AIBU to be shocked at the violence towards women at the Reform conference?

But that’s the thing, isn’t it? Excusing rather than condemning violence against a peaceful protestor makes Reform look much further to the right than they sometimes claim to be.

The way those party delegates behaved is indefensible to anyone who respects British values like free speech and the freedom to protest.

This is going to alienate an enormous number of Conservative voters who might’ve been thinking of voting Reform because it makes them look to cowardly and weak to stand up to the more extremist elements of their supporter base.

"She was wearing a short skirt, M'lud".

Free Speech

Protect our Women

Two things Reform tell us are key parts of thier campaign.

Both ignored when they don’t like what is being said.

Both now being contextualised - so no longer “absolute” free speech, and the protection of “all women”

So the two pillars they stand on, seem to be built on rather shaky ground

Hypocrites

The video clips (3 off) I saw are largely unclear and poorly lit. There is a mass of bodies struggling together.

The only slightly objectionable thing I saw was that one man was restraining a woman by holding her by the hair.

I didn't find it objectionable personally, but understand that others* might.

(*the kind of people who think you can just do whatever you want, and never face any consequences).

Do you have any clear evidence that people were subject to "kicking and punching" and that this was not warranted by the situation?

How do you know they had not initiated the violence? They were the instigators of this whole thing after all? Maybe they thought they could push around some of the elderly people in attendence?

Remember how bad the video looked, of a Police officer kicking a man in the head at manchester airport. That was shocking, but once the full context was available, the violent act seemed much more reasonable (though still undesirable).

Sound familiar?
Violence against protesters at Trump rally 2016
https://time.com/4254801/donald-trump-protest-violence-video/

OP. Disgusted but not shocked

it was like watching lord of the flies, the senior edition

posters condoning this are sick.

But that’s what security were there for. Those in the crowd should have stood back and let them do their job. There’s absolutely no excusing mob violence.

@Visiblyabove25 ”This is going to alienate an enormous number of Conservative Party members who might’ve been thinking of voting Reform because it makes them look to cowardly and weak to stand up to the more extremist elements of their supporter base.”

Which Extremist elements?
You mean a couple of pensioners who should have known better?

That women went there for a confrontation, and got one. In fact for her, it couldn’t have been any more successful.

He really was, laughing away and making sarcastic remarks about the protester. Real nasty piece of work.

Again, security were there. The crowd should have stood back and let them do their job.

And of Reform were serious about looking like a strong, stable political party capable of actually running this country, and of properly respecting its traditions of free speech and freedom to protest, they’d be saying exactly that.

Some photos.

I think the instinct to neutralise a threat arrived and that woman bore the brunt. I’d guess Anne Widdecombe being murdered and Farage receiving death threats, Polanski refusing to apologise, have all created increased vigilance responses.

Her timing was off. Safety has been threatened. Protests are tolerated by those that feel safe. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

if a Reform protester turned up at a Green conference I’d not be surprised by the same outcome. In fact I think it’d be worse.

Apparently, Nigel Farage has said that the greatest threat to the party is their members.

I suspect this is what he means.

Robert Jenrick is a clown. He has just resigned from his imaginary job as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

He's always been crooked though. He came to an arrangement with a fellow Tory MP, Jake Berry, to approve payments to towns in each other's constituencies from a government fund earmarked for deprived areas.
The communities secretary confirmed that communities minister Jake Berry gave the go-ahead for Jenrick’s Newark constituency to be selected for a £25m fund award even though it was 270th on the list of the UK’s most deprived areas.

Jenrick also approved a £1 billion luxury housing development of 1,500 homes on Westferry Road, Isle of Dogs, as a favour to Richard Desmond, a Conservative Party donor, businessman and former pornographer.

Jenrick approved the scheme on 14 January knowing that an approval by that date would enable Desmond to avoid having to pay a council-imposed infrastructure levy of between £30 million and £50 million.

He slots in perfectly to Reform, the party of grifters and financial scams.

So, if you were at some event and suddenly some aggressive imposter revealed themselves, you would not be alarmed or take any action yourself?

You would sit back coolly, and say "let security do their job"?

In era of mass attacks against civilian targets, I find that hard to believe.

Most people would be alarmed in such a situation and would likely take reasonable action, such as distancing themselves or restraining the individual in question.

Bear in mind a Reform MP has recently been murdered in a political attack.

In that context, I think a lot of posts are judging the actions of the Reform supporters very unreasonably.

I mean the people - including on this thread - excusing rather than condemning violence against a peaceful protestor.

In this country, we believe in free speech and in freedom to protest. To suggest it is okay to physically assault someone exercising those democratic rights is an extremist position.

If the Reform leadership had any respect for the values and traditions of our democracy, they’d make that clear.

I'm struggling to understand how 20% of responses here are that you are being unreasonable.

Reform need high security due to actual murder of Ann Widdecombe and the fact that some think that was justified. But security should do that job, not the mob.

No hecklers were physically assaulted at a Labour Party conference after the brutal, tragic murder of Jo Cox. No hecklers were physically assaulted at a Conservative Party after the brutal, tragic murder of David Amess.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable at all to expect delegates at a party political conference to expect heckling and to react calmly and let security do their job when it happens.

We believe in freedom of speech and freedom to protest in this country.

Are they the party of free speech? asking for a friend.

I don't think so. I saw a women thrown to the ground and hit with a stick.

Unless you are referring to the woman protester?

Exactly.

Well, you can continue Pearl clutching at how awful those Reform People are, or address the elephant in the room that Reform voters have been called thick as pigshit gammon flag shaggers… and Farage has received death threats. They have been sneered at and derided constantly. Tipping point just noticed… oops they fought back.

As the Green Party now hosts the pro Palestine supporters, there is no doubt about it.