'I asked Nigel Farage’s supporters what they really want and the answers were alarming'
'I asked Nigel Farage’s supporters what they really want and the answers were alarming'
My time spent mingling with Reform supporters online revealed a lot about where the UK could be heading next, argues David Goff
The leadership of both main parties seem to think the only thing Reform supporters get worked up about is immigration. They may be right, but the conclusion that they can only win them over by out Reforming Reform is based on some alarmingly naive assumptions about the people they are trying to convert.
So, I thought I’d help Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch out by attempting to discover what your average Reform supporter actually wants.
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So, I took to the internet and joined a raft of Reform-supporting groups to see what their followers were thinking. I have to say, this was not a pleasant task. Scrolling through hundreds of posts filled with ugly sentiments was like stumbling upon the world’s worst online dating site.
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Among all this impotent fury there are genuine concerns about the health service, cost of living, crime, housing and all the other things the rest of us worry about. However, these people have fallen for the ancient lie that their problems aren’t caused by the people with the power to change them, but by “the others”.
And this is where the slope gets really slippery. Lee Anderson’s sympathy for the thugs involved in the Southport riots is widely shared and despite official disapproval from the party’s leadership the jailed Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson) is often lauded as true patriot and political prisoner.
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As opinion polls regularly confirm, the queues at food banks and A&E matter more to most voters than the ones at the border. Surely the way to dissuade people from abandoning the British traditions of tolerance and democracy is to deal with real issues rather than pandering to the fairy tale that everything would be okay if it wasn’t for “that lot”.
But, with Reform style—ads and videos of poor souls arrested after being forced to work in nail bars, Labour risk legitimising the racism they’re trying to undermine. If you tell Farage’s supporters, “See, you can vote for us after all,” they may just hear, “See, you were right all along”.
As the Democrats found out in November, if you don’t take the chance to improve people’s lives, they might just dump you for the nearest narcissistic crackpot and while the Conservative‘s collapse allowed Reform to creep onto the wings of the political stage, Labour’s failure to address everyday concerns risks thrusting them into the spotlight.
The two most common complaints on the Reform supporters’ websites are that immigrants are bad and the Government doesn’t care about ordinary people. If Labour can’t demonstrate that the latter is as much a lie as the former, we might all get what Reform supporters really want… President Farage.
British traditions of tolerance and democracy
Since when has tolerance been a tradition? All my life we seem to have been a mean-spirited, bigoted little island with delusions of grandeur. Entirely in line with the people who would vote for Reform
Well for one 6% of the country is now Muslim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_the_United_Kingdom
And that's not the only foreign religion that thrives here. Our last PM (Rishi Sunak) is Hindu, and Keir Starmer is an atheist.
We have numerous parades for the LGBTQIA+ communities (which is a substantial shift from how we treated Alan Turing just a few decades ago), [pro-]Palestinians shouting "from the river to the sea" calling for Israeli genocide (that is: genocide of Israelis), etc.
Seems to me we're one of the most tolerant countries on the planet. Of course there are plenty of intolerants around the place but you'll find them in every country. And the Last Night of the Proms jingoism harks back to when Britannia ruled the waves and misty-eyed dreams of Making Britain Great Again. But the day to day reality of life in the UK is that anyone from anywhere can make it if they get a lucky break.
If British conservatives are anything like American conservatives, they mean tolerance for only them and democracy where only their voice matters.
The answers were alarming
And what were the answers?
The two most common complaints on the Reform supporters’ websites are that immigrants are bad and the Government doesn’t care about ordinary people.
This is 'alarming'?
The idea that after more than thirty years of a Red Tory Labour party, they have any time whatsoever left to demonstrate they 'care about ordinary people' to new and future reform party voters shows how out of touch the writer, and if this site is representative, then the media in general is. (I can't read anything on this site as at the time of this post is temporarily busy or unavailable.)
Brexit is another expression of this exact same dynamic that to history might look like an ignored warning shot. Absolutely nothing was done to try and ameliorate living conditions for poor people in the UK in the intervening years. they were vilified as racists for freely voting in what they considered was their best interests. The Labour party have simply continued austerity since coming into office last year.
I despise this rise of the far right (I don't want to be trapped on a small island with Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson with no freedom of movement across the rest of Europe) but I understand the anger those former working class reform voting people feel. And although I disagree with the new reform voters' response: place the blame on immigrants (who should really be allies), and vote for a reform party that clearly won't have their interest at heart either, I have come to terms with the fact that we will reap what successive former governments have sown.
I don't see any evidence whatsoever that any of the mainstream parties have the capability to reverse the decades of decisions that have lead us to this point. You can't cut everything that provides quality of life, including access to education, then expect a considered intelligent response. You don't get governments that protect bankers, and the house price rises from which bankers profit so handsomely, for years and years while a large proportion of the population are completely left behind without any push back. This is that push back. Reform will not hurt those bankers in any way. The home ownership 'electorate' class have never got out and protested on behalf of the poor when it is against their personal interest, unions and other organisations that might have defended these people's rights are gone, protest increasingly becoming criminalised, so the far right it is very likely to be.
Well said.
The template exists, Liberalism has failed in America with its failure to address the working class and its obsession with identity politics.
I expect the UK to follow the same path, is it is trodden.
Farage runs against a Conservative Party led by a black woman, and Starmer who is neither popular nor likeable .
Unfortunately this is where we on the left often fall for our own bias.
Labour spending time on red tory politics is not eating into the time to proove they care about people.
Because many right wing voters see such actions as the very proof they do care.
IE we on the left see the actions of the last 14 years as showing tories do not care. But the right on the whole are bot convinced our ideas of caring can actually help. Rather then cause more harm.
When we just say being right wing shows we don't care. We are basically saying we have no need to explain why our ideals are better for these people.
The left as a whole me included. Has given up trying to convince the right that a) our actions are not harmful for the econ as a whole. And b) our vision of how the econ should work is in itself better for all but the very top. While not being harmful to the top. Just less profitable.
Of course how bad the last 2 paragraphs were at getting my point over, makes it clear this is not my talent. But I hope I managed to make my point to you at least.
The just is we on the left needs to find leaders who are good at explaining the advantages of our ideals. Rather then assuming right wing voters know their ideals cause harm to society and the economy.
It's mask off for these people. Controlled opposition isn't opposition and the sooner the world wakes up to this fact, the better we'll all be, ironically including the sociopath class.