AIBU to think Reform councillors don’t know what they’re doing?

I'm sure they don't. Nor do recent Green councillors, of whom a large number have also left, been found to be frothing racists and so on. However, there won't be sanctimonious threads about how thick Green voters are for electing those horrendous people in what may be proportionally higher numbers - there's even a link to hate organisation Hope Not Hate (misnaming to say the least) upthread that has gone totally unquestioned because it fits into the prescribed worldview of the Good People of Mumsnet™️.

As an aside, my local Labour councillors in the family councillor business who have been in for years and just held on by a couple of % don't have a clue what they're doing either.

To be fair @cheezncrackers I would also say that critical thinking was not a strong suit of my local green candidate or many people in my village!

On our village FB page, someone had stupidly shared a front page of an apparantly local newspaper which was claiming some outlandish stuff apparently said by the Green Party.

Particularly strange considering that paper doesn't exist in our village....

So that person was quite frankly a bit of a prat.

Compounding the problem, the local green candidate started kicking off publicly, saying it was fake news, how dare people not come to him to ask him to comment etc. He then started arguing with people (really helpful two days before an election!)

It took me less than three seconds to look at this particular front page, and deduce that it was very clearly about Australia. There were constant references to Melbourne, Bendigo, Sydney and the front cover price was in dollars.

So it wasn't fake news - it was just a local newspaper from Australia, not rural Suffolk! And bizarrely, no person on the entire post had noticed! It's genuinely worrying how poor critical thinking is, especially now that AI makes things look so realistic and much harder to tell.

The party should be made to pay all the costs of a by election for every councillor who resigns within three months of election, or is sacked, suspended, found not to exist or just fails to up for anything.

Actually, you're right. Critical thinking is definitely not the strong suit of the average Reform voter.

As for the quote about melting down Nigerians to fill the potholes in Sunderland, yes that was an actual quote. Not only did Laura Kuenssberg ask Richard Tice about it on her programme, but he didn't even attempt to deny that it happened.

It's not just reform. I sometimes listen to our council meetings podcasts. Councillors who have been in place for years. It's embarrassing how dense they are. Trouble is despite the money people who should stand won't or can't.

They’ll blame the national government.

Do you actually care about this country? You sound like a crazy ex-husband burning down the house he half owns because his CMS bill is too high

Yes, that is exactly what happens in my Reform council area, 1 year in. There is very little understanding of who is responsible for what.

They'll just blame Starmer or whoever is PM. Or immigrants.

They will if their council tax goes up or local services are cut because that money is being wasted on people to teach these fuckwits how to do the job they volunteered and are being paid to do!

Not quite, according to the polls. They would have to chum up with the Tories as they wouldn't have a majority. Plus their lead is slowly shrinking in the polls with three years still to go.

The country is a mess. At least from where I am looking. Housing too expensive, young people can’t get jobs, spiralling student debt, high streets boarded up, dire public transport for most places outside London, SEND reform missing, schools underfunded, NHS waiting lists .. I could go on. I don’t know what the answer is but I know it isn’t Reform.

I suspect a lot of the people elected didn't understand what being a councillor entails. It's not just attending the odd meeting. The job takes up around 30 hours per week as a minimum. There is no salary, only an allowance of around £12k per year.

It's also a pretty thankless task. Everyone is an expert when it comes to running a council, yet few have any idea about the budget constraints they try to manage. They get blamed for everything and councillors are bombarded with abuse via the internet on a pretty much daily basis.

It’s what all politicians should be doing. We have a Tory MP (who I wouldn’t have voted for in a million years) and he’s excellent. Very active in the constituency and takes his responsibility very seriously. Reform is on the rise round here and I’m now contemplating voting Tory for the first time in my life.

This scrofulous little turd has been voted in in my ward in Kirklees, along with two other Reform candidates, replacing Lib Dems who were excellent local councillors. I’m ashamed to be from here right now.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DXWrUlsjG03/?igsh=MWo4bXNnNGs3aXpmcg==

The cynic in me thinks that Reform will be happy if their councils do an awful job. Then at the General Election, they can point out how broken Britain is, for example Social Care, roads, etc, and that voting for Reform will fix it.

They'll know that a good percentage of the voting public don't understand which layer of government is responsible for what.

I’m also accepting that there will be competent and committed people who stood for Reform - it’s hard to imagine I would agree with them about much but I’ve no doubt there will be some well-meaning people involved somehow, simply because most people are. I hope that seeing what a bunch they are being lumped in with makes them consider standing as independents or moving to another party tbh.

People treat it like some sort of exciting game - it really isn't. Sad state of affairs but not surprising.

I think this post is a really good example of the problem.

Reform supporters genuinely don't care how racist, misogynistic or incompetent Reform representatives are. They intend to carry on voting for them regardless, simply because they are angry with the "establishment" and want to give the traditional parties a kicking.

It doesn't appear that many of them have thought much about what consequences they might have to deal with after they have achieved that kicking.

It's all very well voting for a monumental act of self harm so that people can enjoy the short term satisfaction of seeing the people they don't like humiliated. The trouble is, they are then going to have to live with that decision. I don't think many of them have really thought that far.

That’s lovely @RampantIvy its what councillors should be doing. There are some brilliant people out there who genuinely want to improve peoples lives. We should be doing all we can to elect these people.

https://www.facebook.com/DonnyFP/videos/it-is-what-it-is-that-was-the-response-of-doncaster-reform-uk-leader-craig-ward-/926833330289858/

Our local Labour guy is very visible. He is an oncologist who works a 4 day week and spends every Thursday addressing local concerns. He is very visible, does what he says he is going to do, takes it in turn to visit each village in his constituency, talks to local people and is an all round good guy. I know people who don't normally vote Labour but who voted for him.

He is very well liked.

Absolute shit show. These people are supposed to represent our interests. It’s an important job, not an ideological jolly.

Put people in charge of things like social care who don’t understand, and you’re risking real harm and neglect to vulnerable people.

Bad decisions lead to services being cut, money being wasted, and experienced staff leaving, so everything starts to unravel. Worst case = safeguarding failures, services collapsing, and government stepping in.

When central government has to step in, local democracy is eroded further. Maybe that’s the endgame Reform’s leadership want?

Have worked in an LA for years but have handed in my notice. Can't work with them.

More on Makerfield's candidate Kenyon

https://searchlightmagazine.com/2026/05/reforms-makerfield-candidate-scrubs-fascist-leader-from-his-facebook-friends/

Raikes has pictures of himself wearing a fascist uniform, hard to miss.