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.

It just shows you what people think is the most pressing problem. I was visiting relatives in Austria recently, the far right is gaining there, and also in Germany. It's not just the UK.

It may take a while for these people until the penny drops, hopefully they’ll get there eventually. It’s already starting with the MAGA crowd, Trumps approval ratings has dropped off a cliff.

But has it really impacted people???? How has it affected them personally?

Or are they just racist and don't want brown people in their towns.

Charisma has never been the preserve of the well educated, though. If this is a new populist movement, where is the charisma? It’s not at all how I thought it would have to be.

Sadly I dont think it matters how they perform in a couple of mayoral elections. They are seen as the underdog until they are the major party in Government. Farage will be our next PM- which will be awful but I think it will happen.

Sir Kier either get a fucking backbone or stand down.
Stop making right wing decisions.
There are NO excuses now.

A proper Labour government or fuck off.
You're already an embarrassment.

You've got to be joking? Have you read/watched any news AT ALL in the last year?

10,000 non Christian men arrived by boat in 4months -anyone who thinks this helping our country are nuts. It means more homeless children.

As an immigrant this is how I feel. Utter despair that mainstream parties are going to carry on ignoring what is coming. It is not 'if' anymore for me, it is 'when'.

I don't feel anger at reform voters, though the party obviously personally terrifies me. I feel anger that this could all be completely avoidable.

I can't stand Trump, but he has shown that actually it is quite simple to get illegal immigration numbers down rapidly. And he is friends with the reform leader, so this is what people will think is possible.

And legal migration should be controlled more. People are seeing there is little benefit to low earners moving their dependants here.

Migration can really benefit a country, when it is done right. The UK is not doing it right.

Winning is winning yes

And the Lincolnshire Mayor was a landslide, not a complete surprise as Lincolnshire was/is a huge Leave majority area.

The Runcorn by-election, they won by 6 votes, still a win but I wouldn’t say a landslide.

Let’s see what they do.

And what have we learnt from Brexit?

I know we have to spend lots of money to out systems in place that used to be frictionless.

I know if there is a shortage of medicine the EU has greater buying power being a bloc of many millions.

My thoughts are that many people think like we still have this great, powerful Empire that we used to have, and we just (quite rightly) don’t have now. We used to have a good relationship with the Europe and we don’t have that either now. But we still have the mindset “we (and only we although this isn’t true either) won WW2”. I think Reform tap into the egotism very well, but it’s utterly pointless because to flourish we need to rid ourselves of these mindsets not feed them. But here we are.

We will be looking closely at our stock options closer to the General Election if Reform look like getting in.

Or they're single issue voters who haven't thought through the implications, and have been misled into blaming immigrants for why things are so rubbish at the moment? I don't actually want to believe the alternative about so many of my fellow citizens.

@ColinOfficeTrolley you are proving my previous points unfortunately. Yes, the influx of numbers into some communities IS impacting them. Schools places, health services, housing. It matters to some parts of the electorate, even if it doesn’t to you.

The US are at the “find out” stage of “fuck around and find out.” None of the people who voted for Trump thought that they would be negatively impacted by his election.

People who vote Reform want all the brown people and the Polish gone so badly that they don’t consider that the eventual privatisation of the NHS means that they’ll be fucked when they succumb to the effects of their lifelong 40-a-day fag habits and blocked arteries from too many pies.

Wow, he's actually done one? That's a start, but a single one in how many weeks?

Completely agree that all MPs should be accountable for a certain number of surgeries.

I don't think he'd want the job.
He's happy being disruptive but it wasn't ideal for his lifestyle being voted in, in Clacton.

He enjoys being the fox in the hen house.

Absolutely.

@OlivePeer single issue voters or not, if that’s the issue that’s got them out to vote then their POV has to be at least listened to and not dismissed out of hand if you want their POV to change?

Well one of the reasons is the main stream media act as his personal PR and comms team. There is not a day when he’s not front page on a major title. It’s quite baffling as well as sinister. Trump showed us that people love celebrity. He wouldn’t be president if he hadn’t been on the Apprentice. Many people think big name = winner, and want to jump on board.

Pray tell, which of Reforms policies do you think are fantastic?

I agree OP.

It's almost like we warned people this would happen. I'm not sure how anyone could be surprised at the result - Starmer is such a useless and spineless PM. Perhaps instead of the usual predictable name-calling the labour voters could email their MPs and try and get them to listen to the very real concerns of their constituents. But they probably won't - name-calling is easier!

Immigration - Labour are making excuses - that’s not going to work.

As with Leave voters though, Reform voters have made a stupid choice. Does anyone in Clacton think Farage is an effective MP? Would they feel confident relying on him if they had a problem that needed his support? He's shown his true colours years ago. I wouldn't want to be represented by one of his motley band of failed Tories and ex-Britain First bootboys.
The two party system is falling apart but authoritarianism isn't the answer. We've all got a duty to use our vote responsibly; the challenge now is working out how to do that.

Reform had a "Big Increase" in their vote share.
That's not the same as being even close to taking lots of power.
Winning a by-election by 6 votes is not a "spectacular win".

Farage wants every council to have a DOGE, he just said.

Burning down a house because some of it is broken or doesn't function well seems like huge waste to me, but does seem like some voters are totally happy that govt runs like that.

eu.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2025/04/11/trump-proposal-eliminating-head-start/83045346007/

Whether its impacted or not is irrelevant, they think it has.

No money for pot holes but plenty to house migrants.... this belief is very widespread.

Reeves Starmer etc take gifts that most people will never get or even afford... of course Farage does similar but thats ignored.

Labour promised change and to tackle cost of living, yet energy water council tax increases way above inflation.

Is it really any surprise people are fed up?

That is a fair point.