Why on earth are Farage and Reform so popular ?

[Nonamenoblame]

Their ideology is essentially heated up Thatcherism, more deregulation (if that’s possible) and laissez faire light touch for businesses, more cuts to public services because they love an even smaller state, cuts to benefits apart from those for pensioners, no real solution to the immigration issue apart from sinking the small boats.
So why isn’t Farage being challenged ? Everywhere you read that Farage is the next PM in waiting but his policies are a rerun of the last 14 years but worse, they haven’t worked so far, why would they work with a Reform government ? What’s an even worse thought is a Tory/Reform coalition, are we as country daft enough to fall for it ?
And how long would we give a Reform government to turn things around ? 6 months, a year ?

If they fail, they'll fail (#LadyMacbeth), but give them a chance to see if they'll succeed?

Good grief.

Watching Munich last night the fifth attack in 12 months. I'm not surprised it's shifting

Could we possibly retire the "thick racist arseholes" trope, ideally permanently? I think that the native majority population of the UK are generally, if not individually, fairly relaxedly colour blind.

Try harder.

Shwish
Remember the fuss he made when Coutts (yes that's the millionaire's bank) closed his account?

I don't blame him for making a fuss - he was telling the truth when he said he had not been offered an alternative account until after he went public. I looked at one of the reports authorised by NatWest;

Was the Client offered alternative NatWest Group banking facilities?

Yes (at the direction of the former NatWest Group CEO), but only on 29 June 2023, after the Client had "gone public", posting a video on his Twitter account at 11:00 that day saying that an unnamed bank had phoned him a few months ago to tell him it was closing his accounts.

[Prior to that] When ... the WRRC Chair asked the Chair of the Retail Reputational Risk Committee whether the Client would be given a NWB bank account were he to apply for one, the answer was "no".

Not to mention the 40-page dossier on him and the leak to the BBC with inaccurate details about his private bank account. Who wouldn't be making a fuss?

I don't believe for one second anyone could totally get rid of the NHS.

But the model needs to be improved.. We arnt passive! If anyone tried to do something reprehensible we can protest I believe it must remain mostly free but I've been on the end of dispicable care and some good care not good enough.

Someone said to me I'm grateful they saved my elderly mum but they also nearly finished her off.. Not good enough.

It needs reform. If anyone earning over 25 grand would you mind paying 20 quid for a scan??

How many times would you need one, not for pregnancy.

I'm 50 I've had about 10 ish scans.
I could pay 20 quid.

Low ish costs for some things would help enormously.

However I also understand once the cost door is opened the next government can completely fuck that up see tuition fees student loans etc legal aid

@Clavinova the bbc is the backbone of British media trusted around the entire world and people say the media is brainwashing the thick masses when the BBC has a 40 page dossier on farage!

And me. The main two political parties make my blood boil with their lies.
At this rate no party offers me a tiny spectrum of a better life. I consider myself lucky to have lived through a period when you could still run a family home on one income as house prices were much lower. Social mobility was also easy for anyone who wanted it, to achieve. I don't care about myself any more but I do care about the younger generation. Just to have a few politicians who care what the people think, would be nice. Reform are the only party listening to people. And that includes the people outside of London and the Home Counties, of which there are a lot of us.

But Reform are the ones who will make things the hardest for young people, surely? Just not being one of the two main parties doesn't mean they'll actually be BETTER. what is it that makes you think they will?

It was Coutts/NatWest who compiled the dossier, but the BBC who reported an inaccurate story about Farage's personal finances - leaked by the NatWest Group boss to a BBC journalist.

The Farage bank scandal revealed a lot of innocent people who had been treated very badly by Nat West. They had recourse once it was out in the open. For that I'm glad Farage went for them

Me too. I can't stand British banks. It was very enjoyable watching Farage make their pants fall down.

I don't think Garage can be ignored or ignore him to your peril. There has been a disconnect from our elites both politically and institutionally when it comes to migration in this country.

The unassailable mantra is that migration is a positive and anyone who question a the magnitude of impact of migration is a stupid bigoted racist. I think many are fed up of this and want a party who is strong on limiting immigration and won't insult or patronize them.

Mass immigration has lead to question a about whether but I culturism can succeed and whether immigrant culture actually is a threat to our own. We are seeing many examples now how immigrant cultures may be hard to integrate into British society and many are questioning is there is a direct contradiction between British values and those of a foreign culture or relgiion. If so then we should aim to protect values and culture by limiting immigration and the problems of multi culturism that are buried.

You see the rise of the right in Gernany, Italy and France. Today we wake up to JD Vances speech in Munich. The left and non stream parties need to wake up to this growing public and political pressure to reduce immigration now, especially if people whose religion is at odds of democracy , gender equality and other liberal values.

Human traffickers. The journeys are long and dangerous. These are just ones they know about International Organization for Migration

If I had young children, I was malnourished and already exhausted from fleeing a war zone, yes, I might let a stronger family member go first and join them later. Have you ever gone on a long walk and someone has had to leave you and go ahead to get the car? Or have you ever heard of such a thing? It's like that but on a much larger scale.

EDIT: Just to add. If you had small children would you make them walk across continents and/or risk drowning or would you and DH decide one would go and one would stay behind with them? Would you leave him behind and go yourself? Many women on here won't even go out in their own town after dark!

I'm fed up with the constant building on green spaces which is a by product of too much migration however much the pretence is it isn't.

It's not helping the UK

I still wouldn't want to vote reform

@@ExpensiveBiscuits

Totally agree especially the net zero thing

The house price thing also makes me livid. When our own young people cannot afford housing and are not eligible for the "affordable" housing - why not?

I'd be fucking wild if the strongest person in my family fucked off, leaving the most vulnerable defenseless in the land they considered too dangerous to be in.

8% of the uk is built on, leaving 92% countryside. There needs to be a lot of building to house people so you’re going to be erked about this for years to come.

750000 of immigrants annually are students paying for tuition and going home after their studies. They put in large amounts of. Indy to the universities and local economy

there is a total each year of 1.2 or 1.3 million immigrants

but if over half are students leaving, this isn’t as straightforward as you think. They are not living in the housing estates built on green fields

There needs to be a lot of building to house people so you’re going to be erked about this for years to come.

If it annoys enough people they'll just vote to change it, possibly Reform hence the op

Why wouldn't people not be irritated by it

The government keeps banging on about the environment, there is so much pollution and the waterways are in a bad way.

Then the building leads to flooding sometimes

Perhaps the students need the accommodation in town so it pushes out the residents who could also do with the accommodation

Do they go home again?

The students private accommodation here is blooming big houses Victorian terraces that house eight that are pretty unsaleable here for anything else. My son had a room in one. They're cold high ceilings, big rooms. They were so grotty back then. Now they're much posher looking but I daresay still cold.

My son volunteered to clear out the outbuilding at the back and create a patio BBQ area. London landlord agreed so he did it. Hired a skip, used breaker, broke up concrete. Laid flagstone. It was gorgeous. He got a rent credit for that.

So you'd all go together and possibly die on the way. It's an option and it's an option that often leaves just the men left alive so we end up with men arriving here alone.

I'm not saying either way is the right or wrong way to do it, it must be a very difficult decision to make. I'm glad I don't have to make it!