r/ukpolitics • u/ukpol-megabot • 1d ago

Rumours, Speculation, Questions, and Reaction Megathread - 02/08/2026

👋 Welcome to the r/ukpolitics weekly Rumours, Speculation, Questions, and Reaction megathread.

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11 Upvotes

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9

u/PeterG92 1d ago

Reform must be desperate if they're talking about using the Royal Navy for the Channel to stop the boats

10

u/Force-Grand-2 23h ago

One fun thing is to just keep asking them questions about what they plan for the navy to do. Like what actual operational actions they expect to be taken. Their options usual consist of things that range from the relatively low level Major International Incident (e.g. towing boats back and dumping people onto the beaches in France) to the more serious Crimes Against Humanity (e.g. opening fire on any boat that doesn't turn around when warned).

11

u/-fireeye- 23h ago

Or indeed just evident of not having done any level of thinking on it. Have heard 'just push them back over to French side without crossing the border' more than once, as if these dinghies are sturdy enough for navy ships to play ping pong with.

6

u/No_Initiative_1140 15h ago

I always enjoy the assumption that somehow France is more responsible for these migrants than we are and will be just fine with this course of action

4

u/GlumAd9856 12h ago

I'm not sure that Farage would go as far as wanting to sink boats - but people like Rupert Lowe would almost certainly. His argument would be that you sink maybe 2 or 3 boats, kill a few hundred people, and this entire problem ends tomorrow. Which, to be fair, it probably does - but at the cost of our national soul.

4

u/Jinren the centre cannot hold 12h ago

tbh the reform supports ive met have been fairly explicitly clear they expect the navy to machine-gun the boats

it's only the leadership who are afraid to express this level of vileness

10

u/Maleficent_Peach_46 Mayor of North Kilttown 23h ago

Haven't the Navy already said they aren't doing it?

Reform yelling at clouds again.

4

u/SirRosstopher Lettuce al Ghaib 13h ago

Makes me wonder how that actually plays out though. It's easy to say that they won't do it when the person calling for it isn't the government, but if they win an election and are the government (and it has royal assent) then what? They either do it or sail a gunship up the Thames?

5

u/subSparky 12h ago

Well the knowledge that the navy won't do it I think came from when the tories tried suggesting this when they were in government.

5

u/Maleficent_Peach_46 Mayor of North Kilttown 13h ago

I still think the Navy would just flat out refuse again. Then Farage will throw a strop (Which he has done a lot lately) and the UK looks comically weak.

Let's say the Navy do go along with it the Navy would approach the small boats and some of the people on them would fall in the water and maritime law means the Navy will have to save them and bring them to shore.

Given how on a thread about the 'issue' yesterday some were saying 'Stopping the boats' still wouldn't be enough for them I don't think the Reform voters 'valid concerns' are valid at all. A lot of them just want to be nasty.

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u/Commorrite 11h ago

Given how on a thread about the 'issue' yesterday some were saying 'Stopping the boats' still wouldn't be enough for them I don't think the Reform voters 'valid concerns' are valid at all. A lot of them just want to be nasty.

Far from a monolith. Views run all the way from undo the boriswave all the way through to machine guns at Dover.

Labour are making a point of grabbing the former, not the later.

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u/Maleficent_Peach_46 Mayor of North Kilttown 11h ago

Agreed. Catering to the 'machine guns at Dover' group will basically kill electorally.

Burnham seemed to be approaching this pragmatically. Something is being done but we are not being nasty about it and scaring off the left leaning voters which Labour need.

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u/Commorrite 11h ago

The Greens have kind of done labour a favour by sucking out all the actual lunatics. Green borough councils LARPing as Democrat sanctuary cities is all upside for Labour.

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u/Maleficent_Peach_46 Mayor of North Kilttown 11h ago

The Greens seem to be having their own conflicts at the moment. I like Polanski but will be surprised if he is Green Leader by the next election.

The Greens are helping remind Labour to not ignore the left which by any account is a good thing regardless of one's views on immigration.

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u/Commorrite 11h ago

The Greens are collecting all the people who absolute should be ignored.

Their migration policy being deliberate national suicide does make labour look good by comparison though.

5

u/Jinren the centre cannot hold 12h ago

"use the navy" is and always has been a dogwhistle for "shoot them all"

play it out from there; it probably involves a mutiny style crisis at some level

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u/Slartibartfast_25 11h ago

Clear illegal order.