To not understand why Farage needs to be so smug and flippant about people losing their job?

[LegUcler]

Just seen reports of the speech in which Nigel Farage tells council staff who are employed on DEI initiatives and climate change to “find new careers”.

I get Reform view these things as a waste of public money, and if they’ve been democratically elected on that mandate, then those departments will be cut.

However, whatever you think of those departments, the people he’s talking about are about to lose their livelihoods. They’ll have bills and families. I’m not saying that means they’re immune to cuts or they shouldn’t lose their jobs. I just don’t know why he feels the need to be so shitty about it.

Same way people fall for my father is a toolmaker line

I think, guessing, a good proportion of the Faragists elected as new councillors will be surprised to discover 1. just what their 'money-wasting' councils spend money on and 2. How little power to influence things they will have. A Great Awakening is on the cards. Sorry for any of you living in affected areas.

Spot on. The contact with reality will be brutal for a lot of them. I can see a flood of resignations and by elections.

I don't think anyone 'fell' for it. Keir Starmer's father genuinely was a tool maker although I admit he said it too often. Farage is a public school educated city trader - not a man of the people.

He is though.

Our council is now fully Reform!

Luckily I work for a different authority because the comments about cancelling WFH for council employees etc would impact my hybrid working arrangement. It will be interesting to see how they implement these new arrangements- we have 8 desks for a team of 20 people....If we were not allowed to work from home where would we be expected to work from? The car park - which also cannot accommodate everyone being office based at the same time....

That’s what’s frustrating though, isn’t it, it’s all soundbites without thinking through the actual implications. Our local authority doesn’t have enough space either, but even beyond that I work in a team that is in the office usually four days a week or close to it, but as a manager there are things that I am much more productive doing from home.

I do see waste in local authorities, meetings of six people when two would do for example, but on the other hand maybe this does allow us the space and the different viewpointsto innovate and develop services in a way that we wouldn’t if everyone was so pressured and working individually all the time, it’s difficult to know. The Gallup survey over many years repeatedly shows that work satisfaction, retention and performance is linked to a statement about having a best friend at work, so sometimes things that are seen as non-productive can actually be the things that make a difference.

I know it mattered to some on mn, maybe it did you.

What a thing to run on, no wonder public mood has swung so much.

That isn’t what the government “ran on”. Put the Ladybird book of politics away for a little while.

I don’t think people care. They want someone who is listening to a main concern.

Smash the gangs is the other line that was used often. Labour are failing on that so increasingly people respond by voting Reform.

Well, it's pretty much enforced reactively through the courts, which isn't perfect but is also more consistent than having an external body to manage it.

Can you point me to the case that went through the Supreme Court? Just curious to see what it's about.

I was merely responding to say that it's true though. Farage is no man of the people, he's enjoyed a very privileged life.

Because...

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky animals and you know it."

Or, put another way, none of us are as dumb as all of us.

It's quite high profile - I'm not sure how you could have missed it

Give us a link then.

It’s the Supreme Court case over the legal definition of a woman.

When Labour took over our county council around 15 years ago, they closed down most of the village and small town libraries making dozens of library staff redundancy. It always happens when there is change of control - the incoming party will always make changes and that will always involve people losing their jobs. Hopefully the money saved will mean they can employ other people doing other work, possibly more important and relevant to their constituents.

I agree with you, it’s easy to find.

I figured as much, just wanted to be clear before I said anything. That being the case, it's largely irrelevant to the provisions relating to Farage's comments.

And neither main party have been tackling money laundering shops such as Turkish barbers, nail bars, american candy shops, crap mobile phone accessory shops, hand car washes, etc., which are now prevalant on shopping areas all over the regions and have been growing in numbers for years. Making previously "naice" shopping streets now unsafe and intimidating and damaging genuine shops nearby! There is so much that's been going wrong for the past 25-30 years that is being ignored/covered up by the London Elite politicians. People want change and Reform are the only party to promise change. It's not rocket science. The main parties need to stop obsessing about their "echo chambers" and spend more time talking to real people out in the regions, and stop their attitude of seeing them as "bigoted women" as per Gordon Brown all those years ago!

Can you explain why it's irrelevant? For the people who don't think it is

Probably for much the same reason as all those on here who smugly and quite horribly discussed the fact that hundreds of corporate NHS staff will lose their jobs this year.

If you work for the public sector it stands to reason that if the public want change, your job might go. No-one that provides a necessary service that most of the council-tax paying public actually want to use, needs to worry about anything. Those employed in made-up non-jobs probably should start updating their CV.

Problem is that the change Reform advertise isn’t exactly detailed or costed is it?

Just like Brexit all over again.

Amazing that coincided with the beginning of Tory austerity and underfunding local government. Who’d have thought it?