[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Jaymoss

This is what you get when countless governments fail to deliver anything. Jebus cripes we had Boris in power if that does not tell you something about how desperate the electorate is for change nothing will. Now we have another moron it is plain to see people are sick and tired of it

Your words pretty much echo the analysis in the FT yesterday:

For a decade, the country has been consistent that things cannot go on as they are.

This week’s local elections in England will follow that trend. Even if Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party underperforms its headiest predictions, it looks set to cement its status as a major party, capable of superseding the Tories as the main opposition to Labour.

But though allies and rivals will focus on the potency of its populist nationalism, there is a danger of over-interpreting its success. One cannot dismiss the power of the immigration issue or the Tory implosion that Reform is exploiting, but there is a broader and simpler explanation for its rise. Britain is going to keep voting for change until it feels it has come and Farage is the latest beneficiary of that thirst. Reform’s momentum is less about its programme than its claim to the change mantle. That is why Farage, whose personal ratings remain highly negative, is now working to broaden his platform...

MPs on doorsteps report that, just months after backing Labour’s nebulous pledge of change, voters now see Starmer’s defining act as the cutting of pensioner winter fuel payments. To them, this was a betrayal. Not change, but Labour austerity.

The main causes of disaffection have not changed since the 2008 financial crisis: the cost of living, high immigration and public services — the NHS especially. And beneath this is a simpler sense that Britain has stopped functioning as it should, that the state has become unresponsive, that the country is getting poorer.

The UK is following the European pattern of citizens deserting the main parties for alternatives offering a more radical breach with the past.

https://www.ft.com/content/b8efadcb-...3-74b807147dcc