Scottish voting coming up soon and I think I am voting reform

[ScroogeMightHaveBeenOnToSomething]

Scottish elections coming up next month. I think I have decided to vote reform.

I guess my reasons are (in no particular order)

1. Policing - I am getting really worried by the lack of law and order. I live in a decent place and there is constant trouble at the bus station at night with buses getting their windows smashed. Police have been seen riding the buses to try and get it under control. However I just don't think our current police force is fit for purpose. The job is too dangerous for what it pays and so it can't attract people. They don't have enough powers to deal with the little scrotes and there is no respect. I mean look at the whole shoplifting chaos and the tik tok riots. The whole thing is start to feel quite dangerous and reform are saying they will have more police with more powers and be more strict with law and order. This is what I want - more jails, more police, tougher sentences, respect brought back
2. Housing. Okay so we all know about the housing situation and it's long been an issue. Tonight I was watching an old episode of 'how to get a council house' and I felt so angry and helpless and outraged. Family of romanians come to UK with no money. Mum and Dad and 5 kids. The dad has no particular skills so has been doing odd jobs at a car wash but currently not working. Both have broken english and missing teeth (in other words I don't think they will find getting work easy). So what does the council decide. Well the man is claiming job seekers allowance which maintains his 'work status' and so because of this and the fact he has 5 kids he gets a 4 bed council house. Presumably paid for then by benefits since neither he or his wife are working. They were both very, very pushy and aggressive and then when they got the house waxing lyrical about 'how generous english people are'. You couldn't make it up. Update on how they were getting on a few months later. Neither parent had started working so them and their 5 children were just in their paid for house living on their benefits with no skills that the UK needed. I mean seriously if you want to see what is wrong with the UK this is a good place to start. British people homeless and this outrage going on. So yes give me reform who can hopefully do a Trump and start rounding the fuckers up. I have no issues with people moving to UK and coming with a plan and money and getting jobs and supporting themselves etc. This family came to the UK with no money, no jobs and literally were outraged when they thought they were not getting their free house. The housing lady said they were getting a house through gritted teeth. I got the impression that it was to shut them up and get rid of them but totally unfair on homeless british people.
3. Benefits/Welfare - well I guess I have touched on that above. I think most of us used to have real sympathy and no issue with real disabled people or genuine out of work people being helped. They were in the minority, it was often short term as it was something they were embarrased about. Now I feel like because there are so 'many of them' I have no empathy at all. Which means the genuine folks are being lumped in with the scroungers and I sort of hate them all now if that makes sense. So another reason for voting reform.

Now I'm no doubt going to get told how terrible I am and that the kids are just having fun throwing bricks at buses, that I'm racist for not wanting unskilled romanians and their 5 children to live life free on our tax pounds. I'll also be a monster for being sick of the benefits issue and woah is me little johnny is going to be out on the streets with his 25 disabilities. Fuck me though. Surely voting for more of this shitshow would be insane.

Will it be better under reform. Yeah probably not but at least it's someone different and it might be better and yes I have read their manifesto.

(By the way one episode of get a council house had a boy with multiple sclerosis and he was getting a council house which of course was right. However you saw him crying and telling his dad he didn't want to live on his own (he was about 20) and it made me think of the posters here who are dead against homes or institutions for their disabled kids. I just thought what a disaster giving this boy a house on his own with careers 4 times a day was going to be (he was in trouble with police alot and was always drunk and getting brought home by them). He was just far too disabled to be living alone even if he was getting a house plus benefits. Sure enough the update was he had been moved into supported accomodation. So for this chap some kind of home was the right place to be and where he wanted to be. I've digressed a bit with this point as it's not really about reform and voting but I just wanted to throw that in there to see why people don't want their kids to go into homes. I mean do they really want to live alone in a council house with benefits. This one definately did not. Anyway might need a seperate thread for that issue or I guess we can discuss both issues here)

since immigrants and housing are very much current issues they are legitimate things to worry about even if I gave a bad example. I mean look at all the demonstrations recently on immigrants. Look at all the posts on housing issues.
I understand the housing issue is far worse now than it was back then as well.

I am hoping reform might actually have a backbone and take some decisive action. The UK is in serious trouble. They have promised tougher law and order so i start with that.

Look, OP, I don't agree with everything you've said but I get why you feel that way, and if there was the slightest chance Reform would do anything to fix any of your issues I would understand, even if not agree with people voting for them.

But they won't. You only have to look at the councils they have taken over, or NF's record, to see that they end up doing the complete opposite of what they've promised - said they would lower council tax but have in fact raised it more than any other party, said Brexit would save hundreds of thousands a week and end illegal immigration but it has instead cost us billions, and immigration has increased.

And those are the things they are promising to fix - they are completely upfront about dismantling the NHS and turning it into a private insurance based system. Google the USA and the cost of an asthma pump or cancer medication or given birth - could you afford that?

If you want a protest vote, write 'fuck you' on your paper. Because if reform gets in I guarantee you whatever you're worried about now, you'll be looking back on as an idyllic dream after 5 years of them in power.

Schools and the NHS are definitely not better.

sorry no scottish election in May. Quite a big deal up here.

You missed “Loony Leftie”, “Snowflake”, “Remoaner” and “Asylum System Apologist” off your GB News-themed bingo card there.

What’s your worry about immigrants? Or do you mean asylum seekers. The two words aren’t interchangeable. The UK won’t function without immigration.

The housing issue is far worse than it was then, yes. Social housing is like hens teeth. But ‘foreigners’ aren’t given priority over British born people.

What are you basing that hope on, I’ve just read the reform Scotland manifesto and it doesn’t address any of your concerns around crime really. Talks about increasing police pay (by virtually nothing), abolishing the hate crime act and giving power to decide sentences to politicians rather than an independent body?

they say they’ll increase prison capacity, but without a plan for how, I’d be suspicious of that

Genuinely are you real or is this a wind up?

I think the poster who said "that's nice dear" earlier had really summed the thread up early doors. What a diatribe.

Thanks for posting a sensible post.

I understand and I do worry about other issues of course.

Re the NHS - I am now of the belief that our current system does not work. Last year I had to pay for a private GP for the first time as it was too stressful to keep phoning up at 8am and have no success. I read horror stories of A&E on here all the time. I'm on the waiting list for over a year for something with the NHS. I honestly not sure we should keep our NHS. I think perhaps a contributory version where yes it is subsidised but we pay for each service too. The NHS was a great idea at the time but with so many people in the UK now, living longer and with some many more conditions being treated it is just not viable the way it is.

I hope we don't go to a completely american system of pay or die but aren't we sort of going that way anyway (just unofficially).

I could write 'fuck you' on my voting paper but really what would that achieve apart from feeling good in the moment.

I figure reform is now a mixture of reform and tory since they all seem to be leaving conservative and going to reform. So I think that might give them some halfway decent people ( well I am praying).

If they screw it up (assuming they have a shot of getting in) then fine I will write fuck you on the next voting paper cos really that will be the end.

i think perhaps they used to be but not anymore. Can't get GP appt for love nor money. Have given up and gone private. Never thought I'd see the day in Scotland where I couldn't get GP appointment.

Education used to be really good in the UK but I don't have any experience of it recently - just what I read on here with all the threads about SEN education etc

why would you think it was a wind up.

Surely if people have worked for a long time and come into genuine need we help them. Just common sense/decency.

For others taking the mick we say sod off. I mean that is what we used to do with our benefits system is it not?

I mean what do you think should happen? I honestly can't see any other way to run it without bankrupting the country.

You know that Father Ted sketch where the guy says "I hear you're a racist now Father" and then the woman with the shopping bags comes on literally apoplectic shouting about the Greeks?

That was really well observed wasn't it ...

Mainly because EU citizens haven’t been able to walk into the country unemployed and claim benefits since the end of free movement, which is coming up six years now.

Also, only paying benefits to people who have worked a long time isn’t going to help the disabled is it. Are we going to euthanise anyone born with a life limiting condition? Or their parents, for daring to give birth to and then go on to care for, someone who won’t be a contributing taxpayer?

What do you think has changed with regards to the benefit system to allow “mick taking”, which was more rigorous in the past?

UC for example has lots of flaws, but it encourages work much more than the old Income Support system, due its tapering.

The amount of benefit fraud really isn’t the straw breaking the financial camels back. We pay the majority of our welfare bill in pensions, in many cases to people who don’t need the help to live, as it’s not means tested. But for some reason the rhetoric always comes back to either foreigners claiming or the idle Brits claiming as a lifestyle choice.

UK is on the bones of it's arse. I mean it really is. I watch lots of current affairs podcasts. We should have an aussie system where you can only come here if you have a certain amount of cash, are below a certain age and have a skillset we want. Then I would welcome them with open arms. No-one else regardless of what we call them.

The country is at breaking point on so many fronts. No enough houses, GP's, police, jobs. Everywhere is too crowded.
We honestly need to stop helping the rest of the world. We are a poor country now, we really are. A small number are very wealthy. The rest are average to poor. Our public services are on their knees.

I am old so remember the nineties well. People phoned up and got a GP appointment the same day. Houses were cheap and plentiful. I had a grant to go to uni and no fees. I had a NHS dentist. Yes there were recessions and strikes and bad times but we somehow had the basics sorted (education, housing, health and law and order). We just have far too many people squashed into a small island now. We need to get the basics sorted out.
I feel very sorry for the young. I feel sorry for genuine disabled people who might get sunk when the welfare ship sinks under the weight.

I am not saying I am voting reform without any reservations but i suppose given the shit show by labour, SNP etc I am prepared to give them a chance. If they are rubbish well I guess we'll be back here again discussing the next election.

Worrying times.

Can't say i ever watched father Ted but yes I know. Here today if you support british people over anyone else you are racist. Imagine people thinking you are racist for wanting the best for your own country. Anyway call me what you like. See you at the ballot box.

Goodness they’ve really done a number on you haven’t they.

None of the things you’re mourning the passing of, are the result of asylum seekers. Not a single one.

Yes, they are worrying times (although can honestly say I’ve never not got a doctors appointment, just struggle to be able to get one at a time that’s convenient now) but the reason for that is decades of underfunding and poor political decisions like selling off the social housing stock.

Scotland doesn’t want your patter.

They 100% are ! Have you lived in England ? I had 3 kids in England the maternity care alone is miles apart , then the actual care , I had my gallbladder removed here after one attack , I had 7 years of attacks in England . My son was 4 years to be diagnosed with autism in England , my daughter 7 months to be diagnosed in Scotland with adhd . If I call my surgery at 8 am I get an appointment the same day , can you do the same in England ? No !
schools , free breakfast club , free after school clubs , cheap uniforms , free school meals up
to year 5 in Scotland , England class with 32 kids , Scotland 15 ….. sorry but unless you live in Glasgow in bad area then everything else is better than England .

Do you even have a local candidate? I understand they are struggling for candidates and Offord is yacht racing @ScroogeMightHaveBeenOnToSomething

So I’m assuming anyone either Down syndrome, autism etc would be left to die according to you ?

thanks for posting again.

Ok I'll read up on that re benefits and EU citizens. I've never claimed benefits before so I am no expert. So why are our benefit bills so high now then.

I think most people would not expect someone born disabled to work a number of years before qualifying. I'm talking about people who get to 18, have a kid, end up on benefits for a while (fine) but then decide they don't ever want to come off them. They are supposed to be temporary for most people.

Pensions I don't mind actually. We will all get them so it's an 'equal' benefit to all of us. Also as the boomers die off there will be less and less old people so with the age of claiming going up, plus frozen personal allowances, plus less old people this cost will actually go down on it's own.

I don't think we can realistically expect old people to be out working and since we all get it eventually it seems fair.

I actually think the biggest problem with our welfare is the councils paying for private rent so housing benefit is huge now. Also having to pay all these top ups because wages don't cover housing costs or living costs. Then yes I think there is an element of people getting benefits for conditions that would have got you laughed out of the office a few years ago. That needs to be fixed.

Regardless of what the reasons are we can't go on with benefits costing more than our income tax receipts. I'm pretty sure even those bad with numbers can see that.

I’ve never seen that and I can get a go app
on the day where I live and wait lists are still miles better than englands ones

My only comfort when I read the fuckwittery posted by many Reform voters is that the people who vote for them will likely feel the full force of the chaos that they unleash. Of course, many innocent people will suffer too, but there is at least some poetic justice in the knowledge that the idiots who put Reform in power will subsequently wake up and wonder what the fuck they have done.

surely if you increase the population of a country by millions everyone is going to struggle more to get access to the same health service.

we have less police now and more population to cover so again how has immigration not contributed to that.

If the country is struggling to cope and public services are breaking down surely you stop letting more people in.

The UK keeps acting like some rich country offering charity to the world and we look really silly now given the state of our own finances.

I'm not sure who 'they' are supposed to be. I've pretty much voted tory my whole life up till now. This is a change for me.