Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Boiler wrote: ↑Wed Feb 18, 2026 10:15 am Seven ex-Reform councillors in Kent have joined Lowe's Restore Britain group.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg1d551weko

If only Kemi said that, the Tory poll numbers might have moved upwards.

A Reform UK source said: "Restore are welcome to our dregs.

Bringing back the two child limit seems to be what's called a U-TURN when Labour do it.

If Reform are indeed a government in waiting, with a "shadow chancellor" and all that, then where's the outrage?

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Wed Feb 18, 2026 12:14 pm

Jenrick says Reform UK would only allow British nationals to claim benefits

Lots of people who claim them are long time, legal residents, who have paid NI but aren't citizens. This is the Goodwin tactic of making it sound like they're people who've popped over 5 minutes ago with no connection to the country. Won't they just take citizenship?

Might there not be a problem with this in Northern Ireland?

Might, might not. UK nationality law currently confers British citizenship in NI the same way it does in GB in that it is automatic at birth where applicable and the UK government regards it as such - even if someone nominally rejects having a "British" identity. Apart from the Emma De Souza case I've yet to know anyone born in NI actively giving up their British citizenship for a (solely) Irish one.

Many of Reform's spending plans are meant to be funded by savings on welfare and cuts to Net Zero spending but many of these savings will take years to achieve. Changes to benefits require lots of time in parliament and even after they have passed all the parliamentary hurdles there is a usually a transitional period before benefits are stopped.

Someone's drawn my attention to another, presumably, howler. If these people are never going to be entitled to benefits, presumably they can be left off a chunk of NI?

I assume your average Reform voter would be quite happy if the "triple lock" was deemed unaffordable and consequently scrapped to save money for tax cuts then?

Boiler wrote: ↑Wed Feb 18, 2026 10:24 pm I assume your average Reform voter would be quite happy if the "triple lock" was deemed unaffordable and consequently scrapped to save money for tax cuts then?

The average Reform voter would eat grass if the forrins were sent back where they come from.

It would be an improvement on the shit they are prepared to swallow now.

'The moronic stop-Farage voting base,' better known as 60-70% of the electorate.
Liddle is right though. If giving both barrels to Farage every week doesn't register with his supporters, it can galvanise those who loath him to vote for the main challenger.

So if Farage doesn't win that's the worst by-election since 1938? George Galloway winning in Rochdale was surely worse according to Liddle's own views?

Funny how the will of the people doesn't matter when it's the wrong people.

Sensible policies for a happier Britain.

The Weeping Angel wrote: ↑Sun Feb 22, 2026 10:29 pm Sensible policies for a happier Britain.

Muhammad Ziauddin Yusuf debases himself.

Is that the fundi-christian Yank influence coming through?

Dalem Lake wrote: ↑Sun Feb 22, 2026 10:53 pm Is that the fundi-christian Yank influence coming through?

I suspect it's an ambition to attract fundi-Christian Yank funding coming through.

I'm sure churches with a single-figure, predominantly elderly, congregation will welcome jumping through extra hoops to get a toilet installed.

The Weeping Angel wrote: ↑Sun Feb 22, 2026 10:29 pm Sensible policies for a happier Britain.

Complete and utter pie-in-the-sky bollocks. It's never, ever going to happen. Politicising religion might be the thing that grinds my gears more than anything else.

Rosvanian wrote: ↑Mon Feb 23, 2026 9:47 am

The Weeping Angel wrote: ↑Sun Feb 22, 2026 10:29 pm Sensible policies for a happier Britain.

Complete and utter pie-in-the-sky bollocks. It's never, ever going to happen. Politicising religion might be the thing that grinds my gears more than anything else.

It's always worked so well in the past.
* All those barebones and praiselord parliaments after Charles I lost his head.
* More recent "troubles" in a nearby province across the water.
* The "on the verge of kicking off" ecumenical football tension in my adopted home city.

Yay, loads of dilapidted empty churches nobody will want to repair, because the listed status means double or triple all quotes.

Just mosques? Is this sort of thing OK?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud,_Oxford

In the 20th century, the church became redundant and was closed in the late 1960s.[4] After deconsecration, the building was bought by the Oxford Area Arts Council and used as a theatre and arts centre venue. In 1988, the building was acquired by Secession Ltd to prevent the building's demolition. Freud opened as a café/bar in the same year.[5]

Reform's Christianity is OK with people getting shitfaced and trying to get off with each other, is it?

It's hard enough trying to find uses for all the Wren churches in the City of London, let alone the ten a penny Victorian churches designed by obscure architects all round the country.