NPR

shaggy wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 3:23 pm Farage was an MEP for over 20 years. That is quite some stamina to reach his goal of Britains exit from the European Union.

shaggy wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 3:23 pm Farage was an MEP for over 20 years. That is quite some stamina to reach his goal of Britains exit from the European Union.

Tichtheid wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 3:31 pm

shaggy wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 3:23 pm Farage was an MEP for over 20 years. That is quite some stamina to reach his goal of Britains exit from the European Union.

Well, he took the money right enough, but for example, between 2014 and 2016 he had the second worst voting record of all MEPs, he turned out at 40% of roll calls, placing him 745th out of 746. The guy placing last spent many months in hospital.
As a member of the fisheries committee he turned up to one of the forty two meetings he was supposed to attend.

his actual vote was irrelevant as he was never going to make a change in any way in parliament.

Tichtheid wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 3:43 pm Stamina?

What kind of stamina does it take to do fuck all?

You turn up, sometimes but mostly not, get paid - I don't think stamina is the right descriptor here.

And another thing, despite his rantings on public sector pay and pensions etc, he refused to give up his EU pension

his actual vote was irrelevant as he was never going to make a change in any way in parliament.

His job was to take part in the process of parliament. He didn't do his job/refused to do his job, whatever way you prefer.

Tichtheid wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 3:43 pm Stamina?

What kind of stamina does it take to do fuck all?

You turn up, sometimes but mostly not, get paid - I don't think stamina is the right descriptor here.

And another thing, despite his rantings on public sector pay and pensions etc, he refused to give up his EU pension

his actual vote was irrelevant as he was never going to make a change in any way in parliament.

His job was to take part in the process of parliament. He didn't do his job/refused to do his job, whatever way you prefer.

shaggy wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 3:23 pm Farage was an MEP for over 20 years. That is quite some stamina to reach his goal of Britains exit from the European Union.

shaggy wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 4:01 pm

Tichtheid wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 3:43 pm Stamina?

What kind of stamina does it take to do fuck all?

You turn up, sometimes but mostly not, get paid - I don't think stamina is the right descriptor here.

And another thing, despite his rantings on public sector pay and pensions etc, he refused to give up his EU pension

his actual vote was irrelevant as he was never going to make a change in any way in parliament.

His job was to take part in the process of parliament. He didn't do his job/refused to do his job, whatever way you prefer.

I really don’t care. If you cannot see that 20 years of frustrating a process and solely being a mouthpiece for a single cause, which he achieved, is a mile away from Trumps lack of attention to any purpose other than himself, then I guess we might never reach a consensus. I don’t like the man or his purpose but I can get past hatred to assess his impact.

Tichtheid wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 4:31 pm

shaggy wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 4:01 pm

Tichtheid wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 3:43 pm Stamina?

What kind of stamina does it take to do fuck all?

You turn up, sometimes but mostly not, get paid - I don't think stamina is the right descriptor here.

And another thing, despite his rantings on public sector pay and pensions etc, he refused to give up his EU pension



His job was to take part in the process of parliament. He didn't do his job/refused to do his job, whatever way you prefer.

I really don’t care. If you cannot see that 20 years of frustrating a process and solely being a mouthpiece for a single cause, which he achieved, is a mile away from Trumps lack of attention to any purpose other than himself, then I guess we might never reach a consensus. I don’t like the man or his purpose but I can get past hatred to assess his impact.

He didn’t “frustrate a process”, he simply took very little or no part in it, for which he was paid around £120k per year plus expenses plus £70k per annum pension from the age of 63.
His family all have EU passports iirc, so he can come and go as he pleases with them.

I said on another thread that he's been hugely influential, but in a completely negative way and his hypocrisy knows no bounds. He isn’t stupid, he stuck around on a big fat salary and did fuck all.

The stupid ones are those who might think he is on their side.

tabascoboy wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 4:14 pm

Tichtheid wrote: Mon Jun 23, 2025 3:43 pm Stamina?

What kind of stamina does it take to do fuck all?

You turn up, sometimes but mostly not, get paid - I don't think stamina is the right descriptor here.

And another thing, despite his rantings on public sector pay and pensions etc, he refused to give up his EU pension

his actual vote was irrelevant as he was never going to make a change in any way in parliament.

His job was to take part in the process of parliament. He didn't do his job/refused to do his job, whatever way you prefer.

Which is why he'd be a total disaster as Prime Minister - which is where plenty of people would like to see him. Putting in 12 - 16 hour days, virtually every day for 5 years, reading papers, attending briefings and meetings, managing staff and the Cabinet, keeping all diary commitments, taking actual responsibility for budget and other key decisions etc. None of this well I'll just go off on jollies whenever I like to see all my American mates.

He would be like BoJo ( and we all saw how that went), just ignore what doesn't interest him and farm out as much of his work as possible before going off to a pub to pose with a pint and a fag...

Though I feel he'd more likely appoint a dispensable sockpuppet so he could keep his "influencer" lifestyle

Council boss quits, leaving 18-year-old in charge

The recently elected leader of Warwickshire County Council has resigned, leaving his 18-year-old deputy in charge.

Reform UK councillor Rob Howard released a short statement in which he said he had made the decision with "much regret".

Howard was elected in May, when Reform made unprecedented gains in the local elections, becoming the largest party in Warwickshire and forming a minority administration.

The outgoing leader cited his health as the reason for his decision, adding: "The role of leader is an extremely demanding role and regretfully my health challenges now prevent me from carrying out the role to the level and standard that I would wish."

He also confirmed that his current deputy, George Finch, would serve as interim leader until the council confirmed a new leader in due course.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93knke95peo

tabascoboy wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 5:51 am

Council boss quits, leaving 18-year-old in charge

The recently elected leader of Warwickshire County Council has resigned, leaving his 18-year-old deputy in charge.

Reform UK councillor Rob Howard released a short statement in which he said he had made the decision with "much regret".

Howard was elected in May, when Reform made unprecedented gains in the local elections, becoming the largest party in Warwickshire and forming a minority administration.

The outgoing leader cited his health as the reason for his decision, adding: "The role of leader is an extremely demanding role and regretfully my health challenges now prevent me from carrying out the role to the level and standard that I would wish."

He also confirmed that his current deputy, George Finch, would serve as interim leader until the council confirmed a new leader in due course.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93knke95peo

Slick wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 8:52 am We can laugh all we like, but yet another poll showing Reform will be the largest party, by some distance, at the next election.

Had quite a startling conversation with a friend of mine at the weekend. Her daughter is a politics student at Edinburgh Uni, apparently her, and the majority of her cohort, are planning to vote Reform in the next Scottish elections and beyond. I've met this girl, you couldn't get further from the stereotypical Reform voter.

YouGov’s first MRP since the election had Reform picking up 271 seats to Labour’s 178. It even puts the Tories in fourth place on 46, behind the Lib Dems’ 81.

Slick wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 8:52 am We can laugh all we like, but yet another poll showing Reform will be the largest party, by some distance, at the next election.

Had quite a startling conversation with a friend of mine at the weekend. Her daughter is a politics student at Edinburgh Uni, apparently her, and the majority of her cohort, are planning to vote Reform in the next Scottish elections and beyond. I've met this girl, you couldn't get further from the stereotypical Reform voter.

Tichtheid wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 9:05 am

Slick wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 8:52 am We can laugh all we like, but yet another poll showing Reform will be the largest party, by some distance, at the next election.

Had quite a startling conversation with a friend of mine at the weekend. Her daughter is a politics student at Edinburgh Uni, apparently her, and the majority of her cohort, are planning to vote Reform in the next Scottish elections and beyond. I've met this girl, you couldn't get further from the stereotypical Reform voter.

I don't think people are laughing, this is very serious. You'd hope the Civil Service would keep them in check but of course they will probably just sack what they see as "unnecessary" people and then wonder why it all falls down around their ears.

Farage was quoted at the time as saying the Liz Truss disaster budget was the best Tory budget for decades - this is what we are facing unless Labour start pulling rabbits out of hats and I don't see where they can do it.

Tichtheid wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 9:05 am

Slick wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 8:52 am We can laugh all we like, but yet another poll showing Reform will be the largest party, by some distance, at the next election.

Had quite a startling conversation with a friend of mine at the weekend. Her daughter is a politics student at Edinburgh Uni, apparently her, and the majority of her cohort, are planning to vote Reform in the next Scottish elections and beyond. I've met this girl, you couldn't get further from the stereotypical Reform voter.

I don't think people are laughing, this is very serious. You'd hope the Civil Service would keep them in check but of course they will probably just sack what they see as "unnecessary" people and then wonder why it all falls down around their ears.

Farage was quoted at the time as saying the Liz Truss disaster budget was the best Tory budget for decades - this is what we are facing unless Labour start pulling rabbits out of hats and I don't see where they can do it.

sockwithaticket wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 9:38 am

Tichtheid wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 9:05 am

Slick wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 8:52 am We can laugh all we like, but yet another poll showing Reform will be the largest party, by some distance, at the next election.

Had quite a startling conversation with a friend of mine at the weekend. Her daughter is a politics student at Edinburgh Uni, apparently her, and the majority of her cohort, are planning to vote Reform in the next Scottish elections and beyond. I've met this girl, you couldn't get further from the stereotypical Reform voter.

I don't think people are laughing, this is very serious. You'd hope the Civil Service would keep them in check but of course they will probably just sack what they see as "unnecessary" people and then wonder why it all falls down around their ears.

Farage was quoted at the time as saying the Liz Truss disaster budget was the best Tory budget for decades - this is what we are facing unless Labour start pulling rabbits out of hats and I don't see where they can do it.

Labour need to stop alienating their base and start doing Labour shit that's also popular. They're going to need all the votes they can get and re-interesting the centre-left and left is a far more likely source than nicking them from Reform. Polling so far has indicated that the overwhelming majority of those leaning towards Reform are coming from the Tories, not Labour. I don't think there's that much need to directly attack Reform this far out from the next election, but when it does come time don't half arse it. Call out Farage for trying to suck up to Trump and for being a Putin apologist, explicitly state that Reform essentially want to do a re-run of the Truss budget and ruin everyone's finances.

There's not much they can really do about much of the press and media being out to get them from day one, but they need to start working around it to get their message out. They have brought net migration down, they have massively improved worker's rights and they're introducing the biggest council house building program in decades. These are things that should sit positively with voters if they actually hear about them.

Which brings us onto stop creating your own negative stories to drown out the positives, the mostly right wing press will do its best on that front regardless, so don't feed them or left wing critics by trying to make the disabled poorer for no particular reason, stop prevaricating over complicity in Israel's atrocities and actually make a meaningful stand, do something substantial about the water companies (why rule out making them non-profits even if ruling ut nationalisation?), reverse the draconian restrictions on protest introduced by the Tories instead of adding to them, stop with the 'hippy-punching' anti-conservation rhetoric etc. etc.

Slick wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 9:08 am

Tichtheid wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 9:05 am

Slick wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 8:52 am We can laugh all we like, but yet another poll showing Reform will be the largest party, by some distance, at the next election.

Had quite a startling conversation with a friend of mine at the weekend. Her daughter is a politics student at Edinburgh Uni, apparently her, and the majority of her cohort, are planning to vote Reform in the next Scottish elections and beyond. I've met this girl, you couldn't get further from the stereotypical Reform voter.

I don't think people are laughing, this is very serious. You'd hope the Civil Service would keep them in check but of course they will probably just sack what they see as "unnecessary" people and then wonder why it all falls down around their ears.

Farage was quoted at the time as saying the Liz Truss disaster budget was the best Tory budget for decades - this is what we are facing unless Labour start pulling rabbits out of hats and I don't see where they can do it.

I think there probably is a bit of folk saying they would vote Reform because they are pissed off but at the ballot box wouldn't actually do it with the hope that the current government would take the hint. But even with a decent amount doing that they are going to disrupt massively

sockwithaticket wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 9:38 am

Tichtheid wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 9:05 am

Slick wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 8:52 am We can laugh all we like, but yet another poll showing Reform will be the largest party, by some distance, at the next election.

Had quite a startling conversation with a friend of mine at the weekend. Her daughter is a politics student at Edinburgh Uni, apparently her, and the majority of her cohort, are planning to vote Reform in the next Scottish elections and beyond. I've met this girl, you couldn't get further from the stereotypical Reform voter.

I don't think people are laughing, this is very serious. You'd hope the Civil Service would keep them in check but of course they will probably just sack what they see as "unnecessary" people and then wonder why it all falls down around their ears.

Farage was quoted at the time as saying the Liz Truss disaster budget was the best Tory budget for decades - this is what we are facing unless Labour start pulling rabbits out of hats and I don't see where they can do it.

Labour need to stop alienating their base and start doing Labour shit that's also popular. They're going to need all the votes they can get and re-interesting the centre-left and left is a far more likely source than nicking them from Reform. Polling so far has indicated that the overwhelming majority of those leaning towards Reform are coming from the Tories, not Labour. I don't think there's that much need to directly attack Reform this far out from the next election, but when it does come time don't half arse it. Call out Farage for trying to suck up to Trump and for being a Putin apologist, explicitly state that Reform essentially want to do a re-run of the Truss budget and ruin everyone's finances.

There's not much they can really do about much of the press and media being out to get them from day one, but they need to start working around it to get their message out. They have brought net migration down, they have massively improved worker's rights and they're introducing the biggest council house building program in decades. These are things that should sit positively with voters if they actually hear about them.

Which brings us onto stop creating your own negative stories to drown out the positives, the mostly right wing press will do its best on that front regardless, so don't feed them or left wing critics by trying to make the disabled poorer for no particular reason, stop prevaricating over complicity in Israel's atrocities and actually make a meaningful stand, do something substantial about the water companies (why rule out making them non-profits even if ruling ut nationalisation?), reverse the draconian restrictions on protest introduced by the Tories instead of adding to them, stop with the 'hippy-punching' anti-conservation rhetoric etc. etc.

dpedin wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 9:42 am

Slick wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 9:08 am

Tichtheid wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 9:05 am


I don't think people are laughing, this is very serious. You'd hope the Civil Service would keep them in check but of course they will probably just sack what they see as "unnecessary" people and then wonder why it all falls down around their ears.

Farage was quoted at the time as saying the Liz Truss disaster budget was the best Tory budget for decades - this is what we are facing unless Labour start pulling rabbits out of hats and I don't see where they can do it.

I think there probably is a bit of folk saying they would vote Reform because they are pissed off but at the ballot box wouldn't actually do it with the hope that the current government would take the hint. But even with a decent amount doing that they are going to disrupt massively

General election is 4 years away! We would have more chance of correctly picking a Lions squad for NZ in 2029 than trying to predict how folk will vote in a GE. These polls are just a bit of fun and mischief making by the right wing press keen to promote Farage/Reform given Badenough is just plain useless and the Tories are in freefall. Sure Reform are riding high at the moment but 4 years is a long time in politics and they will find it difficult to continue to shout from the sidelines, once they end up having to play the real game on the pitch it might be a different story. By all accounts those councils being led/run by Reform councillors are hardly a great success.

I could construct and run a poll pretty quickly that could give any result you want about a future GE result and voting intentions. I am not downplaying the success or Reform in persuading folk to vote for them or show them support but let's just calm the jets as we have a long, long way to go.

Slick wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 10:11 am

I agree, and that's kind of what I was saying, I think much of it is a protest vote at the moment that won't translate into these figures.

Tichtheid wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 9:05 am

Slick wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 8:52 am We can laugh all we like, but yet another poll showing Reform will be the largest party, by some distance, at the next election.

Had quite a startling conversation with a friend of mine at the weekend. Her daughter is a politics student at Edinburgh Uni, apparently her, and the majority of her cohort, are planning to vote Reform in the next Scottish elections and beyond. I've met this girl, you couldn't get further from the stereotypical Reform voter.

I don't think people are laughing, this is very serious. You'd hope the Civil Service would keep them in check but of course they will probably just sack what they see as "unnecessary" people and then wonder why it all falls down around their ears.

Farage was quoted at the time as saying the Liz Truss disaster budget was the best Tory budget for decades - this is what we are facing unless Labour start pulling rabbits out of hats and I don't see where they can do it.

Rhubarb & Custard wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 10:23 am The Labour good news, if it be such, isn't making itself felt now in peoples' homes, when they go to the supermarket, when/if they want to go out for drinks/entertainment. People feel like they're struggling, many are, and many don't want to wait even if voting in FagRage would be much worse, and confirm once more after Brexit we're more than a little thick and racist

sockwithaticket wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 9:38 am

Tichtheid wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 9:05 am

Slick wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 8:52 am We can laugh all we like, but yet another poll showing Reform will be the largest party, by some distance, at the next election.

Had quite a startling conversation with a friend of mine at the weekend. Her daughter is a politics student at Edinburgh Uni, apparently her, and the majority of her cohort, are planning to vote Reform in the next Scottish elections and beyond. I've met this girl, you couldn't get further from the stereotypical Reform voter.

I don't think people are laughing, this is very serious. You'd hope the Civil Service would keep them in check but of course they will probably just sack what they see as "unnecessary" people and then wonder why it all falls down around their ears.

Farage was quoted at the time as saying the Liz Truss disaster budget was the best Tory budget for decades - this is what we are facing unless Labour start pulling rabbits out of hats and I don't see where they can do it.

Labour need to stop alienating their base and start doing Labour shit that's also popular. They're going to need all the votes they can get and re-interesting the centre-left and left is a far more likely source than nicking them from Reform. Polling so far has indicated that the overwhelming majority of those leaning towards Reform are coming from the Tories, not Labour. I don't think there's that much need to directly attack Reform this far out from the next election, but when it does come time don't half arse it. Call out Farage for trying to suck up to Trump and for being a Putin apologist, explicitly state that Reform essentially want to do a re-run of the Truss budget and ruin everyone's finances.

There's not much they can really do about much of the press and media being out to get them from day one, but they need to start working around it to get their message out. They have brought net migration down, they have massively improved worker's rights and they're introducing the biggest council house building program in decades. These are things that should sit positively with voters if they actually hear about them.

Which brings us onto stop creating your own negative stories to drown out the positives, the mostly right wing press will do its best on that front regardless, so don't feed them or left wing critics by trying to make the disabled poorer for no particular reason, stop prevaricating over complicity in Israel's atrocities and actually make a meaningful stand, do something substantial about the water companies (why rule out making them non-profits even if ruling ut nationalisation?), reverse the draconian restrictions on protest introduced by the Tories instead of adding to them, stop with the 'hippy-punching' anti-conservation rhetoric etc. etc.