What's going to happen to the north of England and Welsh voters who got royally fucked by Brexit and have now voted Reform?

When I worked abroad, the local population had really complicated feelings about workers from outside. And this was despite very strict rules about jobs going to foreigners, limits on stay, and a complete inability for us to ever become citizens except through marriage.

Most of it was about economics, with a helping if environmental strain and strain on resources.

By far the majority were kind but many had their own political views about foreign workers. As seems totally normal to me.

They haven’t been fucked properly

I am interested in knowing the actual results.

What I have found most useful in this thread are posts that reference statistics and link to sources.

A list of vile remarks made by candidates of all political persuasions would be enlightening. I am not about to make one though, before you ask.

OK?

Does process absolve him of his vile remarks?

Have you a view on these, or only on the process?

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/26093261.reform-uk-fail-condemn-sunderland-councillors-racist-remark/

Honestly, this is exactly the kind of deliberately disingenuous remark that drives people to vote Reform.

If you are serious about preventing Reform making greater advances, your starting point has to be to ask yourself why voters in poor Northern areas are choosing them in the first place. If you start by mocking and belittling them in this way you only entrench their views.

You think people speaking another language than English means they're migrants?

Better not come to Wales then. One trip to the supermarket, the top of your head would blow off. 🤣

I suppose if you're able to tell that God isn't black, you probably can tell a new arrival from a long standing member of the community tbf to you.

You haven’t actually engaged with any of my points.

See - "loud conversations in different languages"
So?
Litter you've seen has Arabic writing on.
Again - so?
There's scruffs who litter from all nationalities.
Some of the stuff you're listing is ridiculous.

I think this idea that we can’t tell who is an immigrant is incredibly disingenuous.

A lot of the discourse reminds me of the trans debate - people seem to think the same arguments from 2014 are still relevant now, when in reality the picture has changed so much.

I am friendly with some Kurds who have been in the UK since the early 2010s. They are not white and English isn’t their first language, but they don’t “stick out” at all. They behave completely normally, are quite community-minded and they have strong friendships/relationships with other Kurds in the area.

Recently they have been very loudly complaining about immigrants who’ve recently moved to the area and are operating out of neon-lit shops selling dodgy vapes and energy drinks. They are not happy that their reputation is being affected by these newcomers and they are making it clear that they are nothing to do with them.

But these new Kurds are very clearly new to the country - you can just tell by how they are and how they behave.

Similarly I have a number of black friends who were born here (and some from the Caribbean who came here in their early twenties). They are very different from the wave of immigrants who have arrived since 2021/2022. The Caribbeans are very Reform UK and GB News friendly.

It is startling how quickly the demographic of my NE hometown has changed in less than five years. Over the weekend I walked past a pile of litter that has been dumped and noticed that it was all in Arabic. Last year I saw some graffiti relaying the message that God was Black. There are people on the trains and buses who don’t understand the tickets. Loud conversations in different languages. Groups of men in the parks and on the main roads leading to the hotel that’s been used to house migrants.

You can’t tell us that there is no way to tell who has recently arrived and who has been here for years.

Why can nobody ever tell me why I should be kind to and nice about crypto fascists and the people who actively make my life worse by voting for them? What is it they think I owe them? Would they argue I should have been pleasant about Pol Pot? Understanding of Bashar Al.Assad? What is the point of holding principles if you never express them because you're too busy being lovely to everyone?

Under investigation - apparently not suspended according to Jim Scott, Senior TV Journalist for BBC News & Look North mainly in Sunderland

"Reform UK say the new Sunderland councillor is under investigation, despite previous comments he had been suspended"

https://x.com/jimscottjourno/status/2053543131358912731

Not that his suspension would put much of a dent in Reform's position on Sunderland's Council.

If he is Suspended and sits as an Independent:

Reform - 57
Lib Dem - 12
Labour - 5
Independent - 1

One Reform Councillor suspended already in the north! The Reform councils may end up weaker than now.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2pyy6ngz0o?app-referrer=deep-link

I live in a Labour stronghold that's been this way since my parents were kids, it's not going to change now.

Don't be so sure about that. I live in a Ward that has always voted Labour and was out campaigning for Party of Women. The only pushback we got was when residents mistook our pink rosettes 🌸 for Labour red rosettes 🌹.

The Green Party threw everything they had got at the Ward:

• at least five glossy leaflets and magazines through the door
• at least two visits from GP campaigners knocking on doors

• one A5 leaflet in the post, hand addressed
• minimum door knocking

Which makes me wonder why Reform HQ was so mean and did not help them out with more dosh for campaigning.

The GP door knockers also introduced themselves as being from neighbouring middle class wards. I had great pleasure in telling them that I would be voting for me. They literally staggered back and nearly fell over backwards gurgling incoherently 😂

So with all that great effort (Greens) vs minimal effort (Reform) in a rock solid Labour ward the three councillors elected were:

Green Party - 1,068 (42.8%)
Reform UK - 1,052 (42.2%)
Reform UK - 1,036 (41.5%)

(I got 3% of votes cast which I am more than happy with. We only managed to leaflet 28% of properties. Assuming that is where my votes came from, I got 10% of voters canvassed. I also beat three Lib Dems and a Tory.)

This sort of result happened all over the North East in "safe" Labour Wards.

You seem completely unable to understand, despite me being very clear, that I am trying to explain why people may have a certain viewpoint, not necessarily endorsing that viewpoint myself.

Although seeing as you've asked: people speaking a different language, requiring translators, or speaking with a non UK accent give the game away.

If people feel services are overstretched and housing is in short supply, they are likely to feel annoyed at new people coming to the country and putting additional pressure on the services/housing. Sure, there may be other solutions/it's more complicated than that, but on the face of it you can see why people might feel frustrated.

Frankly I find your argumentative viewpoint odd and lacking in empathy. If I moved to a different country I would understand if the people already there weren't keen on lots of new people coming. If I required services I'd understand they might be peeved at having to pay for them, and conversely if I was a high earner I could understand people feeling my good job should have gone to a native. I'd understand if a country didn't want people arriving and refusing to learn the language, or insisting on changing things to suit my culture not the culture already there.

In fact, on reflection I'd be a good deal more understanding to the frustrations of people native to a country I moved to than I expect immigrants to be to British people!

They will likely fill the potholes as will other councils, whether Reform led or not

The Labour government has provided £1.6 billion to councils to fill the potholes! https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-tells-councils-to-prove-action-on-pothole-plague-to-unlock-extra-cash-and-reveals-48bn-for-major-roads

I voted Reform and I knew very well I was voting in local elections. My local council were terrible, put the Council tax up 5% and the local services are dire. Lots of potholes. I think Reform will improve things. But things can't get worse

Not defending rapists of any background but @NotAnotherScarf’s data is wrong. Shows how unchecked information is falsely spread.

100 out of 3500 is not 10% but 2.8%.

Further research using official data shows:

Key Statistics on Ethnicity and Sexual Offenders
Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Suspects: A 2023 analysis by the CSE Taskforce found that where ethnicity was recorded, 83% of suspects were White.
Group-Based Abusers: Data from 2024 showed that 85% of suspects in group-based sexual abuse cases were White, while 7% were Asian and 5% Black.
All Sex Offenders in Prison: Data from 2023 reported that of male sex offenders in prisons in England and Wales, 81.9% were White, 9.9% Black/Black British, and 5.6% Asian/Asian British.

Make your posts clearer then.

Telford population is about 156,896, with about 3500 Muslim.

when you can't get a GP appointment and when you finally do the waiting room is full of migrants

I'm at the doctors/hospital weekly for appointments.
I wouldn't have the first clue whether others there are migrants or not. 😕
What on earth are you basing that on, and how would you know?! Do you ask them all personally, or are you just making assumptions on anyone you see who is black or brown?!

Edited to say this was supposed to quote @CostOfLoving but I've accidentally quoted the person who was replying instead.

But Telford has a Muslim population of about 1000 as I said, admittedly with very bad punctuation

Muslims make up 30.5% of the population of Bradford. The population of Bradford is about 500,000.

They’ll be ignored and unsupported by the Gov as usual while all money goes to London area

🙄

Meanwhile, asylum claims, mainly by the small boat route, have increase exponentially.

UK asylum claims hit highest level since 1979

Of course they are blaming Brexit, it means they don't have to take responsibility. Given the fact that we didn't use the Dublin agreement when it was in place (because it is politically awkward to send migrants back to a fellow EU country), would we really be flying thousands of migrants a week back to Italy and Greece, even if we could?

The Med crisis might have peaked in 2015, but they have increased significantly in recent years and are approaching similar levels.

central-mediterranean-immigration-eu.jpg (1000×743)