Do We Really Spend £1 Billion a Week on Benefits for Foreigners? No. Last weekend, The Telegraph ran an eye-catching headline: Cue a flurry of shares from Reform UK supporters and the usual angry right-wingers on social media. Unsurprisingly, most hadn’t read the article—just the headline. The piece itself was behind a paywall, which didn’t … Read more
Nations depend on rules – fair rules.Sometimes they’re written down, often they’re not, but either way, they give shape to our values.They guide us towards our rights, of course, but also our responsibilities, the obligations we owe to one another.Now, in a diverse nation like ours, and I celebrate that, these rules become even more … Read more
Why the Hate Towards Labour? Now the dust has settled on the local elections, the results weren’t exactly a shock. The Conservatives took a predictable beating—squeezed by the Liberal Democrats in the South and by Reform UK everywhere else. Reform are now well-positioned to take over the right of British politics. They’re peeling off Tory … Read more
A couple of months on from the riots and Reform/Farage social media is taking on an increasingly hysterical tone. Overheated conspiracy theories, weird suspicions all jumbled together. The death of Peter Lynch – a rioter who sadly committed suicide in prison – has given them a martyr. There is increased radicalisation and lots of Islamaphobia. … Read more
A month on from far right riots and I thought I would check in on Reform/Farage social media and their crazy bad art. Since the riots Reform and Farage social media has become a lot more careful about posting calls for violence or confrontation. They are, however, convinced that the current Government is illegitimate, … Read more
Last weekend rioters tried to burn down a hotel housing asylum seekers in Wath upon Dearne, near Rotherham. One of the first blogs I ever wrote was about Wath upon Dearne, over 7 years ago: sadly I was too optimistic about it’s future. 40 years ago the biggest employer in Wath was Cortonwood colliery. It … Read more
While researching a blog on the rise of Reform I joined several Reform/Nigel Farage web forums and Facebook groups. What I found was a tidal wave of bad fan art. Not since the peak of Donald Trump MAGAmania has there been so much crazy art created (links are at the bottom of the blog) Reform … Read more
This feels like an odd story to write. Some of my friends are big fans of Reform, and don’t understand why there is so much fuss about them. Other friends regard Reform with horror, the modern equivalent of Oswald Moseley’s British Union of Fascists. No other political party is so polarising. Like it or … Read more