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 addressed this a year ago: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womensrights/5257294-i-think-the-spell-is-finally-broken?reply=141610499

The US presidential election effectively asked the electorate "which is worse: a rapist who has a track record of keeping (or at least trying damn hard to keep) manifesto promises, or a woman who, based on her party's track record, will break manifesto promises?" The people weren't voting to choose someone to be their sister's plus-one at a wedding or chaperone their daughter at a gynaecological examination, they were voting to choose someone to run their country. In that context, being a rapist matters less than being someone who can be trusted to keep manifesto promises.

They are so arrogant though. I remember when Miliband was running for PM. I wrote to the Labour party to tell them that people didn't like him. They wrote back sniffily telling me that they were heading for a landslide victory, and to eff off, basically.

@IMissTheLittleBluePackets I guess pride comes before a fall!

Imo politians have relied upon an ignorant plebiscite. As an example, I have both been informed by posters on mn on gender issues, and found support for my opinions.
I can guarantee that, without mn, I would not be so critical of most politicians, because I would not have access to the relevant information.
A different case is the Egyptian man who was recently welcomed to the uk. Without x, I would know about his abhorrent tweets. Yes, MSM did report on this, but only after x revealed it.
It is very difficult to govern a country that knows what's going on.

This seems to be a real blindness in some of the left wing parties now. It's so strange, in most cases anyone with eyes can see that what they are doing is not going to work, that their candidates or policies aren't going to be popular, that they will lose that vote...

But they seem completely shocked by it. Brexit, Trump's election. The Clinton team seemed to really think she would be elected.

The Clinton team seemed to really think she would be elected.
That's incredible, after she's failed once already!

I agree. Kier’s new years speech was just on another planet.

But I haven't excused his acts - nowhere and never have I done that. Voting for him is voting for his political platform. That's not saying 'yay, i'm so glad he cheated on his wife' ffs. I don't give a flying fuck if he cheats on his wife, that's between the two of them and if he's done something illegal i hope he is prosecuted and found guilty.

If I never voted for any politician that behaved badly towards women - if voters were only allowed to vote for the pure - none of us would ever be able to vote, and it would be the death of democracy.

Whatever you think of Trump, a democratic system (where he's won to be clear, in a democratic election) is a lot better for women than somewhere like Iran or Afghanistan.

Some left wingers would rather we tread that path on their purity spiral into oblivion.

Voting for someone doesn't mean you agree with their every life choice. A 5 year old can understand this.

Exactly.

I'm divided on whether leftwingers who try and shame people over Trump's life choices are dim witted or just plain controlling and can't cope with other people having their own choices and doing things they don't like.

And of course they will never, ever admit the good things Trump has achieved - he did achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, he achieved the release of the Israeli hostages, things that many media commentators thought were impossible. He gets things done and does try and keep at least some of his promises which is a lot more than a hell of a lot of politicians. I think a lot of voters will vote for 'politician that has the capacity to get things done' over those who just make promises they don't keep and lie about things even in the knowledge that they might not like some of the things he does.

He's completely changed the debate about boys in girls sports and in their single-sex spaces- which will have reduced sexual assault by a far greater amount than he can possibly have ever perpetrated. Allowing males in female spaces results in sexual assaults, we have a list as long as anyone's arm on actual harms to women and children where this is the case.

He HAS achieved good things - including for women - as well as bad like most politicians.

What do you think he should have been talking about?

I don't know what Mumnsnet's views on Reform/Farage are but Unherd is not credible. They ran an article by Julie Bindel who falsely claimed Pornhub had a "war r*pe" category.

To be fair, Hillary Clinton did win the popular vote in 2016.

Gosh, how awful of her to say something untrue of Pornhub, that beacon of decorum.

Are you seriously saying you are upset because Julie Bindell was critical of a porn website? That reflects far worse on you than Unherd. My guess is you probably don't understand why.
If all it takes is a single bad article for a site that publishes many different articles by many different authors from many different points of view to be not credible then by your own logic of 'one strike and you're out for good' your views have no credibility whatsoever at all.

Jimmy Savile raised lots of money for charity.

Hitler was a vegetarian.
This is a fun game.

When every single economic metric and poll is trending downwards, perhaps some acknowledgment that they need to change course? Insisting everything is getting better but not quick enough was really just odd, things are getting worse because of their warped childish ideology and it’s happening very very quickly - unemployment up 20%, redundancies up over 30% all in a year!

Some people need to grasp that all politicians are, to varying degrees, corrupt. All of them, regardless of party, country or anything else. They might not all start out that way, but that’s where they end up, because it’s the nature of politics.

Additionally, since politicians are human and all humans are a mixture of good and bad, no perfect specimen exists. Therefore, pragmatism is necessary when choosing who to vote for/support.

I personally despise Nigel Farage as an individual, but I also believe that the party he represents is (currently) the only one proposing anything like what is required to address the mass illegal (and legal) immigration crisis that threatens both the social cohesion and future existence of the UK.

I’ve never voted right in my life, but I will return to the UK to vote Reform or possibly Advance UK in person at the next GE.

This article that I came across is written by a Labour MP and suggests some things that Starmer should start working on and talking about.

https://archive.is/ZnIbl

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/06/labour-must-go-blue/

I had a major row with a LD candidate on the doorstep about this. She could not understand that such a stupid idea, if implemented, would split the nation even more.

Thank you for sharing that.

It is beyond depressing that we're less than two years into the first term of this government and they're at the flapping around in circles with the 'we must do this to survive in government and stop being loathed by the electorate' stage. The stage of running out of direction, cohesion, ideas and steam, that is usually the sign of a government that's been in office too long. Less than two years.

Seems a trend is starting of Reform councillors now defecting to AdvanceUK

https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/news/politics/advance-uk-announce-doncaster-leader-5466588

The point is Julie Bindel lied. Her claim was outright false.

Pornhub must be quaking in their boots. Call the lawyers!

Yes, that's true. People seemed to expect a win by a landslide however. She was ignoring key states she should have been visiting thinking she had it in the bag.