Senedd Election 2026

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: Senedd Election 2026

Given your stance on most issues, I’m amazed you didn’t tell your Dad to buy his own shower.

Now that's witty ��

[JamesWales]

Re: Senedd Election 2026

Given your stance on most issues, I’m amazed you didn’t tell your Dad to buy his own shower.

No, I would like the maximum number of people to benefit from the finite resource

[JamesWales]

Re: Senedd Election 2026

So to paraphrase.

The Reform NHS proposals using models from the continent (and US) involving outsourced private consultants and contractors are innovative ideas as long as the service is free at the point of use and funded from national taxation.

Based on recent experience the outsourced use of consultants and contractors from the private sector providing services free at the point of use via local taxation is a scandalously inefficient waste of money.

Do you think the NHS is markedly better at delivery than say Germany, France, Netherlands etc?

You seem to be arguing for the status quo?

[JamesWales]

Re: Senedd Election 2026

Your father is in council accommodation?

If the cost of a new shower is 7 grand due to using outside contractors then that's down to the removal of in house labour

And that's a way of working brought in by free market conservative government ....to save money

Reform are unlikely to do anything about that

I agree entirely that more things should be brought in house where possible. But that's not always viable and the point remains in the real world that councils are being ripped off.

Why wouldn't Reform want to do something about that?

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: Senedd Election 2026

I agree entirely that more things should be brought in house where possible. But that's not always viable and the point remains in the real world that councils are being ripped off.

Why wouldn't Reform want to do something about that?

Because reform are a right wing capitalist party where cash and profit is king

It's part of their DNA

Farage is even further to the right than your hero Maggie

[Rjk]

Re: Senedd Election 2026

I have no idea what the first paragraph has to do with the conversation.

Heathblue was highlighting the 20k headline because it reappeared in the Reform supporting dailies as a selling point to the less well off.

It, and raising the 40% threshold for the well off from 50k to 70k and disproportionately making the latter more well off compared with those below the 20k threshold never really got challenged because the Reform boys were a protest party.

Now, sensible people like you, fiscally educated, will surely be asking serious questions where the £90 billion givaway will be recuperated from.

those aren't the only tax changes they're proposing - they also want to raise the threshold for inheritance tax to £2.5 million - and even then make it an option to pay it to a "charity" instead of to the exchequer.

that's another massive unfunded gift to the very wealthy.

[JamesWales]

Re: Senedd Election 2026

Because reform are a right wing capitalist party where cash and profit is king

It's part of their DNA

Farage is even further to the right than your hero Maggie

Not really sure that's true Sludge

[JamesWales]

Re: Senedd Election 2026

Loads of speculation on here. No elections for a year, why don't you all be open minded, sit back and see how Reform do in the numerous councils they now run?

[Eric Cartman]

Re: Senedd Election 2026

Local govt is a strange one. Services have been cut but the inefficiencies are in how it's run and how it procures things in particular. I could tell a few stories believe me. And mass working from home has been (and still is) an utter disaster for service delivery.

My dad had a new shower fitted two weeks ago (he's significantly disabled so needed an even more walk in one, with no lip at all) and the cost was £7,000. For a new shower. That's part of the problem, the use of consultants, the fact that contractors can so easily rip off because they know councils will pay anyway, even the fact that depts spend budgets or lose budgets means there is an encouragement to get money out the door.

Local government isn't flushed with cash but there are way better ways to run things. That's why Im intrigued to see how Reform do in the councils they run. I don't think they will come even close to fixing the issues -many of which are beyond local authorities controls - but I'm interested to see.

At it stands we have rising bills and declining services. It's hardly an argument for the status quo.

You have all the jigsaw pieces and are mashing them together to make a different picture.

Services have declined or disappeared primarily because councils have statutory responsibilities to a wider and wider reach, whilst budgets decrease in real terms.

The right has only ever had one answer to the public sector and that is budget cuts and 'efficiency savings' so that is likely the safe space that reform fall back to when it comes time to outline a plan. The main issue with that is what ends up happening is they destroy the network of people supporting frontline workers, it's far easier politically to get rid of someone facilitating the smooth running of a service than somebody who is face to face with the public, at the same time you cancel any and every project that might create efficiencies in the future because you can't justify the spend. You do that and you end up with chaos, which leads to panic and paying consultants to do a job you previously had staff doing for a third of the cost.

The reality is, local government salaries are shite, pension is a benefit, flexible working is a benefit, if those two things are downgraded/removed then you will be left with a less capable workforce.

My job can be done remotely, there's literally no benefit me going into an office on a weekly basis and that's good for me because I live hundreds of miles away.

[Heathblue]

Re: Senedd Election 2026

Not really sure that's true Sludge

Farage pulled back on his immigration views only to get called out by Richard lowe and he subsequently went back to his original stance on it you'll have noticed that I think Farage is just a gate keeper and serves the same masters as the Tories and the Nasty Party. Have I mentioned it before 😂

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: Senedd Election 2026

I think that eluned morgan is an absolute disaster as is starmer

I can only see reform sweeping the board at the next Welsh election

Plaid are talking about being the next big thing and I would grudgingly prefer that to reform but I think it's curtains right across the board

Grim times as far as I am concerned

[Rjk]

Re: Senedd Election 2026

I think that eluned morgan is an absolute disaster as is starmer

I can only see reform sweeping the board at the next Welsh election

Plaid are talking about being the next big thing and I would grudgingly prefer that to reform but I think it's curtains right across the board

Grim times as far as I am concerned

It'll be interesting (or perhaps horrifying) to see what Reform manage to do without Farage - in some ways Wales should be fertile round for their type of protest votes. But Farage is always such a dominant feature of his parties that they tend to fall to pieces without him.

He's the most effective political communicator in a generation, so their opposition will have to try to take him out of the equation.
He isn't standing in the senedd elections, he fronts a very english centric party, and his party don't seem to have much in the way of Welsh policies, and he's the face of the Brexit movement that hasn't exactly been a roaring success for wales.
And their manifesto is complete nonsense, none of it adds up.

There are certainly many areas that Reform should be weak on in Wales, it's just a question on whether the other parties can get that message out effectively.

[Rjk]

Re: Senedd Election 2026

Farage pulled back on his immigration views only to get called out by Richard lowe and he subsequently went back to his original stance on it you'll have noticed that I think Farage is just a gate keeper and serves the same masters as the Tories and the Nasty Party. Have I mentioned it before ��

Farage seems to have a very good feel for how far he can push those kind of views before you go too far and start losing more votes than you're gaining from it.
Others in his party do not.

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: Senedd Election 2026

It'll be interesting (or perhaps horrifying) to see what Reform manage to do without Farage - in some ways Wales should be fertile round for their type of protest votes. But Farage is always such a dominant feature of his parties that they tend to fall to pieces without him.

He's the most effective political communicator in a generation, so their opposition will have to try to take him out of the equation.
He isn't standing in the senedd elections, he fronts a very english centric party, and his party don't seem to have much in the way of Welsh policies, and he's the face of the Brexit movement that hasn't exactly been a roaring success for wales.
And their manifesto is complete nonsense, none of it adds up.

There are certainly many areas that Reform should be weak on in Wales, it's just a question on whether the other parties can get that message out effectively.

It shows how bad labour is in Wales that huge chunks of the population will be voting reform at the next assembly election

An English right wing party

It's almost so bad it's funny

Unstoppable now unfortunately

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: Senedd Election 2026

Farage seems to have a very good feel for how far he can push those kind of views before you go too far and start losing more votes than you're gaining from it.
Others in his party do not.

I think most Reform voters don't care if the language is over the top towards immigrants etc

They love it which is why so many of them are voting for reform