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No particular ghra for Starmer, but I wonder if voters are being realistic; the multiple shocks of Brexit/Covid/Ukraine war/Trump/climate change make it very difficult. Easy to cast a protest vote, but for what? Reform have no solutions, just dog-whistles.
Well, Brexit was a protest vote and I still haven’t seen any evidence to prove that the country is any better off for it.
Read this at the weekend in an article from political columnist Dan Hodges recalling a conversation Starmer had with a friend during the contest for the party leadership.
Starmer told him … ‘You know,I don’t get politics.I don’t understand it.And I don’t really like it.’
good luck to allKid they understand trade deals with India …. When do you think the knife will plunge into the Tory leader , I thought she,d get to Christmas but that looks unlikely after the council election massacre …
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
Been away for a week and you’d think Farage was now PM with all the coverage. Reform got 30% of the vote on a turnout of little over a third. That’s no ringing endorsement of them. If you look at the overall totals (for what they’re worth) there’s not much between left and right.
Yes people are rightly upset with Labour and previously the Tories so the message is apparently that people want change. It’s it’s not clear to me how voting for a party led by the bloke who had a big hand in the Brexit that is a significant cause of our problems and which contains many ex-Tories is in any way a vote for change. He described the Truss budget as the best in decades
I’m actually glad they’ve got a few councils though, let’s see how they get on actually having to run something instead of shouting from the sidelines. Early indications are that they don’t have a clue how councils actually work. Obviously when it all goes wrong it’ll be someone else’s fault as it always is. Hopefully the media starts to actually do its job and start asking difficult questions which they will not have the answers to.
It remains a Farage cult and he’s not even trying to hide his attempts at being a poundshop Trump, he keeps going on about ‘DEI’ for example which we don’t even have here. Could at least bother to use correct terminology, if he even knows what it is.
One of their councillors got in round here, the leaflet didn’t even have his name on and it was basically just a rant about immigrants, net zero and wokeness, nothing about specific local issues or even things that councils have any power to do anything about. But I’m sure people know what they voted for
I heard one of the reform councillors was asked what they were going to do differently and his plan was to conduct a audit ….. If that’s all they’ve got then there in trouble
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
It’s easy, bring in the auditors (wonder how much they’ll cost, will there be a tendering process?), find millions in waste, fill all the potholes, sort out the bin collections, fix social care and there’ll be lower council tax for everyone as a result in Reform led areas. Should only take six months, after all that’s what they expected of the national Labour government.
The results of an opinion poll were published today. Of course it has to be qualified by the usual “4 years away from a General Election” talk but for what it is worth, Labour are on 22% and the Conservatives on 17%.
The two parties which have almost exclusively misgoverned us for a century (bar a few Liberals in the WW2 Cabinet and the coalition government from 2010 to 2015) cannot now poll 40% of the vote between them. Not that long ago they were polling between 80% and 90%.
It is only a matter of time before Badenoch is ousted. She talks about going slow and steady. Well, how much slower does she want to go? 17% will have sparked panic stations in Conservative circles.
I don’t think Reform have the answers by any means. They would undoubtedly find governing a great deal more difficult than criticising (as the current government is finding out). But if this poll is a harbinger, the final comeuppance of these two dismal zombie parties will be richly deserved.
All Reform needs to do is publish this on their election leaflets. It should win them a few seats.
Those people calling for Starmer to sack her miss the obvious point that if he did so, he would then have to sack himself because he has as good as said the same thing.
And they wonder why they lost so many seats and are on 22%..
They both claim they don’t want it (never believe anything until it’s officially denied and all that) but I still would not be surprised to see some sort of co-operation between the Tories and Reform. They may not be particularly good at it but the Tories do at least have experience of actually governing. Reform would be absolutely hopeless and deep down they know it.
As a pair they are I assume polling similar to the total of Lab/Lib/Green. I guess you can add the SNP and Plaid into the ‘left wing’ column as well.
It is a shame for the Tories that they booted out the so-called ‘One Nation’ types. It was definitely the more ‘acceptable’ wing of the party and there must still be an appetite for it. This race to the bottom led by Reform has to stop, it’s not good for anyone.
Michael White, former political editor of “The Guardian” had an “interesting” take on the matter. Quick to blame officialdom and the parents of all the victims. But no blame attached to the actual abusers. He even went as far as to describe the scandalous situation as “complicated” and “nuanced”.
He clearly doesn’t want to criticise a grouping which overwhelmingly votes Labour. For now, at least. Five constituencies at the last General election showed they are not inclined to do so if they can elect an “independent” candidate.
And then the likes of White (never short of a sneer) wail about why are Reform are doing so well.
“I still would not be surprised to see some sort of co-operation between the Tories and Reform.”
It may happen but only after Badenoch is replaced as leader. She has consistently ruled it out and gone out of her way to criticise Farage. If she U turns, it is an admission of weakness and any semblance of credibility she has left will evaporate. Farage doesn’t owe her any favours anyway.
I very much doubt there will be an official “pact” between Reform and Torries. Wouldn’t help Reform gain Labour votes if they were seen as allies of the Torries… And it wouldn’t help the Torries regain centre-right voters like me if they were in a pact with Reform.
The different groups in politics are more in a circle than a line. The left of the Labour Party is politically nearer to the “Farage Right” than most of us in the “centre” of politics.
I suspect only after an election will there be a pact if together Reform and Torries could form a government. Unofficially there may well be an unspoken truce where Reform won’t push their candidate in an area Conservatives are favourite and the opposite when Reform are fav. Similar to Labour and Liberals do today.
Value Is Everythingwell said CAS not really into politics but the cover up stinks on the rape gangs and if you bring it up you are a far right racist bigot, not a caring grand parent/parent
And as for Powell i wonder her response if it was one of her kidsThe Tories will have to bring Farage in , they have no one coming through to compete with him , Jesus if the current leader is the best they’ve got then it no wonder there dead in the water , anyone with half a brain knows Farage can never be PM , all Starmer has to do is get the NHS waiting lists down. ( they are ) get interest rates lower and then in his last year have enough to have a spending spree , Starmer ain’t Boris , he understands politics …
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
With the Senedd election a year away, Eluned Morgan in panic at Labour polling at 18% is haranguing Starmer to row back on winter fuel payment withdrawal. Plaid Cymru seem to be reaping the benefits with 30% in the poll despite being fully supportive of the 20mph fiasco, enlarging the parliament to 90,and for Wales to be seen as a land of sanctuary.
Anyone who wants to oppose the ‘progressives’ will probably need to vote Reform.
Badenoch is the lamest of lame ducks. I take almost no interest in the PMQs circus but as I understand it she can’t even ‘win’ that despite it being a open goal.
Tories and Reform will do something, officially or otherwise, if the prospect of power is on the cards. People like that will do anything to get it.
With the polling/voting so fractured, might we finally have an incumbent government that won’t benefit from FPTP? They should use their massive majority to get rid of it. Farage can’t complain, he’s on record as supporting PR, although he’s gone a bit quiet now FPTP might benefit him, funny that.
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