Why do people like reform?

[TheGoogleMum]

I haven't been keeping very up to date with politics. I usually vote Labour. I don't really understand the popularity of reform, could anyone explain it to me?
As far as I'm aware Farage doesn't actually do anything when he wins a seat somewhere so I'm not convinced they'll actually do anything? Is it just a protest vote that's gone a bit far?

Labour are having to deal with 14 years of tory austerity.
Change cannot and will not happen overnight.

Spot on ^

Absolutely spot on💯

Reform pumps out simple answers to highly complex issues. Simple sound bites resonate with people because they don’t take up too much brain power.

However, complex issues require complex solutions, not populist one liners. Let’s see how Reform performs when they have to run a council, with all the complexity that entails🙈

People will get what they voted for!

Labour too say things that resonate. My father is a toolmaker, smash the gangs, fastest growth in G7 (which we had and they stalled).

People just don’t see those as soundbites because they support Labour.

Pubs are a much-loved British institution, so it's not surprising that a political party version of all of the pub bores who 'reckon' what 'they' should do and have apparently simple answers to everything will gain traction.

A bit like the Monster Raving Looney Party - they knew they could say and promise pretty much any old thing and never have to deliver on it. The big difference, though, was that the MRLP weren't nasty - they were more like your kindly, good-natured but bumbling great uncle - and they did it with a jovial wink, knowing that they were never going to be serious contenders.

The big problem is that the two big main parties have done so much to leave so many people feeling betrayed, lied to and failed that they don't have much moral high ground either.

There was an episode of The Simpsons where the people of Springfield were so furious at the duplicity and incompetence of their incumbent politicians, so they were demanding 'someone else'. Homer came along, in the right place at the right time, and (not incorrectly!) declared that he was 'someone else' - so he got voted in on that basis, to great excitement and fanfare... before completely messing up bigtime not too far down the line.

They like racist liars, and believe them. I am in despair tbh.

Conservatives failed to control immigration for 14 years and labour don't appear to be doing as much as people had hoped.

Reform policies and Brexit sit, maybe unsurprisingly, in the same place. The details are lacking or impossible, and the benefits claimed are unlikely, but arguing against them gets you labelled elite, patronising, out of touch. Facts get beaten by feeling. Brexit tore our family apart because of this; thankfully Reform so far hasn’t been an issue.

I absolutely understand how unhappy a lot of people are. I get that people want to see quicker change. I get that Labour policies feel ineffective/making things worse. I don’t see any easy answers to pulling the country out of the current hole caused by austerity, Brexit, Covid. I think Rachel Reeves fiscal rules are wrong for us right now and more investment in public services would make an enormous difference to how people feel day to day. But that’s just my opinion.

But I do know that Reform can’t deliver what they promise, and that they are backed by people with a seriously vested interest in making very rich people richer. There’s a lot of racism in Reform but the party has attracted a lot of people who are not racist, and who feel their views are being minimised when this is mentioned, so it’s counterproductive at this point to talk about it.

Labour desperately needed some quick wins and so far they’re not materialising. I hope they can find something to demonstrate that they do see the pain points of people’s lives.

I agree wholeheartedly. I can see the total disillusionment with the Conservatives and Labour promised ‘Change’. I think expectation was high and Labour’s delivery has been very disappointing at best.

I thought pre GE Labour’s policies would prompt a rise in Reform. The smash the gangs one in particular as it wouldn’t work.

It seems to be going that way.

Because they like what Reform say more than what other parties say. You might as well ask why people like Labour - personally I'm baffled that anyone would vote for them.

Reform get a lot of air-time and never get asked any difficult questions. If they answered the following questions, they'd be sunk: what will Reform do to improve the NHS? how will Reform address inequality? what will Reform do to address the benefits bill?

Farage and Trump are extremely similar in how they respond to any sort of challenging question. They get angry at being asked, suggest that the journalist (or whoever is asking) has motives/allegiances hostile to them, and remove themselves from the interview as soon as possible. For all I can understand the appeal of Reform in many ways, I do struggle to see how anyone can see that sort of thing in action and think they want that person in charge of anything.

I think the answer is manifold.

a) People fall for the “Honest Nige” persona and fall for his BS in the same way that people fell for Trump. He’s not a politician, he’s a man of the people, etc etc

b) On the face of it, many of Reform’s policies seem attractive. I am very much not a Reform voter but I believe that you shouldn’t judge by sensationalist headlines so I read their manifesto. On the face of it, a lot sounds attractive (not all, but a lot). The fact that it’s not economically viable and there are no answers on how much of it will be achieved is irrelevant. People who like Reform enough to read their manifesto will like what they read.

c) People aren’t politically engaged. They just want someone to promise them that they’ll make it all better. See point a).

d) All of the other parties are shit. The Tories are a corrupt mess, Labour is trying to appeal to everyone and letting down their core demographic in the process, and LibDems and the Greens still don’t seem to be clear what a woman is.

e) And I’m sorry but for many, yes it is immigration. Lots of people don’t know if they’re angry about refugees or immigrants, and don’t know the difference. They just know they don’t like People Not From Here. Reform put immigration front and centre. They’re not afraid to sound xenophobic or racist and that greatly appeals to those who are racist and/or xenophobic. It’s Brexit all over again.

This is their manifesto. It’s worth reading because it’s interesting what they’re claiming they’ll do. Some of it is horrifying, but a lot of it is Trump-style populist politics.

https://assets.nationbuilder.com/reformuk/pages/253/attachments/original/1718625371/Reform_UK_Our_Contract_with_You.pdf?1718625371

If you cba to read through the full manifesto, here’s their “core” promises. Immigration takes up two points out of the five, and are the first two on the list….

I have yet to speak to a Reform voter who knows anything about them. They just want to "stop the boats" and Reform say that's what they'll do.

Reform have no feasible plan to do that but that's not important, apparently. Anyway, let's see how Reform do locally.

People buy into the vision of Britain just becoming one big 1950s village with Union jack bunting and a good old pint with your white mates.

It's the same type of people who voted for Brexit based on a cosy notion of the good old days with no actual scrutiny of what was being sold to them.

People are rightly or wrongly concerned about immigration and the volume of asylum seekers.

What does that have to do with bin collections and pot holes?

I read their manifesto at the General Election and I totally agree with you. The headline policies sound mostly great. The information that sits beneath them is more troubling as it’s often very authoritarian. But none of it is really doable. To some extent, if it were easy to achieve, it would have happened already - neither Labour or Tories wants long waiting lists for example.

I am not a reform voter, but I can see how they are appealing to certain groups.

When Brexit happened, lots of us living in a MC bubble called anyone with a different opinion a thick racist and it seems lots haven’t learned anything in the years since.

If you tell someone with valid concerns repeatedly that they are a thick racist, rather than listening to each other, then they will naturally align with people who aren’t horrible to them.

Local elections are a comment on national politics and also influence those policies as parties want votes.

The pp talking about anger is say that’s more Starmer than anyone. Look at PMQs the same kind of bullying non answer every week.

The OP didn't ask about bin collections or potholes. They asked why people voted for reform and that's your answer.

Yesterday was the local elections. The councillors can't do anything about immigration or asylum seekers. However, they now have to live with those choices and the best of luck to them.

Agree

Ordinary working class voters who live in non-glamourous areas of the country are being repeatedly told by the political classes that unfettered mass immigration is good for them but they don’t actually have any evidence for this. All of the services that people rely on seem to be getting worse and more costly.

They are told they are racist to voice this opinion, even though on an individual basis, ime, the vast majority of white working class people are generally quite ‘live and let live’ to the families and individuals who live and work in their communities.

Both Labour and Tory are just a repeating carousel of Westminster dullards who seem out for themselves and are out of touch with ordinary folks who don’t need a PPE from Oxbridge to know what a woman is and why blokes shouldn’t be in women’s spaces. Nigel Farage has a successful track record as a politician on a single issue and appears to be straight talking and unafraid.

It’s all pretty obvious to me why people vote for Reform.