Neighbour has put political banner on his fence

[IonaJ]

Our neighbour’s house has a fence which faces a fairly busy road. He has taken it upon himself to tie a political banner (think ‘vote X’) to that fence.

Before anyone says it, yes I know it’s his property. But said party are divisive and I worry there may be some unwarranted attention as a result.

Do you think we would be unreasonable to politely suggest it is taken down, or to compromise, only put there during election periods?

Yes

I have voted for all three mainstream parties too but reform is a far right wing party and as such I would look on people who voted for them differently.

I have a very good friend I have known for over 20 years who I recently found out voted reform and also admires Trump. I have to say I do look at her and her husband differently especially as little racist comments have started to creep in which I have shut down by making it clear I don’t agree with their politics. Obviously everyone is entitled to vote whichever way they choose but if there is a fundamental difference in values I think friendship would be difficult. They also have little critical thinking and just quote sound bites off YouTube so that irritates me.

Reform don't have a manifesto.
They have some sort of list of pledges or 'contract'. i.e. an unbudgeted political wish list of notions like 'make school children proud of Britain by reviewing how history is taught'.

Don't worry OP. The poster will like all things pass.

I remember when the farmer's fields around the west country were postered with Vote Conservative signs. Now the area is mostly yellow and the Conservative posters are lining chicken runs.

I would be asking them if they are standing as a candidate in the next local elections. Or perhaps if I could, looking at their social media to see if there is anything that could mean Reform would drop them as a candidate or party member.

Wow, what a pretzel of a response.

I will leave you to enjoy your fantasy of the grifting bigot being in power. Whatever gets you through the day, I guess.

Lots of affluent people support Reform because they hope Reform will lower their taxes and deal with the spongers in social housing. If you look at the main donors to reform, and pretty much all the Reform politicians/main characters they are almost all extrely wealthy, mostly from a banking/asset management background.
So I don't think it.necessarily lowers the tone of the neighborhood..but you could do your own banner -maybe inspired by Led by donkeys or similar.

You’d go through their social media?

I draw the line at being friends with anyone who is close-minded so yes, I guess you’re right

I know this wasn’t aimed at me but thank you for the recommendation! I quite like Jonathan Haidt so will give that a watch and probably order the book.

I feel like there are some incredible mental gymnastics going on amongst the left at the moment. Not all, of course. I don’t even like to refer to them as ‘the left’ as I know plenty of people who are on the left that are sensible.

Mental gymnastics such as supporting the Iranian regime in their efforts to build nuclear weapons. I mean, Iran is so far right that they make Trump look like a liberal 🤦‍♀️

I don’t think you understand that it’s not someone’s fantasy or opinion, it’s what is happening. It’s pointless blaming posters who have only brought it to your attention.

Omg you get worse. Council tenants are not a different species.

Reform's support is a mile wide and an inch deep.

Ladbrokes don’t share your opinion.

I don’t think you understand that it’s not someone’s fantasy or opinion, it’s what is happening

I am not sure what you mean by "it is what is happening".

All that is happening is that Reform is currently leading (narrowly in some cases) in the opinion polls. Note the word "opinion'".

If that is the case by the end of 2028, then I will worry.

Which would be significant if the GE was imminent. It isn't.

It’s part of living in a democracy that he’s entitled to put the banner of any political party on his property, unless it’s a proscribed terrorist organisation.

And dangerous as Reform might be, there’s no grounds to call them terrorists - if we started doing that lightly (although some would say we have already) then we aren’t really a democracy, and the likes of Reform have won.

Still it’s not very classy is it? Having a massive banner outside of an election period. I’d just give him a wide berth.

At first I thought the poster was in good faith but maybe a bit ignorant/snobby. But later posts felt a bit too on the nose. I doubt very much she/he is actually all that concerned with winning hearts and minds.

And therein lies the problem.
It’s all over this thread and all over this board across numerous posts. People don’t want to understand how other people think or why they believe what they believe. They don’t want to learn or open their mind to other opinions. They want to sneer, insult and feel morally superior. The irony being that calling an entire group of people (in this instance, Reform supporters) thick, bigoted and racist is anything but morally superior.

Everyone is a political expert these days, it seems. People want to feel like they’re contributing to the conversation but I alway get suspicious when they start parroting the same words as one another. In this case ‘thick and racist’ it shows a lack of critical thinking in my opinion.

From what I can see on this thread, the only person who is anti-Reform but is at least making an effort to explain why is @PandoraSocks

Nobody has yet to explain to me why they’re so afraid they might get in. Because I suspect they don’t know, they just heard it somewhere and thought it sounded good. I mean, they may be right. Maybe a Reform government would be the worst thing that could happen to that country. But it sure would help progress the discussion if they explained why they think that and not just throw around meaningless insults and sound bites.

People are entitled to vote for any party they chose to - whether it’s Reform, centrist or a hard left outfit.🤷‍♀️. And put up banners.

Rightly or wrongly, Reform are getting more support than any other party, at the moment, so I shouldn’t think anyone will be put off of anything🙄

Please enlighten me and describe the dregs of society?

Well and some people like winding people up for no reason.

This is long but since you asked:
for Reform. I would suggest thinking about why you think they would be good/what you want them to do. The problem is - i know people who are really struggling through no fault of their own. E.g. carers for disabled people who actually need more assistance but are stressed about their support being cut. Or people doing essential jobs on minimum wage receiving housing benefit which rarely touched the corners. And yes (assuming the original poster is posting in good faith) it's annoying to then be described as riffraff or assumed to be racist scum. Maybe they even want to punish the smug higher earners. At the same time you see some of the posters on this thread, and others, who feel really take advantage of by the tax system/welfare state. They are on paper high earners "net contributers" and feel that all the burden is on their backs alone while the "sludge" coasts by. The thread on "why should I keep working" is a good example of that.
I can sympathise with both. But what they want from Reform (or any party of change) is the complete opposite. And Farage is able to appeal to both groups by saying opposite/contradictory things out loud. It's not that he's the only politician that lies. But it's a new phenomenon where people are counting on the fact he's lying about the things they don't like and telling the truth about what they do like. That's a new phenomenon here. The least of this is that at least half of his supporters are going to be bitterly disappointed. It also increases the division/sense of being not listened to or misunderstood. If Reform are saying extreme things about camps/mass remigrations on the one hand and then more moderate things they attract really far right people who love the extreme stuff. But other people who like the more moderate Reform language on immigration fees tarred with a far right brush when people criticise the extreme language. And Farage can say the mainstream media is taking what he said out of context.
Voting for Brexit was a cry to be heard to for some people. But the people who wanted to be listened to were not a monolith, they all had different things they wanted to say. So I think even though the Leave voters "got what they wanted" - we left, they didn't feel listened to. But what was it that was being said? In a weird way, Reform/Leave voters aren't listening to each other (and neither are large segments of UK society). You and me could want the exact opposite to each other on everything but if we both support Farage it's us against the world. It's a break down in political communication that's much deeper than just politicians falling to respond to people's needs. And I think it needs the exact opposite to Farage.

Also while I think lots of politicians mess up, are caught out lying or have caused chaos in the past. Farage (and to a lesser extent Johnson) is the only one who benefits from causing chaos and making things worse. And that creates all the wrong incentives for someone in charge of a country. It's like Trump "take him seriously not literally",.but now people that voted for him are losing their Medicaid. And you can't choose not to take that literally.

@WhereIsMyJumper of topic, is your username a Sultans of Ping reference?

Lots of good/bad reasons to vote for lots of parties
But a universally bad reason to vote for any party is because someone on line was sneering at you. Think how easily that could get exploited! I really don't want to encourage posts from Reform supporters cos playing as sneering green voters or Labour supporters cos playing as evil Tories insulting everyone in a pantomime way "your all a load of smelly idiots" "oh no we're not" "oh yes you are" etc.

It's obviously a reform poster. Only a libral would moan and expect someone with an opposing view to shut up 😁🤣