21 July 2023 , 21:17
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Thumping Tory by-election defeats in formerly true blue Selby and Somerton show the North and South are uniting to demand political and economic change.
Voters in North Yorkshire and Somerset spoke for a nation deserving a fresh start in Westminster and Downing Street.
Uxbridge in London, which the Tories just clung on to because of a local issue over the ULEZ anti-pollution scheme, is an outlier.
If it gives Rishi Sunak hope, he is a fool.
The cost of living crisis, including rising rents and mortgages, plus a host of disasters from record NHS waiting lists to the failure to halt Channel boat crossings are reasons so many people have lost faith with the Tories.
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Include incompetence, sleaze and corruption and it is close to impossible to see how Sunak and his party could survive an election.
The country is entitled to one now, so we can get rid of this lame duck Government.
Shirt-changed
By raising the price of their replica shirts by eye-watering amounts, football clubs are exploiting the loyalty of fans already suffering from the cost of living crisis.
There is no free market or competition when supporters are wedded to a team, unable to shift allegiances because a club down the road is selling strips at a lower price.
If a supermarket charges too much, we can switch to another or if a car-maker is asking for too much there is always another to buy.
But with football it is your team or no other, and most fans want the current shirt.
Should the promised regulator ever be created, ending the great replica shirt fleecing needs to be near the top of its agenda.
Last orders
The closure of so many pubs is far more than a disaster for drinkers.
These locals, whose owners are battling sky-high energy bills, are rooted in our communities and are often treasured landmarks.
We must start saving them now or our lives will be all the poorer for their absence.
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