Inside the Reform Party

Padstow13

Casdon

It’s going to leave the Tories with a real dilemma if those who have defected to Reform decide it isn’t for them, and want to return to the Tory fold. There are rumours about Danny Kruger wanting to go back too - but once somebody has been disloyal I can’t see them being welcomed back with open arms. Particularly people who were disrupters.

No party would surely welcome the likes of Danny Kruger especially given his rather forthright views on women. Or rather, backward views on women.

Wonder what his mum, Prue Leith, privately thinks.

I don’t know, for all his faults I think he’s probably the least contentious of the defected MPs, and in a way it’s a coup if he does walk the floor in the Commons back to the Tories, but it is the loyalty issue that would be forever questioned. I guess the Tories could let it be known that they had been asked, and turned down the request, which would be a victory for them.

ronib

We have newly built apartments locally which were featured on television in somewhere like Singapore or Hong Kong for investors. Outrageous. It should stop.

Problem is that this is how a capitalist society works. It's about making profits and if the developers can get the best prices for their properties in foreign markets that's where they will sell them. The housing needs of UK citizens are irrelevant to them.

As Casdon says

All politicians are people we, the public, have elected, and yet we never deem ourselves accountable.

I thin we have to decide what sort of society we want and vote for the party whose policies most fit our model. Do we want a capitalist market based society where all resources go to the wealthiest, do we want one which tries to ensure that all citizens are adequately fed and housed or do we want one where all non white British inhabitants are deported... ? (these 'examples' are for illustrative purposes only; other choices could be available)

(I have spent 47 years congratulating myself for not having voted for Thatcher, the destroyer of the post WW2 mixed economy )

Why would anyone think that Reform or Restore have any hope of sorting out planning policy out? I think the LibDems could if they woke up. Maremia Feels as if we’re living under a government that can’t look after its own people?

Your points are are very pertinent, ronib, but I honestly don't believe that either Reform or Restore would resolve those for you.
If there are 'ginger' groups in your area, is there also someone emerging as an Independent candidate.
Some Reform politicians are now deserting Farage and thinking for themselves as Independents.

Casdon

It’s going to leave the Tories with a real dilemma if those who have defected to Reform decide it isn’t for them, and want to return to the Tory fold. There are rumours about Danny Kruger wanting to go back too - but once somebody has been disloyal I can’t see them being welcomed back with open arms. Particularly people who were disrupters.

No party would surely welcome the likes of Danny Kruger especially given his rather forthright views on women. Or rather, backward views on women.

Wonder what his mum, Prue Leith, privately thinks.

The fact is Reform Party began as a limited company with Farage aa a co founder and shareholder and "president".
If most people looked into the policies of Reform it will turn them cold. Policies include destroying the NHS by having an insurance based system like in the USA. Reform agrees with loads of non-stop fracking. They want to scrap Net Zero and the Employments Rights act.

We have newly built apartments locally which were featured on television in somewhere like Singapore or Hong Kong for investors. Outrageous. It should stop.

That is innovative, Ilovecheese.
And definitely worth thinking about.

Yes, agreed Ilovecheese, but it would not be not huge numbers in the greater scheme of things, because LAs and the NHS would have to remain local, so it would only be central government and allied services that could move, and some of the are already devolved, like the DVLA.

Casdon

No government, including Reform, Restore or even Count Binface, is going to stop investors wanting to grow their businesses in the South East though ronib, that’s a pipe dream. It’s where the airports are, it’s nearer to Europe, it’s where the best road links to the coast are, the other investors are, where the big city is. For the individual, if they don’t want that, they have to move. It’s not fair, either for the South, or for the deprived areas elsewhere in the UK, but it’s the reality.

You are correct Casdon about foreign investors, but maybe some of the Govt. Departments could move. When the BBC moved to Salford it did wonders for the area and now other entertainment companies have followed.

Farage and his ilk are disrupters. That's what they are being paid to do by Russia and others. They have no viable policies.
Why some people believe they are the answer I've no idea. Nobody gives a reason why they would vote for them apart from they are different.
They are certainly that and not in a good way .

No government, including Reform, Restore or even Count Binface, is going to stop investors wanting to grow their businesses in the South East though ronib, that’s a pipe dream. It’s where the airports are, it’s nearer to Europe, it’s where the best road links to the coast are, the other investors are, where the big city is. For the individual, if they don’t want that, they have to move. It’s not fair, either for the South, or for the deprived areas elsewhere in the UK, but it’s the reality.

ronib I often wonder why the Lib Dems don’t do better nationally. It’s a conundrum to me.

Even as a Labour Party member, I frequently agree with statements the Lib Dems make in the HoC etc.

IMO the media doesn’t give them nearly enough air time in relation to their number of democratically elected MPs.

Lib Dems have 72 elected MPs in contrast to Reform’s 8 (and half of them are defectors from the Tories, so not actually democratically elected as Reform) yet Reform’s views are constantly amplified by the media.

Currently I couldn’t see myself voting Lib Dem but, if something utterly outrageous happened within the Labour Party, they’d possibly be my next port of call.

Wouldn’t ever vote for Reform or Restore - my values are a million miles away from theirs.

I had some hopes that the LibDems would start to speak up. They’re busily fund raising in my area to challenge planning permission in the green belt. I have suggested that the LibDems locally need to start pushing much harder at national level but …..

CatsWhiskas

fancythat

Personally, I am not Lib Dem, though have voted for them previously.
I have never voted Green and dont think I will in the near future.
I vote independent sometimes.
I dont think I am Restore.

A lot of people say "!you have to vote".
Personally I dont subscribe to that really. But for me, I do want to vote for someone or other.

As a matter of interest, why couldn't you vote Conservative?

They went too "wet" for me.

I am like, I think it is FGT, in voting ways[though cant speak for her properly].
I feel Parties have moved, and not the voters.

I did try and listen better to Kemi, fairly recently.
She was saying things I liked. Then said, "so the answer is xyz. I thought, "no it isnt"!

I don't regard Reform as the best of a bad bunch when there are so many negatives attached to them.

ronib

Isn’t it the best of a very bad bunch? Casdon

I honestly do think Mr Blobby or Count Binface would be better.

ronib, I think you've some very valid points, but I honestly can't see Reform or Restore solving any of those problems. Given that a "foreign investor" is funding Restore and Farage personally, I don't think there would be much incentive to stop foreign investors from buying property. I have never noticed that any of them have any concern for levelling up or developing areas outside the south east.

Isn’t it the best of a very bad bunch? Casdon

All politicians are people we, the public, have elected, and yet we never deem ourselves accountable.

I just wish someone anyone would come up with some new ideas. For example, Labour is relabelling green belt land grey. How ridiculous is this? But is anyone in opposition challenging this? Why exactly are foreign investors allowed to buy up new builds for their investment portfolios? Why is real levelling up not happening? Why is the south east developed extensively and the north isn’t? And blah blah…..

Mr Blobby or Count Binface?

Why not give one of them a chance? They're both "a change" from what's gone before, which seems to be the essential requirement. What on earth could go wrong?

fancythat

But the problem is, many are now fed up of the two previous main parties.

It may not be the answer, but what is?
That is how many now feel.

I am fed up with the two major parties, have been for decades, but I would never vote for Reform. This recent trend of voting for whatever the cat dragged in because voters feel fed up or are using their vote as a protest is deeply damaging to our democracy because it lowers the bar constantly and leaves the way open for whatever the cat dragged in to actually run the country.

fancythat

Personally, I am not Lib Dem, though have voted for them previously.
I have never voted Green and dont think I will in the near future.
I vote independent sometimes.
I dont think I am Restore.

A lot of people say "!you have to vote".
Personally I dont subscribe to that really. But for me, I do want to vote for someone or other.

As a matter of interest, why couldn't you vote Conservative?

Maremia

Perhaps the answer to some of your queries is that Reform is an independent company. A company, not a political party.

This still leaves me totally gobsmacked!

How can a ‘private company’ be allowed to just set themselves up to (potentially) run a country?

I know it’s the money funding them that’s put them there, but surely this is also part of the problem. That money can be (probably is) coming from bad actors aiming to interfere in the running of our country.

Still can’t get my head around the fact that Reform is not a party with recognised procedures and processes … for instance, do they have a predetermined process for getting rid of a leader who ‘goes rogue’; do they have a predetermined process for electing a new leader?

IMO it’s madness!