Northern powerhouse deflates into Northern power-cut. It was so hurriedly propagated by Osborne before the election as portraying the government as dynamic innovators of English devolution, but none of the details had been properly worked through, including the required transport infrastructure as we now know. So the election gimmick, if not evaporated, has dimmed at least to the long haul. Just 7 weeks after the election when the Tories boasted of the biggest investment in the railways since Victorian times, the grand 5-year £38.5bn plan has collapsed, with the government trying to dump the blame on Network Rail. The Tories are all the more culpable since they still vaunted their grandiose plans in their election manifesto though Network Rail admitted “very early on last year” that the 5-year plan would be ‘incredibly difficult to deliver’. Continue reading
Tagged with europe
Can David Cameron ignore the Right of his party for much longer?
A new set of results from a Guardian/ICM poll has found that the Conservatives would be more appealing to the electorate if they took more hardline positions on social affairs, which will come as a great disappointment both to the political left, as well as loyalists to David Cameron who take a more liberal stance on issues such as gay marriage.
By a ratio of 69%-24% those who took part in the poll said that Tories could boost their appeal by supporting the traditional family. 67%, compared with 25%, said that Tories would be more appealing if they took a harder line on Europe, while 88% of Tories and 98% of Ukip voters believe that a harder line towards immigration would help the Conservatives.
This comes after an embarrassing by-election in Eastleigh where the Conservatives finished third behind their unpopular coalition partners the Liberal Democrats, and their close political rivals the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip). Continue reading
