Potholes.

Oh, it does. You put your finger on the very nub of the problem, so to speak. 'The cost to the *public*'. Not to them. Not to their pensions.

There was a time when the primary duty of a council was to maintain the infrastructure of their domain. Now it is social work, and of course, paying the pensions bill.

I need to remind you that "will" is future tense and has no time limit. The Reform politicians are no different from any of the others. In fact, rather too many of them /were/ politicians in other parties. Anyway, after they've had your vote this is the standard emblem of *all* political parties: 🖕

The problem is the length of time for which elected governments are unsupervised. Abolish the General Election and hold bye-elections in every constituency every four or five years, randomly timed and randomly scattered about the country. Let's have continuous assessment.

There's more, of course: we need to know who owns each MP, how much they receive in addition to their salaries:

Reform said they would 'cut out waste' if they gained control of a council. They did gain control in a number of places, and...

Promises on potholes will be just as faithfully kept.

Outsiders can (and do) promise just about anything - up to and including free beer (now that does sound like a Reform issue).

A promise to fix at an uncertain date in the future is better than no interest in the matter being displayed at all.

Well I can't imagine what would make me vote for Farage's limited company masquerading as a political party - it would certainly take more than that.

But it does surprise me that our current Labour Government have not realised the potential here. They have been languishing in the polls for many months with seemingly no idea how to revive their popularity. I think that if they just gave councils enough money to fix all the potholes and actually checked to see that the money was spent on this and within the next few months, we'd all notice and be so grateful that their poll ratings would rise.

It could probably be paid for by cancelling the contact that Palantir have with the NHS.

But part of the remedy is in our own hands: most potholes are in roads maintained by local councils. All we have to do is threaten not to vote for our local councillors again unless the potholes are fixed. I've just today sent another email to one of our local councillors complaining on the terrible state of a local road that I use every day. If we all did the same - something might happen.

But they already have your vote?!...

Indeed.

In fact, the distinction between public services (provided for the benefit of everyone) and private services (provided only to certain specified people) has been lost.

Public services include education, libraries and maintaining the roads (on which everyone depends, even if they don't think so). Anyone may benefit from those services. Almost nobody fails to benefit from them.

Private services include social work, council housing, etc. The key thing is that most people cannot access them (and of course, may well never need them) and they are simply not provided to the majority. No matter what housing need one may feel oneself to be in, a social dwelling is available only to chosen persons. The majority derive no benefit from those services provided only to a minority.

I hold no brief for Reform, but remind you they cannot speak in anything other than the future tense on this or any other matter, which is also true of all parties in opposition.

Sheffield's roads have been central to all party manfestos in the city. In

So, as experienced, honest, and sincere as you seem to think Reform's politicians are - it's not just the promise, it's how they act on it.

Indeed. Make sure the local council is Reform, and if they don't fix the issue, sack them

Only the last one.

I have always been a tactical voter. No party has my undying loyalty.

A very *nice* distinction, in the older meaning of the world

And it is the provision of exactly those services to selected

Regardless of whether you think Reform are the solution, or not

Indeed, and opinions are dividied between those that listen to what Reform politicians say, and those that read reports written by the left wing press, on what Reform have (not) said or intend to do.

replying to the above, if all politicians are the same, what is the point of voting at all?

You might as well emigrate to Russia, Iran, or the EU, where you simply don't have the choice.

Well they are definitely overtly for more transparency. AND one of the things they are asking for is more people with actual experience outside the Public sector or an Oxford PPE course, who have some experience of the RealWorld™

Contracts should be open to scrutiny, and if they are not questions need to be asked about the probity of those that sign them.

Corruption in Northern councils was endemic in the 1960s IIRC with scandal after scandal coming to light,.

The Lancashire council is Reform; they haven't fixed the potholes.

I sometimes report potholes via the fixmystreet website - they always seem to work which council is responsible, which is not always obvious when one's route crosses many council boundaries. The local map on their website shows which road defects have already been reported, which is useful to know.

I usually get an acknowledgement from the council in a day or so. Sometimes it even results in a pothole being fixed. So on the whole it seems to work, for those councils which sometimes fill in potholes, which sadly isn't all of them. Have any others tried this?

It'll all be academic when the fuel runs out.

Ask them why and if they don't fix them, sack them.