Ben Houchen - Guardian

Ironops said:
One of the main arguments put forward against PR is that it breaks the link between the MP and the people of the constituency. Yet with Sunak, that woman in hartlepoool and probably countless others, they hardly ever set foot in their constituency
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There's no requirement for a constituency MP to live in the constituency or even in the country. I can't imagine the Hartlepool MP is going to want to move from North Yorkshire.

I think she has only managed one speaking contribution, where she ignored what was being debated but managed to sneak in a reference to the Mandelson mushy peas urban myth.
 
Ironops said:
One of the main arguments put forward against PR is that it breaks the link between the MP and the people of the constituency. Yet with Sunak, that woman in hartlepoool and probably countless others, they hardly ever set foot in their constituency
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He does come. More than I ever thought he would. I know this because he eats in the same places I do.
He's here a lot more than Haigh was, although Haigh has just about settled in Richmond now.
That said Sunak has no more in common with the NE in general and his constituency in particular, which is largley rural, than Thatcher.
I've said it before, they's vote for roadkill round here if it had a blue rossette.
 
zzzzz said:
He does come. More than I ever thought he would. I know this because he eats in the same places I do.
He's here a lot more than Haigh was, although Haigh has just about settled in Richmond now.
That said Sunak has no more in common with the NE in general and his constituency in particular, which is largley rural, than Thatcher.
I've said it before, they's vote for roadkill round here if it had a blue rossette.
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biggest issue at the last two elections for our area was all the soldiers and there families in catterick voting for Boris Johnson because Jeremy Corbyn came across very anti armed forces.

that’s before we even get to the wealthy land owners and there voting preferences.
 
Unravel_Morrison said:
I was reading an article from The Echo when it was announced and the general consensus from locals was "Why wouldn't they want to move here?"

Like they don't actually live somewhere now that they don't want to move away from.

The ambitious civil servants will always gravitate towards London, unless they really did a complete overhaul of the structures, which we know they won't.
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We haven't even got a local IKEA ! They'd be appaled
 
Unravel_Morrison said:
I don't live locally, but looking from outside, it appears that there's a lot of things announced and not a lot happening.

I recognise that's probably due to the election cycle v time taken to carry out infrastructure work, but the Tees crossing is a good example. That was originally announced in 2019 to start in 2023 and is now mooted to start in 2025.

I would be interested to be pointed towards things that have actually been done rather than announced.
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I think it's comprehensible that covid has knocked a lot of big projects off the rail for a couple of years . Both in ££ and personnel and likely to be further delayed
 
I'm not that close to what he has or hasn't delivered against announcements but lets be honest he doesn't have to deliver too much to be seen as a success compared to what the various local councils have managed over the years!

There are quite a lot of new Darlo jobs being advertised and have been for a few months stating that the jobs are officially based in London while the Darlington office is being prepared for 2022.
 
He's been given a budget, £670 million over the next 4 years plus another £182 million for another two projects, as a comparison Middlesbrough council's budget over the same period is £402 million he's has no requirement to provide things like social care, schooling etc.

So given the the vast finances at his disposal, something he rarely mentions in his myriad of press calls and photo ops, so despite all these wonderful headlines of job creation why are unemployment levels in Tees Valley still among the highest in the UK ?, why have crime levels continued to increase ?, why has poverty increased so that the Tees Valley continues to have some of the highest rates in Europe ? Why does the flagship airport continue to require additional subsidy that was never budgeted for ?

Houchen is a fantastic self promoter and exploiter of situations, he's an arch finder of the photo op and a world class user of his position to promote his agenda on social media, as an illusionist he's up there with South Bank's finest, Paul Daniels, thousands of jobs that have yet to materialise and figures that are consistently downgraded, major projects delayed, headlines that exaggerate and mislead, Freeport and airport turnover estimates that have no basis in anything but a fantasy, in 4 years and with 3/4 of a billion spent what exactly have we got to show for it beyond a plethora of photos of a beaming chancer in a High Vis Jacket and white hard hat ?
 
American_Mary said:
He's been given a budget, £670 million over the next 4 years plus another £182 million for another two projects, as a comparison Middlesbrough council's budget over the same period is £402 million he's has no requirement to provide things like social care, schooling etc.

So given the the vast finances at his disposal, something he rarely mentions in his myriad of press calls and photo ops, so despite all these wonderful headlines of job creation why are unemployment levels in Tees Valley still among the highest in the UK ?, why have crime levels continued to increase ?, why has poverty increased so that the Tees Valley continues to have some of the highest rates in Europe ? Why does the flagship airport continue to require additional subsidy that was never budgeted for ?

Houchen is a fantastic self promoter and exploiter of situations, he's an arch finder of the photo op and a world class user of his position to promote his agenda on social media, as an illusionist he's up there with South Bank's finest, Paul Daniels, thousands of jobs that have yet to materialise and figures that are consistently downgraded, major projects delayed, headlines that exaggerate and mislead, Freeport and airport turnover estimates that have no basis in anything but a fantasy, in 4 years and with 3/4 of a billion spent what exactly have we got to show for it beyond a plethora of photos of a beaming chancer in a High Vis Jacket and white hard hat ?
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He was very quick on his feet in demolishing the Dorman Long tower. That's a concrete achievement (I'll get my coat!)
 
Unravel_Morrison said:
There's no requirement for a constituency MP to live in the constituency or even in the country. I can't imagine the Hartlepool MP is going to want to move from North Yorkshire.

I think she has only managed one speaking contribution, where she ignored what was being debated but managed to sneak in a reference to the Mandelson mushy peas urban myth.
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I heard her first interview with a national broadcaster yesterday (Times Radio). She announced that she's very close to getting a place in Hartlepool, although she didn't say she would be living there. She came across as relatively harmless and a little surprised to be an MP. At least she didn't sound like evil made flesh in the manner of Patel or Truss.
 
BeanBeany said:
I'm not that close to what he has or hasn't delivered against announcements but lets be honest he doesn't have to deliver too much to be seen as a success compared to what the various local councils have managed over the years!
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He should though really. With no responsibility to provide all the boring stuff that councils have to find the money for, he really should have more to show for it.
 
JackG said:
He was very quick on his feet in demolishing the Dorman Long tower. That's a concrete achievement (I'll get my coat!)
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He was very quick to make up a lot of lies and pull in a few favours at Westminster to make sure it was demolished, it's amazing how he had more information on the Tower than were in the structural reports, he mentioned carbonisation of the structural steel, but this wasn't tested for and was not part of the report, he further contradicted the same report which said there was no imminent danger of collapse, not according to Mr Houchen who insisted that demolition was urgent due to the state of the tower.

He originally said that listed status had been obtained without a site visit, then backtracked to say it had been granted by a junior member acting beyond their remit, when this was disproved he said nothing as it was too late and the tower had already knocked been knocked down, he claimed that it needed to be demolished to make way for the GEC site, however the Tower stood 700m away from the boundary of the GEC site, so another fib.

For some reason Mr Houchen was very keen to get rid of the landmark tower, going to extraordinary lengths to make sure it was demolished as quickly as possible...
 
Last week, I was telling my mates in the Pub that we'd just had new windows and doors fitted and that I'd be opening the front door for the first time the following morning. Got the shock of my life the next morning, when I did. Houchen was there, wearing a hard hat and a hi viz jacket and with a photographer in tow.
 
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