No, and you chaps are at least a bit to blame due to Trump. Most of us are hoping that this is going to reverse as we get closer to an actual election, which - to be clear - does not need to be held until August 2029. Reform gained a number of councils in the last local elections and every single one is fucking up big time, plus a recent poll confirms that a majority of the UK sees Reform as being pro-Russian (and they've suffered a scandal where a former high-up was caught being bribed by Putin to advance pro-Russia narratives about Ukraine). What is going on is disaffection for the more established parties, who sadly are trying to appease the Reform base with tough-sounding shit on immigration. But I don't think Reform are actually getting power on their own - maybe with a Reform/Tory pact.
Also, that poll is fucking bullshit, or at least the seat projection is. It seems based on pure voter percentage, but ignores that we have voting districts.
Hopefully Labour shit themselves over this and replace Starmer with someone better before long. I also note the absence of the six counties. Nice to know where we stand.
1) I think Brexit and the economic stagnation that has come from it is more an issue than Trump being an idiot. 2) Word is that Farage told donors that a Tory/Reform pact was gonna happen.
This is what happens when culture wars, populism & the normalisation of misinformation collide. To be honest, i still cant see Reform getting anywhere near that. It will either all fall to bits before then or we will be in WW3 with Russia.
We're less than a year out from our own mid-terms and it's shaping up as a Blue Wave election of historic proportions. That said, American pundits and some of us who pay attention to such things know that a lot of things can change in an era of 30 second attention spans. Time is not on Reform's side: with every day their incompetence at the Council level and their ongoing corruption scandals as well as a general lack of any coherent ideas for effective governing become more and more obvious. Even if Labour did everything right (ha, ha) it would still take time to clean up the mess left by the Tories so I'm not surprised that things have not suddenly become roses and unicorn farts since Labour swept in. The hand-wringing and pearl-clutching seems premature, although another year of perceived incompetence from Labour could grease the skids under Starmer and/or Labour.
Someone more knowledgeable than I summed it up (paraphrased) thus: Labour got a mandate and gave the centrist all the right-wing stuff they said would be popular and absolutely crashed their approval while Reform scooped up the momentum. Well played "moderates"
FWIW, this week last year the conservatives were up 45%-20 against the incumbent liberals. They wound up losing anyways...
