Voting for Reform.the north/south

Maybe she was.
But, they’re probably not that nice if they’re voting for manipulative Trump aligned Farage and his cronies. Many of whom are public apologists for the dreadful Tommy Robinson.

That doesn’t extrapolate to everyone in your small town. Nice people and voting Reform is an oxymoron.

I think you need to spend time educating yourself before spouting off at others. We absolutely do have welfare in the country alongside social security. If we didn't then anyone who hasn't contributed sufficiently into the social security system would receive no government help.

Welfare spending is roughly 12% of GDP. Health spending is roughly the same. Double what we spend on education and quadruple what we spend of defence. Currently 34% of all our GDP funds the state. Interestingly we now spend more on welfare then we raise through income tax. Do you think that's right?

Why is it rude? It does just show an insight into your social circle, as in it doesn't show a wider picture.
As others don't know anyone in RL and their circle are mostly never voting for them.

Are they proposing safe routes?

Rude. Snide even.

I did not choose my family, my work colleagues, the customers at my work place or the parents at my children’s school.

Who are mostly all nice people btw, but they are voting reform

That’s a profound misunderstanding of what was meant by a coalition of the willing. At least our government wasn’t straining at the leash to take part in Trump’s illegal war. Unlike Badenoch and Farage.

I completely agree with you by the way, as in I didn't vote for Brexit and there were far too many people voting for it without a clue what it really was. Dazzled by promises of loads of money, and other stuff. Who didn't listen to genuine concerns and just put their fingers in their ears.
I just don't think it does any good calling names and saying people are stupid, even though half the time a lot of people are. 😁
Not sure what the solution is to that one!

There’s no chance. But until someone has the balks to do it the country will get worse and worse.

Apologies, I was unclear. I should have said "for those of that mind".

That tells us more about your social circle than it tells us about Reform's prospects of electoral success.

I don't see the Green party ever being in a position of power.

Immigration in numbers is highest for legal migration.
Legal migration is driven by universities. Not all students do not all go back. Many stay and convert to work here.
Then driven by employers. Who sponsor people they know already or companies that pick and choose who they want. Rather than home grown.
Then you have other routes by which people can apply to come here, marriage for example.
The boats are an issue as the country knows nothing about the people. Who they are, what they are running away from and why.

Which realistically Reform aren't going to be able to do, because their support base is so disproportionately pensioner. I know there are pensioners who do think that, including some in my family, but still think Reform would regard it as too risky.

Yeah small town in the far south here. Don’t know a single person who isn’t voting reform.

I would vote green, but Labour need a majority to keep Reform out. If we had PR it would be fine, but with the first past the post system it is a two horse race where I live, and I don't want Reform in.

Well, the Reformers are showing their true nature on this thread.

Their ignorance of the ECHR and refusal to accept that Brexit has made them poorer is jaw-dropping. Perhaps they hate their kids, too, who knows.

If you want to see what you're in for, take a look at Reform-led Staffordshire, the racism and the resignations - it's an absolute shit show.

I am ethnically Indian. It would be dangerous to dismiss Farage and Reform. He plays up on fear of foreigners very well. Key to taking him down will be a policy to stop small boat landings that works- Mahmoud is I think making some progress, but there will be no instant fix. Also ensuring that we allow inward migration only when necessary. Again, numbers have fallen sharply in recent times. The irony is after Brexit, there was a surge in numbers as legal migration was allowed at pace- The Boris wave.

But that's just a misrepresentation of the facts.

People didn't vote for Brexit because other people called them imbeciles. (Although if they had done so, then the title would have been truly justified.)

People voted for Brexit because they believed in the promises of sunlit uplands and dismissed all rational concerns as "Project Fear".

You can't rewrite history. Those who warned against Brexit were not responsible for the catastrophic decision made by stupid people voting for things that they didn't even try to understand.

The idea the North is poorer than other areas of the country is simply not true.

There are very well off areas of the North. And the South. Have you seen North Yorkshire anyone ? And some of the houses in Leeds, Manchester ?
And very poor ones.
Many poor areas are actually often coastal these days. They have limited job options and poorer educational standards.

@DaisyDooleythe first step to sorting the benefits bill is admitting the pensions system is broken.

No, I don't think that's what they're saying at all.
They're saying spot on to that treating people as imbeciles is what led to Brexit.

We don't actually have welfare in this country. We're not the US.

If you're talking about social security benefits, look at the proportion of GDP spent on benefits over time, not headlines from the Express.

Reform will likely do well in these local elections.
Labour will take a battering.

Farage is not the answer.
In Reforms senior party you have a belt of people who know immigration gets the vote in. But they aren’t themselves interested in that. They are money people. Farage always has been. They are interested in the financial opportunities governing Britain could bring. The big contracts. From health care, social care, to deregulation of the banks.

Immigration not their main focus but a Trojan horse.

Agree it'll probably be cities v elsewhere. As with the Brexit vote where it's often missed that the majority of northern English cities went Remain.