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.

Labour came to power on the promise to ‘stop the boats’ and tackle rising welfare bills and tax.
They've done neither ( no plan and no guts).
So the public have lost patience and voted for someone else who they think will
do this. Wrong again, but it’s give Labour the kicking they deserve.

To take one item at random from your list - you do know that foreign students can't get British student loans? And that most of them pay fees of £40,000 a year, thus subsidising British students...

Jesus this thread...
I said it before and I will say it again.

Inability to have basic discourse and to dismiss alternate views as people being "morons" is how we ended up with brexit.

@caringcarer answered the thread in presumably good faith and like absolute morons you all want to jump down their throat and berate the lack of paragraphs...

👍👍👍

My DH may well have voted reform in the local bielections because he is so utterly fucking jaded by Labour and for his own reasons hates the Conservatives (Boris based). We both find green alarming.
I was more than mildly shocked. My dh is oxbridge educated and not a stupid man.

I told him a protest vote wasnt the answer.... i voted Conservative...nit sure who he went for in the end.

If you want to change opinions you need to be open and hear what people are saying.

Theres another thread on here about potholes. Reform are platforming on this and gaining ground. People in the uk are very unhappy and discontent.

A lot of this current economic strife stems from labour wages, taxation bands and benefit levels. A significant portion of this current situation should arguably be laid at Gordon browns feet. He was warned extensively by economists about long term implications of working tax credits but he didn't give a shit neither did Tony

A lot of people in the uk feel very disappointed and diseffected... they are essentially looking for love in all the wrong places. (Imo Reform is the equivalent of charming rich good looking guy who is telling you what you want to hear... its very tempting hes full of all the promises and you want to believe its true and are ignoring the red flags in the background)

I am ethnically Indian, though born in the UK. Reform’s success has gone hand in hand with a rise in racism more generally. Even on Mumsnet I notice in some threads that illegal migration gets conflated with any migration and then within anyone living in the UK who was not born here.

On this thread I then see questions raised about EDI in the NHS. Most of my family work there and did not benefit from EDI or get any enhancement for being brown. It is difficult technical taxing employment.

I see questions raised on threads on how we dress, the food we eat and the removal of benefits and even pensions for people born overseas who reside here but do not have British citizenship. Even if they have lived here and served in public service for years (this is a Reform Policy).

These are dangerous times.

These are dangerous times.

Very true words.

Governments and Councils have had 900 years to get to grips with how it works and you think Reform can work it out in a year? You have to suck it and see it may get worse before it gets better.

Not to put words in their mouth but a reform voter would like say there is endemic rot in councils and they need a radical overhaul.

My view is two things can be true at once...
And I believe it will get (a lot) worse before it gets better.

The lack of paragraphs is a valid criticism. It made it incredibly hard to read. You could argue that only a moron (your word, not mine) would defend that.

This thread is a nightmare to read because people keep quoting the full long post.

Also very simplistic to reduce complex long-term economic problems to wages, tax and benefits. It ignores the impact of issues such as globalisation, financial deregulation, automation, housing shortages and housing becoming an asset class, low productivity, international competition and capital outflows.

Not a Reform voter, but I'm glad they are moving the needle on illegal migrants seeking "asylum". A Dutch study recently quantified the cost of granting asylum:

For entrance ages up to approximately 70 years, the net costs for asylum seekers amount to roughly €400,000

This is obviously not sustainable. I'll caveat this by saying we should definitely help people who are in genuine danger of persecution in their home country. Historically this figure has been around 20k. However, it's now over 100k a year. That's a cost to the taxpayer of €40 Billion a year.

Its not unreasonable to think that money could be better spent elsewhere.

The Long-Term Fiscal Impact of Immigrants in the Netherlands, Differentiated by Motive, Source Region and Generation

It is a valid question though. And if a reformer voter replies by saying with what you said : "They voted for reform because they agree with what they are saying.", then it is also valid to ask what specific things they agree with.

There does appear to be a Reform stock response to the question by answering with accusations. Variations on " virtue signaling", "looking down on them". "calling them stupid or racist". That appears to be their standard debate method.

Another method of dealing with debate that I see reform use is shown above in the post by @caringcarer . A wall of Gish Gallop text. A super long list of facts (mix of true and untrue ?) that just overloads and will take a long time to pick through. And I am making no accusations here, it's almost as if such posts are designed to create negative reactions. Especially when presented with no punctuation and structure.

It seems that these debate tactics do frustrate people. And in debate, that is what these methods are designed to do. It's why they are called "bad faith" tactics. And in a proper debate with an impartial moderator, they would likely be called out on it.

And if non reform voters can't get a clear answer from Reform voters as to why, they are pretty much left to make their own conclusions.

Just proves the level of intelligence of reform voters.😂😂😂

They have. This is a national fight. It's attitudes like this that will mean we end up stuck with them in a general election. Council elections are predictive, and if the other parties remain complacent and arrogant enough to dismiss the threat that reform pose then they will absolutely get into power.
Many people will have voted reform because they are sick to the back teeth of the status quo, not because they radically believe all that is said. Unfortunately that is also how parties like the Nazis got into power.

This question has been asked copious amounts of times on our local Facebook pages. The only answers given have been based on national issues , not a single one on the local issues we were actually voting for .

I'm not convinced that many of the people who voted reform have any ideas what their local policies are.

This thread is fascinating because it shows exactly why our political situation is in such a state.

Let me start by saying I am a typical floating voter, so have voted labour, Lib Dem and Tory in my life depending on what is going on at the time and the area I lived in.

Those of you who are outraged at Reform voters respond with hatred, ridicule and there is a very superior (the derision at writing style) and aggressive tone.

This kind of thing is exactly what is continuing a divide - not listening to people’s concerns (and to lots of people they are very real concerns), the cause may be up for debate but the issues need addressing nonetheless
As I see it, successive governments have failed to fund infrastructure and have allowed big business to profit from immigration, allowing them to pay low wages and make big profits by topping up low wages with tax credits.

It is said that immigration benefits the economy but for ordinary people the opposite is evident, crumbling and strained services, higher cost of living, particularly housing and so you can see how it is a source of frustration.

I live close to Crowborough and there is real concern for women’s safety. Women and girls in the area were given rape alarms by police. A lot of people are concerned about the cultural differences and the attitudes towards women and girls. It is not right to dismiss those concerns and only increases anger in many.

I could give more examples and I give them as an observation of the issues that are motivating people to vote for Reform, rather than being particularly invested.

People on each side need to listen, without ridicule or immediate dismissal for the country to ever move to more unity.

OP asked why, she answered. Listening to many people they did see this as a referendum on how they feel about the government.

@caringcarer such a long post with lots of posts but absolutely nothing about the ageing population and the associated costs of that…

More people voted for reform on Thursday than voted for any other party. They voted for reform because they agree with what they are saying

I get why people like what they say, they are promising lower taxes, better services and lower immigration. It’s not possible though and will just put us back further like Brexit.

I do think there is a lack of any parties wanting to tell the truth but equally many people don’t want to hear it.

There is no excuse for voting for Reform. None. They will not benefit anyone and populism is a world wide, nonsensical trend which has way more to do with the rise of social media than anything else. Blaming people who can see through it is a nonsense. We are all responsible for our own choices.

You would think the turkeys that voted for Christmas (Brexit) would have learned from their mistakes but no…

I also make no apologies for being annoyed when people don’t use paragraphs. It hurts my brain trying to read it.

I cringe so badly when anyone says ‘turkeys voting for Christmas’ I can’t take anything else they write seriously.

I held my nose and voted reform this time because in my area we have a piss-poor Labour council. I have sat in council meetings many a time and they are shite. I'll never forget one council meeting where they screeched and mocked an Independent who was talking about a local issue that affects me directly and then said they refused to discuss it anymore. Then they voted in a pay rise for themselves. I was deeply interested in seeing them out.

In addition, given the performance of the Labour Government I very seriously wanted them to get a bloody nose from the electorate. I agree with a few Reform policies, but most definitely not all, and I felt that my vote was very much a protest vote. I'd never vote reform for a GE, but this was my way of sending a clear, unequivocal message to my council and the Labour government that I object to how they are running this country.

I'm not the only one it seems. Reform are now the largest party by some way in oiur council - the next largest cohort are Independents which i though was interesting. I may well come to regret it, but I am hoping that the Labour party take stock, take a long hard look at themselves and realise that they have taken us, the electorate, for granted, they treat us, the electorate with astonishing disrespect (and as a small business owner) with spite and I hope they will simply Do Better.

They won't though.

The problem with your attitude is that it’s not stopping the rising support for Reform, so is detrimental to what you purport to want…

Like anyone is going to give you a sensible answer on here. This is just an opportunity for posters to shout them down and call them thick racists.

We didn’t have an election on Thursday and I have never voted Reform in my life but they are a legitimate political party and people are perfectly entitled to vote for them. I feel your question is disingenuous.

Anyone who dares put their head above the parapet will be torn to pieces