Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

shocked my best friend voted Reform

734 replies

clearmoon · 31/07/2024 23:42

Long standing close friend came round for dinner and we were nattering away, and she just mentioned off hand in the conversation that she had voted Reform. i am really shocked. We don't discuss politics much. But I would have guessed lib dems or labour. I love her dearly. But I do wonder if I should think about her differently now, or just carry on as before

YANBU - She is not such a good person as I thought all these years
YABU-its all fine

OP posts:
saraclara · 01/08/2024 00:17

My oldest friends watch GB news and think it's impartial. They were pro-brexit, and as they've always lived in a very white middle class area, they're not exactly attuned to immigration and asylum issues. So we steer away from politics, as they're good, kind and generous friends who've been a great support to me over some difficult years. They also listen to my experiences in my volunteer work with asylum seekers, with open minds.

Fortunately they took against Boris Johnson during COVID, so we could at least rant about him together! And they think Nigel Farage is an idiot. So I'm hoping they didn't vote Reform. But they might have.

BobbyBiscuits · 01/08/2024 00:07

I guess l'd be asking her why? A male friend of mine told me he did and I was pretty shocked. He seemed to think the whole thing was amusing.
I'm just glad pretty much nobody else did in my area and beyond.
I certainly don't agree with voting for that but I wouldn't stop being friends with him over it.
If it was the first thing I knew about someone when I first met them, I'd probably avoid becoming their friend in the first place though!

MrsSkylerWhite · 01/08/2024 00:00

That would change my opinion of someone.

sesquipedalian · 31/07/2024 23:59

People vote many ways for many reasons. The consensus of opinion at the last election from many people I’ve spoken to seemed to be that the Conservatives deserved to lose, but Labour didn’t deserve to win. To vote for more or less any of the small parties could be seen as a protest vote, in that they were never going to form a government. And if your friend voted Reform because she agrees with their policies, that is her prerogative. You don’t need to fall out about it!

Original poster
clearmoon · 31/07/2024 23:58

Justbeinganoseycow · 31/07/2024 23:56

Why do people feel the need to disclose who they vote for? It's private IMO.

Never talk politics or religion.

well, I wish she hadn't but she has

OP posts:
Justbeinganoseycow · 31/07/2024 23:56

Why do people feel the need to disclose who they vote for? It's private IMO.

Never talk politics or religion.

Original poster
clearmoon · 31/07/2024 23:54

swimsong · 31/07/2024 23:52

She may be just ignorant.

She is very clever, so I don't really think this is a likely explanation. I wish it were

OP posts:
swimsong · 31/07/2024 23:52

She may be just ignorant.

RosaRoja · 31/07/2024 23:48

What a disappointment. I found out one of my friends is a Trumpster and Brexiter (she’s American and lives in the UK with another foreigner) and I have been somewhat repulsed since then. We avoid politics now and I’m still repulsed 8 years on.