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Author Topic: Let's Get Political!  (Read 1996626 times)
Wobbly Bob

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« Reply #5940 on: Friday, May 3, 2019, 08:49:20 »

It's a tad depressing that the Tories have increased their majority in Swindon.

After 15 years it's difficult to recall any positive efforts that have been made to move the town forward?
"Fixing" a few roundabouts maybe. The place, sadly, just has an air of stagnation.

I wonder how the people vote, who always moan about the town centre, vowing to never set foot there and do their shopping elsewhere.  Hmmm

Not saying that Labour would do any better, but it's just the seeming acceptance (by the local electorate) of the setting of very low standards that have consistently failed to be met that is baffling.

Maybe there is a case for taking local government out of the party political arena and make the whole thing independent?



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Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?
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horlock07

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« Reply #5941 on: Friday, May 3, 2019, 08:51:13 »

Nicola Sturgeon put it very well (and with characteristic pith):

If the message Labour takes from English local elections is that they should now be the facilitator of a Tory Brexit, I suspect their troubles will just be beginning.

Labour are losing the plot, yet the faithful are so blind nobody will do anything about it as magic grandpa still shits gold dust...

The Labour Leader of Sunderland Council was on the BBC blaming labour remain MPs for the losses, despite the fact that the vast majority of the Cllrs he’s lost are to the Lib Dems and Greens....

Whilst Barry Gardiner again on the BBC when referring to Brexit talks tells Tory James Cleverly "We are in there trying to bail you guys out." So that's the Lib Dems leaflets for the next few elections sorted!
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #5942 on: Friday, May 3, 2019, 08:53:15 »

Jess Phillips is right.  Corbyn/McDonnell still trying to face both ways on Brexit is killing Labour.  For the main opposition party to perform as poorly as that 9 years after last leaving office should really set the alarm bells ringing.

Time to get off the fence.  (They won't get off the fence.)

The problem with Brexit is there can be no winners, (apart from disaster capitalists) only losers. So it's about trying to minimise your loses.

So for example the call for a confirmatory ref.... kind of assumes you've got something to confirm, which there isn't.  It's chief advocates see it as way of overturning the June 23rd decision, but if it was lost, it would be a disaster for the country, as well as the party.  It would be a fuck up on a scale comparable to Cameron.

Back in the start of this thread about 5 years ago in response to I think Hertab's question what was the most important thing for the forthcoming election, I posited climate change. 

With that in mind it is interesting that Parliament has in a cross party consensus backed Corbyn, declared a national climate change emergency. 
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Aaron Aardvark

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« Reply #5943 on: Friday, May 3, 2019, 08:55:29 »

Not saying that Labour would do any better, but it's just the seeming acceptance (by the local electorate) of the setting of very low standards that have consistently failed to be met that is baffling.
Wellens' quote on the decline of the club "The club is riddled with a cancer, it is a cancer for acceptance of mediocracy and complacency" could well be applied to the whole town. We just seem to accept being quite shit
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Peter Venkman
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« Reply #5944 on: Friday, May 3, 2019, 09:00:44 »

Wellens' quote on the decline of the club "The club is riddled with a cancer, it is a cancer for acceptance of mediocracy and complacency" could well be applied to the whole town. We just seem to accept being quite shit
Ever since the mid 80s when Swindon became the butt of many jokes about its shitness there seems to be an acceptance that it is indeed fact, almost without questioning that.

Many people when asked where they come from are almost apologetic that they come from the shitness of Swindon. It is widely accepted and it shouldn't be.
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Ardiles

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« Reply #5945 on: Friday, May 3, 2019, 09:02:18 »

So why is that?  Serious question.  The town I remember growing up in in the 1980s was innovative and seemed to be looking forward with confidence.  A lot of it may have been bluster ('fastest growing town in Europe' etc.), but Swindon used to have a swagger.  And now it's gone.
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Peter Venkman
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« Reply #5946 on: Friday, May 3, 2019, 09:05:19 »

So why is that?  Serious question.  The town I remember growing up in in the 1980s was innovative and seemed to be looking forward with confidence.  A lot of it may have been bluster ('fastest growing town in Europe' etc.), but Swindon used to have a swagger.  And now it's gone.
No idea exactly why that is but it never used to be like it until say the mid to late 80s when the town was in its prime for expansion.

Having lived in several places I can definately say there are many many places much more shit than Swindon.

Not sure which "comedian" originated the "Swindon is shit" but it sort of took off quickly in the mainstream and its never gone away.
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horlock07

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« Reply #5947 on: Friday, May 3, 2019, 09:11:15 »

So why is that?  Serious question.  The town I remember growing up in in the 1980s was innovative and seemed to be looking forward with confidence.  A lot of it may have been bluster ('fastest growing town in Europe' etc.), but Swindon used to have a swagger.  And now it's gone.

I have not set foot in Swindon for probably 15+ years. However my old man who is Swindon born and bred and lives near Witney now (after a stint in France) always states its become a dump and never ever goes near the place unless to a) go the Steam and he used to work in the works or b) visit my sisters grave in Purton.

However the recurring joke when I was a kid and we used to visit to see my nan in Pinehurst or go to the dentist in Old Town was as we drove into Swindon along the A361 was that each time we visited a new roundabout had been built with out of town development and as a planer I think that's the main problem, the centre seems to have been ignored in favour of out of town expansion.
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #5948 on: Friday, May 3, 2019, 09:16:16 »

Maybe there is a case for taking local government out of the party political arena and make the whole thing independent?

Local government has been reduced to a husk of its former status, whereby the likes of David Murray John as Town Clerk, had serious autonomy.

The powers over the good bits were returned to central government, and councils left with the shitty bits. 

The admin of the shitty bits was then privatised, so we have the privilege of paying for it through the exorbitant Council Tax.

There's certainly a case that the SBC type tier could be removed and most of the shitty bits funded by central government, with then something like parishes at local level, with a small local income tax, or similar paying for things like flower beds and litter picking.
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Ardiles

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« Reply #5949 on: Friday, May 3, 2019, 09:28:08 »

I have not set foot in Swindon for probably 15+ years. However my old man who is Swindon born and bred and lives near Witney now (after a stint in France) always states its become a dump and never ever goes near the place unless to a) go the Steam and he used to work in the works or b) visit my sisters grave in Purton.

However the recurring joke when I was a kid and we used to visit to see my nan in Pinehurst or go to the dentist in Old Town was as we drove into Swindon along the A361 was that each time we visited a new roundabout had been built with out of town development and as a planer I think that's the main problem, the centre seems to have been ignored in favour of out of town expansion.

The hollow doughnut theory has been doing the rounds for decades.  Plenty going on around the edges, but nothing in the middle.  Swindon seemed to be on the up in the 1980s, but then ground to a halt just as places like Reading (in the 1990s) then pushed on.  While Reading built the Oracle to complement the existing Victorian centre, built the Madejski and also built a major new road linking both to the motorway - and all within the space of about 5 yrs - Swindon did nothing.  There was no excuse for it.

Bizarrely, the town continues to expand today as fast as it ever did in the 1980s, but the centre remains a hell hole.  Those of us who live out of town still notice the new roundabouts & housing estates that you mention...the latest being the new estate of houses that has now spread right round Coate Water and butts up next to the Swindon East motorway junction.  And there are houses going up ever further to the north of town, some now a full 6 miles from the town centre.  At what point does it become viable to build something worthwhile in the centre of Swindon to knit the whole place back together?  It doesn't make any sense.

I used to think that a well-thought out redevelopment of the County Ground could spur a wider regeneration in central Swindon, but gave up on that ages ago.
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Aaron Aardvark

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« Reply #5950 on: Friday, May 3, 2019, 09:44:30 »

I moved here in the late 90s, the decline is probably my fault. Most things are.
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #5951 on: Friday, May 3, 2019, 09:51:37 »

It doesn't make any sense.

 It sort of makes perfect sense... insofar Swindon is often seen as an indicator of how things are moving. Town/City centres are organic sort of places.  Swindon being 2 separate Boroughs until 1900 had 2 centres... both had grown to meet the needs of the respective populations.

 These places are no longer needed by the population for most of their needs... therefore they wither and close. 

The same is happening in many places in the country.... the Town Centre as presently understood, will return to its original use... housing.
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horlock07

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« Reply #5952 on: Friday, May 3, 2019, 10:47:09 »

It sort of makes perfect sense... insofar Swindon is often seen as an indicator of how things are moving. Town/City centres are organic sort of places.  Swindon being 2 separate Boroughs until 1900 had 2 centres... both had grown to meet the needs of the respective populations.

 These places are no longer needed by the population for most of their needs... therefore they wither and close. 

The same is happening in many places in the country.... the Town Centre as presently understood, will return to its original use... housing.

Cannot see that happening, a friend of mine acts as planning agent for a company that owns a lot of the retail in the town centre and he has found Swindon Council nigh impossible to deal with, plus whilst there has been a move to make it comparatively easy to move from retail to residential via permitted development if your lot get in they plan to abolish PD so it will get even harder to regenerate dying town centres.
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #5953 on: Friday, May 3, 2019, 11:05:51 »

Cannot see that happening, a friend of mine acts as planning agent for a company that owns a lot of the retail in the town centre and he has found Swindon Council nigh impossible to deal with, plus whilst there has been a move to make it comparatively easy to move from retail to residential via permitted development if your lot get in they plan to abolish PD so it will get even harder to regenerate dying town centres.

It's already happening.. many former offices, now redundant, are being converted to flats. However town centre living isn't very appealing if the advantages of proximity entertainments, facilities etc disappear.
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horlock07

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« Reply #5954 on: Friday, May 3, 2019, 11:10:37 »

It's already happening.. many former offices, now redundant, are being converted to flats. However town centre living isn't very appealing if the advantages of proximity entertainments, facilities etc disappear.

Not for much longer as Labour are planning to get rid of the PD potential when  No they get elected.
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