I blame the BBC.
By platforming Farage over the last decade or so whilst simultaneously ostracising leftwing voices, they have laid the groundwork for the rise of Reform.
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Can never unsee that!
Thank you Sands!
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I think you over estimate the influence of the BBC and especially in this constituency. If you have ever been to Runcorn, you will find it is a rundown mainly white working class town with wide scale poverty and big social issues. I really doubt many watch the BBC and probably hardly any watch or have even heard of the likes of Question Time. Despite the very large Labour majority at the last election it is in many ways low hanging fruit for Reform at this point in time.
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The problem is that Farageâs appearances arenât limited to Question Time. Every time you turn on the telly, his ugly mug is grinning back at you.
I am not one of those people who get their ânewsâ from social media, but I would imagine that rightwing propaganda is even more widespread on online platforms than on the television.
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I find this more worrying than the Runcorn result. A defeated former Tory MP jumps ship and gets an easy shoe in for Reform.
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Thatâs what I said in my previous post, although it appears like a footnote.
The Tories are nothing now. They keep getting covered on the basis of their having the second most seats in Parliament and therefore being the official opposition, and their historic presence, but theyâre just an election short of being wiped out.
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Theyâll live on, in the guise of Starmerâs Labour.
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This is the nub of it. Lots of people are getting their ânewsâ from social media. The algorithms of which promote echo chambers where there is no context, balance or critical analysis of what they are being told. They are also told the news outlets which do try to have this are lying to them.
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This is the result of so many factors, and itâs only going to get worse. Reform have GB News and Talk TV/Radio on their side, pumping out anti-immigration rhetoric, pushing the narrative that those on benefits are scroungers, and that all of their problems can only be solved by Reform (creating a cult). X continually pumps this stuff out. I thought it was mad for Labour to scrap the WFA, and the idea that they wanted to get the bad stuff out of the way was pure lunacy, because it ignores the power of social media. To this day, around these local elections, clips from Starmer were still being played about the WFA, energy bills etc, using national issues to influence local elections. It feels like Labour have no answer, and using a strategy from the 90âs.
Leaflets posted through the letterbox from Labour councillors had so many images of Farage, and all I could do was just shake my head at their outdated strategy. Stuff like that doesnât work anymore.
The voting public are thick. Even in my constituency of Doncaster, a section were asked what their concerns were going into voting this time. They said immigration, and were even told these elections have no influence on them, and that Ros Jones (mayor) couldnât do anything about that, but they still said it was a huge concern, and thatâs what theyâll be voting on.
I still believe that in 2029, Farage will become PM. Weâre heading that way, and I felt it even before the 2024 GE. Iâm surrounded by people who back Reform, and believed so much of the online nonsense during the Southport riots. Farage has tapped into feelings over facts, and Labour have never come up with an answer for it. I think due to social media, Starmer is toast, regardless of what he does. He can reinstall the WFA, and people will still vote against him. Inflation can drop, we can have record low unemployment, reduce immigration, reduce the benefit bill, and people wonât accept it, because of what theyâre reading, watching and listening on social media. This is the society weâre living in.
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It certainly blew through a lot of political capital the government didnt really have even though it had just been elected.
A change like that is never going to be popular, so it almost doesnt matter when you make that cut. You do have to follow it up with something that makes it easier for people to accept it- and that is difficult to do for a new government in its first 9 months, particularly with the financial constraints it found itself with. Furthermore, it has probably been exacerbated with the rmore recent announcements on some of the other benefits too.
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Labour deserve everything theyâre getting. And itâs going to get much worse for them under coward, genocide-supporting Starmer
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This is the first part of what I wonder is wrong. I feel as though Labour is just too much in thrall to the old ways, and has failed to adapt to changing times. I feel as though Starmer is too much of a small-c conservative, and doesnât know how to react appropriately to changes.
I donât disagree with that, and itâs also part of the problem that I feel about Labour being too much in thrall to the old ways. Itâs been about control and alienation of the left, when he should have been about winning them over by giving them a seat at the table that is clearly about hearing their voices.
People who donât pay constant attention to politics will not know what Starmerâs ideals are. Except that heâs about getting rid of the left, a sentiment echoed in what @WeeJoe just posted, and what @Rambler said above. What else does he stand for? What does Labour stand for? What are their visions of the UK they believe in? Itâs so ill-defined, all that gets associated with it are negative images.
On the other hand, for all his flaws, Corbyn quite clearly articulated a vision of the UK he believed in, that inspired people. What is Starmer, except for âvote him to get the Tories outâ?
Even one of his core messages, about reform of governance, has been watered down thanks to his own ill-discipline with the whole donor issue, which had it just been about the Arsenal box wold have been a lot more understandable (the security concerns), but add in the Alli issue, the Taylor Swift tickets, and it starts looking like a problem. Whatever happened to the reformation of the House of Lords? All theyâre trying to do now is just remove the remaining hereditary peers.
Labour may have an actual ambitious platform, they may not. The problem is that even if they did have one, itâs not obvious, even to someone like me whoâs a nerd (relatively speaking) about political issues. What do they stand for?
On the other hand, Farage and Reform are simple. Itâs all about the bloody foreigners, the bloody immigrants. No matter how wrong they might be on that, they keep banging on that message to the point where voters will just choose them because there is at least a message. At least a change. The only thing that voters seem to be able to agree on no matter what political affiliation they have, is that the status quo is untenable. And yet thatâs what Starmerâs Labour is doing.
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Ah, the old âpeople are thick, uninformedâ etc argument. Stupid people donât watch the BBC. Didnât take long. Mascot will be along soon to tell us the problem is the amount of airtime Farage gets on Question Time etc.
Itâs all very confusing. Maybe the reality is the people of this once great country have finally realised the Tories and Labour are 2 sides of the same coin and are totally incapable of making the right choices and want to see what somebody else has to offer?
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That is not enough though. All current social issues wonât be adressed with Reform in power, and in all likeliness, it will only get worse for people on the middle and lower echelons of society. All they will give to their voters is a scapegoat. Not good enough.
Agree on Labour though. They are currently digging their own grave.
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Ok, fair enough, but why this particular alternative?
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So much to unpack here.
Youâre a few posts too slow. @cynicaloldgit got there ahead of @Mascot.
Youâre conflating two posts by different people. I donât think @Rambler is arguing that voters are thick therefore they donât watch the BBC. I think the argument here is that people in poverty are less likely to watch the BBCâs political/current affairs output, which is a fair comment. You canât really have it both ways, people in poverty canât be spending all their time working and scrabbling to make a living, while having time, let alone the energy, to follow such topics with rigour.
All that makes them susceptible to bullshit arguments such as âboth sides/all politicians are the sameâ.
Perhaps the perception that they might be the same has precious little to do with whether they actually are the same. I cannot believe that youâre forcing me to defend Starmerâs Labour, but thereâs a difference between malicious incompetence and just plain incompetence.
MUH BREXIT.
Pretty much all there is to that argument, really.
Simple really⌠IMMIGRATION
All the present ills of society are put down to the perception of uncontrolled immigration and Farage and Reform and Brexit would not exist without that. All extreme right wing politics is based on fear of the OTHER. A scapegoat is always required.
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Whichever party we turn to, weâre in for a shitshow.
No doubt someone will try and dispute that, but its playing out in front of our eyes.
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