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.

The OP was interested and asked why people have chosen to vote Reform.
I was here to try to understand that better too.

This is a great opportunity for "intelligent, educated, and well-informed people" to explain why they voted how they did today.

Given how many people who voted Reform today you would think we'd be inundated with posters saying why they voted, what policies appealed to them, why they think Reform can follow through on their proposals.

Also, these are local elections. People weren't voting about securing borders. They were voting about bin rounds, street lighting and library opening hours.

They didnt do as well as they say they did. Wait until people find out they'll still get the detention centres that they were told would be stopped go ahead

Where on earth do you get less than 1000 from? Net immigration was 205k last year, it was 406k the year before that.

It’s 4.6 million people in 10 years. Thats the equivalent of a city the size of Manchester and a city the size of Leeds required to house those people. You were right it is simple mathematics though.

If our current government was doing such a good job then why are the majority or British voters moving towards Reform??
They're sick to the back teeth of living in poverty, seeing billions of hard earnt taxpayers money being spent overseas when our own country is literally on its knees and people coming to thos country getting handouts when our own pensioners cant afford to heat their own homes!
Reform might not be the party to make the necessary changes long term but its a start! Hopefully this is the MASSIVE wake-up call our blundering government needs, not just Labour but across all parties.

I know. Would somebody just think of those fossil fuel company shareholders, they have super yachts to run and mansions to build. The move towards renewable, cheaper, sustainable energy is just heartbreaking.

Perfectly put

So you are not British?
I remember this too, as so many working men, particularly in low paid construction jobs, had their wages plummet as Eastern European men came and took work for peanuts.

Looking down your nose is not great, but of course I totally expect it.

I somewhat agree with you. Reforms policies are mainly incoherent and unworkable but rising inequality has left people struggling. Reform spoke to them and they offer plain English “solutions” in soundbites that people can easily digest.

The top 10% own nearly 60% of the wealth in the UK. While Reform successfully has people blaming the lowest 10% (who own 0.2% of the wealth) for all their woes.

It’s a wake up call to more centralist parties. They need to do more for the 50% of the Uk on the bottom who own 5% of the wealth and are now looking in the wrong place for the culprits.

You’ve got your figures mixed up, the top 10% own 42% of wealth in the U.K.
They pay 60% of taxes, which is what you were thinking of.

Reform have explained to the public in plain English how they will changed the country for the better. Thats what people want to hear. Very smart political move when you really think about it.

There are different figures depending on the studies and what is included. But my point is inequality is severe and this is causing anger understandably. People’s standard of living is declining.

So I don’t think sneering and calling people stupid is the answer. I don’t think Reform has the answer either but they want to blow up the status quo in politics and that’s what appeals to people. It’s exactly how Trump got in.

• there’s already the NHS student bursary scheme
• the NHS already uses the independent sector
• Tax relief on private healthcare would only benefit the wealthy and would cost about £2bn
• Right to choose and access to the private sector already exists, all vouchers would do is add admin costs to a scheme already in place.
• Cutting unnecessary managers - do they know how much effort and manpower is needed to keep services running? How do they think clinics and lists get booked, medical staff are managed, infrastructure maintained….?
• Operating theatres already run on weekends. This is mainly for emergencies and specific lists, but in order to operate all theatres all weekends, there would be huge resource and staffing costs.
• Review all contracts - I wish them luck of it - there are literally millions. They’d only be interested in reviewing them to award the juiciest to their fatcat friends.
• Charging for not attending appointments- people DNA for all kinds of reasons. Admin errors meaning they were unaware of the appointment, health issues that mean they are unable to attend at short notice, messages not getting through about cancelling….
• abolishing the race and health observatory would just be straight out racism. Black women are STILL more than 3 times as likely to have a bad outcome in childbirth. People of colour are more likely to have certain types of anaemia. Heart disease is more genetically predisposed in the South Asian community. We SHOULD care about that.
• the pharmacy first scheme has been around for literally years.

Yes I agree. Speaking in plain English is so important. The average reading age in the UK 11/12 years old. Many parties speak and write in a way that is not accessible. That is a real learning for more moderate parties,

The same people who voted for Brexit are now moaning about all the "third world" people coming in to fill in the positions left vacant by the Europeans who left because of Brexit. They were told it would happen but they just said "British people will fill in all the positions" and " its Project Fear".

You CHOSE to have a Bangladeshi man doing a job no Brit would do over a Polish one. Get over it.

Except it's not cheaper - a solar farm over 15 years of it's Government CfD contract would receive around £500k per MW of Government subsidy or for a large 500 MW development £250 million.

But that doesn't take account of the additional cost to bill payers of building the new grid connections to it or the need to build additional and massive amounts of long duration storage to cover times when it's not sunny.

Conversely when it is sunny then there is increasingly more power being produced from solar than there is demand . So it's not even needed. And building more solar won't help you when you do need the power on long dark winter evenings.

Honestly it's totally pointless and costs a lot of money, which goes on your electricity bills and is why the UK has amongst the highest power prices in the world.

Who said anything about fossil fuels?! Not sure if you’re aware but there isn’t only 2 ways to generate electricity….and in the uk solar certainly isn’t the most efficient, especially on the farm land used to grow the majority of the country’s potato’s and carrots 🤦‍♀️

There are 9.12 million British citizens that are economically inactive. Now you may wish to write them all off as unemployable, but I don't.

The reality is that Amazon employs migrant labour for deliveries because they are cheaper. If Amazon didn't have this option then they would either have to pay UK nationals a high enough wage to recruit them or not deliver their stuff. It's really quite simple.

I am British, actually.

The irony in the last decade though, when so many people who initially wanted the Eastern Europeans out or blocked from coming then decided they weren’t so bad after all, and that they were largely hard working and infinitely better than asylum seekers, or the later wave of economic migrants from Africa/Asia/the ME. After Brexit, there was a period of lamenting the large numbers of Eastern Europeans leaving the UK.

Now it is the turn of the next wave of immigrants to have the spotlight on them. There always has to be someone to blame for others perceived misfortunes, and once it was Eastern Europeans, now it’s illegal migrants / asylum seekers - whatever you choose to call them. I’m saying it’s an easy target for a lazy media, and for hopeless, inadequate politicians of all colours - they simply divide the people, and conquer. And we let them.

I never said what my own thoughts were on the subject of immigration, nor do you know which way I lean politically.

It is quite the leap for you to assume I am looking down my nose at anyone.

You clearly have no idea how any of this works. Are you even aware that energy can be stored? That it can be fed back into the grid? Create "negative pricing"?

Clean energy is cheaper and more efficient in the long run and makes us independent and not reliant on fossil fuel which is not infinite. How is getting your energy from sun is not better than paying for oil and coal to some nutter like Trump? Stupid statement.

Are you aware that the salaries paid in many jobs that are taken by immigrants are so low that they are not enough to live on? And are way below what benefits are paying you? And are only profitable if you live in a room with 12 other people and dont have a family?

Eastern Europeans were willing to take them because they came here to earn a bit and then go home. Bangladeshi etc people are doing the same. Brits are staying on benefits, as they simply would not survive on a shitty zero hours wage of a food delivery man.

Edited: If Amazon would ever pay a "living" wage you would be the first one to complain how expensive everything is, and would vote with your feet to buy stuff from temu or some other shady Chinese owned company.

Solar is not why the UK energy bills are high. The reasons for that are very complicated and down to numerous factors but a key one is the price of Gas.

Renewables are expensive to build, but once running they’re less exposed to rising fuel prices than gas or coal.

I’m completely aware. Nobody claims solar alone can power the UK year-round. The point is that cheap daytime solar (solar panels are particularly cheap right now) can reduce gas use and diversify supply, while taking up only a tiny fraction of UK land.

It’s all about having a good mix of an energy supply and not being too reliant upon one.

If it works like that, why do Scotland pay even more than England for electricity yet generate enough from renewables alone? This is proof WE won’t get cheaper electricity we will just get higher food costs to go with our even higher electricity bills, whilst losing our productive farmland and our beautiful countryside.

The OP asked why people are/would vote reform and for those areas massively affected by this, this is the main and often only reason given when asked.

Hmmm - I am aware that electricity can be stored
through batteries and pump storage. Are you aware that average electricity demand in the UK is 32.8 GW. All storage (batteries and PS) capacity is 39GWh which means that on a dark windless winter night if you relied on stored electricity then it would only cover demand for 1 hour 12 minutes. After which there is a blackout.

Negative pricing occurs when renewable electricity generation exceeds demand. The renewable generators fuel inputs are free (wind and solar) so they don't care what price they sell the power for because they get topped by their Government CfD contracts, the cost of which is added to your electricity bill.

Lastly UK solar farms have an average load factor of 11% they are only profitable with subsidies and getting my power from the sun doesn't really help me on a dark winter evening.

Oh I'm very aware of the reasons why UK power prices are amongst the highest in the world and it has a lot to do with renewables.

1. Average UK electricity demand is around 32GW going down to a low of 13GW on summer afternoons and a high of 63GW on winter evenings.
2. UK installed generation capacity is 101GW of which 22GW is solar.
3. So on a sunny summer afternoon supply will exceed demand and wholesale prices will go to zero or negative.
4. Now this doesn't bother the solar generators because if the wholesale price drops to zero or negative he still gets topped up to his Government contract price of £65 paid by bill payers. So yes the consumer benefits from having to pay zero for the wholesale electricity price (instead of the usual price of say £65) but they have to pay an additional subsidy price of £65 meaning they are net the same position.
5. Unfortunately though the more solar you build the more zero and negative prices there are and the more subsidies bill payers have to pay on their electricity bills. Installed solar capacity of 22GW is already in excess of summertime average demand. So every new solar farm with its subsidies simply pushes consumer electricity prices ever higher.