Reform hat zum ersten Mal mehr Mitglieder als Tories

All of them well versed in the art of politics and diplomacy I’m sure.

We went out for Xmas day dinner and somehow the conversation turned to politics and suddenly had 4 tables of strangers all around us agreeing with my parents that reform is the way to go. Merry bloody Christmas haha

So much to unpick here.

1. Members? Or registered donors with no voting or membership rights?

2. Reform U.K. are not beyond fabricating such numbers.

3. Conservative Party don’t publish membership numbers. The figure quoted is the number eligible to vote in the last Conservative leadership election. How does that compare with the number of Reform ‘members’ eligible to vote in a leadership election?

Can’t anyone from anywhere become a member of a political party?

Their website says that by the law only donations over £500 need to be verified as part of the UK electoral register.

To be fair, the winter does usually see a significant decrease in Tory members

“According to an annual poll of 45,000 UK consumers by the market research company Savanta, in 2022 GB News was the nation’s third ‘most loved’ news brand, behind The Guardian and Metro. In the May 2023 survey, it was ranked as the UK’s most-loved news brand, ahead of The Guardian and The Sun. Savanta explained that the channel’s high ranking was a result of its “Marmite” appeal, whereby its dedicated viewers are obsessively positive about the channel. Savanta explained that GB News “taps into a certain demographic’s belief that mainstream media cannot be trusted”.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GB_News#:~:text=According%20to%20an,cannot%20be%20trusted%22

Reform doesn’t have members as it’s not a party, but a company.

How many of these people actually exist and this isn’t just a narrative being pushed?

Again, and again, immigration isn’t the problem.

People talk of a lack of housing being taken by immigrants.

A lack of appointments being taken by immigrants.

A lack of community spirit, because they blame immigrants.

Nobody is calling out landlords price gouging, people with second holiday homes left for half of the year, the [265,000 empty houses](https://www.actiononemptyhomes.org/facts-and-figures) the construction companies sitting on approved planning sites so they can limit the supply and demand higher prices.

Nobody is calling out 15 years of austerity cuts to healthcare (funding has not only been cut, any “additional” funding hasn’t matched inflation anyway).

Nobody is saying how many shops and offices are closing (plenty of land to be repurposed), and that [only ~10% of the UK is built upon](https://fullfact.org/economy/has-92-country-not-been-built/), meaning we have 90% non urban land use.

Nobody explains how, while an asylum application is pending, [often taking 2 years due to tory policy cuts](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-september-2024/how-many-cases-are-in-the-uk-asylum-system), people are prevented from working. They also cannot apply for a private rental property. So not allowed to work, not allowed to rent, they are beholden to the system.

Arriving by boat via any means, to claim asylum, is not illegal. Specifically because there is no means to apply, while outside of the UK. (Except if a member of your direct family is in the UK and applies on your behalf)

When I say nobody, I mean those right leaning, because they are tory policies that caused the problem, and they allowed the overly simplistic blame to become the only topic.

All in total, for a population of [68,300,000](https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/bulletins/annualmidyearpopulationestimates/mid2023) people, covering ~10% of the land, there were [52,739 applications granted](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-december-2023/how-many-people-do-we-grant-protection-to) in 2024.

Immigration (specifically the one people seem to be shouting about on boats) is not the problem.

Failed policies are.

Stop blaming vulnerable people.

What with our electoral system, one side of the political spectrum being fractured amongst different parties will, with absolute certainty, lead to their failure to gain power.

There’s a reason labour won such a landslide despite getting less votes than when Corbyn was in charge. The right split their vote.

Reforms success isn’t the death knell to progressivism people here seem to think it is.

To be clear though our electoral system is dogshit and undemocratic. It does keep things painfully stable though.