Reform party

[TalkToTheHand123]

Will Reform win any votes at the local elections?

Yes, but hopefully not too many.

Of course. Why do you ask?

I'm wondering if they are going to challenge Labour and Conservative or were a flash in the pan. Labour and Conservstives seem to be clueless and wondered if Reform were any good and serious contenders.

I think they're going to win a lot more than people may think.

I listened to a very interesting analysis from Prof John Curtice who is a gold standard expert in these matters and basically the answer is that Reform will take votes off Labour and the Conservatives but that overall it's the Conservatives who are losing the most votes to Reform and it's not necessarily the case that those votes will translate to seats won.

Labour do badly need to pull their socks up though. They need to stop being so craven over Europe and accept that in a world where the US is no kind of ally, they need to join forces with their nearest powerful economic bloc.

I agree that they may not translate, but according to the polls, Reform are leading and have been steadily increasing in popularity. Starmer's popularity is dropping steadily and Badenoch doesn't seem to be warmed to by voters.

Reform are many things, but they are indisputably a limited company, not a party.

They aren't a political party. They are a limited company. They exist to make money for their owners which no doubt they will. They want to divide the nation and use fear and ignorance to make money and power for themselves.
They no doubt will do well as lots of people are pretty gullible and can't see beyond their popularist policies.
If they can power they will do nothing to improve the lives of the people they used to get them there as they aren't interested in anything other than power and money.

Will they stop the boats?

I doubt anyone can stop the boats. There are many more important issues to worry about than "the boats" anyway.

Like national security? People dying making dangerous journeys?

By God I hope you’re right. What we currently are witnessing in the US ll otherwise be child’s play in comparison.

The number of people eligible to vote who do NOT understand this scares me. I see them all over social media and wonder how they ever go by their daily lives , safely.

Why don’t you tell us honestly what your own opinion is?

It's a shame given everything currently going on: Gaza, Ukraine, the US, disability benefits, pot holes, failing services, the NHS, housing, low wages, rising energy and food bills...that people are fixated on "the boats".We had riots because of "the boats".

Anyone would think you were being manipulated.

Of course they won't. For a start it's a local election. You're voting on potholes, planning and waste collection. And even if this were a general election and they promised to stop the boats, I'd love to see the detail of how exactly they plan to do that.

So you think Labour are doing a good job or Tories would return and do great?

Thousands of unknown people are coming to the country each week, causing security risks and costing the tax payer more and more each day.

It would show Labour the voters were not happy and costing them unnecessary expense which could be spent on potholes.

Stop the boats crossing the Humber? Or the Thames or the Tyne?
These are local elections. It's comments like this that make me worried. Do you understand what local elections are?

Well, those dangerous journeys ramped up when guess what? When we left the EU. Before that we could just ship people arriving on boats straight back to France. So are Reform suggesting we rejoin?

I'd rather elect a local councillor who will actually do some work. God knows we need it. Reform have a very poor record of doing actual work.

So you are being manipulated. Reform have no concrete plan for fixing the country other than "stop the boats" and you think that if they can "stop the boats" we'd be a great and glorious country.

They want to take away our human rights, take us out of the ECHR and the human rights act and privatise the NHS. No doubt they'll get rid off statutory labour laws and won't "stop the boats" but you think they're the answer.

The "plan" that Reform has to "stop the boats" breaches international law. This means that they will get to attempt it once before then being tied up in international courts and costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds, and losing. It will be like the Rwanda debacle, but an even more guaranteed, clear-cut waste of money and time. The solution to this problem is though good foreign policy, and Reform will be an obvious disaster as far as forging or maintaining good relationships with other countries goes.

can you outline how they intend to do that?

Facile remark, of course not.