Unfriending right wing friends

[nondrinker1985]

One of my school mum friends of around 10 years has started sharing loads of Restore Britain/Rupert Lowe posts.

I’m actually really shocked as she’s an Irish immigrant herself.

I’ve unfriended her which is a shame as day to day she’s ok. Also another mum who has been liking and commenting on the Restore Britain posts, they’ll probably tell me they’re not racist but I can’t be arsed calling them out.

I can see what you're saying, but I think the fact that they are even talking about doing this sends a very clear message about the sort of government they aspire to, namely 'we are going to do exactly what we like and you can't stop us'. A bit like Farage's good old matey Donald Trump, in fact. And do we really want to go the way the US is going at the moment?

That is true. But the two main parties that have been in power for most of the last century have failed and perhaps we need something new? The unknown scares people of course.

Yes, couldn’t agree more.

But they havent said they are going to bring back torture. As I understand it they want to leave the ECHR (as do the Conservatives) for a very specific reason being that it is being misused to prevent the UK controlling its borders. Ideally the ECHR is reformed rather than we leave and there are encouraging signs from other European countries that they agree with that too. But if it can't be reformed, we will just go back to the situation before the Human Rights Act and then work out what is appropriate now for the country.

The ECHR recognises its losing ground with some EU countries, after about six iirc wrote to put pressure on for change. There is a tension between voters and the legal stronghold.

Also there are countries at the top of the human rights table not subject to those restrictions (ie not in Europe), the electorate tend to just vote for the changes they want.

That's exactly my fear - people are going to think a change has to be better than we've got now, when it could be out of the frying pan into the fire. Of course I could be wrong, but given some of the rhetoric that's being peddled, plus the personalities involved, plus the fact (if MN is anything to go by) that the British people are already turning against each other and, in my view, beginning to persecute the weakest in society... it just seems like a potential tinder box.

What worries me about that is that we as a nation wouldn't get a say... only those up top.

I think we have a potential tinder box already with the destablisation of the country due to mass unintergrated immigration combined with social media. And a government that doesnt seem to be on the side of UK citizens. So we definitely need a change from the current situation.

Thats how democracy works unless we have a referendum on each issue.

Yes, I agree. Just look at previously peaceful Lebanon. Beautiful place, sadly now very damaged and divided.

This is partly what I feel is missing from our politics, tbh - obviously it's not realistic to have a referendum on every issue, but I do feel some situations demand it, and Brexit aside it just never happens. In that situation it's all too easy for potential dictators to take hold.

But they havent so far.

Is the problem you just don't like Reform's policies? What makes you think they would be "dictators"? Don't you think the current government are showing fat more worrying authoritarian tendencies? I do. Im really worried. The latest thing is they have been going after journalists who have uncovered something dodgy about them.

I’m worried about Reform’s proposed policies, especially when they’re paired with a character like Farage. In places their manifesto is worded in such vague terms that I don’t think we can be sure they wouldn’t pull something unexpected if they got in, and then turn round and say ‘well, we never said we wouldn’t do that.’ I think it’s really important to consider the personalities involved in politics as well as what they profess to stand for.

Having said that, I’m not going to sit here and defend Starmer’s govt either - I’m thoroughly disillusioned with Labour at the moment. I don’t think we have any good options open to us at the moment, tbh. I wouldn’t feel right about abstaining if there was a general election any time soon, but at the same time I can’t say I’d be happy to endorse any of the available options.

I think it's rare for anybody to say they will vote Reform because they know the pile on will start. I would have thought that's a fundamental problem in itself. If one's own voting preference is piled on per se, I think there's bigger problems afoot. Let's hope those pile on bullies don't have the nerve to use fascism as their weaponry. Unfortunately, yes they DO have the audacity.

Edited twice for typos

Yes, they aren’t fascist authoritarians at all, are they? Except James Orr is an authoritarian Nazi sympathiser, If all else wasn’t enough

What does "persecuting the weakest in society" mean in this sentence?

All these new parties on the Right are just symptomatic of the problems in our country today. The current trajectory is that one of those parties will form a new government in 2029 but there's a LOT of water to flow under the bridge as yet and who knows what else will happen as the world's very volatile right now.

Personally I don't want to see the Labour party in again (and I voted for them), nor do I want to see the Tories nor Reform. I am currently tentatively in favour of Advance but they may merge with Restore. Not sure how I feel about that. I may end up not voting at all but that's a long way off.

I'm not going to 'unfriend' people for supporting one of those parties, or any party, really, as I can't blame people for feeling as they do about current events.

It's this kind of thing that's making people vote Reform. Sadly this isn't an old story. It's yet another one to add to the list.

The rapist was apparently laughing in the video he filmed whilst raping the child, and he claimed that he didn't actually want to take the video but the girl 'had insisted' - after already having seduced him.

But he was probs just an innocent victim fleeing war and we're terrible racists for speaking badly of him. He was probs scouting the way to bring his wife and kids over at a later date.

Migrant in UK town just six weeks before being accused of raping 12-year-old girl

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/migrant-in-uk-town-just-six-weeks-before-being-accused-of-raping-12-year-old-girl/ar-AA1VB69i?ocid=00000000&apiversion=v2&domshim=1&noservercache=1&noservertelemetry=1&batchservertelemetry=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1

I mean, when you have places like Iraq recently lowering the legal age of marriage to nine years old it's not hard to see why the sexualisation of children might be more common. It's not the same as the garden variety paedophilia we have over here. In many Islamic countries that 12yo girl in my last post could've been married for several years already. Possibly to a 50yo bloke.

There were quite a few sexual assaults of underage girls at that music festival in Stockholm too. Again, a group of asylum seekers. I doubt anybody on here would defend this culture and welcome these men had it been their own daughter.

Data from Sweden and Denmark is shocking and how much higher crimes from asylum seekers are.

The vitriol towards those with disabilities who are genuinely unable to work, primarily. You've only got to look at any MN thread about PIP to see it.

I hear you, but a lot of us are genuinely very concerned by the prospect of a future under Reform, so temperatures on politics threads are going to be running higher than usual atm.

Ok. I don't tend to go into to those threads but I imagine there are many people like myself who know those who claim disability benefits who are perfectly capable of working and resent their brand new cars. This does serious harm to those who genuinely do need support.

Get used to the temperature running high, this will look positively 'cool' in a couple of years if tensions continue.

The problem is that nobody responsible is willing or able to tackle migration and so it is giving irresponsible people the opportunity to benefit from this demand.

Though this is slightly derailing the thread: PIP is NOT an out-of-work benefit, and many people who claim it DO work.