Understanding Reform UK
JVL Introduction
A critical task facing the left in Britain is to undercut the appeal of Reform UK to swathes of the population utterly disillusioned – with good reason – with the current state of politics.
Nigel Farage is a tricksy opponent, fielding support acts like Richard Tice and Lee Anderson to whip up far-right fervour against “wokeness” and immigrants while himself putting across a message that seems plausible across broader layers of the electorate. There is many a trade unionist out there who will nod in agreement when he rails against the betrayals and failures of the establishment parties. Anti-fascist street protests where we raise our fists and shout “Fascist Scum Off Our Streets” will not on their own stem the accelerating shift to the right. Nor will Starmer’s shameful policy of out-Farageing Farage.
Sian Norris went undercover at Reform UK’s recent Birmingham rally, seeing white men bond over fury at migrants, trans people and politicians. Her report is illuminating.
NWI
This article was originally published by openDemocracy on Mon 31 Mar 2025. Read the original here.
10,000 angry white men and me: my night with Reform UK
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What stands out from this article is that the rise of Reform is due, above all, to the failure of the left. What Jeremy Corbyn showed in 2017 was that left-wing ideas about control of industriy and fairness could win a majority of the people in this country.
But in the absence of an alternative then people can equally turn to the simplistic slogans and solutions of the far right. The failure to defeat the right-wing in the Labour Party and their false ‘antisemitism’ attacks have caused us to pay a heavy price.
In July the left showed it had a potential with the win of Corbyn and some of the independents and Workers Party candidates as well as the showing of Andrew Feinstein and Leanne Mohammad but that we need to be united into one Left Party (which is my chosen name by the way!).
However we need to start right now building that party. So far Collective has not exactly distinguished itself. The time for big rallies is over. We need to start now if we are going to avert, if not a Reform victory then a sizeable far-right presence in parliament.
On 1 April, April Fool’s Day, newspapers sometimes print spoof stories. In yesterday’s Guardian, there was something which I initially thought was a late example of this phenomenon.
It was a full-page article by Margaret Hodge telling us about how she had fought the BNP and this would have lessons for dealing with Reform UK today.
I do not recommend anyone to read that article. However, I do recommend this one from a few years ago:
https://jewishvoiceforliberation.org.uk/article/the-battle-for-barking-time-for-hodge-to-go/
Reform, like Tory, Labour, Lib Dem and Green are a dead end.
Didn’t Leanne Mohammad almost unseat Wes Streeting ? Perhaps the fact a pro Palestinian did so well and threatened Labours position is why the ruling class are pushing Reform so hard – they want the public to feel the only way to overcome the risk is to vote for one of the main partys, and them and Farage love to make our he’s some sort of outsider to the establishment, but the reality is the complete opposite.