Best Of

By-election kicking off with Goodwin's views on race already flagged up.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/27/matthew-goodwin-gorton-and-denton-reform-uk-minorities

Question is will it be the referendum that Goodwin wants it to be, on Starmer - or a referendum on Reform and these sort of views.

Point is you can vote against both with the Greens.

This by-election could be quite incendiary and I think the higher the stakes, the more likely we are to see a Caerphilly-type result, with the Greens the winners aided by a huge tactical vote.

The Greens, in their own way, are just a bad (if not worse) than Reform.

Their policy platform of wealth tax now, free Gaza, transvestives are women, open borders, just nuts and nothing at all on the environment.

No one cares about the environment anymore.

That's so 2019.

Apart from Ed Miliband.

Energy for AI seems to be the order of the day. Interesting to see at Davos people people pivoting away from ‘saving the planet’ to the need for energy.

Mr Fucking Ridiculously Expensive Electricity (FREE) Energy Man?

By-election kicking off with Goodwin's views on race already flagged up.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/27/matthew-goodwin-gorton-and-denton-reform-uk-minorities

Question is will it be the referendum that Goodwin wants it to be, on Starmer - or a referendum on Reform and these sort of views.

Point is you can vote against both with the Greens.

This by-election could be quite incendiary and I think the higher the stakes, the more likely we are to see a Caerphilly-type result, with the Greens the winners aided by a huge tactical vote.

The Greens, in their own way, are just a bad (if not worse) than Reform.

Their policy platform of wealth tax now, free Gaza, transvestives are women, open borders, just nuts and nothing at all on the environment.

No one cares about the environment anymore.

That's so 2019.

Apart from Ed Miliband.

Energy for AI seems to be the order of the day. Interesting to see at Davos people people pivoting away from ‘saving the planet’ to the need for energy.

A question to Blanche, and everyone else - switching word Islam to Christian - would you like to live in a society guided by Christian principles, comprising a Christian state?
* A Rejection of Neutrality: Christianity against the "neutral" state, believing that a society not built on Christian values would inevitably fall into chaos.
* Structure:
* The State: Its laws and, to some extent, its public institutions should be guided by Christianity principles, even if not every citizen is a devout believer.
* The Community: A society where the rhythm of life (holidays, work) and morality are implicitly Christian.
* The Community of Christianity: An intellectual and spiritual elite (the "conscious" part of the society) that maintains the theological and moral integrity of the culture. A supreme leader above all politicians.
* Christianity acts as a moral compass to the State, rather than being controlled by state. 

An interesting take by Alex Massie on Suella and Reform - I think he's right, and the comparison with Corbyn is instructive:

"... I think adding discredited and unpopular ex-Tory politicians to Reform contradicts Reform’s key message. That message is: The Establishment Parties Have Failed And We Are Different.

"The failure is plausible but it’s hard to argue for Reform’s difference when it becomes a kind of loopy facsimile of past Tory cabinets. This seems a risky ploy for Farage. Liz Truss may not be a member of Reform but we all know that if she votes at the next general election she’s more likely to vote Reform than Conservative.

"I suspect that far from proving Reform is ready for government, this sort of thing confirms they are not. The more interesting question, however, is whether or not the people voting Reform actually want Farage to become Prime Minister. I am not sure they do. Or, to put it another way, it is easier to vote Reform if you think this is really just a protest vote than it is if you think Reform might actually win. If so, the closer Farage comes to Downing Street, the harder it will be for him to actually get there.

"There is some precedent for this. In 2017, a vote for Jeremy Corbyn was seen as an essentially harmless act of protest. In 2019, a vote for Jeremy Corbyn carried the real risk he might somehow end up in Downing Street. This is the single simplest and most compelling explanation for why Labour did very well in 2017 and very badly in 2019.

"Reform isn’t quite at that stage yet. But it may get there eventually. The sweet spot for Farage is for him to always be on the brink of being a credible Prime Minister without every actually quite being taken seriously as such by the electorate."

I wonder whether those who are hoping against hope that the electorate will vote tactically to keep out Reform ever consider what is likely to happen if our politics just keeps on brushing aside the concerns of so many?

I suspect you have a valid point.

The trade off is Reform return people ahead of one in the GP queue from whence they came in exchange for having to pay an insurance premium for one's own place in the queue.