... to think that Nigel Farage will be our next PM?

[ohime]

Or, more accurately: AIBU to be afraid that truly nasty piece of work Nigel Farage who has, by all accounts, always been utterly useless at (or at least completely uninterested in) the actual business end of governing will be our next PM because everyone is so fed up with all the other parties being, variously or all at once, so corrupt, incompetent and useless that we've collectively abandoned all hope? I will never vote for Farage, who is a horrible man, or any of his party which keeps having to fire people for being just a teensy bit too overtly racist - but it seems from the polls that for many people the choice against the status quo outweighs what we may be choosing. (For an example, I can't believe that Farage's stated position that DOGE in the US didn't go far enough with its swinging cuts to the social safety net would be popular with UK voters who recently elected a government on the basis that it would reverse years of Tory austerity... not that that's worked out so well...)

Farage likes being a fox in the hen house. He doesn’t want actual responsibility and hard graft. He likes to float about, unscrutinised, earning money and being an agent provocateur. The day to day grind of politics and running a country holds very little appeal.

Farage has 4 years to maximise his earning potential before the next general election. I suspect he will have a handy excuse as to why he can’t lead the country but should have a lucrative advisory role.

No, he won’t be. I’m a floating voter - I voted Labour in the last election and Conservative in the one before.

I am not a person who says or who has ever said “I would NEVER vote Tory” or “I would NEVER vote Labour or Lib Dem” - I believe that certainly the three main parties can evolve and respond and adapt and I consider myself to be centrist.

I cannot see myself ever voting Reform as they are too extreme. I have enough faith in voters that MOST people want balance and good public services and the poorest in society to be able to be looked after and heat their homes.

there are vocal outliers screaming on social media that make it look like Reform are popular but they aren’t. I don’t know a single person who would vote for them, though plenty are happy to say they’d vote Tory or Labour or Leave or Remain.

I don’t think Reform voters are “shy” either.

Yes, they’re a political party and yes, they’ll be allowed if they have a majority of seats in the House of Commons.

And anyway, being PM is easy - all you need to do is cut immigration and abolish WFH and we’ll be living in a land of unfettered milk and honey within no time.

No they didn't - they got in on a 'hold your nose and choose the least worse option ' vote.

Well, yeah obviously. But I won't hold my breath.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jul/05/nigel-farage-reform-uk-teenage-councillors-vital-public-services

I’m not sure the Reform way of putting inexperienced privately educated teens in charge of massive local budgets is proving that popular.

It’s probably a case of sitting back and letting Reform do themselves in- bit like Trump.

And staunchly hate girls and women so they are simply not credible.

Boris Johnson was always a vote winner and though many Tories didn’t like him they would back him as they knew this. It wasn’t a surprise to anyone who takes an interest in politics outside of their own political beliefs

and American politics is completely different Trump only had to work hard during campaigning which goes on for months and the US population is saturated with the campaigning that also costs billions

I don’t know Ed Davey’s good at social media, they could break through.

Was anyone other than long term labour voters excited about labour pre general election? I held my nose and voted for them, but my goodness they have really not delivered.

It’s not just vocal outliers though, is it?

YouGov, a respected polling organisation have predicted they’ll be the largest party if there was a general election now.

And I do think a lot of Reform voters are shy.

He’s a good chance. He has a way of promising things without actually saying how.
The fact is that if you are young and working class life is hard- harder than it was 20 years ago. You have to get into enormous debt if you want to go to university. If you don’t go and you try and find work you end up on a zero hours contract. You can’t afford to buy a house even though you work hard. There is no sign of things improving. Labour seem the same as the conservatives. They can find money for defence spending but not to sort out hospitals or schools. Public transport is still a joke, council tax is still high, waiting lists are still long. Houses are being built but the so called affordable ones rely on a 35 year mortgage or part ownership only.
If I were to name the policies Labour has put in place since they took office I can only recall three- VAT on schools, winter fuel cuts and disability benefit cuts. Two out of those three are things I never thought Labour would do. Also the revenue from the vat doesn’t seem to be as much as anticipated and schools in the state sector are facing further cuts.
I don’t want Reform in - I just pray Labour can sort things out.

This is basically what I was trying to say. If we treated Farage as a serious politician - i.e., someone who we could imagine running a country on a day-to-day basis - rather than just a celebrity with political opinions, we'd take a good look at his policies, such as they are, and I doubt we'd find that he has a workable plan for fixing everything. (His 'work' as an MEP basically consisted of thinking up stunts to get media attention and avoiding doing any actual work.) But people are so fed up with the main parties being useless that, as in the US, they may simply choose to vote against the status quo, because things are already so bad that they probably can't get much worse.

Another out of touch ex public schoolboy heigh ho.

Very much this too.

No. He didn't say that. That is a right-wing talking point promoted by the Mail, GB News, Telegraph etc, to undermine him

What he said was, he hoped to be able to continue to switch off at 5.30 on Fridays in order to have some semblance of a normal family life (his wife is of Jewish heritage and they have a tradition of Friday Night Dinner.)

You can accuse Keir Starmer of a lot of things. Being lazy or half-hearted about his job seems a strange one to pick, especially after the legacy of Johnson and Cameron.

Out of touch one moment - dangerous populist saying what people want to hear the next... which is it?

This, I'm afraid.

None of the mainstream political parties address voters concerns. We can only stand by and watch them flush the country down the toilet. Brexit was a distress vote and Reform is a distress vote. The population is in distress. They're angry. Reform are a shower, but it's the only way people can register their distress.

We are in an abusive relationship with our politicians and we can't escape so people look to other ways of addressing the problem. Like suicide, it's self destructive, but at least it's a release. This is how far we've fallen.

It won't happen as he'll resign once he realises it will involve working hard and he'll be under constant scrutiny. He acts like a petulant child when he gets asked a question he doesn't like now, imagine the tantrums he'll throw during PMQ's.

Has anyone seen his wife lately? Feel like we saw SamCam all the time, Cherie Blair, Sarah Brown, Theresa May's partner... Where's Victoria?

Disagree.

Farage gets a lot of coverage because he’s divisive and pushing an agenda the media barons favour, but I still think most of the electorate are bright enough to see past his empty words and rhetoric.

I reckon we’ll most likely see a coalition made up of Labour, Lib Dems, Greens and maybe the SNP after the next election.

I think Screamingabdaz is spot on.

Oh, I was giving you the benefit of the doubt before but now I see you're just regurgitating the GB News playbook.

Why can’t people not see that if we carry on the way we are going, where our Taxes are supporting the thousands who come into our country every week, that this country is going to completely collapse?

we already have a drowning NHS, overcrowded Prisons, unsafe roads..

i don’t mind a rise in Taxes to pay for everything, we just need to be able to see where our money is going. Get Britain Great again!

NF is the only one who is talking any sense!

I’m amazed at the amount of people I know who are now Reform supporters - all different ages, backgrounds, races, religions too. Maybe they always were secret Farage fans but it’s now more acceptable to be open about it.
I agree with pp that the other parties don’t do themselves any favours by dismissing the genuine concerns of millions of voters & the patronising comments from some people towards Reform supporters aren’t acceptable.
As a side note - I live in an area with a new Reform council & can honestly say I’m impressed so far. They are not afraid to make decisions & I can’t believe I’m saying this but I agree with everything they’ve done here (obviously it’s very early days!) We needed a change after being a Tory area forever and they are definitely bringing that change.

Don't watch GB news