Any future coal extraction would be open cast, normally unpopular in the locality, there are a number of deposits which could be candidates. Transport would obviously be by road under Reform given their view on public ownership, and Farage statements that he wants to build more roads, he claims not to have used public transport since 2013.
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Reform UK discussion
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Labour have a lot of low information voters, they’re a massive party. But that doesn’t make every single Reform voter low information, it’s just that’s the appeal of Reform. That’s how they’re successful.
McDonalds’ appeal is in its fast burgers but it doesn’t mean everyone in a McDonald’s at once is eating a Big Mac.
I’m not running KFC here, I don’t much care if people vote Reform or Labour. There’s not a huge amount of difference on many issues anyway.
I do indeed wonder whether new Reform councillors realise what they have let themselves in for. Whilst it is true that it is very difficult to get rid of elected councillors unless they have done something criminal or failed to attend any council meetings for six months, it is expected that all councillors will take on several committee roles and there will be some kind of cabinet where certain individuals take on areas of leadership (education, adult social care, highways, etc, etc). If they just stood on a policy of teaching the major parties a lesson or making a stand on immigration or wokism they will soon realise they can't just do that and listening to Nigel Farage who knows nothing about local government and just makes ignorant loudmouth threats won't help. I feel really sorry for council officers especially the legal and monitoring officers who will have to explain very clearly what the new councillors are expected to do and how they are expected to behave given that Reform councillors often haven't the team of longstanding colleagues to guide them.
The good side is that the electorate now have a few years to see how Reform manage to actually bear some responsibility before entrusting them with a whole slew of new MPs to run the whole country, personally I think the electorate are fools to trust anything Farage has a hand in seeing as he's lazy, venal and lives for soundbites and has never taken on any responsibility, and his charade as an MEP was a national disgrace.
The good side is that the electorate now have a few years to see how Reform manage to actually bear some responsibility before entrusting them with a whole slew of new MPs to run the whole country, personally I think the electorate are fools to trust anything Farage has a hand in seeing as he's lazy, venal and lives for soundbites and has never taken on any responsibility, and his charade as an MEP was a national disgrace.
Low information voters don't necessarily mean that they are stupid.
It's not uncommon for people to not pay a lot of attention to politics, so if there's a party who gets cut through in what they say they are now likely to be heard.
Since the general election there's a fair chance that what the Tories have been saying hasn't made much of a cut through. Those things which they are saying tend to align with Reform and so it's easy to see why they get the credit rather than the Tories.
It's also easy to be cross at Labour for the things they've done, and so it's easy to say "we'll reverse [insert unpopular policy]".
One way Labour could have reduced their pensioner costs without increasing taxes on working people would have been to swap 1% of national insurance to income tax. Workers wouldn't have seen a change, but pensioners paying tax would have seen a small increase, for those at the boundary of pension credit they would have seen no change, however those on very high income would have more than lost their winter fuel allowance.
Cloud Strife
Established Member
- Joined
- 25 Feb 2014
- Messages
- 2,379
My wife is a councillor here in Poland, and one interesting rule that they have is that they lose their allowance proportionally. So, if they miss one meeting out of two in a given month, then their allowance is cut by 50%. All the councillors are obliged to be at the main monthly council session as well as sit on two committees, and the norm is for each committee to sit once a month.
It pretty much guarantees full attendance, although the chairman of the council is very good about organising council sessions when everyone can be reasonably expected to attend.
styles
Member
I'd be very much in favour of this.
If you aren't fulfilling your duties, then you don't need the allowance which is intended to support you in doing that.
That said I think we also need to remember that attending formal committee meetings is often a small part of a councillor's duties. The councillors I know spend an overwhelming amount of their time on their case work. It is possible that the only councillors I know are the hard-working ones mind!
DarloRich
Veteran Member
Correct - however there are studies showing that people with no education post 16 are vastly more likely to vote Reform than other sections of society.
(I think this was data collected before the last general election but frustratingly i cant find it now )
I'd be interested to see how "Vote for us and we'll build some modern industries on the top of your old steelworks/mine/factory" - that is something that might have some legs!
Sounds like crazy talk to me. Besides that nice Mr Tice fellow has made it very clear that Reform will be having none of that woke nonsense in Lincolnshire thank you very much!
So no-one better be bringing any modern 21st century investment to Lincolnshire!
I was listening to Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell's podcast "the rest is politics" earlier, and they said that those who left education at 16 are 4 times more likely to vote Reform.
Aha, snap!
Now, if I was Kier Starmer, I could think of some very interesting new infrastructure projects to pass laws for...
SuspectUsual
Established Member
- Joined
- 11 Jul 2018
- Messages
- 5,098
Tice is on Question Time this evening
weeklycommuter
Member
- Joined
- 2 Feb 2019
- Messages
- 583
A third of Lincolnshire including much of Boston and Skegness Constituency is at or below sea level. Unless global warming is halted the resulting rise in sea level will make Boston and Skegness Constituency disappear under the North Sea.
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DarloRich
Veteran Member
i have just gone and listened to that - i am sure the info was from before the last GE but i cant find it!
an economically deprived area and they want to turn away jobs in a a new industry - that is an, erm, interesting strategy! ( before we think about climate change)
Lewisham2221
Established Member
Popcorn time:
Shropshire councillor resigns from Reform UK after suspension
Donna Edmunds was suspended from the party over a post on X declaring she had planned to defect.www.bbc.co.uk
And now there's 2 fewer Reform councillors than there were at the start of the week...
BBC News - Reform councillor in Nottinghamshire quits one week after election - BBC News
Reform councillor in Nottinghamshire quits one week after election
Desmond Clarke was elected in the Newark West division in Nottinghamshire last week.
www.bbc.co.uk
And now there's 2 fewer Reform councillors than there were at the start of the week...
BBC News - Reform councillor in Nottinghamshire quits one week after election - BBC News
Reform councillor in Nottinghamshire quits one week after election
Desmond Clarke was elected in the Newark West division in Nottinghamshire last week.
It'll be an interesting one to watch for the result for, especially if Reform continue to make the news for all the wrong reasons.
As the Conservatives point out, hardly getting off to a good start on cutting waste by triggering a by-election coating thousands of pounds.
styles
Member
Bound to be the odd resignation.
In the past 3 days there's also been:
www.telegraph.co.uk
And:
www.thecomet.net
And probably others.
Councillors resigning shortly after election isn't restricted to Reform either:
www.edp24.co.uk
That said, Reform are a smaller party in the grand scheme of things and these are very quick resignations.
I guess only time will tell if the trend continues.
In the past 3 days there's also been:
Taxi racism row forces youngest Labour councillor to quit
Daisy Blakemore-Creedon was accused of racism after calling for CCTV to be installed in minicabs
www.telegraph.co.uk
And:
Newly independent Stevenage Borough Councillor Conor McGrath resigns
Stevenage councillor Conor McGrath has resigned from his role with a by-election set to be held in the Bedwell ward.
www.thecomet.net
And probably others.
Councillors resigning shortly after election isn't restricted to Reform either:
Mystery after councillors resigned 12 days after being re-elected
Mystery surrounds the resignation of two parish councillors just days after they were re-elected.
www.edp24.co.uk
That said, Reform are a smaller party in the grand scheme of things and these are very quick resignations.
I guess only time will tell if the trend continues.
Ooh, those real modern woke pylon things! (that were more than likely needed for him to post that message)
One of those has called Reform ‘a cult’ (I checked the spelling) "at war with its own grassroots"
Reform UK is a 'cult', says suspended Shropshire councillor
Donna Edmunds was suspended from the party last week over a post on social media.
www.bbc.co.uk
styles
Member
In other news, I see Survation has released some opinion polling for the Scottish parliament election next May: https://cdn.survation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/07205034/True-North-Scotland-May_2025.xlsx
Regional vote
SNP 29%
Reform 20%
Labour 18%
Lib Dems 10%
Greens 9%
Alba 3%
Constituency vote
SNP 33%
Reform 19%
Labour 19%
Lib Dems 11%
Greens 5%
Alba 1%
Fieldwork from 2-5 May.
I can't see SNP starting a power sharing agreement with Reform, and they may not do so well on constituency seats, but even if they just picked up the regional seats, they'd end up with a significant voice.
I think that election may be a test of the longevity and sustainability of Reform, as it'll have been a year of Reform councillors and mayors by then and people will be seeing the results (or lack thereof maybe).
Regional vote
SNP 29%
Reform 20%
Labour 18%
Lib Dems 10%
Greens 9%
Alba 3%
Constituency vote
SNP 33%
Reform 19%
Labour 19%
Lib Dems 11%
Greens 5%
Alba 1%
Fieldwork from 2-5 May.
I can't see SNP starting a power sharing agreement with Reform, and they may not do so well on constituency seats, but even if they just picked up the regional seats, they'd end up with a significant voice.
I think that election may be a test of the longevity and sustainability of Reform, as it'll have been a year of Reform councillors and mayors by then and people will be seeing the results (or lack thereof maybe).
In fairness this could be applied to several political parties!One of those has called Reform ‘a cult’ (I checked the spelling) "at war with its own grassroots"
Reform UK is a 'cult', says suspended Shropshire councillor
Donna Edmunds was suspended from the party last week over a post on social media.
weeklycommuter
Member
- Joined
- 2 Feb 2019
- Messages
- 583
Also Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party 11% of Constituency vote 12% of Regional vote
gg1
Established Member
Not sure if this would be better placed in The "And in other news..." thread as it's so laughably ridiculous, but I've gone for this one instead.
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/p...be5JjBxBTU96Vqofqw_aem_dlhAtF3lTocfTXRilmsQag
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/p...be5JjBxBTU96Vqofqw_aem_dlhAtF3lTocfTXRilmsQag
Gloster
Established Member
Yet another Reform candidate keeping his promises: he promised that he wouldn’t attend any DEI or climate change training and he won’t. Somebody ought to tell the patriotic Reform party that they are using the American term, although I suppose they regard that as quite all right.
DarloRich
Veteran Member
Same as Jenkins:
Reform mayor vows to sack council’s diversity officers - except there aren’t any
Dame Andrea Jenkyns has doubled down on Farage’s pledge to sack diversity officers in Lincolnshire but the county council has revealed it does not employ any
www.independent.co.uk
With Grimes and Jenkyns making these claims, I suspect they know full well that there’s no DEI training or diversity officers at their respective councils. But I’m sure they’re also aware that thousands will read and believe what they say and those people won’t know about them being corrected on their false statements.
Either that or they’re just thick.
Either that or they’re just thick.
brad465
Established Member
I was debating whether or not to bring that up on here. His election to Durham Council means IMO the biggest losers in the local elections were that council's cleaners.
Have been trying to stay off the forums for a while (for my own sanity when it comes to politics!) but the recent performance of Reform UK has been giving me more than a little in the way of nerves.
Also worrying is the recent opinion poll which puts Reform on 33 versus Labour on 20 and the Tories on just 18.
Anyway, quite a few thoughts, sorry for the long list:
On the one hand Labour have slipped up on some policies such as the winter fuel payment in particular. So the results could be construed as an anti-Labour vote rather than a pro-anyone-else, perhaps.
On the other hand, if people wanted to move their vote elsewhere, why not the Tories (for those leaning right) or the Lib Dems (for those on the centre or left)? Or for those more left-minded, the Greens?
It does seem worrying that a party that I would consider hard-right is polling on 33% - that is one third of the population, and far higher than the AfD achieved in Germany, for example. It does say some very disturbing things about the UK. I can understand anti-Labour sentiment but don't understand why people are supporting a hard-right party rather than the still distinctly-right-wing Tories or the centrist Lib Dems.
Furthermore, with Donald Trump, less than four months in, blatantly proving he is not up to the job for all manner of reasons and the chaos in the USA, people still seem to want our own home-grown Donald Trump. That is hard to understand. Surely people would not want this country run by a second-rate Trump wannabe?
But what next? There does seem to be a real risk of Reform winning the next election in some way (more likely as part of a coalition rather than a majority) but what to do about it?
I think Labour are misplaced in going along the hardline anti-immigration, anti-trans route that they seem to have embarked on. The anti-immigrant, anti-trans electorate are going to vote Reform anyway, or perhaps the Conservatives if we're lucky - so appealing to them is misplaced. Labour need to realise that they are also shedding votes on the left from those of us who are pro-immigration and pro-trans-rights, to name two examples of progressive politics. If they think that will win them (Labour) votes, I think they are deluded.
Labour need to instead U-turn on some of their unpopular policies, such as the winter fuel payment cut, to name one. Yes, it's flip-flopping, but if Trump can flip-flop, why not Labour? I think less damage will be done by flip-flopping than keeping this unpopular policy.
Furthermore I think the other parties need to clearly plan some kind of strategy for ensuring Reform does not get into power. I actually think that there's less danger them winning power with PR than with FPTP, in the sense that if they get 30% of the vote under a PR system, they will get 30% of MPs. Under FPTP there's a real danger they could get around 50%, as the small-town Midlands, North and East seems to be very enamoured with them. So I'd say that Labour need to move to change the electoral system before it's too late.
I also think the Conservatives need to change tack and stop trying to be Reform-lite. They need to move back to a position of being right-wing economically but more centrist socially, which is what they always were under the likes of Major, Cameron and May.
Hell, under that scenario we could even have a situation in which Reform could be defeated by a Lab-Lib Dem-Con coalition. This is probably the first time I've ever suggested that a Conservative-containing government might be better than some alternatives - I've been a lifelong critic of the Tories but under the current situation, they seem relatively less bad, and if the likes of Hunt, Stride, etc, maybe even Cleverly, can take over the party it might become semi-palatable.
The other area of discussion is: could they realistically lose popularity in the next 4 years? Could them running councils, and quite possibly messing them up through savage, DOGE-like cuts and MAGA-like attacks on minorities, actually cause people to realise that they are not the solution to their problems after all?
The possibility of a Reform government is giving me many nerves and I don't think the UK will be a good place - at all - if they do win in four years. You can see that just by reading their plans. They are basically, to my mind, Trump UK - a toxic cocktail of MAGA and DOGE policies. A mixture of vacuous patriotism and strident anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-immigrant policy demonstrates an authoritarian and conformist attitude in which little tolerance of those who are different to their perceived "norm" will be displayed. I do wonder then whether authoritarianism will ratchet up by many orders of magnitude, fair elections will come under threat, and we will drift towards something like Orban's Hungary or worse.
Isn't that mostly Gen X? First time I've ever heard of anyone born in the late 60s, early 70s referred to as a baby boomer. What's Gen X then, 1974-1990?
Such a definition would make Liam Gallagher, for example, a baby-boomer. That doesn't make a lot of sense.
Also worrying is the recent opinion poll which puts Reform on 33 versus Labour on 20 and the Tories on just 18.
Anyway, quite a few thoughts, sorry for the long list:
On the one hand Labour have slipped up on some policies such as the winter fuel payment in particular. So the results could be construed as an anti-Labour vote rather than a pro-anyone-else, perhaps.
On the other hand, if people wanted to move their vote elsewhere, why not the Tories (for those leaning right) or the Lib Dems (for those on the centre or left)? Or for those more left-minded, the Greens?
It does seem worrying that a party that I would consider hard-right is polling on 33% - that is one third of the population, and far higher than the AfD achieved in Germany, for example. It does say some very disturbing things about the UK. I can understand anti-Labour sentiment but don't understand why people are supporting a hard-right party rather than the still distinctly-right-wing Tories or the centrist Lib Dems.
Furthermore, with Donald Trump, less than four months in, blatantly proving he is not up to the job for all manner of reasons and the chaos in the USA, people still seem to want our own home-grown Donald Trump. That is hard to understand. Surely people would not want this country run by a second-rate Trump wannabe?
But what next? There does seem to be a real risk of Reform winning the next election in some way (more likely as part of a coalition rather than a majority) but what to do about it?
I think Labour are misplaced in going along the hardline anti-immigration, anti-trans route that they seem to have embarked on. The anti-immigrant, anti-trans electorate are going to vote Reform anyway, or perhaps the Conservatives if we're lucky - so appealing to them is misplaced. Labour need to realise that they are also shedding votes on the left from those of us who are pro-immigration and pro-trans-rights, to name two examples of progressive politics. If they think that will win them (Labour) votes, I think they are deluded.
Labour need to instead U-turn on some of their unpopular policies, such as the winter fuel payment cut, to name one. Yes, it's flip-flopping, but if Trump can flip-flop, why not Labour? I think less damage will be done by flip-flopping than keeping this unpopular policy.
Furthermore I think the other parties need to clearly plan some kind of strategy for ensuring Reform does not get into power. I actually think that there's less danger them winning power with PR than with FPTP, in the sense that if they get 30% of the vote under a PR system, they will get 30% of MPs. Under FPTP there's a real danger they could get around 50%, as the small-town Midlands, North and East seems to be very enamoured with them. So I'd say that Labour need to move to change the electoral system before it's too late.
I also think the Conservatives need to change tack and stop trying to be Reform-lite. They need to move back to a position of being right-wing economically but more centrist socially, which is what they always were under the likes of Major, Cameron and May.
Hell, under that scenario we could even have a situation in which Reform could be defeated by a Lab-Lib Dem-Con coalition. This is probably the first time I've ever suggested that a Conservative-containing government might be better than some alternatives - I've been a lifelong critic of the Tories but under the current situation, they seem relatively less bad, and if the likes of Hunt, Stride, etc, maybe even Cleverly, can take over the party it might become semi-palatable.
The other area of discussion is: could they realistically lose popularity in the next 4 years? Could them running councils, and quite possibly messing them up through savage, DOGE-like cuts and MAGA-like attacks on minorities, actually cause people to realise that they are not the solution to their problems after all?
The possibility of a Reform government is giving me many nerves and I don't think the UK will be a good place - at all - if they do win in four years. You can see that just by reading their plans. They are basically, to my mind, Trump UK - a toxic cocktail of MAGA and DOGE policies. A mixture of vacuous patriotism and strident anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-immigrant policy demonstrates an authoritarian and conformist attitude in which little tolerance of those who are different to their perceived "norm" will be displayed. I do wonder then whether authoritarianism will ratchet up by many orders of magnitude, fair elections will come under threat, and we will drift towards something like Orban's Hungary or worse.
1955-73? Really?
Isn't that mostly Gen X? First time I've ever heard of anyone born in the late 60s, early 70s referred to as a baby boomer. What's Gen X then, 1974-1990?
Such a definition would make Liam Gallagher, for example, a baby-boomer. That doesn't make a lot of sense.
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Statistically yes, those are the years when the UK had particularly high birth rates.1955-73? Really?
Isn't that mostly Gen X? First time I've ever heard of anyone born in the late 60s, early 70s referred to as a baby boomer. Don't try and add 15 years to our age!
It is the UK statistics that matter for the numbers of UK pensioners, not some cultural wibble imported from the USA, where the post war baby boom wasn't delayed by about 10 years.