Are you now more likely to vote for REFORM (the party)

No. I'll never vote reform

Well of course they don’t want men to become women as they wouldn’t want to strip any rights away from men would they ! Whereas it seems they want to tax childless women, tell girls to have babies young and their opinions on abortion are hugely concerning.

Reform are clear that men can never become women (unlike the WI) and I like the idea of restoring the 2 child benefit cap.
And yes, let's give tax breaks to working families with children. Why not? It's the same as paying them additional UC but with the encouragement of work.
And I believe they'll reduce immigration. This govt. are just as corrupt as the last one.

But the biggest strain there is from retirees. Yes the amount of young people on benefits has gone up. Part of that could be down to the reduction on spending on early intervention programmes/childhood support/preventative health care. COVID also didn't help. But even if we magicked all that away, the big "unsustainable" bit that would remain is the aging population. And to add to that you have people claiming that we should be limiting population (birth rate and immigration) because we can't handle the increased population. Fine, but then noone can retire. Likewise cutting back childhood support even more is like refusing to fix a broken roof tile because it costs too much and then being surprised when the stick floor collapsed.due to damp a few years later.

Interesting turn of phrase!

I'm not the one advocating wholesale change.

I mean if I wanted to reduce claims for disability benefits, I'd significantly increase Universal Credit. And if I was in charge we'd have a well functioning NHS. But really, who knows? Thank goodness I'll never be in charge!

What would you do about it?

My thoughts were, is this a post by Reform, to assess opinion?

Why have you name changed?

I will vote for anyone but them. I have a disabled child so voting for them would be like a turkey voting for Christmas.

Absolutely not and they need to get their house in order when it comes to policy. Their by-election candidate is calling for women to have more kids and the party want to remove the safety net if they do just that and fall on hard times.

How could they run the country when they can’t even agree between themselves?

Ah well, it was good while it lasted... 🤪

Got to 15.24 before the idiots arrived. Someone must have set off a daily mail alarm

Time will tell I guess. You enjoy your evening too.

I'm confident my conclusions are objective and informed.
Have a good evening 😊

Yet you've completely ignored that benefits as a percentage of GDP have remained stable for years and forecast to rise by a tiny 0.1% of GDP until the end of this decade. You've also ignored the events that might lead to more people claiming for a limited time - COVID/long COVID, long NHS waiting lists left over from ideological austerity. So essentially you're choosing your "facts" and claiming they're objectively true. What's the point of doing that? You've not provided any robust evidence that the benefits system is out of control or at risk of imminent collapse. You're just indulging in hyperbole.

No, because reform have announced plans which will screw over disabled children by scrapping the educational health care plans, designed to protect children from discrimination and give them access to education by meeting their needs.
I won’t be voting for anybody that wants to undo the work that the disabled community have fought so hard for, for equality rights. Especially when it comes to children.

Not in a million years.

I don't 'reckon'. I've concluded by the exhibited rapid growth and the forecast of people with far more fiscal and financial nous than I.
I can't do anything, nor would I wish to be in the position whereupon I had to. I've said more than once now that I would welcome a frank and honest governmental approach. It won't happen under the current government though, that has become clear.

All taxes discourage behaviour and all benefits encourage behaviour. Of course there is a debate on how much they discourage or encourage behaviour for example how much does higher road tax discourage people from buying large SUVs? Or how many people are incentivised to buy a biomass boiler because of the subsidy?

If child benefit being restricted to two children doesn't discourage the number of children people have and is only intended to provide support and prevent child poverty for any number of children if born then surely it would be better to spend the money on an information campaign calling for couples to have less children?

Right but you reckon the benefits system is so bloated it's about to collapse. You think it should be reined in. So what would you do about it?

No.

I'd rather hoped for honesty about the welfare situation from this labour government. They started off promising they'd do the right thing, not the popular thing. They've seriously rowed back on that though. We're still kicking the can down the road.

I suspect the elderly will pay the highest price in years to come (and we'll all, if the fates allow, be elderly at some point). We'll be working longer and longer, and we'll get zero good grace in terms of savings and assets.

What's your suggestion for an alternative in the current climate?

There was zero chance of me voting for them before and there's zero chance now.
Even if they announced a whole variety of wonderfully appealing policies, they're a group of morally bankrupt, racist, opportunist arseholes who should be kept far, far away from running a country.