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34 Phonebox Magazine | June 2025NOTHING BUT THE TRUTHThe recent council elections have caused something of a political upset, with the Reform Party taking control of various councils and adding an MP to their ranks due to a by-election. Let%u2019s take a look and see if this is serious or a blip, and why indeed it%u2019s happened.See you next month!Dave%u2026 VOTE FOR?Both main parties, Labour and the Conservatives, are looking a bit shell-shocked and with good reason.The Conservatives are looking especially feeble, but it doesn%u2019t take a genius to see what happened there. It set in when David Cameron ponced off in a huff after losing the EU referendum. Although it should be pointed out that all parties in parliament voted on whether there should be a EU referendum and voted 544 in favour and 53 against, so let%u2019s put that one to bed. Interestingly, the Lib Dems were the fi rst major party to call for it in 2008; I still have the leafl et pinned up beside my writing desk. So next time Sir Ed Davey is fi red out of a circus cannon or whatever absurd vote-catching tactic he comes out with next, do remind them. Ooh, they hate it.Anyway, once Cameron had gone they followed up with a series of appalling Prime Ministers who didn%u2019t really want to leave the EU anyway, Theresa May%u2019s heart wasn%u2019t in it, then Boris Johnson bounces in, a man who had always been keen on the EU but jumped on the bandwagon at the right time, and interestingly his opposite number Jeremy Corbyn who had long campaigned to leave the EU, had to pretend to love it due to his party%u2019s about turn on the issue.However, even Johnson%u2019s cabinet colleagues couldn%u2019t put up with his skullduggery and all resigned, as did he, and then they brought in Liz Truss. What happened there is anyone%u2019s guess, but clearly Tory MPs weren%u2019t fi ring on all cylinders at the time. I asked a London journalist friend of mine if he thought she was actually stupid, and I apologise for his vulgar answer, but it made me laugh, as he said %u201cStupid! I wouldn%u2019t be surprised if she drowned in the bath trying to smell her own farts%u201d. Then onto Rishi Sunak, who didn%u2019t stand a chance.%u00a0So, in comes Sir Keir Starmer for Labour and is immediately hit by reports of taking backhanders from his rich pals and other cabinet members embroiled in it; freebie clothes, holidays, pop tickets, and goodness knows what else. They might have got away with that, as it%u2019s almost expected from MPs, but to take the winter fuel allowance away from many old people wasn%u2019t the fi rst thing one expected from a Labour government. Then, a lowering of the limit at which people pay National Insurance, which hits so many small businesses, and indeed, locally, our own Willen Hospice.%u00a0Now it%u2019s the disability allowance they%u2019re looking to cut. This might just be the point that even the most ambitious Labour MP may look to vote against, if only to stand a chance of re-election. Four years may be a long time, but in these days of social media, a hit at the vulnerable won%u2019t be forgotten. However, Starmer has a huge majority and will no doubt get it through, unless there are enough brave souls to get them to have a rethink.But at the top of Labour we have the deputy prime minister Raynor, who can%u2019t answer a single question directly, the chancellor of the exchequer, Reeves, who wrote %u2018her truth%u2019 on her CV, and Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, who on Celebrity Mastermind, when asked which Marie won the Nobel Prize for her services for chemistry, answered%u00a0Antoinette, and thought that Henry 7th%u00a0succeeded to the throne after Henry 8th. But he did know who the lead singer of Coldplay was, so that%u2019s ok. He also put in a complaint to the BBC at the last pope conclave, where they were waiting for the black or white smoke to come out, saying it was racist. I think he%u2019s in the bath with Liz Truss.So, I don%u2019t have to explain much more about why Reform are doing well. Labour need to be a bit careful about criticising Reform for not vetting their candidates considering that the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, where Reform overturned a 14,696 Labour majority, was held due to the then standing Labour MP getting drunk and attacking a constituent (fortunately for evidential purposes in full view of a camera) and the Labour MP who beat Rees Mogg in North East Somerset has been arrested on suspicion of rape, child sex off enses, child abduction and misconduct in public offi ce. His day job was as an NSPCC-trained child protection offi cer. So, there will be a by-election there at some point, and if Rees Mogg stands again to regain the seat, it is thought that if he stands as a Conservative, he will lose, but if he jumps ship to Reform, he should get a whacking majority.There you have it. At present the more radical Reform haters are trying the same tactic as they did in the EU referendum by screeching at them on social media, but the Reform plot seems to be working, as Starmer%u2019s recent speech on immigration could have been penned by Nigel Farage. Where will it all end?