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in reply to dick_turpin

Like:

Sunak: At least we don't have to worry about Farage, it'll go our way.

Farage: I'm becoming Reform UK leader and will stand in the election.

Sunak: FCK! Fckety-F*CK! We're done!

in reply to Neil Darlow :gotosocial: :silverblue: :xmpp:

I have this horrible feeling you might be right. Until today, I saw ReformUK as a minor player to be kept on the back burner in case a coalition was needed. I suspect now they will be seeing themselves as equal to the Tories. I don't believe in counting my chickens, but if I did, I would think Labour is fooked.
in reply to dick_turpin

The Conservatives are in a dire condition mostly through their own arrogance.

They, allegedly, tried to pull the same deal with Reform UK that they did with the Brexit Party but Richard Tice was having none of it.

Farage's appearance will swing voters away from both Conservatives and Labour. The scale of which I don't know but I think the Conservatives will suffer the most damage.

in reply to dick_turpin

Again, I fear you are right. Whatever happens, Farage is going to do a lot of damage to ALL parties. I can't see him winning, but his siphoning off of votes is going to do nobody any good, as it will weaken whoever wins a majority.
in reply to dick_turpin

Farage says he wants to take over the Tory party. Is that what people like you want? The party has leant his way to try and keep some supporters, but that must alienate others. It's not just Labour that's divided.
in reply to dick_turpin

He wants to destroy the Tory Party, not take it over. His style of politics is too far right for my liking, and as for his Net Zero on immigration, the man's a moron because Social Healthcare would collapse overnight, let alone devastate the NHS.

See, I blame the BBC et al. If they reported properly, the public would know that legal immigrants are being made to perform community care work if they want to extend their visas unless their employer is willing to sponsor them. If the British public knew that, they wouldn't be so anti [legal] immigrants.

in reply to dick_turpin

were you replying to me? Your threading is broken.
I can agree that Farage is wrong, but he's also cunning. He's broken the Tories, but not quite as much as Trump broke the Republicans, yet.
in reply to Steve

I forgot to reply to you and just wrote a reply. There's nothing broken about me. 😇
in reply to dick_turpin

Well that is one thing he and I have in common, I too would like to destroy the conservative party and definitely not have Farage take it over.

He has a very limited understanding of economics and seems to view people as a burden on an economy rather than the source of it's wealth, and so he blames too-many-people for all the problems caused by inequality and lack of government investment or controls on the ultra wealthy.

High house prices? Can't be landlord collusion, currency inflation, and failure to tax the ultra rich so they bid up house prices. Must be too many migrants, it's the poorest people who are somehow bidding up the house prices.

Poor health service? Can't be underinvestment by an austerity-crazed government, must be too many migrants using it even though they are literally half the staff.

Traffic jams? Must be too many migrants on the roads, not poor traffic planning and lack of public transport options. Migrants are the rich ones that can afford cars in his mind.

Poor schools? Oh, it's because they're full of migrants who don't speak english, not because of virtual privatization though accademisation removing all local accountability and then austerity-crazed under-investment while top management bleed them of money.

His hatred knows no bounds and his fears fill in the same answer to every question.

I really hope he loses and also ruins it for the conservative candidate and people end up with a green or something.

in reply to Adam Dalliance

The Greens will never have any more power than local government.

Never mind "Taxing the rich"; we need more people to pay taxes! I wonder what socialists will do when there are no longer any rich people in the UK to squeeze? We need to create jobs and get more people back to work. See I don't mind legal immigrants; they'll work hard and pay taxes. It's the illegal and boat people that we need France to stop, but of course, they never will because the French are happy for the problem to leave their shores.

I agree with you regarding underfunding for the NHS, but only in terms of capacity and not wages, etc. We need more beds, and that doesn't necessarily mean more hospitals.

As I said to someone the other day, Farage's statements generally have an underlying truth. The NHS was created to cater for 40 million, and we currently stand at 70 million and rising, so an influx of hundreds of thousands is going to have an effect; there's no getting away from that.

Our education system was not only created for a smaller population but made worse by eradicating as many grammar schools as possible, thus reducing capacity, making ridiculous situations of classes in some areas of fifty pupils to one teacher.

In both education and the NHS, nobody wants to do the job; it's not about money; you could offer £1000 a week, and you'd still struggle to employ people willing to clean up vomit or watch someone die of cancer. There are currently one hundred and forty-four thousand vacancies in the NHS. Most pay decent wages, yet nobody in the UK wants the jobs.

I take it you know I'm a Conservative?
At least I'm willing to plant my flag in the ground, unlike some I know. 😄

in reply to dick_turpin

When there are no longer any rich people to squeeze will will have completed the project of reclaiming the country's assets for the masses I suppose.

Stopping people risking their lives in dangerous channel crossing, and stopping the people smugglers is easy: Just offer safe passage.

80 of asylum seekers are successful and if processed efficiently could quickly be put to work, the other 20 you'd know where they came from and where they are.

An influx of hundred of thousands of them will indeed have an effect on the NHS, filling many of those vacancies ideally. Refugees are often skilled.

We have made being a doctor or nurse in England twice as badly paid working twice the hours of one in Australia. Fair pay absolutely would help with recruitment.

My flag is indeed in the green party, who would be very lucky indeed to come between those titans to take that constituency. We'll be lucky to get two, because our election system doesn't only rule out Nige, it rules out all small parties. It's a two-party fit-up.

in reply to Adam Dalliance

It's dangerous to compare wages to other countries. My parents moved to the Midlands long before I did; I came up on a visit once and, just for giggles, checked out the rental prices: "Wow! Rents are cheap up here, mum." When I got back to Buckinghamshire, where I was living at the time, I made plans to move North. I soon found out why rents were cheap; the wages were diabolical. 🤣

I'll never agree to illegal immigration, no matter what the circumstances.

Oh god, don't tell me to want PR? 🤦

in reply to dick_turpin

I won't tell you what to want, but Green Party policy is for Proportional Representation.

I'd go further myself. I don't see why I should have to wait until an election to change my democratic representation. I should be able to call up and change my representative as easily as I can change my phone company.

Keep 'em on their toes. Ensure all people actually have a representative rather than two thirds of people being served by people they didn't vote for.

in reply to Adam Dalliance

LOL
I can beat that. I'd like us to go back to the medieval "Hundreds" system, but also 100 dwellings that elect a representative for said Hundred, who in turn select a representative for the county. That way you'd be truly represented otherwise you'd nip round to number 87 and put your representatives windows through. 🤣