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 ?

The only factor would be where are the children safest. Either on a journey with the strongest person in the family or staying put with the strongest person in a family. Dicking off without them wouldn't enter my head.

I heard someone representing the Muslim immigrants saying quite genuinely in an interview this week re the grooming gangs that it was natural for men to be attracted to women.

So tell me what all these virile males are going to need with their families across the world

Isn't the pledge from Labour to 'smash the gangs' so it's less about who arrives first they're failing to deliver if numbers go up

That's why Reform will get voters

Smash the Gangs Whack-A-Mole and returning voluntary migrants on the most expensive flights in the world, isn't really turning the tide, is it?

The vast majority of immigrants are legal ones. Wasn't it up to 900k at last count.

They could always give more cash to rwanda and not sending anyone there...

Because they have an entire TV channel devoted to their cause @Nonamenoblame.

Absolutely, legal migration is far too high and the rules are too lax. Last year the migration of migrants worker was dwarfed by the number of family members who accompanied them.

I'm not against migration - not least because my DH is an immigrant 😁 But there needs to be a sensible discussion about the pressure on services and housing and what kind of migration we want.

Meanwhile, illegal immigration is concerning because it is risky, for us and them but Smash the Gangs rhetoric isn't changing anything, is it? It's just talk tough bollocks.

https://news.sky.com/story/boy-14-dies-after-five-stabbed-in-austria-13310330

This is the sort of thing that doesn't help 🤷‍♀️

We'll see how Starmer's policy fares over summer

He can't get close to a deterrent now

If there's one thing that drives Reform votes it's increased numbers

It's the nature of public discourse now to pick the most objectionable opinion and broadcast it everywhere. Gets people nicely riled up and easy to manipulate.

Because no one voted for this current level of immigration and only Reform are promising to stop it. The conservative (small c!) estimate is 7 million more people over the next 8-10 years. That’s INSANE. We have nowhere near the infrastructure for one thing.

Because the other parties don't listen to what the general public want,

Reform are seen as a single issue party largely, and/or a party of protest. I would guess that of the five or six parties that get the largest share of votes, most people could name three or four policies of the others, but not of Reform.

As for migration, what is often missed from ways of reducing it is to properly clamp down on the sources of low income cash in hand work done by those who have overstayed visas or come here in small boats. Licensing of car wash places, nail bars, barbers and any other places that seem to be a source could go some way. I'd also make apps and websites that are enablers, such as Just Eat or Uber, responsible jointly for ensuring no one is used/employed/paid by them who has not the legal right to work here.

@LlynTegid very true, put pressure and checks on the classic employers of illegal immigrants.

Licensing is done for pubs, named individual responsible and any person can only have one, opportunity for people to object as with a planning application. So a model already exists, just have a 'services licence' for defined services.

we need to study history to understand

This isn't the main issue as the majority who arrive are granted asylum

I wouldn't say just white working class. Many people are concerned about the state of the country and Labour's policies. Conservatives aren't a viable alternative seeing as they were in power for 14 years and fucked the country up.

People are sick of it, high taxes and crap services.

Agreed

Eastern we don't know who just floats off to their connections, you can imagine, come over I can get you a job in our pizza place as a driver.
There is a massive shadow class of people that we don't know are here and we only get glimpses like when the water company says it's getting x when there should be z due to over population.

What I don't understand however is what reform could actually do about the boats?
Could they also declare an emergency and get the army down there? What can do with humans on our beaches? They can't pop them back them over the boarder like the USA?
Have war ships stationed in the chanel and boats to take dingy back to France?

I'm just not sure what they can actually do.

"Because no one voted for this current level of immigration"

Au contraire people voted for Brexit which has facilitated it.....

No one especially wanted the EU immigration either but we were told how wonderful it was and we had a skills shortage 🤔

I don't think we did

Don’t be disingenuous. It is widely known that people voted for Brexit as a protest against unfettered levels of immigration. Their vote may not have had the desired effect, but to say that they voted ‘for it’ is ridiculous.

@Walkden echr we are still in the council.