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.

They have won the Runcorn by election - only by 6 votes though.

Farage is all about the soundbites.

Reform have control now of at least two councils which is good. Let's see how they actually perform with a bit of power. Will voters be perplexed when immigration doesn't magically stop in their areas?

DOGE wouldn’t work in this country - we have actual worker protections in place. This means that while you can make staff redundant (in public sector), the amount you pay to do so is eye-watering. Many local government employees have 20+ years of service, and better than statutory redundancy agreements. They also have pension protection if they’re above 50ish. You spend more than you save for the first few years after making staff redundant.

I fully understand how you’re feeling, I would probably feel the same. Saying that I can see why Labour didn’t win, the blame is partially on the behaviour of the previous Labour MP and the low turnout. Email your new MP with your thoughts.

20 pages in and the expected level of responses is going well.

Lots of accusations of racism, calling people names - weird how the tolerant left are always the ones who resort to insults.

My father was a tool maker, free the sausages.

People don’t want “change” - they want to be better off. Unfortunately Reforms cheap fix of kicking out immigrants won’t make people better off as our public services rely on those immigrants to keep the country running, and the cost of living crisis is many decades in the making as the richest %s have taken an ever larger piece of the economic pie.

All Brexit did was ensure that a larger proportion than before of those immigrants are non-EU rather than EU. A slightly weird choice if you don’t want different “foreign” values in Britain, as Europeans are much more culturally aligned with average UK values than India, China and the US, but there you go!

Agree. They need a good dose of economic reality.
Let’s also await the years old twitter posts with Reform councillors doing Nazi salutes or saying Hitler had a point. Or history of domestic violence.

I don’t think Reform plan to build any affordable housing or council housing?

Total opposite of their ideology.

I think the reference was that the number of returns since Labour came to power is the highest it has been in 5 years. So, although they keep coming, Labour are returning them more efficiently than the Conservatives managed to do in recent years.

Which of Reform's policies attract you, other than their immigration policies?

Labour’s smash the gangs is a soundbite. A failing one at that. Their repeated lines are too.

Why are we left wing ? We can just not like Reform and object to their policies because they’re unchallenged and unworkable.

So what? A win is a win. The long game is being played.

That’s not going to do it and BBC Verify already showed why their attempt to use the headline was misleading.

To rub salt in the wound, there are rumblings that the now empty hostel may be used to house asylum seekers.

In my town we've seen an increase in homeless people sleeping rough. At the same time the Marriott hotel was handed over to house asylum seekers.

As is always the way, it's just asylum seeker men. Men who on the daily are just hanging around parks in groups, trying to talk to young girls (except they speak no English so they are just shouting over to them in their own language) which is intimidating and makes people feel their children are not safe, and for some reason also outside the school gates which is near the hotel. I guess mainly because they're nothing else for them to do.

People don't like it. And I don't blame them. It's a separate issue from genuine immigration.

I didn't comment on the efficacy, just that I thought that the post you responded to was making a different point.

Do you hope it fails @EasternStandard is that what you want for the country ?
I don’t understand why some posters want things to get worse and are actively willing
the country to fail.. inexplicable.

Professor Sir John Curtice says that so far, Reform have won 39% of votes counted. Reform has won 79 seats.
Not reasonable to ignore it as a mere protest, I suggest.

What are Reform's proposals for dealing with this?

I despise Farage’s face.
it gives me the absolute rage.

Single males have always been at the bottom rung for support unfortunately but as someone who also works with homeless services (not in UK) their reasons for being on the streets are complex and often just providing a home is not sufficient, they can struggle to sustain it. I believe in the housing first model, but it needs to include supports and a key worker to ensure it is a success for them:

• Permanent, affordable housing;
• Mobile case management and treatment services (mental health, health, and addiction services); and
• A programme philosophy based on client choice and recovery.

I would ask you to clarify what you mean by foreigner?

Single British people are entitled to welfare benefits. If people want to debate these issues and they are real issues not denying it, it is important to try and stick to accurate facts

You're quite obsessed with probing posters on their views about Reform's policies. Of course it doesn't occur to you, in your obsessed bubble that Reform voters feel listened to, at last. That Farage affords space to celebrate being British (English) rather than ashamed. We aren't interested in addressing your demands to justify our voting preference. Why do you vote Labour? Let me guess, you're going to tell me you don't. That's the normal pattern.

Smash the gangs isn’t working. If anyone said that would be the case pre GE the usual backlash. If people believed Labour’s soundbites and thought they’d work that’s their issue.

A PR system (like they have in Scotland and Germany, as well as other places) could certainly work.

But it may not always work out how you would like. For example, take the 2015 election (that was David Cameron and Ed Miliband). Using the same PR system as used in Scotland and Germany would have ended up with no party having an absolute majority so there would need to be a coalition.

The coalition would have been the Conservatives and UKIP (supported by the DUP and the Ulster Unionists).

Can you imagine what a Conservative / UKIP coalition government would have been like in 2015? Nigel Farage as Deputy Prime Minister?
.

The 2019 election result would have been very different. Instead of the conservatives having an outright majority there would be a real rainbow alliance of a coalition with Labour, the SNP, LibDems and Greens all sharing power.

Jeremy Corbyn would have been PM supported by the SNP, LibDems and the Greens. I really hate to imagine what would have come out of that sort of mess.
.

Then moving onto the 2024, Labour wouldn't have had a majority and would have to be in coalition with the LibDems and the SNP (although they could leave the Greens out this time).

You may not think that Labour are great but just imagine if they also had to take into account the ideas of the SNP and LibDems as well.

It is odd, isn't it? Maybe some posters can afford to emigrate if things get bad. I hear Aus is nice.