Coffee Space 
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things” - 1 Corinthians 13:11.
A younger me, even 10 years ago, was politically aware, but not politically engaged. I did not think about being politically engaged, and mostly allowed myself to think about abstract ideas. In my ignorance I was content, life continued and the earth spun, all as it should be. I lived in the shires, mostly shielded from policies at the global or national scale.
My Great Grandfather, who I was extremely lucky to have many good memories with up until adulthood, warned me even then: “I feel sorry for your generation, you won’t have it as good as we had it”. I think eh was referring to the NHS at the time, having beaten cancer multiple times throughout his life. I believe that if he were alive for another discussion in 2026, he would despair at the state of the UK. I think we could ride a failing NHS, but all parts of the UK are failing, both public sector and private sector.
“Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you” - Pericles.
Up until recently, there was not an avenue for my political energy. The Conservative Party was my usual vote, I live in a blue area and we like to see fiscal responsibility, and don’t so much embrace change. My family ancestors were here in this exact location prior to the existence of the Conservative Party, and will still be here long after.
The Left parties have never interested me. Even from a young age, the idea of “eating the rich” was clearly dumb. If my brother had 10 sweets and I had one, I am not somehow automatically entitled to his sweets. If he felt generous then I would accept the generosity, but to force it is morally wrong. I believe in equality, but this word is loaded. There is equality of outcome, and equality of opportunity. Equality of outcome removes meritocracy or any sense of fairness based on decisions made, and equality of opportunity allows each person the same opportunities, and supports meritocracy and fairness. That said, opportunities should remain available throughout life, such that we are not judged on a single failure, or that society cannot benefit from a late character arch.
“One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors” - Plato.
After ~20 years of fiscal failure and the continuation of the Blair-ism, they have measurably failed to uphold their ideals and campaign promises. Kemi Badenoch makes some kind of effort to suggest that people should vote for the Conservative Party because they are the economically responsible ones - but the last ~20 years of history say otherwise. They have not learned their lessons, and refuse to admit their mistakes.
The 2007-2008 financial crisis was the first signal for me, that the people in charge actually didn’t know what they were doing. After a “recovery” from that, things have been downhill, growth has been miserable. The borrowing during COVID was astronomical and everybody involved or supporting of it should be ashamed. The interest on our debt is now 10% of all taxes collected, with us essentially having to borrow just to cover this. We consistently run at a ~£100 billion deficit, and our debt interest is also ~£100 billion. The budget has not been a surplus to pay off debt since 2001.
Kemi may keep suggesting that the Conservative Party is the fiscally responsible party, but it is factually wrong.
“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard” - President John F. Kennedy (JFK) at Rice University on September 12, 1962.
Reform UK, the party currently led by MP Nigel Farage, is a last-ditch effort to actually breath new life into politics before things go any further. The other parties claim to have changed their ways, but they are the same parties with the same people in them. For about a year now, a large number of people in the UK seem to agree:
I recently analysed their standing in the local area, and I wasn’t impressed. I had this general feeling that it had not been doing well, but now I had numbers to backup my thoughts.
“The tallest nail gets hammered down” - Japanese proverb.
I don’t often like putting my head above the pit, there is little reward for being the tallest nail. But I asked myself: “If not you, then who?”. I have the skills that are required, and I saw that help was being asked for. I don’t believe there is anything positive for me to personally gain, but then I remember:
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in” - Greek proverb.
I have nieces and nephews rapidly growing up, where my generation and previous generations have failed to leave the UK in a better state than we found it. For their sakes, we must do something different.
I hope that Reform UK is the party that everybody needs them to be, and I hope that I’m at least half the man that people around me believe me to be.
“Cometh the hour, cometh the man”