Mumsnetters voting Reform

[Illjustplayostrich]

Mumsnet mothers have always leaned Labour. Now Reform is ahead

https://www.thetimes.com/article/dbd39087-465c-4587-9eaa-292606ffb775?shareToken=a99daa444e8bc0f9444cca2bf01f3851

I'm slightly startled by this. I'm a centrist, slightly more right leaning perhaps but frankly I'm open to any government who will get a firm grip on the public finances and go about growing the economy in a sustainable way. My impression of this site is that it's definitely more left leaning and and Reform enthusiasts tend to get shouted down. Personally, I think we should be talking about them a lot more as it's highly likely they will form part of the next government.

My impression is that they are promising the earth but don't have people with the necessary skill set to make that happen. I really worry that they will get voted in and find out that they can't fix all the problems within 18 months, leading to yet more disillusionment amongst voters.

I agree KS should have more poke. Anyway it’s irrelevant as Reform won’t get in just like RN never do in France.

Hilarious

There is definitely a Venn diagram of who posts consistently through the working day and who does not. You come home to masses of posts of Labour support.

How did the #CambridgeAnalytica scandal work? Targeting suitable people for opinion forming and changing, with fake bots or paid for trolls.

Thanks for mumssplaining patronising to me.

Such bigotry about who posts during the day! Yummy mummies whose husbands keep them in the manner to which they are accustomed, nurses / police / bus drivers / receptionists on night shifts, people in hospital, people with the app on their phone as they travel, PhD students, people working from home doing IT etc all on good salaries, night porters, authors, self employed .... such a lack of imagination to imply that day time posters have no profession,🙆

And? I post during the day as do many right wingers, a couple of whom are prolific. Though tbf I should be doing my tax return instead of arguing the toss on here...

All this ‘prolific’ stuff is funny

I’m glad some other posters are joining in who are not Labour. Long may it last.

I agree than Dragonflytamer going on about prolific left wing posters is pretty funny. Especially as she has posted more than most of us today!

Well said. I’m a left-winger who was positing yesterday, although by no means ‘prolific’ on here - a working mum who took the day off because her children had an Inset day, and was posting from the pits of a soft play centre.

Of course the French two round system for the Presidentials has meant, (so far at least, crosses fingers...) that after round one folks can take a deep breath and a hard think before contemplating who to vote for when it comes to the real crunch of round two.

I'm not sure FPTP allows the electorate a pause for that sort of analysis...

I have had a day off today! Don't worry I won't be interrupting the Starmer love (and Welsh nationalism as it seems) tomorrow.

Do I post enough to be 'prolific'? I'm retired-ish but still company secretary for an SME, and I manage our pensions and legals. I do acknowledge that my bias shows in my posts; I read a lot of news and politics, and politically/economically, I'm all in favour of the small town entrepreneur trying to build something bigger and better, which is our goal. Our business goes up and down; last year was 100% shite as RR talked the UK economy down. Very very quietly, things are looking a little brighter. Mostly because companies can't postpone the work any more. But less nonsensical fantasy about granting Day One employment rights: you prove you want to work from day one, and stay for six months, and you'll be okay.

True. But there are 650 constituencies in the Uk and I just don’t think reform will be able to field anywhere near that many quality candidates. Once the election scrutiny begins the criminal convictions and allegations will come out of racist and violent behaviour. That will be enough to scare some voters back to the main parties. Others will vote tactically to keep reform out.

It's certainly Reform's biggest challenge.

I agree with this. As I said earlier, the Welsh elections are 4 months away.

Lots of the candidates have already been announced well in advance of the deadline,
Reform has not yet announced any at all. Not one.

I wonder if either they're struggling to find decent candidates or whether they are waiting until the last possible minute to announce (deadline is April 9th) so there is less time for scrutiny or a mixture of both?

I think Reform's candidate pool is very thin. Even impoverished. I am not expecting them to do very well.

So Starmer and Badenoch have issued statements that the future of Greenland is up to the Danes etc to settle NOT the USA, after Trump has kept up his rhetoric that he could use military force to annex the territory.

Has Reform said anything on this?

All i can find is Farage backing the US over Venezuela.

Maybe he’s concentrating a bit more on the problems we have in the UK unlike many of other parties politicians who appear to believe they represent foreign countries. No matter your political leanings I would hope most people will acknowledge we have a lot to sort out in this country even if we don’t agree how to sort it. While we are not unaffected by international events we have little sway or influence and I would prefer it if MPs concentrate on UK homelessness, healthcare, social care, taxation levels, youth unemployment and even potholes before worrying about Greenland, Gaza and Venezuela.

@BeAmberZebra Is he concentrating on those issues and what is he doing to try to improve them? Because it looks like he’s just commentating on them.

He should be in PMQs today - allocated a question on energy, I think - but he’s missing it to appear on a Times radio show instead. He’s a media personality, not a serious politician and a coward who cannot take the heat of parliamentary scrutiny.

I saw today that two Reform councillors have defected to Ben Habib’s Advance UK because they believe Reform is a one-man Farage show; it makes you wonder that once elected which other parties or groups Reform councillors/MPs will defect too, if they decided to move even further to the right or feel that Reform aren’t going tough enough on immigration.

(Just posting on my coffee break, for those couple of posters who were worried about work-shy lefties).

You asked what he and Reform were commenting on and that’s what I responded to. Your other comments require a more complex response and while I’ll do my best I think other posters might give a fuller response. He is not in power so can’t do much apart from draw attention to issues and explain how Reform would deal with them so that voters have a choice. That’s what he’s doing. Local councillors of all parties are defecting and resigning not just Reform although the main defections are to Reform. Not up to date about what’s happening at PMQs but fairly certain he has good reasons to take the approach he has. His treatment in the House of Commons is beyond shameful considering the number of people who voted Reform which was well in excess of those who voted Lib Dem and demonstrates the contempt many MPs have for many people in this country which is why Reform is leading in the polls.

His treatment in the House of Commons is beyond shameful

What do you mean? What treatment?

Farage has said today that he agrees with Starmer, and that the future of Greenland is for the people of Greenland and Denmark to decide.

Farage said a bit more than just that.

What I will say is this. There are some genuine security concerns around Greenland and that becomes ever more relevant with a retraction of the ice caps as we head towards the North Pole. There is a strong feeling in British intelligence circles, and many in Nato, that there needs to be a significant Nato base located directly on the north of Greenland.

At the moment, it would appear that is something Greenland is not particularly keen to do.

As you know, since 2009, Greenland has been moving further and further away from Danish control and is pretty close to establishing its own level of independence and the fear is that they will fall prey to very large amounts of Chinese money and Chinese influence.

So, as ever, with things that Trump says, they may sound outrageous, and in the case of potentially using force, they are. But there is point behind it.

So he is slyly weaving in some justification for Trump to interfere with Greenland, but stopping short of "using force". I'd like to know how Farage defines "using force" 'cause I bet his definition is as slippery as the rest of his statement.

Are you serious? He is openly attacked frequently by a whole host of MPs making various totally untrue allegations with no right to respond. On the very few occasions when he is given a chance to speak he is surrounded by a load of Greens/libs and labour MPs who heckle, laugh, make stupid noises and comments which makes it impossible to hear him. When he does get his questions or comments out the response by the PM and ministers is to ignore the question and launch more attacks on him or his MPs or his party. We reform supporters see this and take it personally which is again why Reform are so ahead in almost every poll.