To ask when Reform supporters will

This is all nonsense though
Economic signs are good. Growth higher than expected, stock market and bonds moving in the right directions
Cost of living is increasing more slowly due to drops in inflation, though I do see it’s an issue.
Unemployment is an odd one as I think there are also more people employed - it’s a demographic thing but will resolve if the economic stuff above continues
Taxes for the vast majority haven’t increased at all income tax unchanged
Immigration has reduced massively and the asylum backlog is being

I don’t know why a long term Labour voter would go far right. Surely Lib Dems or Greens (or even Tories) would be a more believable vote if you don’t think Labour are doing well?

I haven't watched the video but presumably it's just like those where teenagers trick the shop tannoy person or radio presenter into announcing a message for Hugh Janus or Drew Peacock? If so, I would say tedious rather than deeply disgusting.

It's said only the Star and Metro are running this story - actually while we're on the subject, new legislation has been passed to ensure Met officers reveal whether they are freemasons are not - something I couldn't see happening when the Tories were in power - and this has garnered virtually no news though it is there if you look for it.

It's a puerile stunt on Farage - but more important is how it highlights his grifting, then again he resembles a C-list celebrity rather than a politician. Trump was the same, and it won him power because of his reputation for business firstly and secondly because he co-opted the Republican Party.

Farage has no reputation for business - hence he has to do this stuff - and has no party to co-opt so he has to poach failed members of the failed Conservative party to allow 'experience' - it's desperate stuff.

But ultimately it's a numbers' game - we can place our arguments but I just don't know how many people there are out there who are allowed to vote and have no interest in politics; those who normally don't vote but will turn out if they think it will annoy someone and the result will make a difference.

For music lovers of a certain age, it's like, okay, do you know anyone who bought a Robson and Jerome single? Or Bryan Adams' Everything I Do? Why wasn't Pulp or Blur or Oasis the best-selling single of the year? Because those other singles engaged those who don't normally like music, or buy records.

Me too. I think it's because he's a very British kind of repugnant. The public school boy who thinks he's better than you but also thinks he's so much cleverer than you that you don't know he feels that way. Met - and indeed am related - to too many of them. Trump is a very American kind of repugnant so my reaction is less personal

So what do u want Starmer Mk 2

Yes it probably does… but the need for “change” is too important to let the foibles of politicians get in the way. The thinking goes thus: “who cares if he made an idiotic and embarrassing post if he can fix the country!”

Whether he can fix the country is a different matter entirely. The same reasoning is why so many people voted Trump, despite the fact he’s an odious individual.

Mori says a clear reform majority

Cheers, I grasp the point.
I don’t know that even Farage would agree though as he is so much the face of Reform - and knows it is his face getting the interest and the ratings essentially.
So you think people actually wouldn’t see this the same, but see the ‘party’ offering change not the leader?

Whatever
People have just had enough of immigration especially illegal
That will be the biggest issue at the next election
I have always voted Labour
They have totally fksd the economy
Increased cost of living
Increased unemployment
Increased taxes
Done zip about migration
So I will give reform a try

I'm not really suggesting anything other than for the same reasons as Brexit, I think that Reform have a very good chance of winning the next GE. If they make a pact with the Tories, it'll be a done deal.

No, but I don't think Starmer, Raynor, Reeves, Johnson, Sunak, Blair, Brown, Cameron, Corbyn, etc were fit for high office either. We've had a succession of incompetent/rogue/conmen senior ministers/leaders for 2-3 decades. When we get rid of one, they're just replaced with another equally useless/incompetent. We really need to "drain the swamp" in Westminster.

That’s fair enough as an explanation @Pigeonpoodle but doesn’t the greed and stupidity make those people wonder, even a little bit, whether he’s capable of doing anything constructive?

I’ll bite. Many people wouldn’t be voting for NF, rather they would be voting for change… and see the need for change as more important than the man leading the party promising to deliver it. The thinking goes: “So what if he’s a sleazeball if he delivers the change Britain needs!”

You may not like that change, or not believe they will deliver the change they claim to, but that’s another point entirely.

Yeah - my feelings watching Watkins being bigged up are obviously not common ones - it was disgust, pretty deep disgust and repugnance.
My feelings hearing a leader of a political party saying they were tricked for less than a ton are obviously not so common either - I felt despair that the intellectual capacity I might expect from even an average adult, not a potential PM, was severely lacking alongside why is an MP grifting like this and can I trust them to use my taxes, even on policies I don’t agree with, or will they simply siphon them off for personal gain.
What ‘feelings’ and ‘emotions’ are outweighing feelings on this matter? Or is it just a case of this matter doesn’t matter - meh? If so how/why doesn’t it?

But others haven’t demonstrated it on video for £98, have they? You can think it, but doesn’t someone proving it mean minus more than 1?
And what about that £98? Don’t you think he has enough with his MP’s salary and his 11 other jobs? Doesn’t that part of it make you question either his financial management skills if he needs the money or his greed if he doesn’t?

Only Labour voters? Do you think Brexit was a party political issue in that way? More Labour voters voted Remain, sure, but there were Labour and Tories on both sides of that. And are you suggesting that only Labour voters care if politicians are stupid, grifting, liars? Because that doesn’t seem to be a bad position to hold and I’m pretty sure a lot of Tories, LDs, Greens etc feel the same way.

@PandoraSocks Does this story give you pause for thought at all?

Ha ha, you are asking a lot of the typical Reform/Brexit supporter there, OP 😂

Imagine spending your birthday evening with his face leering out of your TV, husband enthralled. I went to my mother's.

Where’s the smugness? Or the phrase you suggest is used? It’s a simple question. Does the proof in video form that he’s a lying, stupid grifter (and let’s not pretend this video shows anything else) make you think twice about supporting him?
It’s actually quite hard not to argue like this when he is now, and was during the Brexit debate, a lying grifter who doesn’t care to check where his money is coming from.

Presumably the view is that all politicians are liars. So minus 1 point for everyone.

Ok - I understand frustration - but how is that frustration with what you may think are dodgy politicians not listening to you going to be changed by voting into power someone who is readily ‘tricked’ into bigging up probably the UK’s worst paedophile for just £98 - it doesn’t particularly bode well for improvement.
If I found Ed Davey doing this then my most often Liberal vote would not be happening- no tactical vote on any party with their leader doing this would be happening either.
Does it not matter what he does because you (maybe not you personally I mean, but a general you) fully believe they will deliver what you want - does not the ‘tricked’ for £98 concern you when they’d be managing huge amounts of money?
That he ever did such a cameo would do it for me, but if I accepted they were tricked totally naively and not as they were grifting, then it would also raise questions on how they would manage a country and how confident I could now be they would and/or could deliver.

I don't give a shit, never been a big voter, but presumably all those Reform voters don't like what they see.

Honestly, this feels to me just like the build up to Brexit. Reform voters are thick, racist, misinformed, lied to etc. etc, and only Labour voters can see reality. It's incredibly naive.