To think the main Mumsnet demographic are out of touch politically

[Veiledveritas]

Reform.are smashing the polls yet any Reform voter is despised and ridiculed on here.

Reform are doing well mainly because of one issue that impacts everyone to a greater or lesser extent.

Successive governments could have sorted this out but chose to ignore or fiddle around the edges.

What does that mean?

Neither of those things are to do with profits...

It started with Brexit (dare I say it) and political discourse has been in the gutter since.

Russian interference.
Including Reform

It's scary how many anti-democracy posts there are on this thread. People have voted as they often do, in their own perceived best interest. You might not be able to get your head around how Reform's policies will deliver better outcomes for them but they are undoubtedly best placed to understand what matters most to them and to assess candidates and manifestos against this.

To call Reform voters stupid, short sighted and blinded by hatred just highlights how little you understand them. There is a huge difference between education and intelligence. It also stands to reason that different levels of education are linked to different socio economic groups who will experience life very differently and naturally have different priorities. This isn't a sign that they are stupid.

Racism?

Broadly agree although for those of us left of the Tories it makes sense to vote Labour if your constituency candidate goes against the party line on this. I am lucky enough for this to be the case in both my Westminster and Holyrood constituencies.

That's how populism works. It's crafted to be popular.

This doesn't mean Mumsnet is out of touch politically. Not least because there are plenty of Reform supporters on here.

It means that there are some people here who are intelligent enough not to be seduced in by the craven lies of populist nationalist narratives.

Yes, gloves off. Reform voters are as thick as a boxing day turd, gullible and economically illiterate. Times are hard and they want to believe there are easy answers to incredibly complex problems, and that it's possible to undo globalism and screw the rest of the world.

Do you believe we have true democracy in the UK?

IMO Reform voters are turkeys voting for Christmas and out of touch politically, and with any kind of reality of what is going to happen if Reform are elected in their are or as a government. And it is them who will be the worst affected by it. I have much deeper pockets and will be fine, whatever.

Which bit are you having difficulty with?

This, this and this again.

Many of the voters switching would have voted for Labour in 2024, so that description applies to Labour too.

I don't think Reform will actually fix immigration either. The Tories ran a hard line on it whilst immigration ran to huge levels. Now those Tories are with Reform.

Farage and the Tories both court the hedge fund and big landlord classes that basically run the country now and much of its infrastructure. When you look at the companies that run care homes for instance there is no way they want less immigration. They are getting a non stop supply of cheap labour.

The same with companies like Blackstone buying up huge chunks of properties, companies like Serco making huge amounts of money from asylum contracts. You just have to follow the money with immigration to see that there are some people making ridiculous money out of it. And that's why it's been allowed. Farage and his ex Tories are bedfellows with all of these companies.

When the Tories were spouting off about it I used to wonder why it remained so high, because it's suits certain people. Farage is no different, I can't believe people are duped by him.

You don't necessarily change your allegiance when the going gets tough. Farage can win as many seats as he wants but in my eyes he'll always be a lazy lying grifter. I base that on everything he's done in politics. And the Right Wing press will always have too much power. Take Starmer and the suits, glasses and football tickets vs 5m in crypto from someone who lives in Thailand.

because people who are voting reform are telling everyone they haven't bothered to do one of two things.. or possibly both.

1. to research the Reform financial policy as it stands, which if you get down into the nitty gritty, isn't even vaguely costed, is pie in the sky, and will bankrupt the country by tanking the economy and putting us into worse debt, the information on that is FREELY available.
2. Research the people they're voting for, their personal and political beliefs.. which range from racist to sexist, to plain dangerous.

Did you know that roughly 10% of the Reform councillors that were elected last round have been suspended, banned, defected or put in prision (That one for threatening to beat his wife, lock her in the boot of her car and set it on fire)

These people are here to make a statement, not to make any effective change and they have NO CLUE how to run a country economy.

You're not voting to better the country, you're voting to throw us to the wolves and put us in a worse financial mess than we are now.

A vote for Reform is like waving a big banner saying you don't actually care about women, children, the elderly, the sick & disabled or even the working man.. you just want to stick two fingers up at Starmer.. and i'm sorry, but the country is worth more than being annoyed at the current leader.

It’s not anti-democracy, it’s an opinion. Presumably you understand the difference?

Teach people that we need to critically evaluate everything, not just take at face value? I'm not sure how you do that, but it's a start. Do we need to pitch that continual learning is for everyone, that there is always more to find out and that it's not just for elites? Something needs to counteract the "we've had enough of experts" narrative.

But if you can't learn from the Brexit lies and subsequent debacle, if you can't learn from everything Reform has effed up when they do win a seat, if you can't learn from Farage's open corruption and if you can't learn from what's happening under Trump, what are you other than those things?

All of it.

IMHO, MN has been historically more left-leaning than the rest of the UK due to various socio-economic factors. But this has changed over the last few months, in line with the rest of the country.

But many of these active left-leaning posters cannot comprehend or accept they are losing the moral and political superiority. So, they are going through the 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Denial and anger are in full swing. It is not a good look to win support or elections, but it's the level they're at.

I think it was more of a protest vote really, they won all but 1 seat up for grabs in my town (I didn't vote fyi). I think people are just fed up, we have big issues with a huge influx of immigrants the past few years, people don't feel safe anymore (and they aren't!!). They have ruined what was a lovely town shipping in these people by the boat load. I don't feel safe in broad daylight in our town now. It's this that people are protesting about, at least in our area anyway.

I wouldn't personally vote reform as their policies really aren't great, less funding for the NHS, rolling back equality/human rights protections, reduced worker protections/regulation, reducing disability benefits (some people are genuinely disabled, it's a step backwards!), reducing public spending generally...

I was talking about the voters. Not the party. People voted for change. Things ARE changing.

But not fast enough.

Because the voters are thick. It isn't anti-democratic to say that. It just means that democracy allows thick people a voice, as it should.

Because the checks and balances are still trying to catch up with the social media revolution.

I took that to be a comment on how the big tech companies are raking in gazillions in unfair profit, a situation that the poster believes will be rectified when the 'checks and balances' catch up with the internet age (not to mention how these companies operate across national boundaries).

I am not holding my breath on that one.

But what else do you call someone who refuses to listen to evidence or reason?

Take Reform's energy policy for example, most of their supporters I've spoken to about this claim to like reform because they'll stop "net stupid zero" and lower our bills. Yet, anyone with even a basic understanding of how consumer energy pricing works knows that granting private companies the right to extract more oil & gas, at an unspecified point in time, to sell on an internationally traded market, will have absolutely zero bearing on how much you or I pay to switch on our lights or heating. And that the only way to reducing bills is to invest in alternative sources of energy, decouple electricity prices from the price of gas, electrify the nation and, if you really want to see an impact, nationalise or part-nationalise the energy sector.

But because reform are good at marketing and creating catchy slogans that conform to their voters bias (Renewables = green, green = left, left = bad) they ignore reality in favour feeling. And it's the same with immigration, crime, tax, etc., etc. Very few, if any, of Reform's policies/solutions to our problems will benefit the average person in the UK if implemented.