Is this how Johnson plans to win an election – by ‘nudging’ towns into supporting his Brexit?
Strategy: It seems Wakefield wasn’t such a random choice for a Boris Johnson speech. The town is on the Tory list.
Remember the Tory ‘towns fund’, supposedly dedicated to helping areas that have been left behind due to post-industrial decline, austerity and long-term under-investment?
Well, the first 100 communities to benefit from the £3.6 billion fund have been announced – and the Manchester Evening News paper has done research the points to a sinister reason for these choices:
It’s called “pork-barrel politics” – choosing an area to benefit from funding because the government wants to retain it, or win it, at the next election.
Consider:
94 out of the 100 towns are in Leave-voting areas, mostly in the north or midlands.
The remaining six Remain-leaning towns … are all in marginal Conservative constituencies set to be Liberal Democrat targets, or in the case of Morley and Outwood, a Labour target, having been very narrowly lost by them in 2015.
In fact nearly a quarter of the 100 towns serve some of the most knife-edge seats in the country – those requiring a 1pc swing or even less to move them from Labour to Tory, or vice versa.
Those include … towns … in, or serving, equally perilous Tory seats that the government will need to defend from Jeremy Corbyn.
At least 62 – just under two thirds – of the towns are in, or serve, constituencies with Labour or Tory majorities of under 5,000 votes. In some cases … they have two potential marginals on their doorstep.
There are also at least five towns in seats where UKIP ran the Tories very close in 2015.
To This Writer, it seems to be a ‘nudge’ strategy, pointing out to the wider electorate how they can hope to get support from a future Tory government.
It has been said – in the MEN article, for one, that the Tories need to win 35 seats in areas they have never won before, just to break even.
This list – with the implied bribes for marginal and Leave-voting areas – might indicate some of their targets.
Don’t you agree?
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
They are sending money to my town, but not enough to make up for their cuts or to buy my vote. Just enough to make me more determined to educate a couple more leave voters.
Regardless of his dishonestly, idiocy or double dealing he has one thing that no one else has – a clear and simple policy of Brexit.
Even the LibDems, the only party truly supporting Remain, can’t claim that.
Even for those who voted Remain or didn’t vote, he has an appeal due to his plan for a quick exit. The public are, rightly, sick of it all. All sides are disingenuous and dishonest about both method and intention over this.
If this is not resolved, in a proper manner, within the next six months, the public will fully lose faith in both Labour and Tory parties. There will be a GE but at the moment neither main party deserves to win. The LibDems may increase their vote, but not greatly either. The mess will be compounded yet further by the GE.
Something MUST be done but it appears that no one wants to actually step up and do it..
Are you seriously telling us that Boris Johnson is the better choice at the moment because he has a plan for Brexit that will ruin the UK’s economy more quickly than anybody else’s?
Why is this even surprising? This is standard Election Politics, is it not? How often do you hear people say that they don’t see politicians until election time and then, they disappear, again? £ike it, or not, this is common sense, on the part of whatever political party employs this strategy and they all do (if they’re in a position to). Why do you think that trust in politics is so low? They do what they will, just to get our vote then, once they’re in government, they do what they want.
Did I suggest it was surprising?
No, you did not but it is hardly unique and to be expected, such is the calibre of our politicians, these days.
ask anybody why they wanted leave and you get a lot of rubbish …..they don’t really know