45 Comments
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Tenaciously Terfin's avatar

Reform has a mountain to climb in order to cancel out the onslaught from the establishment which is desperate to keep controlling the narrative and ‘nudging’ people to hold the ‘right’ opinions as you stated Matt, in your last piece. Labour has already enacted many authoritarian bills in attempts to control speech and thought. The latest is to put a lid on citizen journalism by controlling what we can read online. What they want are compliant sheep who haven’t got a clue what’s happening.

We need a much more robust fight back from the right and as we get nearer to an election, we need some rallying slogans such as were used in the Brexit debate. They wrote us off then. We can do it again but it’s going to be hard because they’ve got wise to it and are already using smears and abuse in order to tarnish the right. We have to ensure that those tactics are ridiculed in the same way as Project Fear was. For example, the Nazis advised calling people racist or fascist in order to shut down debate- sound familiar? They were masters of DARVO and so is the establishment.

edward barrows's avatar

Perhaps TT if we want a slogan it has to be" United we win divided we fall".

Tenaciously Terfin's avatar

🎯 it’s an absolute necessity!

John Booth's avatar

All true, Matt, the general public do want this pushback against the elite, ruling class, but we are up against very powerful and dark forces behind these elite ‘leaders’. The money men, the people who really run the western nations, the WEF, BlackRock, Soros, Gates et al. I hope you don’t underestimate how much power they weild.

Evola's Sunglasses's avatar

True, but many of our own people who live in post industrial wastelands are on welfare and fear the Right will take it away from them.

We have to have a positive message to sell in post industrial wastelands.

Colin Martin's avatar

Like 'vote Right, get your country back'?

Robin's avatar

We will also be up against organised tactical, ‘family’ and postal voting.

Rosemary Birks's avatar

The whole voting system needs to be regulated much more. And the immigrants with overseas passports should not be allowed any votes. Postal voting need abolishing unless for the over 80’s and doctor- certified disabled. Maybe to vote you should have to be working or have a record of work and tax contribution in the past 5 years.

Mrs Bucket's avatar

Reform's biggest problem is itself. All of the challenges Matt and friends speak of here will always be here; the cheating, lying Left wing, the Leftist biased media, the state funded opposition parties and other groups etc etc.

Reform's Makerfield 'campaign' was abysmal: silly little leaflets with just five issues mentioned when Reform's website shows 20 policy issues.

And the leaflets; one photo, Nigel grinning at people and wearing sunglasses. Politicans should NEVER wear sunglasses in election material - who sanctioned that? Maybe HQ has some enemies (or just incompetent people) 'advising' on marketing. And the 'one photo of Nigel' sends a lethal subliminal message: REFORM IS STILL A ONE MAN BAND.

Where is the great Reform team photo of the RECOGNISABLE, vigorously promoted SHADOW CABINET? Walk down any high street and ask people 'Who is Reform's spokesman/woman on the Economy? Who is Reform's spokesman on Defence, Education, our failing Police 'service', who is Spokesman on the great climate change hoax, who is Reform's Spokesman, famous for calling out the BBC's lies and disinformation? Who is Spokesman on our comedy 'Defence' sector with multi-billion nuclear submarines that can't stop a rubber dinghy.

And where is the stunning news round up, sent to Reform's million strong email database, on a Sunday evening? (it should be a million strong by now).

Where are the amazing Reform petitions, rocking Britain once a month and raising fortunes for Reform so Nigel doesn't have to take massive donations from questionable sources? Reform's mediocre performance is 90% of its own making. And it is mediocre because by now it should be winning MASSIVELY against the most appalling people running Britain...into the ground.

Ken Charman's avatar

Fully agree but the big question remains: how can Reform professionalise and decontaminate its image (unfairly labelled but effectively so by the liberal middle class) so as to appeal to graduate Tories who feel so desperate now they have no home that they vote Libdem? Or abstain? BTW.. that includes me! I have acted as political agent for my pub landlord in the last two General Elections. (Our Reform candidate in North Devon was even funnier than us, though not on purpose in his case).

Reform needs to be more than a vessel for protest votes. It needs to show it has the competence to sail the ship of state.

Dee Harris's avatar

Reform UK currently controls 14 local councils across Great Britain so every day it gains knowledge and experience in doing just that KC.

Ken Charman's avatar

The manner in which it is learning is a bit of a liability!

Dee Harris's avatar

How do you learn KC?

Evola's Sunglasses's avatar

Great points.

We also need to understand many White working class people living in post Industrial wastelands are on welfare and fear the Right will take it away from them.

Ken Charman's avatar

Simple. The right must tell employers who exploit cheap migrant labour (the NHS for instance) to enhance the status and rewards for jobs that are unfairly maligned as “unskilled”. Then they will go to work, with decent pay and proper respect.

N White's avatar

Some of the cheap migrant labour in the NHS appears to be part of the phenomenon known as "Friends and Family", which is a bit of a standing joke in that institution. Perhaps we could just be tougher with the able bodied British on benefits. In my view, no job is too lowly for anyone. Take the job (on probation) or lose your handouts.

Ken Charman's avatar

If full-time pay in many jobs does not cover the essential costs of life: rent, food, heating, transport to work, family, clothing, insurance, pension, then it is not the welfare system that is wrong, it is employers underpaying employees with the expectation the state will subsidise their low pay policies.

Howard Adams's avatar

Hi Matt, great piece as always. I would be interested to hear your views or any analyses you might have about the Manchester mayoral elections. I think that contest might become rather important? Regards Howard

Barry Paterson's avatar

We need to organise regular nationwide demonstrations against the Elites and their policies. One each week at a different location so everyone who cares can take part in their local town or city. Share the load and raise our profile. This should encourage others who, are too frightened to speak out, to standup and be counted along with millions of patriotic British people.

Observations from the Bridge's avatar

I think what is also insidious is how Reform are blocked from being involved in the political process

In my part of Shropshire a small village is about to have potentially 121 asylum seekers foisted on their small village. (More details here https://substack.com/home/post/p-203523189 ) Its not a lot in respect of todays views but a great way to move people out of the hotels and into local communities. The best way to hide it is in salami tactics - small easy to hide in rural areas

The local Conservative MP arranged for the original residents meeting to be cancelled (he claimed that people such as Reform and others had been spreading misinformation) and re-arranged with a new one that only he and residents would be allowed to attend as he says on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/reel/1726470095201942 I quote from the transcript

"On advice, and given the limited capacity of the village hall, priority for admission into the meeting will be given to residents of Dutton Close first, as they are most likely to be directly impacted by the Home Office's proposals. Any spare seating or capacity at the meeting will then be offered to other Stoke Heath residents.

Please note, local residents will need to provide ID/proof of address to gain access to the meeting. This will help avoid visitors from other parts of the county, or outside of the county, taking up the limited seating and standing space available - and give priority to Stoke Heath residents"

So let us say Reform and other parties had a PPC in place we would have been blocked from attending this event and raising legitimate concerns by standing up for the local residents who are having this imposed on them without a right of reply and limited notice.

I agree with Ken Charman (Land Rover diaries ) comment on this we do need to continue professionalising the party (for example at Makerfield on election day someone thought it would be a good idea to have our main base in a social club with alcohol available. Let us say the look on the day was not professional with a few of our supporters having quaffed a bit too much and there were press and other photographers on the scene. I also think that a lot of people who gravitated to Reform with stronger but less politically palatable views haver shifted to Restore.

I've been begging the party to get on with selecting a PPC since last year as I know from experience that a PPC has to do serious work to get into a constituency even a marginal one over 2 years.

Gawain Towler has also written elsewhere on substack on how Reform isn't cutting through on the female vote. Having been on the stump in Makerfield it was a common complaint by female voters that they felt we were a bunch of misogynists.

There is progress being made in moving Reform to a position where the average voter both male and female can feel that they have as you said 'Permission to vote' for a party outside of the usual uniparty and feel that it is a vote for the change they want to see but without being embarrassed to admit to family and friends that they are voting for them.

We have made a lot of progress but we need to accelerate. If I was Andy Burnham and before any sheen comes off and whilst the right of British politics is shooting itself. I'd call an election take a smaller majority but know that I'll have a full 5 years to change the voting system to PR to lock in a 'progressive' majority and put everything in the way to hinder and stunt Reforms rise.

Tenaciously Terfin's avatar

You’re right about the female vote and as a female, it drives me mad. Women are conditioned from birth to ‘be kind’ and not rock the boat. Reform or right wing policies seem to be unkind until you think critically and see how unkind mass immigration is to the native population. We need the thinking of more women to do an about turn.

Lesley Snell's avatar

I think there is a very coordinated attack dog propaganda campaign against Reform on social media that hits home with many women in particular . Many people who intend voting Reform shy away from saying so in public . This is precisely what the left are out to achieve, painting being Reform voter synonymous with being a bad person

Tenaciously Terfin's avatar

Exactly, and as Matt said before, we need to give people permission to vote for Reform. This is where the right slogans might help.

Lesley Snell's avatar

I commented to one of the journalists on the DT ( and it gained a fair bit of traction ) that PMQs needs reorganising as we move away from a two party system. The leader of the official opposition gets 6 questions a week and a starring role in the top piece of political theatre the highlight s of which are flashed across msm and social media . Surely it would be more fair to have a system of either rotating the pitch or giving the leader of the opposition 3 questions and rotating the other questions between party leaders with at least four MPs ( to eliminate endless. Independents getting a turn .

Changes like this and parachuting someone in from outside Parliament to become premier need to be looked at .

Tenaciously Terfin's avatar

Good ideas Lesley.

The Burnham ‘crowning’ if it happens is even more undemocratic than normal because he wasn’t an MP at the last election and hasn’t signed up for the policies. Mind you, they seem to be doing all sorts that weren’t in the manifesto anyway. Blow the plebs, since when did we matter?

Penny Bartlett's avatar

Certainly is. Death threats to new councillors isn't helping. Horrific!

Penelope Lee's avatar

I think the Makerfield vote was nothing to do with Reform, which came second with a large vote, but all to do with people desperate to get rid of Starmer. Gorton was won by postal votes, the usual suspects again

Barry Lilley's avatar

Good article as usual Matt. Thank you. The family has lost support over the years by all parties and they need more support to raise children as now both partners are expected and indeed, need to work to be able to finance home and family. Hungary has noted this and reacted. I despair as to our future and am unsurprised that our birth rate has dropped so much.

Richard North's avatar

Had I been a voter in Makerfield, I would have been tempted to vote Burnham to get rid of Starmer, and I last voted Labour in 1979.

Evola's Sunglasses's avatar

Really good analysis.

I just want to add, one reason so many White working class people still vote/ hold out hope for Labour is, in these post industrial wastelands so many are on welfare and fear the Right will take it away from them.

Anything looking like reheated Thatcherism isn't going to connect.

It's important any Right wing or Nationalist movement understands this.

Ian's avatar

I'm sure the right know that because it's the age old conundrum: how to compete for votes against an opposition that's literally promising free money.

The Right: you'll have to work, but we'll let you keep more of what you earn, so the harder you work the better off you'll be.

The Left: Don't bother working, we'll just take what the most productive workers earn and give it to you for free.

I'm reminded of a couple of sayings:

Democracy only survives until enough unprincipled people learn they can vote for more money for themselves, and enough unprincipled politicians realise they can buy votes with other people's money.

Socialism only lasts until they run out of other people's money.

Perhaps "reheated Thatcherism" is the only thing that will work. After all, it worked last time(!)

Michele Francis's avatar

Restore got 7.8% of the vote in Makerfield. They will never poll above 10%. Their main players are already falling out with Lowe. It is not a serious party.

Rafe Champion's avatar

There is a huge problem to get people with different takes on liberalism and conservatism to form a united front. Hayek was onto this long ago when wrote "Why I am not a Conservative" -he said stop thinking in terms of a left to right spectrum, think of a triangle with the radical left at one corner, conservatives at another, holding back the left without offering an exciting alternative program and then there is another program at the third corner.

Absurdly he used the label Old Whigs for this position. WTF!

I have spelled out the alternative program with five pillars of peace, freedom and prosperity.

Critical and imaginative thinking a la Karl Popper.

Classical liberal political principles.

Good economics, free trade with sensible regulations.

A robust moral framework.

Abundant, cheap and reliable energy.

Find more meat on the bones of that skeleton at the link below. It was written to revive the Australian Liberal Party that is supposed to be the party of freedom and enterprise, against the Labor Party

But the Liberals have been corrupted by pink and green invaders since the party trashed its intellectual and moral credibility by sending conscripts to “fight for freedom” in Vietnam.

https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/rebadging-the-liberals

longsummer's avatar

Hmmmm. I'm not sure about this Matt. PopuList 4.0 (via popu-list.org) seems flawed in its UK coverage by its inclusion of the DUP but exclusion of Restore. Nevertheless, the overarching total European view does record a very slight reduction in overall "populist" party voter share between 2025 and 2026 (23.21% in 2026 down from 23.51% in 2025.) I think this evidence suggests at most European-wide "plateau-ing" 2024-'26, rather than substantial growth.

However, the lack of inclusion of Restore makes it almost useless from a UK-only perspective.

Michele Francis's avatar

Restore got 7.8% of the vote in Makerfield. They will never poll above 10%. There main players are already falling out with Lowe. It is not a serious party.

Jean-Bernard Lasserre's avatar

Unfortunately, I won't be able to join you on Matthew 's live this afternoon as I have another video-conference at exactly the same time. However, I will catch up later.

Rosemary Birks's avatar

The most recent pleasing videos appearing on Substack are of the leaders of several EU countries speaking out in the EU Parliament against the diktats of Von de Lying and her henchmen and in support of right wing policies on particularly immigration. To see these strong minded leaders and representatives of their countries standing up to the undemocratic and divisive route being followed by their centralised dictators is both inspiring….and at the same time depressing……that we are led by undemocratic morons, flooding our country with harm in every way. The wheel must turn very soon because otherwise our future and that of our children and grandchildren is grim beyond belief. And what do we get as an ‘improvement’……an over inflated conman with a mayoral record which does not stand up to scrutiny. King of the North my a*se. Labour are just communism and deceit with no real moral values - just a Fabian agenda which will lead us to destruction and a Caliphate.

Patricia's avatar

As usual, the present ruling party do not take off their blinkers - they have tunnel vision…