The Reform Thread

[Holmes_and_Watson]

18 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Do you think there is just one type of 'X people'?  Who knows, maybe some other 'X people' will pipe up?

Shunned not only for being mutants, but for their political views...

[Lord Duckhunter]

44 minutes ago, JohnnyShearer2.0 said:

Yeah mate at any point did I say no one else does it? We know they're all guilty of it.

But it’ll be worse if Nigel does it. You’ve seen how people are triggered when he’s only got 6 MP’s…..

[Lord Duckhunter]

47 minutes ago, JohnnyShearer2.0 said:

IF Reform get in lets see if all the X people etc are gonna in hard on Farage as they are doing on Starmer.

I’d imagine Reform supporters will go as easy on him as Labour & Tory supporters do when they’re in Government. People who don’t like Reform, will criticise him like people who don’t like Starmer criticise him. It’s been the same for years. Why are people trying to claim there’s some sort of special “go easy on Reform” bandwagon is ridiculous. Nearly as ridiculous as judging Nigel differently than other politicians. 

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

4 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

I’d imagine Reform supporters will go as easy on him as Labour & Tory supporters do when they’re in Government. People who don’t like Reform, will criticise him like people who don’t like Starmer criticise him. It’s been the same for years. Why are people trying to claim there’s some sort of special “go easy on Reform” bandwagon is ridiculous. Nearly as ridiculous as judging Nigel differently than other politicians. 

I'm not claiming anything. Plenty of Labour people aren't happy with Starmer. 

If Farage gets in as PM, do you not think he should be judged more critically than any other MP?

[ChrisPY]

On 20/01/2026 at 18:50, sadoldgit said:

A bit of light relief. I’ll start.

The Racist’s Retreat

Not sure of the name but there might be a sign on the door:

‘No Blacks

No SOGs

No Irish’

[Lord Duckhunter]

1 hour ago, JohnnyShearer2.0 said:

 

If Farage gets in as PM, do you not think he should be judged more critically than any other MP?

He should be judged exactly the same as every other PM. If he is as bad at the job as Starmer, he deserves exactly the same treatment. No more or no less….

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

He should be judged exactly the same as every other PM. If he is as bad at the job as Starmer, he deserves exactly the same treatment. No more or no less….

He won’t though. He’ll have all the lovely, caring left wingers screaming and crying “not my prime minister” whilst at the same time saying how great democracy is

[Gloucester Saint]

Manhandling an ITV journalist in Scotland because they didn’t like the question https://www.thenational.scot/news/25769553.itv-journalist-grabbed-reform-aide-malcolm-offord-squirms/

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

On 24/01/2026 at 18:25, Lord Duckhunter said:

He should be judged exactly the same as every other PM. If he is as bad at the job as Starmer, he deserves exactly the same treatment. No more or no less….

Not quite what I asked. 

[east-stand-nic]

On 24/01/2026 at 00:25, sadoldgit said:

He can’t bring himself to criticise either of them. Farage’s criticisms, especially today’s, were hardly stinging.

Just like his response when Trump said when you are famous women will let you grab them by the pussy. According to Farage it was just “locker room talk.”

Being an apologist for both Trump and Farage this week must have been especially hard for nic. My heart goes out to him.

Is that similar to how you can NEVER bring yourself to condemn a Muslim terror attack incident? 

[sadoldgit]

In the least surprising news of the day, Suella Braverman has defected to Reform.

Edited 8 hours ago by sadoldgit

[tdmickey3]

All the rats deserting a sinking ship to another rat infested ship

[sadoldgit]

It’s funny how all of the Tories defecting to Reform slag off the Tories when they were part of the reason the Tories were so crap.

Never trust a Tory said Farage, who now leads Tory 2.0.

 

[iansums]

18 minutes ago, sadoldgit said:

It’s funny how all of the Tories defecting to Reform slag off the Tories when they were part of the reason the Tories were so crap.

Never trust a Tory said Farage, who now leads Tory 2.0.

 

To be honest, that's politicians in general sadly.

[Farmer Saint]

This is surely hurting Reform? Taking all the shit Tory MPs who are already tainted, rather than fielding new, semi-unknown and untainted candidates. I dunno.

[badgerx16]

1 minute ago, Farmer Saint said:

This is surely hurting Reform? Taking all the shit Tory MPs who are already tainted, rather than fielding new, semi-unknown and untainted candidates. I dunno.

Given the publicity in the last couple of years over the SM history and other activities of Reform candidates, they don't have any that are "untainted".

[tdmickey3]

4 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

This is surely hurting Reform? Taking all the shit Tory MPs who are already tainted, rather than fielding new, semi-unknown and untainted candidates. I dunno.

Most of them originate from the area close to taint

[revolution saint]

1 minute ago, Farmer Saint said:

This is surely hurting Reform? Taking all the shit Tory MPs who are already tainted, rather than fielding new, semi-unknown and untainted candidates. I dunno.

One of the things polling has shown up is that a lot of potential reform voters have reservations over of a lack of experience so the theory goes that bringing in experienced Tories will rectify that.  Not sure it will and, as you say, they're tainted and can only really demonstrate "bad" experience.  It'll probably also damage the appeal of Reform as a genuine alternative.

Personally I'm quite looking forward to the in-fighting they're famous for;  Jenrick, Braverman and Zahawi didn't join to play second fiddle for long.

[Turkish]

They don’t get my vote until Pritti Patel is confirmed 

[hypochondriac]

55 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

This is surely hurting Reform? Taking all the shit Tory MPs who are already tainted, rather than fielding new, semi-unknown and untainted candidates. I dunno.

It's a cost benefit analysis surely. The big thing is they need to show they aren't just a bunch of chances and need some people involved with experience of government and leadership. The downside as you say though is they will be tainted with previous failures. A difficult balancing act for sure.

[sadoldgit]

1 hour ago, iansums said:

To be honest, that's politicians in general sadly.

There is an old saying, “It doesn’t matter who you vote for, the Government always gets in.”

Having said that, some are a lot worse than others.

[Farmer Saint]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

They don’t get my vote until Pritti Patel is confirmed 

Ol' Stumpy has got to be next.

[Farmer Saint]

42 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

It's a cost benefit analysis surely. The big thing is they need to show they aren't just a bunch of chances and need some people involved with experience of government and leadership. The downside as you say though is they will be tainted with previous failures. A difficult balancing act for sure.

I can't believe they're doing any sort of cost benefit analysis of it. They've got Lee Anderson FFS.

[sadoldgit]

41 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

Ol' Stumpy has got to be next.

Apparently David Frost could be the next one. What happened to the prominent Labour member who was supposed to defect?

Great comment from Jonathan Pie today. Reform aren’t even the Tory-lite party anymore. They are the full blown Tories with guest star Nigel Farage.

[Farmer Saint]

4 minutes ago, sadoldgit said:

What happened to the prominent Labour member who was supposed to defect?

Andy Burnham now...

[hypochondriac]

1 hour ago, Farmer Saint said:

I can't believe they're doing any sort of cost benefit analysis of it. They've got Lee Anderson FFS.

You could argue that the very reason they need some more experience and serious politicians is because they have the likes of Lee Anderson. 

[hypochondriac]

35 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

You could argue that the very reason they need some more experience and serious politicians is because they have the likes of Lee Anderson. 

Not sure why that's funny? From their perspective, having some more heavyweight politicians like Jenrick with some recognition will help them combat claims of inexperience and being fringe loons amongst the general public even if there are obvious downsides as well.

[badgerx16]

7 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Not sure why that's funny? From their perspective, having some more heavyweight politicians like Jenrick with some recognition will help them combat claims of inexperience and being fringe loons amongst the general public even if there are obvious downsides as well.

Having Jenrick on board is not going to help counter accusations of grift.

[hypochondriac]

12 minutes ago, badgerx16 said:

Having Jenrick on board is not going to help counter accusations of grift.

Whatever you think of him, he has more legitimacy amongst the general public. Certainly compared to someone like Lee. He's more electable for Reform than someone like Lee Anderson.

Edited 3 hours ago by hypochondriac

[Holmes_and_Watson]

For what it's worth a conservative, not MP, who worked one of the rapid fire iterations of the previous regime, made the following points:-

Despite being in the government, the defectors were the ones trying to support the right of the party, only to be prevented from doing that.

The recent pronouncements from the Tories, trying to be reform lite, does not match what's going on in the party.

That there were a considerable number within the party that wanted it to be more to the left, in liberal democrat territory.

This has resulted in Reform getting a lot of experienced politicians, keen to show that Reform are the only ones really placed in that right side of the traditional conservative position.

[Gloucester Saint]

4 hours ago, Turkish said:

They don’t get my vote until Pritti Patel is confirmed 

Are you Lighthouse in disguise?

[Gloucester Saint]

The only surprise this time was that she took so long, given the constant rumours in autumn 2024.

Trying to claim Suella as a coup is a bit like Wolves unveiling Mario Lemina and praising his PL experience and great professionalism and attitude shown at Saints….

That said, Badenoch screwed up with the mental health jibe in the original PR. Had to from her as well going by rumours of their first shadow cabinet in opposition. 

[ecuk268]

1 hour ago, hypochondriac said:

Whatever you think of him, he has more legitimacy amongst the general public. Certainly compared to someone like Lee. He's more electable for Reform than someone like Lee Anderson.

 

[iansums]

1 hour ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

For what it's worth a conservative, not MP, who worked one of the rapid fire iterations of the previous regime, made the following points:-

Despite being in the government, the defectors were the ones trying to support the right of the party, only to be prevented from doing that.

The recent pronouncements from the Tories, trying to be reform lite, does not match what's going on in the party.

That there were a considerable number within the party that wanted it to be more to the left, in liberal democrat territory.

This has resulted in Reform getting a lot of experienced politicians, keen to show that Reform are the only ones really placed in that right side of the traditional conservative position.

This is exactly the point. Many traditional Tory voters felt that their governments have been too centrist and need to move to the right for more radical policies. It is the MP’s that are also further to the right that have defected to Reform.

[Farmer Saint]

30 minutes ago, iansums said:

This is exactly the point. Many traditional Tory voters felt that their governments have been too centrist and need to move to the right for more radical policies. It is the MP’s that are also further to the right that have defected to Reform.

The ones that have been proven to be morons.

It's like a who's who of human crap.

Edited 1 hour ago by Farmer Saint

[Lord Duckhunter]

58 minutes ago, iansums said:

This is exactly the point. Many traditional Tory voters felt that their governments have been too centrist and need to move to the right for more radical policies. It is the MP’s that are also further to the right that have defected to Reform.

Exactly this. Calling Reform UK the Tory party MK2 is just wrong. The soaking wet Cameron wing of the party is still there. The more right leaning defections, the more the remaining Tory party will resemble the one all the people who will never vote for it, think it should be.
 

Let’s hope there’s more, then Rory Stewart, Grieve, Gauke etc can “ get their party back”. The electorate will then have their say, and they’ll get a shellacking which will make July 24 look like a great result. 

Edited 38 minutes ago by Lord Duckhunter

[whelk]

C’mon Liz, you know you want to

[whelk]

3 hours ago, hypochondriac said:

heavyweight politicians like Jenrick

My how definitions change. The ultimate modern low substance, unethical vain politician now being considered a heavyweight

[iansums]

44 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

The ones that have been proven to be morons.

It's like a who's who of human crap.

Great work Farmer, excellent points, well made.