Labour isn't working - Thread 12

[TheNuthatch]

A chat thread for those who don't like this Labour government.

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5419335-labour-isnt-working-thread-11?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

Having just read this, I concur.

https://unherd.com/2025/10/the-march-of-the-undead-tories/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3&utm_source=UnHerd+Today&utm_campaign=84514e3403-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_10_08_08_16&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_79fd0df946-84514e3403-35175049

Sadly i agree. Reform have nabbed many of their policies.
I just don't see Tories recovering in time for next GE

I've just listened to Kemi's speech and two things are apparent. 1) I think Kemi needs to se a voice coach so that she can learn to project her voice better. 2) I may have developed a bit of a girlcrush. She has said everything I have wanted to hear fro a Conservative leader and only mentioned Labour and Reform once!

Excellent that’s more like it. Labour’s Reform conference didn’t even work for them. All that bluster and ire.

Kemi’s policies sound good.

They're throwing residents on the scrap heap here. Only two out of ten residents from our hospital got work. Nationally 37% were thrown out after the first year. 57% at the end of the second year.

BMA solution go on strike. They've had 97% support. I'm so mad on their behalf because I know two young men first and second year residency. Known them since primary school. If they're canned they're off abroad.

Kemi definitely needs to take the approach of treating Starmer, Farage, Davey et al like squabbling school boys and rise above it to project herself as the grown up in the room.

This week I’ve heard 3 Tories (ex-Tories ministers) talking openly about needing to forget about the so-called Red Wall voters and tack back to the traditional centre-right ground: George Osborne, David Gauke and Rory Stewart.

It’ll be interesting to see if that call is heeded.

David Gauke’s piece: https://t.co/9231fwYkLk

They are 100% right. Chasing Reform won't help them

Well Wales set the ball rolling with rent smart Wales. You pay for courses they dream up. You pay for boiler checks annually, electric checks every five years, then another course about the energy rating.

They have now decided to do the same with holiday rental. So more courses, energy checks, boiler checks.

It's all kerching in Wales. Coming to England soon.

Haha my son as a student in Leeds worked there said it was only the benefit folks and students that kept the place going. His girlfriend in a bakery said that only the benefit folks could afford the cakes and cookies.

In Leeds they're not alcohol drinkers, it's soft drinkers and food which is actually more profitable.

The Welsh farmers where we live are voting reform, plaid have abandoned them

Awfulnre residents @justasking111

I am a natural centre-right Tory, and yet I struggle to trust them still.

Perhaps we need a one-term Reform government in the interim. I dont believe that the electorate will accept that the conservatives are the answer after possibly five years of Labour.

Afternoon all. I'll catch up with the thread later (busy at work), but just popping on to say Kemi smashed it today. Her speech was excellent. I hope she gets a poll bounce. So good to hear some positive economic policies, especially as we all stare down the barrel of another Labour budget.

Very little mention of Reform too, which was a welcome change.

I feel the same. After reading everything Kemi is suggesting, my only thought is, why the hell didn't you do all this when in government? It's all well and good to say it now but they had 14 years and didn't do it then. Anyone right of centre has no reason to believe they will do it in 4 years. I think that ship has sailed. The tories fucked up, Labour are fucking up, and as much as it pains me to say it, the electorate want something different. I am certain Reform will be a disaster, but I think we need them in one term to wipe the slate clean and maybe after that, we can return to a more commonsense approach.

We are on the same page. I want to believe and trust in them, but it’s too soon, and I think they lack depth in people. Jenrick is clearly positioning himself on the right, but it looks a trifle theatrical.

Kemi is likeable, and she is evidently gaining in confidence, but they might not be oven-ready in time, to coin a Boris phrase.

It is a shame, as Sunak and Hunt were good - and what’s happened since on trying to get people deported has shown how hard that challenge is from the legal pov. On education policy, the conservatives have a good record. Really let’s face we had the wrong part of the conservatives in power for too long…

My dad always says that we haven't had a Conservative government since Margaret Thatcher. He calls the last 14 years lot wet liberals!

Reading somewhere other ex conservative MPs have knocked on reforms door to join and been turned away for being too wet in the past.

I love your dad 😘

Strategically, it makes more sense to support Reform - a widening gap in the polls will simply drag Starmer to the right in an attempt to head them off.

In turn, that should create fissures within government and party.

Reform are credible opposition, the Tories, currently and for the forseeable, are not.

My dad is quite a character. He's 91 and very astute. He is hilarious when he talks about politics. I have to say I find it hard to disagree with most of what he says 🤣

I hear what people are saying. Rn I’ll take a poll increase as Labour go under more after their conference. I hope they keep losing votes to all the other parties.

If Labour think bashing everyone else will help, it probably won’t but Reform will benefit, they can enjoy that instead.

Surely Labour are at the level of support where it can’t fall much further? Similarly for the tories surely c17-20 percent are the folks who always vote that way because they always have regardless of policy or personality?

it’ll be interesting to see. Both the main parties being down to diehard support levels isn’t great…