Is the country ready for a Farage government?

I agree Starmer is no Margaret Thatcher. It remains to be seen whether he is able to turn things round.....

Watched Kemi Badenoch on tv this morning when she was interviewed by Laura Kuensberg. She didn’t stop talking, which made it hard for the interviewer to get a question in.

Lemonjam - Thatcher went on to turn things round, totally command her party won a further 2 GEs.

Starmer is no Margaret Thatcher. He is too weak and changes with the wind. I can't imagine Keir Starmer ever saying 'this man is not for turning" and sticking to his guns

I don’t believe that Badenoch will stay as Conservative leader for more than the next two years. After all, this political party is used to leadership changes.

Labour is getting on with its work in government and has 4 more years to do so- currently low in ratings, not unusual one year into term as many have said. It is a given poll ratings will change in all directions over the coming years.....

Keith Starmer mentioned the Conservative Party once only in the last few moments of his recent conference speech: "Now the Tories. Do you remember them? I don't know if they believed in grievance politics, and maybe they do now when you see them turning away from the rule of law".

Unimaginable and unprecedented for a Labour leader to make almost no mention of Conservatives in their big conference speech. A sea change. Make of that what you will....

Badenoch now has her conference turn. What will be her focus and key emphasis? What values will she promote? Will she inspire? What will she say about her determined direction, policies, how she intends to rebuild and unify her party? Will she set out how specifically she wishes to change the rule of law? Will she promote grievance? In what ways will she attack her rivals? Will she come clean and say where she will deport 150,000 to in her removals plan? In answer to that question she told Laura Kuenssberg this morning that was an "irrelevant question". Her "credible removals plan" (her description) will necessarily need to address where 150,000 immigrants will be deported to actually be "credible".

Badenoch thus has a big challenge to build credibility in her leadership, party and policies (as do all the party leaders in fairness). Watch this space...... for the next 4 years.

Whatever she says, whatever any of the current party leaders say (they may not be the same individuals in leadership role in 4 years), whatever the news headlines as a result, whatever the ups and downs of poll ratings, there will be 3 more conference seasons before the next GE, no later than 15 August 2029.

I disagree fancythat. The government is secure now for four years, and they see Reform as the main opposition for the next election, which is why they are fighting them. The Tories did not get a mention in the Labour conference speech last week. That has to be hugely concerning to them, to no longer be seen as the opposition, to be polling very badly a year after an election when the government are struggling, and to be losing senior members and MPs at a rate of knots through defections. They are running scared. I feel no triumph about that at all, I’m not trying to do them down, it is just the reality of where they are.

Casdon

I don’t think you can have looked very far if you believe that you have never seen such a huge political panic fancythat, as the threat to the Tories from Reform is currently much greater than it is to Labour, and they are in a state of panic, so much so that at the moment they really don’t have any direction at all - or very much support. That is worrying I think, I hope they can regenerate.

I do agree that things could look very different in six months, the world is very unstable at the moment, and Europe, including the UK will have to get its act together.

But the Tories, or their online supporters dont seem to be speaking about it anywhere near as much.
Barely see anything.

Their numbers are already decimated anyway.

I know someone who would like to get involved with them.
She is having trouble as there are such a reduced number of conservative MPs now. Ages before all this Reform stuff really took hold.

They do have direction from what I see.
But little trust from voters now.

The problem with the Tory Party is not Reform..
It is themselves.
Far too long in power achieving not much.

Badenoch may have some ideas and direction.
But too liitle trust.
At present anyway.

So no.
I have never seen a Party in power look so very rattled.
Pitiful to see really.
They should be getting on with their own work. And be convinced by it. Which they must not be.

Thanks LemonJam, that puts things into perspective.

FancyThat- you have never seen such a political fall out over one party before?

Thread 14.19: "In 1981 Margaret Thatcher's Blackpool conference took place 2 years into her first term. With 11% inflation, Brixton Riots etc she also had low poll ratings as did Labour in opposition. She did not fair well in her conference or the newspaper headlines. The new Social Democratic Party SDP, in alliance with the Liberals was polling at 50% and was dominating the news (sounds familiar?). Conference talk was that Thatcher would be gone by Christmas (sounds familiar?) and lots of rivals manoeuvred to replace her. All bets were on SDP leader Roy Jenkins becoming PM (sounds familiar?). Reform has 27% share in recent Yougov poll, not SDP 50%.

Thatcher went on to turn things round, totally command her party won a further 2 GEs.

Even with such dominating poll share in 1981, SDP did not go on to establish a substantive hierarchy or presence, dwindled in the polls and never became a lasting electoral force".

1981- SDP 50% poll rating- never achieved lasting electoral presence. 2025- Reform 27% poll rating- yet to be seen is achieves lasting electoral presence.....

I don’t think you can have looked very far if you believe that you have never seen such a huge political panic fancythat, as the threat to the Tories from Reform is currently much greater than it is to Labour, and they are in a state of panic, so much so that at the moment they really don’t have any direction at all - or very much support. That is worrying I think, I hope they can regenerate.

I do agree that things could look very different in six months, the world is very unstable at the moment, and Europe, including the UK will have to get its act together.

This thread, and other comments everywhere could look very dated. In even 6 months' time. Or less.

^OP- Is the country ready for a Farage government? We don't need to be ready now as we're 4 years away from a general election (GE).
^

That is why I havent contributed much to this thread.
Huge great amount of time yet.

The bigger question is, how much will they influence things in the mean time.
Many Labour voters and the Party itself, not to mention it's Leader, appear to be in a huge panic.
I have never seen such a big Political panic over another Party.

I struggle to know how vote as I agree with different things. For example I would like to vote Green as I am keen on environmental issues but some of their policies seem unrealistic. I like what the Lib Dems say about care of the elderly but not about other issues. Is it better not to vote at all?

Casdon

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT4HEKP3wZo
This one

Thanks Casdon. I'm not sure that was as surprising to me as it would have been a few months ago.

This, on the other hand made me think very hard. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCV2-qT9N5M&list=PL36GQAccexbyXC4mFlfMGHdQekQsHx2nS

It's long and detailed but it seems to make more sense of Trumps position - that of senior distractor - when you look at what has been planned and is taking place while people's eyes are elsewhere. It makes more sense of Farage's copycat position too. If you manage to plough through it let me know what you think 🤔

LemonJam... You are spot on
It's another 4 years before the next Election, who knows what will happen in the next few years.
We need a stable ship, to get us there.

silverlining48

I bet Farage is as secretly as scared of wining as those of us who wouldn’t support reform are.
It would be a disaster in my ever so humble.

😁

I was going to say I'd like to see the look on his face if Reform won - but no, I wouldn't really!!

Great post LemonJam!

OP- Is the country ready for a Farage government? We don't need to be ready now as we're 4 years away from a general election (GE).

Poll ratings come with considerable uncertainty in this context. Reform is currently capitalising on current unpopularity for the Labour government and Conservative Party under Badenoch's leadership. It's very common for new governments to lose popularity in first year of term and come back to win re-election. Reform is in new territory - its challenge is to maintain current poll share for 4 long years until GE nears. Voters then will focus on on what they want in government and each party will then set out its manifestos. A week is a long time in politics let alone 4 years!

Polls also traditionally go mad in party conference season. In 1981 Margaret Thatcher's Blackpool conference took place 2 years into her first term. With 11% inflation, Brixton Riots etc she also had low poll ratings as did Labour in opposition. She did not fair well in her conference or the newspaper headlines. The new Social Democratic Party SDP, in alliance with the Liberals was polling at 50% and was dominating the news ( sounds familiar?). Conference talk was that Thatcher would be gone by Christmas ( sounds familiar?) and lots of rivals manoeuvred to replace her. All bets were on SDP leader Roy Jenkins becoming PM (sounds familiar?). Reform has 27% share in recent Yougov poll, not SDP 50%.

Thatcher went on to turn things round, totally command her party won a further 2 GEs.

Even with such dominating poll share in 1981, SDP did not go on to establish a substantive hierarchy or presence, dwindled in the polls and never became a lasting electoral force. Farage has got his work cut out to avoid the same outcome in 4 years- only time will tell....

Their newly elected councillors seem to be is disarray all over the country but it doesn’t seem to be getting a lot of publicity.

If Reform win the GE then yes, unless Fragage resigns immediately, he does.

Of course he could resign now and save everyone a bit of headspace...

Who is Kruger?

No, Reform will not last the distance because all they can do is complain- when it is up to them to make decisions they resign, as we have seen since the local elections recently.

If they are in charge they will know what it is like to be on the receiving end, a bit like Starmer is going through now?

Farage doesn’t have to be appointed PM does he? Isn’t Kruger lined up for that role?
And will Reform last the distance to the next election…. But useful tools to reign in Starmer?

I bet Farage is as secretly as scared of wining as those of us who wouldn’t support reform are.
It would be a disaster in my ever so humble.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT4HEKP3wZo
This one

Casdon Thu 02-Oct-25 19:16:09

Casdon which Different Bias did thst refer to?

Is it liberty though?