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Thread | Reform Policies
at 18:44 13 Jul 2025
They haven't come out with many actual policies but the one that's easiest to remember is raising the tax threshold to £20,000. It's a laudable thing to aspire to as it would benefit the lowest paid the most. As well as that idea, the way Farage and Tice and all the rest of them are talking it's as if they're saying ‘vote us in and there’ll be a revolution’. The British people will finally get what they’ve been demanding for so long and which Labour and the Conservatives never delivered.
It's such an easy thing to say and I believe they're saying it knowing that there'd be a huge number of people whose knee jerk reaction would be positive. They'd be about £1500 a year better off and many wouldn't think past that.
We can all agree there's not much money around and the UK is in an incredibly difficult financial situation. And whatever party is in Government they would have a hell of a job on their hands.
So, let's imagine Reform are in power now and not Labour. And this tax cut is their flagship policy. We know that Labour have claimed that a major problem they've had to deal with is the £20 billion black hole they claim the Conservatives left (accurate or not that's what they say).
The black hole created in the countries tax revenue of raising the threshold to £20,000 is £51 billion a year. But, to give them the benefit of the doubt let’s imagine that Reform would say we can't afford to do it in one go. People would probably accept the logic of that - initially.
So they may say we'll do it in three chunks - from £12,500 to £15,000 then £17,500 and then £20,000. The first rise would put an extra £500 in people's pockets. That’s £10 a week. And let’s say they had to wait for another year for another £10 and another year for the last £10. People would say, hang on Nige, this isn't a revolution. You gave us the impression that you could just push a few buttons and our lives would change.
And then they'd say, in the parallel universe where Labour are in power, we got a 6.7% rise (National Living Wage). So how is this better Nige ?
So they've implemented the first rise but now they've got a £17 billion black hole in the finances. And this is a REAL black hole. So what are they going to do.
Which brings me to the second part of the thread. Nigel and Richard and all of them are also incredibly critical of the spend on welfare. And without saying what they are going to do they've implied that they will be ruthless in that area.
We all know what happened to Labour with the WFA cut and the proposed reform of PIP. There may be some people on this site who thought those cuts were a good idea but from memory the vast majority of you didn't. And the vast majority of the country disagreed as well.
I heard a discussion on Talk Radio a few days ago between Jeremy Kyle and Richard Tice (a brief digression - Jeremy Kyle has to be the most useless excuse for a broadcaster in the history of British radio. It's as if a ten year old is speaking through a man's body - just awful).
Anyway, the bloke who had called in, a Reform voter, was talking about the above cuts and he was criticising Labour for having given in to the 'BLOB' in dropping the plans. And Richard Tice was laughing and agreeing with him, happy it seemed that the guy was on his side. He agreed that Labour should not have given in to the ‘BLOB’, that they should have stuck to their guns. By saying that he was implying that Reform, if they were in power, would have carried on with the cuts.
The savings from those cuts would have come to maybe £5 billion I believe. So can anyone explain where they would save the extra £17 billion from their tax cuts in the first year. And in the second year the £34 billion ? And in the third year the £51 billion ?
Would it all be from the benefits bill ? The total benefits bill this year is £303 billion. Of that £138 billion is the State Pension and an enormous part of the rest is paid out to people actually in work. If you add the two together that would leave maybe £100 billion in other benefits. Are Reform going to cut that £100 billion by £51 billion ?
Going back to the phone in, the 'BLOB' is a word that's been used mainly against the Civil Service (not just the CS but mainly) saying that they actively work against the Government implementing their policies.
But in this case the people disagreeing with the Government were millions of ordinary people disgusted at the policies. Also their MP's and just about all the media. And here we have Richard Tice laughing at the 'BLOB' which in this case would include millions of the people who he would hope would vote Reform.
But I doubt if those millions would have been listening to that phone in and hearing the disdain that Tice had for them. A pity because if they did there’d be no way Reform would ever get in to power.
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Thread | Plaid Cymru manifesto
at 17:53 10 Jul 2025
I went to Sioned William's surgery today to make a suggestion to her about their manifesto for next year's Senedd election. The subject generally was about the completely unfair way in which the Senedd invests in Wales with Cardiff, as usual, having money lavished on it while the rest of Wales stagnates.
I talked, as one example, about investment rail infrastructure.
South East Wales Metro £1.2 billion and rising
The five Burns stations £300 million
1st stage of Cardiff Crossrail (tram) £100,million
Meanwhile -
Swansea and South West Wales metro Plans
North East Wales metro Plans
Everywhere else Plans
I suggested that Plaid include a policy in their manifesto stating that they would reverse the unfairness of the last 25 years and basically do a Boris Johnson - in other words levelling up.
She said that it this is something that Plaid completely agrees with.
So, I told her that whenever there is a thread on this site (and every other site I read) that talks about this subject everyone who responds is up in arms about the unfairness and are completely disillusioned with the way Labour have been so biased toward the South East for the last 25 years.
I suggested to her that there are very many people not only on this site but all around the ignored three quarters of Wales that would love to see a commitment in their manifesto to start to correct these wrongs. And knowing that the other main parties would never address this issue then those people could be persuaded to vote for Plaid.
I also said that if they were to win power next year the only way they would manage to get in for a second term would be if they actually do what they say they would do. A novel idea for a political party.
A number of you have said previously that you were seriously thinking about voting Plaid or actually going to vote Plaid next year
Let me know your thoughts and ideas which i'm going to make a point of passing on to her.
Apologies that i've rushed this a bit so the wording isn't the best. |
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Thread | Bob Dylan
at 17:13 10 Jul 2025
He's playing three nights in the Arena on 9th, 10th and 11th of November.
Incredible. |
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Thread | REFORM POLICIES
at 10:31 18 Jun 2025
Whenever I see Reform politicians being questioned about their policies they never answer the question as to how they will manage to implement them. As there appear to be a number of members of this forum either considering or actually going to vote for them next year perhaps you could explain how they are going to achieve these things.
I'll start with two questions. Please feel free to come up with others as i'm sure we'd all like answers.
1 - Raising the tax free threshold to £20,000. How will they fund the loss of £50 billion in tax revenue ?
2 - Stopping the small boats. How will they do it ? |
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Thread | Welsh National Theatre
at 10:02 18 Jun 2025
We all, myself included, complain all the time about 'everything goes to Cardiff'. And most of the time we are perfectly right to do so.
But when something happens that's good for Swansea it's right that we welcome it.
The Welsh National Theatre founded by Michael Sheen is being set up in the Civic Centre. And only seven months until the first production goes live !
That sounds a bit overly positive. But no complaints from me. |
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Thread | Are we all just politicians ?
at 09:24 13 Jun 2025
From comments on this forum it appears the most despised group of people in this country are politicians. I find it difficult to argue against that to be honest.
What almost always happens with politicians of every party is that they will pick and choose facts and figures that support the argument they are making while ignoring other perfectly legitimate facts and figures that don't support their argument.
That is exactly what happens on this forum. So why criticize politicians for doing something you actually do yourself.
I just read a great post from JACKMANANDBOY on the '£445 million for rail investment in Wales'. This is what he posted'
'I heard an interview about human psychology and entrenched opinions this week, apparently it is usually the case that people with entrenched opinions will become attached to them the more substantial the evidence is to disprove their opinion. The need to be right will outweigh the need to understand.' |
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Thread | £445 million for rail investment in Wales
at 10:01 12 Jun 2025
This £445 million is split into three. The first pot of £300 million will ALL be spent on the line between Magor and Cardiff providing 5/6 new stations.
The second pot of £48 million is for enhancement to the Core Valleys Lines, part of the South Wales Metro which has already had £1.2 billion spent on it.
That leaves £90 million for a series of future projects over the next ten years. I wonder how many of those future projects will be in SE Wales.
So that means, effectively, just about everything for the already bloated South East Wales (similar to everything for the bloated South East of England on a UK basis) with almost nothing for the rest of Wales.
When Plaid's manifesto for next year's election is produced I expect them to state categorically that they will do a complete reversal of Welsh Labour's approach and invest everything they possibly can into the rest of Wales and not into the SE which has had far more than it's fair share for decades. |
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Thread | Growing the Economy
at 18:22 8 Jun 2025
When talking about how the Government go about this people say there are only a few things they can do to achieve it. To make money available to improve the economy they can increase taxes, cut spending or borrow. One group of the usual suspects would argue they can't increase taxes, another group of them would say they can't cut spending and yet another group would say they can't borrow the money.
But part of the answer (quite a large part i'd say) will be the very boring subject of planning reform which they've already set in motion. If they do achieve what they've set out to achieve this could have an enormous effect.
Investment in infrastructure is always described as the best way of boosting an economy. Apparently the return to the economy is 3/4/5 (or more) times the cost of the project. But we all know what happens with infrastructure developments in this country. They take far too long and always go way over budget.
Take the Lower Thames Crossing. This was first proposed in 2009 and is now estimated to be open in 2032. So far £300 million has been spent just getting through the planning stages. And eventually the scheme is due to cost about £10 billion. So the benefit to the economy won't kick in till 23 years after the scheme was first put forward.
Imagine if planning reforms had been in place in 2009. Planning regulations have to be followed but how many times have we read about spurious legal actions holding up these projects. Remember the bat tunnel which held up HS2 and cost £100 million ?
Now imagine that ten years was cut off the planning timescale. That would still have left six years for the planning stage which would appear to be perfectly reasonable. So the tunnel would have been completed in 2022.
Not only would the £10 billion cost be substantially reduced the economy would start benefiting from the uplift ten years early.
The savings and the benefit to the economy would be many, many billions.
I'm sure you're all desperate to discuss such an exciting subject .  |
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Thread | HS2 part two
at 17:29 2 Jun 2025
It's now been decided that the £7billion investment in the rail line between Oxford and Cambridge is to be designated a England and Wales project.
I'm lost for words. Wales treated with utter contempt yet again.
This is yet another reason why we should get out of this so called voluntary poisonous union as soon as possible. |
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Thread | Reform Government equals Welsh Independence
at 10:21 22 May 2025
Not a statement of fact obviously but something to think about.
We know from a century of GE election results that Wales has never voted for a Tory government. But we've had Tory governments for about two thirds of that time because England does vote Tory.
In the Senedd elections next year even though Reform (more right wing than the Tories) may do well I believe they'll be nowhere near being the largest party. It will be a toss up between Labour and Plaid, hopefully with Plaid the largest and being the governing party.
Imagine then that in the 2029 GE a Reform government is voted in, again essentially by England. So our left wing government will have to try to deal with a Westminster government even more right wing than the Tories. With Nigel Farage as Prime Minister.
As a result in the 2031 Senedd election Plaid may stand on an Indy manifesto because they would have had to cope with two years of Reform policies which they'd be unable to fight against as Reform would have all the levers of power.
Lots of ifs and maybes there but a possibility. |
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Thread | TRUMP and the TATTOO
at 18:44 4 May 2025
I saw part of the interview between Trump and Terry Moran where Trump brought up the picture of Garcia's hand and the 'tattoo' on it. I found it incredible that he wouldn't let Moran move on until he agreed that the tattoo was real. But I hadn't actually seen the picture up till now.
I can't quite honestly think of appropriate words for what I think. I believed before that Trump was an utter moron. But now i'm baffled. I think i'll just have to leave it. I'm lost for words.
Remember, this is the man who slagged off Joe Biden virtually every day criticising his mental capacity.
If you're interested in seeing the picture type 'Trump Fights ABC Interviewer Over Photoshopped Image' into youtube.
Baffled of Llangyfelach. |
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Thread | STADIUM EXPANSION
at 18:03 4 May 2025
Yes, again.
Over the last few games we've all been saying the Club should try to attract people with Kids for a quid or whatever, saying those children will become proper supporters, a new generation and all that but you've got to get them through the door first. Those games were against Derby, Plymouth, Hull and Oxford. No offence to those clubs but the time that idea would have had a huge effect in attracting youngsters would have been in the PL. The problem was that there were no seats to accommodate them.
We've just had an excellent run-in with the result that the last two gates were just under 19k and 20k. What would the demand have been if those games were for a place in the play offs ? What would the demand have been if it was the actual play off semi ? Remember 2011 ?
The usual argument against is money. We should spend the money on the team. Another argument is from people who ask if the demand is there. There definitely is a demand imo as these last couple of games have shown again.
I don't suggest spending now because the 'spend on the team' argument is correct at the moment. But if we do manage to get to the PL again I believe the diggers should be in asap after the final game.
My reasoning is this. The first time we spent on the academy and the 1st team training facility. The two combined came to about £25 million from memory (roughly ?). But over the seven years TV money came to over £800 million ! And the vast bulk of that went into the players pockets. And with the last throw of the dice HJ spent probably £60 million or more on Ayew and Bony with their transfer costs and contracts. How does that spend compare with the investment in permanent Club infrastructure ? Do we want it all go to the players ?
If we do get there the only Club infra that we CAN spend on would be expanding the stadium and I believe that's exactly what we should do.
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Thread | REFORM IN GOVERNMENT
at 10:01 2 May 2025
This possibilty increases by the day. And certainly did last night. But something was said by a Reform person this morning that if they were to become the next government could result in a monumental constitutional crisis.
Imagine at the next GE Reform were to stand on a policy of leaving the ECHR. Then they are elected and produce legislation to that effect. They get it through the House of Commons and it goes to the House of Lords. There is not one Reform peer in the HOL and the vast bulk of the 850 or so peers is made up of Labour/Conservative/Lib Dem etc etc peers who would fight tooth and nail to scupper the plan.
I wonder what the public's reaction would be at seeing the 'establishment' preventing something happening that they had voted for. It is certainly something Reform would try to do and it would be refreshing in an odd sort of way (i'm not a Reform voter) to see a party actually do what they said they would do in their manifesto.
And there's the crisis. You could argue that this would be the best argument for scrapping the HOL all together. Because in this instance many would argue that democracy is broken. Others would say the HOL is part of our democracy.
Then the question is, does democracy belong to the 70 million of us or the 850 of them. |
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Thread | Train Drivers Pay Rise
at 18:35 19 Mar 2025
What prompted me to create this thread is yet another comment by another of the useless members of the last Tory Government re train drivers pay.
He criticised the Labour government for awarding a pay rise to the train drivers in order to end the dispute about pay. He said, yet again, that the rise was inflation busting and that some train drivers were earning far more than their standard £60,000 or so salary.
A while ago the train driver pay story came up in the same newscast as a story about Thames Water. In that story the boss of Thames Water was explaining that when they were appointing people to senior positions within their company they had to pay the going rate to attract the best people.
I googled the Thames Water boss’ pay and this came up.
Chris Weston, the CEO of Thames Water, has a base salary of £850,000 a year, plus a performance-related bonus of up to 156% of his salary. This gives him a potential total package of around £2.25 million. This is obscene bearing in mind what an awful service they provide.
Because of this obscenity OFWAT started looking to reduce their pay levels by cutting the amount they can be paid in bonuses. The water companies then told OFWAT that if they limit the amount they are allowed to pay the bosses in bonuses they will simply raise the base salary. So, no matter what happens these people will get their enormous salaries and neither OFWAT nor the Government nor anybody can do a thing about it.
If you were to ask these people how they warrant these levels of pay they say that they have enormous responsibilities, that they are in charge of a multi million pound company and they have to run that company well and if they don’t they will be sacked. When they ARE sacked how many times have we read that their contract included a golden handshake. So they still don’t lose out despite utter incompetence.
If it is their responsibility that the company is run well then it’s their responsibility when the company doesn’t run well – like when the company breaks the law for example. It has been reported that Thames and all the other Water companies break the law several times a day, every day of the year. So does that not make the people that run those companies criminals if they say they are responsible for how the company is run ?
Now take your average train driver. He drives his train from Swansea to Paddington for example and then drives it back again. And he does that every working day and, as far as I’m aware, doesn’t break the law. He just does the job that he is responsible for and does it properly. And if he did break the law the company would quite rightly sack him. And he wouldn’t have a golden handshake.
The deal the train drivers were awarded was 5% a year over a number of years. That would be £3000 a year on a base salary of £60,000. And after tax just £1,800 after paying higher level income tax.
Ask yourself how many times members of the last Tory government said the pay rise was inflation busting. Inflation this last year is around 2.5/3% so 5% is inflation busting. So what was 5% the year before in 2023 when annual inflation was 7.3% with a peak of 11% ? I don’t remember any of them mentioning that. I also don’t remember any of them praising the train drivers for working through the pandemic because they were an essential service like NHS workers.
And did they mention that, when inflation in 2023 was 7.3%, bosses in the biggest UK companies enjoyed average pay rises of 16%. Did they call that inflation busting ? Of course they didn’t. Makes you wonder why when those pesky train drivers were being so horrible.
Now think of how the two groups of workers were treated by the press. The water company problems were/are criticised in the press every now and then. But when the train drivers were striking to try to get their ‘inflation busting’ pay rise they were crucified on the front pages of the usual papers virtually every single day of the week.
It almost makes you think that maybe ordinary people are treated unfairly in the press. Surely not.
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Thread | US/UK/EU - the way forward
at 14:14 4 Mar 2025
Donald Trump is going to be POTUS for the next four years and if his policies are still popular in America at the end of that time it may very well be that a Republican (Vance ?) will replace him. And that person will probably continue in a similar vein.
So what should the UK do now ?
At the moment the UK is stuck in the middle trying to balance keeping the US onside while doing the same thing with the EU. That applies with trade as well as the Ukraine problem.
In my opinion we should, while carrying on being diplomatically onside with the US, accept that in the long run our future is better served by accepting we are part of Europe (not the EU) and work toward better relations with the EU.
If we engage with the US on trade we know that they will ALWAYS, especially if it's a Trump/Vance Republican administration, ensure that the US wins the (Trade) war. They will use their size and might to ensure that happens because they hold all the cards, to use a currently popular phrase. |
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Thread | Small Boat Crossings
at 18:05 12 Feb 2025
This is an idea that occurred to me. There's probably a glaring problem with my logic that I can't see. Maybe one of you can.
The Labour government say they've recruited a lot more people to process asylum claims. When those claims are investigated apparently about 60% are valid with 40% declined. My question is, what if you said we're going to use all the new asylum claim processors to process the illegal small boat arrivals as soon as they arrive. That you will detain them somewhere while they are processed and then deport the illegal ones.
Would this not mean that anyone who knows they have no real claim would say i'm not going to pay thousands to cross the channel knowing that my claim will fail and i'll be immediately deported.
If this did happen there would be a drop from maybe 30,000 this year to 18,000 at a stroke. |
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Thread | Silver Lining
at 09:45 4 Feb 2025
There's always one.
During Jan it was said many times that there was a limited amount of money to spend due to FFP and P&S. And better to spend that money on getting players in rather than on getting rid of LW.
Well that problem has gone. The money's still there and the probably one good thing AC can do now is get rid of Williams. If the owners have any sense they would have already been planning on sacking him in the Summer so the cost is essentially the same.
Even if the person they replace him with is just given the job of keeping us up with a bonus for doing it that's okay. And from what Keith says, if the players are really pee'd off with the current training regime perhaps a change will make all the difference to them as well. |
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Thread | Second BREXIT Referendum
at 16:30 21 Dec 2024
Time to put your thinking cap on again ohl  .
In my 'Thank You Nigel Farage' thread I suggested that Reform are going to have a huge bearing on the result of the next General Election. This thread is about the thought that things could go the completely opposite way.
One thing we know for certain (there's not many times you can say that in politics) is that Reform, aka Nigel Farage, are not going to stand on a platform of holding a second Brexit referendum at the next GE. Kemi Badenoch is a brexiteer so that rules out the Torys, at least while she's the leader.
So what if Labour does ? When a second ref has been talked about before now the general consensus has been that it's too early, that Brexit has to be given time to see how it works. If Labour do offer a second ref at the next GE and they win again the referendum probably wouldn't happen till at least 2032. So that would mean sixteen years after the first one. No one could argue that that is not enough time to see if Brexit was working or not.
And what would be the result. As far as i'm aware every single poll that has been taken over the last few years on how people would vote in another ref has shown a substantial majority for rejoining (in May it was 55% wrong to leave with 31% saying it was right to leave). And that majority will only get bigger. In the first ref it was mostly older people who voted to leave while younger people voted to remain. And there's only one way that different demography is going to change.
Over the next few years we may get caught up in a Trade war if Trump does follow up on his ideas about tarrifs. So little old UK would be stuck between the USA and the EU in that battle. And Labour will be in the perfect position to use that as an argument to rejoin especially as they'll have been working with the EU for a few years at that time trying to improve the current Brexit deal.
Another side benefit to Labour, who are a very pro Union party, is that a rejoin vote may also see off Scotlands fight for Indy. Just a thought. |
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Thread | Thank you Nigel Farage
at 10:22 20 Dec 2024
Now that's a thread title I never thought i'd create.
I said to my wife a number of times over the last five years or so that soon there's going to be a revolution in this country. And not one with bullets, barricades and beheadings. And Reform could very well be that revolution.
Millions of people are finally saying i'm not taking this any more. Whatever colour of government is elected 98% of us are essentially shat on. No matter how much money there is there's never enough to pay a huge number of people enough to live a decent life because 'the country can't afford it' while at the same time the 1 or 2% at the top have money thrown at them because they are the people at the top.
I'm not a Reform voter but i'm sure many millions more will become Reform voters over the next 4 years up till the next election. And for no other reason, I believe, than they are not Labour or Conservatives. They've got no policies that i'm aware of other than cutting immigration and what they are saying about that seems to be ridiculous. But people don't seem to care. They've just had enough.
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