To ask when Reform supporters will

[PandoraSocks]

finally see the light about Farage? As the article says, if he will do this for £98 without thinking or a few seconds of research, what else is he capable of? The man is, IMHO, amoral, greedy and surprisingly stupid.

Tw: this mentions the hideous crimes of Watkins.

https://metro.co.uk/2026/01/15/i-tricked-nigel-farage-hailing-ian-watkins-tells-him-26308517/

IME, Reform supporters don't tend to care as they're largely single-issue voters. Farage could literally shag their Nan on live TV before drop-kicking a bag of puppies off a cliff and they'd still laud him for being a man of the people.

When the Reform party goes tits up or if they get into power (which I sincerely hope they don't) and the country goes tits up, it still won't be "Nige"'s fault. It'll be the fault of the 'woke Left' for not supporting the dream and for undermining him, alongside a conspiracy by the Elites secretly running the world in Project Let's Eat Babies or whatever the fuck their latest tinfoil hat story is. Look at Brexit. Everyone said it would be shit, the supporters shouted it down and said it was fear mongering, then when it was proven to be shit they blamed Remainers for not getting behind it and giving their support.

You can't argue with stupidity.

It's not about logic at this point. Same as Brexit, it's about emotion and feelings about where the country is heading. Lab/Con can't compete with that.

As Cardibach says, that is the point of the the thread. The link really shows the measure of the man and I wondered if any Reform supporters might have pause for thought.

It won’t change minds, no.

It doesn’t help when it’s all written smugly - NOW can you see how wrong you are? This is how people argued for remain in Brexit. It just polarises people further.

Where is the country heading?

But doesn’t the knowledge he’s a stupid liar (as evidenced by the video he’s made) generate any negative emotional response?

I don't give a shit, never been a big voter, but presumably all those Reform voters don't like what they see.

Honestly, this feels to me just like the build up to Brexit. Reform voters are thick, racist, misinformed, lied to etc. etc, and only Labour voters can see reality. It's incredibly naive.

Ok - I understand frustration - but how is that frustration with what you may think are dodgy politicians not listening to you going to be changed by voting into power someone who is readily ‘tricked’ into bigging up probably the UK’s worst paedophile for just £98 - it doesn’t particularly bode well for improvement.
If I found Ed Davey doing this then my most often Liberal vote would not be happening- no tactical vote on any party with their leader doing this would be happening either.
Does it not matter what he does because you (maybe not you personally I mean, but a general you) fully believe they will deliver what you want - does not the ‘tricked’ for £98 concern you when they’d be managing huge amounts of money?
That he ever did such a cameo would do it for me, but if I accepted they were tricked totally naively and not as they were grifting, then it would also raise questions on how they would manage a country and how confident I could now be they would and/or could deliver.

Presumably the view is that all politicians are liars. So minus 1 point for everyone.

Where’s the smugness? Or the phrase you suggest is used? It’s a simple question. Does the proof in video form that he’s a lying, stupid grifter (and let’s not pretend this video shows anything else) make you think twice about supporting him?
It’s actually quite hard not to argue like this when he is now, and was during the Brexit debate, a lying grifter who doesn’t care to check where his money is coming from.

Imagine spending your birthday evening with his face leering out of your TV, husband enthralled. I went to my mother's.

@PandoraSocks Does this story give you pause for thought at all?

Ha ha, you are asking a lot of the typical Reform/Brexit supporter there, OP 😂

Only Labour voters? Do you think Brexit was a party political issue in that way? More Labour voters voted Remain, sure, but there were Labour and Tories on both sides of that. And are you suggesting that only Labour voters care if politicians are stupid, grifting, liars? Because that doesn’t seem to be a bad position to hold and I’m pretty sure a lot of Tories, LDs, Greens etc feel the same way.

But others haven’t demonstrated it on video for £98, have they? You can think it, but doesn’t someone proving it mean minus more than 1?
And what about that £98? Don’t you think he has enough with his MP’s salary and his 11 other jobs? Doesn’t that part of it make you question either his financial management skills if he needs the money or his greed if he doesn’t?

Yeah - my feelings watching Watkins being bigged up are obviously not common ones - it was disgust, pretty deep disgust and repugnance.
My feelings hearing a leader of a political party saying they were tricked for less than a ton are obviously not so common either - I felt despair that the intellectual capacity I might expect from even an average adult, not a potential PM, was severely lacking alongside why is an MP grifting like this and can I trust them to use my taxes, even on policies I don’t agree with, or will they simply siphon them off for personal gain.
What ‘feelings’ and ‘emotions’ are outweighing feelings on this matter? Or is it just a case of this matter doesn’t matter - meh? If so how/why doesn’t it?

I’ll bite. Many people wouldn’t be voting for NF, rather they would be voting for change… and see the need for change as more important than the man leading the party promising to deliver it. The thinking goes: “So what if he’s a sleazeball if he delivers the change Britain needs!”

You may not like that change, or not believe they will deliver the change they claim to, but that’s another point entirely.

That’s fair enough as an explanation @Pigeonpoodle but doesn’t the greed and stupidity make those people wonder, even a little bit, whether he’s capable of doing anything constructive?

No, but I don't think Starmer, Raynor, Reeves, Johnson, Sunak, Blair, Brown, Cameron, Corbyn, etc were fit for high office either. We've had a succession of incompetent/rogue/conmen senior ministers/leaders for 2-3 decades. When we get rid of one, they're just replaced with another equally useless/incompetent. We really need to "drain the swamp" in Westminster.

I'm not really suggesting anything other than for the same reasons as Brexit, I think that Reform have a very good chance of winning the next GE. If they make a pact with the Tories, it'll be a done deal.

Whatever
People have just had enough of immigration especially illegal
That will be the biggest issue at the next election
I have always voted Labour
They have totally fksd the economy
Increased cost of living
Increased unemployment
Increased taxes
Done zip about migration
So I will give reform a try

Cheers, I grasp the point.
I don’t know that even Farage would agree though as he is so much the face of Reform - and knows it is his face getting the interest and the ratings essentially.
So you think people actually wouldn’t see this the same, but see the ‘party’ offering change not the leader?

I understand that people want change and that they feel let down by the two main parties. But surely this video coupled with Reform increasingly becoming the Tory party mark 2 is going to make people question exactly what change Farage is offering?

Reform's support is already slipping in the polls. I think a lot of supporters who were looking to Farage for change might end up not voting at all.

Mori says a clear reform majority

Yes it probably does… but the need for “change” is too important to let the foibles of politicians get in the way. The thinking goes thus: “who cares if he made an idiotic and embarrassing post if he can fix the country!”

Whether he can fix the country is a different matter entirely. The same reasoning is why so many people voted Trump, despite the fact he’s an odious individual.