Reform UK are ditching their ‘Contract for Voters’. Pre-election, they dismissed other parties’ manifestos as lies. I think they now realise their Contract is utter fantasy. How ironic!
They proposed that no-one earning under £20k would pay tax – guaranteed to be popular! However, they also proposed large tax cuts for the extremely wealthy (benefitting the extremely wealthy Richard Tice, Rupert Lowe and Nigel Farage – three of the five Reform MPs – as well as Lee Anderson, with his large GB News salary). What a coincidence!
The problem is ‘the sums don’t add up’, as the Institute for Fiscal Studies pointed out; and the plans would have caused a crash worse than Liz Truss’s debacle if implemented. How many who voted for Reform did so thinking it was a serious proposal?
Their Contract proposed: scrapping all Net Zero legislation as too expensive; fast-tracking North Sea Oil and Gas exploration; and granting new fracking licences. Based on what information? There is plentiful evidence which demonstrates that scrapping Net Zero would be far more expensive than implementation once repairing consequential damage is taken into account. Sky-high energy bills are due to volatile gas prices, not renewables; and fracking is not safe, with earthquakes just one of the proven consequences. Reform UK’s proposals are evidence-free and basically daft.
Even sillier are their proposals on immigration. Dumping immigrants on the French coast is against international law. Leaving the European Convention on Human Rights would weaken protections for every UK citizen and undermine the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland. That’s just dumb!
If Reform drop the ‘easy answer that solves nothing’ (as Starmer put it), that would be welcome. But they increase popular support through their disinformation. Unless they reform themselves and get serious, they will continue to be what Farage promised they would be – ‘a bloody nuisance’.
Of course, since they are a meaninglessly small element in Parliament (despite Farage’s ludicrous claim to be the opposition!), they have no chance of implementing their contract, anyway; but they’ve certainly reinforced the notion that promises are made purely to win votes and no politicians can be trusted. If their objective was to further disillusion their supporters, then they have probably succeeded!
Dilys Morgan
Torquay
