Meeting a Reform Candidate

 

Today I met a candidate for tomorrow's local government election, none of the people depicted in the illustration. In fact I don't think I should name this candidate or reveal her seat because we were speaking privately and informally, and she said a few things to me I doubt she would raise at the hustings. She wasn't canvassing at the time, but was just sitting on a park bench trying to work out how to find her way around. She seems to be quite bad at map reading; in fact I had seen her a few days ago in the area doing the same so I guided her to her destination. She had a huge suitcase of flyers for her campaign and I helped her carry it because she is a small woman. She is running for Reform UK. Because of this, she engaged me in a discussion about politics. I told her that eighteen months ago I would probably have voted for her, but I wouldn't now because I don't trust Nigel Farage. I was honest and said I preferred Restore Britain. I dislike the way Nigel has treated Rupert Lowe, Ben Habib and many of his other former supporters. I consider them far more honest men than Nigel. I expected her to become scornful at that point, but she did not. She said "I completely agree with you" and then went on to explain that despite her agreement she thinks Reform UK are still the best hope for the country. This is not an uncommon position. Many people I know are voting Reform despite knowing full well that Farage's latest incarnation is something deceptive; possibly set up deliberately by the Deep State to be a controlled counterproposition. It's the usual dilemma of tactical voting: do we vote for the right thing and lose or the wrong thing and win? Reform may be false opposition, but it is the only opposition we have. It's our only chance of beating the uniparty. It currently has enormous momentum behind it; and no doubt tomorrow it will be the principle winner of the election. All the opinion polls are clear on this. Labour and the Tories are going to be eviscerated, justly so, and Reform is the weapon that will achieve it. Last year I also did not vote Reform for the same reasons, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2025/05/why-i-did-not-vote-reform.html. What happened to me today paints a very different picture that I didn't know existed because this lady is not just some average voter; she is an actual activist and official of the party who has been selected to contest a council seat. I wonder how many other people in Reform feel the same way as her; not just the voters, but the members, maybe even people quite senior and close to the centre. Is it possible that the only true blue Reformers could be Nigel himself and his inner circle, Richard Tice, Zia Yusuf etc. (I won't include their current influx of opportunistic ex-Tories.) Maybe this is what Landeur meant when he said "Reform's support is a hundred miles wide, but only an inch thick", see: https://www.youtube.com/@BritishLandeur. I'm tired of voting for deformed and watered down forgeries of what I really want. A Reform vote is just a vote for another proto-establishment centrist bureaucracy in waiting. Should Farage become prime minister he will backtrack, U-turn and shift his position very quickly on everything; in fact he has already started. There will be a "Nigel wave" and he will not save the House of Lords or repeal the Online Safety Act; in fact he will deliver none of the goodies we all hoped he would. I myself will probably back the IOA again. They won last time in my own ward, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2024/05/i-backed-winner.html.