Don't vote reform

[Crispynoodle]

Obviously I can't tell you who to vote for but then there is this:

news.sky.com/story/second-reform-candidate-quits-and-backs-tories-over-racism-and-misogyny-13162247

'Little worries'. Oh dear...
And you seriously wonder why Reform are galvanising support?

😂😂

Again, you are conflating genuine held concerns about numbers living in this country being too high and not being dealt with, with racism. Most people can differentiate the two.

How Brexit was implemented wasn't in the gift of Nigel Farage. Boris Johnson took the decision to remove restrictions on immigration from non EU countries.

Well as at least one Reform candidate compares autistic people to vegetables, I think I'm going to vote for the broccoli party

I'm.not a Reform voter.

Recent cross party and national polls have found that immigration has risen from voters 5th concern to 3rd. That's not exclusive to Reform voters; that's all voters.

And if you are dismissing the wide-spread concerns re high immigration levels as just a Reform voter niche issue, you have got your head in the sand.

“Also, the old adage remains true: not all Reform voters are racist. But all racists will vote Reform.”

EXACTLY THIS

Brexit was a marginal vote so not a great argument. Wasn’t Farage moaning about the Romanians and Bulgarians before Brexit, he was even moaning about Europeans working here. So now they’ve gone and he got his Brexit; he’s moaning about migration from further afield, when is he going to stop jumping on band wagons. Equally, please make him stop with this I’m a common geezer clap trap, he went to Dulwich College FFS, I grew up in London not far from Dulwich more West and it was occupied by kids that looked like the characters from People Just Do Nothing, Dulwich College was for Poshos - he is so insincere, who the hell is fulled by this crap!

Well, perhaps Reform can help me differentiate the genuine concerns from racism by stopping racists from standing for election and unequivocally condemning what their candidates have said. Dear Nigel has stopped short of doing that, preferring instead to minimise:

"Speaking at a Reform UK event in Boston, Lincolnshire, party leader Nigel Farage said the party was not "perfect".

"We've had one or two candidates that have said things they shouldn't have said," he said. "In most cases they're just speaking like ordinary folk.

"They're not part of the mainstream political Oxbridge speak, we understand that. In some cases one or two people let us down and we let them go."

Minimising racism and extreme prejudice as "oh, they're just speaking like ordinary folk" shows what an abhorrent, odious little toad this man really is.

If Reform really want a sensible conversation about immigration, then they'd do far better to stop fielding racists.

By the way, anti-semitism didn't just explode overnight in 1930s Germany. It crept in off the back of extreme poverty caused by WW1 reparations. Poverty found a voice in a charismatic individual who told the population what they thought they needed to hear ("we'll make everything OK for you"). It just so happened that it was the Jews who were scape goats back then.

Spot any parallels yet?

No I don't. Not everything is the same as Nazi Germany. That was a very specific set of circumstances that are not replicated in the UK of 2024.

I do agree with you that unsavoury types will be attracted to Reform and that is something they will need to get a handle on before they can start to get taken seriously.

Seems to be a big push on local facebook page groups for Reform. Not sure it thats representative or if it just tells you about the average facebook local group user!

You aren’t a Reform voter, I actually thought you maybe working to their campaign office, doing your best to drum up support in the last 24 hrs that’s why I asked if he could drop the London relatable geezer act with his Dulwich College schooling 😂

Unbelievable that Farage’s response to that Reform campaigner who was filmed saying that the army should shoot illegal immigrants from the cliffs of Deal and the horrific racial slur about Sunak was to argue that the whole thing is a conspiracy by Channel 4.

FFS Nigel. Own it. Deal with it.

Stop all this pathetic whinging that the BBC and now Channel 4 are in a conspiracy against you. The problem is YOU and the racists you give a platform to. How stupid do you think people are?

I was actually being sarcastic!

Yes that really was a great gag. Well done. And you've said it twice too for extra comedy.

Reform doesn't have a monopoly on concern about high levels of immigration. As previously mentioned, it is a concern shared across the political spectrum.

Apparently there was a car emblazoned with Reform blasting out Land of Hope and Glory in the local high street yesterday. Desperate times.

I know

No, we haven't had a world war. But we have had large amounts of the population destabilised by the poverty created by a global pandemic, which followed hot on the heels of a disastrous Brexit deal. And total mismanagement by the sitting government. It's not too much of a stretch to see how the social conditions in the UK, Europe and across the Atlantic are perfect for the rise of the far right and another charismatic leader telling people what they want to hear whilst scapegoating and 'othering' large swathes of the population. Take one of Reform's flagship policies: higher taxes for companies who employ immigrants. Isn't that straight out of the Nazi play book? So yes, I'm extremely wary of parties who say they want a proper conversation about immigration, whilst simultaneously refusing to accept that there is a whole host of other reasons, besides immigration, that we're in the state we're in.

Well it kind of does, oh yes, I forgot about them, the Conservatives have their Rwanda plan.

“Geezer of the people.” Ha! The man is an ex-public school banker.

Do depressing that he can put on his tweed jacket and red waistcoat and be filmed with a pint in a pub and some people seem to think he’s ‘oh look, Nigel’s one of us.’

Meanwhile, he’s talking about giving tax breaks to those who pay school fees.

We pay school fees - why would we get a tax break for that?

He excuses casual racism by saying, “that’s how people talk in pubs.” WTF!

What pubs are these Nigel? Only the ones you are aware of and drawn to, like a rat to shit.

He knows exactly who and what he is appealing to and the rest is just fluff. He plays the game of the acceptable face of racism, but it’s a thin veneer.

I don't mean the political parties sorry, I mean the voters or whoever has a political opinion. High levels of immigration is a concern for both those of the left and right persuasion.

Totally agree with you.
He tried to obtain a German passport two months after the Brexit referendum, a claim he has never denied. If people did a quick search, they would find some of his racist, xenophobic, sexist and Islamophobic comments; too many to quote.
How he presents himself and who he truly is are two different things.
Let's not forget that he has toxic connections to extreme and far-right figures across the world, and Thatcherite beliefs that he has tried to hide from communities in former industrial towns.

Would be quite funny if they won though

"Thatcherite beliefs". It's fairly obvious to anyone sentinent that he holds those and that's nothing to be ashamed of. Margaret Thatcher was the biggest enabler of social mobility in the 80s.

The rest I can't comment on. The passport thing if true is disappointing. Regarding the "racist, xenophobic, sexist and Islamophobic" comments it would be useful if you could set those out in context so we can have a proper look and discussion.

I understand you here and I wasn’t happy about that whole D Day take

I do think this unrest will grow as we see more of the same pressure after Labour get in. I would have taken policy but it’s about to be scrapped. The new approach will likely see the rise of trafficking and with that a rise in backlash.

It is possible to avoid this, all this rising tension here and EU - see Aus for example. Border control is bipartisan and hardline. It’s frustrating to watch how we are dealing with it.

Sadly, he will probably win in Clacton tomorrow. Does this mean -

a) He will have to buy a house in Clacton and actually spend lengths of time there?

b) He will have to give up his shows in GB news and LBC?

I suppose every cloud has a silver lining.