Farage is leader of the opposition

Spectacularly missing the point due to being too blinded by bias against his personality.

Maybe not, but why were they supporting it in the first place?

it all comes back to ukip success around 10 years ago which made the conservatives panic, and embrace / appease the right.

Never said it was a little thing! It was the biggest act of self harm England and Wales ever made!

Is he really? Tell me more. I'm all ears.

I think you are forgetting two essential ingredients of the Brexit campaign. Johnson and Cummings.

Would Leave have won without them?

Yeah there was Brexit. Just Brexit. That little old thing, Brexit.

Here’s a theory. Farage is trying to reverse engineer a takeover of the Tory party. By splitting the vote, he making sure that the Troy wets lose their seats. The likes of Jeremy Hunt, Morduant, the one nation group etc. Which means that the only Tories who will remain in parliament are the right of centre ones.

The right of centre ones will either defect or bring Farage into their party. Or will become too insignificant to fight an emerging Reform vote, eventually merging with Reform ahead of 2029. It’s the labour/SDP scene but on the right.

The Tories are toast anyway. Now is the time for someone capture the party. Lib Dem’s could have done the same from the other direction, but unfortunately they’re too busy pretending to outdo the batshit greens. So Farage it is.

Spot on. That’s my worry if reform are strong. We get conservatism moving right, not back to the centre

Tbf leveraging the support (not seats) of a party such that you can influence the party of government, cause a referendum, and influence that to drive us leaving, all without having any influence in Westminster, is an achievement

Not a fan of Farage at all, but I agree with this.

It’s clear that there are issues that people feel very strongly about, treating them as bigoted idiots is not going to change their minds, dismissing these issues isn’t helping anyone.

This is how countries swing to the right politically. This is what’s happening in front of us right now. People talking about Reform as if it’s a joke, yet they are gaining traction.

I very much doubt they’re going to do much in this election, but if the concerns of a lot of people carry on being laughed at and insulted then see what happens. It’s very clear to see where we’re headed.

I’ve always been left wing, but the sanctimonious dismissal of real life issues by our most mainstream political parties is leaving me more politically homeless than ever.

We got brexit because Cameron overestimated how much influence farage had on the far right of the tory party, not because farage is some sort of champion for the unspoken masses, and because the remain campaign completely failed to put across the reasons why brexit was and still is a dreadful, dreadful idea.

Farage is, and always will be, a gobshite who can come out with a few soundbites but has no substance whatsoever.

The problem with Reform becoming the Opposition, should it happen, isn't that Parliament would become a complete shitshow (even more than now). It's that Reform would effectively consume the Conservative Party - most Tory MPs would move over, and the ones who didn't would be replaced.

Like the Conservatives or not (and I don't), we need them to move closer to the centre and be a credible Opposition party rather than be replaced by the far-right, no-actual-policies-but-plenty-of-bluster Reform Party.

You don’t have to like the guy to acknowledge that he is the most impactful politician of the last 30 years and the most effective communicator

Hmm. I think you are over egging the pudding a little there.

He has failed to win a seat seven times. Why, if he is so impactful and such a good communicator?

Yes obviously there was Brexit, but even he was surprised Leave won on the night, if I remember rightly he had all but conceded defeat at one point.

Hate the guy’s opinions but lots of people don’t.
@ll09sm disagree with you on the solution and the stuff about left wing self righteousness but you are right about ignoring him to our peril.
He appeals to very different groups that want diametrically opposed things. Affluent ex tories in the Home Counties and ex red wall voters in the North.
People considering voting for him really need to read their ‘manifesto’ because he has an agenda that will be damaging to already economically deprived areas in particular.

There is no way Sunak and Starmer’s handlers would ever let them share a stage with Farage. He would wipe the floor with them. You may not like his message, but he talks like a normal person and therefore appeals to the masses. No idiotic soundbites like ‘my dad was a toolmaker’ or ‘I went without sky tv’.

You don’t have to like the guy to acknowledge that he is the most impactful politician of the last 30 years and the most effective communicator.

If you can’t acknowledge that despite having a difference of opinion with him, then you are not a rational person, but a hysterical fanatic.

You don’t have to like him to acknowledge that people who support Farage have valid concerns and just discussing them rather than addressing them helps no one.

exactly this! Farage has tapped into the fact that so many of the electorate feel that they aren’t listened to (exactly the same as trump), but if you dismiss those people merely as being ignorant, or racist, more discontent remains which leads to the far right extremism.

The echo chamber dismissal of Farage and his supporters on this forum show what a bubble people live in.

The constant mocking, disdain and belittling of him and supporters is akin to burying your head in the sand.

You don’t have to like him to acknowledge that people who support Farage have valid concerns and just discussing them rather than addressing them helps no one.

Left wing self righteousness and intolerance of other people’s political views gets you Brexit. How did that work out for you?

How has ignoring him worked out so far?

Farage hides it very well.

he also actively campaigns for the little people, rather than sunak/johnson who make it clear we are beneath them

Let him go head to head with Starmer. Whatever you think of 'ol Nige, he'll wipe the floor with Starmer in a one on one. I don't watch television very often anymore but I'd tune in for that!

my DH is likely to vote reform and he’s not rascist in the slightest, but as a working class man working in a trade, he feels that Reform are actively standing up for the little people. He can’t relate to the privilege of the Tory party who all feel entitled to be politicians (Johnson, Reese-mogg)or even the upbringings of the Labour Party candidates

But he can relate to the privilege and upbringing of Farage? How odd.

Which is, of course, not going to happen.

The reform vote is too geographically spread out. At most, Nige the twat may scrape in, and then do absolutely fuck all, just like he did as an MEP. But that's it.

@GiveMeSpanakopita sums it up perfectly.

I personally can’t bare the man but I think too many people underestimate him. He’s got a canny ability to articulate the exact issues that the “working man” have, and he’s not afraid to be the irritating little pest that brings those conversations into public domain.

my DH is likely to vote reform and he’s not rascist in the slightest, but as a working class man working in a trade, he feels that Reform are actively standing up for the little people. He can’t relate to the privilege of the Tory party who all feel entitled to be politicians (Johnson, Reese-mogg)or even the upbringings of the Labour Party candidates.

farage claims that he’s going to be leader of the opposition and while I doubt that, there is something to be said about having an actual boots on the floor representative of the average working person. The fact that he’s a shyster and will throw anyone under a bus is almost irrelevant - he’s a politician who actually makes people feel that they are listened to and their voices heard.

that’s why Farage shouldn’t be underestimated.

Yes, go away - as far as possible.

To be clear, I'm no fan of his! I think he's awful - hateful, divisive and a self-interested grifter. But his opportunism is a thing to behold and let's face it, it was him constantly niggling at the tories that led to the brexit referendum (which I personally whish had never happened).