Why is there no coverage of reform party policies ?

[Alfreddoeblin]

Just that really. Labour and Tory party to a greater or lesser extent are being scrutinised hugely. The reform party not so much. Why ?

@Thingscanonlygetsunk

"When you say rise of the far right in Europe, you do know that they increased their number of seats by less than 10% of the available seats in the European parliament?"

I'm confused I thought this thread was about the concern over the rise of the right wing in UK and the EU. if they increased the number of their seats by less then 10% then surely it's a non issue and nobody including Macron has anything to worry about.

@srailfonaidraug

"Like or loathe it that's how a democracy works."

"Except when it gets made a mockery of by loudmouthed liars and gullible voters."

So you are only in favour of democracy when it gives you the results you want. When it doesn't then that must be because of loudmouthed liars and gullible voters.

Have you considered for a moment that,whilst you may personally disagree with their views, maybe the voters are making informed decisions and aren't gullible.

Equally all politicians across the spectrum are loud mouthed liars. If they ever told the truth then no one would vote for them and they would always remain a candidate rather than a politician.

@1dayatatime The left are gullible too. Bottomless pits of others hard earned cash so people only work to help others. That’s never a selling point to strve for more and improve productivity.

The ifs is doing a reasonable job of pulling claims apart and no one is being truthful.

As far as I know Macron is President of one of the 27 countries that make up the EU. Whilst thee European Parliament elections showed some countries moving rightward, others moved leftward.

Some people seem to want us to believe that the right is on the march, the reality is much more subtle.

Absolutely agree with this. Well said

I rest my case.

Yes the IFS puts lie the ‘fully costed fully funded’ line Labour have been using over and over. Not sure how they felt so self assured to keep using it.

This is what I feared about the NHS. Money goes on woke or useless projects not on more clinicians or better equipment or environment for patients. Or even more admin staff to make appointments more efficient. Just crap 💩 instead.

I think a lot of people want democracy to give good results for as many people as possible. Yes, some vote just for themselves but many (including me) would like to see an improvement in education, health services, standard of living across the board, not just me.
Are you voting Reform? Do you think those that are, are voting to help many or just themselves? Broadly speaking, which of Reforms policies do you think will help the country - and more importantly, how do you see them enacting those policies if they get in?

Really? What do you consider 'woke' projects? Because I don't see any where I work.

Treating poor people?

@SomersetBrie

I" think a lot of people want democracy to give good results for as many people as possible. Yes, some vote just for themselves but many (including me) would like to see an improvement in education, health services, standard of living across the board, not just me.
Are you voting Reform? Do you think those that are, are voting to help many or just themselves? Broadly speaking, which of Reforms policies do you think will help the country - and more importantly, how do you see them enacting those policies if they get in?"

Firstly and most importantly I love the name!

Answering your last point first in reality Reform could never enact their policies - they are unfunded by about £150 billion. (By way of example Liz Truss managed to cause a crisis on £40 billion of unfunded tax cuts. ) to a lesser degree both Labour , Lib Democrats and Conservatives have unfunded policies of about £8 billion each.

But this doesn't really matter because Reform know that they are never going to get elected into Government so they never have to show the funding.

You have to remember that Reform has very little time to put together a party let alone an election campaign.
So on that basis they should be seen more as lobby or protest group which is not an issue and is no different to say the Greens.

Specifically on their policies:
Freeze on non essential immigration and returning illegal migrants - great sound bite to some but in reality impossible to implement.
Tax cuts for small businesses - a good idea
Scrapping targets for net zero - in reality Gov targets are meaningless so it wouldn't make much difference
£35 billion raid on banks by stopping interest payments on £700 billion of Gov debt - quite a left wing policy for Reform but a really bad idea as it will increase the risk in lending to UK Gov causing interest rates to rise.
Set up a Royal Commission into adult social care - another pointless and meaningless Gov commission that costs a lot but delivers nothing.
Ban transgender ideology in schools - a sound bite but what does it mean in reality.
20 % tax relief on school fees - personally I disagree with VAT on school fees but I would equally disagree with a 20% tax relief on school fees. There are far better ways to spend money on education.
£17 billion extra for the NHS - compared to Conservatives £1 billion extra and Labour £2 billion extra. Absolutely no explanation of where the money is coming from.
Reform of the NHS to a more European health insurance model- probably Reform's strongest policy. Everyone knows the NHS needs to be reformed it's just no politician wants to admit it.
Leave the ECHR - in reality the ECHR has minimal impact on UK law so it's largely irrelevant if the UK is in or out.
Scrap the BBC licence fee - whatever...

So in summary voting for Reform is a protest vote targeting voters concerned about immigration, trans ideology, changing the focus on energy from green to affordable, NHS needs reform not just extra cash.

They are never going to get elected but they will influence the shift to the right for the 2029 election which will be harder left and harder right and very similar to the current French election.

@SomersetBrie

Personally I won't be voting Reform but I can understand why many would.

I also find it unacceptable and divisive and reminiscent of Brexit to describe those that do choose to vote Reform as thick white racists.

Equally describing Reform as fascist is just student politics bullshit buzzwords in place of a structured counter argument and because they can't be bothered to actually understand was fascism is:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#:~:text=Fascism%20(%2F%CB%88f%C3%A6%CA%83,individual%20interests%20for%20the%20perceived

Thank you for providing a detailed response.

I am in agreement that something has to happen with the NHS, something substantial, I am just not sure Reform are the ones to do it. Also education.

After the Brexit fiasco I have been convinced that trying to understand both sides is a better way forward than name calling.

I am concerned that people are voting for Reform assuming that immigration will be stopped instantly, etc etc. So I am interested in their view on what Reform will do that others (the Tories have had a good long run) have not managed to do.

Someone upthread (or on a different Reform thread) said something about Farage never speaking with kindness or compassion. This really rang true with me. Maybe people will say that no politicians are kind or compassionate but his "straight talking" telling it like it is, is only talk, there is no actual desire to help people underneath that. And I think the government should at least be trying to do that.

Because they have no chance of being in power so (luckily) won’t impact on people’s lives. And indeed they have written their policies in that knowledge too - totally unworkable and economically and politically illiterate - knowing they will never be held to account for them.

Reform thinks uk residents will do the job the immigrants do. We have heard all of this before. We don’t have the staff coming in to work on farms etc. Look at care homes. Nhs is “full” of immigrant staff. We cannot manage without them. Brexit has changed the landscape and it’s not now EU. It’s students and health and care who come in. So how do we carry on without them? Anyone voting Reform has to be deluded about employment issues here. As usual it’s following Farage and not thinking through consequences.

In the interests of factual accuracy I would like to point out that Reform is a Ltd Company not a political party and have had exactly the same length of time to get their policies in order as everyone else.

One of the reasons UK residents won't/can't do those jobs is because they are transient, temporary contracts. If you come off benefits to work in them, you then have a wait period before you can claim again making it untenable.

A fair amount of care home staff are agency or bank staff rather than permanent employees on proper fixed contracts.

I hope that this can be fixed so that people can be better off for accepting these types of roles, rather than worse off.

Care home jobs are not transient. Plenty of EU people worked on farms. Nhs isn’t transient. Engineering and building isn’t transient. Could be but doesn’t have to be. DH employed engineers. Full time well paid jobs.

@Thingscanonlygetsunk

"In the interests of factual accuracy I would like to point out that Reform is a Ltd Company not a political party and have had exactly the same length of time to get their policies in order as everyone else."

I'm not disagreeing that it is a limited company but given that are effectively a lobby group, aren't going to get elected, are registered as a political party for the elections and that a limited company setup is unsustainable if they actually get any MPs then it's pretty irrelevant.

For me the structure of a political party is quite important.
For example is the leader democratically elected by members, or do they just appoint themselves?

@Thingscanonlygetsunk Im with you on this. I’ve just been reading an article on the National WW2 museum of New Orleans. There were elections in Germany in the early 30s but taking over isn’t that much of a step in a falling democracy and coalitions that don’t work. So a party can be democratic but support and message matter. FPTP makes coalitions rarer here but if the Right goes further right and Reform is the only survivor, what then? We could lose the sensible centre right. Blaming others in Germany reached unheard of heights of course but the rhetoric planted the seeds of it. I think we need to be very careful.

@Thingscanonlygetsunk

"For example is the leader democratically elected by members, or do they just appoint themselves"

In the case of Reform then Farage as the majority shareholder can just appoint himself (as he did).

However this model becomes completely unworkable once Reform has MPs because each individual MP can say "nah don't think so to Farage" on any topic.

They won’t do that though! The Great White Saviour who must be obeyed has spoken! Most of Reform are sheep.