Reform UK's chronicles

[1andrew1]

I thought it might be interesting to have a separate thread on Reform UK. They've been making headlines of late with membership overtaking the Conservatives, strong polling, regional conferences, support from Musk and then the expression from Musk that Farage wasn't the person to lead them and how might Musk engineer a replacement for Farage.

So what's the news today?

From a paper keen on Reform UK, the Daily Express

Nigel Farage breaks silence after 12 Reform councillors quit over Elon Musk

Nigel Farage has addressed the claims he is "autocratic", "disloyal", and "not up to the job" made by 12 Reform UK councillors who announced plans to resign on Friday.

The councillors' decision was reported by the Guardian as Mr Farage was attending Reform's event in Surrey.

The resignations came after a public spat between Mr Farage and Elon Musk, who had planned to donate around £80 million to Reform before then suggesting the party should have a new leader.

Mr Farage told the BBC that the 12 councillors - all from Derbyshire - were part of a "rogue branch" of the party.

He said: "We had a rogue branch putting people up and I think you'll find, in many cases, there will have to be by-elections because they were not legitimately put forward," Farage told the news organisation.

"Apparently one of them shared a Tommy Robinson post a few years ago. We have got no issue with that."

Chairman of Reform UK, Zia Yusuf, posted on X: "The leader of this group of 'councillors' was suspended weeks ago by Reform for: 1) nominating candidates that failed vetting. 2) fraudulently nominating candidates with an invalid DNO certificate.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknew...bb3c8fe7d&ei=7

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An interesting article on its policy shift to the left.

Why Farage is turning left

Five years on, Farage is playing a rather different tune. In an interview with PoliticsJOE this week, the Reform leader highlighted his common ground with Corbyn: “Anti-establishment, obviously. A sense that the giant corporates now dominate the world that we live in, that politics is very much in the pockets of the big corporates,” he said after being told of a former Corbyn supporter who now backed Reform.

“My thinking and Corbyn’s does cross over. I mean, Corbyn was a Eurosceptic right from the very start. He thought that what Brussels would do is be good for big banks and big businesses and bad for everybody else. Well, he was pretty much right.”

Farage – an astute political entrepreneur – has spotted a gap in the political market. In an age of anger, there are votes to be won from railing against big business. “In some ways, my economic narrative against the global corporatists is quite left wing,” he told the New Statesman last year...

The unfilled space in British politics has long been for a party that is both socially conservative and economically populist (“fund the NHS and hang the paedos” as it is sometimes known). In recent weeks there have been signs that Reform is seeking to occupy this territory.

The party has called for the renationalisation of Thames Water and championed domestic steel production (Lee Anderson has urged the UK to “copy China”). Its manifesto argued for a “new model that brings 50 per cent of each [national] utility into public ownership”.

Labour MPs – 86 of who have Reform in second place – have observed this shift and are troubled by it. “Farage senses Labour has left a vacuum in northern working-class communities,” one told me. “In order to take those seats he is reorienting his economic strategy.”

There are limits to Reform’s leftist turn. In some respects the party’s pitch remains classically Thatcherite – championing lower taxes and lower spending. This is not least due to its membership. As a recent poll by Queen Mary University of London and Sussex University found, 56 per cent of Reform members believe that the government should cut taxes and spend less on public services (compared to 44 per cent of Conservative members).

https://www.newstatesman.com/politic...s-turning-left

[papa smurf]

Anything to take the spotlight off Labour

[Russ]

Here's their leader Farage who wants action taken against grooming gangs.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Russ

...... is the gift that keeps on giving.

Here's their leader Farage who wants action taken against grooming gangs.

There he is photographed with that well known person Pakistani heritage.

Councillors are the most jumped-up self-important berks of our political system IMO. At least Ministers and Prime Ministers have power. I have a theory that the less political power someone has the higher the chance it does to their head.

[Itshim]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

Anything to take the spotlight off Labour

My thoughts exactly

---------- Post added at 12:13 ---------- Previous post was at 12:12 ----------

Originally Posted by Pierre

There he is photographed with that well known person Pakistani heritage.

One long leap

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Pierre

There he is photographed with that well known person Pakistani heritage.

Yeah you’re probably right. I mean it’s not like we’ve heard much from Farage about Catholic priests grooming children.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

Anything to take the spotlight off Labour

Predictably Desperate and inaccurate comment. They're big enough to warrant their thread.

[Russ]

Farage is now no longer dead-against allowing Shamima Begum back in to the UK.

You genuinely couldn’t make this up. Indeed the gift that keeps on giving.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Damien

Councillors are the most jumped-up self-important berks of our political system IMO. At least Ministers and Prime Ministers have power. I have a theory that the less political power someone has the higher the chance it does to their head.

True, when most are, in fact, merely voting fodder.

From my experience this is also the case with so called 'celebrities'. Our local weatherman really thinks he's someone special/famous and his neighbours find him a total irritant. On the other hand, i've met many very famous people who are perfectly grounded & decent people.

Please stop carping about thread topics. If you want a thread on a particular topic and there isn’t one already, go and start it.

[Russ]

“Man of the people” my furry Welsh arse:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politi...-huge-34462708

[papa smurf]

Nine well paid jobs is better than 1 poorly paid job

[Russ]

I’m sure that warms the cockles of his Clacton constituents who he never sees.

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Russ

I’m sure that warms the cockles of his Clacton constituents who he never sees.

They can always vote him out at the next election if they aren't happy with him