To think Count Binface is doing a great job in the Clacton by-election?

[Darker]

Count down to Bin Day!

Count Binface has been out bigging-up Clacton and drawing attention to its potential.

It’s a really positive campaign.

I don’t think he’ll win but I’d love it if he did. I think he’d be brilliant.

And if he doesn’t, I think other candidates could learn a lot from his approach.

Do I vote for Reform?

No. I don't think I'm exactly their target demographic.

Not at all. I am quite happy to embrace those with different views from my own. However when those views approach extremism and incorporate racism, misogyny and sleaze they need to be robustly called out.

The Reform Party saved this tasty announcement for after the election.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz977nxww1jo

Meanwhile Count Binface is going to Edinburgh

https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/count-binface-face-establishment

I’m not surprised it’s sold out.

I do hope it will be (legitimately) filmed and broadcast.

@Darker, yeah, interesting timing. I wonder what that would have done to NFs vote had it been publicised before. Dented it a bit, at least.

Apparently 9627 people in the constituency claim PIP, 18% of working age residents.

Thanks for the stats. I thought it would be significant, given the correlation between poverty and disadvantage and poor mental and physical health.

Bit of a premature announcement really, given the likelihood of by-election 2 on the horizon. The other parties will quite rightly plaster that on all their material. They've introduced a major talking point they won't really want to discuss, I think.

From what I understand, they want employers to take on the burden of benefits for sick workers.

Which, it seems likely, would make anyone with a health condition or disability a very unattractive hire.

Also, bad for businesses and business growth. In the same way that Labours increase in employers NI contributions was blamed for causing issues but times 100.

Agree that Labours NI increase was a bad move.

Yes, but I think recoverable long term for businesses even though I think it has caused issues for businesses hiring in the short term which has impacted young people especially. A mistake but not a catastrophic mistake

Whereas Reforms idea would presumably be a huge deterrent for employing disabled people at all and likely have a big impact on employment levels overall as well. But yay punishing the slackers is worth it in the same way punishing the elite made the pains of Brexit worth it.

It's weird how people say the Left hate business when I can't think of a party more determined to destroy British industry and commerce than Reform.

Many Reform supporters assume that cutting benefits means only for brown people. You can see it, if you brave Twitter, or the Daily Mail comments.

Suicidal empathy. There speak people who have been able to pay for things all their lives. There is nothing they can't cxxp on because it's all alien to them.

Yes, I was thinking that disability and being short of money are probably rather alien concepts to wealthy youngsters like "Posh George" Cottrell, living in a luxury resort in Montenegro among the mega-yachts and enjoying himself with the super-rich in the casinos.

Reform's latest policy/fever dream announcement is yet another warning signal to anybody thinking they're a viable choice at the ballot box. Sounds great right? Get all the scroungers out of bed and off to work! Osborne was right about the neighbours sleeping off a life on benefits and now they need a great big stick to shift them.
But apart from, as others have mentioned, the impact on employability of disabled people, how on earth do Reform propose to administrate this mishmash? Setting up vouchers and services to replace cash payments in a post-austerity landscape, sorting out the "deserving" from the "undeserving" , regular reassessments of the "gravely ill and challenged", two-yearly appointments for everyone on sickness/disability benefits if they've not found work...Madness. Do Reform and their supporters not think that if it was that easy it would have been done already by the succession of neo-liberal governments working in a post-industrial society that have operated over the last few decades?
And how do they propose to enact this legislation? Even if they were to win a landslide (hint: they won't) how would they get it past the second chamber? Henry VIII legislation? Great, let's dismantle democracy! What about opposition from charities and human rights organisations - just to be brushed under the carpet?

Reform voters really do need to think carefully about the implications of their vote on themselves, let alone wider society. Nobody can say they weren't warned.

Tice's constituency Boston and Skegness: 10,357 recipients — approximately 17% of the working-age population.

The average in England and Wales is approximately 9–10% of working-age people.

Sorry, @MNHQ , my post instantly disappeared and I was bemused until I realised that I used a word beginning with C that relates to a certain currency and Farage's mate.

You assume you know the mind of the "Average Reform Voter" but what you say is actually a load of nonsense.

Who do they/you think will be affected by the cuts the most?

How should I know?

I work in the NHS not in Local Government or the Civil Service.

This is a direct attack on ordinary British people, including white British people this time. Most of us don't have rich mates who can spare the odd £5 million to ease our way through life and the vast majority of those of working age are one serious illness/MH crisis/ life changing accident away from needing PIP and other disability benefits. There have already been enough horror stories about people with eg cancer having issues getting the money they need to survive on, this proposed bureaucratic nightmare will just mean more

It’s what they’re all saying on social media. Are you suggesting we don’t believe it and they’re saying it for shits and giggles?

You called it a load of nonsense. I thought you might have some insights into the minds of Reform voters.