Reform as a protest vote

Trying to split the Tory vote?

Immigration aside, Reform have right wing policies when conservatives do not. Although if you hear the bloke speak it’s all “immigration”. (Side note, whoever thought a vote on Europe would stop migration is a plonker by the way).

The clearest message you can send is to vote for the party that most aligns with your views. That’s also the reason I don’t support tactical voting.

Sorry you’ve been subjected to such horrendous abuse OP.

Absolutely spot on.

Well the stupid people will vote stupidly obviously.

Mostly in areas of low educational attainment and high deprivation.

We just have to hope that they are a minority, and that they are evenly distributed over all the constituencies and good old first past the post will do the rest.

So was Liz Truss and look how that turned out.

Pension funds would've collapsed without a huge bailout from the state, and our mortgage payments got bigger.

Anyone who's fiscally Conservative will know that Reforn's manifesto is a nonsense on that score.

Didn't Sky say their tax/spend ratios were even more pie in the sky than the Greens?

Abandoning Net Zero costs more than doing it of course.

Let's hope after 14 years of decline the country has had enough of the right wing agenda and is ready for a forward looking future-proofing modern thinking government rather than one banging on about culture wars to detract from the fact that Conservatism is a busted flush as an ideology.

And the utter stupidity of people talking about a 'protest vote' just blows my mind

Totally agree op and so sorry you've experienced such awful racism.

Those saying they will vote reform may just be Russian Bots rather than real people. I think pointing out Farage supports the views of Andrew Tate (women should be the property of men and kept at home with no possessions) should be enough for any woman to not vote for them.

Exactly. We all need to do our own research and vote responsibly and be as informed as we can. Russian bots are doing their best to divide us and create instability.

@38thparallel sorry was feeling a little pissed off in general when I wrote that. Not that I feel any different today mind you!

Honestly I feel like about very few people - only Farage, Trump and Boris really

Reform is the BNP with a new logo.

I wish he’d died in the plane crash years ago so we didn’t have to see his toady face and hear his whiney voice.

Wow. I hope I never get on the wrong side of you in real life.

I am not sure.
Typically, teh right wing populist party in European nations averages around 13%, bouncing between 20 and 8.
With FPTP, that does not normally apply but everything has gone wrong with the Tories. So, the right wing Tories all rush to reform until the get a hard border with the EU that is open in Ireland, with trade barriers that are not barriers to trade etc.

The Conservative and Labour hierarchy need to take a long, hard look at themselves. Reform are only gaining traction because a huge number of people don't feel represented by them, and Farage knows how to play to that. Don't forget that large numbers of voters don't have educational attainment beyond the level of a primary school kid. I'm going to be looking at independent candidates because honestly I wouldn't want to choose between the 2 main parties.

I am scared that many people are. And I have seen them on these.boards.
I am genuinely scared of Reform because they are a real danger to the UK

I am so sorry for your experience.
I agree that anyone thinking about voting Reform should have a long hard look at themselves and do some research. Farage has made very racist remarks and even when he was at school his teachers thought he was dangerous. It also attracts racist candidates who have not been vetted properly. I think a large number have been found to be Facebook friends who neo nazi groups.
If you don't want to vote for any of the main parties vote Green, independent, Count Binface, Monster Raving Loony.

Can you give examples of the dystopian nightmare you are scared of?

This is not just a British problem, strong political divisions are showing up across the Western world. The question is why and what can we do. Except part of the problem is that we have become too scared of open debate, voicing opinions, and independent thinking.

Like many people on this thread I will have ideas, experiences and opinions. However if I were to express them do I risk being accused of transphobia, racism, or whatever. Too often argument has been replaced by insult. The unifying cultural bonds, like only two TV channels that everyone watched, have now become splintered. People can stream the content that appeals to them, find their own bubbles of Reddit or Facebook, and with it the belief that everyone thinks the same way, and if they don’t they are wrong and bad.

Reform is a symptom not a cause. Farage is a sort of Trump light. There is not much depth to the party or its manifesto. Support is from the disaffected. The more that support is told they are racist or whatever, the more they will feel disaffected. How do we, as a nation, find a way to pull people together?

Will vote Labour as always.

I’m sorry for your experiences OP.

*the left becoming more and more chillingly dystopian. Listening to the leaders of the major left-wing parties in the UK, you could be reading an Orwellian novel.
It genuinely scares me that we are be looking at potentially decades of neo-Marxist nihilism *

Can you give some examples of this @magentarain

Yes I see what you mean. Like those people who circulate memes saying we have to close our borders or have zero immigration or something else that obviously can’t happen.

Listening to the leaders of the major left-wing parties in the UK, you could be reading an Orwellian novel.
It genuinely scares me that we are be looking at potentially decades of neo-Marxist nihilism.

You must be listening to leaders of different parties than we are seeing on the news!

The popularity of the more right-wing, populist parties is a reaction to the left becoming more and more chillingly dystopian. Listening to the leaders of the major left-wing parties in the UK, you could be reading an Orwellian novel.
It genuinely scares me that we are be looking at potentially decades of neo-Marxist nihilism.

I can't vote Conservative because I sincerely don't want them in power and think they deserve to lose.
I can't vote for any of the left-wing parties because I don't hate my country.
For a number of reasons I'm unsure of Reform (although they are at least talking about completely remodelling the NHS, rather than just pouring more money into a black hole, when we know the system itself is fundamentally outdated and not fit for purpose).
I may just have to spoil my ballot.

I wrote earlier "A common theme in Reform voters is they are all the type of people who when they say "I don't get it", they assume it must not be true rather than accepting they just don't understand."

And that matters. They cannot see why we cannot just sack all the NHS managers and keep the front line services. If we reflected for a few minutes, we would realise that an organisation the complexity of the NHS will require organising and most of them will be making the place run more efficiently. But if you do not think there is stuff you do not understand, Reform budgets make sense.

How though?

How many MPs do you think they’re going to get? They’d need to get more MPs than the Lib Dems AND more MPs than the Tories AND more MPs than the SNP.

At this point I would be surprised if they get more than Plaid Cymru or more than the Green Party. Surely people can see their promises are an uncosted nonsense?