If you voted Reform, I would love to know why?

[AplineDaisies]

I am not here to judge so would just like to hear from Reform voters for their reasoning.

I have an example. My local Labour Council is spending £7M to graffiti art on cycling track underpasses and putting pink signs up across 45km (27 miles) of cycle track for a "heritage trail" (in a new town built adter the war btw). Side note: one of those underpass walls is dedicated to trans rights activism with many TRA quotes and soundbites.

Of the 45km of actual cycle track, just 5km have been structurally improved to fix potholes etc. So, the actual basics have been skimmed over (repaving / surfacing, extending, fixing gaps between paths etc.) & instead the majority has gone one visual "art" that photographs nicely for the Councillors in the local paper, on their social media etc. instead of structural improvements.

Again, SEVEN MILLION POUNDS to paint walls and put up some signs.

This was funded in part by central government (Towns Fund) with the Labour Council determining where to allocate and spend.

Let’s see what difference it makes to policies over the next 12 months. If Labour decide to cut welfare and privatise the NHS, I promise I’ll come back to this board and eat my hat.

But I stand vehemently behind what I said. I understand that voters have used their vote to pressurise a government, but you’ll never convince me that doing that at the expense of your local community is a sensible course of action.

Ok so boats coming is not an example of 'open borders' but what do you, or reform, actually want to do about it?

Even if they come out of the ECHR (which would be ignorant and dangerous) do we not still have ethics and morals? What is the suggestion here?

I've literally heard in my classroom teenagers say we should shoot the boats. Bloke from Mumford and sons suggests mines in the channel. Is this really what we are advocating? Murder?

I don't know how most people make decisions on who to vote for- I could find any information whatsoever online about my local candidates from any party and nobody had been to our canvassing, so my decisions were based on party politics rather than the virtues of individual candidates.

I didn't vote Reform though BTW

no Reform run council has lowered council tax.

Indeed, Reform councils have increased taxes. In Oct last year, LBC reported that 8 Reform-run councils have indicated they are set to hike council tax after struggling to find promised cuts in spending.

Our council has gone further right. Predictable because we had many English flags flying everywhere. But no one had / has a clue what these Reform councillors were standing for because it was impossible to find out any information. We had one pamphlet with Farage’s face and talking about an increase in crime. This is such bad news for social services and any family with a child who has SEN, and actually all of us because the new Reform councillors have zero experience of running a council.

Protest votes, like Brexit was, have very little to offer in terms of moving forward.

I don’t agree with the last paragraph at all, but saying we need to take in all these men coming via boats to show we have ‘ethics and morals’ shows the road to hell really is paved with good intentions.

1. Because under no circumstances could I forgive myself for voting for them in a general election yet it seems the only thing that will make Labour actually take stock is to hit them in the voting booths so a local election seemed like the only way to get the message across that this simply cannot go on.
2. Whilst I do not want a privatised NHS, the current Labour plans will not work. No other party can figure it out either. If people don’t want to or can’t afford to increase their tax payments, something has to give. My local surgery lost over 100 hours of GP appointment time last month due to people not attending. When I tried to get an appointment for my son I was told 6 weeks was the best they could do. If it was more urgent take him to A&E or UTC. Why shouldn’t the people who wasted those hours be accountable for paying for them? They managed to book the appointment so with very limited exception why wouldn’t they be able to also cancel them?
3. Our local Labour council has been slowly but surely selling off local land at knock down prices to mates for years whilst approving assaults on the rural landscape. Massive corporate warehouses, wind farms, battery stores, housing developments with no schools dentists or GPs to support them.

Put simply, we can’t carry on as we are. Equally, I don’t want a Reform central government. I genuinely hope this will be the shake up they need.

NHS funding actually increases every year. NHS England spent £242 billion in 2024/25. This is expected to increase to £246 billion by 2028/29. The bigger problem is the increase in population. Since 2009 the population has increased by over 7 million people. Adding 7 million to a system that was already providing only an ok service to approximately 62 million people was never going to work.

I didn't vote, we had our local elections last year and I voted conservative. I wouldn't ever plan to vote reform, but, I can understand why some people do. Labour have lost the confidence of the public through poor decisions, especially with regard to benefits and scandals, the Conservatives are still deeply unpopular following covid and the mess Liz Truss made. I think the only reason Labour were elected was due to how hated the conservatives were not because of what they stood for.

Add to this that close to where I work there is a community of white British men who are all homeless and living in tents while the media are constantly reporting on migrants crossing the channel, and being placed in hotels. It's obviously much more complex than this but I would imagine it's a similar story elsewhere.

You already know why they voted Reform. Your judgement or lack thereof doesn't matter, it's what the majority of the country wants.

Here you go. YW. www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5527344-starmergeddon-restore-and-reform-reflect-the-mainstream-crushing-humiliaton-for-labour

To assist you with critical thinking, here's a quick recap of Starmer's failures:
Pursued a hard line, far left globalist agenda at the expense of UK citizens, against their wishes.
Raised the minimum wage and National Insurance contributions, leading to thousands of job losses and businesses folding.
Continuing to pursue the politics of envy, introduced VAT to private school fees leading to many excellent seats of learning closing their doors.
Removed winter fuel payments to pensioners, despite his own party claiming a couple of years earlier that this would result in pensioner deaths.
Consistently refused to answer questions during the session in the parliamentary week set aside for this specific purpose.
Unilaterally gave away billions of pounds of taxpayers money with no accountability required from the recipient.
Failed to control mass immigration, both legal and illegal.
Introduced legislation that will destroy the private rental market and create hundreds of thousands of homeless families.
Promised to build 1.5 million homes in five years despite everyone telling him it would be impossible.
Failed to address muslim rape gangs.
Increased welfare payments to a point where benefits now cost more than the entire income tax take.
Allowed weekly pro-Palestinian hate marches on UK streets.
Completely ignored the massive rise of anti semitism, attempted to gaslight the UK on the subject.
Consistently referred to people with concerns about the proliferation of migrant violence as "Far Right".
Promoted a friend to high office while knowing he was chums with one of the most prolific paedophiles on the planet.
Consistently worked to reverse the result of the biggest democratic vote in British history by stealth.
Placed tax dodgers, fraudsters and CV fantasists in Ministerial posts.
Invited a known islamist terrorist to No.10 while simultaneously banning foreign commentators from the UK for merely reporting on the border fiasco.
Took two weeks to find a Royal Navy ship that actually worked.
Failed to help motorists and hauliers after the rise in the price of fuel caused by the war in Iran.
Continues to allow Ed Milliband to wreck the UK's energy industry with his unworkable and deeply unpopular Net Zero policies.
Consistently failed to accept responsibility for any wrong doing.
Alienated "working people" while claiming to be on their side.

Your consultant should have written to his or her own MP, who would raise it with Secretary for State. That’s how our constituency system works. I’m very surprised your consultant didn’t know that. If you look on gov.uk it explains about raising issues with MPs.

Plenty of other countries don't put up with this nonsense - why don't we just copy them or a hybrid of their efficient policies? Eg Japan, Australia (when Pakistan has just deported thousands of Afghan illegals).

I completely agree with you! We have a demographic time bomb on the horizon which Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem’s seem to ignore. Many of The younger generation are actively choosing not to have children. It’s simply unaffordable for many with housing costs and childcare costing too much. Those who criticise Reform saying they are going to tax women for not having children are missing the point, they are suggesting that women are incentivised to have them, offering tax breaks to those who do. Of course women should be able to have child AND maintain their careers, if it’s their choice to do so, but if you do want to be at home with your child until they start school tax incentives should be there to allow you to do so. I would have fully transferable personal allowances between parents, so one parent could remain at home, and the second parent wouldn’t have to pay tax on 2 x the personal allowance, so a zero tax for any earned income under £25k.

if we don’t have children who will be the taxpayers of the future?

my kids are adults now, but we need to be looking at the big picture.

Plus freezing the income tax threshold (while increasing benefits)

At first I thought “ I’ll just get my popcorn”

Having read the first defence for Reform - I don’t think I can cope with this level of stupid.

Protecting the women innit!

How difficult it was to read is my first argument. It might not be valid to you, but it was to me. For me, it felt like trying to read one long sentence in one long breath without punctuation. It was awful to read, let alone unpack.

I actually would go as far as saying that it would be unreasonable to challenge anyone who started their first post with “TLDR” or “I didn’t read the full opening post...”. Maybe we need an acronym for that!

For you, it was clear.

I get to decide for me, and you get to decide for you.

I’m struggling to understand how this comment helps in a reasoned debate.

What exactly is your point?

• What’s the problem with being over 60? If we’re lucky, everyone will be one day. So, why be ageist?
• What’s the problem with never having gone to university? What are you inferring about people who haven’t? That they’re somehow uneducated?
• What’s the problem with living in a small town all your life? Aren’t stable communities a good thing?

Your more pertinent point - about what Reform propose for the NHS - is lost at the end of a list of prejudice.

IMHO this is a good example of what’s happening to political debate in England.

Surely, it’s vital to debate the policies rather than insult people favouring them. And that applies across the board 🙏

I know! It’s just semantics, isn’t it? It’s not 100-200 a day, it’s 41,000 a year. “Oh, ok then. I’ve been getting it wrong all this time, mea culpa, it’s not nearly as big a problem as i thought.”

And people genuinely wonder why Reform are marching to No.10.

Nottinghamshires Reform council has decided to restructure its current nine councils (County + 7 Districts + City) and replace it with two unitary ones. Less to cock up things more really.
Our bins aren’t being emptied in scheduled days so it is being noticed. Especially the garden bins we are paying for. Their excuse for delays? They have two broken bin wagons out of action whilst contradicting their reason by saying theyve borrowed two working wagons to help

I agree. A calm conversation about different models.

Thing is- you are a part of the problem. If you dismiss people out of hand then you are being quite honestly- lumpen. Arrogant. Close minded.

Plenty of people on here have explained why they voted Reform - this time. Many people have said they would not for a general election. If you are too rusted on hard to an ideology - of any stripe- then you are just destined to sink. Dismissing legitimate beliefs and concerns is just - stupid, dare I say. You would learn greatly if you sat back, listened, considered, thought and reflected. A knee jerk reaction like the one you posted just serves to emphasise the problem... and I suspect you don't even see it. Sadly.

The idiots who fell for the immigrant hyperbole who also voted for brexit because they fell for the immigrant hyperbole but didn’t get what they wanted 👍

TLDR: I can't use paragraphs.
I don't like immigrants.

An American poster will not realise it …..some posters on here particularly after an election of any sort will join Mumsnet to glean information and mood. MAGA did this before the last election on a national newspaper. You can spot them by the time they post, the mistakes made in understanding how the UK works, spelling and phrases too. Am not saying this person is American but is indicative of the sort of thing…