Farage has announced that he'll be making an announcement...

[Westfacing]

... an 'emergency' announcement, no less.

Presumably to announce he's finally plucked up courage to put his money were his big mouth is and stand for Parliament, after bottling it!

I know what you mean. One can never say never in politics. On one hand, you'd think that someone without a single achievement to his name could never be Prime Minister, but then again, we voted for Boris. 😱

I think that it is unlikely that he would get in. For a start, they are about 80 odd candidates short of representing all constituencies, and all candidates need to be declared by Friday. After that, he would be dependent on common sense eluding the electorate of 326 constituencies, and I can't see that happening either.

I do suspect he will give the Conservative Party a bloody nose though.

Dominic Cummings wrote extensively at the time (he can’t write any other way tbf) about how it was a deliberate decision from the Leave campaign not to come up with any plan for Brexit because as soon as any solid Brexit plan was written, it would lose votes (as Theresa May discovered). The only way to win the vote for Leave was to sell Brexit as an idea, a vibe, rather than a planned policy. Brexit could be staying in the single market in some voter’s minds while being the hardest Brexit ever in others.

Even more fool on anyone who voted for it really then isn't it?

I agree that everyone had their own view of what would happen, but buttoning it down would only have been a good thing and would have avoided confusion, misinformation, and ultimately the chaos that has transpired.

This is exactly how I feel about Farage and why I think mocking him and his supporters is not the way to go.

Many aren't listened to in the UK. Traditional Labour voters aren't, for a start. Neither are just about managing middle classes, who are not poor enough for help and not wealthy enough to be comfortable.
People living in areas where schools are full to bursting and they can't see a dentist are dismissed as 'bigots'.
People who go without to pay school fees because the only state option is awful are sneered at as their child's future education hangs in the balance.
Meanwhile middle-class Labour voters who can move to access decent state schools in good areas and are not impacted by the housing crisis as they own their own home pat themselves on the back for caring more and having a better moral compass.
They haven't got a clue

I agree
I also think he will affect Labour's predicted landslide too.

Farage, imho, hasn't any positive traits, why should i say otherwise?

He is the Lord Haw Haw for our age.

Even his "drinking a pint" routine is false, he likes red wine.

Why should anyone think someone who hates the EU but went and worked for them as an MEP, earning 100s of '000s, has any admirable qualities? if he is truly anti EU, instead of using it as a vehicle to gain notoriety, he should never have been an MEP... his job was supposed to be to represent the UK in Brussels, not undermine it.

In contrast, i can see some positivity in Bojo, Sunak or even Thatcher but Farage? none at all.

I ve never believed Lab will win by some huge majority, 50 or 60 seats perhaps?

But Reform will help wreck the Tories chances and get quite a few seats too.

He was elected to the EU Parliament on a manifesto of Britain leaving the EU.

He was reelected multiple times. His party came 2nd and then 1st in terms of vote share. I think it's pretty clear that his voters were happy with his performance as an MEP.

It's bizarre that you're upset that somebody who was publicly dedicated to leaving the EU didn't spend his time working to improve the EU.

It's bizarre that you're upset that somebody who was publicly dedicated to leaving the EU didn't spend his time working to improve the EU.

It's bizarre that that somebody who was publicly dedicated to leaving the EU was happy to take money from it for a couple of decades. Or it would be if we were talking about anyone with a moral compass.

I think 50 or 60 seats would be a huge majority win for Labour. They'd be very happy with that.

I wonder what the people who feel they're not being listened to ever actively do to make their voice heard by the people with the power to change things?

It also begs the question of why someone so dedicated to leaving the EU would want to be an MEP? He didn't try to change anything, for which I can see your perspective, however he could just as easily campaigned to leave without taking the money being an MEP. In fact, considering he never showed up, that is largely what he did.

I suspect there were people, and sadly I fell into this category once, who did not appreciate how important the selection of an MEP was. Fortunately, I didn't ever vote for Farage, but I certainly didn't give it the consideration I should have. Little did I know then that it may have been a more important vote than the cross I put in the general election box.

We lobby our MP, or the candidate for the opposition who we would like to be our MP.

I've been to lunch with my MP to let him know exactly how disgruntled I am and what his party would need to do to return me to a normal state of gruntlement. He is a very nice chap, and listened very seriously, and we had a very useful discussion. It's just a shame he represents the wrong party.

I have a lunch Friday with one of the candidates I would like to win, and will be offering some suggestions on how they can win my vote.

"I suspect there were people, and sadly I fell into this category once, who did not appreciate how important the selection of an MEP was."

You do realise that the EU Parliament is the equivalent of the House of Lords and can't actually make any laws? All they can do is accept or reject the laws that are drafted in secret by the unelected European Commission. They can't even amend legislation in the vast majority of cases, so it's just a huge talking shop.

Actually, that isn't correct. The European Parliament is the law making body. The European Commission can also propose laws, but it cannot pass them without the agreement of the European Parliament, and it only takes one to reject a new law.

The European Parliament can also amend proposals made by the commission.

This is what the Irish Government says.

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/government-in-ireland/european-government/eu-law/how-eu-law-works/

EU laws begin at the European Commission (this is called the right of initiative). The European Commission proposes laws, either of its own choosing or based on consultations with other EU institutions, member states or public consultations.
First reading

The proposed law is sent to the European Parliament for its first reading, and is given to the relevant committee to examine. Amendments may be made to the proposed law. The European Parliament votes to either:

Approve the proposal
Approve the proposal with amendments
Reject the proposal

This is known as the parliament’s first reading position.

That's not how the European Parliament put it. Also, the commission does not do anything in secret. It is a collaborative process. The MEPs approve the Commission members.

Regardless, the main point is that nobody can pass any laws without European Parliamentary approval. Which is where the MEPs sit. So they are important as they are our voice for what gets passed or not.

One if the biggest comments I heard in Brexit was about all the laws that the UK had imposed on it. Not a single law was ever imposed on the UK.

Good on you @HappiestSleeping .These options are open to people so I can't quite get it when people do nothing and then say, 'We're not listened to and so we had to wait for someone like Farage to come along and represent us'.

There are 60,000 constituents in the average constituency.

How many lunches can the average MP or candidate eat?

I'm guessing that @HappiestSleeping is moving in social circles that differ from the average Clacton resident.

I am not moving in any social circles. I just made a nuisance of myself until I got what I wanted which was to feel like I've actually done something. I joined a group of local business people who are all affected by the economy as greater numbers mean we get listened to. This is available to anyone, including the residents of Clacton.

I doubt many people have written to their MP, however it's the only way they will know what the electorate think. They don't have ESP.

I suspect if 60,000 people wrote to their MP making a common point, then that MP would be making a noise about it further up the tree.

I write to mine at least once a month - he always replies - helped me with a big fly tipping problem recently when lots of other agencies failed - and he's Conservative - it will be interesting to see if the next incumbent will be as helpful.

Is he standing down?

You don't have to go to lunch to prove your point. There are protest groups, petitions, you can write, mail.......it's not about social circles, it's about standing up for what you believe in, protesting against injustice.

Surely anything's got to be better than waiting for someone like Farage with his appalling track record of representing the people who voted for him.

Seems Labour has adopted all of the deliberately no plan method, lool.