FFS Clacton

Nope. I asked why in the same spirit of curiosity of asking why he wanted a chicken and mushroom or steak and kidney pie, or why he said his favourite colour is yellow. I made no comment on his answer. I expressed no opinion. I said that he should vote the way he wanted, and asked if he wanted to vote in person or have a postal vote.

As support workers we encourage residents to reflect on the choices they make, then support their choice. The people we support do make choices we think are against their best interests, e.g. food choices when they are diabetic and choose foods that affect their blood sugar. It's part of the job to support residents whatever our personal views. But also to ask in a neutral way what they understand by their choice.

You haven't been looking very hard! Farage's behaviour over the last 24 has been quite hilarious and he has been widely ridiculed.

Yes, agree. The Democrats in America made this mistake. Twice.

No idea why.

I think it was unprofessional of you to probe his choice - he might think you were challenging his right to vote. He gave you a reason - you should have focused solely on the practical steps of voting rather than questioning his choice.

You have now. I’m intensely amused.

I haven’t see any lefties laughing.

I think they are laughing. Farage has done nothing to prove his innocence. His supporters in Clacton only vote in Clacton. One constituency. If he wants power he needs to win over more of the electorate.

The voters of Clacton don't decide whether he lied/broke the rules. Many probably don't care either way because he represents their views on the subject. But the voters in other constituencies may well care, even if Farage aligns with their views in other respects. Honesty and fair play do matter to a lot of people.

They are.

You can’t beat people who don’t stand. You seriously think they were afraid?

He got a smidge more than a thousand more votes than in 2024. It’s not vindication in my book.

@BerryTwister It's extremely refreshing to find a poster with such sensible, considered views. If a few more people could think this way we certainly wouldn't be sleepwalking into a Reform government!

But people don't listen. And there will be endless moaning and hand-wringjng when Farage succeeds.

Spiv - petty criminal who makes a living through shady deals rather than honest work.

What honest work did Farage do for the £5million? Or from the gifts from George Cottrell's mother? Where did she get the money she gave Farage?

The word 'spiv' seems fitting to me?

Spiv.

Honestly, the quality of political commentary from the educated is entertaining.

Farage chose to stand in Clacton - with no other connection - because the electorate are his base. They are the extreme in UK politics, aling with a handful of other constituencies e.g. Great Yarmouth. Of course they will elect him, no matter what he does. The issue is whether the electorate in other constituencies look at his dodging and diving and believe that he is a victim rather than a spiv.

He increased his share of vote.
And …given that that all the other parties who were to afraid to stand endorsed a ridicule joke candidate, he beat their supporters too.

I work in supported living, supporting adults with learning disabilities with their day to day lives. This includes voting, if they want to.

One of our residents wanted to, and told me (I didn't ask) that he would vote Conservative because his (deceased) parents voted Conservative. I asked him what policies he liked about the Conservatives. He was confused and repeated that his parents voted Conservative so he wanted to vote Conservative.

We supported him to cast his vote, as is his right.

My daughter has several Indian friends. A couple of weeks ago, they went into a pub and were shouted at by groups of people to ‘go back to your own country’

This sort of thing never happened when I was a student.

I didn’t say any of those things. However, there have always been people who lean towards men like Farage. It is not some new phenomena. The BNP had a resurgence around 2010. With Trump in power and conspiracy narratives, populism has gained a lot of traction in recent years.

A lot of people don’t want anyone living and working here unless they were born here and are white- that’s the reality and that’s always been the reality.

You can say that we can ask why and soothe these people and try not to alienate them. I doubt it would do much good. Because they have always existed. But now, it has become socially acceptable to be a racist. A slippery slope, I feel.

People should be ashamed of voting for a party that has fascist values. It’s not wrong to say so because look where voting choices like that led to in the past.

@Palomiino you're missing the point. I know that Reform don’t have the answers to problems, you know they don’t, many people know they don’t. But plenty of people think they do have the answer, and that Farage should have a chance at being PM.

You can’t dismiss these people as bigoted racist fools, and tell them to read manifestos and study politics. Voting is available to all, regardless of how informed or not they are. People are allowed to vote for someone because they like their name, or because they wear a nice suit, or because they have nice hair - literally any reason at all!

The point I’m trying to make is that by saying that Farage fans are fools, you are basically alienating a cohort of people, who will double down and get us a Reform government. It would be far better for those in power to ask why we are facing a government led by someone like Farage, and see if we can find some sort of compromise to prevent it from happening.

Agree. The way Farage refused to turn up at the count with the story for not doing so changing at least three times has not helped him one jot. Also notable he sent 30p and Tricky out to bat for him in the media, because he doesn't want to face questions.

Yes we would but people assume that seeing increased numbers of ‘foreigners’ are due to boats. In reality, we’ve had to replace the EU migrants who were all a fairly big part of my community, at least. And I assume the UK. It’s very noticeable that they aren’t here any more.

Others on this thread have said that calling people racist adds to the problem but what conclusion can you reasonably draw from it other than they don’t like seeing more brown people?

In that sense it worked, because he got more votes than in 2024. He mobilised his base and they voted.

Yes but it was supposed to be the people’s chance to show their allegiance to Farage. To vindicate him in his brave battle against the establishment. So 57% of them didn’t bother and more than a quarter of those who did told him where to go.