Is the country ready for a Farage government?

Quentin Letts has written a very, very funny piece about Starmer’s speech.

He said it was a “grinding hour” and the first 20 minutes were “inept” and “depressing”.

Starmer was a “blinking spud of a PM”.

He kept on about “building a new Britain” and repeated that 8 times.

Apart from that, I notice that Starmer has today had to clarify that he did not mean NF is a racist.

Casdon

Oreo

Casdon

I’m so enjoying seeing the Starmer haters rattled by his speech, that’s the best indicator of success there is. Thanks ronib and eazybee for brightening my morning.

You can’t be serious, thinking that two posters on a forum didn’t like Starmer’s speech and in your view are ‘rattled’, why on earth would that make anyone’s day.There is no indicator of success for Labour at all as yet and they have to dig deep in the next four years to find it.Starmer may for now have seen off a circling Andy Burnham but that’s no comfort for the voters about the way things are going in the country.
Immigration that’s out of control and food prices and utilities escalating in price are the key things most people want dealing with.

I didn’t expect you to understand Oreo, but the two most vituperative Starmer critics jumping so early to have a go again in such strong terms did make me giggle - I do have a sense of proportion though, it brightened my morning as I sipped my coffee - not made my day.

Why didn’t you expect me to understand? Who did you think would understand?

Starmer was interviewed at length on GB News this morning.

We can all fly our England and UJ Flags with pride now - KS is all for them!

Here is a snippet …… cover your eyes and clutch your pearls if you don’t like seeing him on GB News. 😱😱

youtube.com/shorts/YefGvVNTcd0?si=f9Gi1iUIdJzpGyy0

I won't be watching that nonsense and I won't be flying anything.

It's costing over 8 k to remove paint from roundabouts in my area.

That would have funded a warm space for lonely people ( for example)

Someone I spoke to who worked with him at LBC said he doesn’t want to be PM. He just enjoys the fight and the power he seems to have over people.

I’ve thought that for a long time, Maybee. He’s a textbook attention-seeking narcissist out of the same mould as Trump. Lies, baiting, blameshifting, gathering flying monkeys around them to do their dirty work are their modus operandi. Farage has found a biddable rich stooge in Zia Yusuf.

Another trait of the narcissist is that they crave the attributes of others. Trump craves to be seen as a successful businessman, although its been proved time and time again that he isn’t. It’s all about “the deal”. Farage just craves to be Trump.

But whereas Trump can pick up his Sharpie and sign executive orders to bring in draconian and illegal measures Farage knows we have a Parliamentary system that would stall him if he tried to do similar. He can’t just shut down government if things don’t go his way and fire people.

He and his party make grand statements about leaving the the ECHR, abolishing the Human Rights Act etc but they would never get those things through Parliament. There are no Reform peers.

He isn’t stupid. He knows that. Reform can’t give away 90 billion in tax cuts. He knows how the markets would react. We all know what happened when Truss tried to give away half of that.

How long would it be before people who voted Reform start to call them out on broken promises and not getting things done?

Nor does Farage have the patience or the manners for Parliament. The speaker has described the way Reform MPs conduct themselves as a shambles. It’s hard to imagine over 300 of them and a Cabinet comprising 22 people with no ministerial or shadow ministerial experience (apart from Kruger’s 14 months shadowing Defence and the DWP).

Senior civil servants would frustrate them at every turn as they have a much higher code of conduct to adhere to. For one, the Civil Service has a commitment to equality and diversity and cannot discriminate against particular individuals or interests. Farage would hate that.

Some commentators have described Farage as Reform’s worst liabilty. Bookies are offering 12/1 that he’s gone before the end of the year. I’m not sure about that unless the Gill story explodes on him but I think he’ll be gone by 2027. Disastrous midterms for Trump may see it happen sooner.

He isn’t stupid. He knows that. Reform can’t give away 90 billion in tax cuts. He knows how the markets would react. We all know what happened when Truss tried to give away half of that.

Actually, it wasn’t Truss who caused the problem, though her planned ‘mini budget’ was a bad one. It wasn’t Truss who the Bank of England’s crazy Quantitative Tightening programme which, at the same time was planning to sell £70billions worth of their Quantitative Easing bonds back into the ‘market’. At a loss, too. It was the prospect of too many bonds swamping the market that did for her.

Ordinarily there is always a ‘demand for UK government bonds (which is misrepresented as ‘borrowing’)

Incidentally, Andy Burnham’s £40 billion proposal for social housing wouldn’t have bothered the ‘bond market’ in the slightest. There is always a demand for our bonds. He was right, the commentators are wrong.

It wasn’t Truss who the Bank of England’s crazy Quantitative Tightening programme

Apologies, that sentence makes no sense, I was dabbing at my Ipad with one finger 🙁

It's meant to say It was the Bank of England's crazy Quantitative Tightening programme... etc

StripeyGran

I won't be watching that nonsense and I won't be flying anything.

It's costing over 8 k to remove paint from roundabouts in my area.

That would have funded a warm space for lonely people ( for example)

But your leader endorses flag flying. How very dare you disagree with him! 🤣🤣

Leader? He's not my leader?

I have no idea what you are talking about.

All these people with the swelling of patriotic feelings in their proud bosoms, what did they do before the flag thing? Did they just quietly hum Vera Lynn to themselves or what? What are they proud of?
Food banks, child poverty,pot holes, football...nobody knows.

What are the 🤣 emojis adding? According to the description they mean 'rolling about on the floor laughing'. I can't see anything in this debate that is likely to make anyone do that, so assume that they are just there to be rude, and ridicule others. Please correct me if I'm wrong, as I don't want to think that of anyone wrongly.

My word , PaynesGrey.
Real hatred emerging.
Obsessive.

MaizieD

^It wasn’t Truss who the Bank of England’s crazy Quantitative Tightening programme^

Apologies, that sentence makes no sense, I was dabbing at my Ipad with one finger 🙁

It's meant to say It was the Bank of England's crazy Quantitative Tightening programme... etc

Nevertheless the markets did react to Truss’s budget so what would twice the unfunded tax cuts do? I am not an economist so I don’t understand fully how such things work but I am aware that pension funds had to be saved.

I read headlines like:

• Why did the mini-Budget nearly bankrupt pension funds?
• UK pension funds lost £425bn in year of bond market crisis.
• Bank of England confirms pension funds almost collapsed amid market meltdown.

If they did collapse, where would that leave millions of people reliant on a private pension?

I watch Richard Murphy's videos. Is he wrong when says that Reform want to destroy the UK economy and outsource to crypto?

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/01/15/reform-wants-to-destroy-the-uk-economy/

That’s what frightens me about Reform. Not only their obsession with migrants, although that is bad enough but that its actions could plunge millions more into poverty.

Could you explain how this could be averted because it terrifies me.

Allira

^‘Working people’ is shorthand for ‘taxpayer’ or ‘contributor’ - those who are supporting everyone else. The people who get up every morning and go to work whilst others choose not to, to make profits for employers (who often use taxpayers’ money to top up low wages) so they can pay rent to those with more than one house, and bills to make profits for shareholders. Retired working people are included in that, as I see it.^

We are not working. We are retired. We pay tax.

Same here. Not sure of your point.

People who work (or who made their living by working until they retired) are 'working people' in the sense that the term is currently being used, I think.

Vituperative means bitter and abusive. Is that really what you would like to live up to ronib?

More name calling of anyone who criticises Starmer. Not like you to be quite so nasty Casdon

This is from last October when Starmer was asked to clarify what he meant by working people:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyg44lwjydo

The UK’s working people “know exactly who they are,” according to Sir Keir on Monday, who pledged to "protect their payslips".

Last week, he went into more detail, defining it as someone who “goes out and earns their living, usually paid in a sort of monthly cheque" and who can't "write a cheque to get out of difficulties."

He was asked last week whether those who work - but get additional income from assets such as shares or property - would count as working people.

They "wouldn't come within my definition," he said.

Speaking afterwards, Sir Keir's spokesman clarified that those with a "small amount of savings" could still be defined as working people.

This could include cash savings, or stocks and shares in a tax-free Individual Savings Accounts (ISA), he suggested.

sundowngirl

Vituperative means bitter and abusive. Is that really what you would like to live up to ronib?

More name calling of anyone who criticises Starmer. Not like you to be quite so nasty Casdon

Vituperative referred to the comments they made about Starmer, not to the individuals themselves sundowngirl

According to the Cambridge dictionary:
adjective
A vituperative spoken or written attack is full of angry criticism:
Miss Snowden yesterday launched a vituperative attack on her ex-boss and former lover.

Synonym
scathing

sundowngirl I hadn’t thought about the actual insult… now just what nerve did I touch? I would rather be bitter and abusive than sycophantic and bovine….

Casdon

sundowngirl

Vituperative means bitter and abusive. Is that really what you would like to live up to ronib?

More name calling of anyone who criticises Starmer. Not like you to be quite so nasty Casdon

Vituperative referred to the comments they made about Starmer, not to the individuals themselves sundowngirl

According to the Cambridge dictionary:
adjective
A vituperative spoken or written attack is full of angry criticism:
Miss Snowden yesterday launched a vituperative attack on her ex-boss and former lover.

Synonym
scathing

Casdon - you actually said
"the two most vituperative Starmer critics"

The adjective refers to the critics themselves not the comments that they made as you claim

If you type vituperative meaning into Google it says "bitter and abusive"

Golly -"sycophantic and bovine"..

The two who make the most vituperative attacks on Starmer was what I meant. I’m not in the habit of personally insulting posters sundowngirl, and I apologise if my intention was misconstrued because it was not worded perfectly.
Gransnet is like a ballet, it’s easy to predict who jumps to the bait, and who will make angry, critical comments about specific topics. That was what made me laugh.

Starmer was asked a straightforward question but as usual fails to answer it.

youtube.com/shorts/KzsLOkBPoZE?si=uIJMtG5PWYg4AbCo

Casdon

The two who make the most vituperative attacks on Starmer was what I meant. I’m not in the habit of personally insulting posters sundowngirl, and I apologise if my intention was misconstrued because it was not worded perfectly.
Gransnet is like a ballet, it’s easy to predict who jumps to the bait, and who will make angry, critical comments about specific topics. That was what made me laugh.

Thanks for the explanation Casdon. I did think it was out of character for you

Casdon

Starmer’s speech has admirably served its purpose I think, which was to rally the Labour troops and rattle Reform. Of course people who don’t want him as PM and don’t like Labour didn’t like it - but that is a mark of its success as a speech. Ed Davey’s was equally powerful. I’m looking forward to hearing Kemi Badenoch next week, I really hope she can do similar.

It was nothing like you describe. Starmer is obsessed with Farage and Reform. He is running (or trundling) scared.

He is the most unpopular PM for years and he knows it.

Doodledog

What are the 🤣 emojis adding? According to the description they mean 'rolling about on the floor laughing'. I can't see anything in this debate that is likely to make anyone do that, so assume that they are just there to be rude, and ridicule others. Please correct me if I'm wrong, as I don't want to think that of anyone wrongly.

Just about everyone on this forum uses emojis so picking up another poster about it really is strange.As you know the 🤣means someone thinks it’s funny so why not use it.
This thread is about politics and not a serious subject such as abuse or tragedy. It’s being the thread police otherwise.

Primrose53 both major parties are running scared of Farage and Reform and also the Lib Dems.
Surprising at first glance as they only have five MP’s and there’s still four years to run until another election.Then you look at the polls and see why.Expect all the parties to try and become Reform Lite as they realise what they must do to win votes.
Only time will tell if they manage to do it.