Seeing that Repulsive Nigel Farage everywhere now

[stonejam]

I don’t like any of them. I’m politically hornless but seeing this turd getting more and more popular would actually make me leave the country.

@rewilded

"People are now taking matters into their own hands and noting footfall at these premises and demanding that they are closed down."

Firstly I am shocked that some people are so naive that they think these are genuine businesses despite having either zero or very few customers, demanding cash in hand and having a procession of blacked windowed high performance cars visit them at all hours.

Secondly despite the best efforts of the locals nothing will actually be done- the police, tax authorities and local government don't have the resources, time, resources or even the incentives to shut these businesses down.

For example local governments are measured on providing the social and environmental benefits to their local area and not stopping money laundering businesses.

I totally agree with the proliferation of Turkish barbers etc being depressing and some sort of con. However, the reason the high streets are full of them is because people have switched to buying all their stuff online instead of shopping local. When the Turkish barbers move out, it’s not going to be nice little British boutiques that replace them.

The rubbish on the streets and lack of council services is due to the vast majority of council money now being spent on social care, which I didn’t notice Nigel having a plan for.

The British values he likes so much that he wants to tear down institutions like the NHS and replace them with USA style insurance models. That he wants to rethink abortion rights based on some crazy thinking about replacememt theory imported from USA think tanks. He craves power and status at any cost.

@noblegiraffe

Actually Reform is the only party to have a specific policy to regenerate the high street shops by abolishing business rates and replacing it with an online sales tax of 4% to level the playing field between physical shops and online retailers.

@noblegiraffe

"The rubbish on the streets and lack of council services is due to the vast majority of council money now being spent on social care, which I didn’t notice Nigel having a plan for."

There is no plan or detailed policy from Reform on how to address social care other than some simplistic sound bite of "respect for our elderly" with no actual detail behind it.

@noblegiraffe

"When the Turkish barbers move out, it’s not going to be nice little British boutiques that replace them."

True but that is no justification for having illegal money laundering businesses washing county lines drug money instead.

He talks a lot of sense. Most people I know voted for him - educated professionals a lot of us with children in private education. We don't want left wing ideology taking over schools and huge tax rises. It's laughable that people pretend he's any worse than any other politician!

@JuniperJungl

"He talks a lot of sense"

Whilst he sends out the simple messages that many people want to hear 👂 f you look at the actual policies I can't see how they would work in practice.

For example "sending illegal migrants back to France" - what happens if France just says "Non"?

Interesting comparing what you have posted to this:

He's the modern day equivalent of the snake oil salesman, unfortunately the human race still fall for the con man, he makes me want to vomit every time I see his face or hear his sanctimonious rambling

How is this any different to Keir who based his success on a load of lies

So we’ll be expected to subsidise high street shops that people won’t use anyway because Amazon is not only way more convenient but also has way, way more choice?

What lies were in Labour's manifesto?

Well that policy will appeal only to a very limited number of voters as the vast majority of the population uses online shopping services and won't want to pay more for them.

@PandoraSox I can't speak for the population, just those that I know 🤷

Interesting contrast though.

I can no longer get worked up about people having very different views to mine.

Yeah, 'Nigel is going to increase the price of your online shopping to try to force you to have to trudge around shops that don't stock that stuff anyway' doesn't sound like a vote winner.

I would bulldoze the town centres and make green spaces and cafes, if people no longer want to go shopping. Anything over what we have now. Keep the shops that are legitimate and remove the rest

Yes or convert former shop premises - where suitable - to flats.

If we ban HMOs.

There has been some research into this, but due to the internal layout of traditional shops, they only lend themselves to large apartments with significant floor areas. This makes conversion projects unviable due to the high price that would be attached to those apartments in less desirable urbanised centres. The optimum solution is to knock them down and start again.

This makes conversion projects unviable due to the high price that would be attached to those apartments in less desirable urbanised centres. The optimum solution is to knock them down and start again.

That’s interesting but I suppose there will be problems if any of the buildings are listed.

I am concerned. With elons money and social media push, I am very worried.

@noblegiraffe

"Yeah, 'Nigel is going to increase the price of your online shopping to try to force you to have to trudge around shops that don't stock that stuff anyway' doesn't sound like a vote winner."

The majority wish to see vibrant town centres with shops they just are willing to pay the higher prices in them.

By removing local business rates you place physical shops on the same level playing field as online stores that don't pay local business rates.

Somehow this loss of tax revenue has to be made up from somewhere hence the online sales tax of 4%.

Besides from a wider economic and social perspective having a physical shop that pays tax, employs local people and makes a vibrant high street creates a bigger economic and societal benefit than say Amazon that offshores its tax liability.