Best Of

I can never fathom why anyone who has committed themselves to one political party, even if only for career reasons, would change straight over to another party. In that situation, I would be spending at least 6 months as an independent.

I think we underestimate the extent to which politicians are people and their relationships matter to them. A defection may be as much about a relationship someone has developed with a politician in another party that they find is surprisingly like-minded, then it is about ideology or career ambitions.

I suppose it's always worth considering that politicians only support part of their party's platform, just like the rest of us. I usually vote Tory in general elections but it's unlikely I support 50% of their manifesto, just I agree with less of the other parties'. If I support 40% of the LibDems' manifesto then I am close to switching (and in fact I normally vote Lib Dem in local elections)

You'd expect a MP to support a bit more of their party's platform, but platforms change and other parties may become better at representing their views

My apolitical Russian mother's family left Russia in 1927 not because they passionately disagreed with the Revolution but because it was increasingly mandatory to support the current government line *which frequently changed*. They moved to Danzig/Gdansk, and found it was in some ways worse, with the future Gauleiter living next door and flying the Nazi flag (they put up a Soviet flag as a way of avoiding guilt by association). My grandfather, very talented in languages, started a second legal career in Berlin. They sheltered Jewish families in Gdansk and muddled on until 1937, when the trend was clear, and then used banking connections to move to Britain, except my grandfather, who started a third civil legal career in Argentina. The idea was that the family would join him once he was established, but WW2 intervened and stopped all civilian traffic; by the time it resumed the amicable separation was permanent. Fed up with Continental fanaticism, my mother loved the apolitical British and enthusiastically adopted British nationality, speakig English without an accent very quickly. She refused to teach me Russian, on the basis that bilingual kids didn't have a solld allegiance, and we were British, full stop. She voted Tory throughout her adult life on the basis that they were blessedly free of dogma - she revised her opinion on the arrival of Thatcher, and joined Chelsea Labour Party so as to support me, though she'd turn up to branch meetings wearing her fur coat and looking distinctly out of place. She bonded with the one genuinely working-class member, who recognised her genuine friendliness, but regarded the various earnest middle-class leftists with suspicion.

Strange background! I've never disowned it, any more than I've disowned my teenage communist sympathies that reacted against my apolitical parents. We are all creatures of our environment.

This country must stand united against this evil policy

Farage pledges to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/09/21/farage-reform-pledges-expel-hundreds-thousands-migrants/

I've several Indian colleagues who live over here. Difficult to know what to say truthfully to them if they mentioned any of this. 'Get out while you still can'?

It must be resisted by anyone with a moral compass

I can't read the details because I am not a Telegraph subscriber, and nobody else seems to have the story yet.

Daily Telegraph - "Nigel Farage will pledge to eject hundreds of thousands of legal migrants in an unprecedented reversal of Britain’s relaxed border rules.

The Reform UK leader will unveil plans to force all migrants with permanent residency to reapply for visas under stricter criteria including a higher salary requirement and a better standard of English.

The party would also change the law to prevent foreign nationals from accessing the British welfare system. The party claims this would save £234bn over the lifetime of the average migrant.

Writing in The Telegraph, below, Zia Yusuf, Reform’s policy chief, said the changes would lead to “hundreds of thousands of people having to apply and ultimately losing their settled status in the UK” on a staggered basis to prevent disruption to businesses."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/09/21/farage-reform-pledges-expel-hundreds-thousands-migrants/

Edit. I don't subscribe to the Telegraph but this article appears to be free to read?

Are they seriously going to suggest this for people with Indefinite Leave to Remain/Settled Status. This is entirely bonkers involving millions of absolutely ordinary people who have made their home, lawfully, here for years.

This country must stand united against this evil policy

Farage pledges to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/09/21/farage-reform-pledges-expel-hundreds-thousands-migrants/

I've several Indian colleagues who live over here. Difficult to know what to say truthfully to them if they mentioned any of this. 'Get out while you still can'?

It must be resisted by anyone with a moral compass

Evening all.
Its the sort of rhetoric which will start to turn away the Centre Right grey vote in droves. Most of them didnt sign up for rounding up settled immigrants.
The country is losing its damn mind

Nonsense, it's just not renewing visas worded poorly. Anyone who came on an unskilled worker visa should not have it renewed and they should be told to return to their home country. Everyone who came on a skilled worker visa should now have to meet the new higher income threshold or face visa revocation and return to their home country. Three million migrants and dependents are in the pipeline for citizenship, if they get it there's a lifetime of welfare the rest of us need to pay for because they will never make enough contributions over their working lives to make the numbers work. There's £300bn or so of welfare liability we're inviting unnecessarily, we don't have to give them citizenship, they can be asked to return to their home countries.

This country must stand united against this evil policy

Farage pledges to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/09/21/farage-reform-pledges-expel-hundreds-thousands-migrants/

I've several Indian colleagues who live over here. Difficult to know what to say truthfully to them if they mentioned any of this. 'Get out while you still can'?

It must be resisted by anyone with a moral compass

I can't read the details because I am not a Telegraph subscriber, and nobody else seems to have the story yet.

Daily Telegraph - "Nigel Farage will pledge to eject hundreds of thousands of legal migrants in an unprecedented reversal of Britain’s relaxed border rules.

The Reform UK leader will unveil plans to force all migrants with permanent residency to reapply for visas under stricter criteria including a higher salary requirement and a better standard of English.

The party would also change the law to prevent foreign nationals from accessing the British welfare system. The party claims this would save £234bn over the lifetime of the average migrant.

Writing in The Telegraph, below, Zia Yusuf, Reform’s policy chief, said the changes would lead to “hundreds of thousands of people having to apply and ultimately losing their settled status in the UK” on a staggered basis to prevent disruption to businesses."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/09/21/farage-reform-pledges-expel-hundreds-thousands-migrants/

Edit. I don't subscribe to the Telegraph but this article appears to be free to read?

Are they seriously going to suggest this for people with Indefinite Leave to Remain/Settled Status. This is entirely bonkers involving millions of absolutely ordinary people who have made their home, lawfully, here for years.

Would mean that I couldn’t return to the UK with my wife unless she had a job to go to.

I am so angry that I would, for the first time, join protests against it but unfortunately my mobility has deteriorated so much recently I am having to have a hospital style mobility bed installed so it is not possible

It doesn't however stop me talking and online campaigning against it

Sorry to hear that @Big_G_NorthWales

You have a big bunch of friends here. Happy to chat

That nice of you

Both my wife and I are struggling with mobilty and pain at night from osteoarthritis and other issues

We struggle to sleep well, so we decided to call in a specialist mobility company who are producing a double bed with individual articulated mattresses that will raise to near vertical and elevate the legs and feet at the same time. It has to be made taking into account our weight and heights and is effectively a hospital specific double bed

It is expensive, but if it provides some relief going forward which we are sure it will [ only one pillow is needed ] then it is a worthwhile investment

We both intend to hang around for as long as possible [and take on Farage ] which you may not quite like !!!!

The Liberal Democrats are considering ditching their longstanding opposition to ID cards amid reports Sir Keir Starmer is set push ahead with a digital scheme.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y44pekj28o

"ID cards" you say? Surely there must be an incoming vanity by election for Goole and Pocklington.

I’ve always said I’m in favour of ID cards, if the following conditions are met:

1) They’re issued for free

2) You don’t have to carry them at all times

3) You can use them chip and pin to access all government services - so they would replace passports and driving licences, not augment them

4) That you had the power to access all information the government holds on you, and amend it where it is wrong

5) That civil servants who access your data are logged, and you can see who they are and why they accessed it

6) That if somebody has accessed your data inappropriately you have the right to take legal action against them, funded by the government.

1 won't happen (deficit)

2 would see the police lose interest.

3 would be a bit of a pain to implement.

And numbers 4-6 will not happen while any civil servant breathes air.

So - I oppose them.