Reform winning big

[Keirawr]

Reform had a good night, winning county councils, probably will win a mayoral seat and won the parliamentary by election also.

You don’t have to be a Reform voter to acknowledge that they are taking votes off Labour. Or that they are being electorally effective.

No doubt the ‘basket of deplorables’ crowd will be along in a min with their usual quips calling reform voters names, having learned absolutely 0 from Brexit. Insult the voters at your peril.

These same people also totally miss the point that winning is winning. Feeling all moral and superior about ‘oh well, what will they actually do’ changes nothing.

Perhaps those who label everyone that wants immigration limiting as ‘racist’ Will think again. But likely not.

I know….which is why i said no one would have me

i know quite a few people who have emigrated for various reasons so i don’t see it as being offensive

but I live and learn

Bad news but they are a symptom of irrelevant Labour and Tory, and people being disillusioned.
P.S.OP, calling opponents "a basket of deplorables" is hardly a sign of high intellect or education

It’s a massive swing. You should be worried.

As PP said Runcorn is very Merseyside, very Labour and yet somehow reform have surged ahead in that area and got their fifth Parliamentary seat there. It will make the textbooks.

FPTP would make it impossible for Reform to win the 2029 GE. Not to say he couldn’t win at some point but it won’t be then.

Sadly still a victory. And after a recount... What were they thinking?

1, 2...miss a few... 99...

Yeah there's only 57.
🤣

Not really, in my first job after graduating as a graphic designer sat on the layout desk in Wapping of a big tabloid, had I cooked that one up I'm sure the editor would have promoted me. good short letter count for an impactful headline.

I hope Reform surprise many and this is the start of the country getting back on track. Not because I love or even voted Reform but because I desperately hope SOMEONE can. I used to feel so thankful I was born in the UK, a diplomatic, well run country, when so much of the rest of the world has it so much worse. Now, I’m not sure of things have changed or I’ve become more cynical but I’m saddened to realise this isn’t the case. The people governing us have shown themselves to be massively corrupt and have taken things from bad to worse.

What do you want people to say OP?

The fact that lots of people think reform is a good solution makes me sad. But then Americans voted for trump in huge numbers so I guess it's not really surprising any more. I have lost faith in people personally.

Why is this in AIBU???

I voted YABU.

It is a very commonly used expression in these modern times.

The Reform candidate won by 6 votes BUT it was a massive swing of 17% from Labour............🙄

And that's the point I am trying to make probably really badly.
It isn't enough to vote against one side or the other if you want to make a better society. You have to take ownership of what you are actually voting for.
I don't believe people voting for reform want a better society in general, but they do want their own situation to improve and whether that's to the detriment of lots of others does not seem to pose a problem for them.

I agree with this. Labour do need to do more about this. It's not racist to not want foreign sex offenders pulled off deportation flights and gangs of criminals roaming around. The people who come across on small boats are trafficked into the UK to work for criminal gangs, sex work and in the drug trade. How do people think they are paying traffickers back thousands of ££? It's not by working as a porter in the NHS, or from benefits ( unless it benefit fraud, again going to criminal gangs). It's terrible for them and for us. Reform isn't the answer. Although some of their policies on nationalising industries are pretty Leftist they have no idea how they are going to fund their pipe dreams, and taking money off their millionaire backers won't be one of the answers. But Labour needs to show they are the answer.

And that is where the problem lies. I would never vote Conservative, never mind Reform. I have been a Labour voter all my life, although to be honest, mostly for the lack of anything better to vote for. I had four votes yesterday - one for the mayor and three for local councillors. I did not vote for the Labour mayor, I voted for one Labour local councillor who has proven their commitment and effort, and cast one vote for a total no-hoper who at least reflected my politics (who also got my vote in the mayoral election). The only possible reason to vote Labour here was to stop Reform. They came close - damned close - to taking the Mayorality and we'll see how the local elections go but I think it will be a disater for Labour. I couldn't have stopped Reform with my vote, but at the same time, with a Labour Party that is betraying everything it has ever stood for, it is the only way of telling the Labour Party that they are wrong. They don't care about the poor or the vulnerable, they don't care about the working class, and given their current values, I'd rather see the Tories in power - at least you know they are the "enemy"!

If you can't understand why people are voting for Reform, then you don't understand that people are scared, desperate, and happy to soak up the simplistic rhetoric of "make Britain great again" by blaming others for their woes. Nobody listened when Trump ran the first time. Incredibly they didn't listen when he ran a second time. This is Labour's warning. I doubt they will listen either. For the vast majority of the population their choice is between Reform and the usual "clear winner" - couldn't be arsed voting at all. Do not blame people for voting "wrong" - blame politicians for failing to inspire confidence in voters.

I am a disabled pensioner. I fortunately do not live in poverty on a state pension (although I am not wealthy either, and losing my PIP might make a difference that pushes me over the precipice), and hell will freeze over before I vote for Starmer or Reeves or any of their ilk.

I find it depressing. Reform isn't a party, it's a company. Smacks of people voting to protest rather than to be represented.

People were promised and expected great things from labour turns out there a complete disgrace
people have voted to get labour out not necessarily to get reform in

Well Nigel Farage surely makes the list of massively corrupt politicians, so I'm not sure if he's the change people are looking for in that area. But, out of curiosity, when you look at the US right now, is that the kind of change you think we need?

But did the people vote for Trump because they’d lost hope in politicians? I believe the average person is generally good and casts their vote believing they’re making the right decision for them and their family.

What worries me is the possibility that they’ll gain seats in several successive elections and work towards power. Thats how it would happen if it did happen.

I still can’t believe that Labour beat the Tories, gained power, launched an immediate attack on pensioners, made some weird noises about immigration, in cynical style and then turned on the disabled. All this time, knowing that Reform are lurking.

I seem to be unusual on here in that I have a broad range of friends whose votes range from pretty far right - all Hamas/The Jews fault - depending, trans women are mentally ill, hate Europe, burn the boats etc. Through to total pacifist, Trans women should be on all sport and run rape centres, we should be part of the a European army and the euro, I’ll give every Refugee a house - what borders? Types of people.

ironically they’re all lovely people that occasionally spout something extreme (as I’m sure I do when in the mood)

it’s been interesting the rise of reform, as they both agree on one thing - they can’t be worse than what we have.

I have lefty friends extolling the working class and the death of labour who are now just Tory light, but blander. They can’t possible turn to the Lib Dem’s after their betrayal over school fees (those students are all thirty something voters now) and the greens have never been taken seriously, but theirs this new kid on the block….

And I have Righty friends extolling the hard line on immigration, the ‘common sense’ statements and calling out their beloved tories for abject failure for 14 years to improve things and an acknowledgment that they made things worse not better, not bad enough to vote labour you understand (the horror) but there’s this new kid on the block…

The rise of reform (and popularism) is a failure of the existing system over 45 years, overseen by all our major parties who allowed the gaps to grow, the cost of living squeeze, the failure to build houses regularly, the failure to see if you work full time and still need benefits to live that something is fundamentally broken. The bizarre acceptance that a 35k average wage in this climate is anywhere near acceptable and then the visual of consistently prioritising ANYONE that isn’t a bog standard working Brit. Literally anyone.

The system is broken - and it appears people have opted for the ‘watch it burn and we’ll build from the ashes’ approach.

i don’t entirely blame them.

That would be so funny! 😀.
Perhaps they might do the same in the States and vote a complete buffoon into power!
What a laugh that would be!!!

I smell a rat with half the posts in AIBU these days.

I think it’s interesting that both Sarah Pochin and Andrea Jenkyns are both failed Tories - in reality, that’s what their voters have voted for and that’s exactly what they’ll get.

I agree with suggestions that for some people this is a form of ‘protest vote’ (similar to Brexit), but it is also completely at odds with the amount of failed/rejected/defected Tories who are now part of Reform and the former Tory party donors who are now funding Reform. A vote for Reform is essentially a vote for ex-UKIP and ex-Tories.

Well if having experience leads us to the shambles of the previous government and of the current one, perhaps it’s overrated. Not a Reform voter myself, but I think we need a clear out of the current politicians and senior civil servants.

It's pretty maddening that there's 12 pages of diagnosis of what's wrong with the country and no one talking about low productivity. This is what's killing us. We have a combination of a huge number of people out of work plus too many low productivity jobs. On top of that we have the massive self-inflicted wound of Brexit which has slowed economic growth.

For those voting Reform - do you think Nigel Farage (the architect of Brexit) is going to fix this? Really? Labour are doing a pretty crappy job but at least they understand the issue at hand.