Why on earth are Farage and Reform so popular ?

[Nonamenoblame]

Their ideology is essentially heated up Thatcherism, more deregulation (if that’s possible) and laissez faire light touch for businesses, more cuts to public services because they love an even smaller state, cuts to benefits apart from those for pensioners, no real solution to the immigration issue apart from sinking the small boats.
So why isn’t Farage being challenged ? Everywhere you read that Farage is the next PM in waiting but his policies are a rerun of the last 14 years but worse, they haven’t worked so far, why would they work with a Reform government ? What’s an even worse thought is a Tory/Reform coalition, are we as country daft enough to fall for it ?
And how long would we give a Reform government to turn things around ? 6 months, a year ?

Because the media is owned by billionaires that want Farage as their puppet, and the media uses fear and division to make people follow Reform and co. without question. Because we're not different to America that got Trump. The same basic human feelings have been/will be played on, and the results will likely be the same.

@ramowwo but that is all just your opinion. I was actually hoping you could cite something to back up what you're saying. I haven't decided who I'll vote for but I highly doubt it will be Labour or Tories.

I wasn't saying you are 'intellectually inferior' (I'm not that arrogant). It was I typo which I correced higher up the thread. I was suggesting that you think you're 'intellectually superior' to others by the way you speak. Which is part of the problem as people are fed up with being spoken down too.

I'd put my house on you being a Labour voter. I find it so ironic how those that claim to be the most liberal, have total intolerance for anyone that dares to hold different political views to themselves.

Apparently the average brain now contains 7mg of microplastics and this is possibly causing cognitive decline. It would explain a good many things besides.

@ramowwo there you go again, assuming I can't think critically or I don't source information correctly just because I hold different political views. You are part of the problem.

@Louise121806 where do you get your own sources and news from please that inform your own opinions?

I wasn't referring to you personally by the way. I'm sorry if you found it offensive.

A real concern that shouldn't be side-stepped.

Wish there was a 😑 emoji in the reactions down there in the corner. Sadly you’re right.

Me too, I’m not 100% they’ll do better but I would really like them to have the opportunity. If they manage to turn things around majority of the country will be kicking themselves

@ramowwo well I start by reading the parties manifestos and forming my own opinions of them as appose to reading interpretations of them from others.

If you're lucky enough to live in a country that gives you the vote, you have a moral duty to inform yourself properly. If you're taken in by Farage you haven't done that.

Well Musk cutting a swathe through the bloated public sector in the USA which Cummings attempted to do is welcomed by many front line workers in the NHS, central and local government. They'd like similar here.

But we don't have a president who can sign executive orders. We have some MPs who'd like to make changes but are told 'NO MINISTER "

I really don't see the point in voting these days.

@TomPinch Labour voter by any chance?

Of course that is important. But it is also important to understand the potential implications and outcomes that their manifestos will have on people, from experts - and also by looking at who the party leaders align with politically and financially - and where they get their money and donations from, and which media barons support them and why.

If you look at who is behind Reform you will find some very shady super rich billionaire types who do not have the interest of the public at heart.

There is a reason they fund Reform. Because Reform would put money in their pocket by destroying our public services, privatising our NHS (look at how US healthcare is run if you want an idea what they want to do in the UK), and weakening our democracy. They do not have the interest of working people at heart. And that is the sad truth.

Look at Brexit. An unmitigated economic disaster. So say virtually all financial analysts worth their salt! No benefits to your average working person. Who was behind that? Nigel Farage. Who was behind the Brexit campaign (as bought to us by Farage)? Super rich people.

apple.news/AHsC7dKbqTOOYMUkvvPhJmg

From the above link: the ONS news that no one discusses.

The coming 10 million: How unprecedented immigration will reshape Britain - The Telegraph apple.news/AHsC7dKbqTOOYMUkvvPhJmg

Whereas the previous wave of mass migration to the UK was mainly European, after 10 new countries joined the EU in 2004, the coming millions will be mostly Indians, Pakistanis, Nigerians and Chinese nationals, arriving on student visas, work-study visas, social care visas and under the new points-based immigration system.
How will they reshape Britain? Do the next seven years spell demographic catastrophe or economic boom? The sense of change is already palpable, the most obvious sign being the dramatic rise of Reform UK, a party advocating a freeze on net migration, to lead the polls.
“On current trends, by 2050 as many as one in three of the UK population will have been born abroad,” says Karl Williams, Research Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, a think tank. “Regardless of where those people come from, that’s a huge amount of churn, and something that is completely unprecedented. That’s where a lot of the worries around immigration come from. It’s that sense of disorientation, that things are changing around you really quickly.”

I understand what you are trying to say and respect your opinion. However, I feel the Tories are not much different and Labour are just too weak to make a big enough change. Reform promise tax cuts, to overhaul the NHS and Prison system, and to reduce immigration, all things that I feel are desperately needed. The promises made by the Tories/Labour over the years simply don't align with people's lived experiences. People want change.

@Louise121806 what are your personal priorities for healthcare? Are you happy to pay privately for healthcare? Can you afford health insurance like the US? That is the system Reform want to bring us.

How do you think public services will be improved with tax cuts? Or do you not mind if they are reduced?

https://novaramedia.com/2024/06/26/nigel-farages-anti-establishment-party-is-being-funded-by-the-establishment/

For those interested.

They just need to be challenged robustly. Taken as a serious proposition and have their arguments pulled apart piece by piece.

Sadly, this is not the way that liberals tackle things. They look upset and shake their heads and pronounce themselves offended and in that breathing space the fascists creep in.

You can't give these people a bloody inch, you have to go at them. All the actual socialists, the commies, the trots, they know this. But they're thin on the ground these days and instead we've got liberals all over the bloody shop, and liberals always crack under pressure. You can't fight the right wing with centrist equivocation.

Everything that's wrong in Britain today summed up in one comment.

Oh come on op

it’s obvious

both the two main parties are incompetent lying hypocritical fuck ups

that leaves an opening for a charismatic speaker such as farage who says a few popular things

Yes! And it makes me so annoyed.

I don't support Reform am white with a white husband and family and an ex-member of the Labour Party, so we are coming at this from different perspectives, but you are right about a typical response from the Left, I think.

The Left (if we can generalise so broadly) can be appallingly patronising. I think the LP has more graduate members than any other major party, and I have absolutely no issue with that (I'm a graduate) but that shouldn't blind them to the concerns of the actual working class who formed the Labour Party.

It's easy to say that people are small-minded about things like immigration when your job is not at risk from someone who will do it cheaper, and to point out snootily that people get more from work than a wage when your career gives you satisfaction and validation. Many jobs don't. Of course it's better to work than not when you earn £70k+ a year, save into a pension and have money in the bank. It's more of a dilemma when you are getting up at 5.00am every day to do a 12 hour shift and have no more at the end of the week than your neighbour on UC who gets to lie in for hours after you've defrosted the car and driven to work. Specially if you are gutting fish or working on a production line, not being a social worker or GP or something that gives you a sense of worth.

It's even worse if you can't afford to have children and the neighbour has several. Or when you retire and you get less of a pension because you paid into an occupational scheme which pays £200 a year but keeps you off Pension Credit worth £3000 a year. Or if you've saved for old age and have to subsidise the person in the next room in the care home who didn't. And you can't get a doctor's appointment, or see a dentist because they've all gone private and are only treating those with money. It goes on and on.

I don't blame immigrants for any of this, but I can go some way to understanding why some Reform supporters might. Others are just racist arseholes, but that's a different question, really.

Things that are beneath the notice of many of the middle class who make up a chunk of The Left (and I define as both middle class and Left-leaning) are the reason why Reform is gaining support, and I'm not surprised.

Rampant misinformation on SM, propaganda, poor education and a sprinkling of racism.