Voting for Reform.the north/south

[Jollyjupiter]

As a proud Northerner i can say 80 per cent of my peer group will vote for Reform in May. Do you think it will be a North v South split?

NHS waiting lists are at their lowest level for 3 years .. it takes time to fix things, but we are moving in the right direction

Labour have done things in two years that reform would never do.

Reluctantly voting for the fascistic right? That sounds unlikely. There is nothing that would persuade me or many others like me to vote for what is clearly morally and ethically wrong, based on historic precedent. People must own their vote and not pretend they're doing it in sorrow.

Don’t tell them that, they don’t like that! I’ve noticed we’re more commonly booking elective surgery at 50-ish weeks than 60-70 at the moment. It’s good but for a lot of people it’s not good enough.

I dont think it will be a north south split.

I live in Surrey which is splitting into two in the local elections, there's rumours that we will have a Liberal West Surrey and Reform East Surrey. I have relatives in Kent that are in a Reform area. I drive to bits of Hampshire that are heavily Reform judging by the flags and posters.

I understand people feel reform is listening to the things they care about. I have less understanding on what the solutions are and how they will work.

I know and look how disastrous that has turned out. Far worse than even the most pessimistic of us could ever have feared.

Pfft. Brexit was won with Russian money and we all know it. It really didn't happen because some people had an opinion that other people didn't like.

Oh give over 😂😂😂 NHS waiting lists down, economy growing, millions of children lifted out of poverty.

Nah - i only know a handful of people who would vote reform (or will admit to it anyway!!), most of my friends are tory supporters and labour supporters who are now so jaded with labour that they are voting tory - mainly because the lib dems and the greens are space cadets 😂

I’ve voted for every party except Labour for years and it made zero difference in my constituency because Labour has dominated it and never lost their seat. In certain areas I don’t believe it makes a difference and this is why we’ve always had safe seats. I don’t have a problem with voting for the policies that I believe in and I also don’t have a problem with admitting that I agree with Reform on certain things such as immigration. The other part of me agrees with Plaid about certain things, mainly issues around how Wales is funded but I don’t think I can bring myself to vote for a party that can’t answer a simple question about what is a woman. For a lot of people they’ll feel caught in the middle with no party that represents them and I don’t think anyone has to justify their voting intentions to anyone else and if anyone asks someone to justify why they voted for a particular party then they are just a twat.

I'm in the north. I won't be voting Reform and none of my close friends will. One or two people I'm less close to might be tempted I think . One is an elderly neighbour who is convinced that you have to be " the right colour" to be treated properly on the NHS. One is someone who's a kind and fundamentally decent person who, when gently challenged about misinformation , says "but I thought that was true. I read it on Facebook".

yeah - actually no, where i am my husband has been on the list for over 1.5 years and counting... still waiting for that op....

Well said.

I'm sick of the excuses that people wheel out to justify voting for the far right.

If you like the far right and want them in power, at least have the courage to own your extreme views.

Yep. The valleys don't need this kind of apathy. With the Caerphilly by-election, it was assumed that either Reform would win or that it would be so close that the votes of a single household could make the difference. As it turned out, Reform weren't even that close. Nobody should be giving up hope here (and nobody in the disadvantaged valleys of south Wales is going to benefit from Reform disrupting the Senedd and ensuring deadlock and stagnation for the term of the parliament).

When your voting intentions are such that they will make life measurably worse for the country I think you should justify them to be honest

Over two years on a waiting list for me. I would have had to give up work if I hadn't paid for private surgery, so hardly "not serious". Mother in A&E for 54 hours in a bay (next to two violent men for some of that time) before being admitted to a ward. My village GP is fine but in the local town people can't get an appointment for weeks. Stop gaslighting people.

My area has been royally fucked since the coal mines closed and numerous parties have been in power since with no change or any desire to create one. Some areas have just been left to rot and will continue to do so no matter who’s in government.

Stop gaslighting me?

My son's life was saved by the NHS too. 10 months in hospital and I didn't once have to worry about insurance or paying for his medical care.

He had cancer and it was heartbreaking in some more American focused parent oncology groups where about 60% of posts were parents in tears worrying about insurance and medical bills.

Coal mines mostly closed between 1984 and 1985. You’re telling me nobody has tried to move on? You think reform will do anything different?

Absolutely. My DM (mid 70s) was waiting over 2 years for a hip replacement. She went from active & healthy to practically housebound & in constant pain. The NHS tried to manage her off the waiting list (a nurse admitted this is what happened).
NHS waiting lists are only going down because the govt are paying for strategies to remove people from the lists, not because patients are actually getting the treatment they need.

This is exactly what has happened in the USA. I am more than happy for people to fuck around and find out here too. For people in the UK to find out:

• That thousands of civil service jobs will be cut including those doing vital public service work
• For good experienced people to be fired and inexperienced narcissists who like to fill their pockets while emptying others to replace them at the most senior levels
• For everyone’s food and energy prices to increase because of irrational and reactive domestic and foreign policies
• For the cost of health care to increase
• For criminals to be pardoned
• For journalists and news sources that provide the checks and balances against those in authority be targeted
• For tax cuts such as those included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to add trillions to national debt
• For insider trading to result in some making millions while a majority experience skyrocketing fuel prices due to poorly thought war
• To have citizens openly killed for taking part in lawful activities without repercussions

Ordinary US citizens may well have had reasonable concerns about rates of legal and illegal immigration but electing an inexperienced and incompetent populist leader was not the answer. They are beginning to realise that now. Trump’s popularity has plummeted because of inept, reactive and self serving policies.

I am really hopeful that people do not fuck around and replicate what’s happening there, here.

Yep, our "Betters" are off again. Looking down their noses rather than opening their ears.

You can still see the EU Funded signs on the Heads of the Valleys road I believe. Not many Westminster politicians worry that much about Wales - if they did, the Barnett formula would have been scrapped a long time ago! It was a really bad move for the Welsh to vote Brexit; entirely against the best interests of the nation.

Are your group aware that local authorities can do fuck all about immigration, benefits and defence? What are reform offering to do for you LOCALLY? I've not a clue what they're proposing roundhere as all they do is bang on about utterly irrelevant national issues the LA have no control over.