I don't think she does - too divisive and I see now has started rambling off in the US a la Truss. That's a more likely career for her than PM IMO.

I think the Tories can be confident that Reform will see a lot turbulence over the next couple of years, and if the Tories position themselves as the 'sensible' voice of the right, that feels like the right play to me.

There are plenty of right leaning people who find the likes of Farage and Braverman disagreeable - the boats stuff is clearly flavour of the month, but that won't be the case in 5 years.

Perhaps it is a tad too simplistic to add the Conservative vote of 6.8 Mill to the Reform vote of 4 Mill and draw the conclusion that the Conservatives might still be in power had Reform not contested the election.

Few would deny that most of that Reform vote came from those who had voted Conservative in the last election, but Reform also drew significant votes from erstwhile Labour supporters.

The Tories lost primarily because of their staggering incompetence over the last few years, the rest was just sideshows.

You do things when in a position to do them.

When you aren't you just make noise.

Which is all Reform are doing and are destined to continue doing.

In some ways, it would be a joy to see them doing things, just for a few days, like Truss. The result would be the same.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

And in voting for Reform we now have a Government who will release thousands of prisoners and give all asylum seekers an amnesty.
You were warned.
The lunatics are now in charge of the asylum!

Edited by The Dolphin (09 Jul 2024 5.32pm)

To win modern elections in this country you need to be centre right or centre left.

Muddled policies, a recent history of failure, poor campaigning with a lack of focus on swing voters and multiple unelected leaders in a short space of time, plus the incumbent problem did for the Tories.

Just like those on the left, those on the right are guilty of confirmation bias when it comes to how large a portion of the electorate they actually have, or will ever have.'

Also re. percentages, and overstating Reform performance, for ref.

'The Conservatives lost votes to everyone. 25% of the 2019 vote to Reform, 23% to the left. The latter count double. Losing votes to the left ensured election defeat. Bleeding so heavily to reform turned that defeat into a cataclysm.'

Viewed from 2015, we've mostly seen the same ~15% of voters grow, collapse into the Tory vote, then re-spawn. It's not some new massive surge in right-populist voting.

Edited by SW19 CPFC (09 Jul 2024 7.06pm)

Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.