My mistake, I see they released one 3 days ago. Well, if you can call a a manifesto? It's a list of unfunded meaningless pledges. They can put anything in there can't they? Labour says they want to increase spending on green investment and everyone asks where the money comes from, and they have to water it down because people attack their borrowing. Reform have huge tax cuts with no calculations on how they are afforded. They just say 'tax cuts pay for themselves". Sorry, no. That's not true is it. Ask Liz Truss. The Treasury has spending plans for years in advance based on expected spending and tax revenues and eradicating certain taxes and cutting others means you now have a black hole. They say they are going to cut all public sector departmental spending by 5%. I cannot stress enough how unserious this is.
They want to 'scrap employment laws'. Which laws you ask? Don't ask Reform, they don't care to specify.
They want to increase police presence, harsher sentences, more people in jail. Ok, I mean it's standard tough talk every party says. But now we have more prisoners in a prison system which is already overcrowded and a justice system already backlogged. Their policies will make that far worse. Any mention of how they will ease pressure? Nah.
They have a transport section which has 3 things. Scrap HS2. Ban ULEZ zones (so funnelling power away from elected mayor's and local people to Westminster), and a third one. It's great, it's just one line. "Focus on the North". That's it! Focus on the North! Well I for one am convinced.
Look, they are a name and a box you can tick if you have certain beliefs. They are fulfilling a need. But let's not pretend they are a real party with infrastructure, organisers, activists, policies that are real and researched, fully costed. They have slogans. They want to ban critical race theory in school, ban sex ed, blackmail universities they think are 'woke', they spend more time spouting absolute crap about how climate change isn't real than they do talking about the NHS, or our rivers, how they will secure energy, how they will rejuvenate transport links in the North. They don't mention Scotland, NI or Wales once. They don't talk about housing. But they have their 'common sense' ideas that don't stand up to any scrutiny and they would never be able to enact even if they did get into power, and that's all they need to do.