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
With a couple of days to digest we can start and see some trends emerging from the rubble of the Conservative Party Labour were expected to win a landslide with 40%+ of the vote. In the end they won a landslide with a much lower vote share, with other parties also doing incredibly well. … Read more
Are ordinary Brits disadvantaged in the labour market because of immigration? I realise that most of my liberal graduate friends will automatically reject such an idea, in particular because there is an unstated assumption in the question that the ordinary Brits being hard done by are white, and the immigrants being given preferential treatment aren’t. … Read more