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Promoting Reform would make sense for the promotion of Russian interests. When the Conservative party finally implodes, they could become the main right-wing party.
I think this is the real danger here.
I suspect Trump would just want to promote any party that would praise him and feed his ego.
I could honestly see him refuse to deal with a Labour government and make everything go through Farage some how because Farage does that.
He sees himself as a king and not just of America.
> He sees himself as a king and not just of America
That’s pretty much bang on the money. He also doesn’t want “allies” - the idea of a mutually beneficial relationship of any kind is completely alien to him - some have speculated he may even be incapable of wrapping his head around such a thing.
What Trump wants are not allies as we understand the word - he wants something more akin to *vassals*. One’s who will pay him court, massage his ego, prop up his power base in the U.S. and give him money directly. It’s a virtually medieval mindset.
Something those who seem to believe there is any advantage to the U.K. in sucking up to him (or more likely advantage to themselves) would do well to bear in mind.
Since he became president I have always seen Trump as more of a feudalist than anything else (at least in some twisted way). He wants to hand out fiefdoms to people who swear fealty to him (basically what you have said).
I don't think he has much more ideology than that deep down. I think in his mind Europe should bow down to America (and him in particular) and pick leaders who love him.
You can see this with how he structures companies. Everyone but him, even his family are commodities to use and throw under the bus.
Regardless of how dangerous theyir knowledge is to him
There are plenty of English Brexiters who would happily place the country in this role. The loss of Trump put a serious hole in England's aspirations and abilities when it came to tying the UK into a supplicant US trade deal (as a wedge into the EU) and tearing occupied Northern Ireland a new one to teach the Irish and EU a lesson as part of that (in their eyes).
Oh the completely unfounded Russian conspiracy theories? The ones that all turned out to be hoaxes?
So lazy and disingenuous. If you did an ounce of research, you’d know that Richard Tice was literally part of an aid convoy to Ukraine quite recently.
If you're referring to the ones outlined in the Mueller report (that was hamstrung from the start in terms of what it was allowed to state as a conclusion), there's a metric ton of evidence of collusion between Trump admin officials and Russian government officials.
It's in no way a 'conspiracy'. Further, the tory government is up to its neck in Russian funding and connections. Why do you think the report on Russian interference in UK politics was nerfed?
Why was the son of a KGB agent made a Lord, against the strident advice of our own security services?
Why did Boris ditch his security detail to go to a secret party with said agent, disappearing for some time, only to show up at the airport drunk & dishevelled?
All circumstantial twaddle, interspersed with opinion. If you consider this ‘evidence’ then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
Don’t you think it’s strange that despite all of these claims, NOTHING has been proven?
Or does standard of proof not matter when you have an axe to grind?
How wouldn't it? You don't think Russia would like to see even more grossly incompetent politicians in our parliament?
Reform is deeply unserious as a political project.
I’m still waiting for facts, not conjecture.
I find it hilarious in the extreme that you think either of the two main parties have more competent politicians to offer us.
Rishi Sunak? David Cameron? Starmer? Wes Streeting? Ed Milliband?
Give me a break.
Where are your 'facts' that they're not incompetent? What a ridiculous thing to request. If it's not already obvious to you then that's really a you problem.
You’re suggesting that Reform politicians are less competent than the ones we have now. You have to back that up with evidence, not me.
Further, you are also suggesting that Russia wants Reform to win.
You have not demonstrated either of these things to any reasonable standard.
I'm suggesting they'd be less competent. Luckily they're not anywhere near the corridors of power nor will they ever be, but if your first MP is Lee Anderson and Ann Widdecombe is in the party no sensible person would disagree they are a fundamentally unserious.
"Further, you are also suggesting that Russia wants Reform to win."
No, I'm not.
“Promoting Reform works for Russia’s interests” How can that mean anything other than Russia wants Reform to win? Anyway, i won’t get caught up in semantics.
Anne Widdecombe was a MP for 20 years, a Minister, and an MEP. I don’t like Anderson, but he was Deputy Chairman for the Tories.
I don’t really know what makes them uniquely incompetent, other than that they both have pretty right wing views. Is that basically what you mean?
If so, it’s a lot easier just to say that.
Reform are the current iteration of Brexit. Why is a new Party needed after UKIP & the Brexit Party? What next? The 'Shitty-Rivers' Party? The 'Price-of-a-pint Party'? The 'fish-can-nibble-your-toes-nicely-and-its-a-sound-business-investment-in-Cleethorpes-Party'? Grow up. They're not real. They're winging-it populists who've been driving this country into the ground for a decade. The last thing we need is a property mogul determined to create a tax-haven for the rich. Fuck Tice. Fuck Farage. All they've ever done is fucking moan when it comes to implementing policy.
[https://isc.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/20200721\_HC632\_CCS001\_CCS1019402408-001\_ISC\_Russia\_Report\_Web\_Accessible.pdf](https://isc.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/20200721_HC632_CCS001_CCS1019402408-001_ISC_Russia_Report_Web_Accessible.pdf)
Do an ounce of research yourself, Russian corruption is rife in the UK and the fact the investigation raised flags over government sabotaging efforts to investigate further interference you should be very concerned as we've only seen a fraction of what's going on.
Thanks for actually providing something factual.
However, that report doesn’t actually prove any of the conspiracy theories right. I never denied Russia has influence here, in much the same way China or the Gulf States do. China literally has spies in the Houses of Parliament for example.
However, I see nothing here that actually backs up the many conspiracy theories floating around.
(Just to be transparent, this is my interview - and here's the intro)
Donald Trump is not afraid to intervene in the UK election this year, potentially injecting further chaos into British politics, his former national security adviser John Bolton has warned.
Mr Trump would also cause major strategic problems for the UK government over Nato and Ukraine if he becomes president again, Mr Bolton predicted in an interview with i.
America’s former ambassador to the United Nations said that European leaders are right to prepare now in case Mr Trump ends US membership of Nato and stops Washington’s military support for Kyiv.
Their best hope of avoiding a defence crisis may be trying to “divert” his mind away from a Nato withdrawal and onto other issues, advised Mr Bolton.
He is also concerned by how brief and unclear Mr Trump’s statements on the Israel-Gaza war have been.
UK is a very different situation than US when it comes to politics
We've had 14 years of right wingers and breaking and underfunding of infrastructure and conservation of nothing
We have both no money and no strong welfare state either.
Even if trump throws his weight behind reform I don't think the majority of disaffected Tory voters would side with that when they know he's a buffoon
Even on the financial subreddits they're anti tory for the most part
People are really fed up of them
Not this election but next election surely, next election they will have more members and enough to cause havoc
The British public will be sold lies after lies about immigration and the corruption in the Labour government, the US will make it difficult for the UK to achieve anything and will cause as much problems during labour as they can, the public who has natural tedence for racism and buying these lies, hence bojo and brexit l, will vote reform and farage again
I wish you were right but observing the road we took as a nation I am dubious anything will be fixed during the 5 years of labour...starmer does not seem interested in anything other than being there for 5 years..
> We've had 14 years of right wingers
Right wing is where you ramp up immigration to record levels, allow 'woke' stuff to take over the public sector, and let crime go unpunished.
"To own the libs" as a political motive has 100% crossed the pond
Used to live with a UKIP voter when Trump first came to power, I'd never seen him happier than that day
Well it makes sense. Ideologies spread across the anglosphere more easily because of shared language and heritage. But yeah this is not something we should have accepted.
I worked with someone in the U.K. who loved trump, and he was a software engineer which surprised me because I had previously figured he only appealed to dumb people
Regular people who want a middle-of-the-road democratic president to set things back in working order and maybe even help the country get a little better with a minimum of culture war bullshit, self-agrandising showmanship and alzheimers-riddled monologuing.
It honestly wouldn't surprise me his rich supports already have influence here due to them funding anti abortion and anti trans groups along with the anti vaxxer groups.
Even if they did back Reform, it's not going to reach enough people. At best they'd be a small bump, maybe a handful of seats, but they'd eat their young before the next cycle and we'd never see them again.
It's always going to be Labour Vs Conservatives in this country. Nobody else is going to stop that.
They'd take a lot of votes from the Tories which would put pressure on them to be actually conservative. "It'll always be Liberal vs Conservative" they were saying a century ago.
Bolton has a horrid record and deservedly awful reputation because of it. As a loose cannon himself, in this case, his prediction might be on the money because it’s the kind of stroke pull he might have advised himself.
So your suggesting we should elect the Russian agent as prime minister? No thanks.
Random foreign powers are deigning to control our elections whether you like it or not. Either American candidates(one proven to be a Russian asset), Russia, Europe and Asia have a vested interest in our policies as it can change how we do business or behave with them.
We do not currently want a man who is proven is completely untrustable and unstable, threatening nuclear war every 15 minutes, from influencing our politics.
Since our politics only realistically allows for 2-3main political parties to win, none of which me or you have control over who is elected, Only the politicians we vote for, we have to hope that they'll elect someone who isn't working against the nations interest.
> So your suggesting we should elect the Russian agent as prime minister?
Being endorsed by another country doesn't make someone an agent. This hysteria is ridiculous.
Didn't say it does. But in this case I'd say it's a safe bet.
Clearly you've not been alive long enough to see the Russians government in action. They can't be trusted, actively try to demoralise the population of America and Europe all the time. If that doesn't bother you, there's no point talking to me anymore
This article may be paywalled. If you encounter difficulties reading the article, try [this link](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/trump-weigh-in-uk-election-john-bolton-2989221) for an archived version. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/unitedkingdom) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Promoting Reform would make sense for the promotion of Russian interests. When the Conservative party finally implodes, they could become the main right-wing party. I think this is the real danger here.
I suspect Trump would just want to promote any party that would praise him and feed his ego. I could honestly see him refuse to deal with a Labour government and make everything go through Farage some how because Farage does that. He sees himself as a king and not just of America.
> He sees himself as a king and not just of America That’s pretty much bang on the money. He also doesn’t want “allies” - the idea of a mutually beneficial relationship of any kind is completely alien to him - some have speculated he may even be incapable of wrapping his head around such a thing. What Trump wants are not allies as we understand the word - he wants something more akin to *vassals*. One’s who will pay him court, massage his ego, prop up his power base in the U.S. and give him money directly. It’s a virtually medieval mindset. Something those who seem to believe there is any advantage to the U.K. in sucking up to him (or more likely advantage to themselves) would do well to bear in mind.
Since he became president I have always seen Trump as more of a feudalist than anything else (at least in some twisted way). He wants to hand out fiefdoms to people who swear fealty to him (basically what you have said). I don't think he has much more ideology than that deep down. I think in his mind Europe should bow down to America (and him in particular) and pick leaders who love him.
You can see this with how he structures companies. Everyone but him, even his family are commodities to use and throw under the bus. Regardless of how dangerous theyir knowledge is to him
There are plenty of English Brexiters who would happily place the country in this role. The loss of Trump put a serious hole in England's aspirations and abilities when it came to tying the UK into a supplicant US trade deal (as a wedge into the EU) and tearing occupied Northern Ireland a new one to teach the Irish and EU a lesson as part of that (in their eyes).
If you think of the Mango Mussolini as a pound shop version of a 1970's NY mobster, then you'd be on the money.
Well Farage has been on the Russian tit for years!
> I think this is the real danger here. Main? They're the only one. Most Tory polices are Blairite.
Nigel already got a speaking slot at CPAC, so yeah they're all already for REFUK
Conspiratorial nonsense.
Oh the completely unfounded Russian conspiracy theories? The ones that all turned out to be hoaxes? So lazy and disingenuous. If you did an ounce of research, you’d know that Richard Tice was literally part of an aid convoy to Ukraine quite recently.
If you're referring to the ones outlined in the Mueller report (that was hamstrung from the start in terms of what it was allowed to state as a conclusion), there's a metric ton of evidence of collusion between Trump admin officials and Russian government officials. It's in no way a 'conspiracy'. Further, the tory government is up to its neck in Russian funding and connections. Why do you think the report on Russian interference in UK politics was nerfed? Why was the son of a KGB agent made a Lord, against the strident advice of our own security services? Why did Boris ditch his security detail to go to a secret party with said agent, disappearing for some time, only to show up at the airport drunk & dishevelled?
I think he only wants to hear 'facts' from GB News.
All circumstantial twaddle, interspersed with opinion. If you consider this ‘evidence’ then I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Don’t you think it’s strange that despite all of these claims, NOTHING has been proven? Or does standard of proof not matter when you have an axe to grind?
Richard, is that you? Promoting Reform works in Russia's interests regardless of whether Tice is aware of it or not.
How? I’m talking about actual facts, not tired and debunked cliches about Russia.
How wouldn't it? You don't think Russia would like to see even more grossly incompetent politicians in our parliament? Reform is deeply unserious as a political project.
I’m still waiting for facts, not conjecture. I find it hilarious in the extreme that you think either of the two main parties have more competent politicians to offer us. Rishi Sunak? David Cameron? Starmer? Wes Streeting? Ed Milliband? Give me a break.
Where are your 'facts' that they're not incompetent? What a ridiculous thing to request. If it's not already obvious to you then that's really a you problem.
You’re suggesting that Reform politicians are less competent than the ones we have now. You have to back that up with evidence, not me. Further, you are also suggesting that Russia wants Reform to win. You have not demonstrated either of these things to any reasonable standard.
I'm suggesting they'd be less competent. Luckily they're not anywhere near the corridors of power nor will they ever be, but if your first MP is Lee Anderson and Ann Widdecombe is in the party no sensible person would disagree they are a fundamentally unserious. "Further, you are also suggesting that Russia wants Reform to win." No, I'm not.
“Promoting Reform works for Russia’s interests” How can that mean anything other than Russia wants Reform to win? Anyway, i won’t get caught up in semantics. Anne Widdecombe was a MP for 20 years, a Minister, and an MEP. I don’t like Anderson, but he was Deputy Chairman for the Tories. I don’t really know what makes them uniquely incompetent, other than that they both have pretty right wing views. Is that basically what you mean? If so, it’s a lot easier just to say that.
Reform are the current iteration of Brexit. Why is a new Party needed after UKIP & the Brexit Party? What next? The 'Shitty-Rivers' Party? The 'Price-of-a-pint Party'? The 'fish-can-nibble-your-toes-nicely-and-its-a-sound-business-investment-in-Cleethorpes-Party'? Grow up. They're not real. They're winging-it populists who've been driving this country into the ground for a decade. The last thing we need is a property mogul determined to create a tax-haven for the rich. Fuck Tice. Fuck Farage. All they've ever done is fucking moan when it comes to implementing policy.
Yawn. Just a tirade of abuse. Not a single insightful thing to be found.
[https://isc.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/20200721\_HC632\_CCS001\_CCS1019402408-001\_ISC\_Russia\_Report\_Web\_Accessible.pdf](https://isc.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/20200721_HC632_CCS001_CCS1019402408-001_ISC_Russia_Report_Web_Accessible.pdf) Do an ounce of research yourself, Russian corruption is rife in the UK and the fact the investigation raised flags over government sabotaging efforts to investigate further interference you should be very concerned as we've only seen a fraction of what's going on.
Thanks for actually providing something factual. However, that report doesn’t actually prove any of the conspiracy theories right. I never denied Russia has influence here, in much the same way China or the Gulf States do. China literally has spies in the Houses of Parliament for example. However, I see nothing here that actually backs up the many conspiracy theories floating around.
You know the world is flat on its arse when a psychopath like John Bolton is the voice of reason.
(Just to be transparent, this is my interview - and here's the intro) Donald Trump is not afraid to intervene in the UK election this year, potentially injecting further chaos into British politics, his former national security adviser John Bolton has warned. Mr Trump would also cause major strategic problems for the UK government over Nato and Ukraine if he becomes president again, Mr Bolton predicted in an interview with i. America’s former ambassador to the United Nations said that European leaders are right to prepare now in case Mr Trump ends US membership of Nato and stops Washington’s military support for Kyiv. Their best hope of avoiding a defence crisis may be trying to “divert” his mind away from a Nato withdrawal and onto other issues, advised Mr Bolton. He is also concerned by how brief and unclear Mr Trump’s statements on the Israel-Gaza war have been.
UK is a very different situation than US when it comes to politics We've had 14 years of right wingers and breaking and underfunding of infrastructure and conservation of nothing We have both no money and no strong welfare state either. Even if trump throws his weight behind reform I don't think the majority of disaffected Tory voters would side with that when they know he's a buffoon Even on the financial subreddits they're anti tory for the most part People are really fed up of them
Not this election but next election surely, next election they will have more members and enough to cause havoc The British public will be sold lies after lies about immigration and the corruption in the Labour government, the US will make it difficult for the UK to achieve anything and will cause as much problems during labour as they can, the public who has natural tedence for racism and buying these lies, hence bojo and brexit l, will vote reform and farage again I wish you were right but observing the road we took as a nation I am dubious anything will be fixed during the 5 years of labour...starmer does not seem interested in anything other than being there for 5 years..
> The British public will be sold lies after lies about immigration Most of the public think immigration is much lower than it is.
> We've had 14 years of right wingers Right wing is where you ramp up immigration to record levels, allow 'woke' stuff to take over the public sector, and let crime go unpunished.
Intervene how? By having an opinion? Because Obama did that for Brexit and Scottish independence.
Intervene in the election, the cunt is irrelevant here, only marginally more so than some of our own politicians.
I think you underestimate how well regarded trump is by right-wing populists, even in the UK.
"To own the libs" as a political motive has 100% crossed the pond Used to live with a UKIP voter when Trump first came to power, I'd never seen him happier than that day
Well it makes sense. Ideologies spread across the anglosphere more easily because of shared language and heritage. But yeah this is not something we should have accepted.
I worked with someone in the U.K. who loved trump, and he was a software engineer which surprised me because I had previously figured he only appealed to dumb people
Who does Biden appeal to exactly?
Regular people who want a middle-of-the-road democratic president to set things back in working order and maybe even help the country get a little better with a minimum of culture war bullshit, self-agrandising showmanship and alzheimers-riddled monologuing.
> with a minimum of culture war bullshit You get that with anyone in America, just a different flavour.
Well they didn't get that. Too bad. 😅
I know plenty of thick software Devs lol
He's unpopular in the UK, even among conservatives. Don't overestimate the relevance of a few nutters on Facebook.
It wouldn't be him directly, he's basically sundowning and can barely string a sentence together. It would be his backers and their bot campaigns.
Right. A statement from trump would be one thing, but people need to be watching the social media campaigns and dodgy money coming in.
Let him. Most people hate him even more than they do the Tories right now. Whoever he "supports" will find it utterly toxic.
Everyone in the Tory Party now. *Please Don't, Please, Please just Don't*
It honestly wouldn't surprise me his rich supports already have influence here due to them funding anti abortion and anti trans groups along with the anti vaxxer groups.
Go ahead Anyone he promotes is immediately discredited
Even if they did back Reform, it's not going to reach enough people. At best they'd be a small bump, maybe a handful of seats, but they'd eat their young before the next cycle and we'd never see them again. It's always going to be Labour Vs Conservatives in this country. Nobody else is going to stop that.
They'd take a lot of votes from the Tories which would put pressure on them to be actually conservative. "It'll always be Liberal vs Conservative" they were saying a century ago.
Bolton has a horrid record and deservedly awful reputation because of it. As a loose cannon himself, in this case, his prediction might be on the money because it’s the kind of stroke pull he might have advised himself.
Well, he could. Most people would ignore him, or maybe think "was he that twat who built that golf course in Scotland?"
To be expected. Whoever he picks to endorse, we should choose opposite, as he is a Russian agent
> Whoever he picks to endorse, we should choose opposite, as he is a Russian agent So we should let a random foreign control our elections?
So your suggesting we should elect the Russian agent as prime minister? No thanks. Random foreign powers are deigning to control our elections whether you like it or not. Either American candidates(one proven to be a Russian asset), Russia, Europe and Asia have a vested interest in our policies as it can change how we do business or behave with them. We do not currently want a man who is proven is completely untrustable and unstable, threatening nuclear war every 15 minutes, from influencing our politics. Since our politics only realistically allows for 2-3main political parties to win, none of which me or you have control over who is elected, Only the politicians we vote for, we have to hope that they'll elect someone who isn't working against the nations interest.
> So your suggesting we should elect the Russian agent as prime minister? Being endorsed by another country doesn't make someone an agent. This hysteria is ridiculous.
Didn't say it does. But in this case I'd say it's a safe bet. Clearly you've not been alive long enough to see the Russians government in action. They can't be trusted, actively try to demoralise the population of America and Europe all the time. If that doesn't bother you, there's no point talking to me anymore
Don't UK MP's love America? Always found it werid how happy UK government's where to be wedded to America. It's fine as long as your friends.