Reform party

[Gman1]

Is the growing intrest in the reform party a sign that racism is growing in this country and has now become acceptable.

Very odd to see people justify their choice of voting Reform as 'a protest vote'. There were other choices available for 'a protest vote'. Green, Lib Dem's etc.
Once unleashed the attitudes of Reform will not go away.

How could people forget so quickly the support and admiration Farage has for Trump. How could they forget he has done nothing for his own constituency and his stated ambition was to work for Trump in the US, not work in the UK. Lord knows what this country has unleashed.

I'm kind of glad Reform have done so well. It gives their supporters time to to learn before the next GE.

I am aware that I have the luxury of not dealing with Reform candidates, Councils or MPs and my heart goes out to all those people who do have to deal with Reform, but didn't vote for them. I'm not being callous..

@Twinstudy

What a very strange reason for choosing who to vote for.

It’s called freedom to choose. ie democracy.

Well yes, you're free to choose of course. Still think it's a weird reason though. Of all the reasons to vote for someone 'some people on Mumsnet were mean about them' seems like an odd one to me. But like you say, your choice 😀

@Twinstudy

I voted for Conservatives in 2019 because they were the only party to say UK should leave the EU. Labour were a half in and half out party with clowns like Emily Thornberry saying if she was foreign secretary she would get the best deal possible for the UK and then campaign to remain on 5 September 2019 BBC QT. Little wonder they got the worst result in 84 years.

However, Boris and Sunak made a mess of things.

So, in the 2024 GE I voted for Labour as they had the error of their ways by trying to ignore people in 2019. Their manifesto was clear. No CU or SM would be considered and UK would not rejoin the EU.

That seems to be forgotten too and Labour are ignoring people again to their peril as shown in the recent local elections.

So, now it’s reform who got my vote on 1 May 2025. Pleased it helped as Reform won in Durham after almost a century of Labour.

@Twinstudy

I voted for Conservatives in 2019 because they were the only party to say UK should leave the EU. Labour were a half in and half out party with clowns like Emily Thornberry saying if she was foreign secretary she would get the best deal possible for the UK and then campaign to remain on 5 September 2019 BBC QT. Little wonder they got the worst result in 84 years.

However, Boris and Sunak made a mess of things.

So, in the 2024 GE I voted for Labour as they had the error of their ways by trying to ignore people in 2019. Their manifesto was clear. No CU or SM would be considered and UK would not rejoin the EU.

That seems to be forgotten too and Labour are ignoring people again to their peril as shown in the recent local elections.

So, now it’s reform who got my vote on 1 May 2025. Pleased it helped as Reform won in Durham after almost a century of Labour.

@Twinstudy

I voted for Conservatives in 2019 because they were the only party to say UK should leave the EU. Labour were a half in and half out party with clowns like Emily Thornberry saying if she was foreign secretary she would get the best deal possible for the UK and then campaign to remain on 5 September 2019 BBC QT. Little wonder they got the worst result in 84 years.

However, Boris and Sunak made a mess of things.

So, in the 2024 GE I voted for Labour as they had the error of their ways by trying to ignore people in 2019. Their manifesto was clear. No CU or SM would be considered and UK would not rejoin the EU.

That seems to be forgotten too and Labour are ignoring people again to their peril as shown in the recent local elections.

So, now it’s reform who got my vote on 1 May 2025. Pleased it helped as Reform won in Durham after almost a century of Labour.

@Twinstudy

I voted for Conservatives in 2019 because they were the only party to say UK should leave the EU. Labour were a half in and half out party with clowns like Emily Thornberry saying if she was foreign secretary she would get the best deal possible for the UK and then campaign to remain on 5 September 2019 BBC QT. Little wonder they got the worst result in 84 years.

However, Boris and Sunak made a mess of things.

So, in the 2024 GE I voted for Labour as they had the error of their ways by trying to ignore people in 2019. Their manifesto was clear. No CU or SM would be considered and UK would not rejoin the EU.

That seems to be forgotten too and Labour are ignoring people again to their peril as shown in the recent local elections.

So, now it’s reform who got my vote on 1 May 2025. Pleased it helped as Reform won in Durham after almost a century of Labour.

And what have Labour announced today? A trade deal with India whereby Indian workers are exempt from paying NI for 3 years! They've handed Reform a gift

Except that’s not the whole picture. It’s not all Indian workers it’s where they work for an Indian company and are seconded to the UK. They pay their NI in india. It’s reciprocal and a standard part of many trade deals

Of course reform and the right wing press have jumped in with their half truths about it

I'd say it's a pretty fair reflection of the intellectual reasoning powers of the average Reform voter.

The Indian tax agreement only applies to Indians seconded to Britain from a company based in India on a short term basis.

The arrangement doesn’t apply to Indians applying for jobs in Britain.

employees still have to pay a national insurance equivalent tax - just to the Indian government, until their fourth year of living here when it switches to HMG.

The UK already has treaties to prevent double taxation with 50 countries

• quoted from Tom harwood on Twitter

Hold on - you say short term basis and then say after four years….

But why on earth would anyone let boring old facts get in the way of a good right wing dog whistle?

I'm not saying it is, I'm saying the optics are bad at this precise moment.

i think the heavily right wing press, reform populist nonsense and gullibility of huge swathes of the electorate is what’s bad at the moment.

Does this help? I mean it might make those that say it feel good momentarily but for actually getting what someone is after it probably doesn’t.

@EasternStandard

Does this help? I mean it might make those that say it feel good momentarily but for actually getting what someone is after it probably doesn’t.

As always your posts are spot on. Entitlement to vote is solely based on being voting age, currently 18. There are no entrance exams to pass before someone is allowed to vote.

@MrsBennetsPoorNerves

At one time, women were not allowed to vote because they were considered incapable of making such decisions. Would you be happy to return to the days when only the elite are allowed to vote and can dictate who are not allowed to vote?

No, as I've said many times, I would like our education system to do a much better job of teaching people how to evaluate sources and critically analyse the information that they are being fed. Our current failure to teach these skills effectively is immensely damaging to democracy as it creates an electorate that is very vulnerable to the spread of disinformation.

The other question I have around the no NI for short term Indian workers. What about their family. A PP states its short term and then after 4 years of being here they will pay NI in the UK. Doesnt sound short term to me!

Will the families be allowed to come, use the UK services and effectively no costs. That will go down well after the drubbing over the lsat week that Labour got. I really wonder about Starmer. He seems to be clueless and not able to read the room.

I thought after what Streeting said yesterday that they might reverse the WFA. No such luck. Its a terrible thing to have done and its not as though a very elderly person can go and find a job or pick up a few hours work

The point is, the NI exemption will only last for 3 years. If it exceeds that, then it's no longer a short term arrangement and they will start to pay NI as usual.

As far as families are concerned...all dependents will pay the NHS surcharge when they apply for their visas. They will have no recourse to public funds so won't be entitled to claim benefits etc. They may use some services such as schools etc, but they will be paying income tax in the UK so it isn't as if they won't be contributing to these.

People who are in the UK on short term secondments won't be eligible to claim pensions in the UK, and neither will their dependent. Hence paying the equivalent contribution in their home country instead.

I usually avoid Brexit threads as they just look like the same posters sneering and lobbing insults at a few. Not everyone has the same political views, resorting to attacks on intelligence is lazy and counterproductive.

Any society will have a range of education and the people who don’t go on to study further don’t deserve continual mockery and insult. I don’t mean you here as your posts appear informed.

Secondly you can see from the US how capitalising on the educated but sneery to the detriment of people who are workers, maybe lower end wages can be a huge own goal.

This is poorly thought out and sends a terrible message here. Whip the WFA from the very poorest.

Then allow people from another country in with what how many dependants?

Indian families of which I am one tend to have generations living with them.

Would the very elderly be allowed to come, use the NHS - yes I know they will pay a surcharge but really??

This is not poorly thought out, it is a standard clause in trade agreements to allow companies to temporarily second their workers to the other country but retain their own country’s health and pension entitlements. I suggest you wait for the detail to be properly reported and change your news sources. It does not increase immigration quotas. There are 17 other agreements with other countries which have the same clause.

That's not what has happened in the U.S. though- the last 20 years in the U.S. has seen an addiction to amusement, and the culture’s tendency to reduce everything to entertainment, Trump won because he is entertaining, he is a reality TV star at the end of the day. Politics and the work of governments, public administration is boring to people that can experience entertainment everywhere they go- U.S politics is at the mercy of the limited attention span, absentminded and superficial public and this is why Trump won. Reform are exploiting those tendencies here as the reality of their Politics doesn't match the rhetoric but they are banking on the average Reform voter not diving deeper into 'boring' politics!