What can an individual do to keep Reform out?

[Thepoliticsofchaos]

I have a young friend (a university student) who is getting depressed about the prospect of Reform getting in next election. He thinks that the UK is fucked, basically. He's left-leaning, I assume a Labour voter. I've advised him to get politically engaged (so that in the future he'll at least be able to feel that he did what he could). He's not the most outgoing of people, though is interested in politics. Can anyone suggest how he could become usefully politically engaged to try to reduce the Reform vote? Not just joining a party and turning up to meetings, but actually doing something?

Can you imagine PMQs when a woman MP spoke? What a patronising, misogynistic, nasty little man he is.

We are fortunate enough to live in a democracy so people can vote as they wish, however odious to others. There's a bi-election on Thursday in Caerphilly (formerly Labour held) and it's neck and neck between Reform and Plaid Cymru. Should be interesting.

Yes there is a by-election and it is an important one for the people of Wales. Crossing my fingers for a Plaid Cymru win. It is going to be a nerve-racking night.

@BIossomtoes his mask really slipped there, didn't it? He is an odious, odious man.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/i-blame-you-mr-powell-32685774

Llyr Powell has caused division within the community - lets hope democracy doesn't vote for further segregation within the community

I suppose a positive of a Reform win would be it would present a chance to see how a Reform MS performs before the Senedd elections next year. The prospect makes me feel sick, though.

Worcestershire has a reform council - its struggling to function and can't understand that building a new school for 26 million is cheaper than the measures of adding extra class rooms to the existing schools at nearer 30 million, added to which school transport for over an hour to get to school and back.

They are not doing too well in Kent either.

The words bitten off more than they can chew spring to mind. At least, regardless of how chaotic they were nationally, the Tories managed local councils pretty efficiently.

Sorry haven’t RTFT so apologies if this has already been raised. As well as all the other campaigning ideas, has anyone mentioned supporting Make Votes Matter, the pressure group for Proportional Representation.

The system is stupidly skewed at the moment. Labour won 33% of the national vote at the last General Election but got 63% of seats in the House of Commons. the First Past the Post (FPTP) system stopped Reform from getting many MPs at the last election, but on current polls, they could break through and gain a disproportionate majority. https://makevotesmatter.org.uk

Warwickshire they campaigned on lowering council tax and then within a month voted to allow council tax to rise over the next 5 years at 5% each year..

plus they are fucking obsessed with flags

Indeed, although I am not a tory fan - they ran Warwickshire in a prudent manner and managed with all the austerity to keep services. If reform go ahead with their austerity plans there will not be services. Already school transport is being looked at, not sure how they will manage if students can't actually get to school

Painful though it is for the people who live in Reform council areas, at least we have the opportunity to see how useless they are when they’re given some power. Their record of “achievement” won’t serve them well when we get to the next GE.

But everyone is useless aren’t they? The Greens are heavily criticised in their area. Labour are heavily criticised in their area. The Tories are criticised in their areas. Plaid Cymru are criticised in their areas. And so on.

How many posts have we seen on here about useless councils not arranging EHCPs or SEN places fast enough, or taxis, or social care?

The underlying reason is frankly our councils are bust and their legal obligations far outstrip their means. No matter who takes the reins they will be dismissed as ‘absolute shit’ because no party can magic resources out of thin air.

So while you can go ahead and call Reform crap when they inevitably fail where so many others have, I think it would be disingenuous to say anyone else could do much better.

The fact is we as a country are skint and everyone just wants more and more.

An honest and blunt assessment of where we are - our spending expectations have outstripped our ability to pay for them.

There has a a great quote by Alexander Tyler from the late 1700s on this:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits, with the result that the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy

So while you can go ahead and call Reform crap when they inevitably fail where so many others have, I think it would be disingenuous to say anyone else could do much better.

But others were and are doing better. Kent was fine until Reform got its hands on it. The difference between them and other parties is that they were elected on promising the moon - they were going to cut waste (there isn’t any) and freeze council tax and lo and behold they’re increasing it by the maximum amount permitted. It’s a classic case of what happens when electoral promises collide with reality.

Very true. And councils and the government are trying to do too much. Which we can't afford.

The costs are huge for councils. Just those things alone and social care.

Unfunded statutory duties are the bane of this country's existence. Legal requirements to provide services for 100% of people deemed eligible for them, with no mechanism to say "look that is simply too expensive".

In a lot of these cases there's an extreme version of the Pareto principle where it costs less to service the first 99 people than to also provide that service to the 100th person. But councils very often do not have the choice to say they cannot afford to offer it to the 100th person.

Unfunded statutory duties are indeed terrible, both for the state and individual. The state will literally go bankrupt trying to service the unserviceable whilst the individual erroneously believes they have some inalienable entitlement to a level of service and provision we simply can't afford. No rights are inalienable. Laws and rules can be changed if something is deemed to be so unsustainable that it risks the stability of our society. I believe we are getting to this point with some policies. The fallout will be awful for some and I do feel very sorry for those that truly bought into the lie that the state could truly shield them from their own or their family's vulnerabilities.

Yet £17bn is given to oil companies each year in subsidies - how come we can afford to give this money to private companies making billions, or the private train companies receiving £13bn annually and the dividend are still going to their share holders - as a country we can afford to fund shareholders but not statutory obligations

home to school transport is projected to reach £3.6bn by 2030 whilst private companies are receiving £30bn

Trying to persuade me how to vote would only have the opposite effect.

Also, people might be surprised at the big following of young people Reform have on TikTok.

These subsidies are incomparable to the rapidly escalating school to transport costs for lots of reasons

Firstly, the so called 'subsidy' offered to oil companies includes money that the state pays to reduce consumer bills. It is also used to fund exploration for new oil that if discovered could generate many billions of revenue to the UK. A figure that would far exceed that subsidy offered. We are also competing in a global market where there are trillions of dollars being pumped into subsidises by many countries.

Almost all train companies will be brought under national control by 2027. Again, the state chooses to subsidise rail travel for obvious economic and environmental reasons. If the rail industry collapsed tomorrow or passengers were asked to pay full cost for travel then this would have huge implications for our labour market, national mobility and economy.

School to home transport is nowhere near such a big hitter from an economic perspective. It's costs are growing rapidly and the benefits of the transport are more limited to the specific individuals and families involved and there are less obvious benefits to wider society.

Thats a big gamble on the if further oil is found, and why are we paying to search for oil whilst lambasting the money towards sustainable energy?

Trains may well be brought back into government ownership - but they aren't presently and at least a billion has gone to shareholders over the last decade in dividend, tax payers money being given away

Trying to persuade me how to vote would only have the opposite effect.

so what happens if someone tries to persuade you to vote Reform and another tries to persuade you to vote Labour? Do you vote green?