Tories - the dead body twitches.

[beak]

I'm starting to worry that the "twitchers" moniker might catch on and insult the august band of travelling birdwatchers who twitch. 😆

 

[Willo]

Why don't you try pursuing some actual conservative policies.

We have taken the first step in the UK’s biggest policy renewal programme in 50 years.

 

[steeleye20]

Never expected them to become so irrelevant, but if your only subjects are small boats and immigration, having caused both of them yourselves, what do you have.

'A dead sheep' - Dennis Healey.

😎

 

[Stirlingsays]

Labour are foundering with poorly thought-out polices and political dead-ends and there is precious little to suggest that Reform would be any different.
They spout a good game but being able to grab headlines is not the same as being ready for office.
There are those who believe that Badenoch is not the right person to lead the Conservatives into the next election but whatever her shortcomings she will not sell one a cure if she doesn't have one.

Looking at the economic situation.....it doesn't really matter that much who is elected at the next election.

To my mind to turn the economy around would require drastic surgery.....of the type that would send the media and institutions into rebellion. All these scenarios would have been 'war-gamed' in the Treasury....well you'd think so.

Nevertheless I asked Grok, what would it look like if the next government implemented Milei's playbook in Argentina:

Is it realistic, I'll let you guys be the judge:

• What It Would Look Like in Real Terms:Milei's playbook—slash state size by 30%, deregulate daily, achieve zero deficit—scaled to the UK (~$3.7T debt, £1.2T annual spending) would be transformative but painful. Phased over 1-2 years for feasibility:
  • Spending Cuts (30-40% Real Terms, ~£400-500B Annually): Eliminate/privatize non-essentials: Close 10-13 departments (e.g., merge Culture/Media/Sport into Digital; axe Levelling Up). Fire 300K-500K public workers (10% of 5M total, like Argentina's 30K cut). Slash welfare/pensions (e.g., raise retirement age to 70, means-test NHS, cut subsidies £100B+). Real impact: Short-term recession (GDP -2-5%, unemployment to 8-10%), poverty rise (from 20% to 30%+ initially), but long-term surplus (+2% GDP) and growth (3-5% via investment). E.g., Argentina's cuts halved inflation but spiked poverty to 53% before falling.
  • Deregulation and Privatization: "One in, one out" rule: Repeal 1,000+ EU-derived regs daily (e.g., planning laws, labor protections). Privatize BBC, Royal Mail, student loans, rail fully. Lift business taxes (corporate to 15%). Real terms: Boom in startups (UK already strong), lower energy costs (deregulate fracking), but inequality up (wages lag initially). Like Milei's 366 deregulations in year 1, boosting exports 20%.
  • Monetary/Fiscal Overhaul: BoE independence intact, but end QE; target zero deficit via tax cuts (income to 15%). No dollarization (pound stable). Real impact: Bond yields fall (from 5.7% to 3-4%), attracting FDI (£50-100B/year), but inflation spike short-term (to 5-7%) from cuts.
  • Social/Political Fallout: Protests (hundreds of thousands, like Argentina's), midterm losses, but if sustained (e.g., via coalition), approval could rise (Milei's at 50%+). Long-term: Balanced budget by 2027, debt-to-GDP to 60% by 2030, per OBR-like models. But failure risks 2010 austerity backlash amplified.

In real terms, it would feel like a "shock" recession first (job losses, service cuts hitting vulnerable), then recovery (cheaper living, higher wages as in Argentina +10% real by mid-2025). Feasible? Only if framed as averting collapse, per UK free-market advocates. Otherwise, gradualism (e.g., Reeves' November 2025 budget) prevails.

 

[Willo]

Never expected them to become so irrelevant, but if your only subjects are small boats and immigration, having caused both of them yourselves, what do you have.

'A dead sheep' - Dennis Healey.

😎

Apropos "Small boats",Figures released confirmed that the number of small boat crossings from the date that Labour came to power on 5 July last year had passed 50,000 by Monday, 11 August.
This is more than 13,000 higher than for the same period a year earlier - as between 5 July 2023 and 11 August 2024 there were 36,346 migrant crossings in small boats.
This is not the first time 50,000 people have crossed the Channel during a 403-day period.

I am about to depart for a chinwag with my Conservative chums !

 

[beak]

Apropos "Small boats",Figures released confirmed that the number of small boat crossings from the date that Labour came to power on 5 July last year had passed 50,000 by Monday, 11 August.
This is more than 13,000 higher than for the same period a year earlier - as between 5 July 2023 and 11 August 2024 there were 36,346 migrant crossings in small boats.
This is not the first time 50,000 people have crossed the Channel during a 403-day period.

I am about to depart for a chinwag with my Conservative chums !

Maria Caulfield has deserted the HMS Tory and sails under the Reform flag.

 

[silvertop]

Apropos "Small boats",Figures released confirmed that the number of small boat crossings from the date that Labour came to power on 5 July last year had passed 50,000 by Monday, 11 August.
This is more than 13,000 higher than for the same period a year earlier - as between 5 July 2023 and 11 August 2024 there were 36,346 migrant crossings in small boats.
This is not the first time 50,000 people have crossed the Channel during a 403-day period.

I am about to depart for a chinwag with my Conservative chums !

Do you know one reason (not all) why they come here, cross countries that are perfectly safe, and endure the genuine dangers of a Channel crossing on a glorified Lilo.

Brexit. Hear me out.

When they arrive in an EU state they make their application. Turned down, a rejection by one is rejection by all. Their only option is to head for a non-EU state. And guess where the next trail leads them...

Always thought it frustrating that a whole chunk of the population voted Leave to address non-EU migration. That Farage sought to conflate the 2 unconnected issues with considerable success says more about the voting population than anything else.

Anyway, one person on here once asked me: do I blame everything on Brexit? In reply, let's just say the evidence is mounting.

 

[HKOwen]

Apropos "Small boats",Figures released confirmed that the number of small boat crossings from the date that Labour came to power on 5 July last year had passed 50,000 by Monday, 11 August.
This is more than 13,000 higher than for the same period a year earlier - as between 5 July 2023 and 11 August 2024 there were 36,346 migrant crossings in small boats.
This is not the first time 50,000 people have crossed the Channel during a 403-day period.

I am about to depart for a chinwag with my Conservative chums !

Labour are worse than the previous government but that doesn't make the previous government's record any better, Boris is our Merkel as far as unwanted and undesirable immigration is concerned.

 

[georgenorman]

Do you know one reason (not all) why they come here, cross countries that are perfectly safe, and endure the genuine dangers of a Channel crossing on a glorified Lilo.

Brexit. Hear me out.

When they arrive in an EU state they make their application. Turned down, a rejection by one is rejection by all. Their only option is to head for a non-EU state. And guess where the next trail leads them...

Always thought it frustrating that a whole chunk of the population voted Leave to address non-EU migration. That Farage sought to conflate the 2 unconnected issues with considerable success says more about the voting population than anything else.

Anyway, one person on here once asked me: do I blame everything on Brexit? In reply, let's just say the evidence is mounting.

I blame daft posts on here from the Left, on Brexit.

 

[HKOwen]

Do you know one reason (not all) why they come here, cross countries that are perfectly safe, and endure the genuine dangers of a Channel crossing on a glorified Lilo.

Brexit. Hear me out.

When they arrive in an EU state they make their application. Turned down, a rejection by one is rejection by all. Their only option is to head for a non-EU state. And guess where the next trail leads them...

Always thought it frustrating that a whole chunk of the population voted Leave to address non-EU migration. That Farage sought to conflate the 2 unconnected issues with considerable success says more about the voting population than anything else.

Anyway, one person on here once asked me: do I blame everything on Brexit? In reply, let's just say the evidence is mounting.

The option is not to enter the UK illegally. You seem to think everybody and anybody in the world has a right to come to the UK as an economic migrant.

 

[beak]

We have taken the first step in the UK’s biggest policy renewal programme in 50 years.

Mass migration to the Reform Party,we have noticed plus the closing down notice, auf weidersehen.

 

[Willo]

Mass migration to the Reform Party,we have noticed plus the closing down notice, auf weidersehen.

I do try to add substantive comment to often speculative and inaccurate supposition.
Apropos 'Mass migration', Reform have the solution, it will be so easy to 'Stop the boats'. Flick of a switch and 'Hey Presto' the problem has been solved. Total and utter hogwash, junk politics built on sand.

 

[beak]

Reform is not a serious party of government. It is a vehicle for resentment, built on empty promises.
We Conservatives will certainly not be deflected from our mission to deliver on the 'Policy Renewal Programme' by a 'Green grasser' MP.
We really need more intellectual and moral depth in our politics, not one-note opportunists who simply catch the prevailing mood.

*Newsflash* Your Party will NEVER be in power to deliver a tabloid newspaper let alone policy,what is left of the ( very lonely) tories are the unelectable few unwanted by any other party.

 

[Willo]

*Newsflash* Your Party will NEVER be in power to deliver a tabloid newspaper let alone policy,what is left of the ( very lonely) tories are the unelectable few unwanted by any other party.

The Conservatives have nigh on 120 MPs, compared to Reform who have the grand total of 5.

 

[beak]

The Conservatives have nigh on 120 MPs, compared to Reform who have the grand total of 5.

Well,Labour have 399 M.P.s that is the size of the mountain your party will need to scale.The public have left them out on the kerbside awaiting the dustman to take away. Bad- Enough being elected accelerated the tory decline, it said we are carrying on as we were,we have learnt nothing ,the defections since her arrival have been eye watering.

 

[georgenorman]

We just do not know how the next general election will pan out. In 1981, the Liberal-SNP Alliance were at 52% in the opinion polls, but in the 1983 election only won 23 seats even though they got nearly 8 million votes.

 

[Willo]

Well,Labour have 399 M.P.s that is the size of the mountain your party will need to scale.The public have left them out on the kerbside awaiting the dustman to take away. Bad- Enough being elected accelerated the tory decline, it said we are carrying on as we were,we have learnt nothing ,the defections since her arrival have been eye watering.

It is accepted that the number of Labour MPs elected at the next General Election will be substantially less than that total.
We Conservatives are under no illusions as to the challenges we face. We have lost the trust of the electorate and we have to work extremely hard to regain it.Unlike Reform we will not gallivant down the pathway of hastily assembled knee-jerk reactions and outlandish pledges.

 

[georgenorman]

It is accepted that the number of Labour MPs elected at the next General Election will be substantially less than that total.
We Conservatives are under no illusions as to the challenges we face. We have lost the trust of the electorate and we have to work extremely hard to regain it.Unlike Reform we will not gallivant down the pathway of hastily assembled knee-jerk reactions and outlandish pledges.

Yes, you will be just a slightly better version of the current government.

 

[beak]

Yes, you will be just a slightly better version of the current government.

Damned by faint praise.

 

[Willo]

Yes, you will be just a slightly better version of the current government.

With respect you are making such a judgement whist we are in the midst of a substantial 'Policy Renewal Programme' and the General Election is hardly imminent.