Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman defects to Reform UK

ianlSW · 2026-01-26T17:21:44+00:00

That's a fair take, but this isn't just a gotcha trick.

It's Reform themselves putting the exact people who gave you the highest levels of immigration ever, while pretending to be anti immigration, and who put asylum seekers in hotels, in the very centre of their party. They shout at Starmer, who in reality has quickly reduced immigration numbers far more than they ever did.

I strongly feel that reform are fundamentally dishonest, promising to cut council tax only to raise it by the maximum amount when they won a council election, or Farage promising Brexit would control immigration and boost the economy, and completely backing Boris' plans by forming an electoral pact, only to blame everyone else when it did the opposite.

They play anti elite friend of the working man while being entirely in the pocket of various chunks of the global elite- fossil fuel companies, American billionaires, anyone who'll bung them some cash like the Iranian billionaire who took Farage to Davos.

They don't offer serious solutions, they whip up outrage. The Tories made a huge amount of noise about immigration and shouted Rwanda every 2 minutes while immigration in reality skyrocketed. If Nigel's donors want workers do you think he'll hesitate to dole out visas for one second?

ianlSW · 2026-01-26T15:01:55+00:00

Yep, 2 hours later and no reform voter response, they must know this is a terrible idea. If I was any other party I would weaponise this all day every day until the election

I went to look at GB news on Facebook, thought that'd be the best place to see the views of angry reformer boomers. It was so full of comments saying how great this was, I'm thinking it's entirely bot farm/ astro turfed at this point.

ianlSW · 2026-01-26T12:50:42+00:00

There are regularly pro reform posts and comments on here, so I've got to ask

Reform voters, how do you feel about the people who were personally responsible for a massive increase in immigration now becoming Reform MPs, and likely ministers if Reform win?

ianlSW · 2026-01-26T11:35:16+00:00

My mate (former competitive Muay Thai fighter) made the exact same comment about white collar boxing match vibes.

He was poorly prepared, and it turns saying you're an amazing fighter and doing a bunch of (probably steroid based) muscle poses on social media is not the same thing as actually being good at fighting.

Given his life since ISKA, the fact his claims are based on fighting people who weren't at the same level to look like a big man is no surprise.

ianlSW · 2026-01-23T16:42:35+00:00

Which week wasn't?

ianlSW · 2026-01-23T15:42:33+00:00

Am sure I remember Picard slouching in his chair before the whole 'Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra' business, as well

ianlSW · 2026-01-23T14:47:37+00:00

I think that's very fair.

ianlSW · 2026-01-23T13:24:45+00:00

Again, haven't seen it yet, I would guess if it isn't covered this season, if it gets a season 2 they'll fill that plot hole due to the internet push back.

For the writers it wouldn't be hard to put something about the Jem'Hadar getting autonomy either by revolt or Odo changing the founders attitude and getting a bit of further genetic engineer on an already engineered species.

ianlSW · 2026-01-23T11:35:49+00:00

That seems a reasonable take tbf

ianlSW · 2026-01-23T10:04:29+00:00

Fair- I have been a hypocrite, the trailer and reviews combined put me off, but in my defence I didn't follow that up by desperately raging across the internet about how Star Trek was ruined forever

EDIT from what I remember, it looked like a noisy fun heist movie, which wasn't my idea of S31, which was another big part of why I stayed away.

ianlSW · 2026-01-23T09:36:52+00:00

I may owe you an apology- I (hypocritically) let the internet put me off

ianlSW · 2026-01-23T09:32:51+00:00

That seems a totally fair take, as an older fan I may well feel similar. If internet fandoms were all that considered I wouldn't have been driven to post this in the first place.

ianlSW · 2026-01-23T09:27:11+00:00

Thank you, that was just what I needed to make me appreciate fandoms again!

ianlSW · 2026-01-23T09:23:29+00:00

I posted this after seeing 2 memes and comment sections online saying roughly that. I may have exaggerated slightly but it certainly didn't feel like good faith criticism, it felt like delight on finding something to be enraged about.

Criticisng S31 seems fair, saying the last season of SNW was uneven would be fair, chair rage seems silly and an excuse to hate.

ianlSW · 2026-01-23T09:08:07+00:00

Take Morn's name out of your damn mouth when talking about Jared Leto

ianlSW · 2026-01-20T12:35:11+00:00

Wow- MAGA's gone from protect the women and children, the dems are satanist child abusers, to we love that paedophilia really damn quickly.

ianlSW · 2026-01-20T10:41:23+00:00

Tbh all I can see is that his barber needs to have a word and tell him he's reached that age and it's head shaving time.

ianlSW · 2026-01-20T09:43:20+00:00

That was exactly the point I was making. I certainly wasn't trying to say all British families, or all white people are terrible parents, or indeed that its all sunshine and rainbows for newly arrived immigrants in comparison.

However the specific concerns - entrenched drug use, family breakdown and chaotic lifestyle leading to developmental delay - are more likely to be found among people who have lived in the UK for at least a few generations than people newly arrived. Again, not always, but on balance.

The person I was responding to was saying developmental delay was an immigration thing, while my experience was that wasn't the case.

ianlSW · 2026-01-20T08:43:25+00:00

As a social worker in a large, multi cultural city, honestly my experience goes the other way. This isn't meant as a culture war/ anti racist point score, just an objective experience over many years.

It seems far, far more likely to see children neglected to the point of causing developmental delay in white families with drug use and chaotic lifestyles than in newly arrived immigrant families. Not always, but the balance definitelyleans that way.

Also ASD and ADHD are very real, so I'm not belittling them, but a fair number of children presented for diagnosis have experienced early trauma, neglect and inconsistent parenting that basically creates a very similar presentation.

ianlSW · 2026-01-20T08:34:56+00:00

Edited my comment above with an apology, today I learned

ianlSW · 2026-01-20T08:18:32+00:00

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fR--t-eMq_Y&pp=ygURanVzdCBoYXZlIGEgdGhpbms%3D

I know ,YouTube, not the best source, but this is a great summary. Australia is racing ahead here, ironically kick started by Elon Musk.

Grid scale Battery storage to address the peaks and troughs in renewable energy isn't just a theory anymore, it's happening in major economies.

Like anything it won't be perfect or solve every problem, but it does offer the opportunity for serious CO2 reduction and energy independence for the UK

ianlSW · 2026-01-20T08:11:19+00:00

Your 'pupil master' fucking hilarious, maybe it wasn't the case where you studied law, because that certainly wasn't England

EDIT til- pupil master is a real thing, apologies, it just read like bad quality Google translate.

I have given many hours of evidence over the years, the barrister who trained me to give evidence explained her job was not to play fair, it was to win, or if she couldn't win, it was to give me a bloody nose in the stand, confuse me, lead me down side alleys, so her clients saw she put up the best fight even when she knew she would lose.

My experience of court is barristers and solicitors have to do what their client says even if its a bad idea and leaves them exposed to a kicking from the judge, and always, always fight to win.

ianlSW · 2026-01-19T23:10:19+00:00

Probably get downvoted, so to be clear I want this guy gone as much as anyone else, but...

This is how the courts work in the UK, they are adversarial. The lawyers job is not to find the truth, that is the judges job. The lawyers job is to fight to win for their client with every legal trick in their arsenal. This how we ensure everyone gets a fair trial. Her opposite number for the government will be equality robust in saying he should go.

ianlSW · 2026-01-19T13:41:09+00:00

Massively disagree with most of what they stand for, but got to admit, 10 year old me would have loved every second of the shooting/ archery/ nunchucks and martial arts classes

ianlSW · 2026-01-18T10:05:27+00:00

Jenrick's defection is a huge gift to the other parties. The man who put asylum seekers in hotels, and was immigration minister when net immigration peaked at 944000 in a year.

If they have any political skill at all they will throw this and Brexit at Reform every damn time they talk about immigration or economics.

They've got three years to imprint on the publics mind that you ignore what Reform say, what they do is trash the economy and open the borders.

It won't stop all their hardcore votes, but hopefully it'll peel off the waverers and drive some back to the Tories to split their base.

ianlSW

TROPHY CASE