New election poll shows a very divided country!

It can be interrupted I think but by safe/legal routes opening up, foreign aid increased, getting back to sharing info with EU (Europol) though mainly through taking a more globally combined approach to people dispossessed - not that this latter would happen I know!

Getting rid of the ECHR breaches the GFA and means a loss of a significant amount of benefits. Reform haven’t said how they will detain and deport.

It is possible, difficult but doable. Other countries have interrupted it even whilst part of the 1951 convention.

Getting rid of the ECHR and detaining and deporting all illegal immigrants.

Stopping boats isn’t going to happen - not Rishi, not Starmer and not Farage. Migration has always happened and will always happen, particularly from unliveable places. I think Farage himself retracted the stop the boats and said it couldn’t be done quickly at least (I think).
He has, however, looked at more feasible ways of reducing the pesky migrants - change ILR retrospectively for example.
If this is worth putting all your rights on a bonfire for then fill your boots and vote for a grifter who will barely turn up in parliament let alone do the hard boring work - once he’s managed to sell the NHS to his US paymasters then he’ll be back to disrupting the country for his Russian ones - or whoever - he’s a disruptor and sadly good at it - I’m sure he gets paid well for his skill - but he couldn’t give 2 hoots whether you will ever get paid well enough to afford reduced pension, no childcare help, disability support, or your own healthcare.
I can’t stop you, or anyone, voting for whom you please, and I wouldn’t want to - Mr Farage might though once they’re in power - see Trump.
And yes, l will be bloody angry at people who vote to ruin my kids’ and grandkids’ futures - yet again. And I won’t be blaming other parties, of which there are many - not just Tories and Labour- I will be particularly blaming those who are bright, knowledgeable and still vote this way, either on a smug ‘I’m alright Jack’ basis, or a wilfully ignorant refusal to see what the party stands for basis, and most of all any who do vote on a nasty racist basis. Sick of letting it just ride.

Reform came second place in 98 constituencies. In 89 of these cases, it was second to Labour. 60 of these were in the north of England and 13 were in Wales.

In comparison, the Brexit Party came in second place in three constituencies in 2019, while UKIP came second in 120 constituencies in 2015.

I wonder what would have happened if Farage hadn't stood candidates down in 2019...

Here you go @PandoraSocks
Reform came 2nd in 98 constituencies overall.
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/2024-general-election-performance-of-reform-and-the-greens/

Thanks, Nuthatch. I also found this map, which is quite interesting:

https://worldmapper.org/maps/uk-general-election-2024-second-placed-parties/

Just the top of my head. It was spoken about a lot post election for obvious reasons.
Just found this on Labour list. Correct figure for Labour seats is 89.
https://labourlist.org/2024/12/reform-uk-labour-target-seats-2029/

Thanks. Where is that info from, please?

If you want to talk about lies and bullshit you need look no further than Labour, they are completely ignoring their manifesto and promises from just last year. Assuring us that there would be no digital ID for example (Yvette Cooper, I believe?).

If Reform win, the political establishment will have no one to blame but itself for repeatedly ignoring the concerns of much of the electorate over unsustainable net migration numbers. To me, however, there seems a rather orchestrated and deliberate nudging of the public towards Reform, which I find disturbing.

They came 2nd in around 90 Labour won seats. Not sure about others.

Same.

Mine is any party that would keep Reform out. Even if that means holding my nose and voting Tory.

This is a good point.

Reform got 14% of the vote in 2024 but only 5 seats.

The polls now show over twice that % right now, but that doesn't automatically translate into hundreds and hundreds of seats, because we have FPTP for Westminster elections.

Does anyone know how many constituencies Reform came 2nd in in 2024?

When I think of rabble-rousing leaders such as Trump and Farage, I remember some very wise words from Richard Osman.

People Hide In Chaos 🫣

We need a better informed/educated electorate and I'm not sure it's possible to put that genie back in the bottle.
We seem to have got swept up in the X Factor-isation (for want of a better term), of politics, where people get elected because they're a bit of a wag (Johnson) or promise simple solutions to complex problems (Farage etc).
The media is complicit in this and reduces everything to a soundbite or a photo op.
Government should be boring. Looking for clickbait headlines all the time does nobody any favours and we end up with Trump and his acolytes, simply because they're good copy.

It's really the least of our worries now, though you'd be hard pressed to believe it the way Reform talk about nothing else, I dread to think what the country will be like in four years if they carry on with this rhetoric, it's moved from illegals to legal migrants from save our women and girls to save our swans, meanwhile they're all jumping for joy when 2 women die in the channel, it's absolute insanity

Very much this.

i don’t know who I will vote for in 4 years, but my current mindset is ANY party that gets Labour out.

@EasternStandard Me too. We need to understand that economics matters. Hammering business and hampering growth is wrong. Labour just cannot help themselves though. Anyone who thought raising employers NI would promote growth is economically illiterate.

Our parliament and system of governing is not set up for cross party solutions. None of these MPs has much idea anyway. They are an under qualified bunch. We do not vote for cross party solutions. Elections are tribal and the winner takes it all - for centuries. It won’t change!

Totally agree with this. Reform might be great or atrocious but nobody can say the rest haven’t more than had their chance. I feel Tories and Labour have outright trolled the electorate in the last 10 years, and are comfortable to do so (as shown by this latest farce of digital ID). If they roll the dice on something new, nobody can have any complaints.

Are you still wanting answers?

I would vote for a party that incentivises growth rather than hammers it as we’re currently experiencing. I’m not deciding who yet as I said. I’ll wait until closer to the time.

You and I know it’s fantasy, but headline-grabbing and vote-grabbing headlines are powerful stuff for people with less media / political literacy.

The thread clearly demonstrates this! depressing though.

I said upthread many times that I do not believe labour or any single government can "fix" the growth issue. I think it's only possible if at all with cross party solutions and will take years.

I asked @EasternStandard which party she thought would deliver growth in the last election but she can't answer this. She also doesn't know what party she is voted for in the future and what their growth proposals are despite asking me to clarify labours ones.

I just don't understand this style of posting, is it simply because people are bored and want to bicker, it can't be genuine.

You and I know it’s fantasy, but headline-grabbing and vote-grabbing headlines are powerful stuff for people with less media / political literacy.