shocked my best friend voted Reform

[clearmoon]

Long standing close friend came round for dinner and we were nattering away, and she just mentioned off hand in the conversation that she had voted Reform. i am really shocked. We don't discuss politics much. But I would have guessed lib dems or labour. I love her dearly. But I do wonder if I should think about her differently now, or just carry on as before

YANBU - She is not such a good person as I thought all these years
YABU-its all fine

What a disappointment. I found out one of my friends is a Trumpster and Brexiter (she’s American and lives in the UK with another foreigner) and I have been somewhat repulsed since then. We avoid politics now and I’m still repulsed 8 years on.

She may be just ignorant.

She is very clever, so I don't really think this is a likely explanation. I wish it were

Why do people feel the need to disclose who they vote for? It's private IMO.

Never talk politics or religion.

well, I wish she hadn't but she has

People vote many ways for many reasons. The consensus of opinion at the last election from many people I’ve spoken to seemed to be that the Conservatives deserved to lose, but Labour didn’t deserve to win. To vote for more or less any of the small parties could be seen as a protest vote, in that they were never going to form a government. And if your friend voted Reform because she agrees with their policies, that is her prerogative. You don’t need to fall out about it!

That would change my opinion of someone.

I guess l'd be asking her why? A male friend of mine told me he did and I was pretty shocked. He seemed to think the whole thing was amusing.
I'm just glad pretty much nobody else did in my area and beyond.
I certainly don't agree with voting for that but I wouldn't stop being friends with him over it.
If it was the first thing I knew about someone when I first met them, I'd probably avoid becoming their friend in the first place though!

My oldest friends watch GB news and think it's impartial. They were pro-brexit, and as they've always lived in a very white middle class area, they're not exactly attuned to immigration and asylum issues. So we steer away from politics, as they're good, kind and generous friends who've been a great support to me over some difficult years. They also listen to my experiences in my volunteer work with asylum seekers, with open minds.

Fortunately they took against Boris Johnson during COVID, so we could at least rant about him together! And they think Nigel Farage is an idiot. So I'm hoping they didn't vote Reform. But they might have.

Me too.

Agreed.

I don't care how anyone else votes. People have different opinions to me but that doesn't make them wrong and me right

It does if they’re racists. .

people voted reform for lots of reasons. Why can’t you just agree to disagree and move on - and make sure you don’t discuss politics in the future?

Why can’t proper accept people don’t have to tgink exactly like them, why surround yourself with priple who only do as you do, its none of your business and you do not know there reasons. Not every reform voter is a racist, you are aware not just white people will have voted for them.

Talk about an echo chamber...

I couldn't be friends with someone who had voted to cause me serious harm, which some political parties would do with their policies, nor would I be able to be friends with someone who voted to cause others serious harm.

Obviously we have a legal right to vote for whomever we wish in a democracy, but that doesn't make voting for certain parties or policies morally acceptable.

I wouldn't be friends with someone who attacked disabled people in the street, for example, so why would I be friends with someone who attacked disabled people in secret, by voting for a party whose policy is to strip them of their means to a decent life?

(Just an example, not looked at Reform policies, but if they were doing harm to vulnerable people I wouldn't be able to vote for them or be close to someone who did.)

Why do you feel so righteous?

Righteous? Are we not allowed to have morals.
Morally I could not be friends with someone who is comfortable voting for an openly racist party.

Following the complete collapse of the Tory vote, I am not surprised that some of them went Reform in this GE.

YABU to judge her on this vote alone @clearmoon.

Do you not see the irony?

You can be clever and unpleasant

Isn’t it important that we maintain friendships with people who think and vote differently to us? That we don’t keep all our voting secret unless we know we’re in a room with people who all think the same as us?

discussion / argument / debate between people who fundamentally care about each other is how we find a way forward…

There isn't any.

Oh, come on. Depends how important it is for you. Would you feel the same way about a friend who is a paedo? For some people the revulsion is very strong. It’s not whether you like Taylor Swift or Rammstein. That would be silly at this age. Surely, if it’s something very different to who you thought they were it does make you look differently at them. They’re not your child to love them unconditionally. Relationships change.