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.

The only thing that won't change (for the better) is crime and how this will more and more come to dominate politics

They haven’t really worked out any serious response to the issue which is now firmly on the table about who gets benefits and why.

Pretending that this is not a subject for discussion will not help. This is just like Brexit. The Labour Party will be filleted if it does not start dealing with this stuff in some detail.

Especially since we know Starmer and especially Reeves never wanted to end the cap, forced to by internal party politics.

It’s quite interesting to see Starmer and Khan up against women who can get them on the ropes. They’ll get all sorts of accusations but so far causing them issues.

I wonder if Cunningham will be brave enough to mention grooming gangs in London that Khan is so confident doesn't exist that he's barred all attempts to set up a London inquiry, and won't help the nationwide one.

Those awful unions helping to bring in safer workplaces, maternity pay, sick pay, equal pay, etc.

And who are and have been the paymasters of Farage and Reform?

As we know their main funder is Richard Tice himself who has put his money where his mouth is. You just don't see that with labour politicians since the only way they know is to spend other peoples money.

Don't forget nigh on 300k Reform-ers putting down £25 each annually.
At least we know the most senior funder of the LDs, pharma specializing in PBs for gender reassignment.

Yet Starmer couldn't even bring himself to spend his own money on his glasses. Spending other peoples money is all they know.

Starmer is the last of the technocrats, the so-called "safe pair of hands" to take us away from the risk of the likes of Corbyn, Johnson, Truss.
Sunak was bad enough, especially in concert with Jeremy "I'm not Kwarsi" Hunt, another person unsuited to the top job, but at least there was some semblance of competence and managerial nous.
That a grey little civil servant like Starmer could have come to be the PM is one for the left and right to discuss once his bland reign of manged decline comes to an end.

I wonder how Cunningham will explain her pulling out of standing as an MP for the Conservatives in Rotherham at such a late stage that the party was left without a candidate, and her resignation from the CPS. There certainly seem to be questions about how trustworthy she is.

If Reform win the London Mayor election that would indicate a landslide of epic proportions in the Labour heartlands. I can't really see that happening at this point.

Unfortunately true and explains Starmer pandering to certain groups who make up a lot of the votes in these areas - it’s a concerted effort to play the English voting system

The more we see of the bright orange in the White House, the more appealing the grey becomes.

She made her comments knowing she'd have to resign after. That's hardly a scandal.
Pulling out of Rotherham for the Tories at the last minute, maybe the media should do their job and quiz her. She may have had perfectly good personal reasons to do so.
At least we fully know what she thinks about law and order, having been at the sharp end of prosecutions.
What does Starmer think? He's a closed book.
I admire her righteous indignation, she shares that with most of the law abiding majority in this country.
Here, she's as one with Middle England.

If that's your binary, I feel sorry for you. It's perfectly possible to maintain distance from Trump without supervising managed decline in the UK.
The orange v grey choice is a false dichotomy.

Local Labour politics in their Northern heartlands and the sectarianism this has encouraged is amongst the worst things ever to happen to this country.
If it inadvertently kills off Starmer, and the party for a generation, I'll be very happy indeed.

It was just a quip - not my binary.

I’m sure you said you were a long-term Tory voter, but you seem to have ruled a lot of their previous leaders out. Who is your pick?

But she is not standing for middle England, she is standing in London.

Certain parts of London have had increased crime during Khan’s time. But this does not seem to have affected his vote. To get his vote, Cunningham will need to do something else. Otherwise she will be like everyone Tory candidate since Johnson.

Johnson is the model of how a Conservative can win London. I have not yet seen anyone else on the centre right or further who comes close.

Hope for Badenoch is more borne out of hope than confidence.
I like her a lot, but she has too much to do.
My prediction for 2029? A Reform Tory result, likely Katie Lam as Deputy PM alongside Farage as PM.
Or a wounded Starmer minority govt propped up by TWAWs Polanski Davey Swinney.

Politics is different now. We don't need any more jazzy types. Johnson fitted the zeitgeist of late 00s/early 10s perfectly, in office he then was the master of delegation.
London is not so different from the rest of the UK...equivalent Red Wall in the outer boroughs, and real mixed politics in the middle.
I've just spoken to my best mate, plumber with a migrant wife, mixed kids, running small business, his van broken into multiple times, his mates in the industry similarly afflicted, burglaries on increase, his wife a constant Uber user because of crime late at night when she leaves the Tube.
They would laugh at you telling them Khan is liked/popular. And they're middle/left voters normally.
Cunningham's vent on crime is everyone else's.
I even know a die hard Lefty in Dalton who ticks every Omnicause box, he hates Khan as well.

I’m just pointing out facts. The only “right” candidate that has ever won London is Boris Johnson. All the others have failed.

London is not like middle England, and it does not vote like it either.

Cunningham has to offer something different. Righteousness is cheap.

In fairness I did look for her policies. One is to get rid of ULEZ. That gets the Conservative vote in the outer boroughs. It’s not clear what she’s going to offer to central Londoners who may be more inclined to put Green or Lib Dem as their choices in addition to Khan. She does actually need some of those votes

She would have had my vote for advocating driverless trains! London needs a 21st century mass transport system instead of a 19th century legacy. Having not been a victim of crime in London since 1979, and having left in 1990, obviously the mayoral election interests me as a study in voting behaviour.

If I asked you, how much do you think it would cost re driverless trains to install those perspex edge of platform barriers with radio controlled sliding doors that would be mandatory?
Per platform?
The answer will tell you why we haven't gone down driverless Tube yet.