What's going to happen to the north of England and Welsh voters who got royally fucked by Brexit and have now voted Reform?

@Clavinova that was my understanding also that places that had seen a huge and unprecedented rise in population were allowed EU funds.

Where I am, and this is not an exaggeration, you cannot drive or walk for more than 2 minutes without being diverted by roadworks. A simple thing like, in town, crossing a road to visit a shop involves a round the block detour. Half the car parks are out of action. We have roadworks up to our eyeballs. I would take the potholes any day in return for actually being able to travel somewhere in a straight line.

I was talking about the leadership, yes, and your comment about councillors from other parties really was a sweeping and patronising generalisation.
Contrary to YOU, I have not resorted to personal insults.

Naturalised Brits are Brits. It's ridiculous to make a difference like there are two tiers of citizenship!

To be honest, this is what I'd like to hear, rather than the moaning about how stupid poor/old people are! Only 30% of people voted Reform where I am but we have still ended up with a Reform council. All I have heard is how shit they have been in other places- paying off debts which has a 1% interest rate out of reserves which were earning 7% interest, selling off local government assets that were in museums, stopping funding for ESOL classes, which does nothing but under funds Adult Education, puts a load of (mainly White) English teachers out of work and prevents people integrating into the community and paying their way. It's terrifying the damage they could do, but frankly for those of us stuck with them, it's heartening to hear anything good or even not terrible, because we are stuck with them for at least a year.

British nationals are responsible for 85% of universal credit bill

To be more accurate that statistic includes Irish nationals and some Commonwealth citizens. Also, people who may have gained British Citizenship, e.g. we don't know how many of the 2 million people granted British Citizenship between 2000 and 2014 are claiming universal credit.

No, but maybe, just maybe, they can start to fix the nepotism, fraud, inefficiency and incompetence that wastes huge amounts of public money. Not saying they're capable of doing it, but I think massive change is needed to knock some sense into some politicians, local and national.

Learn not 👆

That's very interesting about the Majority vote, you Keane something knew every day!

Yes, here's hoping they have peaked!

This is getting ridiculous.

Can’t you at least amalgamate them into one thread?

Now added to the hidden thread pile.

No head in sand here! It is awful that Reform did so well, although in some areas the greens got as many seats as Reform. But I am still going to celebrate Reform not being the biggest party here. Particularly as it could be that this is their peak in popularity 🤞

As for Plaid Cymru not getting a majority, that is inevitable with the new full PR system in Wales. It is almost impossible for any party to get a majority, the system is designed to favour coalitions/co-operation. So not too worried about that, although I think there are a few things in the new system that might need a tweak.

eta: @Ghht , excellent post.

The ones who voted Reform are the counties nearer to England.

Why is there very little focus on why the Conservative party and the LibDems did badly?

Wales has always been a Labour voting country, many people would rather cut off their own fingers over voting Conservative and there’s a general lack of appetite for further devolution or nationalism, unlike in Scotland. So what do they do when they lose all confidence in Labour? They turn to someone else who they think could represent the working class (I.e Reform). Something new, a protest against Labour.

I had to vote Plaid out of fear of Reform winning a majority, and many others did too (thankfully). Generally speaking though, there hasn’t been a huge appetite for Plaid in recent history. The electorate was just full of past Labour voters with nowhere to go. I didn’t really know who I wanted to vote for, all I knew is that I categorically didn’t want Reform.

Even though I don’t agree with it (Reform), I think it’s a bit ridiculous to just hope the voters get their comeuppance because it will affect everyone, not just those who voted for them. A lot of people are disillusioned and struggling, and have been for a long while. People feel like they have been failed and typically people go towards such parties in times of economic struggle (we saw this in Germany prior to WW2 😳).

It’s more important than ever to pay attention to the struggles of those in more deprived areas. We either need a better Labour or a new party to represent and be a competition to reform. I haven’t lost my empathy towards the masses yet, but I am very worried about the direction we are heading in. As per usual, this should have been predicted since we always tailgate America. The trouble is that in a general election Reform could easily eat up votes from both disillusioned Labour and Conservative and result in a majority. Now is not the time to just give up on people, this is the time where politicians really need to step up or we are going to be governed by the far right.

There is a spectrum of reform voters you're correct. They dont interview the clever ones though as they are the ones who will make money from this and they do that by turning healthcare into a business and strip back workers rights because it costs them money - basically like Farage. Then there are the people who have been swept up in the 'boats' malarkey, blaming all of their issues on immigrants despite depending on their labour. These are the ones who would never vote tory because they are 'elite' (see poster on first page) and seem unable to grasp that most tories are now reform. Same with a different label. Then there are those who dont want the tories, dont want labour and want to give another party a go. These are usually the voters who regret their vote.
The pain will be felt by the poorest though. After immigrants - they are the next to be blamed for everything. Not because its their fault, but because they have no power.

It was a rhetorical question as I already knew the answer, but it’s good to see it being stated.

France literally withdrew their policing and enforcement of migrant crossings by boat and at major ports as they had no obligation to do it any longer
The infrastructure was removed

Why have we continued to pay them for nothing?

BBC
2014: £12m over three years
2015: £10m over two years
2016: £17m
2018: £45.5m
2019: £3.25m
2020: £28.1m
2021: £54m
2022: £62.2m

Over 10,000 people arrived by small boat before we left the Dublin Convention.

I agree. This wasn't about immigration in Wales. People are literally dying in hospital corridors, educational outcomes are below the OECD average and the rest of the UK. People want to see real change.

Unfortunately, all the pro Reform posts on the local Facebook pages are all saying the same thing about stopping illegal migrants, in spite of other posters pointing out that this isn't something that local councillors deal with.

This is what is happening in South Yorkshire - from the Yorkshire political editor:

Both in Sheffield and Barnsley today Reform UK decided not to speak to us. That means we don’t know who is likely to lead Barnsley Council or what priorities they’ll have when it comes to running the town. To be fair to them they just had a load of new people elected and they need to choose their leader - but voters will want to know pretty quickly what they’re getting for their vote.

The next challenge - as it is for every party - is convincing people you’re up to the job. There will be a lot of new councillors who’ve never done anything like this before. Some will say that’s a good thing, but it’s also a huge commitment. In Doncaster we’ve seen Reform councillor numbers drop already in their first year because of individuals leaving and some being suspended.

It’s one thing winning an election - it’s quite another to run a council.

And it was an agreement which was implemented as a direct consequence of the Dublin Treaty. It became null and void as a consequence of the UK no longer being in the EU. France literally withdrew their policing and enforcement of migrant crossings by boat and at major ports as they had no obligation to do it any longer. The infrastructure was removed.

Reform undeniably won lots of votes, it's shocking and Plaid don't have a majority. Don't you think it's important to acknowledge this otherwise it's a bit head in the sand.

From what I've read, many older voters in industrial areas such as South Yorkshire blame the EU in part for industrial decline in the first place.

It was the EU who encouraged the reduction in coal mining/steel production (there was glut of steel on the EU market), the EU who encouraged manufacturers to relocate to Central and Eastern Europe with grants and incentives, plus the promise of a cheaper workforce, the EU who discouraged state aid in the UK with penalties... The EU also encouraged austerity by placing the UK under their excessive deficit procedure after the financial crash in 2008 (ending in 2017) - as well as intervening before the 2010 election by publicly rebuking Gordon Brown for spending too much.

I also believe that South Yorkshire has a large (EU) Roma population which has caused social tensions in the past.

That just isn't reflective of reality. I live in a northern mill town with a higher than average Asian-origin population. There is no discernible difference in the number of unemployed people proportionate to ethnicity.

Likewise with tax payers. When we start demanding the multinational corporations pay proper taxes and we close the loopholes that allow the more wealthy members of society to avoid tax then I'll give more of a shit about the hidden economies and cash in hand work.

No. Some councils have whole council elections but most do not. Most use voting by thirds and some voting by halves, so there are elections most years as most councils will have a third or half of their seats up for re-election.

Majority of those councils now under no overall control will have another third of their seats up for election next year.

@JacknDiane , I just got called “a shallow Westerner with no imagination” (I’m neither though I live in “the west” now) by some Russian bot 😂 This site may not be the place for an intelligent discussion about this.

You do realise that not everyone ‘Up North’ voted for Brexit don’t you?