‘Reform UK’ will reform the UK for the worse
Examining the dangers of Reform UK’s manifesto, and the worrying rise of the far-right in the UK
Since Rishi Sunak announced a general election on July 4th, confirming that June would be the final full month of abysmal Tory rule in the UK, one thing that has struck me, quite scarily, is the unprecedented rise of Reform UK, a far-right populist party led by Nigel Farage, who, to put it bluntly, is a fascist. Today, on June 17th, the day at which the manifesto of Reform UK was officially released, the party has worryingly reached 2nd in the polls to win, neck-and-neck with the Tories at 18%. Let’s be clear: we all know that Labour are going to win a huge (and frankly undeserved) majority, and, for the next four years, we’ll be (relatively) safe from a fascist party governing the UK. However, what worries me is that, when Labour ultimately fail to change anything over the next five years, will Reform UK be at a much higher chance to make waves in British politics come the next general election? If the party did manage to win in the coming years, the UK would be put in extremely dangerous hands, which can be clearly seen in the manifesto which was released today. Let’s take a look.
Immigration
Nigel Farage is well-known for his radical and, in my view, deeply racist views on immigration to the country, both legal and illegal, and he makes no pretense about this. Just at the ITV Election Debate on 13th June, Farage managed to turn nearly every single point into a debate on immigration. Our education system is broken? Farage blames immigrants! The Tories have screwed up the NHS to the point where waiting lists are at 7.5 million? Farage blames the immigrants! In fact, he seems to blame immigration for every single problem facing this country, despite the array of evidence suggesting that it is actually the idiocy of the Tory government which has produced the poor economic state of the country. In his manifesto, Farage promises to ‘freeze non-essential immigration’, in which he states that ‘strict limits’ are the only way to ‘relieve the pressure on our housing, public services, increase wages, and protect our culture, identity, and values’.
I take huge problem with this. First of all, the manifesto seems to imply that immigration is a wholly negative force and it should be discouraged at all cost. However, it fails to take into account that, according to a study conducted by UCL, immigrants that arrived between 2000 and 2011 were 45% less likely to be on benefits than UK citizens, and contributed 34% more in taxes than they received as benefits. Furthermore, due to migrants being more likely to be of a working age, and given the UK’s ageing population and decreasing amount of working people, it is improbable to suggest that immigration would negatively impact the economy; in fact, it is much more likely to boost the economy, rather than hinder it. Also, the manifesto seems to relate immigration to poorer public services, despite the fact that the main problem here is the under-funding of services; in terms of housing, the Tories haven’t built enough houses at all — an average of 127,000 homes have been built a year since 2010 (when the Tories took power), which is the lowest level since 1923. Finally, as for the culture aspects of the argument, what happened to multiculturalism? Isn’t ‘tolerance of different faiths and beliefs’ one of our British values? Considering “British Culture” is a mish-mash of hundreds of other cultures around the world (our national dish is literally Indian), I would argue that accepting other cultures from many backgrounds would actually strengthen our “culture”.
Reform claim that they would also ‘leave the European Convention on Human Rights’, because human rights for all citizens are such a terrible idea, right? The ECHR is considered one of the most important achievements post-WW2, and all member states are required to protect the freedoms and rights of all of its citizens. Personally, I don’t see the problem with being a member state to a court that guarantees the right to life, the right to a fair trial, the freedom of expression, and protection from discrimination, but we all know that Reform UK are a party of racists and fascists who spend their time complaining that they can’t commit hate crimes without being punished. But, then again, the ECHR does provide rights to migrants, so of course Nigel Farage would have a problem with this. Also, the only two countries that have previously left the ECHR are Russia and Belarus, so this should say a great deal about the sort of man Nigel Farage is.
Government Spending
Reform UK claim that they would ‘cut foreign aid by 50%’, claiming that it would ‘save £6 billion from the £12.8 billion budget’. Prior to 2020, the government lowered its foreign aid spending from 0.7% of GDP to 0.5% of GDP (the 0.7% target was made by 30 countries in the UN in 1970). Just from this cut in 2020, it was reported that nearly every international programme had suffered as a result of this cut to foreign aid spending, and many of the world’s poorest countries which rely on this aid are being negatively impacted as a result. For example, Yemen’s ODA (Official Development Assistance) was cut by 45%, and Afghanistan’s by 76%. Not only this, but it was estimated that around 25,000 children in South Sudan suffering from extreme malnutrition would not get any treatment as a result of this cut in foreign aid spending. Therefore, further cuts in foreign aid would severely impact many countries like these, and, crucially, many innocent people who unfortunately do not have the same rights and freedoms as we do in the UK. Cutting foreign aid by this much is heartless and cruel, and claiming that we need to save money is preposterous. We are an extremely rich country, the problem isn’t the amount of money we have, the problem is that the people running the country are not spending it correctly, or for the benefit of the people! The UK spent around £12.5 billion on ‘Trident’ (the UK’s nuclear weapons system) when it was first established in the 1980s (which would be around £21 billion in today’s prices), and annual running costs are estimated to be at around £3 billion a year. All for a nuclear weapons program which undoubtedly makes the UK a much more dangerous place! Imagine if we dismantled these weapons, stopped spending so much money on death and destruction, and used it for the benefit of both our own people and for foreign aid! Cutting foreign aid is nonsensical when there are much less important things that we are spending way too much money on!
NHS
This is very simple, and there is no point in reading the waffle in the manifesto to understand this: a vote for Reform UK is a vote for the destruction of our National Health Service, and a vote for privatisation. It is a very simple and undeniable truth. Farage claims they would provide a 20% tax relief on all private healthcare and insurance, and this is an extremely worrying prospect considering the fact that Reform UK are rising dangerously high in the polls, compared to other parties other than Labour of course. First of all, why should private healthcare pay less tax? I’d love to know the answer to this question. And, secondly, I do not see how this would help improve waiting lists at all; all it would do is make the private sector a much more alluring prospect for doctors and nurses, who would leave the NHS and leave it much worse off, especially considering the NHS is already understaffed. Falling into the trap of privatisation should never even be a consideration, and it is a pathway to the destruction of the NHS!
Net Zero
Again, these policies are very simple: Reform UK do not believe climate change is an issue, even though it is one of the most destructive prospects on the planet, and, if it is not mitigated, will impact the lives of billions of people. Reform UK claim that they would scrap all net zero targets, which would apparently save £30 billion. They fail to realise that, as a result of climate change making the UK’s climate hotter, our public sector debt could rise to 300% of GDP, as a result of the economic shocks to a hotter climate, and, therefore, it would save much more money and be much better for our economy if we stuck to net zero targets, which would, in the long run, be much more beneficial for both the economy and the climate.
Reform UK would also implement new fracking licenses, despite the huge environmental impacts of fracking, ranging from freshwater contamination to seismic activity and earthquakes. These dependencies on fossil fuels and controversial methods like fracking are nonsensical, given that renewable energy is actually cheaper than non-renewables generally today, and it would be much more beneficial for us in the long run if we focused our attention on sustainable methods of energy production rather than these idiotic fracking licenses, and licenses for North Sea gas and oil!
Policing
Reform UK would increase Stop and Search ‘substantially’, whilst simultaneously scrapping all Diversity, Equality and Inclusion roles, despite the fact that Stop and Search has been statistically proven to lead to unfair and discriminatory targetting of ethnic minorities. Quite paradoxical to remove roles that encourage and improve diversity within the police force, and then boost the powers that lead to increased discrimination, in my view. But, to be fair, I don’t know what I was expecting — they lost me when I read that they want to stop ‘woke policing’. Because ethnic diversity is such a cruel and discriminatory policy, right?
Education
Like the true imperialists and warmongers they are, Reform UK would implement a ‘patriotic curriculum’ in schools, involving balancing the teaching of slavery and European imperialism with non-European examples too, despite the fact that Britain and Europe were the biggest imperialists on the planet, something which I would hesitate to describe as ‘patriotic’; rather than that, I am embarrassed of my country’s history, and I don’t view it as something to be proud of like these fascists do.
They would also ban ‘transgender ideology’ in both primary and secondary schools, completely eliminating any possibility for young children questioning their gender identity to come to more comfortable terms with themselves and who they are. What is so scary about people wanting to change their gender? If it doesn’t affect you in any way, why are you so bothered by people learning about it? Reform UK also claim that they would inform parents about their children’s gender questioning, because what better way to make children feel comfortable with themselves than telling the people who might potentially be both emotionally and physically abusive to them. The reason so many people feel unsafe coming out to their parents is because of the stigma that is placed upon those who are transgender or gender-queer, and these idiotic reforms to education regarding the issue are going to do nothing to quell this stigma; in fact, they will boost it even further, and increase levels of discrimination and bullying within schools.
What is even scarier is that, regarding informing parents about gender questioning, Nigel Farage — a far-right fascist — has the same viewpoints as Keir Starmer, the self-defined “socialist”. When these two people align in terms of politics, you know there is something wrong with our system.
Brexit
I don’t think I need to say anything about this, if I’m being honest. Brexit broke the UK, and now they want to scrap even more EU laws. Sometimes I wonder how people like this are created…
Defence
Reform UK would not stop at the Tories’ increase of defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, they would go to 3%, because what better way to promote world peace than spend more and more money on bombs and weaponry? You know whaat would be a good policy for defence, if Reform UK (or any party, for that matter) really cared about our country’s defence? Leave NATO, the organisation that will probably lead to the destruction of us all. The collective defence aspect of NATO is destructive and dangerous to the people of our country, and being part of an organisation that has raised tensions in the world exponentially, including being one of the underlying reasons for the war in Ukraine, is idiotic. NATO is not a force for good, it is a force for destruction, and we would all be better off without it.
Reclaiming Britain
God, the title of this one just sounds insanely racist already…
Reform UK, who clearly have proven themselves to care nothing for human rights for all and equality, would make the intelligent decision to replace the Equality Act of 2010, which lists protected characteristics and means that discrimination is punishable by the law. I’m not entirely sure what problems this causes, unless you view equality as a danger to society. Oh, what am I saying, it’s Nigel Farage, of course he does…
Reform UK would also create a “free speech bill”, which would essentially make many hate crimes legal, and promote discrimination in society. What a great way to alleviate tensions in our country!
Conclusion
There are many more policies in this manifesto that are utterly idiotic and a danger to both democracy and the people of this country, but I want to keep this article as brief as possible (I doubt many of you want to read the notes and ideas of a racist anyway).
In short, Reform UK are a despotic group of racists who believe that Britain should abandon those fleeing war and persecution, discard laws and memberships to international courts that outlaw discrimination and promote equality, and make the very same bigoted and alienating ideologies of his party into law. I say, on behalf of all the young people in this country — let’s do everything we can to keep these as ideologies, and prevent the rise of fascism in the UK. Reform UK are dangerous, and must be stopped.
