A recent poll puts Labour down to 27% from their poor election showing of 34%. It puts the conservative opposition on 48%, split between the Conservatives on 27% and Reform on 21%.
The large Labour majority on a reduced vote share from Jeremy Corbynâs was only possible because many conservative voters felt let down by the Conservative Party, staying at home or voting Reform.
Labour has lost support rapidly. It has revealed a wish to tax people and businesses excessively which it concealed pre election. It has found governing extremely difficult and has impaled itself on the freebie row
As we are likely to have four more years of this government this site will concentrate on what the government is doing and how it can serve us better. There will be jostling between Conservatives and Reform over who can best oppose which will delight the government, hoping to be re elected with less than a third of the vote and less than a fifth of all electors. Those who are primarily interested in the Conservative/Reform struggles should go onto their sites to debate. I will not usually be posting Reform criticisms of Conservatives or Conservative criticisms of Reform.
Any airtime Conservatives or Reform get should concentrate on what the government is getting wrong and what it can do to improve. There can only be a different government when enough Reform voters back the Conservatives or enough Conservatives shift to Reform.
This site all the time we had a Conservative Party government concentrated on the government and how it needed to change policy. It rarely commented on how the Opposition did its job.We need an opposition which can combine well researched criticisms of government actions and results with a better vision of how the U.K. could benefit from policies that promote freedom and prosperity.
This site is mainly about the conduct of government and the evolution of policy.
October 23, 2024
Reform can’t be ignored. Like it or not they have become the real opposition
This government is a disaster enabled solely due to the not so conservative last government reneging on every manifesto pledge
We’re just going to have to fasten our seat belts and ride out the political storm.
Maybe the faaaaar rite ie the majority of normal people will have to man the barricades.
October 23, 2024
Ian, Reform does indeed need to be acknowledged, especially by the Tory leadership. A sensible election campaign strategy that avoided competition between Reform & Conservative would smashl Labour (& other small parties). Once a new Tory leader is in place they should talk to Farage & co.
October 23, 2024
â We need an opposition which can combine well researched criticisms of government actions and results with a better vision of how the U.K. could benefit from policies that promote freedom and prosperity.â
Meanwhile ex Conservative David Gauke posts endless articles on âConservative Homeâ, despite many complaints from readers about providing a platform for someone who the Conservative Party expelled. He also posts endlessly in the âNew Statesmanâ. What he posts obviously suits those who run these Tory and Labour sites. Gauke now has a role for the Labour government too.
This is one reason why well researched criticism of government is unlikely to emerge from a Conservative Party opposition.
October 23, 2024
Indeed, the tax and spend policies of the previous Tory government were not much different to the current Labour one. The Tories need to separate their left and right wing factions into different parties.
October 23, 2024
Indeed Jenrick is basically pushing a reform agenda after his Damacine conversion. It seems however that Kemi is virtually home and dry.
“Any airtime Conservatives or Reform get should concentrate on what the government is getting wrong and what it can do to improve”
Well this government is getting all the things the tories got wrong for 14 years but even worse. Imigration levels, tax levels, energy, net zero, the size of government, rigged markets, lockdowns, crony capitalism, HS2, road blocking, the net harm Covid Vaccines… Labour is basically the Gove socialist Tory agenda.
October 23, 2024
I do hope you are right. As the Conservatives vanish into the far right wilderness, led by the nose by Mr Farage, the country will be governed by Labour or a Labour / LibDem coalition for many years ahead. Badenoch or Jenrick, it doesn’t matter, we all recognise that Nigel decides, and the Tories follow. Thank you so much for vacating the centre ground
October 23, 2024
Far right, left, extreme leftie, moderate, centre ground….all nonsense terms trying to describe policies a distance from what most would want ie bloody commonsense.
Politics is more than ever a daft calling – want to make a difference?
Then vacate the space.
October 23, 2024
The “centre ground” has failed the UK consistently since November 1990.
October 23, 2024
+1
October 24, 2024
Moses led his people into the wilderness and it worked out quite well for them. They gained a country.
October 23, 2024
A deal between Reform and the Consocialists is essential for power before the next election. Sunak should not have thrown the towel in six month early and should have done a deal with Reform for an election that should have been this November. Alas the man is so dim he even thinks (or lies) that Covid “vaccines” were/are safe. The evidence & worldwide is overwhelming they are/were not
October 23, 2024
Labour didn’t put early prisoner release or the legalisation of illegal immigration in their manifesto either.
A police officer has just been thrown to the mercy of murderous gangsters at the behest of a community which threatened No Justice No Peace and legal activism against fully pensioned senior police officers, CPS and IOPC officials who knew all the background facts and should never have let this case near a court, let alone revealed the officer’s identity.
This is two-tier justice in action and the legal and social fabric of this nation is being torn asunder.
Sgt Blake has been hung out to dry by his seniors. They’d rather Blake be at risk than endure the wrath of minorities. I’d down my weapon if I were a firearms officer.
Starmer may be Two-Tier Kier but this situation didn’t arise within three months of a Labour government.
The Tories need to get out of the way of Reform. There time is done.
October 23, 2024
‘their’
October 23, 2024
David Starkey, who is the darling of many on here, is looking for a revitalised Tory party. He claims a ârestorationâ is needed. He outlines this with his usual waffle about Magna Carta and various kings, while falsely claiming that itâs all been smooth sailing for hundreds of years. He carefully omits Watt Tyler, the Chartists, the Civil war etc etc.
He drops hints that a successful Reform would be similar oppressive governments in Europe in the early twentieth century.
A continued stalemate could continue for some time. Nobody mentions increased political violence which could quite likely occur. Starmerâs harsh prison sentences have not finished that issue. Protesters will just get better organised, like the people who cut down Khanâs ULEZ cameras in my streets.
Itâs probably wishful thinking to think that voting and what happens in parliament are all that counts.
October 23, 2024
I can understand the dilema of the rump parliamentary conservative party who I have always described as consocialists. A void has opened between their past benign opposition called the labour party, up to july 2024, and what is the real labour party without camoflage netting of today.
The conservative electorate have realised that what posed as their party up until july 2024 was not what they understood to be conservative in any shape or form. Hence their failure to vote at all or their voting for reform. The residual consocialists amongst them showed their disdain by voting lib/dem.
Now in terms of an opposition we have a consocialist rump, about to be led by a Robert Jenrick who has rediscovered conservatism and can identify all areas that have gone wrong. He is now espousing solutions. The alternative is to be led by Kemi Badenoch who realises that the problems facing any future UK government are much more fundamental, involving the very structure of the machine of government. I believe she sees it as having gone very wrong irrespective of party politics. I would be with her in the membership vote were I qualified. Either will find the battle within their own parliamentary party the greatest challenge.
Thanks to first past the post, reform are thin in Parliament but greater than the lib/dems in terms of electoral votes. They are sensibly building within the electorate until they reach that tipping point to power.
The current government are espousing the reform case enormously in all they do. The opposition to them will arise from within them when it is realised that there is little cake left to eat. With such a large majority, outside opposition however accurate will have little resonance with them. Fortunately it will build real opposition within the electorate who will increasingly dismiss them over the next four years. Unless the IMF get them first.
Pointing out labours sins in this diary is fine, they are becoming all to obvious to us outside already. However wishing to ignore everything else in gestation on the political battlefield by not allowing comment on it would be a big mistake. The electorate are feline, and you can no longer hurd cats.
October 23, 2024
âHurdâing cats being the Conservative way I suppose?
October 23, 2024
LL
You, and I dare say many others here, have not learned anything from when ‘Call me, Dave’ was in opposition and then PM.
As I recall, he talked the ‘rightwing’ talk but delivered a Blairite agenda. No matter who is in charge of the Tory Party those that have a will to do so would never let a Centre-right, let alone a rightwing MP near the leavers of power. Witness what happened to our kind host and others. Frozen out !
October 23, 2024
I tend to agree about 80 of current Tory MPs are net zero enthusiasts and Libdims or socialists.
October 23, 2024
The fact is Sir John we were completely failed by 14 years of Conservative administrations. Administrators that were definitely not conservative. This failure was much more than simple feelings this was plain fact. We were failed on both domestic policies of which immigration, Brexit and NHS dominated and foreign policy with too much slavish adherence to ideological aspirations of neocons in the US State Department. Now weâre lumbered with a radical bunch of utterly incompetent Labour Ministers most of whom have never had a proper job in industry or started their own business. Most have never employed anyone or indeed been responsible for managing large groups or teams of working professionals. And they are led by an arrogant chameleon whose personal greed and sense of self importance has cast a black shadow over his first 100 days in office. Hereâs a man who previously supported every one of Jeremy Corbynâs radical hard left policies including making every possible attempt to frustrate Brexit. Like Corbyn his roots belong in hard left dogma and he is clearly very authoritarian. The long drawn out Conservative leadership contest will hopefully determine whether the Conservative Party will return and reclaim Conservatism or whether theyâll remain essentially in the centre left of politics? Until we know the direction of travel we cannot properly make a valid judgement. I remain pessimistic.
October 23, 2024
Not just failed for 14 years the Consocialists lied in four manifestos but then delivered the reverse of what was promised. They did not even try to deliver. May even gave us the insanity of Net Zero, highest taxes for 70 years, 1m + PA of immigration mainly low skilled, crime out of control, public services dire, on Covid everything was wrong, vast waste, vast corruption and crony capitalism.
October 23, 2024
Yes, Starmer should have a great deal more analysis, we really didn’t get a full picture of him and his ‘ideas’ prior to the election despite the efforts of Peter Hitchens, who looks like he got the profile spot on.
Was Starmer hiding in plain sight, we just didn’t see the nuance? Blinded by the need to remove the despicable PCP. When Reeves spoke about fiscal responsibility and creating a growth economy, almost stealing Tory party of old rhetoric, were we all fooled? I was. Are the plans now being activated, based on years of preparation and kept hidden? Where are we going? That’s hard to believe given the inability of politicians on the make to keep a valuable secret.
October 23, 2024
More than that, the remaining 120 or so of the so called Tory MP’s are of the “one nation” liberal types. So any white washing intentions of whoever leads them, will be a charade like before in office. They will never get support whilst they remain essentially liberals in all but name. Hence their support for mass immigration, EU, ECHR borrowing madness, support for unlimited welfare etc.
October 23, 2024
Let us face it. The Conservatives were a very bad government but Labour is a far worse government.
Conservatives broke every promise they ever made and Labour told bare faced lies to get elected.
Seeing photos of Mr Gates and Mr Fink visiting No 10 begs the question. Who runs the country? For years we have watched as policy cooked up elsewhere becomes law here so until we are rid of LibLabCon we can expect no different.
God forbid that this rotten tyrannical government will be in place for another four years.
October 23, 2024
There will be those on both sides of the « Conservative « fence who object to being lumped together with Reform or The Conservative Party. At least we know what Reform stands for an believes in, which is why it grew overnight from a tadpole to a whale, whilst the Conservative Party shrivelled from a shark to a shrimp and the Conservative leadership is now going to be decided by less than 150,000 people.
October 23, 2024
I wonder how long it will be before Reform party membership exceeds Conservative Party membership. With the numbers trending in opposite directions and the likelihood that many will not renew for Conservatives after the leadership election is over it could well happen before the local elections next year.
October 23, 2024
I read today that Labour may count spending on asylum claims as part of the foreign aid budget rather than paying for it in addition. If true it’s odd that Labour should implement a policy to the right of anything the Conservatives managed in 14 years. They have also of course implemented off-shore processing in St. Helena for asylum seekers pitching up in Mauritius, again a general policy the Conservative MPs never managed to implement or even wanted in many cases. This demonstrates your somewhat false equivalence between the Conservatives and Reform, as if somehow they are both options for right-wing voters who will switch between them, in fact many Conservative MPs would far rather align with the LibDems than Reform. But anyway I agree that they should concentrate on attacking Labour, however the Conservatives are more interested in their internal battles and haven’t laid a glove on Labour since the election.
Reply The Conservatives did charge as much of the asylum budget to overseas aid as the international definitions allow. Labour is adopting Conservative policy here. Sending people to St Helena was I think ruled out on cost grounds by the previous government as there would need to be expensive new housing and facilities for any meaningful numbers.
October 23, 2024
“We need an opposition which can combine well researched criticisms of government actions and results with a better vision of how the U.K. could benefit from policies that promote freedom and prosperity.”
Indeed we do. And those who aspire to replace this government will need to make it clear whether they intend only to manage its legacy regime better, or scrap it to a major extent and begin governing from fresh principles. The first approach would leave the ratchet effect of socialism (hat tip Enoch Powell) untouched; the second would anticipate dismantling and possibly reversing the ratchet.
October 23, 2024
I see no opposition to this government from the Conservative party or Lib Dems, probably because they share the same policies of net zero and mass immigration. Only the few Reform MPs fight for the future of our country. There’s no point supporting either of the two current Conservative leader contenders because they will rule a split party and will be incapable of enacting any changes just like Liz Truss. I will be concentrating my efforts over the next 5 years on getting more Reform candidates elected, as I see this as the only solution to save our country. I’ve always enjoyed reading the views of contributors to this site and wouldn’t welcome restrictions on their input, but it’s your site, so you can mould it to your ideal.
Reply I will be following the same path as during the last government. I did not then start a large debate about the Opposition parties but concentrated on what the government should do better and was doing wrong. Reform and the Conservatives have to sort out how they oppose together or apart mindful of how a split opposition helps a bad government. By all means engage them on their sites over this.
October 23, 2024
It’s clear Starmer and his government have decided to not play the populism game – they have been elected to govern and that’s how it’s going to be – straight talking – straight doing
October 23, 2024
Someone been at the Koolaid đ
October 23, 2024
The next election is going to be so predictable. The Tories will be screaming âA vote for Reform means a Labour governmentâ. Reform will be pleading âA vote for the Tories means another Labour governmentâ. A deal must be done. But it wonât be because of the pig-headedness and arrogance of Tories. You can hear it now: âWe will not do an electoral deal with anyoneâ – which means âwe prefer the cushy life of oppositionâ
October 23, 2024
No ! You go after the Tories and show that they are just Blue Labour. Real Labour will be totally unelectable except to Public Service Workers, Unionists and Activists fed from the government teat.
October 23, 2024
If the Labour party can get a thumping majority on 20% of the vote, perhaps they only need those groups you mention to stay in power. What we will have is a seriously divided country, where the strivers get a raw deal.
If the public sector goes on strike they get paid off. If the private sector goes on strike they lose their livelihood.
October 23, 2024
“There can only be a different government when enough Reform voters back the Conservatives or enough Conservatives shift to Reform.”
Or if the parties reach an accommodation which means they don’t challenge each other in the areas where one clearly has far greater support and could beat Labour if they had a clear(er) run at it.
The Establishment Parties are not interested in policies which increase freedom and prosperity. This has certainly been true of the Not-a-Conservative-Party for the last 30 years, since Mrs Thatcher was deposed so that the Establishment could install a PM who would sign away our independence with the Maastricht Treaty, and was never made clearer than the reaction to the EU Referendum vote to restore our Sovereignty.
Very few in the small number of MPs left actually supported LEAVING the EU, although a slightly number could claim to support Brexit, which isn’t the same thing at all since the “deal” they supported means we are in effect an associate member of the EU.
Establishment Parties which pursue mass immigration of 3rd worlders/poverty and intend to impose the economy-wrecking Net Zero are not interested in prosperity and will be unable to implement any policies which will improve GDP per capita.
Since they have no intention of changing those policies, the only meaningful discussion is how to rid ourselves of the Establishment Parties …. which is what is now going on across the country.
October 23, 2024
I VERY much agree with all that you have written. Much in line with my own thinking. Let them (The Establishment and Political Party Lackies) sacrifice themselves on the alter of sheer stupidity. People will start to see when, ironically, the lights start to go out.
October 23, 2024
……………….Since they have no intention of changing those policies, the only meaningful discussion is how to rid ourselves of the Establishment Parties âŠ. which is what is now going on across the country…………………….
Indeed. The penny has dropped for most intelligent people that the legacies aren’t acting to look after the interests of the British people, particularly the English people. Therefore Reform is the ONLY solution for the right of centre workers, strivers, entrepreneurs. We refuse to be taxed to death for the feckless, idle or shirkers who chip up here.
October 23, 2024
I often think the opposition should do more to expose how government policy affects the individual citizen, rather than vague harms they do to the wider country.
Take Net Zero as an example. Talk about it hurting GDP, or causing “de-industrialisation” all sounds rather vague to the average citizen. Saying it costs ÂŁ100bn or whatever is also meaningless (all we hear about are billions nowadays spent on this or that).
Much more effective is saying what it costs each household or citizen and a simple explanation of why, since many think solar and wind power are free of cost.
I think the Party that relentlessly exposes the cost of policies to the individual will do well at the next election, if it has a decent set of proposals to improve things.
Of course it not all about costs. Relating cause and effect on the individual can be used to highlight the problems of many other aspects of public service/government responsibility .
October 23, 2024
The Conservative party is a contaminated brand. Whoever is elected it’s new leader has a huge task on his/her hand to decontaminate its thinking and deal with those in the party and parliament who do not share his or her new thinking. How that plays out will influence the policy responses offered to the electorate and to challenge the government. While there will be overlap between Conservative and Reform thinking and proposed remedies there will also be differences, some possibly radical. These seem appropriate areas for debate.
October 23, 2024
The Conservatives and Reform must come to some accommodation. With either of the two candidates, there wonât be a much separating the two parties in philosophy or policy. But if they remain hostile, Labour will win again and the country will become Venezuela.
October 23, 2024
As of around 10:30am this morning I have read numerous posts, some fro regulars and some from new contributors. Welcome by the way đ But I must say this to all those advocating for some sort of pact. The MolotovâRibbentrop Pact brought neither security and peace to oneside or the other in the end, and I see any such aliance between the Conservative Party and the Reform Party to be no better.
You are either in the game to win it or not. The Conservative Party see Reform as a threat. A threat that needs to be neutralised, and the only way to make a Centre-Left (Blairite) party that the Conservative Party has become to move to the right is to threaten its very existance.
October 23, 2024
The sooner the better. Most peoples lives have become too comfortable for all our own good.
October 23, 2024
@William Tarver, – both as members of the previous administration with its collective responsibility own all its failings. They have yet to own up and accept that responsibility, both egged on by a Parliamentary Group that want continuity, more of the same.
October 23, 2024
There appears to be know way back when the Faux Conservative Parliamentary Group is fighting within itself for continuity, more of the same. They refuse to own their failings.
” As pointed out by Lord Ashcroft KCMG, and his market research is usually spot on.
Why did the Conservative Party lose the last general election so heavily, and what must it do to recover?
The Tories failed to deliver on their promises in crucial policy areas like immigration, tax and public services. They did not act like a competent government. They too often behaved as though there was one rule for them and another for everyone else” (Sounds familiar!)
https://conservativehome.com/2024/10/22/lord-ashcroft-the-conservatives-need-a-leader-of-rare-quality-for-me-thats-kemi/
Continuity is signing off on failure with more failure to come. Even Conservatives within the Party have a fight on their hands (The Split) One candidate talks like a Conservative but people aren’t sure, but those that are Conservative have come out in favour of. The other is 100% Faux, says what it is believed wanting to be heard, pure ‘One Nation’/Liberal Democrat in that sense.
CCHQ has a lot to answer for in excluding Conservative Candidates from standing, only those the One Nation/Liberal Democrats got near the ballot papers.
October 23, 2024
+1
October 23, 2024
I understand what Reform are saying and believe they speak with honest Conservative intentions – but are they Conservative? Or are they another grouping thinking they are saying what some wish to hear.
For now the ‘None of the Above’ are winning. Wasted vote? how can it be when the majority of the Nation has been disenfranchised by having a WEF Socialist UniParty as their only option.
This labour Government is only continuing the last administrations direction just with more ideological conviction and vigour. More Tax, more borrowing, less spending control is some how thought of as the meaning by the word Government. We have not seen a ‘Conservative’ this Century
October 23, 2024
The problem is that you have now have appeal to as broader voter base than ever before. We have a very sizable immigrant population, some of which vote on ethnic and / or religous lines. We have not had this form of sectarianism in this country since Henry VIII and his decendents upto (I think) Queen Anne. As more people in the last century got the vote we have seen the rise of Workers Party (Labour) for lower class / manufacturing people. But all this is changing, hence why you are seeing aforementioned, and worrying drift into diversity politics.
October 23, 2024
@Mark B – Which ever way it is portrayed, diversity, inclusions and equalities there is no such thing it is 100% discrimination. The Human race is what it is every part of it on an equal footing, partitioning is just discrimination by those that want it to be in their own mirror image.
October 23, 2024
Birds of a feather flock together. I know that. But we are talking about something that has not happened on these shores, if you exclude class that is, for centuries. We are in a very dark place and no one seems to have the slightest idea of what to do.
I do not want MY COUNTRY – England to be another Lebanon.
October 23, 2024
Afraid the demise of our Country started in 1997 with Blaire & Brown, they politicised the Civil Service and all arms of Government Departments with Socialist sympathisers during their 13 years in power.
The Conservatives did not grasp that nettle in 2010 with Hug a Hoodie Cameron, or his side kick, I agree with Nick the Clegg..
Only Boris who employed Cummins showed any sign of trying tome a change, and look how that turned out.
So another 14 years have been wasted, and we have really has 27 years of Socialist frustration built in to the Government support network, with another 5 at least to look forward to with more and more socialist idealists being recruited into the system.
Any change if it is at all possible will be very slow indeed, and with workers rights now being even more protected, full scale change will be very, very difficult.
October 23, 2024
So the people who were led astray to vote in labour have just realised their mistake – Too late now!
This is what happens when there are only 2 parties that can form a government. The Tories surrendered power to labour because things were getting too hot, with more and more people seeing through their treachery.
I cannot see any Reform or even floating voters going back to the Tories while their focus is still on netzero and emulating labour at every turn. If the country survives to the next election as an independent body it is likely that more voters will be attracted to Reform — But why do we have to put up with this rogue government doing it’s best to crash the economy and our future! The only option is to oppose everything they do and force them out!
There must be some parliamentary procedure to depose a treacherous government, surely?
October 23, 2024
The death of Peter Lynch, jailed by Two-Tier Keir for (unwisely) shouting rude things at police officers.
Juxtaposed with career criminals celebrating their early release and driving off in luxury cars. Makes me want to vomit.
For the sake of what is left of England, we need a new strong right of centre political party. Be that Conservative or Reform or a blend of both. Just get on with it …………
October 23, 2024
@Old Albion +1, Political Prisoners locked up criminals released
October 23, 2024
+1
I too do not condone what the late Mr. Lynch said. But I was shocked at the length of his sentence given the nature of the crime and the fact that he never had any previous criminal convictions and serious health problems. A suspended sentence would have, in my opinion, been much more appropriate given the fact that the government decided to empty the jails of more serious criminals.
No matter what government deparment we look at, the MP’s placed there simply look out of their depth.
October 23, 2024
+1
October 24, 2024
I emailed No.10 via the contact form and said the Prime Minister has blood on his hands. He effectively instructed the judiciary to come down hard on anyone connected with the disturbances following the murders of those poor little girls.
If Peter Lynch deserved to be jailed for calling the police scum, then so did Angela Rayner for calling Tories scum.
October 23, 2024
To add insult to injury it transpires that the party machine of the Government is appealing for âvolunteersâ to go to campaign for the U.S. Democratic Party in their Presidential election. We are told that is often happens.
So Labour admit to interfering in foreign elections as a matter of course!
Now I have supported Republicans Abroad and attended many of their functions in the UK for as long as I can remember. I know nobody who has ever suggested campaigning for them in elections. Indeed I would assume that my foreign accent and foreign ways would do more damage than good, and put many voters who intended to vote Republican off doing so.
The people at the head of our government and their functionaries in both government and party machines have no understanding of the standards and principles that were embed in the rest of us at our motherâs knee.
If they are psychopaths I think we have a right to know it before we decide whether to select them much less whether to vote for them.
October 23, 2024
LA :
It may be acceptable for a minor or even an opposition party from the UK to campaign in a foreign country that is considered to be an ally but not for the party that is in government.
October 23, 2024
We would not like it if, say the communist Party of Russia (their opposition) came to campaign for Starmer. Party workers are value in kind.
October 23, 2024
Sir John,
I’ve been reading a fact based – but fiction as the author states – book “Imperium” written by Robert Harris. It describes the events surrounding the collapse of the Roman Republic as seen by the Politician Cicero. To cut long story short, the book show how even political power structures that had existed for several hundred years (and therefore might thought to be stable) were eventually destroyed by abuse of the voting system. Perhaps it could be claimed that what worked on the small scale – ie Rome in it early days – could not survive the issues coming from the growth of its Empire. This is a topic for political historians. For us, in the now, I am concerned that the secrecy and therefore voter-integrity of the Ballot box is being undermined by the lax Postal Voting rules where votes can still be ‘Harvested’. Disputed and disputable outcomes of elections ought to worry politicians of all stripes.
October 23, 2024
Atlas,
Probably better than Harris’ book ‘Conclave’ about the election of a new pope. That has a daft but possibly ‘woke’ ending.
Harris should stick to the Second World War stuff. He claims to be interested in the acquisition of power, not necessarily a particular period in time, though.
October 23, 2024
Even worse is the awarding of votes to people who are alien to the UK and its historic electoral pact (that before a vote is case we all agree that the winner will be those with the most seats, and the seats will be won by those with the most votes.
October 23, 2024
The Labour government will continue the policies both domestic and foreign of the previous Tory administration. This makes it difficult in terms of both credibility and their own beliefs to distance themselves from the policies put forward by Labour. SJR has credibility on account of his failure to applaud every misstep they took. However the Labour party will achieve the total rejection of the political direction of this country through reductio ad absurdum which must lead to a new politics based exclusively on what is in the best interests of the country and its people, not that of immigrants or the foreign policies of the US State department or support for rogue states claiming they are allies.
The English are being treated as putative enemies of the state and hemmed in by draconian laws, the province of extreme authoritarian governments where thoughtcrime earns stiffer sentences than the uncivilised behaviour of some immigrant populations.
October 23, 2024
Sir John, can I ask you to be more specific. When you talk of conservative opposition then list Reform and the Conservative Party under that collective you are correct except I would suggest you call the Conservative Party the Tory Party to ensure accuracy. The conservative values championed by Reform and historically advanced by the old Conservative Party are now only being openly promoted by Reform.
That situation could change over the coming years we will see. In the meantime the Tory Party (in parts) and Reform represent the anti Marxist movement. Marxism/Woke policies championed by the members of the Uniparty in Westminster is a national embarrassment, sadly it includes too many of the current Tory MPs.
October 23, 2024
It’s clear to me, the 21st-century Conservatives no longer represent conservatism. The new Reform Party do.
The latter have updated their MO to ensure they now have representatives who follow the Party policies. Until the conservatives do the same they’ll remain in the doldrums. We want our country back to MBGA. Unfettered Socialism is going to be the death of us.
October 23, 2024
149 criminals arrived in the UK yesterday from the safe country of France
October 23, 2024
They are not criminals to Mr Starmer.
October 23, 2024
Thanks Glen. Keep up the good work.
And how many were returned ? Let me guess. Was it less than one ?
October 23, 2024
By all means, focus on clarifying and identifying what the Labour Government is getting wrong. But some occasional focus on the opposition, both conservative and reform, would be helpful to us.
In my opinion, we need our own Javier Milei to reduce the cost of government. For example, the Home Office and Foreign Office don’t seem fit for the purpose, don’t seem to have achieved anything that benefits the UK for many years, and could both be shut down. Then, both departments could be reformed with a much smaller number of civil servants in each, say a maximum of 3000 to 5000, and they would be required to do things that could actually benefit the UK. But is either Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick tough enough to do it?
October 23, 2024
There must be no merger or any kind of Reform UK accommodation with the Tories.
Tories believe they have an entitlement to run England, and they will immediately set about destroying Reform members and its views.
It is the fake and deceitful Tories which got us where we are now and we don’t want the same arrogant and elites, either through wealth social standing or academia again, doing the same old betrayals of the ordinary people who they don’t understand or like.
October 23, 2024
@The Prangwizard – lets look at the purity of the name ‘Reform’, our politics need reforming the Socialist WEF Uniparty have destroyed democracy and freedoms – so all must go.
October 23, 2024
âWe need an opposition which can combine well researched criticisms of government actions and results with a better vision of how the U.K. could benefit from policies that promote freedom and prosperity.â
Whilst we do need such an opposition it will not come from the existing CPP a majority of whom support the Governmentâs policies for high spending thus providing an excuse for high taxation, mass immigration (legal and illegal) if not open borders and rule by the Civil Service, quangos, regulators, Far Left think tanks, institutions, tax-payer funded âcharitiesâ and pressure groups, lawyers, the judiciary, the ECHR and the EU. Oh, and the deliberate economy sabotaging policy of Net Zero.
October 23, 2024
âThere can only be a different government when enough Reform voters back the Conservatives or enough Conservatives shift to Reform.â
Er noâŠthere will only be a different government when enough conservatives back Reform as the existing Conservative Party are no different to Labour for all major issues.
October 23, 2024
@Original Richard +1, in every way Labour is just following the last administrations lead, renege on promises, highest tax and borrowing since WW2, outrageous uncontrolled spending. Having a Parliamentary Group wanting more of the same and continuity in everything they failed on, a pure One Nation Liberal Democrat agenda – Labour without the zeal and bitterness but still the UniParty, hence the 2 candidates to become leader. Yet to see it as it takes time, it could be possible that Reform could have none of these traits in its DNA therefore they don’t need any faux conservative following
October 23, 2024
Good clear strategy but will people be serious and keep to it?
October 23, 2024
One highly sinister trend in the government’s taxation policies, are its apparent targeting of those who have sacrificed consumer delights such as frequent holidays, expensive vehicles and luxury goods, and instead saved and invested to build and preserve their future wealth and pension income. These are business owners, the self-employed, or workers in the private sector. Targeting such investors is a strategy that may be intended to persuade those who do not vote Labour to leave the country and remove their vote.
A financial advisor told me many years ago that even the senior managers in the public sector did not invest, and he could not ever persuade them to. They countered his suggestions with a scornful assurance that they would only ever need savings accounts to harvest their surplus cash, as their pay and continued employment was guaranteed, and their public sector pensions so large, they would never need to take on the risks of investment. (Nor did they know or care a jot about the markets.)
Furthermore, I note a news story today suggesting that Reeves will exempt those in the public sector (who are largely Labour voters) from her attacks on pension lump sums and other taxes and restrictions.
Is the Labour government trying to stir up a civil war?