To be completely shocked about someone I used to know

[EWAB]

When my youngest was at primary school I really liked this woman who had kids either side of mine.

She was in the PTA equivalent and was just a nice woman. There was no drama around her.

I remember having a day off and went into the local cafe, and she invited me to sit with her friends. She was funny, warm and witty.

Significantly, she had friends of all ethnicities and her best friend was Asian.

Everybody will relate to being busy but I think if it was a different time in my life or we had kids in same year we would have been mates.

I am absolutely shocked that she is a member of a right wing political party and has a presence in that party, utterly and completely shocked.

I know it’s not illegal but God.

All three of my siblings are Tories, I’m not someone who thinks everyone has to think like me but I am stunned.

Mumsnet hates this, but I have had a physical reaction to the news. I am just Gobsmacked and weirdly let down and I do know that’s a stupid, irrational thing to say.

I think we may have matching fascist badges …😂😂

I think Keir Starmer is a genuinely decent man who's not corrupted by greed and power. But I do think he's not been strong enough to stand up to some of the bonkers demands of those on the further left of the party. He's too worried about keeping all elements of the party happy to stay true to what he actually believes.

@SpidersAreShitheads

If he's not strong enough on this then how can he be trusted on anything else to do with running the country?

This is interesting. I have have conflicted emotions about. If I don't like someone and I find out that they vote conservative, i think "tory twat" and add it to the list. If I like them, i think "they're a mate - what you gonna do" pataphrasing renton about begby.

She is literally the person she is. That you knew.

your issue here is that you’re judgemental attitude has been challenged. Be more open minded.

I’m sorry you’re a conspiracy theorist with no cogency in your communication.

I asked that specific poster that specific question because I am fairly certain that they think not giving males everything they want = fascism.

This bizarre labelling of everything that you disagree with as right wing / fascist etc is dangerous though.

It stops reasonable conversations from happening.

I would have imagined she was reasonably centre like me
Anything that is not mainstream politically shocks me

This is lame OP.

Absolutely this.

Judgemental much? God you make it sound like she murders children or something. Get a grip.

It's not Kemi Badenoch is it? Her views are vile.

OP which specific policies of Reform do you think are far right?

She probably had a lucky escape from being your friend tbh. I agree with another poster, the far leftare the most intolerant people ever and literally hate anybody with different views to them. You do not know this woman’s life story and have no right to tell anybody how to think or behave. Who says people with far right views are not nice people?

In your opinion.

Oh for goodness sake! 🙄 Really ill? A few grips are needed here!

There is good and bad across the political spectrum. Voting Labour is certainly not a guarantee of someone being inherently good. Judge people by their actions in life and how they treat others in day to day life. Far left is as ugly, undemocratic and intolerant as far right.

Absolutely agree that the Left are incredibly intolerant of other views. The vile abuse hurled by Left wing men at (often Left wing) women trying to defend their rights is something to behold.

I know where you are coming from OP. It's to do with having similar values on the big issues. I am wary of anyone who presents as being very right wing

I am wary of anyone who presents as being very right wing

May I ask what presenting as very right wing would entail?

100% this. ^ And yes, the OP's friend has had a lucky escape!

This!

Loads of these threads keep popping up the same as benefits threads.

Yanbu. To have a presence in anything like that - ie to be a candidate, to campaign for them or be into it enough to take it public you have to be spending a lot of time listening to people with opinions a hell of a lot worse than the ones they put on the leaflets.

Sorry, I thought when I started reading that this person was going to be a double axe murder or running a Breaking Bad style drug manufacturing business from their garden shed. Really, as you’ve already stated, she’s not racist just has different political views to you, I think you’re just being incredibly judgmental… unless she’s chairperson of the BNP, sporting a buzzcut and Swastika tattoo, of course.

Well, that's the trouble isn't it?! You make a very valid point.

I think Labour are desperate to get into power. And I think Keir Starmer is desperate to unite a party that's constantly pulling itself to pieces. So that's part of it.

I also think that until very, very recently there was almost no one who was prepared to stand up and say women can't have penises. It really has been like the Emperor's New Clothes. I think because the trans activists have been so aggressive in pursuing anyone who dared to question their demands, it silenced many, many people for a long time.

Saying that in fact trans women AREN'T women was publicly seen as being on the wrong side of history. So I think that Starmer wasn't prepared to say it was all bollocks because organisations like Stonewall and Mermaids had an iron grip on policy and everything from the NHS to schools were firmly caught up in the ideology. It probably would have been political suicide to say that trans women aren't women and would have given the left of the party sufficient ammunition to oust him.

The number of women getting pushed out of their own sports and physically dwarfed by hulking men claiming to be women, plus the Cass Review, have given many people the courage to speak out. Things seem to be changing.

I'm trying to be gracious to anyone who's prepared to admit that they were wrong. There's nothing to be gained from castigating people who are willing to admit that they were brainwashed. The more people that are willing to publicly say that no one can magically change sex, the better.

I've seen the way Starmer has handled the opposition, and he's a man with a razor-sharp intellect. He's diligent, principled, and nothing escapes him. I think he would represent us well on the global stage, and I think his experience as a barrister serves him very well. I'd like to give him a chance to prove that he can be strong when needed. Lord knows he can't be worse than the shit show we've had in recent years. But not if he's still insisting that women can have a sodding penis.

I’d never even heard of Reform so thanks for the informative thread! Googling them doesn’t scream “racist” to me but I’ve only glanced over it in a couple of minutes. Starmergeddon made me laugh though. Can’t quite believe they’ve put it on the website.