Farage receives second £36m donation in two days for Reform

Thank you for the thought- I'm not referring to mumsnet. I usually just highlight it in the discussion and ignore. It's a long time since I realised it was a right wing technique. Often anti women.

It’s usually Labour / left posters going on about bots on here if it’s a view they don’t want to see. Mnhq have responded on that.

Oh sorry I'm not talking about Mumsnet- unless they have started apologising for the world!
There aren't any laughing emojis on mumsnet. I think that's a good thing.

Mnhq have already answered on this and if you still think it’s the case go to them directly.

I go on about bots but it's not because it's views I don't want to see. It's because of some discussions where ridiculous numbers- like hundreds- of laughing emojis suddenly appear out of nowhere and when you look at the names they are not names.
And likewise you can tell in some discussions it's programmed comments. IDK if actual.people or computer generated but the phrasing is off and pretence of not being articulate ( as opposed to really struggling with writing)
It tends to be right wing views I believe theres a group of people or a machine somewhere
Infiltrated the trans debate. Infiltrated the anti semitism debate. Caused people to polarise.

This would make sense, to target resources and energy at those who are either deliberately non-compliant or genuinely struggling.

The DWP waste a lot of time and money being performative. It'd be good if some commonsense could return to the system.

As you say it's not just the tactical voters who are a problem for Reform - there is also the persistent downward trend in intention to vote for them - over many months with many different co

Focus groups exploring this trend point to concerns in the Reform base about Farage's leadership and in particular his £5 million 'gift' and other alleged financial irregularities

A similar downward trend has also been evident for the Greens - again focussing on Polanskis leadership/popularity

I won’t miss those when Labour goes down the gurgler, taking emojis with them.

Yes will remain interested in opinion polling going forwards.

It's been interesting to observe support for Reform drop over the last year, and the anti-Reform tactical voting emerge.

Who knows what will happen in future? Reform themselves are discussing these concerns internally. The number of constituencies they need to win from a standing start is very high, practically-speaking how do they appeal to red and blue voters simultaneously?

😂

Do you think they're the same people as the ones terrified to express their concerns about immigration? Between you amd me, I have heard that people secretly want to stop the bosts but aren't allowed to talk about it. That's why no one ever mentions it. I'll probably get deleted by the lefties for saying this.

The pro Labour are very vocal. And in the past have gone on about bots etc if it’s views they don’t want to see.

65 million from unions is made up from individual collections from Union members who opt in. Very different from 65 million from a single person who until recently was a non UK resident and a convicted criminal.

We are far too soft, Farage and his crew should have been arrested and locked up years ago. These criminals are running rings around our democracy.

Exactly this. The March backdate is because that is when the Rycroft report was published.

There was always going to be a backdate on these changes as a safeguard to prevent wealthy donors - who’d until very recently been residing overseas - from rushing to dump money into political parties before the legislation formally receiving Royal Assent.

The legislation is in line with the Rees Principles: the government gave a clear warning, targeted a specific loophole, and published the draft mechanics early.

🤣 That really made me laugh.

The "anyone but Labour" brigade are very vocal about it, and they certainly do like to make a big deal of it. Of course, they are free to be as vocal as they like, but it is laughable to suggest that they don't enthusiastically exercise that freedom.

That’s a fair point - but the evidence from by-elections shows the anti-Reform is not just online noise and people talking about it, it’s strong in practice too. In both Gorton and Denton and Makerfield, it’s clear the broader electorate were happy to consolidate heavily against Reform.

I think electorally Reform are in a very tight spot - they clearly have a core of incredibly strong support who won’t abandon them no matter what, but they’re struggling to connect beyond that, and at the same time, the optics of things like these donations further harden the tactical vote against them.

The academic opinions, opinion polling and observed behaviour patterns are clear - there is more anti-Reform voting behaviour.

Anyone but Labour aren't as vocal though, I'm one but don't make a big thing of it or post much about it.

I haven't read much on the detail but the March date referred to by Rayner - that isn't retrospective if explicitly discussed in the legislation process? Because Farage has always been fully aware of the ongoing process.

I'm going to have to read more about this as expect it will be discussed a lot going forwards!

Changing the law = fine.
Retrospectively changing the law = not fine.