[Malcolm Armsteen]

How can a government persuade the British media to spare some time to discuss important policy issues?
Make the story about Nigel Farage of course. A depressing reality but more of this please.

Miliband in blistering attack on Farage’s UK net zero ‘nonsense and lies’
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... e-and-lies

Cue the "They're scared of Reform" comments.

I've just read a Facebook comment from a Reform moron - apparently Labour has failed and destroyed the economy and Fargle's plans will sort it out.
Where do they get this shit?

[Andy McDandy]

Russia.

[Watchman]

Yes, but what actually is his plan

[kreuzberger]

Yes, but what actually is his plan

"Remigration" - in diesel-powered cattle trucks.

[Boiler]

Yes, but what actually is his plan

"Remigration"

A word that features prominently on the Homeland Party web site.

Screenshot 2025-04-20 at 12-10-56 Home - Homeland Party.png (759.86 KiB) Viewed 1693 times

I'd never heard of this lot until their election leaflets started coming through my letterbox - and they scare me more than Reform.

[Boiler]

And we're back to US chicken again.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... trade-deal

Nigel Farage has defended allowing labelled chlorinated chicken from the US into the UK as part of a trade deal, as a poll suggested his Reform UK party could be on course to take the highest number of seats at a general election.

Speaking before the local elections in England on 1 May, Farage said British consumers already ate chicken from places such as Thailand reared in poor conditions, and accepted chlorine-washed lettuce.

He told the Sunday Times: “If you have a look at the chicken we are currently importing from Thailand, you look at the conditions they’ve been reared in, and that every single bag of pre-made salad in every single supermarket has been chlorinated … once those basics have been accepted I’ll have a debate with you.”

[Andy McDandy]

The plan? We're seeing in in the USA. Strip mine the state. Remove statutory protections. Shut up the clever bastards. Denigrate expertise. Keep women and minorities afraid. Make money the sole yardstick of society. Break things and blame the clever bastards you sacked when they don't work any more. Keep everyone angry and looking for a scapegoat.

Meanwhile behind the door marked private, party hard.

[Youngian]

Yes, but what actually is his plan

Burning coal to lower the price of fuel
Implementating real Brexit that goes to a different school.
Tax cuts especially big ones on inheritance for chaps like Nigel. Paid for by stopping illegal immigrants collecting dole money.
Keeping white young women away from lefty feminist ideas so they have more babies to replace immigrants.

[satnav]

I'd love know what Reform's policies are for the local elections. Farage paid a flying visit to Derbyshire last week where he was photographed with a bunch of teenagers who didn't look old enough to vote. The local paper just did a puff piece about him in which he said his party would make a better job of running Derbyshire County Council than the Tories were doing. But he gave no specific policies.

Sadly there is every chance that Reform could easily pick up lots of councillors in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire simply because the Tories have run the councils for the last few years and made lots of cuts and Labour could be punished as a result of the government not being very popular.

On the plus side if Reform to take control of the council they will have very little scope for manouvres because the council has so much debt. Let's see how popular they are after closing a few care homes or small village schools.

[Boiler]

Unfortunately I binned their little newsletter entitled "Spirit of Lincolnshire" detailing their plans for the mayoral election, else I could have told you.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Say what you like about the Tories, they believe in being in government, at whatever level they run and mostly they try to get re-elected on their record. They mostly put up council tax as much as they can because they're serious about budgets and know their responsibilities.

I'm really not sure that's true with Reform. I'd expect lots of their people to be calling for a council tax freeze, for starters. If you do a deal with them, how do you know they're not going to clear off and leave you holding the baby?

The trouble is that the alternative of a sane coalition (as lots of Tory councillors are) is even more of a gift to Reform.

[Andy McDandy]

They very quickly realise that there aren't that many diversity officers to sack, and if you want to make substantial savings, you have to fuck your voters over.

[Youngian]

Scapegoats will be lined up by these Tory rejects in Reform if they do win power and make a balls up;
The woke blob civil service- They're bound to test their patience after having to explain everything three times to Reform councillors.
Labour withholding money- But millions available for Khan and Burnham to build transport links for metropolitan wokes and Muslims.

[satnav]

Farage's argument about chlorinated chicken misses one major point, at the moment chicken from Thailand is allowed in the EU because producers in Thailand allow EU officials to make regular visits to farms in the country to check on the conditions chickens are reared in. Because the EU allow chicken from Thailand they also allow products containing chicken from Thailand to be sold in the EU which is good news for companies in Britain that sell processed meals containing chicken. Because chlorinated chicken is banned in the EU if we allowed chlorinated chicken into our food chain it would become very difficult to export processed chicken products to the EU.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Scapegoats will be lined up by these Tory rejects in Reform if they do win power and make a balls up;
The woke blob civil service- They're bound to test their patience after having to explain everything three times to Reform councillors.
Labour withholding money- But millions available for Khan and Burnham to build transport links for metropolitan wokes and Muslims.

How long can you keep that up for? In somewhere like Lincolnshire they're in direct rivalry with the Tories. I can see the Tories getting that territory back reasonably quickly.

[Boiler]

Why, oh why couldn't that plane have come down at a steeper angle?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... 5b05d1e4e1

[Tubby Isaacs]

Munira Wilson, the Lib Dem education spokesperson, said:

Farage is clearly laying the groundwork to axe crucial special needs provision in councils he’s got his eye on - communities where families and vulnerable young people are already waiting years to access threadbare special needs funds and special schools bursting at the seams.
If Nigel Farage had spent any time speaking to parents in his constituency, he’d know he’s barking up the wrong tree. The special needs crisis needs urgent repair - not his lazy rhetoric. We need a National Body for Send to end the special needs postcode lottery now.

Friend of mine worked with Munira Wilson a while ago, said she was excellent.

Can Farage actually cut SEND? I thought it was a legal requirement, albeit with lots of hurdles to actually getting it.

[Andy McDandy]

No, but it'll go down well with his followers who think all kids are lazy mentlers anyway.

[satnav]

There are a couple of quick ways to reduce SEND spending but they are really just short term solutions. Sheffield City council once cut the number of child psychologists by half which meant that assessment took twice as long so it would take longer to get support for a child with SEND. This trick probably wouldn't work now because more parents are now paying for private assessment.

More recently Derbyshire County Council have tried to cut costs by dragging their feet on providing support this has simply led to more parents taking the council to court or to tribunal which have let the council with hefty legal bills.

In recent years more schools have become academies so county councils have lost lots of education funding but at the same time they have let with lots of small failing schools that academies don't want plus lots of special schools or very small village schools that are expensive to maintain. Any cuts to education would therefore be pretty brutal.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ah man, small village schools. They're a thing in Herefordshire. No matter what public spending axe falls, they always survive.