Reform, and the death of the Tory Party

[AndyRM]

Plus, we did all our immigrating years ago and appreciate the results.

 

[secretsqirrel]

I wonder why Reform are less popular in Scotland? Is immigration seen as less of an issue? Are they seen as anti-Scottish? Is it just that Reform are the protest vote option in England whereas the SNP play that role in Scotland (Plaid doing similar to a lesser extent in Wales)? I guess Scotland were much more pro-EU too.

Reform don’t like devolution, they see it as a DOGE opportunity, and have threatened to abolish the Welsh parliament before now.

 

[Pross]

Reform don’t like devolution, they see it as a DOGE opportunity, and have threatened to abolish the Welsh parliament before now.

They’ll no doubt feel it is worth keeping whilst 36 of them rake in a salary, a bit like UKIP with the European Parliament

 

[First Aspect]

Scottish elections constituency vote share
SNP: 38.2%
Labour: 19.2%
Reform: 15.8%
Scottish Greens: 2.3%
Conservatives: 11.8%
LibDem: 11.4%

I find this interesting. The greens are grossly over represented in Holyrood, and the fptp total for independence supporting parties is 40.5%.

 

[briantrumpet]

I wonder why Reform are less popular in Scotland? Is immigration seen as less of an issue? Are they seen as anti-Scottish? Is it just that Reform are the protest vote option in England whereas the SNP play that role in Scotland (Plaid doing similar to a lesser extent in Wales)? I guess Scotland were much more pro-EU too.

It still bemuses me why Reform did well in Wales, when all indicators are that they don't give a stuff for anywhere apart from England.

 

[First Aspect]

It still bemuses me why Reform did well in Wales, when all indicators are that they don't give a stuff for anywhere apart from England.

It is silver bullet voting. Wales is split evenly between hard left and hard right. Neither have the solution, but both have the votes because of a decade of Brexit, pandemic and war, for which incumbents all around the world are being punished.

 

[Pross]

It still bemuses me why Reform did well in Wales, when all indicators are that they don't give a stuff for anywhere apart from England.

The new system probably helped although they did well on vote share too..

 

[briantrumpet]

The new system probably helped although they did well on vote share too..

I suppose it's just another example of the snake oil salesmanship of Reform, who are masters of tapping into people's gullibility so they overlook that they are being played by rich English nationalists who despite their supporters as losers (and Welsh losers in Wales, so even worse).

 

[Mr Celine]

Reform are a very English focussed party, so the average Scot probably detests them as a result

We detest condescending people who don't live here telling us how they think we should be running our country.

I'm amazed reform got as many votes as they did after Offord boasting about how many houses, cars and boats he has.

 

[AuroraSaab]

Well, since you mention it, Allison...

View attachment 14985

Thank God I don't live in Essex. £5 for cheesey chips is outrageous.

 

[Xipe Totec]

I wonder why Reform are less popular in Scotland? Is immigration seen as less of an issue? Are they seen as anti-Scottish? Is it just that Reform are the protest vote option in England whereas the SNP play that role in Scotland (Plaid doing similar to a lesser extent in Wales)? I guess Scotland were much more pro-EU too.

Reform are a hard-right English Nationalist/Nativist party and openly hostile to devolution. It seems much of their electoral support has simply switched from Tory, or broadly consists of the 'staunch' Unionists who've traditionally voted Tory for decades, as well as disaffected unaligned/unengaged folk persuaded by the constant 'not-the-SNP' media rhetoric and the relentlessly dismal performance of Labour under Starmer.

I'm not sure the SNP can be reasonably dismissed as the 'protest vote option' when they're poised to start their fifth consecutive term in government, tbh.

 

[briantrumpet]

Reform are a hard-right English Nationalist/Nativist party and openly hostile to devolution.

Yup, that seems fair, made even worse by their disdain for Wales & Scotland, who should be servile to England in their view.

 

[Pinno718]

" I would rather rub my f*nny with a cheese grater than vote Reform"

 

[briantrumpet]

Dammit, I agree with Badenoch

 

[briantrumpet]

Well, the Farage £5mn bung isn't going away quite yet.

https://observer.co.uk/news/politic...face-byelection-over-crypto-kings-5m-donation

A recall and by-election would be a good excuse for the press to (re)explore all the other scandals, mostly having let them all go by the wayside so far.