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

This tax payer doesn't begrudge people in need the support that they get. This tax payer would rather not go back to the Victorian age.

That's not feasible for some people not to claim UC because they need to claim it to get rent element and their rent or part of it paid

Also - I paid tax for decades. Put far more into the system than I ever took out - that's just explaining your "handout" comment

There's a difference between 500 pounds a month and 316 pounds a month which you think should be reduced further

People miss this. Going to be fun when all the immigrants are kicked out and the economy is still in the toilet.

Lived in poverty and survived on a max £500 a month. No handouts from the government. It's awful but its my problem and not the tax payer.

You do know that this government have deported more people since coming to power than any government since 2017?

And that immigration is substantially down? Oh, inconvenient facts...

Single people on benefits get just over 400 pounds. Under 25s get 316 pounds. I assume you've never run a home on 317 pounds a month or you wouldn't be suggesting cutting benefits even more. Cutting benefits doesn't give an incentive to work - it has the opposite effect. There are people in work who can't make ends meet. Maybe if people understood the stress of running a home on a pittance they wouldn't advocate for more benefit cuts.

As for forcing people to contribute to the community - work for free, there's a word for that - exploitation.

And neither should disabled people (like myself) have to go to my GP and get a fit note to prove to the dwp that I'm not fit to do certain tasks.

People in the all work group on UC already have to job search and evidence it or face a sanction and plenty of people on UC do volunteer

As for all these community jobs for everyone on UC - what are they - where do they come from?

It costs money to keep people waiting for years to get assessed though Swings and roundabouts.

Even without reform the current or last give haven't done much to speed it up

There is also a backlog of cases. Reform is not interested in improving the process though.

I'm absolutely in favour of speeding up the process. It's best for everyone. But that will cost money, and Reform lovers will whinge about the cost to the taxpayer.

I’d rather shit in my hands and clap than vote for that shower of bastards.

The problem with the process is it's so inefficient and takes far too long. Should be sped up. Those approved can get to work and those denied should be immediately removed

But not when in the process (with a few exceptions) and that is when people complain about them receiving free accommodation, food, healthcare and a small amount of spending money.

I think they can once approved.

Exactly. Though I have no doubt that they will also come after those of us who have EU settled status, because they don't want to pay us our pensions.

Non European people that is.

I'm sure the Reform supporters on here are salivating at the idea of deporting people who were granted IRL decades ago.

Most of them do go back. The problem is that safety can take a very long time to be restored.

Once they are granted asylum, that is effectively a work visa to stay. Personally I think we should allow asylum seekers to work - it would aid integration, keep them occupied and help the economy.

But surely they should go back to country of origin once the danger past OR apply for a work visa to stay.

Reform has announced a more extreme immigration plan than Trump.

Would you like to see ICE in the UK @Decisiondecisions ?

This literally makes me laugh out loud. I know of a reform candidate who hasn’t worked since he left university in an actual job. Over 5 years.

He doesn’t claim benefits. He just sponges off the woman that he lives with. She pays for everything the stupid mare.

Yeah that's the sort of thing I meant when I said you can have targets but you are limited in what you can do to meet them. So you can maybe do more recruiting fairs in areas with high ethnic minority populations, you can have a senior woman give talks about how great working for Deloitte is, you can make the working environment ”inclusive" and tell everyone you are doing it in the hope it encourages minorities to apply. But you can't say "we need 20% of the applicants we choose to be ethnic minority so privilege those applications". If 100% of the best qualified applicants are white men (unlikely in reality) you can't legally reject some in favor of a less qualified candidate. Likewise internal promotions.
That's the kind of "uneven playing field" people complain about but it's not actually legal here. Its a breach of the equality act and puts companies on the hook for big payouts. Which is why it's odd Reform/the right are discussing getting rid of the EA.

It's all so terribly British.

Oh for sure I think it was a publicity/PR stunt for both. There is no way Thunberg thought they would be allowed to sail that boat to Gaza. She did it in the expectation they would be arrested. Thus drawing attention to the blockade/making Israel look bad. But she was successful - she was "arrested for trying to bring aid" and it got attention.
I dont know if Farage also wanted to be arrested or exactly what he hoped would happen. But "man goes to military base without completing any paperwork and is told politely he can't come in because he hasn't done the paperwork so flies home" isn't a PR win in the same way. If they'd handcuffed him and thrown him in Chagossian jail he'd have made a point but that was never going to happen.

It's like Alan Partridge does Ghandi

That's probably hilarious as well. I still think he got the idea from Greta Thunberg. Publicity stunt for both.

I will probably be voting tactically next time, and just now I have no idea which party I will vote for, will have to decide nearer the time. Here’s the most recent summary of voting intention across opinion polls, but things can change, so who knows https://www.markpack.org.uk/155623/voting-intention-opinion-poll-scorecard/