If you voted Reform, I would love to know why?

[AplineDaisies]

I am not here to judge so would just like to hear from Reform voters for their reasoning.

Having seen what Rayner has just put out in a statement. They are completely clueless. No mention of welfare reform or stopping the boats. Silly cow.

She should be nowhere near any sort of power position.

People also need to bloody vote, turnout in some areas was 25%. But I didn’t get a vote, as our area was last May and we already have a Reform council.
Haven’t noticed any difference yet, but it has time to go down. But I’m politically homeless.

She did say lots of things about the cost of living, which I’d wager bothers more people than immigration does.

I voted reform because I want the NHS to be privatised and people should be forced to pay for healthcare as they miss appointments and if they pay for it, they will value it more. There are so many freeloaders and I agree that benefits should be stopped so that we can afford to lower taxes. The UK taxes billionaires so much that they are leaving in droves. We need more austerity and cuts to all public services like DOGE in the US, cuts to education and SEN and all public services and less regulation for the free market. Companies should not be hinder by stupidity health and safety and environmental regulation. We need to bring back leaded petrol as there is no proof it was bad, drill baby drill in the North Sea and make deals with Russia to import cheap oil again.

I totally agree that we need camps to concentrate immigrants in Green voting areas and they will need to work to pay for their passage back to their own countries. They should do hard labour and there should be a sign (only in English) that says “Work makes you free” to pay for their fare back to their own countries. We need to keep foreigners in their own areas to stop terrorism and they should wear tags on their clothes to show that they are potential terrorists.

we need to stop woke ideology being taught in schools. Stop all foreigners coming to study in our universities as we do not need their fees. We do not need foreign workers in the NHS or social care or any other industry.

I also agree with Nigel’s crypto policy with light touch regulation so that we become the centre of crypto. He was right on Brexit and we have never had it so good then. We need to stop all trade with Europe and make deals to import cheap food from the US.

My hatred of foreigners is more important that any of these good policies that they have and I am happy to reduce my standard of living just to have a mass deportation programme.

Exactly. I'm more bothered about whether I can feed my children and keep a roof over my head than boats....

Google says councils can influence services like the Royal Mail, though it is not their operational responsibility, of course. Particularly now that they are private.
At the end of the day, such a long wait severely affects the locals.
What PP is saying about how long the post takes to get to them is rather disgusting. They can lose endless appointments, payments, fines, applications deadlines and so on and on....
I think it is comparable to a club that blasts music daily till 4 am. The council does have something to say about that, even if they do not run the club.

So are you saying that people have mild
anxiety and pretend they have severe anxiety?

How do they get the evidence? You need in depth evidence to back up every single claim. Without strong evidence, they don’t believe you and sometimes even if you do have strong evidence they don’t believe you.

When I applied for PIP I had lots of evidence for my anxiety - it was
covered in a lot of detail with lots of examples in my autism diagnosis report (written by a consultant psychiatrist) and was also described in various letters of support. The DWP said that because the treatment I had was counselling and medication prescribed by the GP, that proved that my anxiety was mild and therefore it could not be as bad as I was saying….. even though the psychiatrist described it as ‘severe’. The PIP application process is harsh.

Perhaps if the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government of 2013 had sold it off the service would be better. Yet another example of selling off family silver for a much much poorer service

I imagine the main reason would be that they know their asylum claim would fall.

My husband got a very sharp and quick onset of rheumatoid arthritis ( likely psoriatic) last year. He could not use his hands, barely walk within 2-3 months. He had to use a wheelchair within 5 months. Now getting better with medication and surgery, thanks God!
It has been difficult to get him any benefits, including PIP. He had to present his diagnosis, medication and specialists. Go to several appointments and apppeal the amount he originally got, which was really low.
Maybe we did not know what to say.... but he got all the medical records, plus you can see it with your bare eyes.....
My experience is that is a steep climb and really demoralising, to be honest. We are very grateful for the help he receives now. But it has been a struggle to get here and made me really depressed at times.

Google is wrong. There is nothing whatever that a Council can do about Royal Mail except complain to the regulator Ofcom, which anyone can do.

They have powers to close the nightclub, they do not have any power over Royal Mail.

Or they are here as modern slaves, where someone is keeping them forcibly, having removed their documentation.
It sounds crazy, but they are meant to be thousands of them in UK.
Unbelievable isn't it?

But shouldn’t voters choose councillors and MPs based on what they can actually offer and deliver, rather than simply voting to get a certain party out?

I remember the Conservative Party regaining power in 2010 because people felt they’d had enough of Labour Party. Then, years later, the country felt it had had enough of the Conservatives and swung back to Labour. Now, after only two years, many people already seem frustrated with Labour again.

Maybe if more people read councillors’ commitments and party manifestos instead of voting tactically or as a protest, they could make more informed decisions about who they actually want in power and therefore be less likely to regret their choice before the term they voted for has even finished.

Not Necessarily…obviously there will be some of that going on but sometimes it may be someone who has mild anxiety who still meets the minimum points for PIP if their anxiety means they need certain help day to day. It’s such a subjective benefit, and can all fall down to who looks at your case sometimes. I don’t work there anymore but my eyes were well and truly opened when I did. You have people who need it slipping through the net and other people who are clearly playing the system but get it. Or sometimes just the way PIP works means the not so severely impaired get it over worse conditons such as my cancer patient example.

Someone could have severe anxiety but still be able to get up, get dressed, get washed etc. and someone else may have mild anxiety and mild depression but need prompting to get dressed, washed etc so out of those two people it would be the milder one who gets it.

Like I say, it’s very subjective, and it doesn’t help when there are people on Tik tok etc coaching people what to say or GPs / health professionals not fully understanding the benefit and telling people to claim just because they have a condition. A friend of mine went to their GP with a frozen shoulder who said they could claim PIP, and it’s things like that which cause unnecessary claims that likely won’t meet the criteria. Then people get angry they didn’t get it because a GP told them to claim.

More than thousands.

Something like an extra 400 to 800 thousand is the official figure.

There is some suggestion from food retailers and sewage companies that it's a lot higher than that but I can't currently find the references for that.

I’m sorry to hear that. This is where it falls short, and where sometimes it doesn’t work for certain people.

I personally think they could make the whole process and criteria better.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ceqz1eez12yo

Example here. If it becomes widely spread, it could trigger new laws and regulations that would allow councils to fine the RM. Same as long ago, the councils got the right to fine those making excessive noise, at unfriendly hours.
Not happening yet, but it is a matter serious enough, in my eyes. It is far from acceptable.

Had I voted Reform it would have been because I want to get rich with the crypto billionaires.

You are talking about people coming here legally with a VISA who have had to go through the legal process and prove they have means of taking care of themselves. I dont think many of the voters are up in arms about them.

The people coming here by boat illegally, with no ID, no processing beforehand, no money to look after themselves are getting free housing, free meals, free health care plus little spending money for phones, clothing and transport. These people are costing this country more and more every day. You can't deny that by using a different set of people as your reasoning

If Farage gives me the 5 million, I think about it, ok? We are all humans LOL

I agree with you, but some of the legal ones are staying after their visas have expired, making them illegal immigrants, adding to the burden

Hey guys, just a reminder we shouldn’t mock each other or go up against each other.
We need to come together, and understand each other and appreciate we have differing views and try our best to understand what someone else’s life is like and what they need and why they think a particular party will give them that. Less division amongst us and more understanding. If we understand what someone needs with compassion, we can have a decent conversation and signpost them to the best person to vote for, for their needs.
The ones we need to go up against are the billionaires controlling us through the politicians. Not each other!

It’s telling of the times that we’re in, but I can’t quite be sure if this is satire or not.

Agree, something needs to change. Appointments are getting harder and harder to get. I moved to my area 13 years ago and could get Appointments easily. Now same as you have a long queue at 8am, by the time I get through the Appointments have all gone. Will get a callback if I'm lucky, but often just told to try again the next day. If I get a call and told are in need of a dr visit then the same thing again. Call at 8am, if Appointments are gone then they are gone. As you say this whole process is harder while working. Even though you are paying towards this service through taxes. It is only free to those which don't work enough to cover it.

Missed Appointments are an issue, plus the amount of people wanting Appointments for a cold or the like which requires just a 40p pack of paracetamol, which the NHS often gives at a much greater cost. When I had my DD there were Facebook posts being shared on how you can save money on calpol as the dr would give simular for free. I was disgusted by the attitude back then in my early 20s, these were fully grown adults thinking this attitude is OK

Agree I'm hoping it's satire.. but you never know