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I hope you’re right Gladders. In any sane world he’d be finished already. They’ve revoked the membership of a council leader ‘accused of racism’…
But Reeves made a minor error about the name of a chess tournament she won when she was 14 so she’s pretty much as bad really.
I can see why folk vote for reform as the two main parties are shafting the middle and working class at every turn. The problem is I would not want them running a school tuck shop. They seem a miss mash of both extremes of the main two with no discernible policies which will actually help those that need it. Loads of sound bites but know actual fiscal policies. They say we get the govt we deserve. God knows what we have done to deserve nigel and his merry band of cast offs.
I can see why folk vote for reform as the two main parties are shafting the middle and working class at every turn.
I keep seeing this point raised but Reform continues to stuff itself with the dregs of the Tory party every week. Farage himself has said on many occasions ‘never trust a Tory’. For once I agree but it seems he doesn’t.
Farage is a trump wannabe , it’s a verbal scattergun approach , doing that you don’t have to worry about facts getting in the way
I don’t always agree with Mr Jones, but he’s bang on the money here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce86x326y08o
What could be more patriotic than following what the King urges?
Bet the RWNJ element won’t do it, though.
Had a fascinating conversation with some Reform voters in the pub last night.
It started with their making racist comments (for those who don’t know, I am not white), and so I asked how I had offended them, seeing that their invective was directed at me. They said all “foreigners” should be deported; I pointed out that I was born in Croydon. They guessed that my parents were immigrants; I pointed out that they came here in 1969 and 1970 (mum came a few months before dad), to work in the NHS as the British government was recruiting across the commonwealth. Without people born overseas, the NHS would collapse.
I asked them if they believed in British values: they replied that they do. I then asked what these are: their reply was nebulous, at best. So I asked them if the NHS represented the best of Britain: they said that of course it does.
I then asked them if they would rather have a private healthcare system or the NHS. They all agreed that the latter is the better. So, I asked them, why they would vote for a party which wants to privatise healthcare?
The subsequent conversation is too long to repeat here but they gradually accepted that a millionaire City boy, funded by overseas vested interests, may not necessarily have the interests of the working man at heart.
How people actually believe that Farrago (deliberate mis-spelling) is “a man of the people” is quite beyond me; at least these people I met last night listened to the facts and shook my hand at closing time. They even bought me a pint!
If only more people were more willing to listen and learn; after all, facts are facts.
Pleased to hear that it ended amicably but it was still pretty vile of them. It’s beyond me how people can think that way. I do hope that they truly have taken on board what you told them; the thought of a Reform government horrifies me. Even though I probably won’t be around for most of it my children and grandchildren will.
Cheers, moehat.
At the end of the day, rule number one of life is that people are f***wits.
All we can do is try to educate people; the problem is that some people don’t want to learn. 😕
A most commendable way of dealing with that unpleasant confrontation Gladiateur, well done
Sadly, my default setting is to assume most folk are f***wits too, until proven otherwise
I’d add credulous and impressionable to that description, which of course Farage and other right-wing populists know only too well
My grandfather was West Indian who came to this country in the 1920s. Both he and my ‘mixed race’ father endured intermittent racial slurring. That it still exists and, if anything, is getting worse again is dreadful
Apparently those such as I, being a quarter black, are known as Quadroons. That may or may not be an acceptable term today, but I rather like it
Thanks, Drone.
At the end of the day, we’re all just people. The biggest problem affecting mankind is financial inequality, not colour.
Gladders, I am sorry to hear of the incident. The way that you dealt with it speaks volumes.
Sadly this attitude is outright encouraged by ‘social’ and print/broadcast media and at best tolerated by many politicians, although some also encourage it, usually through dog whistles.
‘Social’ media in particular is an absolute wild west. You don’t have to spend long on most platforms to realise how much politically divisive rhetoric is pushed on there. I am aware of the existence of bot accounts and the like but even I believe I have underestimated how much. It’s noticeably ramped up since Labour took power. It’s a feature, not a bug. The owners of these platforms could stop it tomorrow if they wanted to.
The real world consequences are what you experienced.
I have a friend who is mixed race. We fell out at the time of the referendum because she idolised Johnson. After not speaking for many years we decided that we were too old to let something like that end a friendship of nearly 70 years but avoid discussing politics. I do, however, suspect that she is a Reform supporter. I don’t understand people. I also feel that left wing hatred of Starmer is pushing people towards Reform, too, so I’m also becoming estranged from my own party. Which is why, for the first time in my adult life, I’m trying to avoid the news and stick to listening to history podcasts, watch box sets and read children’s fantasy literature. I might, if I can summon up the energy, start going to a few branch meetings. It’s all so depressing.
I feel very much the same way, I simply never understood the whole point of Brexit, it’s was obvious to me that we would lose more than we could gain. Unfortunately Covid came along soon after so we will never know the full impact on the economy.
I too fell out with old friends over it but have mended some fences by not trying to explain to them the lessons of 1930’s rise of Fascism. If they can’t see it by now they never will.
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highways
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