Tories – More Zonkyness

The Reform Effect

Jun 142026

So we have just had a few local elections here in the UK and Reform PLC have won quite a few elections and some councils are now under Reform PLC’s control. They have my sympathy; well the residents that is. Not much sympathy for the Reform PLC councillors although they might have to work harder than expected.

I don’t think Reform PLC was quite as successful as they would like to proclaim. According to the BBC, Reform PLC won 1453 councillors. Given there are 18645 councillors in the UK, Reform PLC won just a smidgen under 8% of the total. Of course not all councillors were up for election – just 5066 were up for election, so Reform PLC won around 28% of this.

Which is impressive but not quite world shaking. But look at the councils they’ve won control over – 14. Quite impressive but it’s all in the North or London. There’s nothing down south.

“Borrowed” from an anti-Reform Facebook group.

This is a kick in the teeth for Labour – not totally unexpectedly given the unrealistic expectations on a Labour government. The funny thing is that the Tories are also still being kicked – they’re down to controlling fewer and fewer councils. Loosing even though they’re not in government.

But enough about the election, what is the attraction of Reform PLC?

It is all too easy to categorise Reform PLC supporters as racist and thick. It is true that Reform PLC have an unusually high number of former representatives with a distinctly racist past and present. And Reform PLC supporters are well known for being somewhat lacking in educational attainment …

(Image borrowed from The Independent)

But it is all too easy to pain Reform PLC uniformly as racist thugs – there’s certainly some like that, but there’s more.

One of the things that comes up in the cesspool that is Twitter, is the “Uniparty” word. Which is a concept inherited from the US and warped to pretend there is no real difference between Conservatives and Labour.

I can certainly see their point – Labour is far too concerned with worrying the wealthy elites and the mainstream media which is one of the tools of the elites are far too willing to engage in sabotage of the current Labour government.

And if you look at where Reform PLC was strongest – the old Labour heartlands in the North, there is a significant factor – not enough has been done to mitigate the damage that Thatcher did to the old Northern industries in the 1980s. Promises have been made and broken.

So no wonder certain folk have the urge to destroy the current system – I’ve felt that way since Mad Maggie was in power in the 1980s myself. But Reform PLC is a con job.

A crafty one at that. Reform PLC takes genuine issues – housing shortage, wages not keeping up with inflation (to a small certain extent that’s the fault of the government’s freeze on tax bands), Islamic terrorism, etc. and blames it all on immigration. That is an unbelievably facile explanation for all the problems.

The problems are real – no mistake there – but the causes are a good deal more complex than just immigration whether legal, illegal , or asylum refugees.

But rather than criticise ReformPLC supporters for falling for the con, we should instead be congratulating them for recognising that something is broken, and come up with a better answer than ReformPLC’s.

The Tory Austerity Fetish

Politics No Responses »

May 262024

Way back when the Tories got into power (2010), they had a bit of a cheer-a-thon when austerity measures were announced. I said at the time that even if austerity was necessary (and it probably wasn’t), it wasn’t the sort of thing to cheer about.

We’ve since seen the effect of their austerity fetish taking effect on our public services – NHS waiting lists grown out of all proportion, trouble filling public-sector vacancies, pot-holes in the roads, libraries closed left, right, and centre.

Even if it were necessary, the initial cheering tells us everything we need to know about Tories. They don’t give a damn about most of us – they would rather cut taxes for their rich pals.

So remember when you vote – the Tories aren’t on your side.

A long road to the gatehouse — Dover Castle Gateway

Is A New Tory Party Leader A Good Idea?

Politics No Responses »

Mar 172024

Well yes, the Tories need a new party leader to rebuild their party after the next election. Before the election? The new leader will just be a sacrificial lamb that’ll probably be thrown out onto the slag heap (hopefully a nice soggy wet one) at the next election.

It’ll almost certainly not save them from being wiped out (and that’s from 6 months ago; if anything, things are even worse today) at the next election.

An overwhelming majority of people want an election now and changing leaders now in what will be seen as yet another undemocratic move (it isn’t; it’s just people like to think they’re voting for a particular PM when they’re just voting for their MP) is likely to make the Tories even more unpopular.

If I were Starmer, I’d launch a parliamentary vote of no confidence as soon as the replacement showed up in parliament :-

The people don’t want you.
We don’t want you.
The other parties here don’t want you.
And if they were honest, half of those on your side don’t want you either.
– Me putting words in Starmer’s mouth.

He’d lose of course, but the people will see it as an honest attempt at doing the right thing.

Tactical Voting: Compromise, But That’s Okay

Politics No Responses »

Nov 192023

Some of us who are anti-Tory are encouraging the use of tactical voting – voting not necessarily for the party you would most like to represent you, but instead voting for the party most likely to defeat the Tories. The Tory government has been so inept, corrupt, morally bankrupt, and generally icky, that giving them a total hammering is only right.

But there are plenty of people out there who don’t feel that Labour (or one of the others in certain areas) really represent their views. Labour has moved too far to the right – which is something I would agree with.

But politics is about compromise and with first-past-the-post system, we have to compromise more than other systems of voting. There will never be a political party that exactly represents my views, so I have to select the one that closest matches my views. In an ideal world anyway.

In a less than idea world, we have to compromise more and vote for the candidate in our constituency that is most likely to defeat the Tories. There is no point in voting for the Green party in a constituency where they typically get 2-3% of the vote when switching to the Liberal-Democrats are in second place and most likely to defeat the Tories.

The left in Britain is somewhat more fractured than the right (although if we give the Tories a bloody enough nose that might just change) which with the FPTP system gives the Tories an inherent advantage. We need to overcome that advantage and without a change in the voting system, tactical voting is the way to do that.

Give the Tories a bloody nose and vote tactically.

The Cummings Scandal

Politics No Responses »

May 272020

For the benefit of those tuning in late, or to refresh the memories of those coming back to this years later, Dominic Cummings (Boris Johnson’s chief political advisor) has been caught breaching lockdown restrictions whilst ill with the coronavirus.

Now there are those who believe he did nothing wrong; they’re idiots but it is no longer a question of what he did or didn’t do, or whether it was against the regulations themselves, or whether it was against the spirit of the regulations. Or even if he put other people at risk.

Although it is worth pointing out that as his wife was already sick with coronavirus he was not supposed to leave the house for any reason.

No, now it is the response that is more significant.

If Dom and his buddy Boris had responded sensibly – admitted that it was wrong, and Dom had resigned – that would be fine. Or at least no worse than we expect from the Tories.

But to claim that he did nothing wrong when to most of us it has all the appearance of one rule for us and quite another for the Tory toffs, is just inflaming the situation.

Dumb move by a political advisor!

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