Has YOUR life improved under Lord Ben Houchen?

Juninhoburger said:
Well, has it?

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That video is good. 👍

Tories or their sympathisers won't care about any of those issues as they almost certainly live in areas where the impacts of them are minimal, or they just don't see them on a day to day basis, or they purposefully chose not to see them.

Thing is there are tons who vote Tory or will sympathise with one, as they think they're at a level where they get value for money from it, where as 90% of them wont be. I say that as someone who would probably get value for money from voting tory, but I'm not enough of a **** to vote for myself, over the 90%.

Lord Houchen lives in Yarm, probably one of the nicest areas on Teesside, how many voters live in Yarm or better? How many of Tees Valley live in Yarm or better?
I bet if he lived in 90% of the other places, or relied on what 90% of the rest do, he wouldn't give a **** about an airport or shelling out loads of cash to buy and then more to fix up some land which he gave away. So, why do his voters care about this, even if what he was saying was the truth (which it isn't).

People seem daft enough to value an airport they don't use, over the quality of their actual day to day lives, or their kids lives etc. Or they value an airport they might use maybe once or twice a year over the quality of schools, housing, roads, infrastructure, hospitals care etc, things which actually do matter, and actually matter more to them if they actually think about it more than a basic headline.

Lord Huchen's a better salesman than the monorail guy from the Simpsons, and is about as much "for the people" as Mr Burns. He's only bothered about himself, and possibly the elite, and this is just not an area flooded with the elite.
 
Interesting. But proposes no solution to any of the issues highlighted. Can't stand Houchen so agree with the sentiment...but apologies....typical labour rhetoric...no solution. When asked what they'd do they have no answer.

Tin hat on. Steps away from the keyboard.
 
Thing said:
Interesting. But proposes no solution to any of the issues highlighted. Can't stand Houchen so agree with the sentiment...but apologies....typical labour rhetoric...no solution. When asked what they'd do they have no answer.

Tin hat on. Steps away from the keyboard.
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Houchen has given away £500m in the deal of giving 90% of Teesworks to Musgrave and Corney.
The massive £100m a year business rates to come in - Chris McEwan would like to spend a good percentage on skills training to ensure that generations of Teessiders can be best placed to get highly skilled jobs that will created on the Teesworks site and on Teesside in future. He will also allow experts and indeed the public be a major part of the discussion on how that windfall is spent to transform Teesside. And not be squandered or hoovered up by already wealthy individuals.
The Tees Valley Mayor powers are only in certain areas - transport infrastructure is one of them. There is surely far more to Teesside than just the airport. The bus and train services are shocking and expensive. Chris McEwan wants to use part of his budget to change that. We have had 7 years of Ben Houchen why do we still complain about having a quite woeful public transport network. People simply have to drive cars, there is little or no alternative for most of us.
MFC Foundation have been putting on affordable buses to and from the stadium. A Labour mayor would do the same throughout our sub-region, it will change peoples lives.
 
Thing said:
Interesting. But proposes no solution to any of the issues highlighted. Can't stand Houchen so agree with the sentiment...but apologies....typical labour rhetoric...no solution. When asked what they'd do they have no answer.

Tin hat on. Steps away from the keyboard.
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We're not politicians, why would WE propose solutions?
 
Thing said:
Interesting. But proposes no solution to any of the issues highlighted. Can't stand Houchen so agree with the sentiment...but apologies....typical labour rhetoric...no solution. When asked what they'd do they have no answer.

Tin hat on. Steps away from the keyboard.
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Here's a solution, spend £20m on roads, £20m on schools, £20m on housing, £20m on infrastructure and £20m on hospitals?

Seems a bit more value in that, than £100m on an airport that not many use, that there are other options for within a reasonable distance.

Then for the next 4 years do the same again, for the other £400m we could have not lost in the Teesworks "deal".

200k people landed or took off from the airport last year (passenger numbers are incoming and outgoing)
100k return trips
75k of those from Tees Valley area at the most?
50k trips from tees valley, assuming the average person did 1.5 trips? I do about two trips per year from it. Keep in mind there will be Aberdeen workers doing a trip per week mind, or one every two weeks or so, that average could easily be higher.

So now we have what, 50k people from the tees valley using it out of ~1.1m in tees valley, so that's about 5% who may be getting a good ROI. Even if that was double, which it won't be, it's still a terrible ROI for 100% of the people.

If passenger numbers double, it won't be because double the people from Tees Valley are using it, it will more be because the same people who use it now are flying more. Instead of flying from Teesside for 1/3 of their holidays per year, they might go 2/3 etc.

Took me two minutes to figure that out, and that's not my job/ business, if I took that on dragons den I wouldn't make it out of the lift.

It's a extremely typical Tory scheme to benefit 5%, but try and sell it to 60% like it's a benefit, when it's not, not compared to what they lose out on.

It's not like if the local roads, schools, housing, infrastructure and hospitals are **** that we can just go an extra hour up the road and use theirs instead, and they be better (Unlike the alternate airports with more options). These things get used by 90% of the people and their families probably 90% of their days, in one way or another.

The ROI for a local airport and giving away land at Teesworks, and then paying to do it up is absolutely $hit. If Houchen was a businessman he would have went broke in year 1.
 
Thing said:
Interesting. But proposes no solution to any of the issues highlighted. Can't stand Houchen so agree with the sentiment...but apologies....typical labour rhetoric...no solution. When asked what they'd do they have no answer.

Tin hat on. Steps away from the keyboard.
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I agree, and this is the reason why I don't vote at all.

The solution to all political votes should be candidate ones plans vs. candidate twos plans, and the publics vote on which plans they think are the best.

Instead, we just get hundreds of articles and social media posts (paid for with our own tax money) on why we shouldn't vote for the opposition, instead of why we should vote for you.

Labours entire campaign is "why vote against Houchen" instead of "why vote FOR us".
 
Thing said:
Interesting. But proposes no solution to any of the issues highlighted. Can't stand Houchen so agree with the sentiment...but apologies....typical labour rhetoric...no solution. When asked what they'd do they have no answer.

Tin hat on. Steps away from the keyboard.
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It's pretty simple, you don't sell land for pennies so that your mates can make personal fortunes, whilst at the same time neglecting local infrastructure on a grand scale.

You don't make up stories about building hospitals which you have absolutely no possibility of pushing through.

If you can't see what been going on perhaps it's down to your own inability to distinguish between right and wrong.
 
Corcaigh_the_Cat said:
It's pretty simple, you don't sell land for pennies so that your mates can make personal fortunes, whilst at the same time neglecting local infrastructure on a grand scale.

You don't make up stories about building hospitals which you have absolutely no possibility of pushing through.

If you can't see what been going on perhaps it's down to your own inability to distinguish between right and wrong.
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Don't disagree at all....except maybe the last sentence. But what are Labour's plans? Except pointing out what a mess we're in after 15 years of the Tories, what are the plans to get us out of this? We hear sound bites saying more money into the NHS, more money into infrastructure, nationalise the railways, etc, etc...... but where is the money coming from? Anybody can say what sounds good but if you can't afford it its nothing but a pipe dream.

I'm going to buy the old Debenhams store and turn it into the world's largest Hooters bar!
 
Thing said:
We hear sound bites saying more money into the NHS, more money into infrastructure, nationalise the railways, etc, etc...... but where is the money coming from? Anybody can say what sounds good but if you can't afford it its nothing but a pipe dream.
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We could use the money Ben's suddenly found to build a new hospital (that he has no powers to build)?
 
Thing said:
Don't disagree at all....except maybe the last sentence. But what are Labour's plans? Except pointing out what a mess we're in after 15 years of the Tories, what are the plans to get us out of this? We hear sound bites saying more money into the NHS, more money into infrastructure, nationalise the railways, etc, etc...... but where is the money coming from? Anybody can say what sounds good but if you can't afford it its nothing but a pipe dream.

I'm going to buy the old Debenhams store and turn it into the world's largest Hooters bar!
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The country can afford all of those things you're talking about, it has to have the will, and that's where the problem lies.

We built the NHS, nationalised the railways, nationalised the coal and steel industries and power industries when we were rebuilding the nation after WW2. Why not now, why aren't there funds to do it?

Like you I feel that there needs to be something constructive from Labour and I believe that what McEwan has said he'll do he can afford and has the ability to provide. Instead people choose to believe the lies of a con man.

The current situation reminds me of Darlington FC with George Reynolds at the helm, the fans loved him until their club was in football's third world. He had no chance of delivering what he promised. Teesside's public have been conned in the same way. Do you continue to support it until Labour make pie in the sky promises or say enough is enough?
 
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Thing said:
Don't disagree at all....except maybe the last sentence. But what are Labour's plans? Except pointing out what a mess we're in after 15 years of the Tories, what are the plans to get us out of this? We hear sound bites saying more money into the NHS, more money into infrastructure, nationalise the railways, etc, etc...... but where is the money coming from? Anybody can say what sounds good but if you can't afford it its nothing but a pipe dream.

I'm going to buy the old Debenhams store and turn it into the world's largest Hooters bar!
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But why would that be a reason to still vote for Tories. They have a proven track record of poor governance.

Labour, or any other party for that matter, might not have the strongest election manifesto's that personally resonates with you, or be able to specifically demonstrate how they will execute their intentions, but they have more integrity in the bank, so that at least you know they will try!
 
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All this 'no plan' crap. People listen to soundbites too much.

As a very simple yardstick (looking nationally) compare statistics under the last long term labour government to those after 14 years of Tory rule.

Take your pick - poverty, NHS waiting lists, ambulance arrival times, environmental issues, homelessness, food bank usage, social inequality, quality of our schools, rail infrastructure & service...christ, even immigration. Anything you choose. Then say there's no difference, or other parties don't have solutions. They certainly did last time - maybe, just maybe, they do again.
 
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