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.

It is definitely not fictional, do your homework

To be honest the tactic of apparent condescension would not even work in a VI Form debate where I come from, but you obviously think it is a slam dunk. You have not responded to any of the arguments with anything but ad hominem (or feminam in my case). Trot on.

Fuck me

I can see now why my dear old mum said no talking about your politics or money

Social equality means that everyone has equal rights and liberties. If someone cannot work they should be helped and people who work should have enough money for a decent life.
People who abuse the benefits system are in minority.

They really are not and not everyone has equal rights either - far from it!

Haven't RTFT but I sincerely believe that one's political views do rather define one. Politics reflect a person's most fundamental values: how can it but be definitive?
My brother is a lifelong Conservative despite our working class upbringing -the Labour policies he benefited from when growing up are not there for his own children now there is a Conservative / right-wing coalition government in power in our country of origin and they're worse off as a result. But he's ideologically Conservative through and through and feels its a price he's willing to pay.

"No, you have the maturity to realise that a 41 year campaign of whinging on the part of Leavers was apparently OK, but Remainers are not allowed, apparently, to say a thing since 2016. That is not adult behaviour, that is bullying and intolerance. You grow up."

So the EU had 41years to address the concerns of the British public and didn't? The British public gave the EU 41 years before saying enough? And the issue isn't "whinging", the issue is remainers don't seem to be able to whinge without ABUSING leavers. Accusing them of bigotry, ignorance, stupidity, racism, calling them gammon and god knows what else.

I mean, I haven't been alive 41 years and being honest I didn't put a lot of thought into my vote beyond "freedom of movement" (certainly less thought than my "leaver" relatives) so I'm not best placed to debate the subject but... I used my vote for "remain", the majority of the public voted differently and that's that. It's how democracy works. We owe it to the country to allow brexit the best chance at working. It's not worth the country spiralling into a toxic hellhole just for the opportunity to say "I told you so" to leavers.

That would make me completely go off a person. A Tory I could put down to political differences but Reform? That’s a hard no from me.

They really are. The latest DWP statistics show that for example, PIP fraud was only 0.2% of PIP spending 2022-23.
You seem to think it's so easy to make fraudulent benefits claims. It's not.
People who get 3k UC could be single mothers with children who have disabilities etc. and work part-time. What's wrong with that. Do they not deserve a life worth living.
The fact that workers aren't paid enough and struggle due to the impact of cost of living and Brexit is not to be blamed on those who are vulnerable and need help. We should help one another.

Get a grip! I thought you were going to say she is a murderer!!

Right? I clicked the thread expecting some juicy gossip she'd read in the local paper not "she doesn't vote the way I want her to" 😆

," I felt really ill when I realised what she is like."

Others have said this but you knew her for 6 years and liked her. That IS what she IS like. You saw the genuine her. Your job now is too acknowledge and attempt to understand how someone you like and respect can hold a different political view to you. Something moist of us do not have an issue with.
Why not ask her out for a coffee and ask her the questions you have about Reform. You may be surprised at some of the answers.

Ikr some people are a bit I have my vote and give me yours too

Of course people deserve to be looked after if they are genuinely ill, disabled or fall on hard times. I am all for a welfare state. However, never has it been so lucrative and there are always going to be those people (a growing ‘minority’) who will do anything to get on disability benefits and they are made for life at the expense of someone else without a care in the world. You are spouting the usual left rhetoric without any reasoning or critical thinking behind it. You really think we are struggling due to Brexit? That is a smokescreen for the fact that millions of our working age people are unproductive for a lifetime

I'm surprised to see so many posters being so blasé about politics at the time when the NHS is falling apart, energy prices have skyrocketed, people on 'decent' salary have to claim UC to make ends meet, people with mental health issues are being told to toughen up and so on....

Why would being a doctor or a solicitor make you any more decent than anyone else? I've met deeply unpleasant people of both of those professions.

The NHS is falling apart as it does not have the resources to deal with the amount of people it is treating

I find the rigidity of the left so chilling. It’s like they have no capacity whatsoever to see any other view apart from their own. It’s a cult like vice clamped around curious critical thinking. A replacement for puritan religion.
No debate.
No questions
No tolerance

'The EU had 41 years to address the concerns of the British public" what concerns of the British public? The Leavers were a lunatic fringe until about 2008, there was no more need to focus on their concerns than flat earthers. The idea that the "British Public" was sitting waiting to have their "concerns" addressed and then said "enough" is ludicrous. I canvassed for 20 years on the doorsteps of a working class estate in the South East and not once was the issue of the EU/EEC/Common Market brought up, not once.

I have seen no more abuse from Remainers than I have from Leavers. Let's just take this particular thread for example. Who started with the 'grow up' remarks? It wasn't the Remainers.

You say "the majority of the public voted differently" well no, they didn't. Only 37% of the electorate voted to leave the EU, but that is turnout for you, and should be respected. What was wrong was that, for such an important constitutional and economic change there should have been a super-majority put into the referendum. Either a turnout threshold, or something like a 60% threshold. In countries that use referendums to manage their affairs this is what they do. We have no tradition for that in the UK. When amendments were tabled to put a super-majority into the referendum they were resisted on the grounds that the referendum was not legally binding. Of course, in reality, it was binding, since it was politically impossible to ignore the vote once it had occurred. So a clusterfuck of a bill which was not designed to for a proper referendum got passed and then was used to administer what ended up as a binding referendum. This was not functioning democracy.

I am not sure who you think is allowing the country to 'spiral into a toxic hellhole' so that they can say "I told you so". The people who wanted Brexit, or at least were prepared to work with it, have been in power for the last 14 years. What we have is their doing, not the Remainers. The reality is, as anybody from the Governer of the Bank of England to the Economist journal or the WEF, could have told you, is that Brexit was and is a complete economic disaster for this country. There is no way it could be made to work, anymore than knocking a whacking great hole in the back wall of your house could be made to work. We are a country which voted economic sanctions on itself.

Sorry, but you are spouting right wing populist rhetoric. Why isn't your anger directed towards the fat cats, those who were handed out fraudulent contracts during lockdown. Around £1.6 billion worth of contracts were awarded as a result of referrals from just ten politicians at the heart of the Conservative party.

Saying "I don't think people should be abused for voting differently" isn't being blasé about politics though. I feel pretty strongly about it in fact. It's like they're trying to coerce people to vote their way via shame and social pressure and it's wrong.

I say all that as a working class person, someone who has first hand experience helping a disabled relative with PIP appeals and hospital appointments and someone who has experienced pretty severe mental health issues myself. None of that means I don't have the ability to realise that different people have different priorities and worries. And I also understand that creating this amount of hostility surrounding our vote doesn't benefit anyone.

So the EU had 41years to address the concerns of the British public and didn't? The British public gave the EU 41 years before saying enough? And the issue isn't "whinging", the issue is remainers don't seem to be able to whinge without ABUSING leavers. Accusing them of bigotry, ignorance, stupidity, racism, calling them gammon and god knows what else.

But leavers insult Remainers all the time. They call them everything under the sun!

Don’t think we want to be ‘open minded’ to xenophobia thanks.

I had to look up Reform UK’s policies to see which of them was particularly vile and sick-making. These are their key ones:
Lower taxes
Net zero immigration
Zero waiting lists
Cheaper energy

Which one causes you the most upset? Let me guess, it’s point 2 isn’t it? I think you’ll find however that lower or net zero immigration is popular with a large sector of the population, even (or especially with) traditional Labour voters in certain parts of the country.

It's falling apart because it has been deliberately underfunded.
A 2% wealth tax on assets over £10m could raise £22bn. Reforming non-dom status rules could raise £3.2bn a year and so on....