I've come to exactly the same position as you, Pete.
I was as angry and dejected at the last few years of the Conservative government, especially in the way that not only had the Wets controlled the party but with Chief Whip Simon Hart they were embarking on a campaign to purge the dries and bully the local associations.
I should have been a prime candidate for Reform recruitment but their supporters are, on the whole, arseholes who demand that former Conservatives not only join Reform but must grovel for forgiveness and kiss St Nigel's ring. Sod that...then I read "the Contract" and noticed it was threadbare and hanging together on a few cheap slogans. For all their tears about the state of the UK armed forces Defence only gets half a page in the contract and most of that is about housing homeless veterans.
So I put the Conservative Party on probation. Not out of the dog house or my bad books but I thought "wait and see". And like a diligent probationer they've been working and showing up to meetings with the probation officer. Compared with the two ASBO Right Wing parties that's a small improvement.
As Mark Littlewood put it: Reform (and restore even more) announces destinations with no clue about how to get there. Conservatives are assesing the viability of any journey before setting off. As I would put it: which is more probable? Reform discover a viable route or the Conservatives announce a destination we want?
I've long held the view that it doesn't really matter what develops on the Right in British politics, for now, as the next election will likely produce a coalition government even more incompetent than our current Labour government.What type of coalition I hear you ask and I believe it will most likely be one to keep Reform out of government.
So the much needed capable Right of Centre Party will have to wait until 2034 to get out country back on track which will be a Herculean task but at least by then the silent majority will have been forced to wake up and face the reality of our situation and overwhelmingly support the tough polices necessary to get our once great country back on track.
There is one option left available: Reform just fall short of a majority but can get one if they go into coalition with the Conservatives. But as Reform refuse to work with anyone else and demand total obedience I don't think they're capable of offering an olive branch to either the Tories or Restore.
Hard to disagree. I sort of hope Reform gets its act together and has a year or two to work out policies that can last in the cold light of day. The Tories can compete for your approval and claim to be the sensible party as opposed to the soundbite party. Failing public finances and services and the prospect of a Traffic Light Coalition may concentrate minds. We must live in hope, as the alternative is too awful to contemplate.
Agree with all of this. Not convinced by any of them at the moment tbh, at least the Tories have some idea of what to do in government. Although I find Kemi, who I had huge hopes for, a bit unlikeable and smug. Though she’s warming up a bit.
As far as Reform are concerned, I was looking forward to Danny Kruger’s input but his first suggestions seemed pretty thin gruel to me. I’m not convinced Reform has an actual plan.
And the propensity of Restore’s supporters to monster anyone on the right who doesn’t see Rupert as the Chosen One immediately disqualifies them in my opinion.
At the moment my money is on a Green coalition of craziness.
Not a great choice though. Kemj is improving and trying to come across as the sensible non-scary person. But her party doesn’t have much talent or energy, apart from a handful of characters and still hasn’t really come to terms with its role in creating the current state that we are in. Boriswave, Net Zero, DEI, mass rape and child mutilation and creating our unarmed armed forces are well and truly their handiwork. Has anyone said sorry yet for what they did or did not do?
The trouble is the bandwidth has already been consumed by Nigel the charlatan. In a world where all was equal Reform would be taking this time to put detailed policy together and announcing enough of it to convince people they know what they are doing. We all know that isn't happening and nor is it about to.
Everything I've seen of Restore convinces me that they would be no better on detail either, but without some form of clickbait or otherwise there is literally no way of getting yourself heard from the outside. It's the paradox in play - slogans and clickbait will get you to a certain point, but the detailed policy that would actually work is 'boring' to millions, sadly.
Like you I'm starting to hope for the Reform civil war to go off and the Conservatives win in 2029 on account of being the 'stop Starmer' option.
A technicolour dreamcoat of Starmer, Polanski, Corbyn's lot etc sends a chill down the spine.
Two years ago I pointed out that Kemi had my vote on account of having the best norks in parliament. I stand vindicated by my strict adherence to this overlooked and under-rated metric.
You are right, the only thing Rupert is doing is hunting for Farage’s posts, collecting likes and sings the same song like a broken record. Oh, and if still don’t know, he has a magic wand 🪄🤦♀️🤣
I've come to exactly the same position as you, Pete.
I was as angry and dejected at the last few years of the Conservative government, especially in the way that not only had the Wets controlled the party but with Chief Whip Simon Hart they were embarking on a campaign to purge the dries and bully the local associations.
I should have been a prime candidate for Reform recruitment but their supporters are, on the whole, arseholes who demand that former Conservatives not only join Reform but must grovel for forgiveness and kiss St Nigel's ring. Sod that...then I read "the Contract" and noticed it was threadbare and hanging together on a few cheap slogans. For all their tears about the state of the UK armed forces Defence only gets half a page in the contract and most of that is about housing homeless veterans.
So I put the Conservative Party on probation. Not out of the dog house or my bad books but I thought "wait and see". And like a diligent probationer they've been working and showing up to meetings with the probation officer. Compared with the two ASBO Right Wing parties that's a small improvement.
As Mark Littlewood put it: Reform (and restore even more) announces destinations with no clue about how to get there. Conservatives are assesing the viability of any journey before setting off. As I would put it: which is more probable? Reform discover a viable route or the Conservatives announce a destination we want?
I've long held the view that it doesn't really matter what develops on the Right in British politics, for now, as the next election will likely produce a coalition government even more incompetent than our current Labour government.What type of coalition I hear you ask and I believe it will most likely be one to keep Reform out of government.
So the much needed capable Right of Centre Party will have to wait until 2034 to get out country back on track which will be a Herculean task but at least by then the silent majority will have been forced to wake up and face the reality of our situation and overwhelmingly support the tough polices necessary to get our once great country back on track.
But 2029 is a long way off. So much can happen. If the election was to be held tomorrow, I would agree with you.
There is one option left available: Reform just fall short of a majority but can get one if they go into coalition with the Conservatives. But as Reform refuse to work with anyone else and demand total obedience I don't think they're capable of offering an olive branch to either the Tories or Restore.
Hard to disagree. I sort of hope Reform gets its act together and has a year or two to work out policies that can last in the cold light of day. The Tories can compete for your approval and claim to be the sensible party as opposed to the soundbite party. Failing public finances and services and the prospect of a Traffic Light Coalition may concentrate minds. We must live in hope, as the alternative is too awful to contemplate.
Agree with all of this. Not convinced by any of them at the moment tbh, at least the Tories have some idea of what to do in government. Although I find Kemi, who I had huge hopes for, a bit unlikeable and smug. Though she’s warming up a bit.
As far as Reform are concerned, I was looking forward to Danny Kruger’s input but his first suggestions seemed pretty thin gruel to me. I’m not convinced Reform has an actual plan.
And the propensity of Restore’s supporters to monster anyone on the right who doesn’t see Rupert as the Chosen One immediately disqualifies them in my opinion.
At the moment my money is on a Green coalition of craziness.
Not a great choice though. Kemj is improving and trying to come across as the sensible non-scary person. But her party doesn’t have much talent or energy, apart from a handful of characters and still hasn’t really come to terms with its role in creating the current state that we are in. Boriswave, Net Zero, DEI, mass rape and child mutilation and creating our unarmed armed forces are well and truly their handiwork. Has anyone said sorry yet for what they did or did not do?
I see even Farage is now seeing that anyone supporting the NeoCon Zi0 war agenda is toxic.
All we gain from these wars are waves and waves of refugees.
Restore called it correctly from the start.
Oy veh. They're onto us. And we'd have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those pesky Reform schmucks.
There’s been a revolution in the thinking of voters. They no longer trust the established parties.
Badenoch will be removed once she has served her purpose for the Torys, this will be if/when she refuses to obey her superiors in the party.
Remember the electorate failed to vote Tory at the last election because they mistrusted then even though we got a Labour majority instead.
The next election will see those failed voters looking for a new home.
Voter fraud and mass migration will also have an affect on the election.
The governments we have had for decades have been incompetent.
So judging a new party on the basis of competence is a tad unfair (we are used to incompetence).
Voting on the basis of Parliamentary parties competence - is not what voters do.
But if a non globalist party is voted in we will at least have right ideas
.
The trouble is the bandwidth has already been consumed by Nigel the charlatan. In a world where all was equal Reform would be taking this time to put detailed policy together and announcing enough of it to convince people they know what they are doing. We all know that isn't happening and nor is it about to.
Everything I've seen of Restore convinces me that they would be no better on detail either, but without some form of clickbait or otherwise there is literally no way of getting yourself heard from the outside. It's the paradox in play - slogans and clickbait will get you to a certain point, but the detailed policy that would actually work is 'boring' to millions, sadly.
Like you I'm starting to hope for the Reform civil war to go off and the Conservatives win in 2029 on account of being the 'stop Starmer' option.
A technicolour dreamcoat of Starmer, Polanski, Corbyn's lot etc sends a chill down the spine.
Two years ago I pointed out that Kemi had my vote on account of having the best norks in parliament. I stand vindicated by my strict adherence to this overlooked and under-rated metric.
You are right, the only thing Rupert is doing is hunting for Farage’s posts, collecting likes and sings the same song like a broken record. Oh, and if still don’t know, he has a magic wand 🪄🤦♀️🤣