Mind the Gap

There's a lot to say about Reform. A lot of gaps to talk about.

Like the gap between what they say and what they do.

They make big, bold, simple promises — but they don't keep them. They promised to reduce our tax burden by £90 billion. A big-time announcement quietly dropped weeks later. They made campaign promises in local elections; in Lincolnshire they promised to save £10s of millions on IT spending, by mimicking Trump's ill-fated DOGE initiative, then claimed to have made them — only to be rebuffed by the facts — no savings were made at all. In Kent they campaigned and took control with a promise to cut council tax. Once elected they promptly put taxes up, by the maximum allowable amount.

Reform campaigns against green energy, claiming it to be bad for the country — while their deputy leader makes a business out of it. Richard Tice's companies, the ones that are not in tax havens, boast of their green energy and net zero initiatives — while he tells us it's all 'stupid net zero'. What's good for them is not good for us.

Then there's a fact gap. Immigration is a good example. They claim it's 'spiralling out of control'. The facts beg to differ. Immigration is down 80% from its post-Brexit peak of about two years ago — and still falling. It is very much under control. Brexit was of course Farage's obsession; we should not let him forget the gap between what he claimed it would be good for — and what it actually turned out to be good for — absolutely nothing. Not even immigration. That took a Labour government.

Reform also creates reality gaps — gaps between the pictures they paint and actuality — without using numbers. The hysteria around small boat crossings is a great example. Polling shows that most Brits think this is how most immigrants come into our country — across the Channel. No surprise perhaps with the media coverage given to it. The truth is just 5% of immigrants enter the UK this way. The vast majority of immigrants come in on study or work visas — nearly 80%.

Of course Brexit made immigration harder to control; the Europeans we offended for fun in the Brexit campaign and aftermath felt no compulsion to help us plug the gaps that Brexit left in border control. Farage overlooks this. It's an inconvenient truth.

Reform also paints a picture that immigration is bad for us, that immigrants are a drain on our resources — the facts say different. One in five people working in our NHS are immigrants; it simply wouldn't function without them. And immigrants pay £20 billion a year in tax between them. A shed load of money. And of course, immigrants make up 40% of Reform's 'shadow cabinet'… how funny, how very 'say one thing do another'. Tax dodgers are the real drain on our country — people like Richard Tice, who do all that is humanly possible (within the law) to pay less tax, using "rare and complex procedures" that are not available to ordinary people. Their patriotism stops at the taxman's door.

Green energy is another fact gap topic. Reform blames it for high energy bills — the facts point to fossil fuel prices. They claim green energy is costing jobs in the North Sea causing it to shrink — but the fact is it's been shrinking for 30 years, since way before green energy became a thing. They claim we need more drilling to lower our bills — but global markets set the price of our North Sea oil and gas — no amount made here can shield us from the global fossil fuel rollercoaster.

In the forthcoming May elections we need to fight Reform with facts and figures and the courage to use them. Especially on issues that have been made politically 'sensitive' — like immigration and green energy. Their story is a false one. We need to say so.

But Reform are just the symptom. Before the next election we need to tackle the root cause of Reform. Disaffection, disappointment, millions of people marginalised and struggling to live — in a country that prioritises wealth and wealthy people and big business interests over the people themselves. In a country that just voted for change after 14 years of Tory misrule and corruption. Millions of us expected more to change by now. Reform voters are angry; they reach for Reform instinctively, all else has failed. It's not logical, it's desperation — which in its own way is logical.

To fight Reform we need reform. A major reform of our country.

Of our tax system, our energy market, our water industry — and many other areas of life where the balance has been lost — between the interests of big business and the wealthy — and those of the common people.

Fact-checking the fibbers

Robert Jenrick

Smug Robert Jenrick berated people for fare dodging in his old dead-end job as Tory Shadow Justice Secretary. He said he hoped to "shame people into action" and posted a message on X saying: "Sadiq Khan is driving a proud city into the ground. Lawbreaking is out of control." (Fact: London has the lowest murder rate in over a decade.)

Has Robert forgotten that he unlawfully approved a planning application for a Tory donor, to help him avoid £40m in taxes — which would have been paid to the poorest borough in London. Is it OK for your rich friends to avoid paying taxes Robert? We all pay them.

Hypocrisy on steroids is what this stunt is (not a typo — stunt).