How big can they be?
They won a council by-election in St Helens yesterday, albeit on a miniscule turnout, but Harriet Harman has now said "Nigel Farage could be the leader of the opposition after the next election."
Personally, there's more chance of me buying a Pinks' season-ticket than there is of me voting Reform, but........
I ask you again "How big can they be?"
Spelly.
......but Harriet Harman has now said "Nigel Farage could be the leader of the opposition after the next election."....
/quote]
No way, Spelly - isn't that role earmarked for Starmer?
Another council by-election win for Farage's Followers, and membership through the 100k mark.....................
They're making big noises in British politics, and the Starmer mocking "Freezing this Christmas" getting loads of hits, despite the (non?) impartial Beeb not giving it air time.
I would imagine Reform's leader will enjoy Christmas far more than will the PM!
Spelly.
@spelly Hi Spelly. I know you're a Labour supporter through and through, but honestly, this 6 months or whatever it is has been terrible for the party, with it's popularity going through the floor. All we are seeing are broken promises, U-turns and policies which seem quite nasty. Firstly, the business with private schools. And I ask the question: How many Labour MPs went to, or send their kids to private school ? I would imagine lots. However, the politics of envy only applies to other people's kids it seems. Many are having to take their children out of these schools and put them into the already-overcrowded state education system. I wonder how many private schools will now have to close ?
Alienating farmers: Not a good idea in anybody's book. People will say they should pay the same inheritance tax along with everyone else and that's a fair point. But surely farmers, who feed the nation are a special case. My personal view is that the government are stealthily trying to get their hands on farmland and once famer's families are caned by huge inheritance tax bills, the land will be ripe for the picking, so that 3 Houses Rayner can steam ahead with her plan to concrete over the countryside. By the way, I wonder how many properties are lying empty in the UK already ? Hundreds of thousands at least I would think. And where does 3 Houses think the tradespeople are going to magically appear from to build these houses ? And I wonder how many will actually go to UK citizens. That is a valid concern, because Starmer's promise to "smash the gangs" just seems like another empty promise on top of a load more. I do not believe he has any intention of stopping people coming here, due to the falling birth rate in the UK, which is the lowest ever. Just my opinion but if that is the case he only needs to say that the UK needs people.
Withdrawal of the Winter Fuel Payment: This was so nasty and an extremely vindictive thing to do. Starmer said he was making "the difficult decisions". This wasn't difficult, it was easy, picking on the most vulnerable who cannot fight back. People saying most pensioners they know are rolling in it. Well most of the pensioners I know are on the bones of their arse - many just above the threshold for claiming Pension Credit. So they don't get either. For those people who did not or do not need the WFP, a mechanism should have been put in place long ago for them to reject it, either online or via a phonecall or something. That should have been done well before now.
Rise In Employers NI Contributions: The government gets employers to do it's dirty work for it. Now a reluctance to recruit and massive NI contributions increases. Could it have been so hard just to put a penny on income tax ?
Giving no-strings pay rises to unions: Starmer caves in as we would expect. No surprise there really, but honestly, Mick Lynch and his cronies must be laughing their heads off. Pay rises with nothing in return. All that does is make them come back for more and more and I see this government caving in time and time again.
WASPI Women: A complete and utter betrayal, anyone sensing a pattern now ? The irony of Starmer, Reeves, Rayner and other Labour cronies with their "We Support The WASPI Women" signs, yet once in power, it's a different story.
The Economy: Absolutely tanking under Reeves. No growth at all and none forcast in the short term.
Milliband: The less said about the man the better. Lives in a dream world. If there's any countryside left after 3 Houses has finished building her 1.5 million houses, he'll see to it that the remainder is covered in solar panels, all while China, The USA, Russia, India and others carry on polluting the earth like there's no tomorrow. I wonder if he'll do anything about reducing peoples already through-the-roof energy bills when he has a moment ? I very much doubt it.
That's just off the top of my head Spelly and it's like War And Peace so I'll stop. Would appreciate your comments. I'm not really surprised that there's been a surge in popularity with Reform. We did need change after 14 years of Tory failings, but I doubt people had the aforementioned in mind. I feel really let down by Starmer, he's not the politician or the man I thought he was.
Anyway, Merry Xmas to all and a happy new year !
@carpet-crawler A long post, and a hugely sensible one as well!
I am as disillusioned (if not more) with the (leaders of) the (my) party as when Teflon Tony danced to Bush's puppet string pulling over Iraq!
As a pensioner (who pays tax on my private pensions) I've been kicked in the wotsits with the withdrawal of the Winter fuel payment.
I mention the word "loyalty" regularly on this forum, and the PM and his lieutenants are testing my loyalty to the extreme!
When I was working, my boss once said to me "Spelly, loyalty is your biggest asset, and also your biggest failing!"
I've never smoked, and also not had a drink for fifteen years. My house is long since paid for, so the majority of my "spare" dosh goes on RL.
I totally accept that there's people who are (a lot) worse off than me, but....................
Going back to the title of this thread, if the current government continues on its downward spiral, the chances of the MP for Clacton taking the keys of the most famous front door in the land come the next General election, is far from remote!
Honest enough answer mate?
Spelly.
You couldnt put a fag paper between the current Labour shysters and the previous tory lot because neither mainstream party has the interests of the British people at heart
They both take their orders from the Globalists and just implement the policies they are told.
Country first , party second was the war cry from the party who's first act was cancel the licence for offshore drilling and plough billions into following the UN - IPCC Net Zero con, the biggest lie in history, turning their back on cheap energy for us whilst sending 11 billion abroad to "third world countries" to help them cut carbon emissions.
We have just hit the one billion in subsidies for the 4th windfarm in this country, that is the tax payer has paid out more one billion each to keep these four windfarms going whilst also paying through the roof for the most expensive electricity in Europe, after we had to subsidise the last lot of bids for the latest "cheap GB energy" farce because no one could make it work in a free market, and the irony...when the wind doesnt blow they use up more energy than they produce to keep active and need diesel generators to keep the sails moving in cold weather.
If it wasnt so serious it would be laughable, car manufacturers who cant sell cars because they have not hit their electric quota and get fined £15,000 for every car they sell that diminishes that percentage, one that is due to go up to 30% soon
Billions spent to keep the war in Ukraine going so Little Russians can kill Big Russians, hundreds of millions so Israel can keep up its Genocide and a few more hundred million to bomb the people of Yemen but you know....we have no money so up goes NI, bye bye winter fuel payment, lets legalise Euthanasia cos that will save us a fortune in pensions and NHS fees, driver farmers out of business, pretend we are reducing red tape to build houses but really we can just stick our ideological wind and solar farms wherever we want now and no one can complain, you can go on and on about how we have been sold out by the man who prefers Davos to Westminster and has spent the best part of two months cosying up to his elitist friends on his many trips abroad.
The problem is that the damage will irreversible before they are thrown out in the same way that their predecessors tore down our energy generating power stations so we could never go back no matter how bad the situation.
Country first , party second means doing whatever is best for the people of this country and none of the mainstream parties offer that anymore or have done for the best part of 20 years
The sooner they are all history the better IMHO
Nigel and Co still making huge noises.
A leading Tory north of the border, the latest to defect.
I read the other day, if there was an election now, Reform would have 170 seats.
It's a long time yet before Starmer (if he's still PM) goes to the country, so a lot could / will change before then.
Have we any Reform members / supporters on here? And..............
Will there still be three "main" parties by the time it?
Spelly.