Is the country ready for a Farage government?

Reform doesn’t support Yaxley Lennon does it? The hundreds of thousands who demonstrated were trying to save their country and human rights without hatred? Babs03

I’m with Doodledog and Babs03. I find the prospect of a Reform government frightening.

vintage1950

And I never even knew about that online poll. How many people answered?

I didn’t about the poll either but can’t be any worse than this bunch.

And what truly scares me is the number of people who are not stupid/fooled by Farage but are supporting Reform and marches that are organised by Yaxley Lennon because they actually subscribe to the far right hatred and erosion of human rights that such people stand for.

Doodledog

I’ve all but given up posting on here, particularly on N&P. If posts not toeing the Reform line aren’t nitpicked into oblivion (ie one word disagreed with and pulled apart to the point of tedium) they are ignored and argued against as if they weren’t there.

I find the current political climate frightening - not because I don’t want a Reform government (I’ve lived most of my life with governments I didn’t want), but because it feels like we’re watching a replay of the 30s, with its hatred and propaganda, except this time we have the knowledge of where that ended, so there’s no excuse.

I’ve always wanted grandchildren, but right now I’m almost pleased I don’t have to see them go through what it looks like we are sleepwalking towards.

I agree.
Have lived through decades of having a government I didn’t vote for and didn’t like, but none were as far removed from basic human rights or as close to far right hatred as Reform is as a party.

Teazel2

growstuff

mum2three

Before the General Election, it seemed that most Gransnetters supported the Labour party. Are you all honestly content with the way things are going? I can only suppose that most of you are living in a care home and have no idea of life on the streets of modern Britain.

I think you've accused us all of living in a care home and having no idea before. Presumably, it was intended as an insult and trying to imply we're all living in lalaland.

You havent answered the question Growstuff.

I don't live in a care home (and I'm not gaga), so I'm not eligible.

growstuff

mum2three

Before the General Election, it seemed that most Gransnetters supported the Labour party. Are you all honestly content with the way things are going? I can only suppose that most of you are living in a care home and have no idea of life on the streets of modern Britain.

I think you've accused us all of living in a care home and having no idea before. Presumably, it was intended as an insult and trying to imply we're all living in lalaland.

You havent answered the question Growstuff.

I’ve all but given up posting on here, particularly on N&P. If posts not toeing the Reform line aren’t nitpicked into oblivion (ie one word disagreed with and pulled apart to the point of tedium) they are ignored and argued against as if they weren’t there.

I find the current political climate frightening - not because I don’t want a Reform government (I’ve lived most of my life with governments I didn’t want), but because it feels like we’re watching a replay of the 30s, with its hatred and propaganda, except this time we have the knowledge of where that ended, so there’s no excuse.

I’ve always wanted grandchildren, but right now I’m almost pleased I don’t have to see them go through what it looks like we are sleepwalking towards.

That was in response to this: 🙄

Elless

🙌

Yuk

The language here is important.

It was Farage who described young people as victims.

This was him in May:

www.disabilitynewsservice.com/reform-silence-after-farage-suggests-again-that-he-favours-sweeping-cuts-to-disability-benefits/

The right-wing populist party Reform UK has given a rare glimpse of its disability policies, after its leader Nigel Farage suggested he was strongly in favour of cuts to disabled people’s benefits.

The party’s supporters have attempted to make political capital in recent months by feeding off anger aimed at the Labour government’s planned cuts of billions of pounds to disability benefits.

But comments made by Farage at a press conference late last week suggest he is himself strongly in favour of sweeping cuts to disability benefits, and that he has been poorly briefed about how the benefits and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) systems work.

He described young disabled people who received out-of-work benefits as “victims” and claimed there was “massive” overdiagnosis of mental health conditions and “other general behavioural disabilities”.

Farage said: “I have to say, for my own money, when you get to 18 and you put somebody on a disability register, unemployed, with a high level of benefits, you’re telling people aged 18 that they’re victims.

“And if you are told you are a victim, and you think you’re a victim, you are very likely to stay as a victim.”

He claimed that many eligibility tests for SEND support and disability benefits were carried out by “the family GP” over Zoom, which he said was “a massive mistake” and was “creating a class of victims in Britain who will struggle ever to get out of it and that is not good for them and it’s not good for us”.

Nothing whatsover in the Goverment's Green Paper Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper about victims.

www.gov.uk/government/consultations/pathways-to-work-reforming-benefits-and-support-to-get-britain-working-green-paper/pathways-to-work-reforming-benefits-and-support-to-get-britain-working-green-paper

It says:

We are also seeing a growing problem where young people are leaving school and not entering further education, an apprenticeship, or work. Instead, they’ve been abandoned by the state and left behind, consigned to a life on health and disability benefits instead. These failures are neither inevitable nor acceptable.

Behind every one of these numbers is someone whose potential isn’t realised, whose ambitions aren’t fulfilled and who hasn’t been given the helping hand they deserve to get them back into work. The current system stifles aspiration and limits ambition, and that is not good enough – for individuals or our country.

The difference between negativity and positivity.

Reform love to label and accuse, don't they?

I've just been reading PayneGray's link to what was said at the Reform conference.

I've copied this extract:

"Lee Anderson, one of the party’s four MPs was announced as the party’s welfare spokesman, with Farage telling ITV: “There are too many young people being put on disability benefits, being literally cast out of the system, classed as victims, left there. It isn’t good for the economy, it isn’t good for them as human beings. From today, Lee Anderson is going to be our new spokesman on welfare."

I'm not going to comment on whether that's right or not. However, it's precisely what Labour has been saying and why it claims disability benefits, especially for younger workers, need overhauling. Labour has been thoroughly trashed for saying it - so why hasn't Reform? Two-tier journalism?

Ironically, some of the people making the most noise about Labour overhauling benefits will be affected themselves if Reform forms a government.

I don't get it. Reform supporters complain bitterly about politicians not understanding their concerns and not being like them. I don't believe they have ever looked at the backgrounds of Reform politicians and asked themselves the question how most of them have anything in common with them.

Here we are from the BBC just ahead of the 2025 conference.

tinyurl.com/2s36478p

Tice told the BBC: "A manifesto in July 2024 is not appropriate for a manifesto or contract whenever the next general election is.

Tice was repeatedly asked about whether the election pledges - pitched by Farage at the time as a "contract" with the British people - had been binned.

"I've always said you've got to make the savings and then you can afford performance-related tax cuts," he said.

"The audience know that a manifesto in July '24 is not appropriate for a manifesto or a contract whenever the next general election is - a manifesto is a point in time, it's a direction of travel.”

With Reform UK claiming a prominent Conservative scalp in Dorries overnight, Tice was asked whether he agreed with her support for "drastically" cutting public spending.

Pressed over whether this was now Reform UK policy, Tice replied: "I've always said that."

At the party conference Farage is expected to urge Reform UK members to plan for an early election in two years' time, saying the Labour government will collapse due to unpopular spending cuts he claims they will need to introduce.

Let me get this straight. Labour will collapse due to public spending cuts and Reform will replace them and impose … public spending cuts.

aonk

I’m in total agreement with Cossy.
Anyway where will Reform find all these potential MPs? Are they hiding under the rocks somewhere? No knowledge or experience. The perfect government!

Painting roundabouts?

fancythat

If it is on their website, it must be back on. In my opinion.
Cant see how it could be anything other.

In that case the website and what Tice and Yusuf have said contradict each other. Do you trust people who say one thing and write another?

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

But the contract been withdrawn!!! Did you read the news link? The party chairman Zia Yusuf was interviewed and said it had been withdrawn.

How can an election manifesto be back on? The election has been and gone. The only party being held to account over their manifesto is the one which won power. I’ve seen interviews with Tice since the election where he has been challenged over what was in the contract and he’s brushed it off as in the past.

If it is still on then the party is either deliberately deceiving the public over a contract that was held up as unworkable by political commentators and the party itself or the webmaster is not on top of their job.

If you look at the webpage information you will see it was last updated on 17 June 2024 i.e. before the election.

Believe it if you want to but it isn’t current. Over a year on, you would do better to consider what policy was discussed at the party conference. This is about the measure of it.

politicsuk.com/reform-uk-conference-what-we-learnt-about-policy/

Immigration, opposition to climate change and welfare cuts.

^PaynesGrey and I can agree to differ.

Everyone else can go on the Reform Uk webiste.
And press the arrow which says Reform Uk, your contract with us, and up pop 28 pages of pdf.

If it is on their website, it must be back on. In my opinion.
Cant see how it could be anything other.

Read the thread.

I have said twice now that the Reform contract was withdrawn two months after the general election. It was a major news story.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-reform-uk-election-b2605214.html

I’m in total agreement with Cossy.
Anyway where will Reform find all these potential MPs? Are they hiding under the rocks somewhere? No knowledge or experience. The perfect government!

Farage gets an easy run from the media. Take the ludicrous accusations about the swans being stolen and eaten from the Royal Parks. That was in the Sun 22 years ago and subsequently retracted as untrue. Any other party leader who made a statement like that would be a laughing stock.
Reform are using classic populist rhetoric.
1) Identify a minority who arouse strong feelings.
2) Blame them for each and every problem regardless.
3) Reap the benefits.
As for the polls I can remember when BNP led the polls. What happened there?
The next election is over three and a half years away and a hell of a lot will happen in that time

RTF. The Reform "contract" you link to was withdrawn two months after the 2024 election

No idea what RTF means.

The policies are on their website right now.

And now we have Arron Banks (the man who bankrolled Farage and Leave, whose book The Bad Boys of Brexit: Tales of Mischief, Mayhem & Guerrilla Warfare in the EU Referendum Campaign ghostwritten by Isabel Oakeshott) saying this week that he would like to see the Electoral Commission abolished if Nigel Farage wins power.

UK government urged to restore Electoral Commission’s independence to protect democracy

The independence of the Electoral Commission must be fully restored to protect the UK’s electoral integrity from a future authoritarian government, a new report warns.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/28/uk-government-urged-to-restore-electoral-commissions-independence-to-protect-democracy

Maybe England, in some parts, ARE ready for Reform and Farage as PM. I’m pretty sure that Wales,Scotland and NI will NOT, in the main, support Farage.

Yes, immigration needs reforming, but it does not require “Reform”.

Let’s just say all the boats were stopped tomorrow AND all unprocessed Asylum Seekers send away - then what?

Would this resolve our post Brexit trade issues? Would the NHS suddendly be fixed? Would the shortages in teaching, nursing, the police, doctors, AI professionals suddenly vanish? Would the huge numbers of 18-25 years out of work suddenly be in work? Etc etc.

It’s so irresponsible and divisive of Reform and our media to just blame all our issues on asylum seekers, which is actually a world issue, and they are neither “illegals” nor “invaders”

Frankly, I despair 😩😢