Reform party seems to be ahead in my area.

There are no left wing parties left, so a heap of crap being talked here. Reform are hard right.

Actually I read a piece in the Guardian with comments from someone who had been at school with Garbage, sorry I mean Farage and apparently he used to say Hitler had the right idea about the jews and would mutter “gas ‘em” at a jewish pupil.
He also think Andrew Tate is a good influence on young boys.
We saw photos of him dancing with Priti Patel at the last tory party conference when he actually wouldn’t piss on a brown person if they were on fire but was happy to use her if it suited him.

My local internet forum is running an ongoing poll about current voting intentions in a strongly Labour held constituency. Labour is still leading strongly followed by
Greens
Reform
LibDems
Tory

The parties have definitely moved left over the last two decades. The electorate on the whole hasn't, this is why Reform are starting to do well and why the Tories previously broke the "red wall".

I am starting to sense an increasing amount of fear from the Uniparty (LibLabCon) side as they can't handle a genuine right wing party emerging.

Edit: The new non Uniparty (LibLabCon) left wing party, the Workers Party of Britain are also getting similar treatment as Reform. Makes you think doesn't it.

@Taciturn They are only called "hard right" due to other parties moving so far to the left.

That contradicts the opinions of almost every political expert - that politics have moved massively to the right over the past 50 years. Starmer’s current manifesto has been likened to Ted Heath’s of the 1970s.

Reform are called “hard right” because they’ve got an autocratic leader, there’s no democratic processes within the ‘party’, they’re openly racist, openly hate women, insular, have delusions of superiority over other countries, nationalistic. It’s not just their economic policy that makes them hard right (I use the term loosely - Farage’s idea of economics seems to be based on how many expenses he can swindle), but their utterly hateful, archaic views. Their supporters bury their heads and ignore these in the hope of paying less tax.

We have to ask questions about democracy of we have effectively a large party and a number of smaller ones. The US has been a successful democracy with just 2 parties for centuries and do we need such a status quo in the UK to ensure stability?

Concerns about reform and the conservative collapse are;

Adequate scrutiny of government and accountability

Lack of talent left on the Tory benches

Having a dump Tory party that is in imposition to form a government at some point in the future to ensure a vibrant democracy

The rise of reform with such limited history with economically unrealistic policies has exposed a gap in our democracy and we have to think carefully about how do h parties can rise so quickly and how it affects the governance and indeed culture of the country.

Sadly I think it will translate to numbers. Starmer isn’t coming across well, the policies suck, and are not properly funded, they look like they are trying to hide tax raises to get in, and folks are sick of the tories, add in that the average iq isn’t high, harsh but true, large swathes of the population will vote from a position of ignorance.

we could see farage either as pm or in opposition.

Farage has studied Trump and used the media to his advantage imo. It will be interesting to see if this translates in numbers or if his media stunts make him seem more popular than he is. I have young adult kids and they say that their peers have been discussing Labour and Reform the most.

Reform aren't 'new'. They're the BNP in a suit.

I think Reform will get a lot more votes than polling currently suggests. I socialise with well paid, highly educated people and they are quiet about it, but Reforms education policies are likely to appeal to many families in my area. Particularly since Labour have placed so much emphasis on VAT on school fees. Reform offer a 20% income tax offset instead: this makes private education more affordable and alleviates the state provision in the process.
Also worth bearing in mind that Reforms policies are aligned with Thatchers. They are only called "hard right" due to other parties moving so far to the left. I am hearing chatter now that Eastern Europeans will be voting Reform due to fear of excessive socialism/communism creeping in. This group hate Farage due to Brexit so this is very surprising, but there is a shift underway. It will be an interesting election.

Lots of Reform support around here, people are sick of the Uniparty (LibLabCon) and want something new.

Immigration levels are the key concern from my pub earwigging.

Have you seen Farage’s comments on Andrew Tate? I read so many women saying they’ll vote Reform because he’ll protect women. They ignore his misogyny. He’s just vile.

Nigel Farage has praised the misogynist influencer Andrew Tate for being an “important voice” for the “emasculated” and giving boys “perhaps a bit of confidence at school” in online interviews that appear to be aimed at young men over the past year.

Nigel Farage starring in 'I'm a celebrity' in retrospect probably broke out concept of an impartial media to a degree. If a truly ex politician made an appearance fair enough but to have a politician on who was still active needed to be looked on by the show producers with a real political perspective. The very mild lampooning of Any and Dec is no substitute for the critical eye we must cast on all our politicians.

I fear reform has added a degree of 'glamour' to a party flirting with the car right and I wonder if Holly Vallance may come to regret this association with the party through her husband.

there may be a possibility they wreck the Tory party and we need to think about that when it comes to looking at our democracy as a whole.

The Green Party and Plaid Cymru have MPs at the moment and were excluded.

If you think Reform are sidelined from media coverage, you are on another planet.

Interesting how the BBC debate last night excluded Reform but had the SNP and Lib Dem’s on even though the later is polling lower than Reform and the former only applies to Scotland. The establishment must be running scared.

Would you say about 30-40 seats?

I’ve thought all along that reform is going to do much better than is being predicted It’s going to be like brexit, where there is a shock come election results. Sadly. I’m not saying farage will be the next pm, but I do think something remarkable will happen.

@Appalonia I agree, my impression also.
I you thought brexit would be brill and we could have a global free trade agreement with all other nations excluded from it, you are going to blame the Tories for it not happening. If you think most NHS managers can be safely sacked because you do not know what they do, if you think Truss had great ideas and the BoE blew it you will be fed up of 14 years of inaction and only Reform are offering the changes you want.

He was never tipped to win a majority, but that a coalition Government with Labour and Lib Dem would be possible.
This polls were wrong, but not crazily wrong. and not every poll.

I'm in no way a Reform supporter but I've seen a massive amount of support for them on Twitter. There also seems to be a lot of pp who are disillusioned with the Tories but don't see Labour as being much different. I also see a lot of apathy about this election and a lot of pp either not wanting to vote, wanting to spoil their ballots or register a protest vote.

Election night will be very interesting...

No I am not but I remember when Kinnock was down as an absolute sure win for the election and he lost.

What is making you think lots of people are voting reform? Posters or something else?

Of course the extreme right isn’t the way to go. Unless you’re a racist bigot.

Your Facebook is very different to mine!
:D