2026 Local Elections Thread

[nw1]

Why the hell are people voting Reform?

Do people not see that the war started by their friend Trump is causing a major world crisis? Don't they understand what's going on in the USA where there is less and less freedom and it's turning into a far-right, authoritarian state under Trump?

I'm sorry, but anyone who voted Reform performed a brainless, vacuous, moronic act. They are implicitly voting for a Trumpist UK, and implicitly supporting Trump's war in Iran.

They whinge about Starmer, they don't see to be grateful that at least we don't have Trump and his bunch of idiots ruling us. They don't seem to understand the simple basic fact that our economic problems are caused by the US's war in Iran, Russia's war in Ukraine, Israel's war in Palestine, Covid, and probably Brexit too.

I just hope we're not headed for having this lot in government in 2029 as a majority. If so, God help us, we'll become like the USA under Trump. In fact even worse, because the USA can get away with things due to its economically dominant position. We will not. We will just become an insignificant hardline right-wing authoritarian state which no-one will want to touch with a bargepole, and will IMO likely lose our status as a first-world country.

Too much of the UK population nowadays it seems are reactionary right-wingers who spend too much time listening to ranting extremists on TikTok.

It's time for all other parties, including the Conservatives I have to say, to declare war on Reform UK. They must not win the next election. All other parties must unite in fighting them, and fighting them with passion. The number one aim of all parties must be to drive them from power, even if they have to make sacrifices to their own success. We must save this country from being taken over by them and becoming a Trumpist hell-hole.

I was expecting Labour to do badly but I'd hoped Reform had peaked and I hoped the Greens would do much better.

Has the UK turned into a reactionary right-wing nation and progressives, left-wingers, and liberals are increasingly being marginalised? Even the US has a very significant anti-Trump movement, here we don't seem to have reached that stage yet. I suspect the US mid-terms will go much better than these elections have here. We seem to be behind the curve compared to the US and say Hungary. Just hope we're at their stage in 3 years' time.

 

[telstarbox]

Labour vote seems to have held up more than expected in London so far, or at least the opposition is so fractured that they are retaining seats, eg held Merton which was a key Lib Dem target and while loosing Wandsworth that has gone to no overall control rather than to the Tories. While the Greens havent made made the inroads expected, lost all their seats in Richmond to the Lib Dems. But early days.

Having written that I see Labour have just lost Westminster to the Tories

None of those were the Green targets to be fair - Hackney and Lewisham will be more indicative.

 

[Class73Electro]

Why the hell are people voting Reform?

Do people not see that the war started by their friend Trump is causing a major world crisis? Don't they understand what's going on in the USA where there is less and less freedom and it's turning into a far-right, authoritarian state under Trump?

I'm sorry, but anyone who voted Reform performed a brainless, vacuous, moronic act. They are implicitly voting for a Trumpist UK, and implicitly supporting Trump's war in Iran.

They whinge about Starmer, they don't see to be grateful that at least we don't have Trump and his bunch of idiots ruling us. They don't seem to understand the simple basic fact that our economic problems are caused by the US's war in Iran, Russia's war in Ukraine, Israel's war in Palestine, Covid, and probably Brexit too.

I just hope we're not headed for having this lot in government in 2029 as a majority. If so, God help us, we'll become like the USA under Trump. In fact even worse, because the USA can get away with things due to its economically dominant position. We will not. We will just become an insignificant hardline right-wing authoritarian state which no-one will want to touch with a bargepole, and will likely lose our status as a first-world country.

Too much of the UK population nowadays it seems are reactionary right-wingers who spend too much time listening to ranting extremists on TikTok.

It's time for all other parties, including the Conservatives I have to say, to declare war on Reform UK. They must not win the next election. All other parties must unite in fighting them, and fighting them with passion. We must save this country from being taken over by them and becoming a Trumpist hell-hole.

I was expecting Labour to do badly but I'd hoped Reform had peaked and I hoped the Greens would do much better.

Has the UK turned into a reactionary right-wing nation and progressives, left-wingers, and liberals are increasingly being marginalised? Even the US has a very significant anti-Trump movement, here we don't seem to have reached that stage yet. I suspect the US mid-terms will go much better than these elections have here. We seem to be behind the curve compared to the US and say Hungary. Just hope we're at their stage in 3 years' time.

Its simple... People rightly or wrongly feel that things aren't as good as they should be, they're not well off enough, etc... And look for the "reason" why

Reform (and a lot of the media) have "highlighted" that the issue is the "boat people / immigrants", "LBQT Community", "Cyclists", "Net Zero", "Disabled people", "people who wear red socks" and it gets repeated in various forms... therefore it must be true... but Reform are going to fix this... Apparently...

So once these "issue people" have been dealt with, everything will be great again... or it won't, but it will then be "people with blue socks"...

 

[gg1]

I suspect much of the swing to Reform can be accounted for by them getting out the people who never usually vote, at least not in local elections. Based on what I've been reading this morning, most areas seem to be showing a significiant increase in turnout, in my council (Dudley), turnout is up in every ward, mostly 5-10 percentage points but with some over 10%. Bearing in mind the low starting point, that translates to a 15-30% increase in many wards.

 

[nw1]

Its simple... People rightly or wrongly feel that things aren't as good as they should be, they're not well off enough, etc... And look for the "reason" why

The real "reasons" of course are three people called Donald, Vladimir and Benjamin, and the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Time for people to stop listening to ranting idiots on TikTok and actually see the blindingly obvious reasons for the world economic crisis. And it is a world crisis, not a UK one. I remember a similar line being peddled circa 2010 that the UK crisis was all the fault of Labour, when in fact it was global.

Incidentally what do people think about the 2029 General Election now? I had hoped that their rise would be matched with a similar rise from the Greens, leading to a very much hung parliament with no party anywhere near a majority, but it seems the Greens have underperformed. Are we heading for the spectre of a Reform majority government and the UK basically utterly screwed in the first half of the 2030s, and is it maybe time to think about researching emigration options now if you have skills that other countries could make use of?

 

[dgl]

One thing I did see as a bit of an oxymoron the other day, was a car with three Reform UK stickers on the back window and a disabled badge, talk about Turkeys and Christmas. A party that probably see people in wheelchairs as simply "too lazy to walk".

People seem to lose all logic when voting for parties like reform. Seems to be a lot of "sticking it to the man" and a belief that voting for them will help my situation, when the reality is unless you have a few pounds floating around they actually couldn't care less about the little guy.

 

[nw1]

People seem to lose all logic when voting for parties like reform. Seems to be a lot of "sticking it to the man" and a belief that voting for them will help my situation, when the reality is unless you have a few pounds floating around they actually couldn't care less about the little guy.

The fact that they go on about bitcoin, very much a rich person's plaything, and have donations from people in the same elite group as Musk, Thiel, etc, shows what they are all about.

A party for the rich and powerful who gain support via hate-filled invective.

Maybe also, the idiots who support them should realise that if they are ever in hospital, many of the people who care for them will be immigrants, or children of immigrants.

You can see their possible supporters when you're out and about, whinging and whining about tiny, insignificant, petty things like bus lanes or cycle lanes which actually make life easier for those of us who are bus users and/or cyclists. If they don't like it here, why don't they emigrate to Trump's USA? I'm sure the regime there would welcome them with open arms.

 

[The Ham]

Its simple... People rightly or wrongly feel that things aren't as good as they should be, they're not well off enough, etc... And look for the "reason" why

Reform (and a lot of the media) have "highlighted" that the issue is the "boat people / immigrants", "LBQT Community", "Cyclists", "Net Zero", "Disabled people", "people who wear red socks" and it gets repeated in various forms... therefore it must be true... but Reform are going to fix this... Apparently...

So once these "issue people" have been dealt with, everything will be great again... or it won't, but it will then be "people with blue socks"...

A big complaint is access to the NHS.

In a town of 10,000 the extra number of people from small boats in a 15 year period would be 30 people, if they were all over 75 that wound likely add 7 appointments needed at the local GP's.

Conversely due the aging population the actual number of over 75's would have increased by 440 people adding 100 appointments.

 

[Paul AC]

Why the hell are people voting Reform?

Do people not see that the war started by their friend Trump is causing a major world crisis? Don't they understand what's going on in the USA where there is less and less freedom and it's turning into a far-right, authoritarian state under Trump?

I'm sorry, but anyone who voted Reform performed a brainless, vacuous, moronic act. They are implicitly voting for a Trumpist UK, and implicitly supporting Trump's war in Iran.

They whinge about Starmer, they don't see to be grateful that at least we don't have Trump and his bunch of idiots ruling us. They don't seem to understand the simple basic fact that our economic problems are caused by the US's war in Iran, Russia's war in Ukraine, Israel's war in Palestine, Covid, and probably Brexit too.

I just hope we're not headed for having this lot in government in 2029 as a majority. If so, God help us, we'll become like the USA under Trump. In fact even worse, because the USA can get away with things due to its economically dominant position. We will not. We will just become an insignificant hardline right-wing authoritarian state which no-one will want to touch with a bargepole, and will IMO likely lose our status as a first-world country.

Too much of the UK population nowadays it seems are reactionary right-wingers who spend too much time listening to ranting extremists on TikTok.

It's time for all other parties, including the Conservatives I have to say, to declare war on Reform UK. They must not win the next election. All other parties must unite in fighting them, and fighting them with passion. The number one aim of all parties must be to drive them from power, even if they have to make sacrifices to their own success. We must save this country from being taken over by them and becoming a Trumpist hell-hole.

I was expecting Labour to do badly but I'd hoped Reform had peaked and I hoped the Greens would do much better.

Has the UK turned into a reactionary right-wing nation and progressives, left-wingers, and liberals are increasingly being marginalised? Even the US has a very significant anti-Trump movement, here we don't seem to have reached that stage yet. I suspect the US mid-terms will go much better than these elections have here. We seem to be behind the curve compared to the US and say Hungary. Just hope we're at their stage in 3 years' time.

Absolutely.

I will add that I see a vote for Reform as heading towards what happened in 1930s and 1940s Germany, i.e. a Fascist dictatorship.

 

[Gloster]

It seems that some of those voting for Reform seem to believe that these elections are, actually or effectively, a referendum on Starmer: they think that if enough people vote for Reform, Starmer will be thrown out and the beloved Nigel will become PM. Reform seems to have played to this: I got a leaflet with ‘Get Starmer Out’ as a headline and Farage’s ugly mug on the front. (I left it on the mat so I could stand on it when I went out.)

 

[weeklycommuter]

Interesting comment from Peter Kellner in The Guardian's coverage of the local election results.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/may/07/elections-2026-local-scotland-wales-reform-green-labour-conservatives-live-news-updates

09.53 BST
Peter Kellner, the elections expert and former YouGov president, has posted a good analysis of the results so far on his Substack blog. It is well worth reading in full, but here’s an extract.
"Behind the impressive tally of Reform’s gains – likely to end up well over 1,000 – Nigel Farage should be privately worried. In last year’s local elections Reform won 41 per cent of all seats contested across England. On the basis of the overnight figures, this year’s tally is around 33 per cent. If there were no polls, and there had been no elections last year, this year’s figure would be astonishing. But we do have the record of recent polls and elections, and it seems clear that Reform has peaked …
In contrast to Reform, Labour has cause for relief, despite losing half the seats it was defending yesterday. It’s bad – and in normal times it would be catastrophic – but it’s not as bad as its record in local council by-elections over the past 12 months, where it hast lost three-quarters of the seats it was defending …
However, even on the most optimistic interpretation of Labour’s performance, the overnight figures contain a stark warning. John Curtice told BBC viewers in the early hours that while Labour has lost many SEATS to Reform, it has lost VOTES more to the Greens."

 

[The Ham]

I think gaining a lot of seats but not gaining many councils will be perfect for them - another year of look at us were so popular with the electorate without the responsibility of having to deliver services

Although could still cost them, to date there's only been a few and they can claim they inherited a bad mess.

A few more this time and if they still continue to do badly and have more than 1 year of high council tax increases, it's likely that they may find it harder.

Obviously, the opposite is true, they manage to sort themselves out in the next 2 years, have limited rises in council tax and the like and they could be seen as what those who support them want.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Has the UK turned into a reactionary right-wing nation and progressives, left-wingers, and liberals are increasingly being marginalised?

No, I don't think it has.

However, what we do have is an electoral system which disproportionately penalises a split voter base. The left has always been more fractured than the right and this has played out time and time again in elections. The right unite behind one party, the left do not.

What is fascinating this time is that Labour are not, in general, losing vote share to Reform. The Conservatives are the ones losing vote share to Reform. The right are seemingly starting to unite around one party and, regrettably, that party is Reform.

The Conservatives are making the same mistakes as Labour in trying to ape Reform. You can't out-Reform Reform, whatever performative cruelty Labour or the Conservatives offer, Reform will always go one step further.

The Conservatives are really getting squeezed because of this- the socially conservative right are going to Reform but the One Nation Tories are being repulsed by all of this and are moving to the LibDems.

But Labour are struggling because of it too. The socially progressive side of the party is also repulsed by the performative cruelty and they, too, are moving either to the LibDems or the Greens. Labour is alienating its voter base in order to chase the votes of people who won't vote for it whatever they do.

If Labour gets wiped out in 2029 it won't be because of Reform, it will be because their core voter base either stays at home or votes Green. We saw that in the Runcorn by-election: Reform won it by 6 votes and celebrated wildly, but over 2,000 people had voted Green instead of Labour. FPTP actively penalises a fractured vote.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

Why the hell are people voting Reform?

Do people not see that the war started by their friend Trump is causing a major world crisis? Don't they understand what's going on in the USA where there is less and less freedom and it's turning into a far-right, authoritarian state under Trump?

I'm sorry, but anyone who voted Reform performed a brainless, vacuous, moronic act. They are implicitly voting for a Trumpist UK, and implicitly supporting Trump's war in Iran.

They whinge about Starmer, they don't see to be grateful that at least we don't have Trump and his bunch of idiots ruling us. They don't seem to understand the simple basic fact that our economic problems are caused by the US's war in Iran, Russia's war in Ukraine, Israel's war in Palestine, Covid, and probably Brexit too.

I just hope we're not headed for having this lot in government in 2029 as a majority. If so, God help us, we'll become like the USA under Trump. In fact even worse, because the USA can get away with things due to its economically dominant position. We will not. We will just become an insignificant hardline right-wing authoritarian state which no-one will want to touch with a bargepole, and will IMO likely lose our status as a first-world country.

Too much of the UK population nowadays it seems are reactionary right-wingers who spend too much time listening to ranting extremists on TikTok.

It's time for all other parties, including the Conservatives I have to say, to declare war on Reform UK. They must not win the next election. All other parties must unite in fighting them, and fighting them with passion. The number one aim of all parties must be to drive them from power, even if they have to make sacrifices to their own success. We must save this country from being taken over by them and becoming a Trumpist hell-hole.

I was expecting Labour to do badly but I'd hoped Reform had peaked and I hoped the Greens would do much better.

Has the UK turned into a reactionary right-wing nation and progressives, left-wingers, and liberals are increasingly being marginalised? Even the US has a very significant anti-Trump movement, here we don't seem to have reached that stage yet. I suspect the US mid-terms will go much better than these elections have here. We seem to be behind the curve compared to the US and say Hungary. Just hope we're at their stage in 3 years' time.

I didn’t vote Reform, but I understand why they did. You can’t fathom the loathing, anger and powerlessness huge parts of this country feel. The contempt for LibLabCon, Reform is a message and a means to an end. It’s just that mainstream politics have yet to come up with a credible answer to the message.

 

[nw1]

Interesting comment from Peter Kellner in The Guardian's coverage of the local election results.

That is more optimistic, thankfully.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 May 2026 ==

I didn’t vote Reform, but I understand why they did. You can’t fathom the loathing, anger and powerlessness huge parts of this country feel. The contempt for LibLabCon, Reform is a message and a means to an end. It’s just that mainstream politics have yet to come up with a credible answer to the message.

Seeking to blame Lab, Lib or even Con is misplaced though. They should be blaming Trump, Putin and Netanyahu, plus Covid and possibly the over-extended lockdowns.

I'm sorry, but "loathing, anger and powerlessness" is no excuse for voting Reform, any more than it is for robbing a bank. There are plenty of other alternatives to the most recent ruling parties of Labour or the Conservatives.

 

[yorkie]

I didn’t vote Reform, but I understand why they did. You can’t fathom the loathing, anger and powerlessness huge parts of this country feel. The contempt for LibLabCon, Reform is a message and a means to an end. It’s just that mainstream politics have yet to come up with a credible answer to the message.

I can't (other than recognising that they are racist or xenophobic or thick or some combination). And for the following reasons:

Seeking to blame Lab, Lib or even Con is misplaced though. They should be blaming Trump, Putin and Netanyahu, plus Covid and possibly the over-extended lockdowns.

I'm sorry, but "loathing, anger and powerlessness" is no excuse for voting Reform, any more than it is for robbing a bank. There are plenty of other alternatives to the most recent ruling parties of Labour or the Conservatives.

 

[deltic]

Why the hell are people voting Reform?

Do people not see that the war started by their friend Trump is causing a major world crisis? Don't they understand what's going on in the USA where there is less and less freedom and it's turning into a far-right, authoritarian state under Trump?

I'm sorry, but anyone who voted Reform performed a brainless, vacuous, moronic act. They are implicitly voting for a Trumpist UK, and implicitly supporting Trump's war in Iran.

They whinge about Starmer, they don't see to be grateful that at least we don't have Trump and his bunch of idiots ruling us. They don't seem to understand the simple basic fact that our economic problems are caused by the US's war in Iran, Russia's war in Ukraine, Israel's war in Palestine, Covid, and probably Brexit too.

I just hope we're not headed for having this lot in government in 2029 as a majority. If so, God help us, we'll become like the USA under Trump. In fact even worse, because the USA can get away with things due to its economically dominant position. We will not. We will just become an insignificant hardline right-wing authoritarian state which no-one will want to touch with a bargepole, and will IMO likely lose our status as a first-world country.

Too much of the UK population nowadays it seems are reactionary right-wingers who spend too much time listening to ranting extremists on TikTok.

It's time for all other parties, including the Conservatives I have to say, to declare war on Reform UK. They must not win the next election. All other parties must unite in fighting them, and fighting them with passion. The number one aim of all parties must be to drive them from power, even if they have to make sacrifices to their own success. We must save this country from being taken over by them and becoming a Trumpist hell-hole.

I was expecting Labour to do badly but I'd hoped Reform had peaked and I hoped the Greens would do much better.

Has the UK turned into a reactionary right-wing nation and progressives, left-wingers, and liberals are increasingly being marginalised? Even the US has a very significant anti-Trump movement, here we don't seem to have reached that stage yet. I suspect the US mid-terms will go much better than these elections have here. We seem to be behind the curve compared to the US and say Hungary. Just hope we're at their stage in 3 years' time.

Calling people moronic for voting Reform is why people vote for them. Reform is not a right wing party. It has two lots of supporters, wealthy business types who want small government and lots of disallusioned older voters who are culturally conservative but are often dependent on the welfare state and support big government.Farage's challenge is squaring that circle.

We have become a cakeism society, we want big government but we don't want to pay for it. No political party is honest about the trade offs we have to make, whether that relates to net zero, defence spending, health, housing or immigration.

 

[yorkie]

Calling people moronic for voting Reform is why people vote for them.

If that's true, it demonstrates even more that they are moronic!

Reform is not a right wing party.

It's a racist, xenophobic party.

It has two lots of supporters, wealthy business types who want small government and lots of disallusioned older voters who are culturally conservative but are often dependent on the welfare state and support big government.Farage's challenge is squaring that circle.

We have become a cakeism society, we want big government but we don't want to pay for it. No political party is honest about the trade offs we have to make, whether that relates to net zero, defence spending, health, housing or immigration.

Is this some sort of joke or parody? It's got to be...!

 

[Tetchytyke]

You can’t fathom the loathing, anger and powerlessness huge parts of this country feel.

I get why certain people in certain parts of the country just want to set fire to everything.

What I don't get is why* they think Reform- run by billionaires for billionaires- are the solution to the problem.

(*unless we simply accept that they are racist and/or xenophobic and that they are stupid- and I agree it's not quite as simple as that)

Calling people moronic for voting Reform is why people vote for them.

Reform's voter base is primarily people in the lower economic groups and primarily people in the lower educational attainment groups.

The awkward truth is that towns like Mansfield or Bishop Auckland have been 'left behind' because anyone with something about them left as soon as they could. These towns are now full of people who don't have much about them and so businesses who need skilled staff simply aren't seeking to relocate there. The only jobs there are in Amazon fulfilment centres or the likes. The doom spiral continues.

Bishop Auckland is 98% White British. Whatever problems that town has, it isn't due to the forrins- the forrins don't live there. So why are the people there so determined to blame the brown people on dinghies for everything?

 

[nw1]

Calling people moronic for voting Reform is why people vote for them. Reform is not a right wing party. It has two lots of supporters, wealthy business types who want small government and lots of disallusioned older voters who are culturally conservative but are often dependent on the welfare state and support big government.Farage's challenge is squaring that circle.

Reform is "not a right wing party" but is supported by "wealthy business types who want small government" and "voters who are culturally conservative"... doesn't that make it a right-wing party by implication? The two groups of voters are basically economic conservatives and social conservatives, the two key flavours of the right-wing.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 May 2026 ==

The awkward truth is that towns like Mansfield or Bishop Auckland have been 'left behind' because anyone with something about them left as soon as they could. These towns are now full of people who don't have much about them and so businesses who need skilled staff simply aren't seeking to relocate there. The only jobs there are in Amazon fulfilment centres or the likes. The doom spiral continues.

Bishop Auckland is 98% White British. Whatever problems that town has, it isn't due to the forrins- the forrins don't live there. So why are the people there so determined to blame the brown people on dinghies for everything?

Really, the likes of Bishop Auckland should be voting for a strongly left-wing party, left of Labour. A party aimed at bitcoin billionaires certainly won't improve their lot!

 

[RT4038]

Why the hell are people voting Reform?

Welcome home from your extended trip to the Planet Zog.

I'm sorry, but anyone who voted Reform performed a brainless, vacuous, moronic act. They are implicitly voting for a Trumpist UK, and implicitly supporting Trump's war in Iran.

As much as it appears that you do not understand why people are voting for Reform? And why those people think that voting for a continuation of the current party is a brainless, vacuous, moronic act. No they don't think that a vote for reform is implicitly supporting Trump's war in Iran - that is a connection you are making to somehow try and discredit them. I think they want a more Authoritarian government. Whether that sorts out the perceived and real issues remains to be seen of course.

Has the UK turned into a reactionary right-wing nation and progressives, left-wingers, and liberals are increasingly being marginalised?

No more than the progressives, left-wingers and liberals try to marginalise right wingers !

 

[Class73Electro]

Bishop Auckland is 98% White British. Whatever problems that town has, it isn't due to the forrins- the forrins don't live there. So why are the people there so determined to blame the brown people on dinghies for everything?

Because thats what the media are saying?

Since Labour got into power, there have been two main headlines

1) Boats boats and more boats (Though accept that this was also before too)
2) Labour are bad / KS is bad / Why hasn't KS Resigned / KS days are numbered (or) over

 

[Tetchytyke]

Really, the likes of Bishop Auckland should be voting for a strongly left-wing party, left of Labour. A party aimed at bitcoin billionaires certainly won't improve their lot!

These sorts of towns are economically left-wing but tend to be socially very conservative. Very white, very straight.

It's why Reform have been so keen to leap on every culture war issue going. Sadly, it seems to be working for them. These people are happy to vote for the bitcoin billionaires- who are also primarily arms dealers, but let's gloss over that- because they're sticking it to the forrins and to the trannies. I get it, but I also really don't get it. It's the meme of the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party, but in real life.

 

[RT4038]

It's a racist, xenophobic party.

Is this some sort of joke or parody? It's got to be...!

Yes, but that has an underlying appeal to quite a lot of voters..... Perhaps shining a light on the social engineering of the last 50 years is only a thin veneer of the baser instincts?

Not sure it is a joke or parody - sums up the issue quite well!

 

[Tetchytyke]

Reform is not a right wing party.

Reform is not a right wing party, you're correct. It is a far right wing party.

The centre-right are the One Nation Tories like Rory Stewart or Dominic Grieve. Reform are considerably to the right of them, both economically and socially.

 

[nw1]

Welcome home from your extended trip to the Planet Zog.

With that kind of response I'm not going to bother replying to your other points. Sorry. Aside from one: Reform is basically Trump UK, so by voting for them, people are implicitly voting for the UK to turn into a Trumpist state and to be run the way the US is currently being run, including starting foreign wars apparently to bolster its own arms and energy industry.

I'm living on the planet which is featuring or has featured wars in Iran, Ukraine, and Palestine; a pandemic with accompanying lockdowns; and to a lesser extent, an unnecessary rift from relatively moderate geographical neighbours: I think I know what's going on in this world, thank you very much.

Problems caused by factors mostly external to the UK, which a wealthy Dulwich College old boy and his wealthy friends will absolutely not solve one bit. Instead we need the kind of leadership willing to work with other moderate leaders around the world to solve the world's problems. I'm not saying Starmer is perfect in this respect, but he's a hell of a lot better than Farage would be, who would likely turn the UK into a pariah state.

Can you explain to me how Reform will improve the lot of this country? Will we have more freedom of speech? Will employees have more rights? Will the NHS see more funding? Will minorities be treated with more respect? Will our relations with moderate democratic nations around the world improve? And will our economic situation improve? I suspect in all those respects, things will get worse, perhaps even dramatically worse.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Yes, but that has an underlying appeal to quite a lot of voters..... Perhaps shining a light on the social engineering of the last 50 years is only a thin veneer of the baser instincts?

But I thought it was insulting to say that Reform voters are all racists and xenophobes?

 

[ainsworth74]

It's not really getting much discussion but it's interesting to see the Tories getting another shellacking, down 174 so far and they've lost control of a Council as well I think to Reform. They really are on extinction watch I think...

So why are the people there so determined to blame the brown people on dinghies for everything?

Is that just the classic symptoms of the human condition? Our susceptibility to being told that someone else, some other is to blame for our woes? And that people in positions of power (either directly or indirectly) use the media (and in recent years social media) along with their own profile (which increasingly has no gatekeeping as traditional media falls away) to play on those fears and whip them up into a frenzy which they can then use to ride to power. This is long known and we remain vulnerable to it. A famous exchange shortly before he died with Hermann Goring illustrates the point:

Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.

Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.

Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.

Nuremberg Diary - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Goring was referring to war but the same concepts apply to most anything really. If you can persuade people that they're under attack or their misfortune is due to someone else it is not difficult to bend them in the direction you desire. To be clear I'm not trying to suggest Reform and Nigel Farage and the Nazis and Hitler but the same techniques are at play, because they work.

There's the famous cartoon as well of Rupert Murdoch (billionaire owner a massive right wing media empire, but the concept applies more widely):


(Cartoon shows Rupert Murdoch with a piled plate of cookies in front of him talking to a white working man with one cookie in front of him saying "Careful mate that foreigner wants your cookie" pointing to a black man with no cookie in front of him at all)

You mix the despair, frustration, sense of being forgotten/ignored/abandoned, along with the visible indicators of decline that persist throughout places like the North East with those who are willing to tell lies or exaggerations about who or what is to blame for these ills and you get what we see with Reform. People who are screaming for change, for it to stop and get better voting against their own interests by voting for a party led by a man educated in a fee-paying elite private school and whose first big job was a commodities trader in the city of London.

 

[nw1]

These sorts of towns are economically left-wing but tend to be socially very conservative. Very white, very straight.

It's why Reform have been so keen to leap on every culture war issue going. Sadly, it seems to be working for them. These people are happy to vote for the bitcoin billionaires- who are also primarily arms dealers, but let's gloss over that- because they're sticking it to the forrins and to the trannies. I get it, but I also really don't get it. It's the meme of the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party, but in real life.

And I bet they've never met a single foreigner nor a single trans person.

 

[SteveP29]

I had a busy day and voted in the Scottish Parliament election at about half past nine tonight. I asked the lady working there how it had been, she said it had been mobbed and queued out at points. I had to actually force my ballot papers into the boxes, they were so full. I wonder how that will affect the result.

As I made my way across Edinburgh from work to Tynecastle, I passed a few polling stations (sorry, can't get away with Polling Place as they call them up here) and there were queues outside at a few of them.
When I was able to cast my vote, just before 9pm, the Regional vote ballot box needed me to push my paper down to get it in as it was very full. I'm not sure though if that was to do with the turnout or the 3 foot long ballot paper I had to get all 22 candidates onto the paper.
I'm hoping what I think was a larger turnout was to voice opposition to hate and division and ensure they don't get a foothold in Scotland.

Nothing to do with results, but find it interesting that in Wales counting is only just about to start, rather than taking place overnight immediately after polls close.

Means the counters are less likely to be tired and make mistakes, and more people can follow the results potentially leading to greater engagement. But there is something about election night that I would miss if this approach was taken in UK general elections.

I've seen a couple of comments on Twitter this morning suggesting that they've been deliberately left overnight, so that they could be tampered with to prevent Reform from winning.

I get that because of the infrequency of elections, we get a huge number of people who vote for the first time at each election, but by Christ, it confirms that there are hundreds of thousands out there that just don't understand the processes and for me, don't understand politics and representation (I don't claim to be an expert myself, for clarity) and seem to be dong it as if it were a reality TV show