3 ms·

I think you are worrying too much and a lot of this is media hype. Their main focus is small boats and people entering the country illegally. If they do restric

by graemep 8mo ago

I think you are worrying too much and a lot of this is media hype. Their main focus is small boats and people entering the country illegally. If they do restrict them more you are almost certainly better off getting your partner a visa before (but I think you would need to marry to get a spouse visa though). > Reform would get in and throw out all the "undesirables" (basically anyone without a British Passport at first, sure they won't stop there) I think that is an exaggerated view from a distance. I see no evidence they can do that, or want to. At the time of the Brexit campaign Farage said he wanted skilled immigrants (he gave the example of Indian doctors immigrating in the 1970s as the wort of thing he wanted). Nor can the country afford to lose skilled people. Its worth remembering that Reform would not agree to what Elon Musk wanted in return for funding so I think its safe to assume Reform would not be as extreme as the current US government. I am of foreign birth, as is my younger daughter (she was born abroad) and I am not particularly worried. I would worry if Rupert Lowe's Restore party started making gains, or Ben Habib's Advance party. > I'm really not sure how likely them attaining power They are doing well in the polls now but my feeling is they are peaking. Letting on too many Conservative defectors makes them look at lot less of an anti-establishment party (a huge part of their appeal) and they are becoming too extreme (I think in reaction to the splash, mostly on social media) made by Advance and Restore (one of those is what Elon Musk endorses, so that gives you an idea where they are).

drcongo 8mo ago
This could easily be copied and pasted from the replies to people who were worried about the rise of facism in the US a couple of years ago.
pjc50 8mo ago
The government can very easily change your status from "legal" to "illegal" by flipping a bit. And the newspapers, who are driving this, don't care about skills, they care about the raw numbers. The members of the public driving this don't even care about immigration status, but skin colour.
- graemep 8mo ago
  They can change people's status, but I am saying they will not. It is not Reform party policy (as Rupert Lowe keeps pointing out!) and it would be disastrous to do it. The net immigration numbers are falling! I disagree about the public. Its very clear that the opposition to immigration is almost entirely about small boats and illegal entry. As for skin colour, of the tiny number or racists I have heard of in real life, one comment repeated back to me made it clear the person involved preferred at least some Asians (those with skills etc.) to Eastern Europeans.
  - tokai 8mo ago
    Lots of things are disasterous to do, and still UK has a proud traditions of doing those things.
  - pjc50 8mo ago
    We heard all of that in the US before ICE.
  - n1b0m 8mo ago
    Are you aware that Rupert Lowe was kicked out of Reform?
  - ben_w 8mo ago
    > Its very clear that the opposition to immigration is almost entirely about small boats and illegal entry. No, that's just the current talking point. A decade ago, small boats not in the news, somehow managed to still be a big talking point on Brexit campaign. Worse, part of the Brexit campaign was scare-mongering that the EU had made it so the UK had no control over its borders, no control over its immigration laws, and even had one poster further scare-mongering that the UK would be forced to allow in the entire population of Turkey* even though Turkey wasn't actually in the EU nor did anyone think it would get in any time soon and the UK had a veto on expansion anyway (plus the more fundamental pretentiousness in thinking they'd want to come en-masse anyway, given that Turkish people are like everyone else, in that almost none of them really care for the idea of moving to the UK). Even for "unlawful entry" of asylum seekers who were still allowed to lawfully claim asylum, the UK was part of the Dublin III system, which oh-so-conveniently meant the UK could argue that all the other countries most people would need to go through to get to the UK should have taken them first, to which I'd like to say this: J'ai obtenu la note D au GCSE de français, et pourtant j'ai étudié la langue à l'école. À votre avis, comment un demandeur d'asile lambda originaire de l'ancien Empire britannique va-t-il s'en sortir? Most asylum seekers do, in fact, stop at the first safe country; the UK has always only had a tiny fraction of the total, and loses its collective mind anyway. * Note my careful phrasing and also their careful phrasing in this specific ad; they note the population to give the implication, I did not say they said all of them will come in**, only that they said all of them must be allowed to, when EU membership never did any such thing: https://www.wsj.com/articles/with-brexit-turkey-loses-its-biggest-champion-in-europe-1466772772 https://www.wsj.com/articles/with-brexit-turkey-loses-its-bi... and https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2018/07/facebook-releases-brexit-campaign-ads-fake-news-inquiry-what-s-wrong-them https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2018/07/facebook-relea... ** apparently one of the "senior Brexiteers" did, but I can't trivially find any actual citation and don't care to put in the effort to look harder
n1b0m 8mo ago
Reform would create ICE-style agency and end leave to remain https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/22/reform-uk-ice-style-agency-end-leave-to-remain-zia-yusuf https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/22/reform-uk-i...

by graemep 8mo ago

drcongo 8mo ago

This could easily be copied and pasted from the replies to people who were worried about the rise of facism in the US a couple of years ago.

pjc50 8mo ago

The government can very easily change your status from "legal" to "illegal" by flipping a bit. And the newspapers, who are driving this, don't care about skills, they care about the raw numbers. The members of the public driving this don't even care about immigration status, but skin colour.

graemep 8mo ago
They can change people's status, but I am saying they will not. It is not Reform party policy (as Rupert Lowe keeps pointing out!) and it would be disastrous to do it. The net immigration numbers are falling! I disagree about the public. Its very clear that the opposition to immigration is almost entirely about small boats and illegal entry. As for skin colour, of the tiny number or racists I have heard of in real life, one comment repeated back to me made it clear the person involved preferred at least some Asians (those with skills etc.) to Eastern Europeans.
- tokai 8mo ago
  Lots of things are disasterous to do, and still UK has a proud traditions of doing those things.
- pjc50 8mo ago
  We heard all of that in the US before ICE.
- n1b0m 8mo ago
  Are you aware that Rupert Lowe was kicked out of Reform?
- ben_w 8mo ago
  > Its very clear that the opposition to immigration is almost entirely about small boats and illegal entry. No, that's just the current talking point. A decade ago, small boats not in the news, somehow managed to still be a big talking point on Brexit campaign. Worse, part of the Brexit campaign was scare-mongering that the EU had made it so the UK had no control over its borders, no control over its immigration laws, and even had one poster further scare-mongering that the UK would be forced to allow in the entire population of Turkey* even though Turkey wasn't actually in the EU nor did anyone think it would get in any time soon and the UK had a veto on expansion anyway (plus the more fundamental pretentiousness in thinking they'd want to come en-masse anyway, given that Turkish people are like everyone else, in that almost none of them really care for the idea of moving to the UK). Even for "unlawful entry" of asylum seekers who were still allowed to lawfully claim asylum, the UK was part of the Dublin III system, which oh-so-conveniently meant the UK could argue that all the other countries most people would need to go through to get to the UK should have taken them first, to which I'd like to say this: J'ai obtenu la note D au GCSE de français, et pourtant j'ai étudié la langue à l'école. À votre avis, comment un demandeur d'asile lambda originaire de l'ancien Empire britannique va-t-il s'en sortir? Most asylum seekers do, in fact, stop at the first safe country; the UK has always only had a tiny fraction of the total, and loses its collective mind anyway. * Note my careful phrasing and also their careful phrasing in this specific ad; they note the population to give the implication, I did not say they said all of them will come in**, only that they said all of them must be allowed to, when EU membership never did any such thing: https://www.wsj.com/articles/with-brexit-turkey-loses-its-biggest-champion-in-europe-1466772772 https://www.wsj.com/articles/with-brexit-turkey-loses-its-bi... and https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2018/07/facebook-releases-brexit-campaign-ads-fake-news-inquiry-what-s-wrong-them https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2018/07/facebook-relea... ** apparently one of the "senior Brexiteers" did, but I can't trivially find any actual citation and don't care to put in the effort to look harder

n1b0m 8mo ago

Reform would create ICE-style agency and end leave to remain https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/22/reform-uk-ice-style-agency-end-leave-to-remain-zia-yusuf https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/22/reform-uk-i...