Reform Party

The **Reform Party** (*Welsh*: **Plaid Diwygio**) is a populist national liberal political party in Kymry.

The Reform Party was formed in 1976 splitting from the National Party, which is perceived as being too accepting of Labour party policy and in particular practicing "Tory socialism", championing economic liberalism. When formed Reform presented itself as the national liberal party, supporting privatisation, low taxes, small-state government and strong defence of national sovereignty. During the 1980's as the Labour government implemented many of the free-market reforms championed by the Reform Party the party began to shift its focus to the culture war, supporting socially conservative policies. In the latter half of the 1980's the Reform Party became increasingly populist and cemented strong opposition to immigration (especially Asian immigration) as their central policy, which resulted in the Reform party rising in terms of votes.

In recent years the Reform party has become known for its increasingly nationalist policies, which has resulted in a split in the party between the older national liberal wing of the party which concentrates on economic liberalism and the newer nationalist wing of the party which is more populist in character.

## Ideology

The Reform Party describes itself as a "*liberal party with a commitment to free-markets, national sovereignty and control of our borders*", drawing upon national liberal traditions. It has rejected the left-right spectrum as being outdated, and said in the modern world the division is between those who support internationalism and nationalism, defining itself as being in the latter camp. Political scientists call the Reform Party platform as being socially conservative, economically liberal and right-wing populist in character.

### Immigration

Since the 1999 party congress which saw the party commit to "*control of our borders*" the Reform Party has become most known for its strong opposition to immigration, especially from East Asia and the Middle East. The Reform Party rejects the current multiculturalism policy of Kymry implemented in the 1970's, saying that Kymry's heritage and culture is Anglo-Celtic and attempts at widening that have "*failed*". When founded the Reform Party was especially critical of immigration from East Asian nations, particularly from Vietnam and Indonesia, saying East Asian people "*could not effectively integrate into mainstream Kymrian culture*" and called for a ban on all East Asian immigration. Since the 2000's, the party's focus as shifted from opposition to East Asian immigration to other parts of the world, predominately Muslim countries in the Middle East and South Asia. The party has generally favoured cultural assimilation for immigrants that do settle in Kymry but does not differentiate between refugees and immigrants.

The Reform Party has said it wishes to end immigration from Asian countries by enforcing a total ban on selected countries (identified amongst others as Indonesia, Malaysia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan) and heavily restricted immigration policies on others through the use of enforced quotas. It also says all immigrants to Kymry must speak Welsh and after five years English, only receive 20% of social welfare benefits after a period of 2 years without any welfare, and must pay to allow spouses into the country.

### Economy

When the Reform Party was launched it was a strongly neoliberal party, advocating for privatisation of public assets (including education and healthcare), implementation of a flat income tax, creation of a value-added tax, scrapping of welfare programs, deregulation of the economy and anti-trade union legalisation. During its early years Reform was known for its strongly right-wing economic stances, criticising the Labour party for implementing "Soviet socialism" and the National party "Tory socialism". Its strong anti-tax proposals gained the party popularity as a protest vote.

After the Labour government of Matthew Griffiths implemented far-reaching free-market reforms, the Reform Party began to shift to the left on economic issues, disavowing proposals to privatise education and healthcare and signing a commitment to "*preserve the welfare state*". Instead, the Reform Party has proposed moves to marketise the welfare state, suggesting school vouchers and private finance initiatives as models for a more competition based welfare state. The party continues to advocate however anti-trade union policies and a flat tax of 22%.

### Law and order

The Reform Party has traditionally been heavily supportive of a zero-tolerance approach to law and order. Amongst its policies it has championed an end to parole, increased prison sentencing and a reintroduction of the death penalty.

Reform has had contradictory stances regarding internet surveillance. The liberal wing of the party has opposed moves by the National government to increase internet data collection, whereas the populist wing has either supported or ignored the policy.

### Foreign policy

The Reform Party was founded as an anti-communist party, taking a tough line against the Soviet Union with party founder Roger Holt calling for all-out nuclear war against the USSR. The party also was heavily in favour of arming the Mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan War. Since the 9/11 attacks the party has become strongly in favour in intervention in the Middle East. The current foreign policy of the Reform party is strongly neoconservtive.

The Reform party is strongly pro-Israeli, and has dismissed the idea of a Palestinian state. Reform Party politicians have said there is no such thing as a Palestinian people, and that Israel should be "*a Jewish state with Jerusalem as the undivided capital, and its rightful sovereignty over Judea and Samaria*". The Reform Party is heavily in favour of invading Iran and was historically supportive of the Iraq War. In 2015, the Reform Party declared it wished for Rainier to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria as well as destroy the ISIS terrorist group.

## International relations

The Reform Party has traditionally been connected to similar right-wing movements in Europe, including the American Republican Party, Swiss People's Party and UK Independence Party, with UKIP leader Nigel Farage speaking at the 2015 Reform Party congress. Reform also has links with the Israeli Likud party.

The Reform Party also more controversially has connections with the Austrian FPÖ and Dutch Party for Freedom, both of which have often been called far-right parties.