r/europe • u/AlfredsChild England • 2d ago

News Reform takes shock 15-point lead over Labour as Farage dreams of winning power

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/reform-shock-15-point-lead-labour-farage-power-3887857
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u/mxmmnn 2d ago

Incredible to witness that one of the key man causing Britain to be in chaos for a decade, to now come back stronger because Britain is in chaos and promise to reform it. 

British people, what is going on in your head?

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u/omgu8mynewt 2d ago

Same as everywhere else. He's a really good and clear speaker, talks a lot about National Pride and is anti-immigration, insults the other political parties with insults that can't be returned because he's never been in power so has no record to defend. Really good at social media and making viral clips. Same as every other populist right wing party which are currently doing very well everywhere.

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u/mxmmnn 2d ago

You're absolutely right, sadly. 

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u/MostTattyBojangles 2d ago

It’s not so much that Farage himself (and his equivalents across Europe) are good at social media, it’s that he is able to destabilise the country (as he did with Brexit) and therefore has the full muscle of the social media disinformation machine working overtime for him.

Nobody in government is even trying to counter this to a meaningful degree so they might as well be complicit through inaction.

Switch over to the Online Safety Act for example and it is utterly baffling they have taken a stand on porn, but have seen the absolute chaos caused by big tech engagement algorithms and ad targeting, and have done absolutely nothing to address the obvious threat to national security they are. Facebook only rebranded to Meta to distance themselves from what they facilitated in Myanmar, and American tech firms are profiting from the disruption created by Russia through their platforms.

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u/GabrDimtr5 Bulgaria 22h ago

You are writing on an American platform. Should Reddit and other social media platforms get banned throughout Europe?

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u/AdMean6001 2d ago

The difference is that elsewhere they haven't yet voted for the equivalent of Farage. In the UK, Farage openly mocked you during Brexit by systematically lying and then quickly leaving once the disaster struck.

Logically, a guy like that should no longer be listened to by any voter in the country... yet he has 35% of the vote!

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u/omgu8mynewt 2d ago

You don't think populism is also happening on the continent? Have you heard of AFD in Germany, Meloni in Italy, Le Pen in France and 'Sweden Democrats'? Right wing populism is a completely UK special case?

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u/AdMean6001 2d ago

No, what's special is voting again for someone who openly mocked you... The AfD and Le Pen have never been elected, Meloni didn't run for re-election and is now pursuing a fairly balanced policy (even if it is open to criticism)... Farage just left the United Kingdom the day after Brexit because he knew it was a disaster!

Well, Berlusconi in Italy was re-elected I don't know how many times and was a disaster every time... and then there's Trump. So it's not unique, but it's still a pretty clear sign of a very deep problem in British society...

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u/3163560 1d ago

One of the few things I can proud about being an Aussie recently. Ours got crushed at the last election.

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u/TheFutureIsCertain United Kingdom 1d ago

He wouldn’t be where he is without the media support.

Sky News have been giving him incredible amount of coverage.

Past 4 days every time I turn it on he or his mates are there banging on about migrants and boats.

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u/Ok-Sun-8754 1d ago

He’s never around fot his constituents. He’s all about the gravy train, as he was as an EU representative. He talks the talk but has already proved that he makes a terrible legislator. He would be utterly incompetent in Government where simply offering clipped sound bites won’t cut it…

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u/dat_9600gt_user Lower Silesia (Poland) 2d ago

Mostly fear of migration - the same exact trick used to get Britain out of the EU.

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u/AlfredTheMid England 2d ago

Because that's not how it's seen at all. Remember, Farage has never once been in power. Successive governments have continuously failed to deliver what the British people want, most notably, low immigration. 

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u/TwyningA 1d ago

In chaos for a decade? Our economy has grown more than the French or the Germans since we voted to leave, where does this nonsense come from? The doom about economic catastrophe has been shown as nonsense and yet still people lap it up. 

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u/Drummk 2d ago

In what sense do you think the UK has been in chaos for a decade?