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 cringe when people have nothing constructive to add. And your own point is? Did you vote to leave the EU? That is one reason why the cost of living has soared but people don’t want to take responsibility for their own stupid voting choices.

It’s much easier to blame disabled people and immigrants. I now hear people complaining that life is terrible in the UK because the people coming to live here don’t align with our culture and values.

In the lead up to the EU referendum we were repeatedly warned that this would happen with the end of free movement!

When we had more people from Poland coming to live here, they were disliked and marginalised and people complained about them milking the NHS. Yet Poland is a country more similar to the UK (catholic for a start).

People made their beds….unfortunately the 48% of us who didn’t want this are also suffering the consequences.

Local elections? Or devolved if you’re in Scotland or Wales. The Senedd has no powers regarding the matters you speak of.

i think this is a lazy argument.

There are many people who vote without bothering to even read manifestos.

Do you really not think that it’s a responsibility to research how voting a certain way will result?

I did not vote Reform, so can't speak for reform voters. However, council elections are an opportunity to get your voice heard and protest against/support the parties, so I do get why people don't just vote for local issues.

If you give everyone 18 and over a vote, of course you will get those who vote without informing themselves. Also who refuse to vote. It’s the downside of democracy.

I just don’t think wanging on about Brexit and turkeys voting for Christmas is in any way helpful. It just makes people defensive.

In theory. Only in theory.

In practice, people often do use local elections to “send a message” to the main parties, and I expect many people did this time, as if saying to Labour “this is how we will vote in the general election if you don’t sort out the shit”. I expect some people did the same with the Brexit vote, perhaps not even expecting it to win, but wanting to “send a message”.

I didn't vote Reform. I understand why people have, they want radical change, are angry with the standard of living and want someone to blame (media is helping to feed this), cant vote for one of the "traditional" parties and green is too left/woke/antisemetic (according to some family members).
The only people canvassing in my area were actually Reform members. No one else could be bothered. Am I happy with the outcome? No. Could the other candidates do better? Yes.

Weird that you felt you had to announce that.

Agree, I want much stronger border controls, and I want benefits reform, stop the freeloaders. I also want to see current illegal immigrants thrown out. Anyone who enters illegally are treated as criminals, they have broken immigrations laws and need to be deported. Also anyone who is an immigrant and commits a ‘criminal’ offence loses their status (immigrations status, uk citizenship).

It’s funny isn’t it that no Reform supporter ever questions when the small boat issue started. After Brexit when we had to come out of the Dublin convention. So it’s all thanks to Nigel. I understand everyone’s despair at the current state of the country but there’s only one thing Nigel cares about and that’s himself. He’s an old fashioned snake oil salesman.

What do you think would help?

A lot of us are sick of those who are hell bent on causing life in the UK to go from bad to worse.

It’s all very well to say don’t talk about Brexit. But it has certainly had quite an impact on day to day life for the average person. It’s not the only reason for the COL crisis but it’s a significant factor.

Did you not see how many social media posts were talking about Farage becoming PM by the end of the week. People are clueless at the difference between local elections and the GE.

Yes, why do Reform voters not hold him accountable for the lies about X amount of money for the NHS?

I think the small boats really started when the ferry security was tightened up. Co2 sensors checking nobody was in trucks etc. I think the timing was maybe coincidence.

Honestly, I despair at the playground levels of political discourse in this country.

I'm a third generation immigrant, and I would consider myself slightly left of centre but not tied to a specific party (I have voted for Labour, Libdem and even Green at one point back when they were sane).

Our immigration system is not working well, and it's failures are being compounded by decades of austerity and bad decisions. Legal migration is actually the main cause of the failure. Low paid and student immigrants have been able to bring entire families and elderly dependants over, all of which drain the very systems they are suppossed to be contributing to. They are demonstrably a net economic drain.

It is not 'far right' to acknowledge that, but treating it like it is has pushed people further right.

People are being pushed to the extremes (Green and Reform) and I can see a real danger of us getting something even worse if the general public feels that Reform fails them too. History is the best predictor of the future.

And 'intelligent' idiots who rant at others online, berating their spelling or grammar, help nothing and no one. Only getting their little dopamine rush from arguing online and proving their moral purity, like most trolls. I've never seen a genuinely intelligent person mock those 'below' them or not even attempt to understand, only those not quite smart enough to realise how little they know.

the size of some of the pot holes round here could fit in a small boat. Yey reform 🙄

I voted Reform for two reasons. The first is that without Reform, I wouldn’t even have been able to vote - it was only as a result of Reform threatening legal action that our votes were restored. We had no vote last year, either: for a government to try to deny certain areas a vote under cover of “reorganisation” is an outrageous subversion of the democratic process that sets a very dangerous precedent. I didn’t see any other parties jumping up and down about it, either.

The second reason is that I live in a solidly Labour ward, and I’m not a Labour voter. In fact, Reform won in our ward, which is remarkable as it has been held by Labour since the boundaries were changed in 2002. Our Reform candidate was a former Conservative, so he has at least previous experience of local government. I agree with those who say that many Reform candidates are singularly ill-equipped for government, but the same is true of Green candidates, who in my opinion are a bunch of downright dangerous anti-Semitic Marxists whose green credentials seem to have been lost in a bid to bring sectarianism into local government.

I would point out to some PPs who have been so particularly rude to caringcarer that they tried to answer the question posed - an ad-hominem attack is not a legitimate response, any more than is attacking a lack of paragraphs. Address the arguments, not the construction of the response. We are all entitled to our opinions, and just because you don’t agree with someone doesn’t give you the right to be insulting.

Edited to try to put in paragraphs - my first effort was posted as a sheet of text, as may well have happened to caringcarer.

Reform did hugely well so just get over it . No-one any longer wants your shitshow socialist policies destroying this country further . Carrying on running the economy based on idiology is doomed .

Thanks @Cyclebabble. I have had to use the NHS recently and at every level except the eye surgeon was cared for very well by people of other ethnicities and nationalities other than white British. I am very grateful for the care I received.
Farage's rhetoric around the NHS alone I find sickening. I mean what happened to the £3 million a week?

Yes, I would be voting to get Labour out. Though whoever I voted for it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference to the potholes.

I vote Reform because they are the only political party which explicitly acknowledges that some mums prefer to stay at home with their babies and toddlers. I am absolutely sick of the dominant narrative from the main parties of pushing free childcare and nurseries being where a 9 month old baby should be, get back to work mum! No thanks! Reform have some refreshing ideas on how to financially compensate families with a SAHP, which feels fairer. About time too!

I think people think all Reform voters are single issue voters on immigration, but this is far from the truth. They are very popular with SAHMs and housewives, who are quite frankly sick of the disrespect from the other political parties. I have questioned them all extensively on my door- they do not speak for our family values at all.

@SugarC Your family members are well informed. 30 Green candidates are being investigated by the party for anti-Semitic views. Their leader has not covered themselves in glory on this topic either. They are not the Greens of just 2 years ago!

People want change but only if it doesn’t impinge on them. People voting for Reform will find their policies do impinge on them! Look at voters in the NE. Labour, then voting for Boris and Brexit and now Reform. None of them will deliver what they want because it’s impossible!

You think this Labour government is socialist? 😂😂

I didn't vote Reform, but if it's on local issues why did some candidates mention Gaza in their manifestos? What does that have to do with Birmingham , for example? I would think immigration has more to do with a local area in respect of numbers etc.

No...they don't realise 🤣