Reform have sacked their Scottish organiser after media coverage of links to Loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland news.stv.tv/scotland/ref... - ThreadSky

sundersays.bsky.social • 80 days ago

Reform have sacked their Scottish organiser after media coverage of links to Loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/reform-uk-scottish-organiser-sacked-over-loyalist-paramilitary-links

Comments

hughster.bsky.social•80 days ago

What happened to Christian forgiveness?

wren154.bsky.social•80 days ago

Well I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked.

scottishmum.bsky.social•80 days ago

Shocked I tell you!
Of course he is

sundersays.bsky.social•80 days ago

Reform got 7% in Scotland in July 2024 (+6.5%) (168k votes out of 2.4 milllion) and have hit 10%+ in 2026 polling for a PR election. Ipsos show 17% approve and 59% disapprove, with the Conservatives having pretty similar ratings to Reform. (Ukip got 10% in the 2014 Euros in Scotland, taking a seat)

sundersays.bsky.social•80 days ago

Candidate/organiser reputation will continue to be a reputational problem for Reform, even with £

Abysmal vetting in 2024: had to ditch around one sixth of those they selected for parliamentary seats!

But need to find many many more people than 630 to contest devolved, Mayoral, council elections

sundersays.bsky.social•80 days ago

Excitable media coverage overlooks how much Reform party/candidate reputation remains a barrier for 14% party *with right-of-centre* voters to lift a 25% ceiling

Only 8% of voters were 2024 Conservatives confident that Reform is not racist. A third on the fence. A third thought it was. (July 2024)

sundersays.bsky.social•80 days ago

Our research suggests most of Reform's 4 million voters support foundational boundaries: 6/10 Reform 2024 voters said party needed stronger action on extreme candidates. 16% disagreed.

About a quarter of the 14% reject basic norms. 1/4 supported the riots & would prefer a more overtly racist party

sundersays.bsky.social•80 days ago

Asking identical questions about Reform 2024 and Ukip 2015 found the new party still has a v similar reputation to Ukip then (but a worse public reputation on racism than a decade ago, perhaps reflecting higher expectations + gradual generational turnover)

https://www.britishfuture.org/reforms-racist-reputation-worse-than-ukips-in-2015-finds-poll/

sundersays.bsky.social•80 days ago

Both of these polls were taken immediately after the General Election in 2015 and 2024

Is the party "racist"?

Ukip in May 2015
A racist party 40%
Not a racist party 43%
Neutral 17%

Reform in July 2024
Racist 41%
Not racist 30%
Neutral 29%

fifi65.bsky.social•80 days ago

14% is a lot of votes to be won for lib dems or even the occasional labour vote.
If both those parties can make a concerted effort to arouse suspicion & doubt of Reform in voters minds.
The trick will be to get the not satisfied with Tory or Reform voters to vote at all.

tallentire.bsky.social•80 days ago

They're always running into bother with candidates that are too (openly) nuts. I'd love to see the opposite to the usual happen for them some day- they have to deselect a candidate for being too genuinely sensible and centre leaning.

alanf.bsky.social•80 days ago

Don't let anyone tell you that we Scots are any kinder or more tolerant than anyone else.
The bigots just hate slightly different groups of people.

tg59.bsky.social•80 days ago

Oh dear. Not like them to worry about that sort of thing.

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