Article about Mumsnet on Unherd. "Has Mumsnet fallen for Farage? Labour is losing Middle England"

[lechiffre55]

The title is slightly clickbaity but the article seems fairly balanced to me.
It's about what Starmer and Labour have done wrong to lose support. No element of smear against Mumsnet.
https://unherd.com/2026/01/has-mumsnet-fallen-for-farage/

I hope not. I'll be leaving sharpish if it ever becomes a Reform supporting site.

I think it's a good deal less 'whoopee let's vote Reform' than 'FFS this actually looks like the worst option of a really bloody awful field'. Field of disaffected, fed up and homeless voters.

And less 'losing' than 'lost'. Gone.

That does seem to be a pretty balanced article, and she appears to understand MN well.

Very good article, she nails most of the issues. Thank you for sharing it.

Thanks for this.

Agree - everyone should ignore the headline and read the article. Interesting analysis. It takes stuff we know instinctively and concisely sets it out for the Labour party. I really wish Keir would read it and think about it.

We rightly grumbled on the other thread that the 'MN is now backing Reform' headline in the Independent was misleading, because only one in five 'politically engaged' MNers said they would vote for reform.
So four out of five would not, which is hardly a resounding endorsement of Reform!
Mumsnet is now backing Reform UK - survey | Mumsnet

'Has MN fallen for Farage?' is equally misleading - if four out of five MNers would not vote for reform, the answer to that question is obviously no.

Whatever about the writers of the articles, who seem to have a better grasp of figures, politics, and MN, both sets of headline writers seem to be determined to portray MN as pro-Reform, which will be interpreted by many as being right-wing. [I'm not saying it is].

At least the Unherd writer is explicit in the article:

"So are the nation’s mums really swinging behind Reform? No: it’s more that they have declared a pox on Keir Starmer."

I suppose the headline has to have pull, hence making it a question rather than "Mumsnet has not fallen for Reform" which is less clickbaity.

Well Betteridges law of headlines applies, as always.

However if anyone believes for a moment that MN is a representative microcosm of the UK, then could they please PM me, as I have some really exciting deals on bridges you won't want to miss. You won't believe what #3 is.

The piece is by Mary Harrington - and we like her, don't we? She says she sometimes debates on here, and I'd love to know who she is.

Anyway, she's basically right. Nobody on here much likes Farage but we are all sick to the back teeth of both the Tories and Labour.

It’s a classic “question to which the answer is no” clickbait headline. I feel sorry for journalists on this as they generally don’t write the headlines, just the articles.

AI usually writes the headlines to draw in clicks.

My first engagement with MN came when it was flagged on my event scanning radar for IT strategy in (checks notes) 2009. That was part of a much wider piece on social media and it's place in advertising and the economy. And I stand by my assertion that if anyone thinks it's somehow a window into some balanced representation of the UK, then they really need to look at who chooses to advertise on here.

I think that was a very astute and interesting article, thanks for posting it OP.

I think the article sums up how I'm feeling pretty well. I want our politicians to care about us (their fellow citizens) and put our needs first rather than taking us for granted or looking down their noses at us.

I want politicians to come out of their lobby bubble and genuinely find out what their voters want and need. I want politicians who are more interested in public service than virtue signalling. I want politicians who have had real jobs and life experience rather than going straight from student politics/activism to Westminster.

I want politicians who take things like infrastructure, manufacturing, social mobility, the safety of women and girls, and energy security seriously. The world is reforming itself into new power blocs and I don't feel that the UK, or many other European countries, has taken this threat seriously. They can't managerialise their way out of these large and looming problems.

Starmer and Johnson both talked about national renewal when campaigning to Red Wall voters but had no policies for, or seemingly any genuine interest in, making it happen.

We rightly grumbled on the other thread that the 'MN is now backing Reform' headline in the Independent was misleading, because only one in five 'politically engaged' MNers said they would vote for reform.
So four out of five would not, which is hardly a resounding endorsement of Reform!

I.e. 20% would vote for Reform. Which is quite a bit lower than the figure for the UK population as a whole - IPSOS puts that at 33%, well in the lead over Labour in second place at 18%.

And IPSOS' figure also supports a PP's assertion that MN is not representative of the UK.

Don't be silly. If anyone here is supporting Reform, it's because of the failure of the Tories and Labour and as a protest vote.

If you want to know what Labour has done, is doing in your area there's information here https://whathaskeirdone.co.uk/

Whenever you see Reform/Farage threads on here you get dozens of posters who are anti and a couple of pro Reform posters who bang away for day after day putting up one post after the other. The recent Epstein/Farage thread was a good example.

Constant pro Reform posts but from a very few posters.

I think that holds true for a lot of subjects on MN. While activists might try to sway things one way or the other, they are simply drowned out by the sheer number of MN users.

I'm getting lots of:

Launched
Announced
Set out plan
Started
Unveiled

not so much of:

Delivered

Many years ago, P J O'Rourke (sadly missed) was on a phone in on a London radio station. As usual he was pushing his more reactionary world view and there were a stream of "liberal lefty" callers.

After the 4th or 5th, the host asked him in an amused tone "So many people disagreeing, where are all your supporters ?"

"They have jobs"

was the instant reply.

Can't think why I remember that.

I think media has no choice but to rely on clickbait for engagment. It's soo bloodthirsty out there.
Thankfully I never fall for it!
@SerendipityJane What bridge is number 3 then, and how much?

I'm in the market for a new bridge. The stream is about 2m wide with solid banks and it hasn't breached in the 19 years that we have lived here. A wooden replacement bridge would be fine but I rather fancy a concrete half culvert and brick affair. Can you help?

Never in a million years would I vote for that grifting charlatan. He cares no more about women's rights than he does farmers or fishermen.

Women's rights, farmers, fishermen - how have Labour demonstrated that they care about any of these?

I'm not advocating for Farage here - just pointing out that Labour really aren't any better.

And since Labour are in power, them not caring actually matters.

It's not balanced. The headline is awful- women interested in politics are ' falling' for people? When would you ever get that applied to a male audience. Also cleverly associating the word Gammon with working class- this word has never been about the working class. It's specifically describing UN unintelligent misogynistic Nazi types- more male than female- it's a political description not a class one.
Only thing I agree with is communication is the answer. But the women who are wise to the type of people leading reform need to start mobilising quickly and find ways. This will be settled by women.

Don't think I stood up for labour in my post. I am a lefty but they haven't done as many things as I would have hoped for. Hell would have to freeze over before I voted for Toad of Toad Hall though