A casual friend has just told me she's standing as a Reform candidate

@Mumblechum0 , what on earth has this poor woman done to make you think she means any harm to your husband or son? You could try talking to her about her decision, ask her outright how she feels about people who aren’t white. I can pretty much guarantee that you will find she’s not in the least bit racist. Not a single person I know who voted Reform are. It’s just a stick used to beat Reform voters and to put people off from listening to their arguments. Of course there will be racists among Reform voters just like there are among all other political parties but it does not follow that everyone who votes Reform is.
Just chat to her, I’m confident she’d be happy to have the chat with you, ask all the questions you need to and then make your mind up how you feel about her. To judge her without being in possession of all the facts is not a very grown up or educated response.

Absolutely.

I'd write back thanks for letting me know and leave it their. To be fair none of the the political parties are great we've all just found out how ableist Labour is, so I wouldn't ruin a friendship over it just don't ever discuss politics which I would actually say that advice to anyone.

You could say something like, "wow, I didn't have you down as a Reform candidate! Good luck, I guess!"

That way your disdain and shock are quite clear while also showing support for the process.

The more our current leaders ignore the electorate, the voting public will look towards those that will listen. Like all parties, there are parts of Reform I disagree with. But nobody should be ashamed to say look after ourselves first. The entire Country is in a financial and infrastructure mess at present, and I don't think Starmer or the labour party have the guts to make the required decisions to get us out of it.

All of that is fine, but you're talking about being lovely to people who want to vote to remove, or remove the rights of a lot of people I love. People who look at Nigel Farage and think, I'll have some of whatever the fuck he's offering, yes I've heard he's a disruptive stooge of Putin - let's face it he's not really hiding it - and that works for me!
I personally cannot be neutral about people who are so deluded as to think that doesn't matter.

I'm not saying that they are either racist or lacking intelligence critical thinking , but they definitely don't see parallels or have pattern recognition the same way I do. The ven diagrams show a lot of things too.

Great answer and I’ve used similar myself.

Very narrow minded to think that all are.

I’ve got friends who support all different parties. It’s not my business. So I don’t see it as any sort of problem. 🤷‍♀️

I was waiting for someone to say this. So predictable.

It's not like you're close mates

Maybe just a 'thanks for letting me know' response will do. She'll be expecting it.

You're not close friends so just avoid her moving forwards. Maybe change your social media profile to one which supports a multicultural britain, she'll get the message, the bellend

Just ignore it.

I would reply someone the lines of “ Thanks for letting me know. You do know my DH and DS are not white, this is going to be quite awkward ,I imagine that’s why you flagged it up .”.

‘How disappointing’ is all I could muster up. What I’d really want to say is fuck you, your racist scum but if she is committed enough to the party to stand for them, then she’s not going to care what you think.

But what happens when you are sharing social space with her whilst she is spouting off about her politics? Or trying to defend them - will you be able to handle that?

what an awful woman. I’m sorry.

I would just respond “how disappointing” and try to minimise contact.

You don't believe that being anti-immigration is racist, and I very, very much do. We shall never agree on this and I am not going to spend any time debating it.

The problem with shunning someone because of their politics is where do you stop? Do I shun all Green and Lib Dem people because in Scotland they voted against raped women having the right to ask for a female medical examiner, or Tories for their two child benefit cap unless you can prove extra child a product of rape or Labour Glasgow Council for denying women equal pay to men? If you look closely enough there is really nobody pure enough to votefor

I think I’d respond with something along the lines of “Christ, why?”

What about a text saying ‘Oh no, I think your phones been hacked!. Someone’s going around using your details to say they’ll be standing for election with Farage and his racist incompetent gobshites. I’m so sorry- I know you’d be mortified to have your good name associated with that.’

Genuine question - as am happy to be proved wrong - what of their policies are racist?

I don’t think that Reform are racist - being anti high levels of immigration is not in itself racist. There may be a higher than average number of rackets among its supporters - I don’t know - but it’s not a clear cut statement that she’s racist against black people.

i don’t support their policies for what it’s worth. But I very much support their right to campaign pokitixally

I see reform voters and Trump voters as exactly the same - you can't be on the side of good if you are voting to remove the rights of others. I couldn't be arsed with them no matter how much they deny the more problematic policies.

They're all the same isn't true at all.

To be honest I don’t understand why she would text you (unless it’s a generic one to all her contacts) - the act of sending an individual heads up gives more of a red flag than standing for the party, as it’s almost like she is aware she needs to warn you.

this would be a major red flag to me.

I wouldn’t have judged her on standing for the party but I definitely would for the message.

just to add context - I don’t follow the party or know hardly anything about them- they don’t interest me so don’t have major views either way.

Wow. A lot of posters dgaf about people's politics. I really care about people's politics. I absolutely 100% do judge people by some of their politics - not all, because no party is perfect.
I wouldn't socialise with her again. I'd avoid her at parties.
You can say not all Reform voters are racist, but all that means is not all Reform voters are clued up enough to realise that they are racist. If you vote for a racist party, I don't know what other conclusion there is.