It’s very often the little things that tell you how a man thinks, and today we get a little insight from a Rupert Lowe LinkedIn post in which he says “A Restore Britain Government would implement free car parking on all NHS sites for staff, patients and visitors.
Thanks for keeping us grounded. The irony is that Lowe’s critique of Reform was that it lacked proper thought out policies. Now here we go with clickbait headlines. I have the same frustration with parking anywhere near a hospital. The parking however is the symptom of other problems we prefer to ignore. A failing NHS for starters, with people turning up who should be seen locally, long delays in clinics, out of town locations with limited public transport, limited or overpriced local housing for staff.
Meanwhile and living in hope, Reform are beginning to think policy and detail, and for a new party that didn’t exist two years ago, it has some catching up. Hopefully Orr and Kruger will provide some ballast while Farage tacks left and right where the electoral headwinds permit. Lowe & Co, however well intentioned, will sink in the purity whirlpool. They may help by keeping Reform in their toes, they can also split the right and allow the red green and yellow alliance to unite to fight the bogeyman right.
Rupert thinks that he is like Trump. Trump you are not, Rupert! Elon’s money gone into his head. This man is not intelligent. We would promise the stars from the sky in order to damage Reform. Shame on you, Rupert.
The Tories now sit about where Blair's New Labour was 30 years ago. People haven't changed their beliefs though. The Conservatives left centrist thinkers like me high and dry. Labour is now beyond socialist and they've left the Blue Labour, socially conservative, working class far behind. Those two groups have found a home in Reform UK. Our beliefs and values haven't changed, it's the LABEL you put on us that's changed.
People like Suella Braverman still believe in the same things, she's just changed a blue label for a turquoise one. That you can't see that is astonishing. That I have to point it out is more astonishing.
It's more astonishing that a left leaning Tory is here 😉- next you'll be telling us that you support the EU , are a wet and that you still believe in father Christmas.🫣
Badenock's strategy of taking time to think things through before announcing policy is looking like the right one though we have still to see what her deliberative approach comes up. Even if she produces sensible workable policies (a far from given) the risk is that no-one will be listening to the Tories so deep is that taint of the past.
Mark Littlewood said that Reform (and one can now add Restore) announce destinations with no idea how to get there whereas the Conservatives are researching whether the journey is viable in the first place before setting off. Unfortunately, the voting public seem to prefer focus on destination no matter the consequences of no proper planning on how to get there.
The Con-Reform and Restore right have some time still to publish manifestos that convince. We can only hope that some genuinely thoughtful policies are published. If a right of centre government replaces Labour (or a Red-Green-Yellow coalition) it must succeed. It really must. On current offerings there is no one.
You make some excellent points. The trick, if there is one, for The Tories ( or anyone) is to create a Vision that resonates easily (& comfortably) with voters - it might only be 5 or 6 pledges ( per Tony Blair) but it has to be communicated simply and with honesty - the honesty and trust is the hard part in today's environment.
I doubt the current crop of Labour/socialists ( come the general election) will be believed (that's the good news) but the Tories with the right leader - I've not written Badenoch off yet - could still deliver.
Starmer/Rayner/especially Milliband are the Tories best 'secret weapon's ' - long may they continue as they sell us out to an ever moribund EU.
Equally, the vision/route/narrative of The Tories under Badenoch needs to be ruthlessly communicated to the voters and certainly in time for the General Election when circumstances will be significantly worse than they are today.
You make good points John. However, despite good policies, how can we ever trust the Tories again after the last 14 years? They were in a very good position to prevent the very position we are in today. They made things worse.
Peter Bottomley was our MP until 2024. I told him then, I could never vote for them again after they mandated jabs for care home workers and had intentions to mandate for all NHS workers.
Jennifer, I know, I'm holding my nose when talking about the Tories - equally, It's far worse when I see the rank amateurs of Reform & Restore - tragically, as we know, vetting for these parties is a joke with a no. of swivel eyed loons still getting through.
The Tories have, in my mind one more go with vision, policies and communications - one bullet, don't waste it Kemi.
We have a good Reform team here in Worthing - former UKIP and Tories.
I did send in my application for Reform but got rejected as I liked one of Ruperts posts on Facebook.
A pity - former nurse, HR specialist in Financial Services and Clinical Nutritionist specialising in complex health conditions and Care Homes - I could have made a contribution. Hey ho - their loss
Parking? Really? That’s where you think the problem is?
The issues aren’t complex. Britain has a muslim problem and it has an immigration problem. The way both have compromised our way of life to date is preposterous bearing in mind that muslims comprise only 6.5% of the population. Project what the effect will be when there are 30% or, God forbid, 51% muslims in the country. Do you want to wear a burqa, be subject to a 7th century judicial and penal system, be discriminated against for being Christian or persecuted for being Jewish, lose the ability to elect the government of your choice or freely worship the religion that attracts your heart and soul, see the introduction of sharia which prescribes amputations, beheadings, stoning and beatings. Iranians welcomed Islam in 1979. 47 years of repression later the cost to them of ridding themselves of it is tens of thousands of lives. The reason the cost is so high - there is no ballot box in Islam.
Farage has already packed the top tier in the party with former Tory front benchers who had 25 years to address the issues but did squat. Beside them stand muslims whose religion endorses taqiyya, permission to lie when the purpose is to deceive infidels. Farage has already ruled out mass remigration because it is “impossible”. The real question is “is it necessary?” If it is, refusing to take hard action will cost us our country.
We have only one election that offers the opportunity to reverse the damage inflicted on Britain. Fail to grasp it and we will have lost. Before Restore, Reform was our best hope, inadequate as their policies are. But now we have a choice. I no longer need to get behind a party whose prospectus I’ve always recognised as having the right intention but which is too weak to deal with the issues for which the party was purportedly formed.
Restore is led by an elderly English farmer who tried to have the scale of threat we are subject to recognised and addressed by both the Tory party and by Reform. In realising neither were willing to take the tough action needed to adequately preserve Britain’s heritage, culture and way of life he saw no option but to take on the task through a new party that was not compromised in the way the Torys and Reform are. 80,000 members in a few days are an indicator of the level of support his policies attract. The defections from Reform to Restore have already started and I project that they will increase exponentially from all parties in the weeks to come.
The accusations of racism and fascism will come thick and fast so we must remember who are the racists and who the fascists. Restore supporters are not besieging synagogues and intimidating Jews. They’re not blockading the streets in acts of collective dominance using Islamic prayer as the false justification. They’re not trying to ban dogs from public places. They are vandalising no churches nor carrying out mass rapes. The prejudice against whites is overt and off the charts. It’s now a left mantra that it’s impossible to be racist against whites. In other words, anything goes.
We all would have preferred that legal immigrants integrate, that they recognised our right to our traditions and cultural practices and not seek to replace them with their own. The hard action we have to take is not because of our failure. It's because of theirs. I feel no guilt in affirming that I will not have my culture overwritten by Islam. The multicultural experiment is over and those who don’t live by our rules have to go home. That’s not racism nor fascism. It’s recognition that we too have a right to survive and we’re going to assert it.
Excellent post in all respects. Farage has had to recruit Tories who have some expertise - people who know the business of government and who know procedures. He's getting criticism for that. But without that expertise, opponents who created the system will use it to defeat them. Good intentions and common sense are not enough. Sending decent British chaps into government against the blob, with its malign operators and complicated dependencies, is like mustering some stout determined civilians and pitting them against a professional army.
Graeme Souness said of Lowe, when he was Southampton FC manager, “he thinks he knows everything about everything.” The car parking analogy is spot on. He’s no leader.
I'm so sick of people like you who are capable of nothing except complaining and whining. Rupert Lowe's at the sharp end of efforts to fix this country - at great personal cost.
You think he should be disregarded because his ideas on free parking don't match yours?
Maybe parking is 1,000,000 problem on the list 😂- but I totally take/get Pete's point that this article isn't about parking - albeit it's a good allegory.
I watched David and Rupert's conversation. David very clearly made the observation you highlight - namely the dangers of political naivety. Rupert should slow down and carefully absorb this point and then respond to David's wisdom and knowledge with engagement rather than dismissal.
I do understand his sentiments though. Nurses and doctors on duty pay a hefty part of wages/salaries, just to be at work. A friend of mine (a nurse with children) shared how much her parking costs were. It was eye watering. Most parking is subcontracted out - the fees are exorbitant - £1.40 per hour here in Worthing.
While I get the gist Pete, he is tapping into issues affecting many working people, planning and delivery, I hope will follow.
I worked in corporates for 30 years - the approach was - agree the problem, prove to me why my plan won't work and give solutions.
Reform has understood that you need both experienced politicians and industry specific experts to make the ideas actually happen. Recruiting people takes time in the real world. So does crafting workable policies. Restore and Advance seem to offer straplines without realising you need to be able to implement them.
My uncle had to pay hospital car parking charges every day for six months during his chemotherapy. If, as a nation, we can't ensure such things never happen without risking lawfare we may as well pack up shop, turn the lights off and all move elsewhere. Accepting the unacceptable because because change is too difficult must have no place in Britain's future. Moaning defeatist types are the other side of the coin to Lowe's hopeless optimism.
I'm sure the Council where your employer's offices reside loves the Business Rates and other spend that came into the town from their presence there.
The real stupidity is thinking that car sharing and public transport in most small to medium towns is in anyway workable. It only proves that Rupert Lowe isn't the only one who isn't in touch with reality.
We live within walking distance of the main hospital in our town and we always get people parking around our house who work at the hospital. A resident's parking scheme isn't the answer either, they are run by the same Councils that can't work out how to fill potholes in a timely manner so are a complete pain in the proverbial.
Thanks for keeping us grounded. The irony is that Lowe’s critique of Reform was that it lacked proper thought out policies. Now here we go with clickbait headlines. I have the same frustration with parking anywhere near a hospital. The parking however is the symptom of other problems we prefer to ignore. A failing NHS for starters, with people turning up who should be seen locally, long delays in clinics, out of town locations with limited public transport, limited or overpriced local housing for staff.
Meanwhile and living in hope, Reform are beginning to think policy and detail, and for a new party that didn’t exist two years ago, it has some catching up. Hopefully Orr and Kruger will provide some ballast while Farage tacks left and right where the electoral headwinds permit. Lowe & Co, however well intentioned, will sink in the purity whirlpool. They may help by keeping Reform in their toes, they can also split the right and allow the red green and yellow alliance to unite to fight the bogeyman right.
Rupert thinks that he is like Trump. Trump you are not, Rupert! Elon’s money gone into his head. This man is not intelligent. We would promise the stars from the sky in order to damage Reform. Shame on you, Rupert.
I won't vote for parties funded by foreign money
Then you’re voting for no-one.
Yup.
By Elon’s money you mean?
For one...
Conform are just a recycling bin for failed Torys. Completely lost their energy.
AND Lowe is not against joining with the Tories.
They are not failed Tories.
The Tories now sit about where Blair's New Labour was 30 years ago. People haven't changed their beliefs though. The Conservatives left centrist thinkers like me high and dry. Labour is now beyond socialist and they've left the Blue Labour, socially conservative, working class far behind. Those two groups have found a home in Reform UK. Our beliefs and values haven't changed, it's the LABEL you put on us that's changed.
People like Suella Braverman still believe in the same things, she's just changed a blue label for a turquoise one. That you can't see that is astonishing. That I have to point it out is more astonishing.
It's more astonishing that a left leaning Tory is here 😉- next you'll be telling us that you support the EU , are a wet and that you still believe in father Christmas.🫣
Badenock's strategy of taking time to think things through before announcing policy is looking like the right one though we have still to see what her deliberative approach comes up. Even if she produces sensible workable policies (a far from given) the risk is that no-one will be listening to the Tories so deep is that taint of the past.
Mark Littlewood said that Reform (and one can now add Restore) announce destinations with no idea how to get there whereas the Conservatives are researching whether the journey is viable in the first place before setting off. Unfortunately, the voting public seem to prefer focus on destination no matter the consequences of no proper planning on how to get there.
The Con-Reform and Restore right have some time still to publish manifestos that convince. We can only hope that some genuinely thoughtful policies are published. If a right of centre government replaces Labour (or a Red-Green-Yellow coalition) it must succeed. It really must. On current offerings there is no one.
You make some excellent points. The trick, if there is one, for The Tories ( or anyone) is to create a Vision that resonates easily (& comfortably) with voters - it might only be 5 or 6 pledges ( per Tony Blair) but it has to be communicated simply and with honesty - the honesty and trust is the hard part in today's environment.
I doubt the current crop of Labour/socialists ( come the general election) will be believed (that's the good news) but the Tories with the right leader - I've not written Badenoch off yet - could still deliver.
Starmer/Rayner/especially Milliband are the Tories best 'secret weapon's ' - long may they continue as they sell us out to an ever moribund EU.
Equally, the vision/route/narrative of The Tories under Badenoch needs to be ruthlessly communicated to the voters and certainly in time for the General Election when circumstances will be significantly worse than they are today.
You make good points John. However, despite good policies, how can we ever trust the Tories again after the last 14 years? They were in a very good position to prevent the very position we are in today. They made things worse.
Peter Bottomley was our MP until 2024. I told him then, I could never vote for them again after they mandated jabs for care home workers and had intentions to mandate for all NHS workers.
Jennifer, I know, I'm holding my nose when talking about the Tories - equally, It's far worse when I see the rank amateurs of Reform & Restore - tragically, as we know, vetting for these parties is a joke with a no. of swivel eyed loons still getting through.
The Tories have, in my mind one more go with vision, policies and communications - one bullet, don't waste it Kemi.
We have a good Reform team here in Worthing - former UKIP and Tories.
I did send in my application for Reform but got rejected as I liked one of Ruperts posts on Facebook.
A pity - former nurse, HR specialist in Financial Services and Clinical Nutritionist specialising in complex health conditions and Care Homes - I could have made a contribution. Hey ho - their loss
Parking? Really? That’s where you think the problem is?
The issues aren’t complex. Britain has a muslim problem and it has an immigration problem. The way both have compromised our way of life to date is preposterous bearing in mind that muslims comprise only 6.5% of the population. Project what the effect will be when there are 30% or, God forbid, 51% muslims in the country. Do you want to wear a burqa, be subject to a 7th century judicial and penal system, be discriminated against for being Christian or persecuted for being Jewish, lose the ability to elect the government of your choice or freely worship the religion that attracts your heart and soul, see the introduction of sharia which prescribes amputations, beheadings, stoning and beatings. Iranians welcomed Islam in 1979. 47 years of repression later the cost to them of ridding themselves of it is tens of thousands of lives. The reason the cost is so high - there is no ballot box in Islam.
Farage has already packed the top tier in the party with former Tory front benchers who had 25 years to address the issues but did squat. Beside them stand muslims whose religion endorses taqiyya, permission to lie when the purpose is to deceive infidels. Farage has already ruled out mass remigration because it is “impossible”. The real question is “is it necessary?” If it is, refusing to take hard action will cost us our country.
We have only one election that offers the opportunity to reverse the damage inflicted on Britain. Fail to grasp it and we will have lost. Before Restore, Reform was our best hope, inadequate as their policies are. But now we have a choice. I no longer need to get behind a party whose prospectus I’ve always recognised as having the right intention but which is too weak to deal with the issues for which the party was purportedly formed.
Restore is led by an elderly English farmer who tried to have the scale of threat we are subject to recognised and addressed by both the Tory party and by Reform. In realising neither were willing to take the tough action needed to adequately preserve Britain’s heritage, culture and way of life he saw no option but to take on the task through a new party that was not compromised in the way the Torys and Reform are. 80,000 members in a few days are an indicator of the level of support his policies attract. The defections from Reform to Restore have already started and I project that they will increase exponentially from all parties in the weeks to come.
The accusations of racism and fascism will come thick and fast so we must remember who are the racists and who the fascists. Restore supporters are not besieging synagogues and intimidating Jews. They’re not blockading the streets in acts of collective dominance using Islamic prayer as the false justification. They’re not trying to ban dogs from public places. They are vandalising no churches nor carrying out mass rapes. The prejudice against whites is overt and off the charts. It’s now a left mantra that it’s impossible to be racist against whites. In other words, anything goes.
We all would have preferred that legal immigrants integrate, that they recognised our right to our traditions and cultural practices and not seek to replace them with their own. The hard action we have to take is not because of our failure. It's because of theirs. I feel no guilt in affirming that I will not have my culture overwritten by Islam. The multicultural experiment is over and those who don’t live by our rules have to go home. That’s not racism nor fascism. It’s recognition that we too have a right to survive and we’re going to assert it.
Excellent post in all respects. Farage has had to recruit Tories who have some expertise - people who know the business of government and who know procedures. He's getting criticism for that. But without that expertise, opponents who created the system will use it to defeat them. Good intentions and common sense are not enough. Sending decent British chaps into government against the blob, with its malign operators and complicated dependencies, is like mustering some stout determined civilians and pitting them against a professional army.
Graeme Souness said of Lowe, when he was Southampton FC manager, “he thinks he knows everything about everything.” The car parking analogy is spot on. He’s no leader.
I don't think he's a natural born politician or particularly good communicator.
Say what you will about Thatcher or Blair - they had a talent for communicating their ideas with clarity.
I'm so sick of people like you who are capable of nothing except complaining and whining. Rupert Lowe's at the sharp end of efforts to fix this country - at great personal cost.
You think he should be disregarded because his ideas on free parking don't match yours?
This article is not about parking.
Car parking at Hospitals is about no. 10,001 on the to do problem list - it's not going to be a significant vote winner.
David Cameron when asked what a major EU benefit was said " free roaming charges on mobiles" - ummm......it wasn't the game changer he thought.
Like Lowe and Habib, you just don’t get it, do you?
Maybe parking is 1,000,000 problem on the list 😂- but I totally take/get Pete's point that this article isn't about parking - albeit it's a good allegory.
We are 3 years away from a General Election and probably 8 years away from a genuine chance of power.
Getting bogged down in detail ( at this stage ) is probably the wrong time/ strategy.
Building a quality high IQ team around Lowe will take time.
Constantly Blackpilling and defending the genocide of Palestinians may not be a winning formula to....
What worries me about Lowe is his economics. Its 2026 and reheated Thatcherism isn't what the Red Wall/ sea side towns/ young people want/ need.
I watched David and Rupert's conversation. David very clearly made the observation you highlight - namely the dangers of political naivety. Rupert should slow down and carefully absorb this point and then respond to David's wisdom and knowledge with engagement rather than dismissal.
You do know parking is free in hospitals in Scotland including Glasgow and Edinburgh and not just small towns? The universe didn't collapse on itself.
I do understand his sentiments though. Nurses and doctors on duty pay a hefty part of wages/salaries, just to be at work. A friend of mine (a nurse with children) shared how much her parking costs were. It was eye watering. Most parking is subcontracted out - the fees are exorbitant - £1.40 per hour here in Worthing.
While I get the gist Pete, he is tapping into issues affecting many working people, planning and delivery, I hope will follow.
I worked in corporates for 30 years - the approach was - agree the problem, prove to me why my plan won't work and give solutions.
Let's live in hope.
Reform has understood that you need both experienced politicians and industry specific experts to make the ideas actually happen. Recruiting people takes time in the real world. So does crafting workable policies. Restore and Advance seem to offer straplines without realising you need to be able to implement them.
When you obtain employment you are allocated time in the car park according to your contracted hours
You can swap days amongst yourselves but if you can’t find someone to swap with -you find somewhere else to park.
It’s a simple concept, unless you complicate it.
Some of the other things he says sound good but are impractical and unworkable too, IMHO.
My uncle had to pay hospital car parking charges every day for six months during his chemotherapy. If, as a nation, we can't ensure such things never happen without risking lawfare we may as well pack up shop, turn the lights off and all move elsewhere. Accepting the unacceptable because because change is too difficult must have no place in Britain's future. Moaning defeatist types are the other side of the coin to Lowe's hopeless optimism.
I'm sure the Council where your employer's offices reside loves the Business Rates and other spend that came into the town from their presence there.
The real stupidity is thinking that car sharing and public transport in most small to medium towns is in anyway workable. It only proves that Rupert Lowe isn't the only one who isn't in touch with reality.
We live within walking distance of the main hospital in our town and we always get people parking around our house who work at the hospital. A resident's parking scheme isn't the answer either, they are run by the same Councils that can't work out how to fill potholes in a timely manner so are a complete pain in the proverbial.