Farage to make statement this afternoon …

[AgitaAndroid]

Fingers crossed.

It's not necessarily the opposite. If you have a bigger council you can devolve more power to it from central government. You can't do that with a mishmash of unitary, district and county councils.

I actually agree with getting rid of all the tiers. It's a waste of money to have all these different layers.

But then I am a centralist at heart, I don't like postcode lotteries. If you pay the same taxes you should get the same services.

I think you're deliberately avoiding my question. No problem, your prerogative, but if you don't want to answer, saying so at an earlier point would save a lot of wasted time.

Ours wasn't a merger but a split... And there was a well publicised consultation too. Those facts, so inconvenient.

Ours are being pointlessly re-elected next year to add to the cost of the re-organisation. For someone who criticises the major parties so much he seems to be amazingly keen on wasting taxpayers money.

I’m not sure it’s universally agreed Starmer should go. PLP maybe, but everyone else seems to be annoyed about the complete waste of time this will be.

Yes, thanks. I agree with both of your points. We seem to be rare on here.

I do wonder where some get their information from, and how it is so wildly different from… the actual information.

My council is merging. They are taking local authorities and merging into one. That is factual. Or are you saying Hampshire are lying and rather merger 15 councils into 4 they are actually splitting?

Local government reorganisation and devolution - Rushmoor Borough Council

If as you say they are lying and are actually going to get 30 smaller councils someone should do something.

Are you in Surrey? Yes, there will be two new county councils, but it is still a (pointless, anti-democratic, centralising) merger as all the borough councils are being merged into the two new county councils.

These mergers to create super councils are the exact opposite of the devolution that is now the buzz word.

This doesn't make sense. Devolution doesn't mean devolving to the smallest possible unit, so that we eventually end up with all governmental spending being determined by parish councils.

Not in Surrey. And given that the consensus of the consultation was positive, the public have had their say. Our Reform council want to waste half a million of my taxes fighting to overturn that. Because they're terrified of having more elections in 2 years when they've had enough rope. They're already showing utter unwillingness to be transparent and answer questions. Which is not unexpected, given their leader's reluctance to answer legitimate questions about his financial affairs.

County Durham did this merger back in 2009. It was painless and the only remaining outward sign of it is different coloured bins. It meant less of the inconsistency and duplication that comes with neighbours being under different local authorities and the confusion caused by different layers of councils. It's gone the other way, in the past, when Darlington became a unitary authority in the 90s.

Darlo and Durham are now part of different regional, mayoral combined authorities, which is where the devolution happens. Ours is currently consulting on integrating public transport across the region.

These things are fluid and respond to current needs and running elections shortly before such reorganisations, whether they are mergers, demergers or a complete boundary change, is a waste of time, money and human resources. Not running local elections in councils that will shortly be obsolete is not a conspiracy to keep anyone in or out of power.

But the reorganisation of my large, Conservative council was instigated under the Conservative Government….

No, I don"t think you understand the dynamic with Farage and the public.

The current dynamic is that the public, be they left wing or right wing, are taking the piss out of Farage and are cheering on a 🗑

His supporters will still bat for him, but they are in the minority. He will win Clacton, but his image is shot to smithereens. This will haunt him forever.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/08/more-reform-uk-transactions-worth-millions-reported-to-national-agency

The plot just keeps on thickening, now Jenrick’s under investigation.

Don’t know if this paywall bypass link will work.

https://www.bypasspaywallreader.com/search.html?url=https%3A%2F%2Finews.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Fpolice-launch-investigation-37500-donation-robert-jenrick-campaign-4632944%3Fsrsltid%3DAfmBOorMwn4aqclehBuoy8W7P86bBY7YBCRlvr1nSBt11vJKpa5twXRc

https://bylinetimes.com/2026/04/28/robert-jenricks-alleged-40k-donor-pled-guilty-to-wire-fraud-in-california-ponzi-scheme/

Wouldn’t it be just delicious if the whole load of shady crooks went down? Perhaps that’s what all the talk of 2 tier policing was really about. If rich white men get caught in a web of sophisticated crime they can cry foul. ‘’It was the islamists taking over the establishment!’’

Can’t believe they’ve taken so many people for fools.

So we know that Gary Klopfenstein, based in Chicago, pled guilty to a financial fraud in California in July 2024.

And its acknowledged that when Robert Jenrick was running of the position of Conservative leader in 2024, he accepted £100,000 in donations from a UK-based company called The Spott Fitness, which is now known as The Manna Journey, has zero employees and owes nearly £2 million to a parent entity based in the British Virgin Islands.

According to that article, Phillip Ullman, who was believed to be the origin of the £100,000, alleged last year to the Electoral Commission that £37,500 of it came from Klopfenstein.

If true, that would make it a foreign donation and therefore against UK law.

With the cherry on the top being that the criminal Klopfenstein pled guilty on 19 July 2024, in between his two payments to Spott Fitness on 8 July and 24 July.

So the question is whether that £37,500 really did come from Klopfenstein.

And then there's George Cottrell's mum:

Mother of Farage aide George Cottrell revealed as Reform UK’s biggest donor | Reform UK | The Guardian

That’s just made my day.

All his shouting over people and stamping his feet. Your turn, Robby J.

It all seems to be falling apart nicely 😊

Even the over-excitable Chris Mason, BBC, seems to tone down his article every time I reread it:

Is causing a race involving Count Binface, the Monster Raving Loony Party and not many others the action of a prime minister in waiting? 😈

Isn’t Lawrence Fox standing as well now?