Reform party seems to be ahead in my area.

[Moier]

Any of you voting Reform?
My area was always labour..( I've never voted labour).. but according to what I'm reading.. it's surprisingly gone the other way.
Will have to wait and see.
Did him being in I'm a Celebrity make him more popular..or is the extreme right the way to go?

Positive discrimination doesn’t mean you get a shoe in as a person with a protected characteristic- it means if two candidates come neck and neck, the white male will miss out, because white men are massively over represented in lots of areas, but especially top jobs. As a woman, I feel that this is something I want to continue. It’s still hard and we still get paid less for the same work. I imagine it’s the same for people of colour. Until we have true equality I’m happy to keep
it.

@Validus I would add to that, that the media needs to tell their interviewers to shut up and allow long form answers. Then think about the answer and ask proper follow up, open questions (rather than the antagonist, ‘gotcha’ statements they are now prone to). Most interviews these days seem to just be the interviewer interrupting and then pushing their own views.

I agree completely. The standard of the ‘debates’ has been an embarrassment.

@Noddedoffagain the thing is - I don’t think there’s ever a situation where they are neck and neck. Ever. There’s too much variability in humans.

There’s also the problem that employers misunderstand the concept and apply it as ‘hire the woman’ even if the man is better. Which does happen (am a lawyer, have literally seen this occur and not one off).

But that’s fine. You have a view. So do I. I would like the EA to be redone to make it better. You may also wish to rejig it. I’m sure that reasoned discussIon in Parliament, the people paid to do this could teach a compromise position that works.

How can they demand the governing party address these issues if they have no credible plan to do so themselves? Just shouting about how much you hate things with no viable solutions to suggest to your perceived problems is pointless and dishonest.

And I'm afraid that Reform's economic proposals are far more delusional than those of the other parties, which is saying something! Being overly optimistic is one thing, deliberately deceiving people is another. And for you to state that you think their voters don't care that their proposed policy solutions are not realistic or remotely viable rather proves the point made in my earlier comment.

Look if a private company hires a person to tick an equalities box rather than the best candidate that's their business. I'm only concerned if it's a public service that we're all paying for.

In our business I interviewed regularly. It's a male dominated industry heavy construction equipment. She set off alarm bells at interview with an aggressive vibe. I chose someone else.

A year later there she was in the local rag suing the council who hired her for sex discrimination. She won a five figure sum.

Jakers we dodged a bullet 🙈

I will be voting Reform as will members of my family

Why? And have you seen the video shared above of Farages key moments?

I guess it depends on what you mean by ‘better’. I’m not saying you have done this in your post, but I have seen again and again, white men assuming they are better, promoting themselves as better, talking as if there is certainty when there isn’t and actually being a bit shit. Whilst women humbly and quietly get on with the job, hold onto complexity and a ‘safe uncertain’ position (in my profession there is no clear right and wrong so similar to law in that sense) and doing a damn good job but not crowing about it - more likely picking holes on their own work and then working hard to do even better next time. I’ve seen this loads of times in my 30 year career.

Men are often much better at self promotion rather than being better at the job per se IME.

@Noddedoffagain I wonder sometimes if traditional environments choose macho, self-promoting men over hard working and diligent women. Brining in monitoring starts to mean that the promotion goes to macho, self-promoting women over hard working and diligent women

Their immigration solutions are unworkable- but very focussed on the excessive restriction of visas for legal migrants, and the turning back of what the rest of the world would call asylum seekers. I’m not convinced U.K. workers will fill the gaps of working visas, or that universities will survive without international students. I’m not convinced the plan for small boats would work either, as France won’t ’take them back’ and alternate solutions are surely too horrific for the majority of the public to accept (I hope!). It does strike me that there are no plans for the actual illegal migrants such as those who don’t (or didn’t ) go home after a visa expired- more I imagine than enter on boats - of course we prefer to hate on the folk on the boats, as it’s an easy and visual dog whistle for some. Folk - again - are voting for a ‘vibe’ a vision of a happy 50s U.K. (that never was anyway) - would there be uproar if this ‘vibe’ didn’t happen? I expect it would be someone else’s fault though!
I am equally concerned about the NHS privatisation as it must be obvious that Farage would ultimately sell out to US insurance companies- he talks of EU models but they don’t run for profit (and don’t help his US mates either). We heard of Norway models pre referendum but that wasn’t going to happen and didn’t.
There are also other policies and members of the party (aka Ltd company) that are concerning.

I am interested in why people would vote for this? Happy to struggle with impact of immediate net zero migration, and probably particularly the healthcare model as that would impact nearly all the population adversely for sure? And are people voting as a protest and not expecting them to get in? If so what do you want out of the protest? Or are you Voting hoping they’ll become a bigger party? Voting hoping they’ll get in? Voting and looking forward to such policies being implemented? Expecting a better life for most of U.K. if such policies were put in place?

Obviously, Reform won’t be in Government this time, and for me I don’t want any of them in, continuing to stir up things, attract bigger names, become ‘mainstream’ etc because of the absolute horror show that would be unleashed in the U.K. if they got in or held too much sway in future parliaments in my opinion. But interested to discuss how and why Reform and their policies are expected to improve U.K. happiness and wellbeing.

Starmer does not hate women and girls. You have a comprehension problem there. He is a family man respecting his wife and mother, thoughtful about his kids including daughter unlike Bojo or Farage, who were using women.

So he looks after his family , medal time I think not.

He actually was very involved with thinking about violence towards women.

Hes been a big advocate for law change around violence towards women/domestic violence. He’s a better bet than Farage if it’s women’s rights you prioritise.

I wonder what Mrs Starmer who is Jewish and who is bringing up their children in the faith thought when her husband stood by the anti-semite Jeremy Corbyn and said he would make a great prime minister and watch as Jewish MPs such as Luciana Berger were abused and hounded out of the party.

I also wonder whether Victoria Starmer is ok with Keir being unable to define what is a woman and has produced a manifesto which erodes women’s rights and puts their safety at risk

But she didn't say he is a good role model. Your post is arrogant because it is all about your own feelings about Farage but you have dismissed what the poster said which was - why some voters get lured by politicians like Farage, and that it's important to listen to their concerns as well.

Sunak and Farage are not better. I also wonder what their partners think of their corrupt and self serving ways. Their partners actually benefited from that.

No one is saying he deserves a medal for that. I responded to a poster justifying reasons to vote for reform, saying Starmer hates women and girls.

Reform are predicted to win two seats only. Both have peculiarities. First, Clacton, where Farage is standing and which previously was held by Carswell who prior to that election defected from the Tories to Reform's previous incarnation UKIP. The other is Ashfield, the current incumbent defected from the Tories to Reform.

The better question is what happens next.

Reform could become the main challenger in a host of deindustrialised seats that Labour will win this time, ie, pick up the votes of people who are socially conservative but economically left-wing. Lots of those seats would have been Tory targets in previous elections, ie, ones they would need to win to govern.

If a Tory right-winger replaces Sunak they could court that vote (and Reform could even infiltrate the Tories) meaning making that party more socially conservative and economically centrist. But I agree with a pp who said if the Tories did that they'd shed votes.

The alternative is that the Tories move to the centre socially and economically, to try and win back Lab and LD votes. They would win this way but would leave a vacuum on the social and economic right for Reform to fill. That could be a trap for Reform.

I see a lot of what they used to call "astroturfing" fake social media posts about Reform but I don't think there's anywhere gullible enough to actually elect them.

You can see who the MRP polls predict to win in your constituency here:

inglesp.github.io/apogee/

To help vote out a Tory?

Reform are not ahead anywhere that I've seen. They've just got a lot of social media astroturfers. .

You can look up the aggregated MRP predictions for your constituency here:

inglesp.github.io/apogee/

Jakers this is interesting. We're predicted labour and the adjoining constituency.

I’ve no idea how much credence to give the polls. Where they agree they might just all be labouring under the same wrong assumptions.

All we can do is cast our one vote in our one constituency and hope we wake up in a better situation on Friday.