Is the country ready for a Farage government?

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

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?

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?

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.

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.

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?

Elless

🙌

Yuk

That was in response to this: 🙄

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Reform has nothing to do with TR, they have said that. I would give them a shot. I didn’t vote for them last time but just might next time round, just for the sheer hell of it. Let’s face it, they can’t be any worse.

Mt61

Reform has nothing to do with TR, they have said that. I would give them a shot. I didn’t vote for them last time but just might next time round, just for the sheer hell of it. Let’s face it, they can’t be any worse.

Am afraid saying they have nothing to do with TR doesn’t detract from the fact that they share the same ideology which means Reform bases it’s whole success upon demonising and dehumanising a group of people with no agency.
And ‘yes’ it can be a whole lot worse.

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'm sorry, Dd but I don't understand your first paragraph at all. Can you expand a little on it?

I would miss your input to discussions. While I don't agree with some of it it is usually carefully thought out and presented and well worth reading.

Keep posting Doodledog your input is appreciated

We've gone from infantile to gaga on this thread. I'm not sure whether we're in a kindergarten or a care home, or even a madhouse.
Don't give up Doodledog. You have some interesting stuff to say, on the whole.

It is a messy world politically, but I do have grandchildren, and I just have to hope with all my heart, that, living in these times, they will cope with whatever happens and not get overly frightened or stressed. 🤞

I don't think it helps that we see what's happening in America all the time. Obviously it must be reported but I have tried to limit my watching of the standard news briadcasts.

I can't get the pictures out of my mind of the troops, with their faces covered, making arrests on the streets without an legal entitlement to do so. How did they feel about having to do that? I'm so glad all appropriate aged male members of my family no longer live in this country - but the young female members do ...

Mt61

Reform has nothing to do with TR, they have said that. I would give them a shot. I didn’t vote for them last time but just might next time round, just for the sheer hell of it. Let’s face it, they can’t be any worse.

I might push somebody under a bus - just for the sheer hell of it. Oh, what fun!

Mt61 You can't be serious!

Has "they can't be any worse" become the new Reform slogan - or something? Yes, they could be considerably worse than we now have. Maybe you could give some examples of how you would expect your life to improve with a Reform government. I can only think that of losing a free NHS and public services being cut more than they have been up to now. I dread to think what life would be like for the disabled or elderly.

DaisyAnneReturns

I don't think it helps that we see what's happening in America all the time. Obviously it must be reported but I have tried to limit my watching of the standard news briadcasts.

I can't get the pictures out of my mind of the troops, with their faces covered, making arrests on the streets without an legal entitlement to do so. How did they feel about having to do that? I'm so glad all appropriate aged male members of my family no longer live in this country - but the young female members do ...

I've just been watching "Berlin 1933" on iplayer.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p0gjkj43/berlin-1933

Ooops! My mistake! You're talking about the situation in the US - and possibly the UK, if we get Trumplite.

Farage may seek to distance himself from Yaxley Lennon but the narrative is the same - claiming that the country in on the brink of civil war. It’s pushed on a daily basis through X, Instagram and TikTok and is done deliberately to instill fear.

Robinson and Farage’s ‘civil war’ narrative is warping voters’ minds. How is any government supposed to counter it? by John Harris

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/14/nigel-farage-tommy-robinson-london-rally-government-voters-civil-war

I sense DD’s frustration but do please keep posting. The board needs more members who can argue calmly and articulately to counter the childish yah boo sucks responses and personal insults.

On balance, the responses on this thread are from people who feel that a Reform government would be a disaster. I’ve yet to see any arguments to explain why Reform would be a success.

I do think people are sleepwalking. They sleepwalked into voting to leave the EU, will sleepwalk into accepting ID cards and may sleepwalk into electing a Reform government - although I do believe Farage will exit the stage before his unfitness to be Prime Minister is laid bare for all to see.

This is what Max Hastings said of Boris Johnson in June 2019:

The Tory party is about to foist a tasteless joke upon the British people. He cares for nothing but his own fame and gratification.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/24/boris-johnson-prime-minister-tory-party-britain

He was proved right. All one has to do it read the article and substitute the name Farage. The same reasoning holds true.