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! I wouldn't cut the gas power we do have until their are reliable alternatives to meet capacity. But I also dont understand the people absolutely furious that we are building that capacity.

I'm not talking about German Greens policy on trans etc, I'm saying that the party esconced into the mainstream to have the whip hand industrial policy has been the death of Germany, together with the incalculable costs of reunification, and the 1m plus Syrians that Merkel invited in.
Milliband Net Zero, and God forbid that Hypnotits is airlifted into a position of direct influence after the next GE, is an evolution of where Germany has gone.
The fact the whole Green political elites have absolutely said no to nuclear for decades now, and are inherently a max depopulation/Millinerian cult, makes them the enemies of humanity, together with the trans-humanism movement.

But the German manufacturing industry is much healthier than ours? It's much larger and more efficient. Thats why American tarifs are such a threat- because they produce a large surplus that is competitive compared to other Western countries like America (hence Trump's issue with the EU). So give me examples of how the greens have been the death of Germany?
Part of the argument for immigration is basically because you need a large workforce for the manufacturing industry. Even with Robotics. So a cynical interpretation of Germany's previous generosity towards refugees is that it was informed by a selfish need to mitigate an aging workforce as well as a genuine desire to do good.

In short is going where Germany has gone would lead to a massive increase in manufacturing jobs so hurray for Ed Miliband if he is the harbinger of that.

It was run on cheap Russian oil wasn’t it? That’s why they’re struggling more atm

Exactly! It wasn't because the greens forced them to stop using fossil fuels. I actually think a controlled shift away from fossil fuels is much better than leaving yourself open to sudden external changes. Where the environmental movement could hold some of the "blame" is the backlash against nuclear (following Fukushima) in Germany which meant they were much more dependent on oil than they would have been otherwise. But also, nuclear is expensive and oil was cheap at the time so it made short term economic sense to stick with oil.
Net zero itself isn't a bad idea so long as you also make sure that you have a reliable replacement. But it's much better to do that on your own timetable even if that causes short term pain than wait for Russia/Saudi Arabia/America/China to turn the gas tap of. Or you lose sovereignty. Reforms ideas would make that worse.

I am not unwilling to embrace green energy and zero emissions. On the contrary, the faster the better. I know we have to go that way. My bitching is aimed at those that were deluded enough to think we could hop, skip and jump over the middle boring transitional bits, (Ed Milliband's magic wand) instead of wading through and digging out the ditch as we went. You always have to dig the ditch!

I am not unwilling to embrace green energy and zero emissions. On the contrary, the faster the better. I know we have to go that way. My bitching is aimed at those that were deluded enough to think we could hop, skip and jump over the middle boring transitional bits, (Ed Milliband's magic wand) instead of wading through and digging out the ditch as we went. You always have to dig the ditch!

Reform defending Musk's Grok and X

Some weaselly words sure but Farage doesn't want X banned, which would only happen IF they don't remove the feature to undress women and children, inc the image of the poor woman (Renee Good) in the USA, slumped dead across the steering wheel, in a bikini.

All ok with Reform.

Reform are the defender of women and childrens rights?

..and if they had been funded, you'd have been calling it all a waste of money... Whats wrong with Gas and Coal?

One reason we ve got expensive energy is the network upgrades, at least its being now & another is the funding of non payment of bills....

However bills are supposed to be coming down in April by £150 per household, inc cuts in business energy.

On CH for Asylum seekers, where would you place the 150k most of whom in Hotels?

On defence, Labour are committed to increasing it, but they need to get on with it asap, Reform, would launch a consultation, Tories, on their last manifesto, want to cut it.

It’s no wonder Farage is defending it, he makes a lot of money from posting on X - he’ll take cash over principles any day of the week. It is sickening that they’re trying to put producing sexualise images of women AND children under the banner of ‘free speech’ and that labelling any moves on safeguarding this as ‘censorship’.

Apparently, it’s all ok because Musk has added a feature where you have to pay for this now. And little Ewok Powell (aka Tommy Robinson, aka Stephen Yaxley Lennon) is threatening to take to the streets over it.

Yet another reminder on what hypocrites they are and that it’s not really about ‘protecting our women and girls’ at all.

I saw Farage was Number 2 on the list of Grok’s top disinformation spreaders on X (TR was top); for reference, the conspiracy theorist David Icke who believes the world is controlled by reptilians was 10th.

Will we see Starmer ban it on Monday? - like he has the full ability too? I doubt it. It is just another thing for the anti reformers to spew about whilst the party in power does nothing.

Would you want X banned?

Two things:

1. The government have condemned it, it’s with Ofcom, they’ll say they’ll support a ban, there’s talks of a united ban with other countries (Australia and Canada, I think), huge pressure from within the party to act. If Musk doesn’t take action imminently and Starmer doesn’t act on Ofcom, then I agree that this is wrong and weak. Personally, I think it’s too slow and not strong enough at this point, but I’m guessing they’re going through every process to cover themselves because the backlash on this will be huge. Let’s hope the right wing media back them up too, if they do.

2. None of that in any way lessens what Musk is doing and what Farage is defending as acceptable. It’s abhorrent.

If Musk continues to allow users to make sexualised images of women and children, (which he profits from), then yes - why wouldn’t I support a ban? X has been a bot-infested cesspit for some time under Musk, that’s one thing; this is issue is something else altogether. I think as a country, whatever your politics, we need some firm boundaries and limits on this now.

Right. I’m sure there are some who think as you do. Meanwhile the world watches Iranians make a move on there and some on the left want to ban it.

If Starmer does make that move he can expect even more backlash. 11% and dropping.

Why not hold Musk accountable: why doesn’t he operate a social media platform that doesn’t sexually exploit women and children? There’s a huge safeguard issue, as online behaviours embolden and influence people to act in real life. Stuff opinion polls! Although actually, I think you’re wrong - the people who are defending this hate Starmer anyway, but the majority of people are against this type of thing and will want to see pushback on this.

Yes, social media can have effective uses, I’m aware: but that doesn’t mean we don’t need to hold the likes of Musk accountable too and have online safety relating to sexual exploitation.

I would have opposed a ban on X because of misinformation etc. let people tell lies/hate speech and then counter those lies. It's the only way.
If it's about protecting free speech, then why give authoritarian/antifree speech governments a really good excuse to cut down on speech? Why not just disable the feature which undresses women and children?
Because it isn't about free speech for Elon Musk. It's about his right to do whatever the fuck he wants up to and including facilitating sexual images of children.

Yes stuff his polls. Look at the clips of Iranians in their millions shown on X and broadcast across the world.

You won’t see that and want everyone else not to either.

And we have people wondering why Epstein etc was allowed to get away with it while right now the richest man in the world is insisting on his right to create an app that undresses children and broadcast it to any country he wants. And people are defending this.

Get rid of the app, go for it. Don't throw one of the few ways people can communicate with the rest of the world.

Farage said he wouldn't ban X. He said he welcomed the changed to making whatever the software was for paid users and that X needed to go further. I suspect Farage has more influence for change Musks mind that Starmer kicking it into the civil service long grass to appease Trump.

I ban X. It is has been become the default online hangout for those who failed their GCSEs...

I don't think Elon Musk is a paedophile like Epstein or anything. Just that he believes it's his god given right to make money from facilitating paedophile behavior in others.

What are you on about? Of course I see that. You’re speaking absolute rubbish now.

I’m also against people being able to use AI to generate paedophilic images on mainstream social media, and take images of any woman and undress them, put them in sexual positions, etc.

Why are you defending people’s right to do this?

Stuff the poles is the normal progress of government failure. The hard core tories were telling us the same a year out from the general election - it didn't really work for them.