My sinister and increasing worry is that Starmer doesn’t care about fuelling Reform because his planned intention is to ban the party from elections much like they are doing across the EU. I’d not be surprised if it has been discussed.
Yep. People like Starmer and Johnson only seems irrational if you think they care about winning elections. I think by now it's obvious they don't because they concluded that it's preferable to simply make elections irrelevant. The EU itself is that strategy writ large, it worked well for them for a long time and so of course they will continue to double down on it.
After all, look at Matt's phrasing. He said the UK is "locked in" to these agreements. Obviously it isn't - Reform can and should announce tomorrow it isn't bound by anything Labour negotiate and will simply violate any agreements they make that are bad for Britain. The major obstacles to this is psychological, the desire of the nice "elites" in politics to stick to agreements "Britain" has made.
Until the convention of governments feeling bound by treaties signed by their opponents ends, tactics like this will continue to be used.
The French know all about perpetual treaties which became inconvenient. The Treaty of Nantes which gave freedom of worship to Protestants and others in France was abrogated when the French elites decided to enforce Catholicism.
That gave rise to the departure of Huguenots and others, most of whom came to the UK with high skills and high moral values. Others went to the Western Cape. Numbers were tolerable. They did not demand we adopt their culture.
This is a very good point. There is no lock in. It can be dismantled or violated. This itself would be a political democratic act that would be very popular.
Correct. People are sick of being told straightforward policies can't be implemented because some civil servant or politician made a "binding" agreement when nobody was watching.
Although the left love to talk about international law, there is no such law. Between nations there is only military and economic relations. Trump has won twice now because he understands this better than any other politician alive today. If Farage is smart, he will announce that Parliament may not bind itself and in case of a Reform victory all treaties will be re-evaluated through the lens of Britain First. Any found wanting will be voided unilaterally.
This won't have any negative effects in practice because most other countries say they'll follow signed agreements but ignore them whenever is convenient. See the fate of the Dublin Agreement: Merkel changed her mind one day, and that was the end of that. Germany is about to do it again - the "fiscal pacts" they proposed and signed up to forbid their announced deficit spending. I will be amazed if those agreements matter for even a millisecond.
There is a strange phenomenon in recent politics where governing parties with big majorities go out of their way to alienate their voter base.
Boris did this with the Boriswave then Rishi did his drowned rat speech, left Normandy early, almost as if he wanted to throw the election and pass the baton to the red team.
Now Starmer is doing the same with everything he does. There is none of Blair's charm - or rather smarm. It is as though both parties want to alienate the public from the democratic process.
But let's not kid ourselves that Farage is really different. He disparages "that lot", he turns on talented allies like Woolf, Habib, Lowe and others. He says quite clearly that "we can't alienate Islam" and "mass deportations are impractical and not our ambition". He is alienating his base just like Labour and the Tories have done.
None of these actions make sense. If you want to win, you don't stick up two fingers to your own supporters.
Their actions make perfect sense when you recall the wider context in which they operate.
Prime Ministers have short half-lives, and this is a problem. Career-wise there aren't many places you can go once you've been Prime Minister. What are you going to do, email a CV to some middle management position you found on LinkedIn? The number of places willing to employe any senior ex-politician is small, let alone an ex-Prime Minister. Even if the workplace dynamics of having a former PM in the office weren't terrible (imagine the watercooler conversations), any employer would suspect that such a person is very likely to quit and re-enter politics the moment the winds shift. Absolutely not what you want from a senior executive!
As a consequence post-political employment for such people consists mostly of places like think tanks, NGOs, the EU, philanthropic foundations and for the Tories sometimes newspapers; editorial roles at conservative newspapers seem to be kept in reserve for ex-Tories to pick up whenever they need them. The promise of such roles being held open for them are THE MOST precious things a Prime Minister or cabinet member can obtain. Those who can offer them, especially if they can offer lucrative roles in consulting, speech giving and so on, can more or less get politicians to do whatever they want.
In other words, unless a PM is very close to retirement their best option is to campaign on what voters want and then do whatever will please the sort of people who employ ex-PMs. This is true REGARDLESS of whether the politician originally went in with the best intentions, which they may well have done. But it is the nature of politics that there is no job security; even popular MPs who keep their nose clean can be swept aside by popular anger over decisions they weren't involved with at all.
What do the sort of people who employ ex-PMs like? Well, they like the sort of things that upper-middle class public sector workers like, because such people collect in institutions that have a reliable stream of tax funding. Go read up on what Gordon Brown did after his unremarkably premiership ended to see an example - it's a long series of random NGOs giving him sinecures, basically as reward for being left wing e.g.
> Sir Tim Berners-Lee ... invited Brown to become a board director of the World Wide Web Foundation to "advise the Web Foundation on ways to involve disadvantaged communities and global leaders in the development of sustainable programs that connect humanity and affect positive change", and he was elected to the board of directors in September 2010
Such job descriptions are found everywhere in post-political life for the left: these easy well paid sinecures are implicit reward for doing what the NGOs like, not what the people like.
The same thing applies on the right too, of course. Farage hardly wanted to enter Parliament, his post-political career in US TV was in many ways much better. If he does enter Number 10 you can bet that at all times he will be thinking about what he does after Reform eventually loses. The structure of Reform is clearly set up with that in mind (unlike most party leaders, he cannot be booted out by his own troops).
There is no good fix for this beyond improving the financial rewards of being a senior politician to the level that they never need to work again. I am all for it, personally, but good luck convincing the man on the street of the need for 2-million-pound-a-year salaries. Failing that, crushing the funding of the NGO sector to level the right/left post-politics employment divide would be the best approach.
He said yesterday to his MPs that they had a “ moral duty” to stop Farage becoming PM and I didn’t like the sound of that . He’s trying to dress up his self interest as virtue and in the national interest . The people should decide
That is rather bizarre, and - you'll probably agree - somewhat sinister.
Surely it's sufficient to state the obvious to MPs of a party in power? "We don't want Farage to get support, because we're in power". Or "We think Farage's policies are completely wrong, so we'll argue against him and make this obvious".
Dressing the natural inclination of any MP with "moral duty" is completely unnecessary, and worrying. Because "moral duties" of that kind have a habit of excusing utterly immoral acts.
His behaviour is extremely odd. We can see from his long history on the hard left that he hates this country and the majority of the population. So doing things that further damage it are not his concern. He’s an ideologue who was indoctrinated many years ago. But that those very same policies damage Labour’s re-election hopes is to say the least odd. He’s wouldn’t do this unless he had another route to victory. We know he’s an anti-democrat, so gerrymandering the election in some way is probably what he intends to do. I suspect he will give voting rights to EU citizens to ensure he wins. It’s been touted by pro EU fanatics before.
I was thinking this too. Germany have banned AfD, and seemingly got away with it for now. That’ll embolden Starmer. I suspect Reform will be declared a far-right terrorist organism and get shut down. If that happens hopefully Ben Habib and Rupert Lowe has an alternative in place
Could you please explain where in the EU, orthodox parties have been 'banned' from standing in elections.? The AFD is allowed to run in Germany. Certainly parties that advocate criminality or outright racial hated like 'Britain First' have been banned here but that is nothing like Reform so this seems to be a figment of your imagination. The real danger for Reform is the strongly negative feeling a majority of the UK public feel for them (despite their approval by about 30%) so you might well have tactical voting to keep them out of office just as has happened with the Tory party in the past. But this perfectly legitimate democratic politics.
Sorry the AFD has NOT been banned and this is old news. (Though if a party is found to be openly and clearly preaching terrorism or Nazi ideology then it is breaking the law and of course it should be banned. )
Labour doesn't care about 'their own demise'. Starmer's job for the Globalist-Communists is to cause as much destruction of Britain financially, culturally and societally in the period of power that he has - and he's doing a grand job, exactly as instructed.
I think Starmer/Blair junta know the games up in 4 years. What we’ll see in years ahead are policies which will make it harder for Reform to Govern. The 12 year fishing agreement being the start, more mass immigration, more EU strangulation, the cash taps will be turned on and they’ll be another note left saying there’s no money in the coffers. Reform will inherit a basket case of economic and social problems far far worse than those left by the Labour Government of the 70’s
Exactly. Being connected to the EU Court effectively means we are not really a sovereign nation. Starmer cannot believe the British public, many of whom voted for Brexit, want this. I can only imagine that he is gambling on this deal giving such a boost to the economy that everyone will be better off, will cease complaining and fall back in love with Labour. Bread and circuses for the masses. Faint hope when the estimated growth to the economy from the deal is only 0.3% of GDP.
He couldn’t care less about Brit public. This is all an agenda and one that from outside UK. If one looks back can see it all started with Blair, but seed sown when Major signed Maastricht treaty, that is what committed us to rule by outsiders. Such, why likes of Heseltine, Major, Benn, May, Boris, who only a Brexit supporter in campaign for political convenience, which why, though his huge majority never burned the EU laws. Etc etc ….
I am very much afraid you are right. Also, an incoming Reform government will have to contend with a hostile Civil Service which will do its level best to thwart the government at every turn. Nigel will have to be ruthless in clearing the Civil Service swamp as much as he can.
Starmer knows exactly what he’s doing. He can see that Reform has a good chance of winning the next election and so he is bringing in legislation and policies which will completely tie Reform’s hands and ensure failure. And so the path will be laid for the continuation of the WEF/ EU etc plans for world, or at least Western govt. by unelected bureaucrats with a pretence at democratic accountability via a faux parliament, which is how the EU operates. The ‘elites’ think they know what’s best for us. Their vision is a Marxist Utopia and they are determined to bring it about.
On the other hand, he may just cancel the next election by inventing a faux emergency.
Whilst this is technically true, the ethics and integrity of those in power are non existent and our Constitution is being eroded and buried by a corrupt and contemptuous judiciary. We need Patriots, people who love our country to stand up for our freedoms and rights as they did in two World Wars. Not those that want to get their snouts into the EU gravy train.
Quite right. However, a conservative (small "c") government with a decent majority might have to look back even further than this and review legislation and treaty commitments going all the way back to just after the War. After all, do we really need to be a party, say, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948? We have our common law tradition in England going all the way back to Magna Carta. Furthermore, this is what Eric Kaufmann said in his book, “Taboo: How Making Race Sacred Produced a Cultural Revolution” (2024) on the menace of Woke. The rot started in the '60s:
“‘Taboo’ revolves around the left-liberal anti-racism taboo of the mid-1960s. Like the big bang, this was a cosmic event; its logic has been progressively expanding, defining our social universe. It has introduced a zone of unbounded Identitarian sacredness around race - a form of social kryptonite which irradiated anyone standing in its way. This powerful magic was borrowed by the feminist and later LGBT movements, weaponised by the revolutionary left, and stretched to new frontiers of microscopic and confected emotional grievance. Along the way, it has eroded freedom, truth, and excellence while vandalizing cherished national identities and undermining social cohesion. Until the taboo is reformed into a proportionate norm like any other, cultural socialism will remain a dominant force in polite society.”
This has nothing to do with Parliament - it's Royal Prerogative. Parliament (for what it's worth, which isn't much since it's totally controlled by the leader of the party with a majority) doesn't get to vote on treaties.
I fact I think this post from Matt would be better tiitled "Starmer is making Reform impotent, incontinent and even irrelevant" because I fear they will be in power in name only in 2029.
In my view, Matt's posts carried a degree of optimism in 2024 and Q1 2025; but now in Q2 they carry a degree of realistic pessimism, in the knowledge that we have had one year of Starmer but we have four years to come.
By 2029, Reform, if in government, will inherit
- a real national debt of over £10tr, 25% in cash, 25% in pension promises to the public sector and 50% in State pension promises with a chance of some degree pf default
- a massive degree of overpopulation with inadequate infrastructure
- a destroyed indigeonous food and fuel sector
- a substantial EU relationship and a destroyed USA relationship
- irreversible "multiculturalism"
- inherited promises for years to come with no certainty of their reversal
- ... and and and
Farage and Yusuf have been noticeably quiet in the last few weeks and unfortunately Reform remain a two man party having alienated Lowe and Habib.
I agree. I hope we’re both wrong but I fear for the future. We are in dire straits and things are set to get worse in so many ways over the next four years.
"The 'elites’ think they know what’s best for us."
Exactly! A few years ago I chanced upon a quote by a very famous politician which included "The people do not know what they want; they do not know what is the best for them". At the time it perfectly summed up the contemptuous, dismissive attitude of every angry, indignant Remainer to Leave voters. However it is a much older quote from that well known lover of democracy......Benito Mussolini! And Starmer calls other people "fascists"!!
Starmer's reset deal is from one perspective unutterably depressing. It feels like we've come full circle and the 2016 referendum never happened. Why is it that such a large proportion of our political class (and I include the wet Remainer Tories in this) are willing to sell out their country?
In all seriousness, shouldn't France be classified as a hostile state? I think so. And cancel Macron's state visit. We know he and they are behind the outrageous 12 year fishing deal.
However, the one thing that gives me hope is the fuel this will give to Reform.
It's beginning to feel like 2029 will be an crucial date in our island story. The last chance to wrest our country out of the grip of the current establishment's grasp.
2029 will be an irrelevance. Reform will be banned and there may not even be any more elections. Civil war will ensue and a state of martial law be enacted. We are already lost we just don't know it yet
It is obvious that when Reform trounced Labour in the recent elections, prompting Starmer to respond by saying that Labour needs to move farther, faster, his intentions are to carry out a scorched-earth policy, making sure that the country is laid waste and that it is left a Marxist wilderness, allowing Reform to inherit an empty shell that will be impossible to redeem. The tragedy in all of this is that we had the opportunity to grasp a proper Brexit under Boris, but his government threw the chance away.
Labour and the Conservatives have been co-operating to sabotage Brexit since the beginning, and many so-called Conservative Brexiteers have been nothing of the sort, they have used the cloak of Brexit to hide their true intentions. Make no mistake, Starmer's Brexit sell-out was only made possible by the Conservatives; if Badenoch had not cancelled the bonfire of EU rules then we would have left properly, but she did not, and by leaving these rules and laws in place she opened the door to seamless re-entry. There is another aspect to yesterday's 'reset' however, as explained by Steve Baker - we are now in breach of the trade deals signed with the Pacific, India and the USA, which means that we will be sued in the international court. So what will be the outcome? We cannot refuse to accept goods from a trading partner with whom we have a contract to accept, but the EU deal means that we are bound by THEIR standards, effectively calling for us to ride two horses at once. I know who Starmer will side with......
The USA trade deal which not yet signed has probably ground to a halt, - 1/ we back in the EU and Trump still does not like which why there a problem with a deal last time he in Whitehouse, 2/ USA cannot totally turnaround its rules and laws to comply with EU, nor wants to as too expensive when has a market outwith EU powers.
Starmer just sold British fishermen down the river without a second thought or a backward glance. It’s breathtaking. We go back under the European yoke for very little, if any, return it seems to me. Well, I guess Alastair Campbell et al will be very happy this morning.
He was sounding very self satisfied this morning when on BBC Today, justifying his pal Lineker. Not one tone of anger in his voice I noted, which has been the case whatever he lecturing since Brexit.
And you can bet anything you like that the Youth Movement scheme will not involve 19 year old Jean Paul or 22 year old Francesca coming over... We all know exactly who will be coming over.
Reform needs to prepare for office very carefully, and diligently.They are going to be faced with massive opposition from the deep state, civil servants, globalist corporations,institutions and judiciary, all hellbent on continuing to destroy our nation and its people. The elites like Gates and Soros are driving the Globalist agenda towards a new world government based around the UN, EU and WEF.
Reform must be ready to reverse this treasonous attack on our Sovereignty.
I saw a great quote from the philosopher Nietzche;
" Intellectuals prefer a map rather than the territory "
This is Stamer 's Labour, they inhabit a box.They think as long as the 15% can get through the e-gates quicker to their dacha in the Dordogne or that Poppy or Ben can get that internship in Paris,then all is well.
No, Starmer’s actions make perfect sense if you understand that senior politicians no longer care about being re-elected: even being Prime Minister is regarded as little more than a senior management position, with the promise of future riches and sinecures if you play the globalist game.
It’s amazing how few if any political commentators understand the new modern mindset of the political class.
The nightmare continues and there is little that can be done in parliamentary terms. The 72 Libdems are not an opposition and will vote with Labour with remainer Tories just passive observers. Starmer hopes he can complete and lock in his 'transformation' by August 2029. Although, at the back of his mind, he knows that one major problem over the coming years will be containing civil unrest. Hence the demonisation of 'the right', censorship of opposing opinions, rapid arrest and punitive sentencing of popular dissent.
The potential for low grade civil war with policing by consent, riots and no go areas is a definite possibility. You could argue some of this is already happening.
Tommy Robinson is being released from prison early . I wonder how long he will stay out . He will undoubtedly be organising protests and Starmer will be worrying about him as the most obvious focus for civil unrest
I listened to bitter loser Michael Heseltine gloating yesterday. Unfortunately there was never a chance that the so called elite were going to accept democracy. Labour, Lib Dem and One Nation Tories all despise democracy and a free people, Brexit is more than freeing ourselves from the EU it is now about freeing ourselves from the self entitled democracy haters. In an ideal world the anti democracy parties will be replaced by Reform and the SDP. Badenoch is promising to tear up the agreements - I some how doubt she would be allowed to do so.
As Reform have a number of successful business people one can but hope that they would play the EU at their own game. An immediate ban on EU cars over emission worries would grab some attention to start with.
Badenoch didn’t make a bonfire of EU regulations when she had the chance . The Tories have been divided over Europe since it existed as a political entity , it is still loaded with Remainers. They would do nothing . Fortunately it seems unlikely that they will have the opportunity to prove this
I am beyond words - democracy has gone. The hypocrisy of Starmer who behaves like a dictator treating the British people with disdain whilst claiming a mandate to undo the biggest democratic vote in our history. He is killing everything good about this country step by step and he doesn’t seem to care! The country needs saving and soon. The country needs REFORM!
A depressing but very accurate analysis of the shambolic state of affairs that is the UK under Starmer and his totally out of touch and inexperienced Government. My only conclusion is that he knows he and his Government will be gone at the next election and he is determined to inflict the woke WEF globalist and socialist agenda on the UK to the fullest extent possible, irrespective of the damage to the UK, while he has the power to do it. He enjoys nothing more than strutting about on the world stage in the vain belief that he is an important international statesman. Well he’s not, only in his own mind. He is an opinionated autocrat for whom the Tories disastrously opened the door to power. The majority of the UK population do not want him as their PM; what an absurd situation we are in.
Seriously, I think it is a type of insanity. He has a complete mental block as far as understanding the British people. His leadership has no coherence and he ricochets from one tone deaf policy to the next. He seems to be struggling to apply his globalist liberal agenda onto an electorate who, time and time again, have shown they do not want this, and is bewildered when surveys show how much he is hated and how his government is falling in popularity.
He has an automaton’s box on his shoulders. One which not very good in court so he pushed sideways into a dept where all professionals and responsible for their own work. He now reads out speeches by others, and one can tell different ones as depending on subject! His Marx ism means he has no conscience or care of history, … we know Charlie is a fan of WEF, - invited the incoming religion to feast in a Windsor estate building, other religions still waiting for such an invite, so could be that that support for true Brits of whatever background not forthcoming. We need to confront our predicament and all the branches wishing to retain, maintain Britain as always been, need to combine before it too late, as every announcement from this automaton closes another door on us being us. Until MPs start to literally stand up and shout in the Commons, the peers in the Lords, the nation will continue to teeter towards losing ….
Certainly he seems removed from reality , and his actions seen as incomprehensible from somebody who is supposed to represent the wishes of the British people . Mad or moron ?
He knows exactly what he’s doing. It’s a plan. The invasion of 18-30 year olds will be given a vote and Labour will win the next GE with LD support. We’ll be back in the Single Market and Customs Union faster than you can say Nigel Farage.
It’s already there, - EU population in U.K. always able to vote in UK local elections.
Addendum: Voting by EU’s in Uk ‘suspended’ after Brexit officially happened, means format exists for merely a click on the page and one word from TT/EU and it’ll be reactivated.
The creeping rejoining to EU that will now happen, and we now again aligning with ECJ on ydays agreement, means halfway there to all EU countries able again to vote in proscribed elections.
Yes there are the EU5 but not since Brexit I believe. I may be wrong though but certainly not most EU countries. Either way Sarah, I agree with your sentiment that Starmer will change the law anyway to allow these people to have a vote in an attempt to retain power. He makes me sick.
My sinister and increasing worry is that Starmer doesn’t care about fuelling Reform because his planned intention is to ban the party from elections much like they are doing across the EU. I’d not be surprised if it has been discussed.
Yep. People like Starmer and Johnson only seems irrational if you think they care about winning elections. I think by now it's obvious they don't because they concluded that it's preferable to simply make elections irrelevant. The EU itself is that strategy writ large, it worked well for them for a long time and so of course they will continue to double down on it.
After all, look at Matt's phrasing. He said the UK is "locked in" to these agreements. Obviously it isn't - Reform can and should announce tomorrow it isn't bound by anything Labour negotiate and will simply violate any agreements they make that are bad for Britain. The major obstacles to this is psychological, the desire of the nice "elites" in politics to stick to agreements "Britain" has made.
Until the convention of governments feeling bound by treaties signed by their opponents ends, tactics like this will continue to be used.
The French know all about perpetual treaties which became inconvenient. The Treaty of Nantes which gave freedom of worship to Protestants and others in France was abrogated when the French elites decided to enforce Catholicism.
That gave rise to the departure of Huguenots and others, most of whom came to the UK with high skills and high moral values. Others went to the Western Cape. Numbers were tolerable. They did not demand we adopt their culture.
Was it by chance or Freudian that you example Huguenots, ancestors of Farage?! ;)
I didn't think it was relevant.
This is a very good point. There is no lock in. It can be dismantled or violated. This itself would be a political democratic act that would be very popular.
Correct. People are sick of being told straightforward policies can't be implemented because some civil servant or politician made a "binding" agreement when nobody was watching.
Although the left love to talk about international law, there is no such law. Between nations there is only military and economic relations. Trump has won twice now because he understands this better than any other politician alive today. If Farage is smart, he will announce that Parliament may not bind itself and in case of a Reform victory all treaties will be re-evaluated through the lens of Britain First. Any found wanting will be voided unilaterally.
This won't have any negative effects in practice because most other countries say they'll follow signed agreements but ignore them whenever is convenient. See the fate of the Dublin Agreement: Merkel changed her mind one day, and that was the end of that. Germany is about to do it again - the "fiscal pacts" they proposed and signed up to forbid their announced deficit spending. I will be amazed if those agreements matter for even a millisecond.
https://dantravis.substack.com/p/the-circle-of-legitimacy?r=4hkzi
There is a strange phenomenon in recent politics where governing parties with big majorities go out of their way to alienate their voter base.
Boris did this with the Boriswave then Rishi did his drowned rat speech, left Normandy early, almost as if he wanted to throw the election and pass the baton to the red team.
Now Starmer is doing the same with everything he does. There is none of Blair's charm - or rather smarm. It is as though both parties want to alienate the public from the democratic process.
But let's not kid ourselves that Farage is really different. He disparages "that lot", he turns on talented allies like Woolf, Habib, Lowe and others. He says quite clearly that "we can't alienate Islam" and "mass deportations are impractical and not our ambition". He is alienating his base just like Labour and the Tories have done.
None of these actions make sense. If you want to win, you don't stick up two fingers to your own supporters.
Their actions make perfect sense when you recall the wider context in which they operate.
Prime Ministers have short half-lives, and this is a problem. Career-wise there aren't many places you can go once you've been Prime Minister. What are you going to do, email a CV to some middle management position you found on LinkedIn? The number of places willing to employe any senior ex-politician is small, let alone an ex-Prime Minister. Even if the workplace dynamics of having a former PM in the office weren't terrible (imagine the watercooler conversations), any employer would suspect that such a person is very likely to quit and re-enter politics the moment the winds shift. Absolutely not what you want from a senior executive!
As a consequence post-political employment for such people consists mostly of places like think tanks, NGOs, the EU, philanthropic foundations and for the Tories sometimes newspapers; editorial roles at conservative newspapers seem to be kept in reserve for ex-Tories to pick up whenever they need them. The promise of such roles being held open for them are THE MOST precious things a Prime Minister or cabinet member can obtain. Those who can offer them, especially if they can offer lucrative roles in consulting, speech giving and so on, can more or less get politicians to do whatever they want.
In other words, unless a PM is very close to retirement their best option is to campaign on what voters want and then do whatever will please the sort of people who employ ex-PMs. This is true REGARDLESS of whether the politician originally went in with the best intentions, which they may well have done. But it is the nature of politics that there is no job security; even popular MPs who keep their nose clean can be swept aside by popular anger over decisions they weren't involved with at all.
What do the sort of people who employ ex-PMs like? Well, they like the sort of things that upper-middle class public sector workers like, because such people collect in institutions that have a reliable stream of tax funding. Go read up on what Gordon Brown did after his unremarkably premiership ended to see an example - it's a long series of random NGOs giving him sinecures, basically as reward for being left wing e.g.
> Sir Tim Berners-Lee ... invited Brown to become a board director of the World Wide Web Foundation to "advise the Web Foundation on ways to involve disadvantaged communities and global leaders in the development of sustainable programs that connect humanity and affect positive change", and he was elected to the board of directors in September 2010
Such job descriptions are found everywhere in post-political life for the left: these easy well paid sinecures are implicit reward for doing what the NGOs like, not what the people like.
The same thing applies on the right too, of course. Farage hardly wanted to enter Parliament, his post-political career in US TV was in many ways much better. If he does enter Number 10 you can bet that at all times he will be thinking about what he does after Reform eventually loses. The structure of Reform is clearly set up with that in mind (unlike most party leaders, he cannot be booted out by his own troops).
There is no good fix for this beyond improving the financial rewards of being a senior politician to the level that they never need to work again. I am all for it, personally, but good luck convincing the man on the street of the need for 2-million-pound-a-year salaries. Failing that, crushing the funding of the NGO sector to level the right/left post-politics employment divide would be the best approach.
The vile dictator Free Gear Kier will end up in some highly paid EU position. I would love to know the truth about the arsonist models!
Yes. That is a very strange one
Like many modern academics today’s politicians and bureaucrats (and journos, of course) think the world is simple and linear.
They do not (or chose not to) understand that questions are more complex than they imagine and relationships are non-linear and multi variance.
Try explaining that sentence to your MP.
He said yesterday to his MPs that they had a “ moral duty” to stop Farage becoming PM and I didn’t like the sound of that . He’s trying to dress up his self interest as virtue and in the national interest . The people should decide
That is rather bizarre, and - you'll probably agree - somewhat sinister.
Surely it's sufficient to state the obvious to MPs of a party in power? "We don't want Farage to get support, because we're in power". Or "We think Farage's policies are completely wrong, so we'll argue against him and make this obvious".
Dressing the natural inclination of any MP with "moral duty" is completely unnecessary, and worrying. Because "moral duties" of that kind have a habit of excusing utterly immoral acts.
Exactly
His behaviour is extremely odd. We can see from his long history on the hard left that he hates this country and the majority of the population. So doing things that further damage it are not his concern. He’s an ideologue who was indoctrinated many years ago. But that those very same policies damage Labour’s re-election hopes is to say the least odd. He’s wouldn’t do this unless he had another route to victory. We know he’s an anti-democrat, so gerrymandering the election in some way is probably what he intends to do. I suspect he will give voting rights to EU citizens to ensure he wins. It’s been touted by pro EU fanatics before.
Blair wore a mask when he set about destroying the country. Starmer doesn't need to wear a mask.
If he does that then I really believe there will be serious civil strife, if not all out civil war.
I was thinking this too. Germany have banned AfD, and seemingly got away with it for now. That’ll embolden Starmer. I suspect Reform will be declared a far-right terrorist organism and get shut down. If that happens hopefully Ben Habib and Rupert Lowe has an alternative in place
My thoughts exactly. Also he doesn’t necessarily care as he will have had his PM photo up in No10 for over 4 years by the next election!
Could you please explain where in the EU, orthodox parties have been 'banned' from standing in elections.? The AFD is allowed to run in Germany. Certainly parties that advocate criminality or outright racial hated like 'Britain First' have been banned here but that is nothing like Reform so this seems to be a figment of your imagination. The real danger for Reform is the strongly negative feeling a majority of the UK public feel for them (despite their approval by about 30%) so you might well have tactical voting to keep them out of office just as has happened with the Tory party in the past. But this perfectly legitimate democratic politics.
Here you go. Frightening isn’t it. https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/germany-labels-far-right-afd-party-as-extremist-group/
Sorry the AFD has NOT been banned and this is old news. (Though if a party is found to be openly and clearly preaching terrorism or Nazi ideology then it is breaking the law and of course it should be banned. )
Labour doesn't care about 'their own demise'. Starmer's job for the Globalist-Communists is to cause as much destruction of Britain financially, culturally and societally in the period of power that he has - and he's doing a grand job, exactly as instructed.
I think Starmer/Blair junta know the games up in 4 years. What we’ll see in years ahead are policies which will make it harder for Reform to Govern. The 12 year fishing agreement being the start, more mass immigration, more EU strangulation, the cash taps will be turned on and they’ll be another note left saying there’s no money in the coffers. Reform will inherit a basket case of economic and social problems far far worse than those left by the Labour Government of the 70’s
I suspect you may be correct. That fishing agreement beggars belief.
We reconnected with the EU court is a real slap in the face to U.K. by that fact alone he has rejoined us to EU whatever trivia in denial he blurbs.
Exactly. Being connected to the EU Court effectively means we are not really a sovereign nation. Starmer cannot believe the British public, many of whom voted for Brexit, want this. I can only imagine that he is gambling on this deal giving such a boost to the economy that everyone will be better off, will cease complaining and fall back in love with Labour. Bread and circuses for the masses. Faint hope when the estimated growth to the economy from the deal is only 0.3% of GDP.
He couldn’t care less about Brit public. This is all an agenda and one that from outside UK. If one looks back can see it all started with Blair, but seed sown when Major signed Maastricht treaty, that is what committed us to rule by outsiders. Such, why likes of Heseltine, Major, Benn, May, Boris, who only a Brexit supporter in campaign for political convenience, which why, though his huge majority never burned the EU laws. Etc etc ….
I am very much afraid you are right. Also, an incoming Reform government will have to contend with a hostile Civil Service which will do its level best to thwart the government at every turn. Nigel will have to be ruthless in clearing the Civil Service swamp as much as he can.
Reform need to canvas the multi millionaires who have lft and do a tax deal
He's certainly making it difficult now to disagree with you. Even people who used to laugh and call it conspiracy are not laughing as much.
Hate to sound conspiratorial but it feels as if there’s a sense of urgency to ‘fix’ things so they can’t be restored by a future government.
R
Starmer knows exactly what he’s doing. He can see that Reform has a good chance of winning the next election and so he is bringing in legislation and policies which will completely tie Reform’s hands and ensure failure. And so the path will be laid for the continuation of the WEF/ EU etc plans for world, or at least Western govt. by unelected bureaucrats with a pretence at democratic accountability via a faux parliament, which is how the EU operates. The ‘elites’ think they know what’s best for us. Their vision is a Marxist Utopia and they are determined to bring it about.
On the other hand, he may just cancel the next election by inventing a faux emergency.
No Parliament can bind its successors. Just repeal everything on Day 1 of the next government. All of it from 1997 onwards.
Whilst this is technically true, the ethics and integrity of those in power are non existent and our Constitution is being eroded and buried by a corrupt and contemptuous judiciary. We need Patriots, people who love our country to stand up for our freedoms and rights as they did in two World Wars. Not those that want to get their snouts into the EU gravy train.
I feel that this is WW3, a very different kind of war, but a war nonetheless.
DEFINITELY
It will make life very difficult because everything will take much longer to enact, particularly if they only have a small majority.
Quite right. However, a conservative (small "c") government with a decent majority might have to look back even further than this and review legislation and treaty commitments going all the way back to just after the War. After all, do we really need to be a party, say, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948? We have our common law tradition in England going all the way back to Magna Carta. Furthermore, this is what Eric Kaufmann said in his book, “Taboo: How Making Race Sacred Produced a Cultural Revolution” (2024) on the menace of Woke. The rot started in the '60s:
“‘Taboo’ revolves around the left-liberal anti-racism taboo of the mid-1960s. Like the big bang, this was a cosmic event; its logic has been progressively expanding, defining our social universe. It has introduced a zone of unbounded Identitarian sacredness around race - a form of social kryptonite which irradiated anyone standing in its way. This powerful magic was borrowed by the feminist and later LGBT movements, weaponised by the revolutionary left, and stretched to new frontiers of microscopic and confected emotional grievance. Along the way, it has eroded freedom, truth, and excellence while vandalizing cherished national identities and undermining social cohesion. Until the taboo is reformed into a proportionate norm like any other, cultural socialism will remain a dominant force in polite society.”
This has nothing to do with Parliament - it's Royal Prerogative. Parliament (for what it's worth, which isn't much since it's totally controlled by the leader of the party with a majority) doesn't get to vote on treaties.
I agree with Tenaciously Terfin.
I fact I think this post from Matt would be better tiitled "Starmer is making Reform impotent, incontinent and even irrelevant" because I fear they will be in power in name only in 2029.
In my view, Matt's posts carried a degree of optimism in 2024 and Q1 2025; but now in Q2 they carry a degree of realistic pessimism, in the knowledge that we have had one year of Starmer but we have four years to come.
By 2029, Reform, if in government, will inherit
- a real national debt of over £10tr, 25% in cash, 25% in pension promises to the public sector and 50% in State pension promises with a chance of some degree pf default
- a massive degree of overpopulation with inadequate infrastructure
- a destroyed indigeonous food and fuel sector
- a substantial EU relationship and a destroyed USA relationship
- irreversible "multiculturalism"
- inherited promises for years to come with no certainty of their reversal
- ... and and and
Farage and Yusuf have been noticeably quiet in the last few weeks and unfortunately Reform remain a two man party having alienated Lowe and Habib.
"Repeal everything on day one? I think not.
I hope I am significantly wrong.
I agree. I hope we’re both wrong but I fear for the future. We are in dire straits and things are set to get worse in so many ways over the next four years.
"The 'elites’ think they know what’s best for us."
Exactly! A few years ago I chanced upon a quote by a very famous politician which included "The people do not know what they want; they do not know what is the best for them". At the time it perfectly summed up the contemptuous, dismissive attitude of every angry, indignant Remainer to Leave voters. However it is a much older quote from that well known lover of democracy......Benito Mussolini! And Starmer calls other people "fascists"!!
Exactly
Starmer's reset deal is from one perspective unutterably depressing. It feels like we've come full circle and the 2016 referendum never happened. Why is it that such a large proportion of our political class (and I include the wet Remainer Tories in this) are willing to sell out their country?
In all seriousness, shouldn't France be classified as a hostile state? I think so. And cancel Macron's state visit. We know he and they are behind the outrageous 12 year fishing deal.
However, the one thing that gives me hope is the fuel this will give to Reform.
It's beginning to feel like 2029 will be an crucial date in our island story. The last chance to wrest our country out of the grip of the current establishment's grasp.
We must not lose.
I agree completely Christian so I'll forgive your small typing error.....we must not lose. We certainly do not want to be "loose".
Thanks! Morning butterfingers (and only one coffee! ;-)
2029 will be an irrelevance. Reform will be banned and there may not even be any more elections. Civil war will ensue and a state of martial law be enacted. We are already lost we just don't know it yet
Now I definitely need that second coffee....
It is obvious that when Reform trounced Labour in the recent elections, prompting Starmer to respond by saying that Labour needs to move farther, faster, his intentions are to carry out a scorched-earth policy, making sure that the country is laid waste and that it is left a Marxist wilderness, allowing Reform to inherit an empty shell that will be impossible to redeem. The tragedy in all of this is that we had the opportunity to grasp a proper Brexit under Boris, but his government threw the chance away.
Labour and the Conservatives have been co-operating to sabotage Brexit since the beginning, and many so-called Conservative Brexiteers have been nothing of the sort, they have used the cloak of Brexit to hide their true intentions. Make no mistake, Starmer's Brexit sell-out was only made possible by the Conservatives; if Badenoch had not cancelled the bonfire of EU rules then we would have left properly, but she did not, and by leaving these rules and laws in place she opened the door to seamless re-entry. There is another aspect to yesterday's 'reset' however, as explained by Steve Baker - we are now in breach of the trade deals signed with the Pacific, India and the USA, which means that we will be sued in the international court. So what will be the outcome? We cannot refuse to accept goods from a trading partner with whom we have a contract to accept, but the EU deal means that we are bound by THEIR standards, effectively calling for us to ride two horses at once. I know who Starmer will side with......
Boris was never a true Brexiteer, he was part of the enemy elite all along.
The USA trade deal which not yet signed has probably ground to a halt, - 1/ we back in the EU and Trump still does not like which why there a problem with a deal last time he in Whitehouse, 2/ USA cannot totally turnaround its rules and laws to comply with EU, nor wants to as too expensive when has a market outwith EU powers.
Starmer just sold British fishermen down the river without a second thought or a backward glance. It’s breathtaking. We go back under the European yoke for very little, if any, return it seems to me. Well, I guess Alastair Campbell et al will be very happy this morning.
He was sounding very self satisfied this morning when on BBC Today, justifying his pal Lineker. Not one tone of anger in his voice I noted, which has been the case whatever he lecturing since Brexit.
Not at all surprised. He must be loving this. Cannot stand the man, not just his politics, he is just so unpleasant.
And you can bet anything you like that the Youth Movement scheme will not involve 19 year old Jean Paul or 22 year old Francesca coming over... We all know exactly who will be coming over.
That’s a certainty. This is the EU’s plan to get rid of their bearded ones.
Reform needs to prepare for office very carefully, and diligently.They are going to be faced with massive opposition from the deep state, civil servants, globalist corporations,institutions and judiciary, all hellbent on continuing to destroy our nation and its people. The elites like Gates and Soros are driving the Globalist agenda towards a new world government based around the UN, EU and WEF.
Reform must be ready to reverse this treasonous attack on our Sovereignty.
The enemy is within.
Well said.
Morons like Gates and Soros have had so much money for so long that they genuinely believe that reality doesn't apply to them.
They'll find out it does in the end but they will have caused a lot of destruction before then.
Reform have no infrastructure - they won't be able to do it.
I saw a great quote from the philosopher Nietzche;
" Intellectuals prefer a map rather than the territory "
This is Stamer 's Labour, they inhabit a box.They think as long as the 15% can get through the e-gates quicker to their dacha in the Dordogne or that Poppy or Ben can get that internship in Paris,then all is well.
They utterly stink!
No, Starmer’s actions make perfect sense if you understand that senior politicians no longer care about being re-elected: even being Prime Minister is regarded as little more than a senior management position, with the promise of future riches and sinecures if you play the globalist game.
It’s amazing how few if any political commentators understand the new modern mindset of the political class.
The nightmare continues and there is little that can be done in parliamentary terms. The 72 Libdems are not an opposition and will vote with Labour with remainer Tories just passive observers. Starmer hopes he can complete and lock in his 'transformation' by August 2029. Although, at the back of his mind, he knows that one major problem over the coming years will be containing civil unrest. Hence the demonisation of 'the right', censorship of opposing opinions, rapid arrest and punitive sentencing of popular dissent.
The potential for low grade civil war with policing by consent, riots and no go areas is a definite possibility. You could argue some of this is already happening.
Tommy Robinson is being released from prison early . I wonder how long he will stay out . He will undoubtedly be organising protests and Starmer will be worrying about him as the most obvious focus for civil unrest
I listened to bitter loser Michael Heseltine gloating yesterday. Unfortunately there was never a chance that the so called elite were going to accept democracy. Labour, Lib Dem and One Nation Tories all despise democracy and a free people, Brexit is more than freeing ourselves from the EU it is now about freeing ourselves from the self entitled democracy haters. In an ideal world the anti democracy parties will be replaced by Reform and the SDP. Badenoch is promising to tear up the agreements - I some how doubt she would be allowed to do so.
As Reform have a number of successful business people one can but hope that they would play the EU at their own game. An immediate ban on EU cars over emission worries would grab some attention to start with.
Badenoch didn’t make a bonfire of EU regulations when she had the chance . The Tories have been divided over Europe since it existed as a political entity , it is still loaded with Remainers. They would do nothing . Fortunately it seems unlikely that they will have the opportunity to prove this
I am beyond words - democracy has gone. The hypocrisy of Starmer who behaves like a dictator treating the British people with disdain whilst claiming a mandate to undo the biggest democratic vote in our history. He is killing everything good about this country step by step and he doesn’t seem to care! The country needs saving and soon. The country needs REFORM!
A depressing but very accurate analysis of the shambolic state of affairs that is the UK under Starmer and his totally out of touch and inexperienced Government. My only conclusion is that he knows he and his Government will be gone at the next election and he is determined to inflict the woke WEF globalist and socialist agenda on the UK to the fullest extent possible, irrespective of the damage to the UK, while he has the power to do it. He enjoys nothing more than strutting about on the world stage in the vain belief that he is an important international statesman. Well he’s not, only in his own mind. He is an opinionated autocrat for whom the Tories disastrously opened the door to power. The majority of the UK population do not want him as their PM; what an absurd situation we are in.
Starmer is now clearly a traitor and should be treated as such!
Do you think the man is insane? Has anyone noticed him dribbling?
Asking for a friend.
Seriously, I think it is a type of insanity. He has a complete mental block as far as understanding the British people. His leadership has no coherence and he ricochets from one tone deaf policy to the next. He seems to be struggling to apply his globalist liberal agenda onto an electorate who, time and time again, have shown they do not want this, and is bewildered when surveys show how much he is hated and how his government is falling in popularity.
He has an automaton’s box on his shoulders. One which not very good in court so he pushed sideways into a dept where all professionals and responsible for their own work. He now reads out speeches by others, and one can tell different ones as depending on subject! His Marx ism means he has no conscience or care of history, … we know Charlie is a fan of WEF, - invited the incoming religion to feast in a Windsor estate building, other religions still waiting for such an invite, so could be that that support for true Brits of whatever background not forthcoming. We need to confront our predicament and all the branches wishing to retain, maintain Britain as always been, need to combine before it too late, as every announcement from this automaton closes another door on us being us. Until MPs start to literally stand up and shout in the Commons, the peers in the Lords, the nation will continue to teeter towards losing ….
Certainly he seems removed from reality , and his actions seen as incomprehensible from somebody who is supposed to represent the wishes of the British people . Mad or moron ?
Lesley, it's one of those times where it's a large serving of both.
He knows exactly what he’s doing. It’s a plan. The invasion of 18-30 year olds will be given a vote and Labour will win the next GE with LD support. We’ll be back in the Single Market and Customs Union faster than you can say Nigel Farage.
It’s already there, - EU population in U.K. always able to vote in UK local elections.
Addendum: Voting by EU’s in Uk ‘suspended’ after Brexit officially happened, means format exists for merely a click on the page and one word from TT/EU and it’ll be reactivated.
Not true. The only EU citizens able to vote in UK Parliamentary elections are Irish.
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8985/
There’s also the EU5.
The creeping rejoining to EU that will now happen, and we now again aligning with ECJ on ydays agreement, means halfway there to all EU countries able again to vote in proscribed elections.
Yes there are the EU5 but not since Brexit I believe. I may be wrong though but certainly not most EU countries. Either way Sarah, I agree with your sentiment that Starmer will change the law anyway to allow these people to have a vote in an attempt to retain power. He makes me sick.