Reform will fumble — the only silver lining is winning now instead of 2029

This week, Reform UK gained 1,451 seats in local elections across the country. Of course, this is no surprise at all, given the prediction polls and watching how the corporate media has platformed Reform in recent years.

However, there may only be one small silver lining. That is, the country is about to watch them royally fuck up the most basic council services.

Of course, they are going to flop. So this is the perfect chance for the British public to see how badly Reform runs public office.

‘Yes, please’

No doubt, many Reform voters are expecting Nigel Farage at number 10 on Monday morning. However, there are 650 MPs in Parliament and 20,000 councillors in the UK.

Reform has 2,354 councillors and 8 MPs in the UK. That is 11.77% of councillors and 1.23% of MPs. Farage and his sketchy pals are not getting the keys to Downing Street any time soon.

In the grand scheme of things, these numbers are not significant. However, when compared to the number of seats up for grabs this week and the country’s sudden leap to the far right, they absolutely are significant.

This also doesn’t change that this was a dry run for Reform before the general election, and the country said ‘yes, please’.

Bullshit naivety

Some posts on social media seem to claim that many reform voters did not know what they were voting for. Reform opposes the rise in the minimum wage, the ending of the two-child benefit cap, and the expansion of free school meals and breakfast clubs.

These are all issues that Farage and his cronies have talked openly about for years. Added to the fact that literally anyone can Google MPs’ voting records. Voters claiming they ‘didn’t know’ is pure bullshit and weaponised incompetence.

This describes the ignorance and “strategic naïveté” that some voters use when it’s time to face the consequences of their decisions. In other words, pretend not to know better to avoid responsibility.

It’s the explicit choice to ignore what a candidate or party has clearly said and done, and then act surprised when they continue doing exactly that.

Yes, there will be some voters who are genuinely ignorant and uneducated. However, what we have seen this week is voters en masse refusing to see the reality of a situation in the name of racism. ‘Stopping the boats’ has become more important than basic common sense.

Many voters know exactly what they have voted for. The reality is, they’re just too gullible and racist to realise the party and policies they have voted for will hurt white people too.

Reform — Racism, plain and simple

From Zia Yusuf’s Nazi-esque threat to the public to put refugee detention centres in Green-voting areas, to Reform councillors celebrating the rape of a Sikh woman — make no mistake, Nigel Farage and his party are racists. As is every single person who voted for them.

Do you really believe that people are voting for Reform for other reasons? Maybe it’s promises to scrap the Equality Act and Net Zero, and push private health care?

No sane or sober person would vote for these policies. So yes, it’s plain and simple racism.

Of course, there is absolutely no silver lining to a bunch of racist, fascist cunts winning seats in public office.

The only silver lining is that Reform will fumble. This is the same group of people who can’t show up to the count on election day, don’t vet the social media feeds of its candidates, and forget they’re Reform, not UKIP. Reform fumbling is inevitable. And I’d much rather it happened now, at the local council level, than if Reform were overseeing the entire country’s budget and national security.

They will lose the trust of the country long before it’s time for general elections.

Greens learning lessons

Another silver lining, actually, might be that the Greens now have the privilege of lessons learned from these local elections.

The Greens also gained 441 seats, which is fewer than Reform. But there is one stark difference. Reform relied entirely on the British public’s racism to get votes. Whereas the Greens campaigned tirelessly and tactically, meaning they now know their weak points and their strengths.

Like Reform, the Greens have never had such a wide and at scale presence in British elections before. But now they know where they needs work, which is a conversation that Reform is not emotionally intelligent enough to have. The Green Party now also knows where it is strong. So that means they can lean into their strengths and try to work on their weaknesses — all in time for the next general election in 3 years.

Reform — ‘Stop the potholes’

The reality is that we now have a bunch of men and women across the country wearing light blue who will show up to work tomorrow thinking they have a say in ‘closing the borders’ and ‘stopping the boats’.

They’re in for a nasty surprise tomorrow when they realise the things in their control amount to bin collections and potholes. The only thing they’re stopping is traffic with ‘temporary’ roadworks.

Thank fuck that Reform is in charge of budgets for bins, potholes and planning permission, rather than the UK’s defence budget, international relations and our beloved NHS.

A Reform government would be disastrous not just for the UK but also for our allies and the entire world.

The best anti-Reform propaganda is watching Reform in power. So maybe this is a blessing in disguise.

Feature image via HG