Reform winning big

[Keirawr]

Reform had a good night, winning county councils, probably will win a mayoral seat and won the parliamentary by election also.

You don’t have to be a Reform voter to acknowledge that they are taking votes off Labour. Or that they are being electorally effective.

No doubt the ‘basket of deplorables’ crowd will be along in a min with their usual quips calling reform voters names, having learned absolutely 0 from Brexit. Insult the voters at your peril.

These same people also totally miss the point that winning is winning. Feeling all moral and superior about ‘oh well, what will they actually do’ changes nothing.

Perhaps those who label everyone that wants immigration limiting as ‘racist’ Will think again. But likely not.

Oh right. I just thinking this can happen anywhere as we are seeing across Europe. No where is "it wouldn't happen here".

More than £23,000 in assets and you fund your own care. Between £23,000 and £14,500 you make a contribution. If you’re going into full time care any property you own is included in your financial assessment unless it meets the strict thresholds for exemption. So as l said, people already have to use their assets to fund their care.

Waking up to what?

Like I say, learned nothing from Brexit.

If you mean, learned nothing from being complacent and losing the referendum, you have a point. If you mean Brexit as a national disaster endeavour, then it's you who have learned nothing because the sunlit uplands have yet to materialise, including on immigration. At the time of the referendum, it was pointed out again and again that freedom of movement with countries that have a similar GDP and cultural outlook was a positive for the UK- not least because the total fluidity meant that the demographics using FOM were much more transient than those coming in with their dependents for the long term (which you have to do without FOM). That, by the way, was an argument that some found racist, arguing that the EU had turned into a white people's club. However you look at it, the objective result of Brexit has been that non-EU, very permanent immigration has shot through the roof. Why do the racist elements in the Conservatives and Reform like Brexit then? Simply because they want to create an underclass of immigrant workers to exploit at will, with no rights and 100% power to arbitrarily deport them. Native workers who cheer on that thought will soon find out that their own rights and prospects are undermined by that too. For all its bluster, I guarantee you that Reform will do nothing to improve life in areas that suffer from economic deprivation. Nothing. All they will do is erode the rule of law for everyone - like their American counterparts and owners. Because sovereignty my arse! The future under Reform is one of vassal to the US, who will be an actual overlord, as opposed to the EU in which we were one of the top players on an equal footing with our partners.

What's there to learn?

You can't call racists, racist otherwise they will double down and vote for a racist party?

Yes you are correct, people are so stupid and mean that they will vote for a bunch of racist, bigoted clowns who have a manifesto that is a joke and has been ripped to pieces and proved completely unworkable several times , so there needs to be a way to engage these voters before Reform win the G.E. - at the moment that seems inevitable.

Populist parties are all the rage at the moment. Reform haven't won big because of their well thought out ways to improve the country, they have won because they know a huge amount of the voting public don't like brown people or lefties.

You are yourself are more interested in ' ha ha you lost' rather than what will be good for the country.

This is a right wing, entitled, pompous country now..I can't see how it ends other than a Tory/Reform coalition at the next election with Farage as PM.

Unfortunately it is easy to imagine the kind of shit show that would result if Fararge was PM Just look at the mess that useless fraud Trump is making in the US.

Refugees are generally housed in hotel rooms, not luxury hotels, just very basic facilities. They received £49.18 per week, reducing to £8.86 if meals are provided. Meals on offer are usually low quality, often unsuitable for dietary requirements and meagre in quantity. Once they get leave to remain, they're given 28 days notice to leave (in practice this often works out as less because of delays in the post and so on) and expected to find private sector housing, including deposit and advance rent, and apply for the relevant benefits whether they're suffering trauma, haven't yet learnt to speak English, have medical issues or know where to access support. I wouldn't be able to cope with that. I admire the people I meet, on a daily basis, who are doing so.

All of what I've said is easily provable. I'm not exaggerating. Whatever the causes of the housing crisis, it's unreasonable to blame them on refugees.

This was a huge swing, but it is far easier for minor parties to win by-elections than seats at GEs.

They have limited resources in terms of people, far fewer members and active supporters than the major parties (although Reform have plenty of money, thanks to a few very rich supporters). Those resources will be thinly spread in a GE, and not concentrated all in one place.

At the last GE, in a couple of south coast constituencies, Labour had literally hundreds of activists from safe Tory constituencies campaigning locally (anecdata, but I was told that in one seat, they had over a thousand people). People came from 30+ miles away, and it was incredibly well organised. This enabled Labour to win seats that had been Tory since time immemorial.

I can't see Reform being able to do the same in a GE.

I voted Reform and I’m so pleased with the results. My mayor hasn’t been announced yet but it’s likely to go to Reform.

OP - you know the responses you will get on here …

“you’re illiterate”
“Racist”
”Reform voters are thick”
“The votes are rigged”

etc etc 🙄

The best one is “these elections don’t mean anything” - yet you could bet your house that the same people would be jumping around in glory if the votes had gone to the left.

This country needs Reform and finally people are starting to realise it

Well, Reform UK is a company limited by guarantee yes. I think this "limited company" thing was part of Labour's lines to take on Reform a year or two ago and people are still parroting it without actually thinking why it matters.

To what? Is everyone in Clacton over the moon since Farage became MP?

It's also 97% white British (the constituency)

The numbers won't be there for reform in a lot of urban areas because the uni party have changed our demographics beyond all recognition..

Could you explain how Reform’s policies will improve your life?

Most people have not got a clue. The local councils have no control over immigration. It’s bins, potholes, street lighting etc

Time for the age range of jury service should apply to voting.

BMW6 · Today 06:32

Perhaps I've misunderstood but isn't the Runcorn & Helsby result a huge swing from Labour, not Conservative? BBC news reporting it as a 17% swing from Labour?

Something like that, yes. I read that they've won by 6 votes and are crowing about what a huge result it is; yet in North Tyneside, where they lost by 444 votes, they say that they didn't really lose.

In any case, though I can't stand them, they've done very well, even where they haven't won.

They would get even more votes if Farage left

Well the “basic hotel rooms with meals included” is still a hell of a lot more than our own homeless get.

Can you imagine how it feels to be sat in a doorway cold and hungry whilst foreigners are coming and going from the hotel opposite?

If you vote for Reform, you support Trump and Putin!

Hope that scares a few people

Legal immigration has gone up and up, as a result of Brexit. We have been importing thousands of people from abroad partly because of Brexit meaning we couldnt import EU workers who would go home. There has also been chronic underfunding of adult skills over many years. We have an obsession with 50% of people doing 'mickey mouse degrees' and going on about why they couldnt be plumbers instead, yet hardly any thought goes into the 50% who dont even go to University. FE has been chronically underfunded and ignored because of our obsession with University. We could be training people into trades and jobs that don't require University education far more cheaply, reduce our reliance on legal immigration and give young people a fulfilling career they could be proud of. We have let employers off the hook when they bemoan lack of skills in the UK as a reason why they need to recruit from abroad yet can't be bothered to train young people.

Probably true but what do you think the significance is?

Reform can have quite an impact without winning a city parliamentary seat. Or a GE. It would be impossible for them to win the next GE anyway. Thats not the concern.

This is an interesting comment. Why do you feel intimidated by a crowd who of men who aren’t speaking English? What has happened within the nation’s psyche to find that intimidating? What has encouraged this feeling within you? Because whilst it’s normal to fear the unknown and find solace in the known it’s not actually a threat?

Ive lived all over and been the English speaker in a place. I’ve lived in London where quite often you can be one of few white faces on the bus. I’ve sat and listened to a plethora of languages around me. It’s never raised a feeling a fear.

I don’t agree with Reform or what they stand for, but I can understand why people vote for them in today’s context. Labour are shit as were the Tories. People are protesting against this. I despise labours lack of courage and action in Gaza so am ok with any party that takes votes away from them.

I think that's a fair comment @Catsandcheeseand probably true to a very large extent.
However, I would say that many of this group of voters and many others up and down the country would no doubt respond by saying that those who have been in charge for several decades have not given a damn about their personal situations nor the country that the inhabit so why would they care at all. Society has been fractured by selfishness and greed and that has undoubtedly come from the top downwards. What did Thatcher say?

If we were still in the EU, we'd have the right to return asylum seekers to the first safe EU country they arrived in, under the Dublin Agreement.

The people who voted for Brexit because they thought it would lead to less immigration were fooled.

Whilst thats true, we also failed to get the homeless into permanent accommodation long before we housed migrants.

So migrants aren't the issue, we are.