News

@wibblum Reform are nowhere near power at the moment; they are a new party and we sure do need some new ideas! They have time to refine their policies. We DO need a smaller State  but still a compassionate one with equality of opportunity for all. A good government should empower its citizens and not just rob them blind and disenfranchise the less able.  Labour have plenty of ideas, some good, some bad but there’s no money for them! The Tories  were a disaster and squandered their years in power. I don’t see much difference between the two parties, actually and await the next developments with interest and not a little trepidation. One thing’s for sure, the economic outlook MUST improve otherwise there will be NO MONEY for anything! Cutting the quangos. talking heads and corruption. not to mention the (not so)civil and public services (vast rise in numbers  and wage bill for no obvious improvement in services) would be a start too. 

@Stuart Stuart, CORRECT!

@Vicky Let's not forget also that Farage and Reform want to do away with the NHS as it is and replace it with an insurance based system too. How people can look at Reform and think it's the best option to cast a vote for is beyond me really. I in no way understand what those peppe are thinking. The systems we currently have aren't perfect but by God I'm very grateful and thankful for them. Once their gone people will definitely regret it and regret that decision. Forage is just a grifter and Reform are a party of what appear to be fringe lunatics and the odd racist and bigot too. I really hope that they don't end up with many seats in this parliament and have any kind or type of influence. The Tories fear of reform has made them lutch even further to the right to the right and let's be honest Labour are nothing like they were founded for in the early 1900s. Keith Hardy would be turning in his grave at what they've become. They too have moved to the right all be it centre right. Thankfully I'm in Scotland and actually have a party of the left/centre left to vote for in the SNP. PIP has been devolved to the Scottish government and rebrabded as Adult Disability Payments (I'm being transfered over to ADP from PIP in October. The SNP (Scottish govt) have said they want to do a fairer claimant based approach to assessments rather than the draconian assessments that currently happen. Plus the fact that the Tories and UK Govt wanna replace PIP money with a voucher scheme is ridiculous to me. Thank god the Scottish Govt now control my PIP (ADP) and will continue to make cash payments. It always seems to be the people on benefits and disabled who pay the price and experience austerity and cuts, every time! Benefit fraud is said to be around £500m a year whereas tax evasion and avoidance is estimated to be over £120 BILLION a year! Yet they focus all their attention and £ on benefits and totally ignored the £120 bn that's there in tax evasion and avoidance. That kinda says it all to me really. Why on earth wouldn't you go after that £120bn? Just think what that could fund and do for the country. How much could that £120bn help improve the NHS, Social care, housing and an array of other things too. I have no faith in Labour at all in all honesty. Labour in Scotland and Westminster adopt a policy called the Bain Principle (look it up) it basically means that Labour will vote against ANY AND EVERY idea and policy put forward by the SNP. That meant that Labour in Scotland voted against free school meals for every primary school child, they voted against free prescriptions for everyone and also voted against the Scottish Child Payment, that's a benefit only available here in Scotland that pays £25 a week for each child in a family on benefits to help lift children out pf poverty. It's helped 100k children so far. Yet Labour voted against it and voted against raising the payment from £20 to £25 at the last Scottish budget. They have totally lost their way. They even day they'd reverse some SNP policies such as free uni tuition for all, free prescriptions and free public transport for everyone under age 22. What is their purpose? Where are their principles? The bain principle was on display in Westminster not long ago when the SNP wanted to hold the debate and vote on a ceasefire in Gaza. Meir Starnwr cajoled the Speaker into changing the debate in favour of what Labour wanted so as they could control the debate and vote, so as Labour MPs could vote for it as if the SNP had held the vote as planned Labour MPs would have to abstain or vite against due to Bain Principle. That's why it caused an uproar in the commons and was on the news etc. I've lost count of how intense Keir Starmer has u-turned on policies he has put forward, sometimes he has u-turned within hours of making an announcement. It's utterly ridiculous. Amd this mantra of 'CHANGE' its nothing nore than an empty soundbite in reality. I'm yet to fully understand WHAT CHANGE? They never seem to say, just repeat ad nauseum the change mantra. Vote for us because we're not the Tories, that's all it seems to amount to. I had a Labour canvaser at ny door on Saturday and she told me 4 lies and I called her out on it. She said vite for Labour mp cos he will help to alleviate NHS waiting times, a lie, bcos NHS is devolved and controlled by MSPs in Homyrood nothing an MP at Westminster can do. Lie 2, better public transport at cheaper prices, again devolved bathing an MP at Westminster can do about that. 3rd lie, improve education and the attainment gap, again devolved to Holyrood nothing an MP at WM can do to tackle that and then her 4th lie was that with GB Energy being set up it'd produce cheaper electricity and help cut my bills as a result. GB Energy is a PFI body, its an investment infrastructure company that'll supply funding to Energy producers it won't actually produce any energy itself. I called her out on all the lies amd her reply was....'I don't think our policy of Change is something that you clearly want and aren't willing to vote for'. Why would I vote for someone who is basing their campaign on 4 lies in order ti try win a seat. Telling lies to people who may not know what issues are devolved to Holyrood and are reserved to Westminster. If you have to lie to potential voters then you obviously have no morals at all and simply cannot be trusted on any matter whatsoever. Again thankfully I'm Scottish and I really hope that in time, and sooner rather than later, Scotland can vote for our independence because the only people best placed to protect things here are the people here. Labour policies are designed to appeal to English voters, Scotland is an afterthought. Here to rape of our natural rescources and nothin more. Norway and Scotland found oil and gas at the same time and Norway has a sovereign wealth fund of over $1 TRILLION and Scotland has a share of £2.7 TRILLION UK national debt. How is that even possible? Scotland has nore oil and Gas than the United Arab Emirates and just look at the difference between the 2. Labour in the 1970s hid the wealth from Scottish oil and gas and downplayed it. All the £ garnered from it went south and built the M25 and Canary Wharf and London and te South East infrastructure whilst Scotlsnd languished in poverty with the UKs 10 poorest areas all in Scotland. That was until the SNP gained control of the Scottish Govt. Now all 10 poorest areas are in England. Labour are charlatans, no better than the Tories are really. Their 2 cheeks of the sake arse, 2 sides of the same coin. Starmer stands for nothing, they even want nore privatisation of the NHS too and have ope lying said so whenever Wes streeting is interviewed and asked about it. People really need to wake up and actually look at what they're offering but in no way at all is Reform or the grifter that is Farage the answer TO ANY QUESTION EVER!

@johnozz Give Reform a chance... to make the lives of the poor and the vulnerable even more miserable than under the tories? No thanks. This is what Farage thinks of anyone who depends on the state for their survival:
“Welfarism, I’m afraid, is making millions of people lazy. ‘I’m too fat, I’m too stupid, I’m too lazy, I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning. I smoke drugs, give me money’ … That’s what we’re saying. ‘I don’t need to work, the state will provide for me’ … We cannot afford it.”

@johnozz Reform are just as harsh as the tories on benefits and one of their plans is to cut the welfare budgets by billions. 

@Gritz I couldn't agree more. Starmer is red Tory who admires Blairite trickle down economics which is code for allowing the continuing massive wealth inequalities to continue and increase. He will do nothing to upset the speculators of the city of london. In fact he will do everything possible to reassure them that his government will be financially 'responsible' ie will cut benefits and attack public sector wages.

@Rainbow I cannot believe they classify the state pension as a 'benefit' but they do. I find it demeaning as I have contributed for over 40 years.

@CaroA That could just have easily been a Tory candidate writing that response....

@CaroA No mention though about the proposed voucher scheme in the reply!

@CaroA 👍

@mrfibro Very apt!