AIBU to think Reform councillors don’t know what they’re doing?

[Wouldcou]

Reform councillor saying that she doesn’t understand the process. This is the reality of what people voted for.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRnRo3eg/

Also see the amount of Reform Councillors who have quit or defected.

Reform UK has shed 22 councillors and counting in the two weeks since the local council elections on 7 May, triggering a series of costly by-elections.

While Reform won over 1,400 seats in the recent local council elections, Nigel Farage’s party is also shelling councillors to defections, suspensions and lost seats.

Stuart Prior, who was elected as a Reform UK councillor for Essex County Council and for Rochford District Council resigned on Monday 11 May, just days after winning these council seats.

Before the elections, it was revealed that Prior had shared racist posts on social media referring to white people as “the master race” and suggesting white people have “larger brains”.

Less than a week after being elected, Glenn Gibbins, a Reform councillor on Sunderland City Council was also suspended for posting racist comments Gibbons said that the Nigerian population in Sunderland should be melted down to “fill in potholes”.

On the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme on 10 May, Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, was asked if he was happy for someone with these views to represent Reform.

Tice refused to condemn Gibbins’ comments and instead accused the media of “smearing” and “sneering” against Reform.
Ben Rowe, who was recently elected to Plymouth City Council has also been suspended for anti-Islam and antisemitic posts.

The posts were unearthed before the local elections, prompting Reform to say it was investigating the claims.

Another Reform councillor, Barry Martin, who said that the job of a councillor was “so dull and boring” resigned just a year after taking his seat.

Reform Party UK Exposed has published the full list of Reform councillor departures so far:
Lost seats on 7 May

• Mike Morris
• Clarence Mitchell
• Alan Cook
• Mark Shooter
• Kira Gabbert

Resigned

• Daniel Devaney
• Stuart Prior
• Jay Cooper
• Barry Martin
• Stephen Mousdell
• Andrew Harrison
• Kenny Hope
• Danielle Cavanagh

Defected

• Nick Farmer
• Ashley Monk
• Jo Monk
• Matthew Jones

Suspended

• Ben Rowe
• Glenn Gibbins
• Paul Heyward
• Nathaniel Menday
• Laura Newham

Dr David Bull, Reform’s former party chair has also been replaced by Lee Anderson, the Reform MP for Ashfield. In a post announcing Bull’s departure on Facebook, Reform said it was “delighted” that Anderson has become the party’s new chair, adding: “David Bull has overseen unprecedented growth in his time as Chairman and will still remain heavily involved in the party”.

JFC

🙇🏻‍♀️

It’s across the board isn’t it, the quality of people willing to go into politics is a real problem.

I hope lots of people read this.

im not sure about AB. I'm concerned he's too much if a 'local player' not ' U.K.'

i wouldn't vote reform anyway, but that candidate. Fuck me. I just forwarded it to my newly converted Reform voting neighbour & he replied 'don't believe everything you read'
🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

Birmingham and other councils got into a mess pre reform. We've got dummies standing who don't understand a balance sheet. Our councils are too big many having merged similar to NHS trusts. They can't think beyond five zeros.

They sign into meetings remotely from the comfort of their homes. Sat in a comfy armchair I've seen ours doze off.

Check your council meetings, who attended, apologies, no shows, remote sign ins. Listen on their podcasts. Read the minutes.

If you can't be arsed to do the above, stop whining.

The sad thing about that video from Kirklees council was that some people were saying it wasn't an issue and that they were "proud to see a normal person there and that they couldn't possibly be expected to know any of what they said they didn't understand". The mind boggles.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8p4xgn0mvo
Another one possibly on the way out...

Across the board my arse.

Stop trying to minimise the incompetence of Reform by suggesting they are all the same. It's not true and it makes you look like a fool

So are you saying that unless people do all the above, they can't complain about the performance of local government?

Would you say the same about national government too? Check all votes and debates, who attended, who voted how etc. Read Hansard. No whining if you don't?

In reality, most people don't have time to do all that.

This is the problem - they will come out with the "fake news" Trump mantra. If you told them the earth was round they would say the same thing.

I think it will be very difficult to get people who have been open about their support for Reform to back down from their position even in the light of evidence of their appalling representatives.
Because some will be die hard right, who think stopping any government left of hard right is more important than the quality of their own.
Others, the more mainstream, know on a level that supporting Reform is a bit...embarrassing...? because of its stereotype associations with low intelligence, racism, misogyny etc. So they will often take up a very defensive stance.
Their justifications will be heavy on whats wrong with other parties rather than what's desirable about Reform. So when confronted with evidence that Reform are actually worse, well, that's even more embarrassing, isn't it? Because they've held them up as better than what we have, and feel foolish to have been proved wrong. So, what to do? Double down and deny.
The only hope is that this is just a public face saving stance and when it comes to the privacy of the ballot, they'll quietly make a more sensible decision.

Reform are so unready for government that should they gain a majority in a general election it would be an absolute shambles. They also say they want to sack all the very experienced senior civil servants, who know what they are doing but portrayed as the devil, and bring in "businessmen". What really riles me is the way the media attacks Labour for every minor misdemeanour (like accepting free sunglasses, which were declared) while Farage's £5m secret bung from a foreign crypto benefactor is barely commented on. Despite all the excuses he keeps coming out with about what it was for. At least it is being investigated now.

Of course they don’t, anyone who expected anything different is delusional.

The full video is worse - https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYkg4AGjK3O

They were voting against motions they'd proposed!

Don't be so naive.

I don't blame reform councillors, I blame the idiots that voted for them. Take a look at present day America. That's what you will get with reform. A self indulgent, corrupt narcissist.

@TooBigForMyBoots You are apparently unable to recognise a quote even when it is explained to you.

@TemperanceWest How do you define "working class"? You may identify as that but do the working class think you are?

Even if you correctly identify yourself what makes you believe that every member of the working class has to think the same way you do. You certainly are not listening to any other point of view.

Whether you personally bully people of not you are supporting a party that does just that - and celebrates it.

Even if you correctly identify yourself what makes you believe that every member of the working class has to think the same way you do. You certainly are not listening to any other point of view

I did not say that every member of the working class thinks as I do. It was you who lumped all the working class together when you said You dont understand the working class at all. There are right wing w/c people, there are left wing w/c people, there are centrist w/c people.

Whether you personally bully people of not you are supporting a party that does just that - and celebrates it

Which party do I support? I don't think I have said.

Which party is bullying whom?

@TemperanceWest You claim that because you are "working class" you understand the working class. But you dont understand why more of them are voting for reform - so you dont.

No you havent said which party you support - but there are several that are bullying people and you want people to vote for one of them.

Not supporting Reform is not the same as not having an understanding of why some people, whatever their class, do.

You're claiming to understand the working class as well - with the difference that you think they are a monolithic bloc of people who all think the same way, whereas @TemperanceWest is able to see the nuances and the complexity.

Ha, ha. No I dont believe they all think the same way - but I understand why an increasing number voted for reform. The comments on this thread are designed to do just that. I'd think the majority of posters here were trying to boost support for Reform if I didnt have RL friends who genuinely think they are superior intellects while acting in this way.

I don't think an of us here who are commenting on the Kirklees situation think they have superior intellects. I think we just require a little bit of basic effort, preparation and competence. If you believe that is too much to ask of elected officials, then I don't know what to say to you.

Labour haven't been great in Kirklees:

July 2023
Kirklees councillor [Labour] jailed for trying to dodge speeding fine.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-66122776

Nov 2023
Kirklees councillor suspended from Labour over antisemitic content claim.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-67412822

May 2024
fifth Labour member on Kirklees Council to quit the party in 2024

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-69002985