Local Facebook group in my area, 8k members, has had a poll running the past few weeks inquiring into their local council voting intentions. 78% have stated Reform. IF this is in anyway a true representation of things to come, what could be the reality of a Reform local council landslide?
Ask the residents of any of the Reform led councils I guess? Most of them appear to be a shit-show, run by idiots who couldn't draw a bath. Most of the folks that voted for them seem not to be bothered by this.
I miss the days when politics was dull if I'm honest.
Not yet
My local Facebook groups (Northumberland) show a similar thing. A lot of people seem to be giving reform the credit for improvements stemming from a recent handout from central government. Critical thinking skills, and basic spelling ability, are in short supply.
Anyone sane keeps away from politics on my local Facebook group which unfortunately gives the Reform headbangers free rein, whether they are in the majority I don't know. No elections in my borough but Lancs CC is reform, they promised to fix the potholes, they are worse, they promised to freeze or reduce council tax, it went up. Our local Reform councillor who was very visible on Facebook initially has disappeared completely, probably since he got a good telling off for breaching numerous conduct rules.
I did see a Reform leaflet with the headline "Get Starmer Out". Unfortunately lots of people don't seem to know the difference between local elections and a General election.
We have a Reform council in Durham. I haven't noticed much difference other than there seems to be more slagging off going on. I expect neighbouring Gateshead and Sunderland will both go the same way.
Ask the residents of any of the Reform led councils I guess?
I'll be honest Derbyshire County Council doesn't seem any different since Reform took over. But it's flip flopped between Labour and Conservative before and piss-up-in-a-brewery springs to mind with both of those too!
I'm not a user of child or adult social care yet (or other front-line) services so can't comment on those. But the bins still keep being emptied and a pot-hole I reported a couple of weeks ago was filled within a week. 🤷♂️
Local government is full of tin-gods though on all sides.
I dread to think what they'd be like in Government though. 😱
I dread to think what they'd be like in Government though.
Through work I was sent a policy comparison sheet for all of the main parties here in Scotland for Holyrood elections. Reform had no content against most of the main policy areas. Literally, no policies. They simply haven't thought about how they would govern, they've only produced headlines of what they see as being problems. Not a single solution*
* except stopping the phasing out of oil heating in domestic properties. Because, err, that is exactly what everyone wants, especially those households paying £1.50 per litre to heat their home.
Given how polarising Facebook is I wouldn't give any credence to a poll on there & much like the old "quiet conservative vote" I imagine they'll be a lot of anti reform who won't want to put their heads above the parapet... Well that's what I hope anyway, but no elections in our area at this time.
They are our Trump.
no policies, only hatred, racism and massive financial gain for the top few.
Massively advantageous start in life
still "failed" businesses (failiure, or a financial fiddle, who knows)
And they're still going to win.
Fun fact. Reform are not a Political Party, they are a PLC owned by Saint Nige
ive got my fingers crossed that actually the "normal man", can see the absolute disaster in America, that the facebook groups are ALL of them, and the Greens will sneak in (or smash it), but i doubt it. Look around you, people are horrible.
I'll be honest Derbyshire County Council doesn't seem any different since Reform took over.
I have friends in Northamptonshire who report the same. Might remember (probably no one does) that the Tory's bankrupted the old Northampton CC, and it was split up into two new councils (West and North) . West Northants is run by Reform (lots of defecting Tories) and bins are still collected and so on, a couple of councillors have resigned from the party amid safeguarding worries, but day to day; that part of the world is still as red-trousers as it's always been full of anti-immigrant sentiment in a part of the world that sees almost no immigration, but they've only been in power since '25, so aren't in up and coming elections.
that the facebook groups are ALL of them, and the Greens will sneak in (or smash it), but i doubt it. Look around you, people are horrible.
People aren't horrible, mostly folks are fine, the 'outrage farming' is mostly bots. Try not to get sucked in
Seems a low number for a group specifically for that party that will be filled with many who think they are for them...some sort of bias in play there.
Reform voters on social media groups are literally the internet equivalent of that mouthy gobshite, leaning on the bar of your local pub offering the world the benefit of his opinions on everything, whether anyone wants it or not.
As an example of the typical mindset.... I have an absolutely hideous woman who lives down the road from me. There a hillclimb race goes up our road once a year, it involves closing the road for 2 hours to traffic on a Sunday afternoon for the cyclists. For 2 hours. Once a year. On a Sunday afternoon.
Every year she, with the aid of her equally awful husband, start a vocal campaign to get the race stopped as it 'might' inconvenience her. She does the same with any other local events and pretty much everything else. Let's ban everything, in case it might inconvenience ME, ME, ME!!!!! Her pompous self-importance is absolutely off the chart and she constantly feels the need to inform everyone of her knee-jerk reactionary attitude via social media.
She has (to the surprise of absolutely nobody) presently taken to posting videos featuring herself and promoting Reform all over local Facebook groups. She's obviously (again... somewhat unsurprisingly) an active and enthusiastic supporter of Farage PLC.
The actual local Reform candidate is some horrible, precocious, little double-barreled **** who would have been a shoe-in for 'Tory Boy' as little as 5 years ago but now they're all Reform, aren't they? I've got older t-shirts.
I'm living in hope that the people who don't feel the need to constantly gob off on social media will all work out who is the best 'Anyone But Reform' candidate and vote accordingly
Here we go. (Did we really need another Reform thread?)
https://dont-forget.co.uk/what-reform-did/
No elections in my borough but Lancs CC is reform, they promised to fix the potholes, they are worse, they promised to freeze or reduce council tax, it went up.
On my local social media there's plenty of people crowing "there's far too many potholes, vote Reform!" I take no small delight in informing them that repairing potholes falls to County Council rather than Borough Council and LCC already is Reform.
The last time I did this, the gammon in question immediately did a 180' and started talking about all the holes they had repaired. 🤷♂️
People aren't horrible, mostly folks are fine, the 'outrage farming' is mostly bots. Try not to get sucked in
I hope you're right, but I suspect you aren't.
"Bot!" is last week's "AI!" It's often lazy handwaving to excuse people who actually are shit, X notwithstanding.
Reform in government (local or national) means a mix of 3 things
corruption
incompetence
racism
basically trumpism
Look around you, people are horrible.
No, they're angry. They've been ignored by the 2 party system and there's a lot of them bc this country and successive governments haven't had a clue how to replace the industry we used to have that give them some opportunities. Granted many wouldn't want those opportunities but at least there was some choice, a viable baseline and from there make a decision to aim beyond it. What's there now? F all.
I'd be voting tactically against them for the near future so they're even disruptive there, I don't get to support a party I might believe in, I vote for the least shit option, again. And it'll take a long time and some huge policies to reverse where we are. What got us here has a lag of a whole generation (at least) to try to correct.
Reform won't do that, but they might at least teach the hopeless class of politicians we have that stories beat sensible HoC chat all day. The adults who could be in charge need to wake up and learn how to communicate - and they need something to communicate about that people want to hear. Can you imagine if politics now was the soap box row of Life of Brian, how would Starmer be getting on there?
Do not underestimate how much time retired people have to spend on Facebook getting VERY ANGRY about things.
Do not underestimate how racist a significant proportion of our population are. Good Old Uncle Nige is the comforting hand on their shoulder telling them that they shuld be allowed to use the P Word or N Word and the whole country would be better if no one immigrated here. They live in their own little reality. I see this with my in-laws. They live in a nice village in South Wales (commuter belt for Cardiff full of professionals with young families and retirees essentially) with very few problems and very few non-white faces but the whole country is going to hell and we're overrun and we're abut to be under Shakira (sic) law.
Finally - do not underestimate how stupid and ill informed our population is.
and they need something to communicate about that people want to hear
Lies and blaming people who are different to them.
In more detail... the trick that really gets me is using anger about politicians to argue for giving politicians MORE power over our lives with FEWER/WEAKER checks and balances on them... and the easy lie that makes this work is that politicians say they will use that extra power, and lack of restrictions on them, to attack "others" and make your life better (where as the end result is so often attacking everyone and making their own lives better). If people can see what Trump is doing and still think... "let's have a bit of that over here"... then I have no problem describing many of them as either horrible or stupid (or both) and not "just" angry (although they no doubt are).
We've had some Reform literature through and to be honest, looking at the priorities it lists, it's indistinguishable from the Green Party or anyone else. It's all the usual local issues.. the ongoing obsession with pot holes, protecting green belt land, combating fly tipping, antisocial behavior etc.
There's obviously zero detail about how they intend to do any of this, but there's no pictures of Nige, no mention of small boats or forerners, no flag-waving nonsense at all.
I know a lot of people barely watch any news or engage with politics, so from the stuff we've had through the door there's no indication at all about what they're really about on a national level
The most worrying policy is "removing equalities act on day one" which would make it legal to discriminate against anyone disabled or pregnant etc at point of interview when applying for a job.
Even worse, since if you don't get a job, you then likely won't get any support either due to benefits cuts and restrictions
Pushes UK towards USA model of extreme poverty and wealth.
Reform are just the right wing of blairism, anyone voting for them and expecting anything to change or as a FU to the “establishment” is going to be disappointed.
there's no pictures of Nige, no mention of small boats or forerners, no flag-waving nonsense
Ah, that sounds lovely... meanwhile...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c362e9p385yo
No, they're angry. They've been...
... repeatedly told that everything that's shit about their life is the fault of poor people and brown people.
we're abut to be under Shakira (sic) law.
That's the funniest thing I've read since I saw a Flat Earther talking about the Van Halen belts. Well played.
Ah, that sounds lovely... meanwhile...
https://www.votegreengetillegals.com/
Say what you like about Reform plc, but they know their audience.
Another Derbyshire resident. Bins get emptied, potholes get filled (courtesy of the central government funding boost)
MrsMC works in Childrens Services. It is on it's knees, I'm terrified for her and the kids. It was going that way anyway.
Facebook is a Reform cesspit, filled with vocal idiots and bots. I understand people feeling failed by Tories and Labour, but thinking Reform can't be any worse is a special kind of desperation.
Say what you like about Reform plc, but they know their audience.
Someone suggested such threats are illegal under election law. I'd like that to be tested in court if true
Reform are just the right wing of blairism
To equate 'Blairism' (whatever that is?) with Reform is just plain daft. What they're advocating is considerably more extreme than anything Tony Blair ever dreamt up. There's a reason Cruella feels at home in Reform and she was too extreme even for the modern Tory party
In Nige's dreams, he wants ICE style raids in the UK with masked, tooled up goons deporting people with no oversight, he wants to stop benefits, privatize the NHS and replace it with an insurance system, completely deregulate absolutely everything, particularly employment law, destroy peoples human rights and use all these cuts to fund massive tax cuts for his (presently offshore) rich mates.
Hating Nu Labour and Tony Blair is one thing, but suggesting his agenda was anything like Reforms is just nonsense and plays directly into the 'They're All The Same' narrative which Nige and co exploit so readily
anyone voting for them and expecting anything to change or as a FU to the “establishment” is going to be disappointed.
Oh things will change alright. There will be no welfare system and no NHS for a start. In a way, if the idiots voting for Reform can't even see that Nige and co ARE the living embodiment of the establishment, they probably deserve everything they get. The trouble is that the rest of us get it too
MrsMC works in Childrens Services. It is on it's knees, I'm terrified for her and the kids.
Unfortunately this is true of most chilren's services up and down the country. That it goes unnoticed by the rest of the country s just another of the conversations we have to have as a country that politicians mostly ignore unless it hits the headlines.
Say what you like about Reform plc, but they know their audience.
And like everywhere else, these folks have cut themselves off from (because you can easily these days) a shared 'truth' that all sides of the political spectrum had to occupy in times past.
Pothole. A metaphor for the shallow void of the mind of a reform voter, may lead to minor discomfort as you bump through it.
Unfortunately, due a lack of investment in public infrastructure and services, becoming more prevalent.
Mate lives in Worcestershire which is a Reform council. His view is it's not better or worse than other parties. The council tax has gone up, as it has everywhere else and Reform have blamed that on anyone but themselves, but that's normal council stuff. He said they make a bit more noise, but bar that it's business as usual.
Not sure if this says more about Reform, the parties there before them or how local politics on general.
The only party that has actually bothered to do any kind of canvasing in my area is Lib Dems so far. We've had a Lib Dem local governamnet for ages and I can't see it changing, hopefully any way. All the Lib Dem councillors are very local and actually engage with people and try and do stuff.
The Green party guy is also local and lives round the corner from me.
I have no idea who the Tory or Reform concillors are and they don't have address's in Leeds, let alone local to our area....
I have considered voting Green bu I'll be voting Lib Dem again. I voted Labour in the GE though because I needed to go tactical at that point.
Reform are just pathetic and petty. I hope if they do get in anywhere they get found out quickly and don;t get a chance to do too much damage.....
Just labour in my case - but we are a bit over-organised locally if I'm honest.
I understand people feeling failed by Tories and Labour, but thinking Reform can't be any worse is a special kind of desperation.
That will be the Reform party of Robert Jenrick, Suella Braverman, Danny Kruger, Nadhim Zahawi, Nadine Dorries, Anndrea Jenkins, Macolm Offord, Andrea Jenkyns. Yep, I totally understand why anyone feeling failed by Tories would vote for the fresh faced establishment disrupter's at Reform.
Someone suggested such threats are illegal under election law. I'd like that to be tested in court if true
I'd expect there to be a degree of separation. "Oh, that wasn't Reform UK, that was UK Reform. Nothing to do with us."
Also, Reform is not a PLC, it's a Ltd.
If it was a PLC, Farage would have to please the shareholders and that would mean he'd lose control. Reform is all about him, so a Ltd is perfect.
Say what you like about Reform plc, but they know their audience.
'kin 'ell thats horrible.
ignoring that (afaiui) if they were "illegal", they would be deported. Simple as that.
The whole point is you can being an immigrant or refugee is not illegal.
