shocked my best friend voted Reform

Like I say, I've been on these boards for many years. I have named it on countless occasions. Called it out. Reported it etc.

I'm tired of it now and I can't be arsed. There will be others who are less weary of the whole thing who will find the energy to make the case. I'm just too depressed by it all to keep on arguing the toss with people who have already made up their minds. There is no point.

That's because of where you get your info. I constantly see them derided as left wing - highest taxes since 1945, highest public spending every, open borders, high crime /very weak on law and order including crimes against women, more or less totally went along with gender ideology. What's not left wing about them? Labour are merely further left. There was no party apart from reform for anyone right to vote for and most 2019 tory voters abandoned them which is why Labour won a landslide with less votes than Corbyn and turnout very low.

I just find it eerily similar to how some people talk about JK Rowling.
”She’s a bigot. She wants trans people dead” with nothing but insults and deflection if you dare ask for evidence of these claims.

Stand up to racism where, if you spot racism then report it to your beloved police and the criminal justice system will decided if they are being racist or not. You are not judge and jury im afraid.

Until then it's just bait and political point scoring.

So again where is your case and where are your facts?

You’re in a discussion by choice. I’ve not drawn you into anything.

Stand up to racism. Call it out. Name it! Please!

Exactly and when you get posters like a previous one claiming "The leader of the party has repeatedly made racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic statements." but yet when you ask for actual evidence. They suddenly vanish or try to deflect from answering. If you make a claim you need to back it up with facts.

I would just like one of these people who are putting out erroneous claims about GB news, Farage or Reform to show me where they have been arrested, charged, presented with a legal case that found them guilty of any of these things as its all against UK law.

If they cannot prove this then they are innocent until proven guilty. It's all smoke and mirrors with the left, every one to the right of Corbynite politics is a hard right thicko. You really could not make it up.

Because it is important for those of us who don't support racism to stand up and be counted. That doesn't mean that we have to get drawn into pointless discussions that just aren't worth the effort.

You’ve taken a lot of time to respond here but completely neglected/ refused to back up your own claims.

Why is that?

Even if you don’t “believe” me. There will be people reading this who will also genuinely want to know. Why not just post the policies and prove your claim? Why the secrecy?

I don't believe you. I've been on these boards long enough to be able to tell the difference between a genuine poster and one with a different agenda. And I'm done, I can't be arsed to engage with the disingenuous ones any more. It's a waste of time and effort that could be better directed to other things.

But on the off chance that I I am mistaken and you actually want to learn, Google is your friend here. You will find plenty of evidence of why people consider Reform to be a racist party if you genuinely want to know.

If a party had actual racist policies of course most people couldn’t be friends with someone who votes for them. But if we’re talking about people being concerned about illegal immigration, then we aren’t talking about Nazi policies, are we?
If reform have genuinely racist policies, I’d like to know them so that I can inform others who might be tempted to vote for them in the future.

The problem is they never can or will, they will throw accusations about like confetti from the left but never back it up with facts.

Its the typical left way forward throw labels and hope they stick, keep saying it until enough believe it for it to be true.

Pathetic

I want to learn.

Give me specific examples of Reform having racist and nazi-like policies.

So what if it is?

I'm more than happy to engage with people who actually want to learn but it's easy enough to tell when someone has a different agenda. Why should I waste my time?

How disappointingly predictable.

After what Ben Habib said about allowing people on boats to be left to drown, I'd struggle to respect anyone who'd vote for a party represented by him

No, I can't be arsed. If you don't already know what racism is, then do some reading on the issue.

Also, why do you feel the need to add patronising and smug cliches?

That would be different, if indeed it happens.

Could you give examples?

It absolutely isn't racist to have concerns about immigration policy and how it is managed or implemented.

It is racist when people express those concerns in racist terms.

HTH

I'd want to know why she voted that way. If it was protest vote, that may be ok. If she's racist, that's not ok. Who you vote for says something about what you believe is right and wrong, there are things that I consider so fundamentally wrong - such as racism - that I wouldn't feel comfortable continuing a friendship.

Just for clarity, are we saying that it is racism- and akin to nazi-ism, to be concerned with illegal immigration and its impact on communities?

Is this a strictly UK-based rules or are all countries who have strict immigration laws racist and nazi states?

Wait til they get started on disability benefits !!

I like how some people claim to be so laissez faire about who they spend free time with, yet heap a lot of insults at those who feel otherwise. All the time saying “I don’t judge, you do, you horrible liberal”.

If you make people work till 67 it’s presumably for a pay, so I can see why free prescription charges age could be raised. I haven’t actually seen it proposed anywhere, apart from scare threads on MN.