Reform UK's chronicles

[Carth]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Book 2 in the series has just come out - The Faith of Beasts

Cheers, will search. Glad books are now digital, I'd need a 3 storey garage if books were all still made of paper

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Carth

Cheers, will search. Glad books are now digital, I'd need a 3 storey garage if books were all still made of paper

I've got 300+ SF books on shelves on a wall. These were bought between 1970 and 2004. Of course now it's digital. Back then (1970), Asimov was the must have author.

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I've got 300+ SF books on shelves on a wall. These were bought between 1970 and 2004. Of course now it's digital. Back then (1970), Asimov was the must have author.

I had three bookcases full of (mostly) science fiction, Reacher, Harlan Coben, Nelson De Mille, various other thriller writers, quite a lot of non-fiction, around 500 books in total - they all went to the local Oxfam book shop when we had (what was) my home office redecorated and refurnished last year.

All my books are now on my iPad & Kindle (around 500 to read - I’m an impulse book buyer).

Ok, can we get back to Reform UK please.

[Carth]

Almost all of my books went the same way, charity shops . . it's amazing how much free space you suddenly acquire once they've gone.

I use 'cool reader' on the PC, Laptop, and a cheapo 10" tablet for my thousands of Epubs, with 'Calibre' to convert any Mobi books I come across.

Wife keeps wanting me to get rid of my Albums (records) too but they're staying

edit: sorry Paul, was trying hard not to write a novella and missed your post.

[GrimUpNorth]

I do feel a degree of sympathy for our Nige. I challenge anyone to be able to recall exactly why someone gave them £5m, I know I'd struggle to remember the background to such an everyday event.

[Carth]

I think you're all doing Nige a big disservice.
Obviously any money donated was to further his kind hearted attempts to ease the sufferings of those poor boat people.

The 4 houses will be used to accommodate many of those who have risked life and limb to reach our great country in order to do the jobs our folk won't do (Doctors, Nurses, Dentists, IT Consultants, Teachers etc), and has gone even further with all 4 houses being signed up to a meals on wheels company to ensure they all get adequate healthy sustenance while awaiting their citizenship interviews.
On top of this, all people accommodated will have access to private medical care (already paid for) to help reduce the NHS workload.

He won't have much change out of the £5 million

Alternatively, he could be pissing it up the wall and having a jolly good time, thank you, while knowing that in the end he doesn't really have much chance of becoming PM or Reform forming an alliance with any of the other parties.

Fair play, I know which one I'd be doing

Good point, well made…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/...HLR5obF87qwgXw

The Conservative Party has suspended its group leader in Worcestershire, after he struck a deal with the Green Party and others to oust Worcestershire County Council's minority Reform UK administration.

Councillor Adam Kent's suspension came after a full council meeting on Thursday that saw the Tories team up with the Green Party, Liberal Democrats and independents to form an alliance.

The move saw Reform lose control of the council after 12 months in charge.

After the meeting, a Conservative Party spokesperson said: "The chairman was very clear on a number of occasions that the Conservative Party was totally opposed to the proposed arrangement at Worcestershire County Council.

"The Conservative group leader did not make our opposition clear to his fellow Worcestershire councillors, and has been suspended pending investigation.

"Conservative campaign headquarters has made clear to our councillors that this arrangement must not go ahead."

It is not yet clear how the suspension will affect the coalition.

Speaking after the deal had been struck earlier today, Kent said, of the new power-sharing arrangement: "On national policy there are many areas where we continue to disagree with the Greens - however, local government is not Westminster.

"Over the last year residents have suffered appallingly due to the instability of Reform in Worcestershire.

"At some point, responsible councillors have to stop standing on the side lines."

Green councillor Matt Jenkins was made the new council leader of the coalition.

Discussing his new role, he said it was a "privilege" but also "daunting", because "we've got massive cuts, but we don't want to cut things that affect residents".

Jenkins said it would be "a tough nine months" leading up to February's budget.

The new council leader said: "We need to sort out a lot of things, but by working together, hopefully, we can get things done without damaging vital services that residents value."

Asked about what the appointment meant to him personally, he said: "It's great for me, but it's not something that I've really been pushing for in my political career.

"I joined the Green Party because I was concerned about the environment and all those types of issues, and of course I want to do well for my residents."

The change in administration comes after former Reform councillor Jo Monk, who was leader of the authority, was suspended from the party after losing a bitter internal leadership battle.

Up until this week Reform held 25 of the 57 seats on the council, with the party running a minority administration after it came to power following last year's local elections.

[Carth]

Won't make a big difference to the constituents

"we've got massive cuts, but we don't want to cut things that affect residents"

. . said almost every local council

[Hom3r]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I've got 300+ SF books on shelves on a wall. These were bought between 1970 and 2004. Of course now it's digital. Back then (1970), Asimov was the must have author.

Originally Posted by Hugh

I had three bookcases full of (mostly) science fiction, Reacher, Harlan Coben, Nelson De Mille, various other thriller writers, quite a lot of non-fiction, around 500 books in total - they all went to the local Oxfam book shop when we had (what was) my home office redecorated and refurnished last year.

All my books are now on my iPad & Kindle (around 500 to read - I’m an impulse book buyer).

I have a small collection of around 1,500 books, listed on a app on my phone, some predate ISBNs.


I have run out of room, but will still buy books I want.

Originally Posted by Carth

Won't make a big difference to the constituents

"we've got massive cuts, but we don't want to cut things that affect residents"

. . said almost every local council

I wonder why?

https://www.instituteforgovernment.o...unding-england

How has local government funding changed since 2010?
Local authority ‘spending power’ – the amount of money authorities have to spend from government grants, council tax and business rates – fell by 22.6% in real terms between 2010/11 and 2019/20. Since then, funding has recovered somewhat, though in 2025/26 was still 8.2% lower in real terms than in 2010/11. Spending power will increase further throughout this parliament but will still be 0.5% lower in real terms in 2028/29 than in 2010/11. When accounting for population growth, spending power fell 27.5% in real terms between 2010/11 and 2019/20 and will still be 13.7% lower in real terms in 2028/29 than in 2010/11.

Since 2009/10, local authorities have spent an ever larger proportion of their budgets on more acute, demand-led services such as adult and children’s social care. Local authorities spent just over half (53.0%) of their budgets on those two services in 2009/10, compared to more than two-thirds (68.5%) in 2024/25. More recently, local authorities’ budgets have come under pressure from rising demand for homelessness and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services.

[Sephiroth]

The answer to all this is to grow the economy so that funds can be provided for the increased demand.

Reform UK need to focus on this and explain the HOW of achieving this.

[Carth]

I could be wrong . . for a change lol . . but didn't central Government make all local councils go self funding* (or something) which really screwed things up.


*then spent untold billions on a train line so that 3 people in Manchester could get to London 13 minutes faster.

If you look two posts up from your’s - yes…