Sunak Says The Quiet Bit Out Loud

[Untitled]

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/conservatives/2022/08/exclusive-rishi-sunak-taking-money-deprived-urban-areas

in a video leaked to the New Statesman Sunak makes the following boast to a group of Conservatives in Tunbridge Wells...

"I managed to start changing the funding formulas to make sure areas like this are getting the funding they deserved. We inherited a bunch of formulas from Labour that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone. I started the work of undoing that."

is this what the tories really mean by "levelling up"?

have they forgotten that they might want to win the next general election?

[tomus42]

His explanation is that it isn't just northern urban areas that are deprived, but that there are southern and more rural areas equally in need of funding, and the Labour calculations didn't address that. So far so plausible.

If he'd have been addressing the Tories of Truro or Kings Lynn it might make sense, but when he's talking about diverting funds from deprived areas to Tunbridge Wells it doesn't really wash.

[fender62]

gulliver1. citizen smith.. Come the revolution, you'll be first against the wall bop-bop-bop! lol

[gulliver1]

Where is Big Dog.....??

[douglas9401]

We're agreed then, fake news. You can tell when it gets shrill. :-)

The hand of Cheesy Pork-Market is on this.

[Old_Geezer]

Redistribution is not necessarily a bad thing, unless it's you that isn't going to get as much as you expected. Not a wise way to put things though. Not that it matters, he's unlikely to get the leadership role.

[jno]

it's a brave politician, or a stupid one, who markets himself as Robin Hood in reverse.

[tomus42]

Except when he thinks he's talking to a captive audience of Tunbridge Tories jno.

He would've gotten away with it too if it wasn't for that meddling Truss supporter that filmed it and then grassed him up.

[jno]

those pesky Trusskies...

[Hymie]

Those of you that have a vote for who will be the next Tory leader – the front cover of the current issue of Private Eye tells you all you need to know about the two candidates.

https://www.private-eye.co.uk/current-issue

[Gromit]

Hymie,
That has been my view since it was whittled down to this pair. A choice between more of the same, and more of the same. A wasted opportunity just squandered.

[naomi24]

//it's a brave politician, or a stupid one, who markets himself as Robin Hood in reverse. //

That isn't what he did - but don't let the truth stop you.

[gulliver1]

Rishi telling the voters he took money away from deprived areas has just about put the lid on the chances of the Tories winning the next G/E. GOOD.

[Gromit]

People will defend Sunak even though what he said is morally wrong.
The boasted of diverting funds from deprived areas and allocating it to Tunbridge Wells. But by no measure is it a deprived area. Rural poverty needs to be addressed, but Tunbridge Wells isn’t a deprived rural area. If he has given them money intended for poor areas then that is shameful.

[naomi24]

They're all rolling in money in Tunbridge Wells, Gromit.

https://www.kentlive.news/news/cost-of-living/reality-growing-poverty-tunbridge-wells-7229805

[Gromit]

// One elderly couple had not eaten fresh meat for eight months because they couldn't afford it, said Dawn Stanford, the operations manager at Nourish Community Foodbank in Tunbridge Wells. //

The state pension for a couple is £1,100 per month. What on earth are they doing with their money?

[bobbinwales]

Couldn't you say the same about most food bank users gromit...seems a very harsh way of looking at those struggling with good and energy bills

[ladybirder]

Perhaps they have to pay rent out of that which won't be cheap. Not everybody owns their own homes mortgage free.