So much talk about Reform, are people panicking?

[equisetum]

All across the boards people appear to be scared of just how popular they are.
If it's not panic, then why the desperation to tell anyone voting for them, that they are all racists?
Reform voters BTW, just very interested that no other parry is having such animated discussions. If they weren't becoming so popular, nobody would be talking about it.

@Goldenbear - do you know what A level results Farage got and why he didn’t go to university?
I would love to know.

Sorry is this rhetorical?

I don’t actually know, I know he didn’t got to uni but that doesn’t mean he didn’t get the results needed necessarily.

It isn’t rhetorical. I just wondered if anyone knew whether he did well or not in his A levels, and also why he didn’t go to university, when most boys finishing at Dulwich College would have gone to university.
So the school and job represent establishment, but not going to uni with that background isn’t establishment.
Farage lives in Bromley somewhere and grew up there too in Farnborough. This is one of the Tory strong holds, anti ULEZ too.

This is nonsense. Brexit was a vote to leave the EU, it was a simple binary choice, and you got it, we left.

All the other stuff you say wasn't 'delivered' has nowt to do with the price of bread, when I went into the booth their was 2 choices, IN or OUT, nothing else.

It still amazes me , here we are in 2024 and while most remainers have moved on, many like Farage still bang on about we haven't got the proper Brexit or some other claptrap.

I don’t know, yes it is unusual I suppose. Mind you, some rich upper middle class upper class kids don’t all go to uni as money isn’t an issue if you have connections which he clearly did to by pass most educational expectations for a City Trader job.

@Goldenbear - Farage’s father was an alcoholic. He was definitely not born upper middle, far from it. More like lower middle class Bromley. That’s the whole point. So he is good at talking to the white working classes. It’s exactly what Bromley represents. It’s important we understand that. It’s the whole anti Ulez thing on speed.

The establishment to me is the academic leftie Woke establishment aka the champagne socialists in Islington. That is what Farage is working against.
It’s quite distinct from the lower c conservative upper middle classes that went to the big public schools and quite tolerate the Left thinking, as long as they don’t come for their agricultural estates. Mainly because they value heritage.

I think it’s quite important to distinguish.

Bromley is going Labour. Farage isn’t even welcome in his own backyard.

And I think you might be surprised @Araminta1003 as to the demography of Bromley. It is changing. It is more racially mixed and “yuppy” as house prices in central London push families out to buy suburban homes. Farage is not representing it well and the area voted to Remain. So he’s never been popular around the area, though he would like to claim so.

People are alarmed because

1: We have seen what happens in the US when an absolute bigot is in charge
2: Its fucking scary to be a minority and see increasing popularity for a party that hates you

Sorry but maybe in your world Dulwich College is not for the elite but not in mine. I am a lot younger than Farage but my school life as a 90s teen was in London and it was akin to Grange Hill and occupied by people like the Characters in People Just Do Nothing! Dulwich isn’t too far from my London home and it was definitely known as a posho school!

You can be an Alcoholic and come from any social class so I don’t know what you are arguing there.

So his Father was a stockbroker a long time ago, hardly a brick layer is it! Equally, the Establishment is not Champagne Socialists, the term was coined in the 1950s and it means those in charge via elite networks formed at places like school, like Dulwich College!

I don't think many in the Red Wall in the North would find the background araminta describes to be typical white working class

Exactly, it is so funny when I think of the London school I went to- he isn’t exactly a typical geezer!

Yeah, Farage’s dad is called Guy Justus Oscar Farage. I doubt he was a labourer. He sounds more like one of Rees-Mogg’s kids.

😂 such a working class name!

The surname Farage - it’s like “garage” - as in, is it gaa-raaj or gaa-ridge? Which one is it actually?

Say what you like but no properly posh person in that era would have called their son “Nigel Paul”. And the mom is called Barbara.
Lower middle at best, in my humble opinion.

In fact, I do not understand the current competition for being working class. It’s a bit like my DS who is desperate to pass as a Roadman.

Rachel Reeves and her sis, working class, my arse. As middle as they get and parents are teachers. Also Bromley girls.
Nig went to Dulwich College, Reeves to Cator Park. The only difference is the school.

So do you lot really believe class is defined by the school a kid attends between 11-18 rather than the family’s class/general level of education at home?

what about Nigel Havers (the actor) he seems pretty posho, I know a couple of RP Nigels from work in the past.

If Nigel Farage is 60 his parents must have been young in the 1950s, do I think a person from a working class background in the southeast would be stockbroker, no I don’t. He failed at it and then went into antiques, then his friends helped him get a job back on the trading floor. Do I think working class people had those kind of connections back then - no, not really!

class is not defined by school now for a 60 year old, yes, I think it was.

It doesn’t really matter if he was just honest but stop pretending to be something you are not. Why not just accept that you had a pretty privileged upbringing by all accounts.

Keir is hardly working class either. Did he mention his dad was a tool maker.

He is from Reigate isn’t he so working class Parents from Surrey? Just because he isn’t anymore, not quite the same as attending Dulwich College with a Dad who was a Stockbroker. Is Keir pretending he is anything other than he is - I don’t think so whereas the London fella down the pub, say what I mean and mean what I say act Nige has going on is just a pretence!

The name Keir. It's pompous, as was Jeremy.

Personally I think Keir has had elocution lessons to speak nasally and not sound posh. I quite like him but his voice is irritating.

Well, Id like to know too. Surely this info should be easy to acquire.

Keir was named after a famous politician deliberately I thought. So the parents wanted him to be political from the start.

It’s a Gaelic name apparently - maybe his parents had some connection? How is it pompous? Equally, it’s not Nigel’s name than makes him privileged it’s his school and background. None of which would matter if he didn’t try to hide it! He’s literally like Toad of Toad Hall in Wind in the Willows but rush to pretend he is more like Danny Dyer.

Well can you find it out? I mean why are you asking me?