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?

Tbf most young people are better off thinking politically for themselves and they don’t need a list from their friend’s mother from mumsnet.

Of course it's a gamble but you have to speculate to accumulate. The potential benefits are huge if it is found. Also remember subsidising energy bills is something we all benefit from.

Yes, privatising the railways has been expensive and in my view a mistake. We are fixing that now.

I don't see how any of the above though is comparable to home to school transport for a minority of children or helps justify it. I'm not saying we don't need some of this kind of transport but the way usage and cost has exploded means we need to look at this and make some changes to make it sustainable.

Crikey, I’d rather eat my own eyeballs than vote Green. Not sure what I’d do in that situation? Set up my own party and run myself?

I'm not trying to persuade him to vote Labour. He's made that decision all by myself. Personally, I didn't vote Labour at the last election.

Mad idea, but maybe I don’t need to be pushed or persuaded. Maybe I can actually read, think, and make my own mind up. Radical, I know. I have my own mind thankfully, and do my own research.

I think that discussing politics with friends and acquaintances is a good thing. We're surrounded by people, and I feel there's something wrong if we don't want or feel able to have discussions about important things with other people. I don't want to sit in front of my computer reading the same confirming stuff the algorithm feeds me, and maybe reading messages in a social media group I've chosen because it agrees with me politically.

And reading stuff online isn't the same as having a challenging conversation.

Particularly the way most people do it which is that someone in your social media group (on "your" side) sends around a shocking example of something the other side said, but it's a YouTube video "takedown" which has been selectively edited to make it look really bad, etc etc. So now you think you've "engaged with the other side".

Seems though if you can research and make your own mind up you wouldn’t be behaving as you stated

It’s was the old “ we don’t have enough money for that”

we have enough money for what we choose to spend it on

i agree in principle that we need to invest and subsidise some industries / for example the loan to JLR to help out the supply chain, which has really suffered collectively

id rather see more subsidise in other entertainment rather than oil, eventually it could become far more economical for consumers

Not entertainment- other energy

Stand for the local town council as a councillor

They are desperate for young people

Look out for co- open vacancies in local borough. There are for someone has left area resigned etc and sometimes you will not need to be voted in until the next local election

You can also stand as an independent if you just want to concentrate on local needs

Was it? Kent was in over 700 million of debt before Reform even took the reins. They’re desperately trying to get the spending under control and it’s a crisis situation for councils as Safety Valve is due to expire.

Then why doesn’t every country just spend on whatever they like and make it an amazing place where everyone has whatever they want?

You sound about 11.

That’s pretty rude. I would think the point is the UK government usually finds endless money to splash when it wants to years of austerity then Michelle Mone and fast track PPE anyone? Are you being deliberately Faux-naif?

Interesting
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BhRLBRR4r/

And how much have they saved? They’re still putting council tax up by the maximum possible. They completely overestimated the amount of fat left, it was all cut at least a decade ago.

Perhaps you should vote them in at Parliament level so they can cut some of the obligations there ;)

I’d rather drink a bottle of bleach and eat my own liver.

Which is how many of us feel about Labour

Same as Labour then. Doesn’t it strike you all are in a total mess? Sadly we absolutely have to make cuts and savings.

Local authorities can’t make cuts and savings in statutory responsibilities. They have to spend that money. Reform didn’t bother to find that out, it promised purges on spending that it can’t deliver. It’s the same for every local authority regardless of which party runs it.

Local authorities absolutely can't do this unilaterally but Reform can certainly do this at a national level if they get enough seats at the next General Election (it's certainly looking that way). In the meantime their Local Authorities can do what they can and blame overspend (quite accurately) on the national rules that they can't legally avoid. Ultimately the voter can decide if they want to blame Reform anyway or if this gives them more impetus to vote in Reform at the next GE so that they can change the law.

I don’t think things are looking too rosy in Kent Council!! The party suspended 4 councillors for supposedly leaking the video of council leader Linden Kemkaran swearing at fellow councillors. I suspect they also suspended them over plans for a vote of no confidence. She wanted to make cuts whilst ignoring the impact & for the team to "just fucking suck it up"
Same in Durham. They couldn't find savings so they've cut council Tax support for the vulnerable at the same time raising it for everyone.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/oct/18/suck-it-up-leaked-video-exposes-bitter-infighting-at-reform-uks-flagship-kent-council

Also it looks like Reform UK failed to pay VAT to HMRC on its sales (tickets, merchandise). About £400k in all. Such a basic error. After all the fuss Reform made about Rachel Reeves too….