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Ex-Tory Home Secretary Braverman defects to Reform UK
(www.bbc.co.uk)
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this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2026
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I'll bite. I'm excited for your response.
Which Reform policy is a Putin policy?
So many to choose from! How about building more gas turbine power stations (thereby increasing demand for gas, pushing the global price up and benefitting Gazprom even if they don't buy directly from them), cutting stamp duty on the biggest properties (including most of those bought by Russian oligarchs) and pulling out of the European Defence Fund? All straight from the last Reform manifesto and I'd bet Putin would be in favour of those, wouldn't you?
If you don't like those, there's stuff like cancelling our human rights, repealing the Equalities Act and "scrapping" the BBC.
I suspect Reform would also open the floodgates to more Russian government funding, Nathan Gill style and otherwise, but they're not daft enough to put that in their manifesto.
Maybe you could say which Reform policies would Putin oppose? There's some he probably wouldn't care about either way, but oppose?
Proceeds to list zero policies 😀
We're using gas for the next 50 years whether it's Reform or the Greens. That curries more favour with the US or Qatar than it does Russia. You're reaching for that to be a "Putin policy"
Scrapping the licence fee.. that 1/2 of the population who should pay, don't.
Thanks for responding at least.
What would Putin oppose? Let's see.. the top three from Reform's site:
Russia was the biggest gas exporter until the 2022 sanctions. It is still heavily dependent on black and grey market exports.
At the time of this comment, gas makes up 22% of tonight’s supply to the National Grid, with wind at 52% and Biomass/Nuclear at 17%. Gas will not last another 50 years at all.
Telling that Reform wish to turn the clock back and fetter Britain to gas when other options are far more favourable to energy sovereignty. It’s like they’re shilling for someone else isn’t it.
Read what I said again: we'll be using gas in 50 years.
Your cherry picked statistics for a windy day at 22:30 are a poor example. Check again at 17:00.
Maybe have a think about the majority of homes central heating.
While you're at it: go learn about how fertiliser is made using natural gas (we import all our fertiliser now anyway, thanks Ed!)
Oh and we have never been a major importer of Russian gas.
We'll have to wait 50 years to know, but even if we are, it'll be much much less under any sane government, but it would be more if left to Reform.
It's absurd to accuse someone of cherry-picking and then cherry-pick a time when the National Energy System Operator has invited bids for the Demand Flexibility Service because the price of gas-generated electricity is too high.
A majority, but not a supermajority. Only about 60% of UK homes burn gas for heating despite all the encouragement and inducement since the 1970s in a scandal that makes promotion of diesel cars look like playschool stuff, and a farcical and pathetic target-missing attempt to encourage heat pumps in the last 10 years (target: 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028, latest number I've seen: 91,000 per year and no, that's not missing a digit).
So? Buying gas and thereby driving the market price up is enough to benefit Russia. When you hear a gas boiler roar, it's helping fund Putin.
No, it's a certainty. You and the other user are fixated on CCGT generation. My reply was to the other user, not you. They said "Gas will not last another 50 years at all." and I am saying it has more uses than CCGT.
No it's not. They looked at a dashboard at 22:30 and tried to portray the UK as if it is representative of a peak usage time. Let's see how those stats are today.. oh, 50% is generated by CCGT (gas) at 7pm, cool. That was my point.
Wrong. It's closer to 85%. Where did you get the 60% figure from? I'm not replying to your irrelevant addon about heat pumps (go back up this chain to remind yourself of what we're talking about)
They sell it for far less.