It was wrong that so many Council elections were cancelled. It js clear from the elections that were permitted that many people are unhappy with the government and want change.
The Conservatives and Reform combined polled very well, with Reform getting excellent results in the Runcorn by election, several of the Councils and the Greater Lincs Mayoral race. In a Council like Northumberland where the Conservatives won most seats but Reform were a close second it is important the two parties come to an agreement to provide good local services and leadership.Reform now has a chance to show what it can achieve where it has strong majorities.
The two parties in Councils need to concentrate on providing good quality core services led by schools and social care. They need to cut overheads, stop the anti driver agendas, stop so called investments in property and energy which have jeopardised some Council’s finances, and get the Council tax down.
As always much of the local election debate was about things Councils do not control. Labour and Lib Dem candidates usually avoided talking about local bad management, waste of money, high taxes and excessive borrowings.
May 3, 2025
With respect, I don’t think the Conservatives polled very well. They lost many votes. As a lifelong Conservative voter, I am sad to say, the Party didn’t listen to the concerns of their Constituents, and this was reflected in the results of the Council elections.
Labour is even worse, making excuse after excuse, and trying to fool the Public, who have had enough of empty promises, while things go from bad to worse.
May 3, 2025
+ the LibDems were crowing about their success having won a quarter of the seats that Reform UK managed. One clear winning party after these elections. If Reform UK can show some skills at local government and keep polling as they are then talks of a deal with the Tories become irrelevant.
Bigger problem is that Labour can do a lot more damage to the Country in the next 50 months.
May 3, 2025
It’s a verrry big ‘if’.
May 3, 2025
Is it that big an if? The bar for competency in local government looks to be pretty low.
May 3, 2025
The Bureaucrats are in charge – can Reform Councillors wrest power from them? Easier said than done, as they will discover. They will however be held responsible for the eccentric actions of the bureaucratic dictators.
It’s the same story in Government of course, and Farage ‘does not have what it takes’ as Musk observed. Easy to promise, not so easy to deliver.
May 5, 2025
Indeed – Lynn and PeteB. Bureaucrats with their vested interests and the Courts with theirs!
May 3, 2025
@Cheshire+Girl +1 – the conservative party was dismissed sometime ago replaced by a LibDem version of the uniparty. The parliamentary group, their management and organisers are hiding behind the banner of conservatism would never allow a conservative in their ranks. If the are not happy crossing the floor and joining 2TK they should at least line up with Ed Davy.
Then allow the true conservatives the grass roots centre of the UK select and elect conservatives.
May 3, 2025
Why would Reform want to work with the Tories. Farage was betrayed by Boris and the rump party as is consists mainly of One Nation wets who should be in the limp dumb
Yesterday the conservatives were completely humiliated and quite rightly so.
Nigel decree that DEI and other equality employees in Reform controlled councils should be lo9king for another job was an excellent start
May 3, 2025
+1
May 3, 2025
Reform emphatically won control of Doncaster Council with 37 Councillors compared to Labour’s 12 (but unfortunately not the Mayor as well).
Red Ed’s Climate Change SCAM won’t be going ahead in his own Constituency 🙂
Farage is going to enjoy that … for as long as Red Ed remains as the Minister-for-No-Energy-Security.
May 3, 2025
This morning we are Importing 21% of our electricity at £69 per mwh. The majority of this money is going to France to subsidise their electricity bills which are half the price of ours
If the taxes were removed from our own generators the price would be £40 per mwh
We’re effectively subsidising French consumers.
May 3, 2025
Often the cost nears twice that!
May 3, 2025
Why does our government allow any energy to be imported, while we sit on an island of coal, coke & shale gas, surrounded by sea oil & gas …..its madness unless they’re just following orders
May 5, 2025
It is indeed insanity we get energy at four+ times the cost of the US or China and render our industries totally uncompetitive this killing them, UK jobs, the economy and our food & defence systems too.
May 3, 2025
@Ian wragg +1 agreed.
I do hope they drive out discrimination(DEI) from those that receive taxpayer money, they are not paid to make those political decisions
May 3, 2025
Has there ever been any election where the unpopular Government suffered less of a crash than the Official Opposition Party?
I think the Conservative Party is finished for good. Conservative voters want it replaced even though yesterday’s 15% is a lot better than Mrs Mays 6% in a national election. These are derisory returns befitting a protest party. The Conservatives are Remainers protesting to Rejoin.
Labour was born when the Liberal Party crashed into oblivion. So as the Tories crash into oblivion the question is: Is Reform the Conservative replacement? 50% owned by an alien religion and 50% owned by Farage?
I think not.
May 3, 2025
Did it suffer less of a crash because of the cancelled elections, the ones where it was defending? The ones Conservatives were defending weren’t cancelled.
May 3, 2025
Could be. Nevertheless we have seen an unprecedented rejection of the mainstream parties which no longer represent the two strands of mainstream politics.
May 3, 2025
Conservatives and Reform can collaborate in Northumberland to deliver good services.
Or they can fight like rats in a sack like councillors normally do. I know what I would expect.
There’s no love lost between the two parties.
May 3, 2025
The outstanding results achieved by Reform provide the party with the opportunity to show what it can achieve in local government when in control. It will also reveal how well it can collaborate with Conservatives to achieve results. Conservative lost control of Bucks CC but remain the largest party; combined with 4 Reform councillors and they have a majority of 1 over all other parties, of which the Lib Dems are the largest.
It will be revealing to see how the respective policy platforms of Reform and Conservatives evolve at the national level ahead of the next GE. And how Labour now responds; from Starmer’s initial comments it seems to be keeping on digging the hole Labour is in.
May 3, 2025
Oldtimer the tories would rather jump into bed with the limp dumb
Like in Germany there will be a concerted effort to keep them out of office
The good thing in many areas Reform have massive majorities so they don’t need to compromise.
May 3, 2025
You just know that if reform won all the mayoral elections, our government would change the law removing the posts
May 3, 2025
Our Reform candidate Arron Banks stood on a platform of more or less abolishing the post.
“Reform UK metro mayor candidate Arron Banks would sack all 400 officers at the West of England Combined Authority (Weca) who are “just shuffling paper around” and close the “swanky” headquarters.” Bristol Live.
He came a very close second, beating the Greens who were expected to win, into 3rd place.
May 4, 2025
PS Bristol has the distinction of being the only city so far to have abolished its Mayoralty by special referendum.
May 3, 2025
Starmer’s stupid reaction to the results may damage Labour even more than the actual results.
May 3, 2025
@Dennis
Exactly. Starmer was robotic, wooden and “lost in space” detached from reality dressed in his free suit and expensive glasses speaking the repeat mode “Going further and faster” into disaster as nauseam in the race to the bottom. He showed no emotion unlike KB for those who lost their seats and ” I get it” says No you don’t and never will.
Yes people want change but not making things worse.
May 3, 2025
Indeed Starmer says “he gets it” and so he wants to move further and faster! So he does not get it at all. His anti-growth policies, net zero, tax and regulate to death, open door immigration polices and re-entry to the EU by the back door again are all totally wrong headed!
The last thing we want is further and faster with these mad 180 degrees out directions!
May 3, 2025
@Oldtimer92 – with respect there is no synergy between those that call themselves conservative and reform. Look at the leadership and the parliamentary group they have had the collective responsibility for high taxes, high energy costs, deindustrialisation of the UK and many more disastrous decisions. They own that direction and have shown they want the continuity of more of the same. At any time they called have called a halt to the Blair wrecking ball drift, the drift to the WEF World order of Socialism – they had the power, they refused. So why would a centre ground party work with the uniparty?
May 3, 2025
Sir Keir’s response was to say Labour need to go further and faster – so that’s to accelerate ruining the country.
May 3, 2025
Reform did fantastically well. From a standing start they now have control of 10 Councils and came second in many more. They won 2 Mayors, 677 Councillors and they beat Labour in Runcorn.
The Not-a-Conservative-Party didn’t poll well. They colluded with Labour to cancel Local Elections in areas where Reform were predicted to do extremely well and that was the only way they could jointly limit the thrashing they got from Reform and a furious electorate.
Reform is now in a position where “the simple beauty of the tipping point” is working in their favour across the country. It’s obvious that in many areas if you vote Tory instead of Reform, you’ll get Labour
I predict the Not-a-Conservative-Party will suddenly get a Damascene revelation and start talking about PR 🙂
May 3, 2025
I predict that as time goes by in this tragedy of a government that party will almost be lost to oblivion.
May 3, 2025
@Donna – the sooner they ‘cross the floor’ and join their fellow travellers, the sooner the grass roots centre of the Nation can select and elect real conservatives, it maybe that will be Reform. But the fauxConservatives are a block on proper democracy. I would have respect for them if all those uniparty members calling themselves Tories resigned, let the constituencies choose their candidates and elect who will represent ‘them’ in parliament.
May 3, 2025
I say that Reform did so well because of it’s standing start. Best to have no history and therefore be the dustbin vote for both Labour and Conservative.
Here is one of the crosses Labour and Conservatives carry – ‘Levies used to encourage construction of wind farms, solar parks and other renewables have added £25.8bn a year to energy bills paid by both households and industry, according to a study from the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), or over £900 per household annually – about one third of which, £280, will hit the average domestic electricity bill directly.’
Voters have to send messages every opportunity they get, we can’t afford to vote on Council issues alone, although the result would be little different, because the established parties are dire locally too.
May 3, 2025
‘dustbin vote’? come on Lynn your obvious intense dislike shines through.
Most of us would call Reform a patriotic flag being waved at last……you carry on sulking.
May 3, 2025
Or the Conservative party can have a Damascene moment and decide to elect a convincing leader.
May 3, 2025
the challenge is to find one!
May 3, 2025
They haven’t got one, since our host jumped ship and JR-M lost his seat.
May 3, 2025
An extremely positive spin for the Conservatives in reality considering they were systematically almost wiped out – deservedly so for the utter waste of a term in government that could have achieved so much.
Reform now have unstoppable momentum and the old guard are failed brands.
Robert Jenrick’s comment yesterday dismissing a pact with Reform reminded me of the knight in Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
May 3, 2025
@Andrew Jones – quite so. anyone thinking Robert Jenrick is a leader has a short memory, he is just desperately trying to say what he believes what people want to hear, while denying his background and record that proves the opposite
May 3, 2025
Sir John,
I don’t often disagree with you but, I really don’t think The Conservative Party polled well at all.
Although I am a lifelong Conservative voter, I haven’t felt we’ve had a real Conservative Party to vote for since David Cameron took over as leader. During his tenure I tore up my CP membership and stopped selling Christmas Draw Tickets.
It will be interesting to see how Reform perform now they have control and influence in so many councils. I suspect they will meet a great deal of resistance from the council officers, the MSM, the trade unions and the left leaning single issue groups. We live in interesting times.
Reply I did not say the Conservatives polled well. They polled poorly and experienced heavy losses. On national vote share Reform got 30% and Conservatives 15%, so neither got a share sufficient to win a normal General election.
May 3, 2025
reply to reply….you ignore the areas where a vote was cancelled. Why was it cancelled? I think we know. The shift to voting Reform ought to be likened to a political tsunami, drowning Labour and Conservatives.
May 3, 2025
@Reply – I think you may be missing what from the outside others see. The two groups are on the opposite of the political divide, one with a ‘proven record’ of left-wing doctrine(High tax & borrowing, high energy costs, removal of industry and enforcement of DEI, removal of free speech, fight the people and many more) which on the face of it means they want more of what we are getting – its the whole team top to bottom that needs replacing. The others the ‘none-of-the-above’ unproven but seemingly want to work with those they represent – so they can not be considered to be on a similar side of the fence.
Labour grabbed power with just support of 20% of the electorate, around 30% of those that voted so if these results were reflected in a GE reform might just get their with a massive majority. As yet we don’t know the turnout.
May 3, 2025
Starmer has his massive majority on the support of 20% of the electorate because the right wing vote was split. That would only happen for Reform if the left wing vote were split in a similar way.
Of course Farage could have avoided handing us over to the global communists if he had been more intelligent and had less tunnel vision about Boris and the Conservatives.
Look at how many elections, candidates, and parties are being cancelled in the EU to see this might not be just a five year torment.
May 3, 2025
@rose, the conclusion from the figures was that more people stayed away than voted. The faux – conservatives disenfranchised, the centre and the conservative mainstream by not having any conservative candidates. Boris the loveable buffoon was never conservative, a conservative wouldn’t have forced NetZero and deindustrialisation on the nation without ensuring there was a way to pay for it his high taxes and borrowing wasn’t about creating income for a future but destroying a nation
May 3, 2025
The results of the local council elections show a total disatisfaction with the main two parties.
Labour because they are in practical terms demonstrably useless and conduct themselves with venom.
Conservatives in Parliament are two thirds consocialist and have a record of 14 years of failure across the piste.
The old two party system in UK politics is clearly broken, if not dead. I would add that as 80% of what local government does is legally dictated by national government it is dishonest to set up thursdays winners as Aunt Sally’s for any continued problems at local level. Where Reform have control I hope they put the financial and political auditors in and publish the results. Where remaining Conservatives exist they are free to cooperate in the interests of common sense. Nigel is absolutely correct in disdaining any form of national cooperation with the cause of 50% of the failure we see about us.
In time the two main parties may convince themselves of the rightiousness of their causes, but it is clear that the electorate do not accept them or their product. Whether they change or stagger on as destructive forces is in their hands. If there is one place in the UK in need of reform in all senses of the word it is Wales, the next battleground in the UK’s political revollution.
May 3, 2025
@agricola – “total disatisfaction with the main two parties. ” got it in one. Maybe we the people no longer want the uniparty and its ego trip
May 3, 2025
Wales is why there must be absolutely no pact with the Tories. As things currently stand, Reform looks in a very good position to destroy Labour in “the valleys.” Any kind of deal with the hated Tories would damage that prospect.
May 3, 2025
One other observation is that, give or take, only 30% of the electorate chose to vote. No doubt for many varied reasons, but it is not healthy democracy. Maybe, just maybe, if the none voting electorate began to see local changes as a result of new management, their interest and desire for involvement could be rekindled. Let’s focus on the state of local roads as a litmus paper for the correction of a glaring problem well within the remit of local government. Most of our problems are national. Where they have local control, let’s see how Reform perform.
May 3, 2025
Quite right that the Parties should co-operate at a local level, where they can. Nothing screws up local government management more than warring Parties. A pothole is a pothole. Get it fixed!
If the ordinary folk who become local councillors can’t put aside team differences in order to help their locality, their Parties don’t deserve power.
May 3, 2025
Saturday morning and we are importing 28.6% of our electricity from the continent but exporting 4.0% to Ireland.
Hence our continental neighbours could cut off a quarter of our supply if they chose, if we upset them in any way.
May 3, 2025
And they would. Which is one of the reasons why the cowardly British Establishment doesn’t DARE stand up for the interests of the British people. The other being “they don’t want to.”
May 3, 2025
@Denis Cooper – a nation controlled by the political whims of those that are unaccountable because the uniparty cant get on an manage, not even themselves.
May 3, 2025
Thats a national disgrace
May 3, 2025
Uni Party doesn’t do national security! The Tory’s had 14 years to ensure self sufficiency in energy so we couldn’t be held hostage to the hostile EU over fishing etc. Labour are no different. Reform. The only patriotic Party who are prepared to say so!!
May 3, 2025
I think it’s a big mistake to call Reform a right-wing party; it is populist; it speaks to and for former Labour working-class voters no less than disaffected Tories. The old left-right spectrum doesn’t apply to it.
That’s just one reason why it will not do a deal with the Conservatives.
May 3, 2025
They certainly won’t do a National deal. At the moment, Reform is looking very likely to shatter Labour’s grip on Wales. A “deal” with the CONs would be toxic in “the valleys.”
May 3, 2025
Margaret Thatcher had Essex Man. John Major had Mondeo Man. Cameron, May and Sunak had no-man. The neglect of the aspring poor and working class youths for 14 years and giving away their opportunities and futures to massive legal migration cost us their vitality and their much needed organic economic growth. Massive immigration compressed their wages, sent their rents sky high, reduced their labour productivity and damaged their country. No wonder they dont want to vote Conservative anymore. I listened to Badenoch, Greening and Rushton’s responses to the local election results yesterday and it was all boilerplate drivel. You cannot win elections if you dont know what to do and these 3 have no idea. What to do comes instinctively to a real Conservative and its not hard! They struggle because none of them are real Conservatives.
May 3, 2025
well said.
May 3, 2025
@Nick; Every elected government in modern times was “populist”, by definition. The term is meaningless, other than as a term of abuse currently used by the media (meaning ‘knee-jerk reactionary’), if anything Reform are attempting, and succeeding, to be Centrist, indeed some of their policies would have sat well in any party before the age of Political Correctness and Woke.
May 3, 2025
Agreed Jerry
The term Populist is used as an insult…
May 3, 2025
You should listen to the interview with Brian Garrish of the Derbyshire Reform man. He claims the ‘real Reformers’ are being replaced by professional Conservative politicians, like Andrea Jenkins.
So not a big pact, but the abolition of the grassroots Reform Amber Valley Association and replaced by appointed ‘ex-‘ Conservatives.
The candidate who won Runcorn was pro-Asylum-seekers until she realised that was unpopular, so she changed her policy. Like Nigel she will say anything to be ‘popular’ – but will either of them Fight? I have never seen Farage fight for a policy, only for himself.
May 3, 2025
@LA; Show me of a politico who has never changed their minds and I’ll show you a politico who is unelectable!
May 3, 2025
@Nick – every team not signed up the the WEF’ Socialist World order is of the ‘right’
May 3, 2025
Like most politicians wedded to the old ways of ‘Party line first’, obfuscate and deny, when the obvious and clear truth is marching towards you, Sir J you are just catching on, unlike that lot in the HoC. The Nation doesn’t like the Tory Party, nor Labour. Your contributors have been saying this for years!
The Tories lost large because it has a leader with few ideas and even less charisma. Labour has so let the nation down at the top of the party; Keith is now toxic and his apparatchiks unelectable.
Farage, like him or not, he IS electable now, his party is clearly coming together, and he needs good help and advice. He is a ‘Conservative’ in all but name and offers the possibility of a brighter future. Give support for a party that offers the chance of putting your wishes into action. Nobody else will.
May 3, 2025
Peter,
I suspect the leader of the Tory party is keeping her powder dry. She has two distinct problems. First all the things the leaders since 2016 did not do that was expected of them and the things they did do, like leaving NI high and dry in conflict with their full title. Simply put they were not Conservative. Her second is the parliamentary party which is 2/3rds. not Conservative. The only answer to this is candidate selection in time for the next election.
We do not have to cast our microscope far over Labour to see that they are totally toxic. The are fighting a war with the British Public based on envy and perceptions generated in the playground. This they combine with blatant incompetence. They act mostly way out of their paygrade.
You are right about Nigel Farage. After the landfall buoy he is the first red and green fairway lights . Politics apart, he has had a successful business life, knows what makes the people tick and above all can communicate with those he aspires to lead. Nobody comes near since Winston. I wish him well, we desperately need the change of direction he offers.
May 3, 2025
Agricola, thank you. As to your first point on Ms Badenoch, I used to think along your lines, however her candidates fighting for elected office urgently need a new story to tell on the doorstep, in the form of ‘here’s our new leader’s vision…’ She has not deemed it useful to provide such and therefore the poor candidates, recent and future, stand no chance. The fact she doesn’t see this is telling.
May 3, 2025
What successful ‘business life’ has Farage had? Only he constantly publicly and privately asserts that he is ‘skint’. Sure;y you don’t consider 17 years as an MEP as a ‘business life’?
May 3, 2025
The majority of council spending is controlled by state mandates/rules of where money must be spent.
That effectively prevents councils having any freedom to act in their own local interests.
Until state mandates are removed the position of councils will remain locked into state projects and spending instructions.
With that as the reality we need to look closely at what functions councils actually need to perform and how we restore local democracy. The centralisation of everything is what has been happening for decades and s almost complete.
Councils have become nothing more than an arm of central government wearing a veneer of democratic representation that has almost zero power.
May 3, 2025
Farage is not going to do a deal with anyone – he’s on a solo run – Uno Duce Una Voce
May 3, 2025
It is clear from the elections that were permitted that many people are unhappy with the government and want change
It’s not just the government but also the Tories
The British Labour Party grew out of the trade union movement of the late 19th century
In 1912 the Liberal Unionist Party merged with the Conservatives party to form the Conservative and Unionist Party.
That leaves the Reform Party that as grown in the 21st century and as become a political party created by the backing of the people and not by trade unions or big business as is Labour/Conservatives.
Reform will continue to make even greater gains and you can bet your bottom dollar that Labour/conservatives/lib-dems will use every trick in and out of the book and will try and discredit the Reform Party but the public aren’t stupid and will see through all of there bile and lies
May 3, 2025
Reform is growing due to the people’s demand for real democracy, representation and accountability of politcians, government & parliament
May 3, 2025
“The Conservatives and Reform combined polled very well”
That’s what you typed Sir JR. It reads that both parties polled well. Obviously the facts are the Conservatives were wiped out along with Labour and the irrelevent Lib Dems and Greens.
It’s still very early days for Reform, but these results show the desire for change in the country.
People are heartily sick of Conservative failure and the mess created by Labour.
The Kent (my home area) result was stunning
Seats won – final total: Reform 57; Labour 2; Lib Dem 12; Green 5; Conservative 5
The Tories lost a whopping 52 seats from the start of the day and have relinquished control of the council after 30 years in power.
May 3, 2025
You missed the word “combined”. It is the combination of the right wing vote you must look at to see what is happening.
May 3, 2025
I didn’t miss anything. Reform polled well. Conservatives got hammered.
May 3, 2025
Kent – where the illegals land and claim bed and board across the country for the rest of their lives? – and maybe their relatives too before long.
May 3, 2025
Living in a County were the local elections were canceled I accept the rational for their cancellation until next year when we will know if we are to have an (CCA) elected unitary Mayor, together with all the changes that will bring, to hold elections this year would have been pointless and a waste of time and money.
I agree the Tory vote stood up better than Labour’s but that is not saying much at all, clutching at stinging nettles if anything, the LibDems did far better (pro-rata) than expected, as did the Greens! My point, there is a polar-shift happening, Farage could well be correct, the old two party politics is now truly over, although I would caution him on making rash predictions, in the 1980s the SDP made similar comments, and then announced that their membership were returning to their constituencies to “prepare for government”…
The problem is leadership. All the warnings this time last year about ‘Starmergedon’ have come true, how else does the Labour Party explain Runcorn, and it is a bit rich for Starmer to claim Reform are ideologues when his own government is weighed down by ideology, such as the ‘millstone’ of a Net-Zero zealot, not to mention their love affair with the EU; the Tory party *membership* once again elected another lame duck leader, and one who has clearly alienated their traditional voter base. If Tory MPs gave Truss 6 weeks before ousting her, six months has been plenty of time for the current leader; whilst Reform did exceptionally well they could have done even better, many voters will simply never vote for Mr Farage, even though they agree with Reform policies.
May 3, 2025
Sir John
“Conservatives and Reform combined polled very well” I don’t know how you could put those to parties together in a way that suggests there is some synergy between them. They are not related in any way, one as they have a proven track record as part of the collective responsibility cabinet along with their management team have wrecked the country and conservatism. The other could still be a ‘none-of-the-above’ party.
The only thing that is clear is the people the ones doing the empowering and paying don’t want to see any of the uniparty involved in running the nation or their lives – that at a guess would be 75% of Parliament needs clearing out.
I would like to see a genuine reform of our Parliament, a return to democracy, the one where constituents choose their candidates then get open a free elections to choose their MP.
May 3, 2025
Your last sentence – that’s a party matter, nothing to do with Electoral Law. Just do it!
May 4, 2025
@LA; Except the requirement to show Photo ID at polling stations is Electoral Law…
That from the Party who whilst in opposition, prior to 2010, objected to National Photo ID cards and one of their first actions having become the government was to scrap the roll-out of such cards.
May 3, 2025
As you say, Reform and the Conservatives COMBINED Polled well, but they have both made it clear they are not combined, and have no wish to be. The result for the Conservatives by themselves was a disaster and should be wake up call for Mrs Badenoch, and her whole approach.
For Reform the result will be a great test: are they capable of political management, when they have so far had some difficulty in managing themselves.
May 3, 2025
Actually Northumberland went from Conservative to NOC. They are proposing to glaze a hillside at Whittonstall, one of the greatest views in the country. The Officers keep withdrawing the application because the Councillors were not minded to vote for this expensive destruction. Let’s see if Reform Councillors can do any better.
County Durham swung away from Labour in a very big way – to Reform. Blair used to live at Trimdon and that is now lost to Labour. Most of the old mining and fishing areas, like Seaham, are now held by Reform. Consett tried voting Conservative and got Holden, so now they are trying Liberal/Reform.
We are all flailing about trying to sack the worst at every voting opportunity.
May 3, 2025
Hi sir John
I Dont things will change Rate payers I’ll still be treated disrespectful.
May 3, 2025
It is disingenuous to call Reform a populist party, a term used as an insult to voters all over Europe.
There is no such thing as “Populism”. It is nothing more than democracy in action and those that use the term are elitist politicians who have spent years ignoring the wishes of voters. Germany and France are perfect examples, and now we are seeing the dramatic consequences here.
Yesterday we saw the inevitable consequences of successive governments having allowed an unsustainable level of immigration, massive expenditure on the net zero religion, and the growth of woke and diversity. Everyone can see that all these things have done is made life worse for those born here and led to hugely increasing taxes.
It has to stop and the only political party prepared to say so has been Reform UK. They now have some chance of demonstrating they are serious, within the limits of local government. Andrea Jenkyns can lead the way by ordering a large number of tents, as she said just yesterday.
May 3, 2025
Reform now controls Kent County Council.
Council Tax payers in Kent are being charged a fortune to provide accommodation, “free everything” and Council Care for the criminal migrants who claim to be children …. including the ones with receding hairlines and 6 o-clock shadows.
I’m sure the result of the Audit will be very interesting.
May 3, 2025
@Chris S – The antithesis is Populist as against Statist. It has nothing to do with popularity (though Populists may indeed be popular).
May 3, 2025
Badenoch allowed 2TK to cancel our local elections with hardly a whimper. We have had Lib-Dems in charge since the Conservatives made themselves so unpopular, but we can be very sure that Reform would have scored an overwhelming victory here in Dorset, had we been allowed a vote.
We are now faced with a reorganisation of local government that nobody wants, but one that will likely give Lavour a few more seats. But it will only strengthen the Reform revolution.
May 3, 2025
Tell me about how well the Greens did, and why both tory & labour are following their mad net-zero policies ?
May 3, 2025
They came third in their stronghold, the West of England, though everyone expected them to win.
May 3, 2025
Our government is surprisingly similar to the elected government of Australia …Labour won today promoting the green policies while the Green party didn’t win any seats
May 3, 2025
That’s the ultimate victory for any protest party. If the two main parties adopt your policy you have won.
May 3, 2025
Reform have a lot to live up to, both locally and nationally.
Can they resist the policies imposed on them by Westminster and can they really work to improve our lot? A lot is riding on what they can do and only if their reputation grows because of their effectiveness will we ever see a Reform government.
Can Tories and Reform forget their national dislike of each other and agree a format for improving what councils do? Very unlikely, I think!
It’s unfortunate for British politics that so many see the libdems as something different from labour, when they were very much a part of the liblabon – libdems appeared as an alternative when they were simply a clone. They still confuse the political scene for too many.
The cancellation of so many council elections really demonstrates the way the UK is run today, not with honesty but with cowardice at the heart of most decisions.
May 3, 2025
Another reflection..
“ANDREW NEIL: The humiliation of Labour and the Tories has been on the cards for years. You can only defy the British people for so long before paying a terrible price”
So many of us label this group in Parliament inc. the LibDems the Uniparty for good purpose – they are cut from the same bit of Socialist cloth. That all hate the UK and its People, they are even still fighting the people to get us back under the rule their EU Overlords.
The Tory team were responsible for the ills of the Nation and did nothing in 14 years but increase Taxes, Borrowing, then in the name of NetZero banished the UK’s ability to earn and survive while ensuring that criminal human trafficking and criminal entry into the UK increased. The group in parliament fought against its grass roots to ensure no Conservative could enter Parliament. Seizing control and selecting those that had the joint responsibility for the countries woes that lead them to lose power – they could have started with a clean slate and rebuilt grass roots up but refused. They chose the same ole, same ole, aiming for continuation and continuity that lost them the election rather refresh and renew.
The fact that Labour is perusing policies with more zeal and ideology is neither here nor there, it’s the same policies brought to us by the pseudo team calling itself Tory that had the collective responsibility and the ability to change. That’s the point the team that own all that is wrong get to think they can be an opposition.
As Andrew Neil says “You can only defy the British people for so long before paying a terrible price”
May 3, 2025
@is-it-me
+99
Well said and so accurate
May 3, 2025
You remind me of that old Conservative piece of self deluding nonsense: elections are won from the centre.
May 3, 2025
@rose – oh rose, yes but also the bulk of the Nation and its People would consider themselves the centre and fair minded, that why it hard to understand that the 3 established parties are squabbling over who is the most extreme left.
May 3, 2025
216 criminals arrived in the UK yesterday; from the safe country of France…every day
May 3, 2025
GC – If I may add: From 02 APRIL to 02 MAY inclusive – Total 4874 crossed by illegal means in 90 boats.
( Official stats ) Speeding up assessments, employing more HO staff ; surely they are just treading water based on the numbers we see, also considering the fund receiving bodies we know about that claim to have leading voices which challenge or try to overturn asylum rulings with their expert legal advice.
May 3, 2025
Time is running out for britain
May 3, 2025
While the UK equivalent of German’s AFD did well in local elections, no doubt the establishment is working on other ways to defeat them – but in Germany:
How many steps away from anarchy are western government?
May 3, 2025
The SPD was banned by Bismarck. It was found to be counterproductive, so it was unbanned. Now the SPD are doing the same, directing the spooks to infiltrate and spy on the AfD from inside, to gather evidence for banning. The SPD has just been thrown out by the electorate, everyone admits, but is back in power to do this because of Farage’s beloved PR.
May 3, 2025
@Rose – Yes
I’ve never been a fan of PR – No matter how many votes a party gets to win you still see the crumbs of failed parties getting a slice of the action.
PR is only useful for marginal parties – once successful Reform will no doubt prefer FPTP
May 3, 2025
And Zelensky, whose ‘army’ will March in London to celebrate VE Day (when they were defeated), has banned 12 parties. No wonder Van Der Leyen and Starmer worship him.
May 3, 2025
The Reform conrolled councils will be able to end their council’s own Net Zero nonsense from anti-car measures to failing electricity supply companies and consequently save their council taxpayers a lot of money. Not that they can stop the sabotage from the Civil Service and Ofgem. For example, Ofgem in their 30/04/2025 press release have fnally admitted that our local grids and households will need massive upgrades to cope with their planned forcing through of evs and heat pumps etc as currently these grids can only handle 1-2 KW/household CONTINUOUSLY. So almost every road and driveway will be dug up. This is going to be very, very expensive (£500bn ?) and we’re not going to have either the equipment, the materials or the workforce to achieve this in the timeframe allowed by the CCC’s carbon budgets. Far better to stick with gas and hydrocarbon liquid fuels especially as CO2 is plant food and does not cause any warming. Even the IPCC can only come up with 1.2 degrees C for a doubling of CO2 (WG1 P95).
May 3, 2025
We all squeeze the toothpaste out the tube.
But the LibLabCon party have cut the the ends of the tube and enabled an ORGY OF SQUEEZING for every cause that demand it.
That is why the British people will replace a corrupt UniParty with Reform.
May 3, 2025
And at that point they will discover Reform is not even a tube.
I wish it was otherwise, but if Farage and Yusuf is the best option we are in deep dodo (as Reagan would have said).
May 3, 2025
By any measure a great result for Reform, as it clearly shows anger and frustration within the electorate. The cynical cancellation of local election in eastern areas reveals the depths they will stoop to. Starmer’s pledge to go further and faster is no answer in fact he has no workable policies to stop illegal immigration, improve the economy and reform a broken NHS. His focus is outside the UK strutting around with other equally useless EU leaders pretending to be important whilst making pledges designed to further damage our Country. Reform now has a great opportunity to make changes where their have power and to further grow their internal structure. Kemi Badenoch is thoughtful and cautious rebuilding the damage inflicted during 14 years of failed policies. However, her party is badly holed below the waterline and with far too many One Nation old school Conservatives remaining it’s difficult to see recovery.
May 3, 2025
When you call on Francis Maude, who signed the Maastricht Treaty, you have lost the plot.
May 3, 2025
One thing is for certain: We cannot allow this Labour lot to continue to govern us past 2029. Even if that means a deal between the Conservatives and Reform, the ultimate objective is to remove the socialist from power, and to that end, Mr Farage must eventually give way if that remains the case come election year.
The alternative is to split the vote and constituencies so opening the door for five more years of socialism demoralising and denigrating our nation. Where will it all end?
May 3, 2025
Reform gained 677 councillors.
The Tories lost 676 councillors.
Uncanny. Could there be a connection!
I thought the Tories were dead and buried in 1997. But they came back from the dead – gifted the 2010 election by virtue of the global crash in 2008 – but, even then, they didn’t win a majority.
I again think the Tories are dead and buried.
May 3, 2025
I have refrained from posting this hitherto but now the local elections have confirmed, more than confirmed what I thought, which is that Kemi Badenoch is worse than Liz Truss and is not a viable Leader of the Conservative Party. Badenoch is not articulate enough nor consistent enough in thought nor focused enough to save the Conservative Party from annihilation. She needs to be replaced and without delay. The fact is from the easier position of Opposition she has lost two thirds of the Council seats held in government under Boris Johnson- indeed they have been beaten by the Liberal Democrats and thrashed by Reform in what were their strongest areas, the shires.
The problem is who would be significantly better. Whereas practically anybody would have done better than Sunak (and what the Canadian Liberals did in replacing and getting the electorate to forget about their unpopular leader, Trudeau, shows just how right I was that Sunak should have been replaced before the election), Sunak has left the Conservative Party in such a mess, now aggravated by Badenoch, that it would take huge political ability to salvage the Conservative Party. It is so bad it may be too late for even Suella Braverman to do much now that Reform momentum is so strong but she always was and still is the best choice among the 121 remaining Conservative M.P.s as she is articulate, purposeful, innovative yet consistent and populist. Failing that the Conservatives should do as the Canadian Liberals did and go outside Parliament for a Leader – and the choice is obvious, Boris Johnson. He may be the only person who could now save the Conservative Party from extinction.
May 3, 2025
Australia – Labour wins a landslide (Sydney Morning Herald headline) and conservative leader loses his seat.
May 3, 2025
Australia Labour, UK Labour & Canada Labour (national elections)….anyone else spot the trend with commonwealth countries …maybe the anti-trump effect
May 3, 2025
Luxury beliefs as in Canada?
May 3, 2025
Which means, in summary, the Conservatives should follow Reform’s lead.
May 3, 2025
But the tories chose to move the left/center, they’re not the tories of the 70s 80s 90s, they’re actually the new unity party ….they should, but they wont follow reform
May 3, 2025
Why doesn’t the Tory Party get rid of the BORING tree logo and instead exchange it for a simple, illustrated logo of a medieval knight on a cavalry horse in pale blue (same colour pale blue as the boring tree logo – colour good not the logo).
1. Image of a warrior (who doesn’t love a warrior)
2. A knight can also be a king (Richard t. Lionheart)
3. Reminds people of St George (but without being St George – as there were Welsh and Scottish and Irish medieval knights as well) (although St George was really a Roman soldier)
4. A knight on a horse is just as solid an image as an oak tree (but oak trees don’t move – a knight moves but also solid).
5. St Joan of Arc was a knight (so women can’t complain). In fact, she was arguably the greatest knight in history for her astounding victories on the battlefield only aged 18 and a woman (in a man’s world) and a peasant (when the aristocracy ruled).
May 3, 2025
@Ed M; A knight on a horse, in shining armor, holding a shield or sword – is that a new Conservative Party logo or just the old logo for Anglia Television…
Given the woke solutions being offered, perhaps the new logo should be of a Rabbit, in the general shape of the UK, being pulled from a magicians hat! 😉
May 3, 2025
The knight is better than the tree, though (Lib Demish ..).
Rabbit – exactly!
Shame we don’t have honey badgers here (fearless, intelligent, creative – hard as nails).
Reply Given all the huge issues we need to sort out I do not the rest of us are worried about the Conservative party logo.
May 4, 2025
Yes but a logo is a visual reminder and communicator of what you stand for. It has some value but I agree it’s little in compared to the meat and bones of what you do.
May 3, 2025
👍🏻 instead of trying to put up a new façade why not go back to Conservative politics?
May 3, 2025
but it didn’t end well!
May 3, 2025
It ended with the end of the 100 years war, the French with their borders back and the king back on the throne. Not bad for an 18 year-old, uneducated peasant woman (and who ultimately didn’t mind the ultimate sacrifice like our soldiers back in WW2).
May 3, 2025
“It js clear from the elections that were permitted that many people are unhappy with the government and want change.”
For the first time since 1997, if not 1990, we have seen the emergence of a true opposition to socialism. Certainly for the last 14 years we have been living in a one party state which uses the BBC for its propaganda dissemination. There is almost no difference today between Labour, Conservative, Lib Dems and Greens on all the major issues – Net Zero, immigration, EU membership, taxation, freedom of speech etc..
Reply The ew Leader of the Conservatives has made clear the need to cut migration substantially. She has apologised for the Conservative failure to do this in government when those of us who wanted to did not get Ministers to do it.She has also made clear net zero is unaffordable.
May 3, 2025
Sorry, Sir John, but saying immigration needs to be “cut substantially” without eiher a plan or a definition of numbers allowed to come is not a serious policy. Although Kemi did say that Net Zero by 2050 was “impossible” and would “bankrupt” us she most certainy did not say it was not necessary to save the planet. She said we needed a better plan for achieving Net Zero, not its cancellation. So no real change in policies, just words.
May 3, 2025
JR – the EU and EU law is also unaffordable. Yet Badenoch is personally responsible for thousands of EU laws remaining on the Statute Book, in defiance of the votes of The House.
There is nothing more to be said really. She is unacceptable.
May 4, 2025
reply to reply..but what does substantially mean? 10% 30% 60% nothing short of 100% would be popular.
‘net zero unaffordable’ more accurately ‘net zero at a practical level idiotic’
Both might get her a massive increase in support.
May 3, 2025
Canada and Australia have both voted to keep Trumpism in check – but here we are following Farage populism and without a care it seems –
May 3, 2025
Sayagain :
Trump is keeping democracy and freedom of speech alive and populism is the very definition of democracy.
May 5, 2025
If you think freedom of speech is running off at the mouth like some high profile figures today without weighing up the consequences then we are in trouble – then for instance if you speak freely on the university campus or in Academia and the same high profile figures shut you down? you think this is freedom? Furthermore if you think democracy is all about populism then there are also plenty of examples about of how this type of democracy ended up as fascism – think VE day
May 3, 2025
Populism vs Elites …..I’d back populism every time, its called democracy
May 3, 2025
Our taxpaying citizens are being evicted from their homes to house asylum cheats.
And then the government demands that they pay for them.
We have crossed the Rubicon.
May 4, 2025
You say Reform and Conservatives combined polled well. Reform and Labour combined polled better. Reform and LibDems combined polled best. So what does that tell us ?
May 4, 2025
There was a reason back in the day when only the land owners and property people had a vote – this was to keep the unenlightened and uneducated in place and so secure the best result for the country as a whole – it had nothing to do with populism but only dull men in grey suits and it worked – now we’ve gone to the other extreme.