I have taken political party manifestos seriously at this election, presuming that they have been offered in good faith, even if many of them are riddled with holes.
However, I refuse to believe that Nigel Farage does anything with good intent and reports from others suggest that his manifesto was written on a fag packet and edited on a soggy beer mat, and I have better things to do than talk about it.
So if you want to know what he said, do you mind looking elsewhere?
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I’m shocked!
I’d thought it was a duty, nay an obligation, nay … a law to give Farage column inches, headlines, platforms and interruption-rights.
How dare you challenge that tradition. Clearly your a unpatriotic and will be up against the wall ………. Etc etc
No problem at all!
Concentrate your limited time on things that really matter not Lord Farquhar Farage and his fat orange low-IQ friend.
It’s bizarre, the radio 4 PM programme did ask whether we should pay interest on bank deposits resulting from QE. This when they were talking to some ex-City spokesman for Reform.
The interviewer said some experts think it might be possible not to pay such interest. If they knew that why have they never challenged any other party – on this – or why havent they asked Richard for example – they are just not doing their journalistic job.
But also – why do they give such detailed platforming to Reform – the Greens have some excellent and challenging ideas – bu t BBC has just skated past the Greens – while endleslly platforming Farage and co day after day.
Agreed re the Greens
If you want to understand why the Greens are being ignored take a look at Politcal Compass.
https://www.politicalcompass.org/uk2024
They are realistically the only party of the left and must not be considered for seats in parliament. The establishment would have a heart attack if they actually won some seats so they must be marginalised and ignored.
I’m in the same constituency as you and am absolutely gobsmacked to find that we have 9 candidates to choose from! I hope it doesn’t split the vote too much because I’d dearly like to see the back of Lucy Frazer.
So would I
Only the LibDems can do that though….
SO much mis-information (tending to downright lies) in campaigning; and so little fact-checking and ‘calling out’ by (lazy – or ratings-driven??) journalists.
In my own constituency – pretty much solid Labour Sheffield; except for Hallam (Lib/Lab fight) and in the north (Miriam Cates… Brexiteer territory) – the Labour line is ‘you must vote for Labour to make sure the Tories don’t get back’!
Whereas in Sheffield Central, the Greens are now polling second; “Tories are toast”; and Greens took the largest percentage share of the vote in the May local elections. Who might provide some ‘calling out’ and holding-to-account of the super-majority Starmer government? Not a brand-new back-bench Labour MP, for sure…
I haven’t read it, but it is clearly intended to create chaos. I found out by accident, however that Reform is discussing CBRAs and the payment of interest. Ed Conway (Sky News) was fairly dismissive of the Reform Manifesto, for obvious reasons; they are not worked out, they don’t stand up; but when, in passing he mentioned the CBRA interest issue, he said that he didn’t want to discuss it (too complicated), but confessed he couldn’t understand why only Reform have raised it; the nsaid he thought Starmer might do “something”. Two points arise.
1) Reform is deliberately creating chaos; because they can, at zero cost. They have no seats and few prospects. They have virtually zero downside; but the can shoe that the other Parties are too timid, frightened, and don’t really have any answers.
2) The CBRA interest problem isn’t raised by Labour and Conservatives because they do not know what to do; and don’t even appear adequately to understand the problem (and are probably scared that the electorate may find out we are paying banks that were bust in 2007, £35Bn a year interest for money they didn’t earn, and were given by government to act as collateral to prop them up, to protect the public from another crash).
£35bn is overstated, but the reality that there is money to be had is finally being noted
The actual figure requires that the opportunity to address it is recognised. In Britain we don’t, yet tiered reserves are already a well established international approach to reducing the damaging effects.
As to the £35Bn bein overstated; assuming it is an accurate total, it must first be recognised that the bulk of it is only paid because the banking system failed, and this solution is designed to subsidise the banks responsible with public money, and we are supposed to find that acceptable because nobody either wants, ir knows how to devise a system that does not rely on commercial banks we already know from bitter experience, we can’t trust.
That is why we are paying £35Bn a year to try and stop bankers a) ripping us off; and b) causing another catastrophic crash.
The commercial banks are a corrosive, self-serving, parasitical presence in the economic system; not an enabler of economic prosperoty.
See my poost just out, John
I whizzed through the Reform Party ‘contract’ (because I live in the constituency Farage hopes to capture). Most to the stuff in it is nauseatingly simplistic cherry picking . Talk about freedom? Well, yes, from any regulation Farage doesn’t like, meanwhile removing many other personal ones he doesn’t agree with. A few things to report: the RP would like proportional representation for the House of Commons (of course), the Bank of England to stop paying interest to commercial banks on quantitative easing reserves (take note Richard), and a Patriotic Curriculum in primary and secondary schools (note the capital letters). As Richard has sagely said, you don’t need to read it, unless you want to increase your blood pressure. ‘Yuck’ about sums it up.
Thanks
Their manifesto also claims they will get rid of the NHS waiting list. How will they do that – easy, get rid of the NHS.