[News] Nigel Farage and Reform

[KZNSeagull]

Politics North was interesting this morning. The Reform panellist kept banging on about national issues not local, then totally poo-pooed "net zero" initiatives even though the ex leader of Durham CC pointed out that DCC's net zero strategy had cut council costs in the last 4 years, then when shown a film about a company (Gravitricity) that wants to use disused coal mine shafts to store energy in Easington Colliery (one of the poorest areas in the country), which would help regenerate the area and create jobs, his answer was to drill for more oil and gas rather. He was hopelessly out of his depth. The BBC needs to do more of this. Shame that there wouldn't have been many people watching though.

Sir Ed Davey on Kuenssberg this morning was making the right noises about calling out Reform for what they are (Trump fanboys), which was good to see.

 

[nevergoagain]

Which manifesto?

The reform policy document Giraffe linked yesterday which we were discussing.

 

[BadFish]

Politics North was interesting this morning. The Reform panellist kept banging on about national issues not local, then totally poo-pooed "net zero" initiatives even though the ex leader of Durham CC pointed out that DCC's net zero strategy had cut council costs in the last 4 years, then when shown a film about a company (Gravitricity) that wants to use disused coal mine shafts to store energy in Easington Colliery (one of the poorest areas in the country), which would help regenerate the area and create jobs, his answer was to drill for more oil and gas rather. He was hopelessly out of his depth. The BBC needs to do more of this. Shame that there wouldn't have been many people watching though.

Sir Ed Davey on Kuenssberg this morning was making the right noises about calling out Reform for what they are (Trump fanboys), which was good to see.

Sounds very much like ideology being a higher priority than common sense and local needs.

Something I feel like Farage has come out against in the past.

 

[GrizzlingGammon]

I'd vote for that

Would you also vote for reducing worker's rights?

 

[TomandJerry]

Politics North was interesting this morning. The Reform panellist kept banging on about national issues not local, then totally poo-pooed "net zero" initiatives even though the ex leader of Durham CC pointed out that DCC's net zero strategy had cut council costs in the last 4 years, then when shown a film about a company (Gravitricity) that wants to use disused coal mine shafts to store energy in Easington Colliery (one of the poorest areas in the country), which would help regenerate the area and create jobs, his answer was to drill for more oil and gas rather. He was hopelessly out of his depth. The BBC needs to do more of this. Shame that there wouldn't have been many people watching though.

Sir Ed Davey on Kuenssberg this morning was making the right noises about calling out Reform for what they are (Trump fanboys), which was good to see.

The Lib Dems are good at calling out Labour, Conservatives and Reform equally and actually talking a lot of sense

 

[chip]

I don't mean to cause anyone upset

Just trying to have an open debate, happy to be proven wrong, just feeling conflicted at the moment

There is a condition called electromagnetic hypersensitivity that can be exacerbated by the presence of electrical power cables (amongst others). A quick search on PubMed shows ~4000 papers but its causes seem manifold. It seems to affect 0.5-1.5% of people. You'd still have to bury cables deeply and screen them to get any meaningful reduction in electromagnetic radiation.

Pylons are cheap and ugly and not many people would want to have 400 000V suspended above their bedroom. There used to be a gap in the houses where the power lines crossed at Dacre Gardens by the old cement works, infilled years ago, so perhaps people don't mind now or can't afford elsewhere.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I don't mean to cause anyone upset

Just trying to have an open debate, happy to be proven wrong, just feeling conflicted at the moment

No worries.
I don't blame you for accepting what your search finds.
Maybe if you can edit your posts that refer to this it would be useful?

Medical conspiracy is a big issue and something I know about as part of my job.
I'm sure we all remember what happened after the triple vaccine scandal.
Even though Wakefield is now a pariah*,
you will still find parents letting their kids die by not getting them vaccinated. Scandalous.

*Wakefield could not deal with criticism, refused to accept his data dredge generated a random false finding,
and completely trashed his career. But he seems to be venal and has monetized it. This is how Wikipedia sums him up:

Andrew Jeremy Wakefield (born 3 September 1956) is a British fraudster, anti-vaccine activist, and disgraced former physician. He was struck off the medical register for "serious professional misconduct" due to his involvement in the fraudulent 1998 Lancet MMR autism study that falsely claimed a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism.

 

[BadFish]

There is a condition called electromagnetic hypersensitivity that can be exacerbated by the presence of electrical power cables (amongst others). A quick search on PubMed shows ~4000 papers but its causes seem manifold. It seems to affect 0.5-1.5% of people. You'd still have to bury cables deeply and screen them to get any meaningful reduction in electromagnetic radiation.

Pylons are cheap and ugly and not many people would want to have 400 000V suspended above their bedroom. There used to be a gap in the houses where the power lines crossed at Dacre Gardens by the old cement works, infilled years ago, so perhaps people don't mind now or can't afford elsewhere.

Any chance of a bit more than a 'quick look' and you actually post the study where you are getting your info from so it can be verified?

 

[TomandJerry]

Reform's manifesto/policies

https://assets.nationbuilder.com/re...eform_UK_Our_Contract_with_You.pdf?1718625371

 

[chip]

Any chance of a bit more than a 'quick look' and you actually post the study where you are getting your info from so it can be verified?

yes, PubMed, here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=electromagnetic+hypersensitivity

It's the main database of medical/biotech/etc

 

[TomandJerry]

No worries.
I don't blame you for accepting what your search finds.
Maybe if you can edit your posts that refer to this it would be useful?

Medical conspiracy is a big issue and something I know about as part of my job.
I'm sure we all remember what happened after the triple vaccine scandal.
Even though Wakefield is now a pariah*,
you will still find parents letting their kids die by not getting them vaccinated. Scandalous.

*Wakefield could not deal with criticism, refused to accept his data dredge generated a random false finding,
and completely trashed his career. But he seems to be venal and has monetized it. This is how Wikipedia sums him up:

Andrew Jeremy Wakefield (born 3 September 1956) is a British fraudster, anti-vaccine activist, and disgraced former physician. He was struck off the medical register for "serious professional misconduct" due to his involvement in the fraudulent 1998 Lancet MMR autism study that falsely claimed a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism.

The MMR vaccine and Autism issue has a direct impact on someone with in my family which I won't go into detail on here, it's sometimes difficult to separate the truth from the different varieties of the truth that people tell

 

[Berty23]

The reform policy document Giraffe linked yesterday which we were discussing.

Which were the policies that you were liked. I read it at the time and it was a load of unfunded nonsense. If you care to highlight the bits you like then I will explain how they are a shambles.

They simply say

“We will reduce “wasteful” spending by £50 billion per year across all government departments, quangos and commissions.”

This is like the crap spouted by DOGE saying they will save trillions when in reality it is a few billion. It is absolutely mental and means all the rest of their manifesto is uncosted nonsense. It will crash the economy faster than truss.

50 billion is give or take the entire defence budget and they think they can save that with sorting some inefficiencies on already massively strained budgets. It is laughable.

 

[Berty23]

The MMR vaccine and Autism issue has a direct impact on someone with in my family which I won't go into detail on here, it's sometimes difficult to separate the truth from the different varieties of the truth that people tell

This sounds interesting. If this is real and proven causality then it is worth escalating.

 

[BadFish]

yes, PubMed, here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=electromagnetic+hypersensitivity

It's the main database of medical/biotech/etc

There is 4000 odd studies there? Can you be a bit more specific, they are quite long.

 

[Berty23]

Reform also don’t explain the massive economic impact of removing the EU regulations we follow SO WE CAN TRADE WITH EUROPE. it is absolutely mental. They see them as costs. It is fairy story stuff.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Sadly, it’s the type of Trumpian conspiracy theory bollox that we can increasingly expect from Reform UK.

And when they are called out for their lies and nonsense, they’ll accuse their critics of peddling Fake News, and of being ‘the liberal elite’ or ‘bloody experts’.

Pure 100% Trump play-book tactics.

Here is the odd thing.

It is possible to live in a bubble of conspiracy without coming to harm.
This is because on average we are so much richer and safer than we were in, say, the 60s and 70s (and 80s and 90s and noughties).
So someone can live for years in a rented flat, earning just enough to function without jeopardy,
and then fill their reference space with nonsense found on the internet.

Unless they actually get properly ill and decide to go it alone,
with some useless shit found online, no harm to themself is likely to arise.

And ironically such people are increasingly being sucked into all this deep state fake news nonsense,
thinking that their future is genuinely under threat from wokes, trained marxists and the like.
And that Nigel will save us.

So ironically it is only when things genuinely go tits up, benefits removed, fuel subsidies removed,
income support removed, working from home removed, DEI checks and balances removed,
and the person is hounded out of work because their 'dyslexia' or 'dyspraxia' are now classed as
being a bit thick and unfit for the job, that they may truly experience what an existential threat looks like.

And ironically if anything is likely to hasten this apotheosis, it is an expansion of the Farage political franchise.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Much as I would prefer not to have to look at the pylons and turbines that spoil my view across the Mersey estuary, and don'twant the solar farm that has also been proposed as that will be another eyesore, I am not voting Reform just because of my nimbyism.

Although another of people did and I am now lumbered with a Reform MP making nonsense noises all over.

The care home my wife is in had to recruit staff from Nigeria because they couldn't get any locals to work there, so I am in favour or more boats, not fewer.

 

[BadFish]

The MMR vaccine and Autism issue has a direct impact on someone with in my family which I won't go into detail on here, it's sometimes difficult to separate the truth from the different varieties of the truth that people tell

You need to read up on this as it has been totally debunked and as HWT said the original author has been disgraced for falsifying evidence. I am not sure of your family issue but there really must be another explanation for it.

 

[GrizzlingGammon]

Standing up for the working people of Britain by scrapping employment laws and making it easier to hire and fire.

 

[TomandJerry]

You need to read up on this as it has been totally debunked and as HWT said the original author has been disgraced for falsifying evidence. I am not sure of your family issue but there really must be another explanation for it.

Back when it happened, the report wasn't debunked at the time, I believe ? (Not sure when it was debunked) And that opinion has been long onto