Is the country ready for a Farage government?

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Does Starmer realise that he's indirectly calling anyone who supports Reform racist? He's brassing off a LOT of people. Not clever at all.

No he isn’t😄😄😄 -

I don’t know how many posters were also around prior to the Brexit vote.

It was really noticeable then - there were loads of new members arguing like mad for Brexit, and some had very dubious credentials. I remember one who popped up the last few days before the vote whose username was the same as the white supremicists chap who had murdered Joe Cox.

The day after Brexit - not one remained they all simply disappeared.

Very peculiar.

Babs03

Nobody would describe themselves as racist. Neither Farage, Trump, Musk, Yaxley Lennon, or any of their followers.
And they get upset when people call them this.
Of course they always have justification/an excuse. But of course if it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck…

🪿🪿🪿🦆🦆🦆

DaisyAnneReturns

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL5oszTkk4g

Outside the Labour Party Conference - lots of support for Thatcher! Do you think they know it's a Labour Party event?

Errrrr it’s a protest by he Yaxley-Lennon mob!

Elegran

fancythat

I refer you to my post of 21.54pm.
Other posters know that I dont keep repeating myself.

www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/reform-uk-rows-back-on-its-contract-with-the-people-reports-382122/

"Reform UK has rowed back on its so-called “contract with the people”, saying it was supposed to be more of a “philosophy of what the party wants to achieve rather than policy details”.

Speaking to the Independent, the party’s new chair, Zia Yusuf said the faux manifesto unveiled by Nigel Farage in Merthyr Tydfil wasn’t supposed to be taken too literally.

Instead, he said, it should be considered “more as a philosophy” of where the party wants to head over time.

When the “contract with the people” (so-called because Mr Farage claimed manifestos were considered to be lies) was launched in Wales ahead of the General Election it was lampooned for being “Liz Truss economics on steroids”.

The party promised £140 billion in tax cuts including raising the threshold of income tax to £20,000, claiming it could find £156 billion in spending cuts.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank said the plans were based on “extremely optimist assumptions” about growth and the sums “do not add up”, meaning the manifesto as a whole was “problematic”.

But speaking to The Independent, Yusuf said that the contract with the people should now be considered in a new light.

Addressing the problematic sums, he said: “They don’t add up on the basis that you implement everything in there on day one for arriving in Downing Street. That’s fair. But that was never going to be the plan.”

The Independent has an article on this, but it is behind a paywall -
www.independent.co.uk › UK › UK Politics
2 Sept 2024 ^"Nigel Farage ditches Reform UK's 'contract with the people'"^

Yet this is from 2024.

We are, and live in Sept 2025, and it is on their website.
Cant think there is anything more to be said.

But I am sure others will!

If people choose not to want to believe something, that is their choice.

Don't people realise that Reform would get rid of NHS ASAP?

Surely Reform backers don't realise they would get rid of NHS ASAP?

I expect they can’t wait to import the American health system into the country for all ( the wealthy) to enjoy,

Also getting rid of the ECHR doesn’t mean it is only foreigners or WOKE types who will be affected, it is there to represent all human rights. Never clever to do something like this.
Unless a person believes neither they or their family/friends have human rights and so will never need representation.

I Googled “Will Reform scrap the NHS?”

This from Full Facts:

“What have Reform UK and Mr Farage said about NHS funding?
Reform UK has strongly denied what Labour has said about its plans for the NHS. In a social media post earlier this month it said “Reform will never charge you to use the NHS”.

And speaking on 18 April Mr Farage addressed Labour’s claims head on, saying: “On the NHS, they’re putting out literature saying ‘Vote Reform and they’ll charge you fifteen grand for a hip replacement’. We’ve never ever, ever suggested anything other than the NHS should be free.”

When asked about Labour’s claims, Reform UK told Full Fact: “Our policy is to always keep the NHS free at the point of use.” And Reform UK’s 2024 election manifesto made the same commitment, saying: “Services will always be free at the point of use.”

However, Mr Farage has also said repeatedly that he believes the NHS’s funding model should be rethought. On 28 March, while again saying he believed the service should be free at the point of delivery, he reportedly told the BBC: “Everyone knows we are not getting value, let’s re-examine the whole funding model and find a way that’s more efficient.”

He was quoted in the Times in January as saying: “I was given almost pariah status for suggesting the NHS model isn’t working. I haven’t shifted my position. We’ve got to identify a system of funding for healthcare that is more effective than the one we have currently got, and at the same time carries those who can’t afford to pay.”

We all KNOW many areas of the NHS aren’t effective/best practice.

Yes, it is time to overhaul it, not just tinker around the edges. It’s good but not “the best in the world”. Stats prove this. And sadly, outcomes.

If it was THAT good other countries would have followed suit.
But they chose not to.

Babs03

Also getting rid of the ECHR doesn’t mean it is only foreigners or WOKE types who will be affected, it is there to represent all human rights. Never clever to do something like this.
Unless a person believes neither they or their family/friends have human rights and so will never need representation.

I think living in Britain we will always be fine, there are enough laws to protect the individual.
However it’s possible to leave the bit of the ECHR we may not like such as immigration.

Article 8.

Facism! God help us.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

We all KNOW many areas of the NHS aren’t effective/best practice.

Yes, it is time to overhaul it, not just tinker around the edges. It’s good but not “the best in the world”. Stats prove this. And sadly, outcomes.

If it was THAT good other countries would have followed suit.
But they chose not to.

What do you think about paying health insurance instead? Or more rationed NHS care? Or certain conditions not being treatable unless you have the means to pay for them?

I think we need some transparency about Reform’s plans. They have said they want to reduce taxes considerably, and that that will be paid for through reducing public services. Efficiency savings through reorganising the NHS will not save anywhere near enough to reduce taxes.

I’d like to know what it is Reform voters want to sacrifice to enable taxes to be reduced. Bear in mind there will need to be additional investment to ‘stop the boats’ and meet Reform’s other promises too, and that will also come from the public purse.

Dee25

Don't people realise that Reform would get rid of NHS ASAP?

I had a heated discussion with a friend of mine about this. She said that just because Farage had said he would privatise the NHS, he wouldn't actually do it. She would still vote for Reform even though she's in her 70's and in poor health so relies on the NHS .

The only reason Farage has such a lead is due to the fact most people believed Starmers promises and voted him in and as soon as he got in the first thing he did was hurt the pensioners, then the disabled and Farmers, and what about the illegal immigrants even more have come since he’s PM he only has his self to blame.
I was one of those who voted for him I would never vote for him again and I certainly wouldn’t vote for Farage/Trump

Racism works both ways

Lesley60

The only reason Farage has such a lead is due to the fact most people believed Starmers promises and voted him in and as soon as he got in the first thing he did was hurt the pensioners, then the disabled and Farmers, and what about the illegal immigrants even more have come since he’s PM he only has his self to blame.
I was one of those who voted for him I would never vote for him again and I certainly wouldn’t vote for Farage/Trump

That’s only part of the story, the votes Reform are picking up are in the main from people who previously voted Tory. They will continue to build a head of steam until signs that the Tories are making a comeback emerge, if they do.

What do you think about paying health insurance instead? Or more rationed NHS care? Or certain conditions not being treatable unless you have the means to pay for them?

Rationing NHS translators would get my vote. A small start Casdon. I heard today a Taliban member is here bringing 7 members of his family. Fine. I assume checks have been made so that’s okay. But none speak English so there will be costs added on.

Some stripping back of procedures has already happened on the NHS. - ear syringing for example used to be done by the GP now at Specsavers or your local pharmacy.

I agree root & branch Reform needs to be transparent.

What about vasectomies? They are done on the NHS. Fine. But surely ‘reversal’ ought to be privately funded? 🤷‍♀️

Procurement of stationery, office furniture - well EVERYTHING really - needs looking into. The NHS employs 1:10 of the workforce - millions of jobs. There ought not to be swanky offices for the Chief Executives - why is this? Basic functional furniture, fit for purpose.

So many more examples of waste and profligacy (I bet we could ALL cite at least one!) abound. Governments are too timid to sort this behemoth out.

It’s long overdue.

Babs03

There are no policies and even if there were there will be no costings.
Is easy to tell some people what they want to hear, I could get a megaphone now and do it, but once in government the wheels will rapidly come off the bus.

Exactly and irruption and abuse is already rife within the party before they start! Apart from Farages finances and Reform MPs getting the boot for abuse, here is another… Reform UK's former leader in Wales has admitted taking bribes to make statements in favour of Russia while being a Member of the European Parliament.
Nathan Gill, 52, from Llangefni, Anglesey, pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery between 6 December 2018 and 18 July 2019.
The politician took money from Oleg Voloshyn - a man once described by the US government as a "pawn" of Russian secret services - and made speeches in the parliament, statements to a TV channel and arranged an event with a pro-Russian politician.
Gill will be sentenced in November and his defence barrister said he expected to be jailed.

Flippin2

Racism works both ways

Er NO it doesn’t … Reverse Racism is a Myth. While assumptions and stereotypes about white people do exist, this is considered racial prejudice, not racism. Racial prejudice refers to a set of discriminatory or derogatory attitudes based on assumptions derived from perceptions about race and/or skin colour.

Casdon I think Reform will stop/scale back on Milliband’s Net Zero. That will give the UK some fiscal headroom.

And altering ECHR will stop the boats (Article 8 or similar). All these irregular migrants (over 1,000 Arrived again just at the weekend) needing clothes, feeding, housing, the ministrations of a doctor, dentist, hospital consultant. The costs added up.

Sort the rubber boats = save money (for other things).

I respect very few politicians now. Most are using politics as a career, with apparently only their own aspirations important to them. That said, I understand why there's such a swing toward Reform with its angry 'solutions' to our current problems, about which the regular parties seem too feeble to solve. One thing really worries me: Farage detests the EU, and this is probably the main reason he became close to Putin, who also hates it. I fear for poor Ukraine and other countries of the former Soviet Union if Farage is elected and sides with Putin on that one. A real unholy alliance which can do no one any good.

I’m really not sure that people do understand what the actual cost of Reform’s proposals will be.

Rationing translators and the other things you mention really are chicken feed, and would be so small a start it wouldn’t even cause a ripple? The cost savings from the procedures already stripped back have been reinvested. The NHS runs with an underlying deficit because of advances in treatment. To make real savings, funding needs to be removed altogether, and to make significant savings, it’s not cheaper procedures like ear syringing or vasectomies we are talking about, it’s major procedures, probably things like joint surgery I would guess as that’s where the big savings are. Another obvious target is high cost drugs, another is nursing care at home. There are options, but they come at great human cost..