Reform has their first MP

[HundredAcreOwl]

Just that. What do you think?

Absolutely this with bells on!

@BiscuitsForever

Oh me too!

Not sure it's what the reform voters in the FoD were aiming for though

@Sarah28x

Not just the UK either - the same thing is happening in Netherlands, Germany and France.

Ansolutely, it’s shocking. I am actually genuinely intrigued those who voted for reform what was your reasoning behind it?

It extremely sad that people voted for them and these consistencies have outed themselves as racist, xenophobic, sexist places to be avoided at all costs...

But the one good thing is that MP's finances and what they say come under great scrutiny and I wonder how many of this newly elected clowns will fall on their swords rather quickly because of that.

Well said.

I'm torn on this really. Probably true.

Well, I hope Farage is a good MP and supports the many issues facing the people of Clacton - the infrastructure, education gap, housing, poverty, jobs, etc. I know he’ll want to exert his energy and influence to improve things for his constituents.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, only kidding. Nigel couldn’t give a fuck about the people of Clacton.

Totally agree.

He made a total arse of himself in all of the interviews I was unfortunate to hear, just blustering and bullish with nothing positive to say and clearly hadn’t thought through any of the policies beyond the headlines.

I feel people voted for him because he’s another Boris Johnson type figure who is a ‘character’ and ‘says it like it is’ but in reality he’s just in it for himself. He’s going to be pissed off that he won’t be able to go and suck up to Trump in the USA.

Has Laura been looking so sour all night? I've been watching only for an hour and not a glimpse of a smile.

Oops, wrong thread.

Great, the guy who thinks food banks are a brilliant scheme and that London has been taken over by “Islamists”. Hopefully only a matter of time before he says something too racist, homophobic or misogynistic even for his own party (company) to justify publicly and there will be a by election.

Absolutely this.

it's a toxic combination of the mess the Tories have made and the populist nature of Farage's campaign.

Absolutely agree with you

No surprise.

I think most of us don't have a problem with democracy. I do have a problem with so many people genuinely believing Reform is worth their vote. That says so many things that aren't good.

Yes, it will be interesting to see if he turns up and does the work.

And whether he copes with sustained scrutiny rather than turning up late and relying on soundbites.

It will also be interesting to see how the four Reform MPs work together, and handle disagreements between themselves - because there is no party mechanism to resolve them (and disagreements are inevitable, that's only human)

It looks like they're only going to get about a third of the seats predicted for them, which is a relief.

Thing is, bar Great Yarmouth, the only Reform people elected so far are the ones who are on the telly/recognition factor, names already known. To me, that suggests people voted for Tice, Anderson, and Farage rather than Reform - the party didn't have the broader appeal in the end for unknowns to break through - that's encouraging.

Reform got 14.3% of the votes, truly worrying over 4m votes.

All the focus on othering humans rather than focusing on growing the economy sustainably.

I really do hope labour brings about the economic growth they promised as well reducing the levels of poverty.

Farridge said weeks ago that the downside to winning would be having to spend time in Clacton.

It extremely sad that people voted for them and these consistencies have outed themselves as racist, xenophobic, sexist places to be avoided at all costs

All four places have been avoided by anyone who can, for decades.

@cardibach the picture is very very different in 2024 to 2019, anyone can see that.

This will now be the challenge for Labour. This is not the same victory that Tony Blair enjoyed. There's a discontent with politics in the UK and while KS has the seats, he doesn't have an overwhelming popular endorsement- Labour vote share barely moving since 2019 and a low turnout.

His fiscal promises on tax have him a corner that means economic growth is the only way to improve public services. It's not an easy job for anyone.

Labour got 9.6 million votes, Reform 4 million, that is quite scary. At least the 4 million votes didn’t result in the same proportion of MPs that Labour votes did

Maybe somebody sniggled at him.

While I understand your sentiment, and is good that they don't have that many seats from my petspective, its not great from a democracy perspective is it. It just widens the disconnect between the public and the politicans, who don't address the issues that matter to people. That got us brexit, and its getting France into a similar mess. No matter what side of the political spectrum you are on, you have to admit this is a concern