To be really worried about Reform?

[FiveHorse]

Just that really. They’re predicted to gain the most from the upcoming elections, if this carries on could we see a reform government at the next general elections? Or is it press scaremongering as usual?

Um…saying you disagree with Reform, even booing or heckling them, isn’t intolerance for anyone’s right to vote. It’s expressing an opinion.

Also, asking civil questions about Reform's policies is not a sign of anger.

Yet Reform voters' opinions are questioned repeatedly on here. Double standards.

Civil questions? It's more like ignorant assumptions about an entire voter base.

What double standards? All views can be questioned. That’s not saying they don’t have a right to vote. It’s saying I don’t agree with their choice of who to vote for. And presumably reform voters disagree with people who would vote for anyone else - so where’s the double standard?

Questions clearly aren’t assumptions.

100% this

No I’m really worried about labour bribing landlords to house immigrants. Housing crisis anyone ???

I think one way is by using forums such as these and also by talking in our own communities to share alternative views on who and what reform actually stand for. That they are not the radical or fresh anti establishment alternative some may feel they are. And that the issues (migration) that some may feel if we’re resolved in ways that reform are suggesting actually won’t lead to improvement of people’s lives nor the economy - a message reform peddle.

in the part of London I work in - in one London borough - every week there are 120-130 new cases / requests for housing. We have a backlog that spans 10 years. People who are seeking homes via council support have a 10 year + wait.

the housing crisis has been created by the following - not immigration.

• in the 1980s thatchers government banned local authorities from using any of the monies captured via rent from social housing to be reused to continue to build new council homes
• at the same time, her government introduced a new scheme called right yo buy - where council tenants or others could buy for knock down prices a council home. This was a vote pleaser but effectively took council homes out of social rent into the private hands and massively reduced council homes stock.
• until the 1980s approximately 1/3 of all homes were rented from the council. The original idea/ point of council homes were that they were for all kinds of tenants providing affordable homes for all. Not just the cheapest homes for those most vulnerable.
• after thatchers government made those changes, council stock massively reduced - they were sold off and councils were banned from using monies to build more homes. This meant that former council homes were now being rented out for loads more and previous council tenants were pushed into the private housing market. Housing benefit that used to be paid to the council for thr rent of councils own properties - a nice virtuous circle - was now being paid to private landlords - another loss of income for councils.
• so, for the past 40 years councils have been banned from using monies captured as outlined above to build new homes. Our current government reversed that ban.
• over the last 40 years we have seen a reduction in actually affordable homes, a reduction in the number of homes aciabke that are affordable for a third of the population and the cost of housing as a result (limited stock vs increased demand) soar.
• the situation with housing has nothing to do with immigration - it has everything to do with previous housing policy and an adherence to free market economic principles.
• labour are not pushing to come for your homes to house immigrants ok - that is not a policy. if reform are pedaling this they are lying and also stoking dangerous messaging that is divisive.

Why is he detestable? He doesn’t have charisma but he seems like a good person who wants to do right thing & is intelligent/ ex lawyer etc. I’m not big into politics , I generally think they all lie and don’t answer questions properly

@Rosie8880 Yep, but try telling that to people in Cornwall who rarely see a brown face... its all caused by x channel migrants & money sent to Gaza.... before that, it was all the fault of the EU...

First thing he did was go after the pensioners the second the disabled you really think he is nice? Gave themselves a pay rise out of that financial black hole too

So you think well off people should get a whole host of benefits?

or that millions of people able to claim benefits just on their say so? assessed by people with no access to medical records and done over the phone?

The genuinely sick will not be affected.

The benefits bill has soared under the Tories, its totally unsustainable, its also very wrong that young people are allowed to fester at home, with little requirement to look for work.

Plus do you really think Reform will be more generous or less....

are you saying you feel these are the reasons or are you saying your Cornish neighbours may feel that the issues with housing down there is due to EU or immigration?

a key issue in Cornwall housing crisis has been thr acceleration and boom in second homes and holiday lets taking a huge percentage of homes out of the market for locals, reducing housing availability for sale and rent & pushing up prices due to demand….

housing overall needs to be regulated… it is in America, Europe… it’s crackers it isn’t here and the minute regulation rears it’s head … the idea is seen as a communist / socialist idea … it’s so not radical it’s just England has been indoctrinated that housing is and should be seen as an asset first, something that can be speculated on, rather than a home first.

Have you seen the criticism of left leaning parties? The Greens are pretty much the only ones who don’t get attacked.

I agree op.
Look at America. It’s not like everyone voted for him, he only had to persuade half the population.

I was genuinely shocked recently when chatting to a neighbour who was doing some carpentry work for me about American politics, when he said “oh all that negative press about Trump is just lies to make him look bad. He’s not racist or sexist, it’s important to control immigration”

This neighbor is the most lovely man, would do anything for anyone, and he’s married to someone from overseas! Mental.

I work in deprived communities around the country and believe me, there are enough unhappy angry people to massively increase Reform’s share of the vote. They are very persuadable. It’s scary. We must all get out there and talk to each other. We must canvas and encourage young people to vote.

@Rosie8880 I didn’t say the housing crisis was down to immigration but where are immigrants supposed to live when as you say there is a backlog of 10+ years for people on the housing register ?? Also it wasn’t reform peddling this it was reported in the media that labour are offering landlords incentives to rent out their properties, which is madness when rentals are so hard to find anyway.

If there’s no improvement on immigration figures I would vote reform - just to get the message across.

If there’s no improvement on immigration figures I would vote reform - just to get the message across

This is why Reform will do well today.

Hiya, isn’t the question where are all those who can’t afford housing supposed to live? Also, when we talk about “immigrants” - what do we mean? There are people that migrate to UK with all different kinds of skills, experience, income levels. I think when the English move abroad they term themselves expats which is funny / odd. I am an immigrant - I was born in Finland, my mum is Finnish, my father is Irish and I have an Irish passport. Many of my pals families migrated here - were invited by English government to rebuild England post war when England was very broken - to staff the nhs, to build roads etc. Also England / the royal family colonized half of the world as part of empire and we still have the commonwealth - so all of those nations are also part of our broader UK family and have a right to live in UK. It’s a weird one as when there is this rhertoric about housing and immigration - what is really being said? Is it that we should not allow housing to legal UK citizens who have migrated here? As that would be a little mad. What really needs to be addressed is the root causes of the housing crisis - which is affordability and the state of the suppression of wages overall. An immediate way to address this is via a wealth tax in those with over £10m in wealth/ assets.
thosr whose homes have been empty of over 5-10 years - essentially those who have bought homes as investments and have no plans to actually live there - the Uber wealthy / corporations - I don’t see a problem with CPO (compulsory purchase order) or ensuring in a time of emergency which we are in to release this housing for social rent.

The problem with Reform is that they manage to wind up a selection of people by pretending that solutions to complex problems are easy. It panders to their sense of victimhood. And some of those people have no cause to feel like victims. Like the guy-very nice-who used to decorate my house. He’s always posting stuff about Starmer being the worst PM we’ve ever had. He was very put out about WFA and how it’s unfair to someone like him who ‘paid in all his life’. Then he’s off on his next cruise. I wouldn’t even begin to talk about the unaffordability of the triple lock, how were aging as a country and unfortunately, immigrants are needed to prop up the system we’ve got-our amicable relationship wouldn’t be amicable any more. Yet he feels he can say racist stuff to my face. That’s Reform. Taking decent people and feeding them full of racist shit making them think that everything is so easy and it’s all Keir Starmer’s fault. Even the grooming gangs.

What are you most worried about when it comes to immigration? What are your fears?

I’m not so sure. A lot of tactical voting to keep them out seems to be planned.

The difference is that Reform voters don't start pearl clutching threads about being worried at other people's concerns which has led to the rise of Reform. Call the party and its voters what you want but they have gained traction. A PP talked about them having 4 seats too many. What arrogance and intolerance and no matter how much you dislike it, the party -not a business, a party - is going nowhere.