To be starting to worry that Reform will win next GE?

[TortoiseMantle]

The polls have shown a consistent lead. Is there any realistic chance of Reform actually winning the next election?

I vote Labour, but it’s hard to see how they’ve managed to throw away such a lead in just a year, and it’s hard to see how their polling improves. The Tories maybe have more opportunity for improving, but we’re going to see a Reform government, aren’t we? Nigel Farage is going to be our next PM.

…just to mention a pot of funding has gone in to create an additional 13,000 Construction Apprenticeships. That should help to start to plug that skills gap

And Good News for the Economy this morning.

Largest ever Budget Surplus in January
Retail Sales up
Private Sector Growth at a 22 month high

I’m not sure where you got your figures from as the NHS said it spent £75.5 million per year, where we could just require all immigrants, recent and previous to learn English. But that is just an example.

How about taxis for hotel migrants to the doctors? Or the cost of setting up a hospital dedicated to mutilating young women with a set of cosmetic procedures that have a failure or complication rate if approx 90% and has ended in death? That won’t have been cheap. Not money wisely spent.

Maybe, as this council re-org has been planned for many tears, the plan could have incorporated rescheduling the previous election to be one year early which would have spread it out to a couple of 3 year gaps rather than suddenly realising they want to cancel an election for *reasons totally unrelated to their disastrous performance in the polls. The budgets should already have been in place.

So Govt invites people into the UK on student and work visa's, HK'ers and Ukrainians too, with little to no requirement to speak English.

But when they are ill, wont help them understand what the treatment will be?

The Cons set up Taxis for migrants, Labour have stopped this.

If re-org planned for many years, better ask the Tories why they didn't plan for the election issue etc.

Perhaps Reform shouldn't have challenged the decision and saved us all a load of money? the elections were postponed for 12 months, not 12 years.

Reform did so because they expect to win, not because of "democracy"

https://taxpayersalliance.com/nhs-spending-on-interpreters-and-translation-services/

Whataboutery when your “stats” are challenged really doesn’t help your case.

Hopefully they will win. Labour and Tories need a lesson taught.

Just like they were "taught a lesson" with Brexit? How's that working out? Try being a grown-up and actually thinking about what life will be like when the NHS has been sold off for back-handers and we have no protection against any sex discrimination, disability discrimination, age discrimination or race discrimination. We'll be living and dying in the dark ages.

Where did you get all this from? Perhaps try thinking for yourself rather than repeating soundbite propaganda.

The only way for the centre/centre left to keep Reform out of government is to make an alliance of progressive parties (lab-green-libdems). This is the exact type of coalition that's kept the far right at bay in countries like Germany. Hope voters and parties will be smart enough to see that.

You're being unreasonable . They are 30% in the polls and I will be voting for them. This govt is corrupt and embarrassing

The Greens are not Centre Left or 'progressive' imo.

You can't possibly have missed this - it's been all over the news. Reform have announced (via Suella Braverman) that if they win the next election they will abolish the post of Equalities Minister and will repeal (get rid of) the Equalities Act, which is what gives us all of our rights against discrimination. If you apply for a job it will be perfectly lawful for the company to turn down your application because you're a woman, because you're pregnant, because you're black or you're white, because you're in your fifties, because your breasts aren't big enough (the managing director likes his employees to have big breasts). If your boss asks you about your sex life and tells you to wear very short skirts, you'll just have to put up with it. If you lose your job because you get pregnant, that's just the way it goes. If you have an accident and end up in a wheelchair, you won't be able to ask your employer to install a ramp so that you can get up the couple of steps into the office - they'll just be able to fire you and replace you with someone who isn't in a wheelchair. And so on and so on. They're being very open about this - it's what you'll be voting for.

Talking of corrupt... what do you think about Farage's close friendship with a guy who literally wrote a book entitled 'HOW TO LAUNDER MONEY'?
And what do you think of Reform's pledge to repeal the Equality Act?

24% according to a YouGov poll a few days ago.....

They need your vote.

What qualifies as progressive in your book?

...not only that, the EQ Act protects you from being harassed if you complain about any of the above... all gone.

Maybe not harassing people out of your party and refusing to listen to any opinions or concerns of anyone who deviate from your very narrow belief system. Sounds pretty regressive to me.

@TortoiseMantle , that massive lead was down to our first past the post system which isn’t fit for purpose in my opinion. Labour actually only got 33.7% of the vote but it resulted in 63% of the seats. Therefore their ‘massive lead’ is precarious to say the least, many MPs sitting on the government benches have wafer thin majorities and the left wing vote is threatened by the Greens who appeal to the far left and because of their stance on Gaza the Muslim vote.
There certainly seems to be very substantial support for Reform at present but Labour will limp on (God help us) until they must hold a general election. As the saying goes and has been recently proven, ‘a week is a long time in politics’.

This Government has been an absolute disaster and they not only don’t seem to have a clue how to run the country but they are tone deaf to the concerns of many ordinary people. As it stands I think their chances of forming the next government are slim. My guess as to the result of the next general election is that we will have either a left or right wing coalition government. I pray that it is not the former.

What would that lesson be exactly?

But the far right (and that's what they are) isn't exactly famed for tolerating dissent. Look at what's happening Stateside, where dissenting Republicans actually live in pretty real fear. Numerous interviews with Reps who worked in the previous Republican administration highlight that.

@PuceGreen , you are either ill informed or deliberately spreading misinformation. Please take a look at what Reform have actually said on this subject.

The Far/hard Right and the far/hard Left are far closer to each other than either are to the Centre Left/Right. They both love a bit of authoritarianism.

It’s not ‘whataboutery’ - I gave interpretation example of spending.

I then gave another example. That is not whataboutery.

I don’t know why you think ‘my’ stats were challenged. I quoted directly from the NHS to give pp the correct stats. By all means challenge the NHS on their own stats but that’s all I was providing to PP who quoted an incorrect number from an unspecified source.

Maybe try slowing down and actually reading what’s written and you’ll be less likely to misunderstand what I’ve written so completely.

You didn’t supply any evidence whatsoever. If anything the Taxpayers’ Alliance is likely to inflate the figure. If you can link to figures directly issued by the NHS please do. Until then I’ll stick with the figures that are evidenced.

So Govt invites people into the UK on student and work visa's, HK'ers and Ukrainians too, with little to no requirement to speak English.

While I’m sure most people from those countries actually do speak English - the Ukrainians I met had excellent English, I think it would be wise to strongly encourage people coming here to learn English to facilitate integration, rather then spending ever increasing amounts of money on providing interpreters free for all. A small amount of effort by many individuals would save the British taxpayer a lot of money that could be better spent elsewhere.

It would also help to signal a commitment to being a productive member of society, able to participate fully and work.

Many on the left seem to have an issue with requiring individuals to take responsibility for the contributions they can make to society so this type of push is fiercely resisted.

Ash Sarkar was arguing vehemently for us spending vast amounts of NHS money on ensuring that people from abroad feel ‘comfortable’ in every respect. Never mind the rest of us not being ‘comfortable’ with the overstretched resources.

I don’t really care what you accept. It’s not relevant to the point. Just Google and look at the NHS numbers if you’re that bothered.