AAAAGH Reform. Are people ignoring the racist?

[Peasnbeans]

And that he's no economist skills yet promising the impossible. And a racist. And mysoginist.

If Mumsnet is full of women, how is no-one talking about Reform and limiting women's rights?
I know I'll get flamed for this, but it is a boiling frog situation! Jump out!
And I didn't choose the AIBU board but I looked down all the Current Threads and this didn't feature.

Unfortunately a lot of the people who vote for Reform can’t seem to see the bigger picture (as in Brexit). They just see ‘we’re going to stop the boats’. It won’t happen and they’ll be even more crap at running the local councils they now have control over. I’m here to watch the shit show unfold with glee though.

I can hand on heart swear that I never racially abused anyone, even as a teenager. As someone with a Jewish father and Jewish/German surname, I certainly received plenty of abuse.

It's normal for teenagers to misbehave and do things that they wouldn't dream of doing now, but there is still no get out of jail free pass for racism.

There are no houses, people stuck in temp accommodation with a 10-15 year wait
2 year hospital waiting lists
Schools are over subscribed
No NHS dentists
10 hour waits in A&E
No GP appointments
Private rented houses skyrocketing

People are absolutely desperate for change. They’ll vote for whoever promises it

I've said this on another thread, but I am afraid this is entirely on Labour.
The Tories were always going to lose out to Reform at this election, but it's the swing from Labour which has caused this massive shift.
Instead of dismissing Reform voters as stupid and uneducated, engage critical thought why they moved from Labour.
I know MNetters have a justification for everything Labour has done thus far, but in the real world, people feel they have been misled by Starmer.
Because Labour had spent the previous 14 years carping at literally everything the Tories did, people assumed they would be different and are aghast to discover they are not.
'The Tories were worse' is not really a balanced reason to justify everything Labour has done wrong nearly a year in.
MN is very left-wing and supportive of Labour generally and every thread criticising Labour always ends up with the OP being accused of being a bot or AI. Die-hard Starmer fans will justify anything the party does, but they don't seem to be able to get their head round the fact that a lot of Labour's decisions so far are absolutely not what people thought they were voting for, hence the disillusionment.
So who are the thick ones really?

What do you mean by 'support British sovereignty' - we have sovereignty, we are a sovereign state already?

Basically this. We can’t keep just taking more and more immigrants in. Other countries refuse, so why are we any different ?

Then you have lived quite a sheltered and fortunate life. My df was appallingly racist on a daily basis. Being raised as a child in that environment inevitably had an effect.

But 7 years debating at a decent school, and three years studying in London reformed my views to the extent that I was NC with my f for the last 30 years of his life.

People change, grow, mature. That's normal.

1. Reform aren’t even a party they are a Ltd Company.
2. Nigel Farage was the main instigator of Brexit costing us £32 Billion per year!
3. Labour have deported more illegal immigrants since July than the Previous Govt did for years!

The government’s pledge to deliver the highest rate of removals since 2018 has been surpassed, with a surge in returns activity since the election leading to 16,400 people with no right to be in the UK being removed.
Since the government came to office, enforced returns are up 24% compared to the same 12 months prior and Britain’s streets have been made safer with the removal of 2,580 foreign criminals – a 23% increase on last year.
Bespoke charter flights have removed immigration offenders to countries around the world, including 4 of the biggest returns flights in the UK’s history carrying more than 800 people. Individuals removed since the election include criminals convicted of drug offences, theft, rape and murder.
By restarting asylum processing to help clear the backlog and redeploying 1,000 staff to work on immigration enforcement, the government has been able to achieve this level of removals within 6 months of coming to office.
The ramp up reverses the dramatic decline in removals seen over the past 10 years and, as part of the government’s Plan for Change, is working to fix the foundations of a broken immigration system.

but don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story!

Is there one county council where all of the councillors are new and never been a councillor before? Expect your CT to rise due to their incompetencies.

Loads of kids say racist things, it is not unusual at all. Do you work with or have a lot of exposure to children that are not your own.

Reform propose abolition of the Equality Act.

They’ve spoken about abolishing EDI roles in local authorities.

It is absolutely reasonable for people in difficult circumstances to want a change for the better.

It is absolute idiocy to want "any sort of change." What if it's a change for the worst?

See: Brexit

I couldn’t agree more. I can remember through secondary school, sixth form and university being taught how to properly debate a wide range of issues. I had very good friends at sixth form where we would often be on opposite debating teams, but understood how to respectfully disagree and learn from each other’s POV, and most importantly not let it affect our friendships! We more often than not found points we agreed on, and respected each other’s passion.

We should absolutely not be afraid to debate anything. Thorough debate from as wide a range of backgrounds as possible can result in all of us more fully understanding the nuances of an issue. I have certainly enjoyed thinking about a few things in a different way from reading threads on MN.

But reform havent promised social housing or more availability of NHS services or rent controls or building more schools. Is this their manifesto?

Hmm... Loads of kids say racist things. Loads of adults have just voted for a party with a racist leader. But Britain doesn't have a racism problem.

Make it make sense.

@Ponoka7 According to @randomchap you've also 'failed at life'if you've been unfortunate enough to have a poor education. How nice it must be to be winning at life and looking down on all the idiots 🙄

Nigel Farage is a liar and an embarrassment - have people really forgotten the Brexit buses crap? Forgotten him saying none of the MEP's had never done a proper job while stood next to a Lithuanian heart surgeon?

The man is a weasel, but OMG he knows how to play the population - and they all fall for it. He knows exactly what to say to get people to vote for what he wants. He's a narcissistic megalomaniac on a scale with Trump or Putin and it's really disturbing that his party is getting anywhere.

Not that I've been impressed with either Labour or the Conservatives - but the idea that Farage is going to do better by us all is the biggest joke ever.

@MasterBethwhy is he racist? Genuine question

You’re saying racism is normal for teenagers?

I have no idea I don’t even look at reform as their views don’t align with mine

What I was alluding to is that reform provides a scapegoat which is enough to get the votes, when the morale of the UK is so on its arse it’s easy to shift the blame and drum up anger

How do you know that Reform voters have 'failed at life'?

DH was a presiding officer on Thursday. The result of the mayoral election was very close. At his station in a fairly deprived area with lots of non working families, most voters were elderly or working working class.

Whatever anyone thinks of Farage, YABVU to call Reform voters racist and it’s this sort low intelligence comment that push more people towards it.

Debating the pros/cons of immigration is not racist. I vote LibDem but here is data freely available from government websites:

• 110k applications for asylum in 2024. One third are small boats
• When you look over the last 5 years and projections, asylum seekers will easily/have reached over 1m. That is a lot of people who need high levels of support
• as of June 2023, there were 11.4 million non-UK-born residents of England and Wales which is 18% of the population

We certainly need some of these people for the labour market. However:

• 1.5m people are currently unemployed and a further 11m economically inactive
• Most people report a lowering of living standards

So actually, is it more of a skills gap (education) or a pay gap (low salaries). It’s an economic debate. NMW jobs should be higher paid and corporations not subsidised by the government to do so.

I’m a school governor and have sat in classrooms where teachers are covering very diverse needs in language, some with no English. It is naive and incorrect to say that is not stretching the education budget and hindering skills improvement of the future labour market. This is just one example of the impact on public services.

Ive only read the first 2 pages but that was enough. Its scary how stupid some people are. Do people really think stopping immigrants coming in will solve everything? It seems people are voting reform just to "stop the boats"...what exactly is that going to fix here??

That's extremely offensive. So "brown people, women and gays" have no independent thinking and can be "used" as a front by white male racists? Do you realise how ridiculous that sounds?

Racism is a huge problem in australia, unless someone had been living under a rock they would be well aware of that.