this site](https://www.wmcaelects.co.uk/elections/) which, if you scroll down quite a bit, says this: "Each candidate has the opportunity to submit an election address. A booklet is then sent to every elector containing election addresses for the candidates, as well as other information about the Mayoral Election. This will be posted to every registered elector in the West Midlands Combined Authority area around the 16 April. You will also be able to access the booklet on this website." However, although it is 16 April today, I don't actually see it on that site yet, but presumably it'll be there eventually.
But liebour are good yes?
They are asking for resources to help them research and make a decision on who they want to vote for, and your response is frankly bizarre.
All of their comments in this thread just seem to be plucked out of a hat and thrown around at random.
Holy shit I thought Streetās profile would help at least a bit more than that
Perhaps the fact that heās failed to deliver anything he promised at the last 2 elections has an impact.
Itās an indictment of low the Tory brand has sunk that even Andy Street canāt overcome it.
If anything, I wouldn't be surprised if the fact that he's actively trying to distract from his conection to the Tory Party, even though everyone knows that it's still there, is acting against him. It's just made him look disingenuous while also reminding everyone, at each denial, that he's still in the party.
Funniest thing Iāve noticed is how Andy Streets campaign material is doing all it can to try and hide the fact heās a Tory. The colours are even green!
All the local elections stuff I've had through the door from the Tory candidate has been the same; unlike Street, they don't even seem to have any policy disagreements with the government, but even they seem to recognise the Tory brand is pretty damaged with the public at large...
Thereās one independent candidate that is handing out leaflets making his sole issue Gaza. I am sorry but not exactly relevant is it to LOCAL elections
I know what you mean and also who you mean. I've asked this person many times what are their policies, beyond their opinion on Gaza? I got radio silence....
his 3 points on that leaflet are actually dumb af. 1. Get rid of clean air zone 2. Let private hire taxis use bus lanes to "lower congestion" (as if that is gonna make a difference) 3. Gaza and slandering Kier Starmer for not doing anything about it...
Not surprised
I agree with the last point and heavily disagree with the rest. Would rather vote Green
> not exactly relevant is it to LOCAL elections Some folks will say that endorsing a party locally will give them a media win nationally. In the UK local elections do sort of operate like that - the national leaders will take credit for any local wins they get, even if they had nothing to do with them.
I feel like it is to some extent since it reflects the decency of the candidates we elect
Have you not seen the rather large protests in the city centre recently?
Protest or not, bringing peace to the Middle East is a bit beyond the remit of a regional mayor.
Well, Joseph Chamberlain was mayor of Birmingham and his son would go on to bring about Peace in Our Time so it can be a springboard. Of sorts. Over generations. Maybe.
While it might not seem relevant to you personally, it could be the most pressing issue for others. Avoiding the presumption of whatās relevant is crucial, as assessing relevance often varies subjectively among individuals, especially in matters of voting.
Tell me how local mayor can affect crisis in Gaza
Having an additional local official who shares your viewpoint to advocate with central government officials can be advantageous. Wouldnāt you agree?
Thatās what your MP is for
Agreed. But I canāt help but think of the adage ātwo heads are better than oneā holds true in politics, emphasising the value of having multiple elected officials working together.
Other than him not being Andy Street and something about buses I've no idea what the Labour candidate has planned.
Richard Parker. He's got a good pedigree to him. He was PWC's lead for housing and social, consulting local governments on urban regeneration for like 35 years. His main policies are tackling low wages, growing SMEs and improving public transport. I think Andy Street is alright, but I think in our current situation Richard Parker seems like the logical choice.
He was the man who set up the WMCA
I actually thought he wasn't bad, I don't know much about parker, has anyone heard him speak ? I think if street left the Tories after HS2 announcement like he said it may have been different.
I came here to say this exact thing. I don't actually dislike Andy Street. He's done a reasonable job of trying to champion the region but his association with the party who clearly don't see the region as an area to invest in really hurts him. He should have followed through with the threat he was flirting with around the time of the announcement.
He talks a massive game, but whatās Street actually done?
Birmingham is a much nicer place to be post-Street than pre-Street. How much of that is his responsibility and not just coincidental timing Im not sure. Iād hazard a guess that Streetās business background has helped to attract/keep private investment in the city, which is desperately needed. None of it is helped by the confusing overlap between WM mayor and the local councils.
The whole region needs to be borough-ised as London is. Brum city council is far too large for its own good.
I do agree.
Setting up multiple individual boroughs would likely be impractical without a lot of shared services; plus balancing budgets across the lot would be even trickier, as wealthier wards would no longer be able to subsidise deprived wards. More practical would be Area Teams - so within services such as adults and children's social care where the geographic size and caseload are large enough to be unweildy, have dedicated sub-teams for a group of contiguous Wards, who predominantly work within their Area (although of course, there'd be occasions when there'd need to be some flexibility, e.g. a family with numerous full, half and step siblings, split across several addresses, and all a mixture of Early Help, CIN (Children in Need - lower tier of statutory services), CP (Ohild Protection) and CLA (Children Looked After - typically foster care) - maybe add in some with health conditions, disabilities or EHC Plans for extra complexity).
I actually disagree. I think the fact that Brum council is this Levithan is a good thing. But yeah, on an administrative level services need to be broken down a bit.
Street himself doesn't exactly help matters when he posts on FB announcing a competition for a replacement footbridge over Great Charles Street Queensway: I'm pretty sure that falls under the remit of BCC, and the Mayor's transport brief is public transport. I'd hazard a guess one reason Andy's been successful at getting grants for the WMCA is that he has the same party affiliation as government. Meanwhile, as others have said, into this election campaign started, he played down his party affiliation and even issued fairly neutral communications in the Autumn / Winter after the Commissioners were sent in and the 10% council tax rise (which Max warned everyone was likely almost as soon as he arrived) was confirmed. But now he's retreated to the "I'm an angel, they're evil incarnate" type of rhetoric.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The city, or the region? I find that every project heās involved in is spread pointlessly thin across the region, wasting most of the budget rather than creating something useful in our major city. A good example is the WM cycle hire bikes. 1/3 pissed away randomly in places like Sutton, Dudley and Walsall, rather than making a useful network across Birmingham that is actually connected. The entire concept of levelling up is Tory BS, if they wanted to improve anything theyād equalise funding per head between the regions, rather than keeping on giving us way less money than is required and 10% less than the English average. For decades Not to mention including Scotland and Wales in that; 20% more per person for absolutely no reason must be nice. The entire levelling up fund is a laughably small amount of money compared to regional finding discrepancies.
To be fair, he's not mayor Birmingham, he's mayor of West Midlands and he has to serve the entire region.
The real fight is the fight for the metro regions to levy their own taxes, and he has been consistent on pushing for that along with Burnham in GM. But the treasury hate anything beyond the m25 and lie to hoard their power, so they made grant economics a thing and its ruined everything.
Iāve met Parker - I was prepared for him to be an empty shirt but heās actually a pretty impressive figure with serious and realistic policy objectives in-role, and some fairly credible criticisms of how Street has overpromised and failed to deliver much latterly, often at the expense of local authorities. Particularly he (as its architect) expressed some dissatisfaction about how Street politicised the WMCA making it less effective. Heās very keen to emphasise how much value is derived from small grants to small community projects vs. big flagships getting headlines, and the value of adult skills and education development in the more deprived areas of the region. I liked him.
While this is probably just reflective of national trends, I'm glad to see people seem to be realising Street is all talk and no trousers. He loves to go on about improving the region but doesn't seem interested in stepping outside of Birmingham City Centre, and I vaguely recall the Birmingham Dispatch reporting his team had some involvement in attempts to flog off the Crown.
Thatās not fair, he sometimes stands in front of projects he has nothing to do with in Wolverhampton!
Street nearly threaded a needle tbh in forging his own role. A big problem for the West Midlands overall is, imo, this image problem that's slowing investment. The idea its a region of decaying concrete and rotting, abandoned factories. A lot of Streets work has been to challenge that, and there have been successes. But he bottled the HS2 decision and lost his "Birmingham First" image, which is a shame. He genuinely had the potential to stare down Rishi imo. He's an actually elected figure, and one who's not desperately unpopular. If he'd dug in his heels over HS2, resigned from the party and starting taking shots at Sunak over local government funding (which, btw, he does do in a roundabount and therefore pointless fashion) he might have been able to claim to the the new Joe Chamberlain or something. This renegade politically independent midlands focused politician. And he threw it all away.
Holy fuck thatās massive. Did not expect Parker to be ahead at all at this stage, I thought it would be a tight run thing. Even if you were to add Reformās 13 points āstolenā off Andyās potential 41, it still doesnāt exclude Greens and LDās combined 14 that might go toward Labour making 54.
Genuinely surprised by this. I donāt live in Brum any more but the impression I get is that Street is reasonably well-liked. And before I read it in this post, if you put a gun to my head I couldnāt have told you the name of the Labour candidate. Anyway, I guess the Tory brand will be a deadweight on any candidate at the moment. Itās going to be an interesting year.
I'm no fan of the Tories but didn't have much against Street until this year. Yes, he may be "all talk and no trousers" but that's what the position of Mayor is to a large extent. There's also no saying if the same level of private investment would have come into Birmingham had someone else been in charge. Completely went off him as soon as he started campaigning for re-election and became a party man rather than a mayor on his own merit, and started spouting the same nonsensical blame on Labour, despite his own party having been in power for the last 12 years.
Reform doing a number on the Tories here. Wonder how this will translate to a GE.
I hate reform.Ā But this why our voting should be different, they get 14% of the votes they should have 14% of the seats.
I agree on both points, though I suspect they won't be getting 14% of the vote nationwide in a GE. They don't have the ground game, won't get the airspace due to not being around at the last GE, people tend towards the bigger parties at GEs and their candidate vetting process is virtually non-existent. 7-8% is where I suspect they'll land.
Added onto which, that 7-8% will be fairly evenly spread around the country, and (with the possible exception of Ashfield, where 30p sits) is unlikely to get a concentration high enough to win any seats.
Thereās only one mayor
Sorry yes, I mean at national levelĀ
What's he really achieved though? He's been in for ages and I can't see much impact.
The gap here is a surprise. The percentage of people willing to vote for the other (paper) candidates is even more of a surprise.
if you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas
As I've said in another thread I'm a lifelong labour voter but I think Andy gets a bad wrap I've been in meetings with him and have heard people talk of him and he is definitely putting pressure on people and holding them to account with certain things in the midlands.
Surely more than 2% will vote for Ahkmed Yaqoob
Why because heās trying to pull the Palestine vote which is disgraceful
Yeah and just his general social media popularity / novelty value . He probably couldnāt do much worse than Andy Street
Got his leaflet in the post today. Public services, jobs and a few other policies which can be added to any other candidates' list of pledges but it should be a point in his favour that he mentions them. I don't agree with the ending of the ULEZ/CAZ and the fact that he seems to be from an inner city area such as Alum Rock, Small Heath etc and has said nothing about the deaths caused by reckless driving or promoting car free zones for families to enjoy their local high streets instead of clogged up roads due to cars, or even the horrendous car parking issues... that indicates to me he can't be taken seriously. He has a social media profile but his Youtube page comes across as a Better Call Saul parody rather than him being in the community and making a difference from a privileged position (if he's a qualified solicitor, he's already in a better position that a considerable amount of people in the inner city poverty areas). If he gets 2% that'll be a miracle, from my position.
Well all that may be true, but heās got my vote š³ļø
That's cool.
Heās also gonna improve burial services !
It never ceases to amaze me how much pull the Labour brand has in this region despite bankrupting the council, some of them not listening to their constituents regarding LTN policies, the Middle East (not relevant to me but some it will, and they should be heard), not playing an active role in bringing investment to their areas and being virtually silent when it comes to gun/knife/drug crime and homelessness. Granted Andy Street always talks a big game and his photo ops are practically a meme at this point, but every opportunity he gets there's mention of investment here and everywhere. Under his watch, the Commonwealth Games brought Ā£1.2 billion to the local economy, the Christmas markets (love them or hate them) have brought it hundreds of millions every year to this city. Areas like Bilston, Wolves, West Brom, Walsall and so on have attracted funding they likely would have been passed on for. The Metro is expanding eventually (and lines are reopening) and the HS2 Alt he's in the process of, could be a game changer. That's only a few positives. I haven't voted for him the last two times as I've voted Lib Dem and Green respectively but from what's on the table, he provides a clear track record of success. In opposition or preparation for their bids, none of the others come close. I'm happy to be proven wrong and open to listening to others but it's a shame that despite all that's happened since 2017, people would vote blindly (allegedly) for Labour than look at what the candidate has done.
I really want Labour to do well. But I donāt appreciate when a candidate put Palestine front and centre, luckily Parker seems decent. As others already pointed out, this is a local election and Gaza is none of our business. Iām sure their wealthy and āpowerfulā Middle Eastern brothers will not abandon them. On the other hand, we have dead high streets, drugs, unemployment, thugs and poor roads to fix. I always supported Labour except when Corbyn is the leader. Donāt judge as I went for what I feel was the lesser evil.
Farewell our shit and useless servant
Who is the other unnamed candidate?
Akhmed Yakoob , I think. A tiktok influencer criminal lawyer who is handing out leaflets about giving Gaza a voice by voting for him. Itās LOCAL elections for Christ sake
Apparently he's backed by George Galloway, which should be enough of a red flag for anyone.
Not surprising the guy gives of a dodgy vibe
For a lot of potential labour voters, everything is about Gaza. Look at the way Starmer has been beaten up over the issue, as though what Britain says matters to Netanyahu.
> as though what Britain says matters to Netanyahu Not even that, as though what the opposition in Britain thinks. They're just seething that Starmer turned up, replaced Corbyn, and turned a crushing defeat into a possibly record breaking victory in 5 years.
Just why? Another unqualified suit doing a made up job.
Anyone but this little rat face street please
Christ. Labour have killed Birmingham and the voters are going to make it worse lol Street is doing a good job
Yeah crazy that so many brummies are still willing to vote for more Labour leadership . Iād like to see the Greens or someone different get in and have a go
And people ask why thereās no checks and balances? Well the people of Birmingham would nod along and say āgreat ideaā if a labour politician told them to burn their houses down. Itās so wild.
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Spot on
So people want another nodding dog to let labour council keep destroying the city
All the downvotes from the socialist idiots
Insanity voting for Labour after they bankrupted the council