2 private donations of £36m each to one political party - is this the future of democracy in a world at the mercy of tech bros?

[IwantToRetire]

Not particularly interested in discussing Reform. As anyone who wants to do that could set up a thread just like there is one about the Greens.

Of course the money could just be frittered away, but do these donations create an imbalance in terms of other parties having a voice, not just now, but when there is the next General Election.

For info (and there may be others) short bios about each man who has donated. Although, if as stated, they don't expect to decide party policy, maybe their personal history doesn't matter.

https://news.sky.com/story/ben-delo-and-christopher-harborne-who-are-reform-uks-two-mega-donors-13584792

Edited to add: I would ask this question if such donations had been made to any other Party, whether Labour, Tory, Greens etc..

Does it say who the respondents represent?

They were resident though.

But since when? That is a key question that will need to be answered.

The very cynical part of me has wondered if this is a set up.

Reform recieves two unprecedented donations the weekend before TROTP Bill is due its third reading in the Lords. Reform knows that if the Bill passes, the donations might need to be handed back. Reform can then cry that it is being targeted by the establishment etc.

Vulgar donations. Gosh, this is all sounding very desperate but will please Farage. That and being underestimated. When will they ever learn?

They may possibly be resident, that has yet to be evidenced. I wonder if they be back paying all the tax that they have chosen to avoid contributing to our country too?

They will have contributed more tax to this country than all of us put together.

Certainly more than Labour voters.

I doubt Nige reads my musings on MN. He is more likely to hang out at that fruit farm place I reckon.🤣

No desperation from me. I find Reform's antics desperate and disgusting, though. Farage's latest video is a vile piece of hate stirring. He is utter trash.

People don't seem to understand that Reform will do whatever these billionaires want them to do. Total deregulation of the financial sector and the energy sector.

Your pensions are fucked if Reform get in. Our economy will be absolutely shot to pieces. We will be reliant on overseas oil and gas and plunged into blackouts as the (already tenuous) energy sector fails.

If you think this has anything to do with democracy, you are willfully blind.

You call it hate stirring and peddling, I call it representing the frustrations of many. Whatever you think, it's not going to go away.

Because its going so very well with Labour in all those areas

This is one of my key objections. I think Nige is using the "frustrations of many" to grab power. He will then serve his funding overlords, whose interests do not align with the frustrations of the many! It is like watching turkeys vote for Christmas.

What are you talking about? Do you have a private pension? Do you like switching the lights on?

These sectors are already planning for worst-case scenarios at the highest levels. But it's basically going to be game over with things hanging by a string. As a country, we will not recover from our economy and energy systems being deregulated.

Up to 90% of our energy has been green energy this year. Reform will scrap all of those contracts and projects. We will be entirely reliant on the interests of overseas billionaires.

Labour couldn’t decide if they wanted to attract wealth creators or vilify them. It looks like Reform caused them jump to the latter.

Even the business secretary is forgetting his role with hyperbolic nonsense.

Absolutely. At the end of his latest hate-filled video the words Wake Up appear. One day his supporters might do so. 🤞

The economy is stuffed. Labour are making it worse. By any metric we are heading for a big crash. Pensions will be decimated.

We have the most expensive power in any advanced economy due to Ed Milliband's ideology.

We have our own oil and gas and don't need to rely on importing expensive fuel.

Reform aren't in government. The most destructive party are.

When are Labour supporters going to wake up?

Nothing lasts forever.

Well said 👏

What is it you want them to wake up to?

No as we know from Labour terms in government.

If Labour are confident they didn’t move here in time they wouldn’t be panicking as much and now swinging to caps or other ways to disallow it.

I just heard a clip from Rayner with the ‘sugar daddies’ line, my god how amateur are these people.

Just recently Burnham did an article trying to claim Labour want to attract wealth creators. That’s gone out the window because Reform really does make them jump.

How does that work when they haven’t lived here for years?

@LuckyHazelFox and @Pineneedlesincarpet what do you think Reform will do to solve all our economic woes?

Well that's true...the money has run out already due to Labour's mad profligacy and we can't borrow much more due to the moron premium that has been slapped on us.