[Killer Whale]

Anecdotal, but my mother used to vote LibDem because "they should be given a chance" more than anything else.
Then they were given a chance during the coalition and became "just as bad as all the others, aren't they?"

[Oboogie]

My Mum voted Tory in 1979 because she thought 'a woman should be given a chance' then, in a milestone for equality, Thatcher proved that women can be just as bad as men.

[davidjay]

Most thoughtful evidence based liberals who vote Lib Dem probably don't know what's in their manifestos, either.

I don’t think that is the case - particularly with respect to Lib Dems. My experience is that they’re mostly pretty well aware of the main policy positions of the party they support. In a way that Reform supporters demonstrably are not (immigration aside).

The days when the Liberals hoovered up the protest vote probably ended around the 1997 & 2001 elections, when they started getting more MPs and a lot more attention.

[Abernathy]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/n ... 8d9f&ei=21

Nigel Farage finally unveils mass deportation plan and reveals how to solve Britain's migrant crisis

So Farage has decided that the time is right to get Reform's (one and only ) big idea out there, 3 or 4 years out from the next election .

Withdraw the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights.
Immediately introduce a policy of detention and deportation of all those who arrive in the UK "illegally", with five scheduled deportation flights daily. Even to Afghanistan or Eritrea, or failing that, taking them off to Ascension Island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

It's sheer unworkable fantasy, of course, and unspeakably nasty (and dependant on Farage making PM). But the calculation must be that it will appeal to enough hard-of-thinking putative Reform voters in the ridiculously febrile, overheated atmosphere that Farage, Robinson, the Mail and the Express, and sundry flag-shagging/hanging racists are continuing deliberately to foster and foment to get Farage over the line.

Disgusting stuff, but proof that there is no place that is too low for Farage to stoop. It's a horrific thought, but could PM Farage actually happen? Could we be heading for something akin to the hideous choice that the people of France found themselves faced with a few years back - a choice between Jean-Marie Le Pen and Jacques Chirac in 2002 (they wisely chose Chirac) ?

[Tubby Isaacs]

What happens at Ascension Island? At least with the Rwanda plan, there was some idea of what should happen there.

[Abernathy]

What happens at Ascension Island? At least with the Rwanda plan, there was some idea of what should happen there.

I don't think Nigel has thought that far ahead.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Tories had Ascension Island as a back up for Rwanda at one point, a rhetorical back up at least. My guess is that it was way too expensive, otherwise why hand all that money to Rwanda and risk losing in court?

[Boiler]

One of the things Rees-Mogg was blethering on about on the radio last night was how successful Trump has been at stopping 'illegal' migration.

[Yug]

Did he also mention how effective Trump's been at stopping legal tourism too?

[Boiler]

I think he brought up how successful Denmark has been in keeping migrants out too.

I was somewhat concerned when my sister and her husband went to the US southern states earlier this year but they were okay. They said they've visited more states than any of the US residents they spoke to.

[Abernathy]

You know, the more I think about it, the clearer it becomes that Farage’s “announcement” today makes, at least for him and his party, perfect political sense. It’s completely in line with the Reform UK brand, bonkers and hateful as it is, and is very clearly the main plank upon which Farage’s strategy for winning power is based.

Continue to foment racism and xenophobia in the core Reform UK support, and continue to exploit unease amongst the wider, more moderate, electorate by scare-mongering and “two-tier” grievance allegations, in tandem with the invidious “raise the colours” lamp-post flags campaign being orchestrated by Britain First and their cronies.

Arguably, there is already a “something must be done” mood in large swathes of the electorate in relation to immigration and asylum, even though there actually is no “crisis”. Farage’s “solution” has the advantage of being simple, direct, and possibly effective (if you haven’t thought it through, which most Reform supporters will not have done). It’s something which, if the febrile atmosphere of crisis around asylum & immigration continues, lots of people could vote for.

The answer ? We need to find a way of taking the heat out of the entire issue of asylum and immigration. A way to defuse it, before it becomes a wave that Farage can surf all the way into Downing Street. I don’t give a toss about immigrants coming to the UK. We need them, and we need more of them. For me, immigration is a positive thing, not a negative. It enriches our society. But I might be in a minority, or at any rate,in what may be becoming a minority.

[davidjay]

The immigration debate should have been had 25 years ago, and certainly post-2016, but like everything else it was too much like hard work for the Tories and besides, it might have alienated their core voters (who deserted them anyway). And so, we've had decades of media demonisation, the left of all shades on the defensive and a huge great opportunity for a politician to exploit the "Send 'em back" simplicity of the barroom philosopher.