What I would like to ask Reform supporters what are the specific Reform policies they support?

[CurlewKate]

Just that really. I am a Labour voter, and I know what Labour policies I support. I think I know what Conservative and Lib Dem policies their supporters like. I don't know about Reform.

Do you get all your information from FB?

Erm…the OP asked for Reform supporter’s opinions, not yours.

No, the key reason was people like Johnson and Farage lying through their teeth. Remember the bus that promised an extra £350 million a week for the NHS? How they promised to cut immigration but what they actually meant was ending the mutually beneficial ties to the EU, while massively increasing non-EU immigration? They played the thick in this country like a fiddle and we’re still paying for it.

Not this again

Where are these magic places that some of these posters live?

Before anyone gets into it, I'm speaking as a woman who isn't white.

another reason I'm stunned by @MabelRoyds comment is that when I was a child, I was very scared that the BNP would get in and that I would be sent to a country I've never seen and know nothing about.

that was a very long time ago obvs!

The word is ‘radicalised’.

I can't see any way anybody can force a General Election early. Labour has a massive majority and that's not going to change unless half the current MPs resign or die in the near future, leading to hundreds of by-elections. Three years is a long enough time for the Greens and Reform to demonstrate whether they can run local councils in a competent way. I hope people do vote with that in mind when we get to 2029.

I voted for them (in Wales) as they intend to get rid of the bureaucratic red tape that is government quongos created enmasse by Gordon Brown, that prevent every democratically elected party effectively seeing through on their manifestos.
Next election, if reform succeed in this change i will then reassess who i vote for and select the party whose manifesto looks the best overall.

I also voted for them as the alternative - Plaid, have ruled the roost in the council where i am and have been useless, corrupt and overseen appalling abuses, which they brushed under the carpet for decades.

I have no issue whatsoever with planned immigration of highly educated and driven professionals (doctors, health professionals, engineers etc) who generally integrate well. The more the merrier.

They did lie through their teeth. However, lots of people who voted Leave wanted to stop or reduce immigration. Many were deeply confused about this and thought somehow leaving the EU would mean an end to immigration from the Indian subcontinent. The really thick racists thought people from ethnic minorities would be deported. One of the reasons it ended so badly was because the establishment had refused to listen to their concerns. They thought if people weren't openly talking about their concerns that meant the concerns had gone. It didn't. It just meant these people were an easy target for all sorts of manipulation, conspiracy theories and outright lies on social media.

If Tony Blair's government had taken a more sensible approach to immigration from the EU, as most other EU countries, did - if mainstream politicians had listened to people's concerns and tried to address them - who knows where we would be now. Still in the EU, probably.

I have zero confidence that people will become disillusioned with Reform councils from now until then. They’re too blinded by the ‘stop the boats’ rhetoric and will blame immigrants for anything that will (and it will) go wrong.

OP.

Despite being curious to see what a country run by Muslims AND trans people would look like, I'd rather it wasn't our country.

For me it was entirely immigration. My view is that mass illegal/legal immigration from developing countries has damaged our country. This is my priority as a voter and I voted reform despite some of their other policies being personally disadvantageous to me compared to the offerings of alternatives.

And how do you expect your local council to have any impact on immigration?

We can but hope.

Have they said HOW they will cut the “red tape”?

Is it like their promises to “cut council tax”?

What policies did Labour have before the general election that you liked, that they carried out once in office?

Two hours after OP had posted, no one had responded, so I chipped in.

Sorry it didn’t meet with your approval Mum 😂

Feel free to report my contribution to MN. Or you know, just scroll past? 🤷‍♀️

Vague promises to cut red tape worry me. I haven't forgotten the Grenfell fire. A lot of red tape is important because it forces companies, businesses and other organisations to consider health and safety, not just profit and targets.

@Periperi2025 "bureaucratic red tape that is government quongos created enmasse by Gordon Brown, that prevent every democratically elected party effectively seeing through on their manifestos."

can you tell us more about this, please? I'm aware that councils are really stuck in terms of independence, but I'm not quite sure what happened

@DangerQuakeRhinoSnake that made me laugh. However, I'm not sure how many areas there were where it Green vs Reform. I see it get mentioned a lot so there must be far more than I thought. Obviously, I know G&D was one.

Grenfell was decades of outright neglect. You can put in all the red tape you want, but if people are going to ignore basic building safety, it's not going to help

Plus at the time a lot of that type of cladding did pass regulations.

You may well be right, but abolishing the legislation certainly isn't going to help. Not many businesses are going to spend more than the minimum if they don't have to.

I don’t vote Reform, and I really don’t like them for a variety of reasons, but I think it’s blindingly obvious why people vote for them.

Immigration has been the number one public concern for at least a decade now, and both Labour and the Tories have failed to address it, or worse, arrogantly thought that they could ignore people’s concerns.

I doubt that many Reform voters care what Reforms policies are, just so long as they tackle immigration. It’s a protest vote.

I think you’re misunderstanding the role of Reform.

Nobody is voting for them because they think (eg) their education policy is excellent.

They’re doing it because after 30 years of practically begging the government to sort immigration (which in turn majorly impacts housing, infrastructure, rents, education, healthcare…), and nothing being done, they’ve decided it’s worth voting for a party that may be a bit shambolic in all other areas but will ‘sort’ the main problem from which so many others stem.

Once immigration is under control and hopefully net zero pretty much, we will know what can and should be done about our other issues as the population will stabilise and we will be able to forecast long term. Right now we can’t because what will our population be in 10 years? Another 5 million people? 8 million? No fucker knows

A) Studies have not consistently shown that certain groups are disproportionately impacted because of immigration. There is one study which showed a 10% increase in immigration would have an impact on low skilled workers wages to the tune of £1 per year. The studies show an increase in population can lead to a lack of public services, but that even without the increased population our public services would be at a similar level due to a lack of government investment over the decades. Those living in poverty are impacted more by a reduction in immigrant labour because the low paid services that labour supports tends to be services that they are more likely to need which are provided by government agencies. The biggest one being personal care services, but also any of the “gig economy” services.

B) Labours policies have been diluted because the media machine of parties like Conservative and Reform have blown up every single policy as being a terrible one, even when they actually made sense. The reason they have e.g had to roll back cuts to the WFP but managed to implement lifting the two child cap is because it is very difficult to spin the lifting of that cap as a total disaster. Reform’s base are most likely to benefit from it, they would have lost a lot of support if they came out loudly against it.

”Will their policies be workable or not…..Labour’s didn’t add up either” suggests you haven’t looked at the other things they want to do. Getting rid of all the diversity and equity polices, which they say they will, will be of serious detriment to 50% of the nation. They will be targeting things like abortion and family planning services, they want to privatise the NHS. They want to scrap any climate related policies. All of these things will be hugely damaging for the country. If you are happy for this to be the price we pay to get rid of the brown people, then go for it. But don’t pretend they are in the “they’re all as bad as each other, let’s give this bunch a go” category because the downside of their government is much worse than anything you can imagine.

If they got rid of every immigrant currently living in the country, and didn’t allow a single one in, there would be no meaningful improvement on public services, housing etc.

Workers rights.