Unless something changes in our political direction, I think it will be very likely we’ll see a Reform government in the next 20 years.
Yeah, it is a real, building, worry. But I reject the idea that the best way to combat that is to throw yet another party opposing them into the mix, one of the great counterintuitives of FPTP is that the more parties appear to support a particular view, the more diluted the votes for it get.
Still annoys me so much that in one of Farage's failed earlier runs a whole bunch of 'celebrity' candidates talked about going and 'joining the fight' opposing him. You'd literally be doing the opposite of that!
And anyway, I don't think it's a simple as saying Reform are pushing the discussion further right. Economically they are a very right wing party, with all the promised tax cuts and deregulation that involves. But at the same time they're hiding that facet of themselves and instead intensely pushing small c social conservativism and reaching trad-left ('Red Wall') parts of the electorate that a non-Boris Tory party are no longer speaking to (and also can possibly be seen as having betrayed, Boris or no).
So what's the natural counter to this? Whilst they aren't making any economic arguments really, do we want a high-tax high-spend welfare state party to take that fight to them on economic grounds only? Or are we ignoring that entirely and focusing on their cultural rhetoric, and wanting this new party to be some sort of socially liberal anti-Reform, embodying the "tofu-eating wokerati" of the tabloid rags to counter what they're saying? Basically just repeating Bruce's posts in the Commons?
Or both at the same time?
Once we've worked that out, is there room for this new party's platform when it's jostling its economic and cultural Leftist elbows up against Labour, the Greens, perhaps the SNP & even the Lib Dems (who to be fair might slide rightwards in opposition to a Labour government)?
I just don't see the gain for my 'side' of politics compared to the obvious vote-splitting downsides. What does this new party give us that the Greens, who are currently on a high, have just quadrupled their MPs and have an existing party structure, can't, if someone wants a non-Labour voice on the Left? Remember, even Dave had plumped for voting Green before Galloway turned up with a roguish twinkle in his eye and beckoned 'Mr Consistency' down a dark alley.
because they're increasing taxes/woke/letting in migrants etc.
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