I think your analysis is increasingly likely and I know about the hard graft of policy formulation having helped set up The Harrogate Agenda in 2012 and kept its flame alive to this day.
All our politics is far too shallow and nobody wants to do the hard graft of detail but then our politicians are mostly low grade incompetents or in military terms grade A tossers!
This serves to show that many people haven’t got the loyalty or patience to build anything of value, in my opinion.
Reform has paved the way abd done something unbelievably brave and historic. This is fact, proven by historical evidence.
Rome was most certainly not built in a day. I find it incredulous that both Lowe and Habib have constantly used the pathetic narrative of Reform bashing (for well over 12 months) to each form individual movements which are idealistic at best and impracticable at worst. Restore has still to jump through the electoral commission hoops and Advance hasn’t got any depth. These divisive manoeuvres are driven not by passion to save our country, but by huge egos and a vindictive desire for revenge and retribution for perceived personal sleights.
Lowe hasn’t got the political acumen, expertise or savvy to build a party that will seriously challenge for government. He has already said that if he (notice ‘he') doesn’t win the next election -quote, “I’m off!” Not really the sort of dedication required for a leader, I would suggest. In addition, he makes bold states about what his party would do in power but doesn’t say how or who will pay for it. Many of his ‘policies’ have their roots in Reform.
Farage paved the way for Lowe and Habib to ‘take’ Reform voters. Such a shame that they too have had no loyalty, nor resilience to avoid being seduced by rhetoric and a few popular statements. I would suggest that they were never true Reformers in the first place.
I made my decision after weeks of deliberation and undertaking due diligence. I believe that a Reform government really is the last chance to rebuild our country and provide our people with a safe snd secure future. The amount of work behind the scenes at both national and regional level is both outstanding and inspiring.
Well it is natural for Lowe that " Many of his ‘policies’ have their roots in Reform". He was in Reform.
However, the lies and bad feeling that went into trying to disgrace Lowe looked themselves as if they were driven by huge egos and vindictive desire for revenge.
I semi-reluctantly agree with your conclusion, but it is such a shame that egos always get in the way of progress.
You make some valid points. I do wonder at the timing of Lowe's launch and now he has pushed aside any liaison with Advance makes me question what this man is really after. Historically in his career, there is evidence of an inability to be a team player. In my opinion, the reaction to Reform he was unprofessional and showed dented pride in the aftermath of a political disagreement that should have been dealt with behind closed doors. I am certain that these sorts of situations arise constantly - politics is a nasty business by and large. Ego wrapped up as confidence (and arrogance), you could argue, can be a driving force but I agree, it is a shame that progress can be side swiped when it is allowed to rise unchecked.
"Japanese Fighting Fish....see how the intelligent one sits back and waits until the other two exhaust each other. Then he will pounce."
- Ernst Stavro Blofeld, 1963. It's also the attitude the Conservative Party are taking with the Reform/Restore fight at the moment. The only beef I've seen with Tories getting involved is between Chris Parry, Ben Wallace and someone who used to be high up in the RAF but who seems a bit of a Labour fanboy and that smacks more of inter-service rivalry than any spat along party lines.
The depressing thing for me is that all the right leaning media are now party hacks. Reform have GB News and The Telegraph in their pocket and Restore have most of the new media podcasts in theirs. All have become so partisan that they no longer make arguments along principles but instead act as shills for their chosen parties.
Define 'Right'. Personally don't think any of the current main parties are anything other than centrist or marxist. Restore sounds like it is actually right wing (wanting to conserve Britain).
I agree that they need to professionalise the party and establish a philosophical and intellectual basis from which they need to get very boring and serious for the next two years at least (no media splashing) working out in detail a handful of major policy initiatives, taking legal advice and nailing them from every angle.
The whole rotten system cannot be fixed instantly so my advice would be to focus intently on a handful of issues, work out the ups and downs, ins and outs and become experts. So that when the representatives are interviewed in the year before the next GE, they are on solid ground and are honest. The electorate can smell bullshit.
The reason Rupert Lowe's launch video from the farm went viral was because it was honest and the British people are desperate for their own honesty to be reflected back at them from those who seek to govern them.
I'm very disappointed with Reform, its looking more and more like an establishment lifeboat, now crewed by clapped out Tories, although one or two seem principled. The way things are going I'll have to vote tactically at the next election to keep the lefties out, which is a shame because this time last year Farage would have automatically got my vote.
It needs clever people doing the hard yards on policy. Dominic Cummings tried to do that with Boris. But tested his eyes in Barnard Castle and that was him for a burton.
I’m not sure that voters in general aren’t sufficiently switched on to politics to be bothered dissecting policy I just think people’s attention span just isn’t long to be bothered.
I think we’ll flip flop between left wing and centrist/ right basically doing the same thing until the bond markets pull the plug on us or Russia invades a country closer than Ukraine and it will drive us out of our stupor.
Spot on Pete. I do think there is room for some crowd-pleasing manifesto commitments (personally I very much like the idea of free hospital parking, for example, despite your recent analysis!) but as you say, there is a nightmare scenario where the right vote splits 3 or 4 ways and lets the left in via tactical voting. As I wrote the the other day, and seems to be supported by others on here, Reform needs to pick some winnable battles and know where the minefields will be. Without an intellectual or policy foundation, that's really the only way a Reform or Reform/Tory coalition will survive.
I think your analysis is increasingly likely and I know about the hard graft of policy formulation having helped set up The Harrogate Agenda in 2012 and kept its flame alive to this day.
All our politics is far too shallow and nobody wants to do the hard graft of detail but then our politicians are mostly low grade incompetents or in military terms grade A tossers!
This serves to show that many people haven’t got the loyalty or patience to build anything of value, in my opinion.
Reform has paved the way abd done something unbelievably brave and historic. This is fact, proven by historical evidence.
Rome was most certainly not built in a day. I find it incredulous that both Lowe and Habib have constantly used the pathetic narrative of Reform bashing (for well over 12 months) to each form individual movements which are idealistic at best and impracticable at worst. Restore has still to jump through the electoral commission hoops and Advance hasn’t got any depth. These divisive manoeuvres are driven not by passion to save our country, but by huge egos and a vindictive desire for revenge and retribution for perceived personal sleights.
Lowe hasn’t got the political acumen, expertise or savvy to build a party that will seriously challenge for government. He has already said that if he (notice ‘he') doesn’t win the next election -quote, “I’m off!” Not really the sort of dedication required for a leader, I would suggest. In addition, he makes bold states about what his party would do in power but doesn’t say how or who will pay for it. Many of his ‘policies’ have their roots in Reform.
Farage paved the way for Lowe and Habib to ‘take’ Reform voters. Such a shame that they too have had no loyalty, nor resilience to avoid being seduced by rhetoric and a few popular statements. I would suggest that they were never true Reformers in the first place.
I made my decision after weeks of deliberation and undertaking due diligence. I believe that a Reform government really is the last chance to rebuild our country and provide our people with a safe snd secure future. The amount of work behind the scenes at both national and regional level is both outstanding and inspiring.
Well it is natural for Lowe that " Many of his ‘policies’ have their roots in Reform". He was in Reform.
However, the lies and bad feeling that went into trying to disgrace Lowe looked themselves as if they were driven by huge egos and vindictive desire for revenge.
I semi-reluctantly agree with your conclusion, but it is such a shame that egos always get in the way of progress.
You make some valid points. I do wonder at the timing of Lowe's launch and now he has pushed aside any liaison with Advance makes me question what this man is really after. Historically in his career, there is evidence of an inability to be a team player. In my opinion, the reaction to Reform he was unprofessional and showed dented pride in the aftermath of a political disagreement that should have been dealt with behind closed doors. I am certain that these sorts of situations arise constantly - politics is a nasty business by and large. Ego wrapped up as confidence (and arrogance), you could argue, can be a driving force but I agree, it is a shame that progress can be side swiped when it is allowed to rise unchecked.
"Japanese Fighting Fish....see how the intelligent one sits back and waits until the other two exhaust each other. Then he will pounce."
- Ernst Stavro Blofeld, 1963. It's also the attitude the Conservative Party are taking with the Reform/Restore fight at the moment. The only beef I've seen with Tories getting involved is between Chris Parry, Ben Wallace and someone who used to be high up in the RAF but who seems a bit of a Labour fanboy and that smacks more of inter-service rivalry than any spat along party lines.
The depressing thing for me is that all the right leaning media are now party hacks. Reform have GB News and The Telegraph in their pocket and Restore have most of the new media podcasts in theirs. All have become so partisan that they no longer make arguments along principles but instead act as shills for their chosen parties.
Define 'Right'. Personally don't think any of the current main parties are anything other than centrist or marxist. Restore sounds like it is actually right wing (wanting to conserve Britain).
I agree that they need to professionalise the party and establish a philosophical and intellectual basis from which they need to get very boring and serious for the next two years at least (no media splashing) working out in detail a handful of major policy initiatives, taking legal advice and nailing them from every angle.
The whole rotten system cannot be fixed instantly so my advice would be to focus intently on a handful of issues, work out the ups and downs, ins and outs and become experts. So that when the representatives are interviewed in the year before the next GE, they are on solid ground and are honest. The electorate can smell bullshit.
The reason Rupert Lowe's launch video from the farm went viral was because it was honest and the British people are desperate for their own honesty to be reflected back at them from those who seek to govern them.
I'm very disappointed with Reform, its looking more and more like an establishment lifeboat, now crewed by clapped out Tories, although one or two seem principled. The way things are going I'll have to vote tactically at the next election to keep the lefties out, which is a shame because this time last year Farage would have automatically got my vote.
It needs clever people doing the hard yards on policy. Dominic Cummings tried to do that with Boris. But tested his eyes in Barnard Castle and that was him for a burton.
I’m not sure that voters in general aren’t sufficiently switched on to politics to be bothered dissecting policy I just think people’s attention span just isn’t long to be bothered.
I think we’ll flip flop between left wing and centrist/ right basically doing the same thing until the bond markets pull the plug on us or Russia invades a country closer than Ukraine and it will drive us out of our stupor.
Spot on Pete. I do think there is room for some crowd-pleasing manifesto commitments (personally I very much like the idea of free hospital parking, for example, despite your recent analysis!) but as you say, there is a nightmare scenario where the right vote splits 3 or 4 ways and lets the left in via tactical voting. As I wrote the the other day, and seems to be supported by others on here, Reform needs to pick some winnable battles and know where the minefields will be. Without an intellectual or policy foundation, that's really the only way a Reform or Reform/Tory coalition will survive.
There’s no war - Reform don’t mind the islamisation of Britain.
Restore do.
Yes but Restore need power and at the present rate they have no hope and Bob Hope of that!