How many seats will Reform get do you think or is a total………

Labour's last manifesto was even more leaky but I'd guess you and the rest of the sheep still voted it.

 

It definitely wasn't. The argument back then was that money needed to be invested in public services, and they identified taxes that could be raised to achieve that.

Reform's 2024 manifesto is promising both lower tax and better services - if a Labour campaign dared to present anything like that they'd get absolutely crucified.

 

Most sane thinking people thought otherwise.

 

Aye they brought us Boris Johnson and his cronies, that went well didn’t it

 

They’re currently predicted to get 5-7 seats.

 

What are people’s thoughts on Farage’s comments on Putin?

I can’t stand Farage but I don’t see an issue with what he’s said.

Of course NATO moving east & training troops in Ukraine antagonised Russia. It doesn’t justify them invading Ukraine but it will have surely annoyed Putin.

 

At least they provided a costed manifesto & their plans were budgeted for with tax increases.

Now we’re told we’re going to see all these new police & nurses with massive improvements to the NHS but there don’t seem to be any tax increases.

It just doesn’t add up.

 

I'm a huge advocate for electoral reform as the current system isn't fit for purpose. But I'm by no means oblivious to how PR would allow a significant number of Reform MP's into parliament. For me it's the principle that FPTP is inequitable, and leads to a huge number of wasted votes. I can't suddenly change my mind because the system I believe is best might bring about a result I don't like.

 

The key thing is it doesn't justify what he's done and making up excuses for it is no different than saying woman provoked a man by wearing a short skirt

 

I agree. I detest Farage, but what he's said isn't unreasonable on the face of things, and certainly doesn't make him a Putin apologist.

Unfortunately there are certain subjects that seem to be completely taboo for discussion, and the country is a much poorer place for it. The reasons for the invasion of Ukraine are complex and multi-faceted, not just that Putin is a nutcase with a serious personality disorder (although he probably is at least one of these). It's the same as anyone who expresses doubts about the wisdom of letting children with gender issues self-indentify in schools immediately gets shot down as "transphobic", despite often being anything but.

 

Why would it annoy him unless of course the invasion was always part of his plans and if Ukraine would have secured NATO membership it would have prevented it. There's a reason all these ex Warsaw pack and USSR countries wanted the security of being in NATO and it's because they knew from pervious experience men like Putin would eventually resurface in Russia the names of the organisations may have changed but it's still the people from the old Communist party and KGB running Russia. Farage is no doubt funded by Putin to sow mischief and discontent in this country like Trump is in the States he wants us to stand by while he's reconstitutes the USSR and then swallows up the rest of Europe while his buddy over in China does the same in Asia. Dark days lie ahead I'm afraid unless Putin is stopped in his tracks ASAP. Farage is the Oswald Mosley of our times but it's Putin not Hitler calling the shots.

 

I can't believe I'm sticking up for Farage here, but NATO's eastward expansion has to be considered as being a contributory factor to the war. Gorbachev, one of the most progressive and enlightened leaders of the 20th century, also mentioned this shortly before he died. It doesn't mean that Putin is any less than 100% to blame for what's happening. He and he alone gave the order to invade, on extremely spurious grounds. However, there are strong arguments that had NATO not "encroached" on Russia's borders then the whole invasion would never have happened. I think that all of the background has to be discussed openly and sensibly, in the possibly forlorn hope that we can prevent something like this from ever happening again.

 

Because he's a paranoid despot with a borderline personality disorder?

 

You could well be right about a lot of that but I do think that if Russia had troops say in Mexico been trained up then the US would be antagonised by it & rightly so.

You can think that Putin was wrong to invade Ukraine but also think the West has antagonised him. It doesn’t have to be one or the other

 

No, it definitely doesn’t justify it but I just can’t see how these comments make Farage a ‘disgrace’ (plenty of his other comments do). I think it’s a perfectly reasonable argument to make & it’s not like Starmer or Sunak are in any place to criticise anyone else’s views on foreign affairs given the way they’ve disgraced themselves over Isreal / Palestine

 

Putin invaded Crimea and the Donbass in 2014 before Farage said anything....he's talking like a tw**.

 

For all the people thinking they will get 80 or 150 or some other ridiculous number. You can get 13/8 odds on them getting 7 or more with skybet, so surely you’ll all be putting all your life savings on that?

 

Sadly I think they will get up to four including the arch gobshyte and Putin aplolgist, Farridge himself.

Sane people of Clacton, get out and vote tactically for the Tories FFS.

 

Free countries expressed a wish to join a defensive organisation and we're allowed to. They weren't forced to by NATO they asked and we're accepted. The countries that didn't ask in time Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine now have Russian troops on their territory who have seized that territory by force. The antagonist in this is Putin nobody else.

 

It makes 0 sense. Since 2012 the UK had a defence pact (joint Expeditionary force) with the Baltic states and Nordic states (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) 2 of which never had intentions of joining NATO. Putin could have seen that as aggression and invaded Finland or Sweden but chose not to. He'd always had designs on Ukraine (Moldova & Georgia too) as he mourned the collapse of the soviet union. NATO expansion is just the excuse for his behaviour, he had no issues with NATO jets and troops rescuing his forces when they came under fire by ISIS in Syria and had worked on joint operations with us on fights against them.
Farage (and Trump) are an asset to him and Farage both has financial ties to Russia over the years.