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/

Yep the arrogance of this. Compared to the Swinson example in pp, ok she got it wrong and was voted out but at least there was a vote.

It’s post democratic nutters and self proclaimed superiors that really are scary.

I think this is a very dangerous trend. You may not like Nigel Farage but he's a safety valve. The more the centrist political class continue on their authoritarian turn, the more likely we'll end up with something much uglier.

Farage has said exactly this: 'if you think I'm fascist, just wait till you see what comes after me'.

You get the impression populists actually have the attitude that they listen to the electorate and try to work out what it is that they want, and then offer that.

Of course, the populace may not get that. Or they may get some of that and an awful lot of oh fuck no not this on the side.

But anyway, the anti-populists just seem to go for slagging off the opposition and slagging off the people who don't vote for them. See the SNP in Scotland, with WestminsterBad, and Labour with FourteenYearsofAusterity, both of which are shit band names and equally shit approaches to policy. It's boring now.

You get the impression populists actually have the attitude that they listen to the electorate and try to work out what it is that they want, and then offer that.

Why, yes, that's a tautology! 😂

I was trying to think out loud.

I get you. The populist tag is used a lot, it’s a very BBC take. What’s the alternative, a party doesn’t listen to anyone but a few?

I read that as a promise not a warning.

Which is what we currently have now - an elite that listen only to each other and regard anyone outside of the ivory tower as stupid and contemptible. And increasingly - witness the endless false budget scares, the farmers' stuff and now the SEND bullshit where they upset and scare everyone while they test the waters, make a decision and then U turn on it - abusive. And are informed largely by their kids middle class activism.

An alternative would be going back to before the rise of the professional politician, where MPs came from and represented the voice of their community. And actually had to stand in halls and convince people with real feeling and integrity and words instead of reading corporate waffle off a cue card that was written by their straight out of university adviser.

I find the MN webchats interesting and a good barometre for this. HQ have said most politicians are scared to come here, and the only way they do is if HQ ask for questions, which are carefully pre selected and then answered with pre planned advisor answers, largely with meaningless waffle and slogans.

Being faced with women who know their stuff and are asking difficult questions, and not nicely swallowing corporate waffle in reply, is too scary. How many of us would get away with that in the workplace on way way lower paid and lower responsibility jobs?

An alternative would be going back to before the rise of the professional politician, where MPs came from and represented the voice of their community.

Was there ever such a time ?

Also, if you know that you will be elected just because you wear the right rosette, then what incentive is there for you do do anything ? Just look what the MP for Clacton has done for Clacton (to pick a seat at random).

The only way to prevent career politicians is to limit terms in office somehow.

Yes, there was. Thinking for example of some of the Welsh MPs who in times past stood up and talked passionately in parliament about what the working conditions were in the valleys, having grown up there in those communities themselves.

I've said this before, but I watched a few years ago the video of Anne Ruzylo, a remarkable woman, who was in the lower echelons of the Labour Party at a local level, standing talking to a room of people about women's issues including her experience working in prisons. Listening to her speak is quite an experience, she has information and statistics at her fingertips, she knows exactly what she's talking about and is responding on the spot to questions because she knows this stuff. She can hold and convince a room by what she is saying, things she knows first hand and believes in. When was the last time you saw any MP do that?

You could then wonder why people of Anne's calibre have not made up it up the ladder into the high level positions when they are there.

The farmers' issue is a really interesting one. About a month ago, Labour withdrew the whip from Cumbria MP Markus Campbell-Savours for opposing their inheritance tax raid on farmers. And Markus is Labour aristocracy, his dad is Lord Campbell-Savours who was an MP for many years.

The government has now u-turned on farmers' inheritance tax. But Markus hasn't got the whip back.

It's all about control. It's all about an arrogant political class who think Markus Campbell-Savours is impertinent for pointing out that they're doing something that will cost him his seat, and they're entitled to punish him for recommending they do something that they did days later.

Principal Skinner thinks the kids are out of touch.

I don't think protest votes are meant to have a short term effect.

The goal is to send a message to those who have failed to win support, that they need to wake the hell up.

Pointing to the people who get in instead, which seems to be the way many parties are operating now, is a kind of deflection, from that perspective. What they need to be doing is looking at themselves and why voters have no confidence in them.

Well presumably the alternative is totalitarianism and no democracy. That's what some politicians quite clearly want.

How on earth does valuing morals and child safeguarding lead to anyone voting for a serial adulterer, someone who talked sexually about his daughter, a frequent flyer to Hotel Epstein and someone who "grabbed them by the pussy"?!

Might as well vote for a brexit traitor to show your support for rejoining the EU.

Labour have unraveled so fast because their core motivation is resentment and spite. From farmers, small business owners, retired people, home owners, landlords to 5 year old prep school kids ..it’s all about spiting people rather than improving anything. You can get away with this nonsense when you’re a protest party in opposition but not when in Government. Spite policies always drag everyone down eventually and it’s entirely obvious to anyone but the most committed tribal Labour supporters that that’s exactly what’s happening.

labour couldn't reverse it for me, they've proved to misogynistic venal liars . I'm a supporter of Kemi Badenoch now.

Well I don't give a flying fuck what he does in his personal life. He's acted to make girls sports safe again and keep boys out of girls single-sex spaces which will definitely reduce sexual assaults and restore girls privacy and dignity. That works for me, and I'm not alone based on the majority who voted for him.

News flash: sneering doesn't work.

You are not an advocate for women's safety if you excuse his acts. The opposite in fact.

Of course, that does not apply to your alignment with the SWP.

The people we assume are the intended audience are not always the actual intended audience.

WRT inadequate men, their audience is 'more successful men'. That's the power structure they're working with and the one they care about. Women are seen and used as currency in that context, to either buy status or soothe hurt egos.

For government, the audiences are 1. party members, wrt internal political factions and ambitions 2. lobbyists and 3. personal interests. Constituents are their 'audience' only in the run up to an election - used as currency, a way to gain or exercise power.

So often when we see men display misogyny, we think the motivation is hatred of women. I'd say that that's often secondary - their primary motivation is position in the male hierarchy. And also when we see politicians treat constituents/the public with contempt, we think 'they hate us' - they're just not interested; they are motivated by seeking power and gratification and reward among those three areas I listed.

Why is this twat constantly being pushed on here?

The very same could be said of the swathes of ‘feminists’ on here who (rightly) denounce trans ideology as harmful to women and girls but are absolutely silent, or worse, excuse, the attitudes and crimes of Muslim men because they are brown and Muslim. Only that is much, much worse and has enabled the mass gang rape and torture of hundreds of thousands of white girls, which continues to this day.

These ‘feminists’ are covered in blood🩸

Who, Farage? How is he being 'pushed'? Are we not to mention his name, or what?

Perhaps the idea is that we should Voldemort him.

I recently read a blogpost by an American writing coach who literally referred to "those wizard books that we don't talk about because the author is unhinged".

The writing coach didn't seem to realise how massively teenage this made her look.

Did you read the article? Or just knee jerk emotionally react? The article isn't about Farage.