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

Sorry but you have 100% failed to produce any fact just a left wing bias opinion. I have seen all farage's broadcasts and none were what you describe.

Rather than your leftwing hyperbole, enlighten us thickos and provide the dialogue and video of exactly what he said.

Other wise you are just showing your intolerance and bigotry of others with no fact.

i would tolerate a family member but a friend no clearly my judgment in friends was way off.

This. OP and others, the contempt for people who think differently from you is extraordinary. Did you learn nothing from Brexit? How about the rise of Marine Le Pen in France?

Look at the ratio here. This is your future. Two-thirds of people disagree with you, and it's a similar ratio on all goady posts like this. You're creating the very outcome you say you don't want by sneering and ridiculing people who don't align exactly with your own world views.

The trouble with this is that there is a chasm between the opinion that "they should bring the gas chambers back, Hitler had the right idea", and "Israel is beyond the pale for its offensive on Gaza".

Both those statements would be classed as anti semitic by a sizeable minority who have very loud voices. One of those statements is abhorrent and anti semitic. The other is neither.

I wouldn’t judge anyone for voting Reform in the last election, a lot of people are now politically homeless and honestly I ended voting on one single issue (social care) because it was impossible to find one party I actually agreed with. Reform was a protest vote for a lot of people.

You must have hated the Labour party when Jeremy Corbyn was leader then?

Or didn't that count? Is it not racist when its the Labour party?

What have reform said that specifically instigated these riots? Can you please point to the words you think they used that instigated these riots? Because otherwise it's unsubstantiated allegations to besmirch people who you don't like and appear to be prejudiced against.

But we're not talking here about random beliefs that don't "push anyone into anything." We're talking about someone acting on those beliefs in a way which very seriously affects other people. (I'm not saying anything about Reform or any other political party in particular, just that, when we vote, we're acting to have specific beliefs made into policies that profoundly affect others' lives, for better or worse, and I think it's important we take responsibility for the results of that action.)

If this is someone that you otherwise like and respect, ask yourself this:would you feel the same way if they had fallen for a scam by a very good scammer?
Because in a lot of cases, that is what has happened. Say what you like about Farage, but he is terrifyingly persuasive, and he offers simple "common sense" answers to complicated questions. The fact that the answers won't work is neither here nor there if he is persuasive enough.

Because people don't accept your definition of racist, Buttercup. Are the Japanese all racist? Japan is almost exclusively inhabited by Japanese. Go there if you don't believe me. Are you seriously claiming that their rejection of mass migration and the problems it brings making them all racist? Are the Spanish racist because they're sick of so many Brits settling there?

Are you seriously arguing that mass migration hasn't profoundly affected people's lives in Britain?

Nice assumption…
No she didn’t vote the way her husband did - she just became more informed and they voted differently

My that's a lot of word salad just to say you think people who agree with Farage and vote reform have been conned and are thick and another great show of how intolerant and bigoted the left are.

Dress it up all you want but, no you are not superior or more clever you are just far far less intolerant.

If it's so easy to find it why don't you do that eg quote official policy or approved spokespersons?

I suppose you might try and quote people thrown out their party but wouldn't do the same with labour party candidates who have been thrown out? It only works one way for you?

Try to be more open minded and tolerant of the views of others.

You are making a lot of assumptions about my reasons for loathing Reform. None of them are correct.

Reform are not "questioning immigration". They are actively seeking to blame migrants and refugees for all societal ills. The leader of the party has repeatedly made racist, islamaphobic and xenophobic statements and has consistently been vocal in his support of Trump, even mimicking him by adopting the slogan "Make Britain Great Again" at campaign rallies in the run up to the election. He has also, during the election campaign, made baseless claims that migrants and refugees are responsible for the COL crisis and the deterioration in NHS services. He has accused migrants and refugees of being responsible for a "moral decline" and "cultural decline" in the UK and described migration as a "national security emergency"...if that's not far-right rhetoric I don't know what is.
Whilst I accept that Farage himself is not necessarily a Fascist, Reform gives confidence and legitimacy to those seeking to spread fascism and the politics of hate on the ground, hence why Tommy Robinson has thrown his full support behind Reform. Deliberately attempting to sow hatred and division by scapegoating immigrants and refugees is fundamentally racist and nothing will convince me otherwise.

Nice try OP, wonder why you're posting this now 🤔

The leader of the party has repeatedly made racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic statements.

If this were true he would have broken the law and have been charged and arrested, now I may be wrong but in the UK your are innocent until proven guilty. So care to show me where he was charged for these crimes?

Otherwise your just spouting mistruths again.

Well the people who voted for Labour are happy that many pensioners are now going to be struggling to keep warm this winter, is this what you mean ?

Do you remember when you were about 16/17 and looked down on the views of your parents or others because at that age you thought you had all the answers?
It's the same as that. They never grew up. They still have the teenage mentality of thinking they are right and anyone who disagrees with them must be thick.
The only difference is that now there is a lot of them, all congratulating themselves in being the only people with the correct view.
There are so many of them in fact, that they run a little dicatorship-no alternative view allowed sort of thing.

But I think your answer is that they are adults with the teenage mentality of no one knows better than me...a group of Teenage Kevins!

I'm not sure it's as simple as that.
Lots of people consider the Conservatives to be a racist party. Does that mean everyone who votes Conservative is a racist?

People vote for political parties and choose not to vote for others for all sorts of reasons.

IMO polarisation, pointing the finger and name calling helps no one.

To answer your question OP. I think if your friend is a good friend to you and you get on then YABU to judge her voting choice. Like them or loath them they are a mainstream party.

Your attitude op is all part of the reason why many people now consider voting for Reform. Well done

No you’ve got it completely wrong.
The riots and the rise of Reform are both symptoms of decades of completely unchecked immigration.

On the issue of racism, an insult often thrown at tory voters was that they were racist. It's only because Rishi Sunak was the leader this time that nobody has tried to say that tory voters are racist for the 2024 election. During the 2019 election process, I saw loads of posts on here about people voting tory being racist. For the 2024 elections, racism was the slur chucked at anyone voting Reform.

I am actually wondering whether the core hard left contingent just throw accusations of racism when people don't agree with their left views.

The left are the most bigoted of the lot IMO.

My politics are centre. I wish the moderate right and the moderate left could work together and get rid of all the extremists in both parties.

Polarisation of politics is dangerous. Far better to accept that we have the freedom to vote and to gently find out why they felt this was the best party to vote for. If everyone who votes Reform is treated like a pariah this may make people entrench more and take on more extreme views. Better to be able to openly discuss complex issues (and challenge where appropriate). It's important to be able to be around people with different views

Tbh I feel the same way about labour supporters. For me left wingers are selfish they believe in being soft on crime which affects the most vulnerable, weakening families ditto, soft on drugs ditto, no borders ditto. That's before you consider the anti semitism and anti women stances of alot of them. I try not to talk politics with anyone as I'm always disappointed by how many people are quite ignorant about the world especially if they get all their news from the BBC and Guardian (this covers alot of people I know).

Yes, that's the kind of effect of voting I mean, though of course there are nuances — was it in Labour's manifesto?

I doubt Labour voters are "happy" about it, but maybe some have it in for pensioners, as many do have it in for disabled people (many of whom suffered terribly from Labour's use of Atos to cut disability benefits).