Goodbye for now

This blog won’t be getting any further updates at present. Not because the danger of a Reform government getting into seems any less likely, or less catastrophic than I’d originally imagined. In fact the sheer level of rabid ignorance and incompetency shown by many of the Reform councillors – whether or not they’re in the mass of ex-councillors that have been forced to go for various misdeeds – and vast array of ill-thought out, self-serving and hate-filled policies announced by Farage et al make me, if anything, more concerned for the future than I was.

The more powers these people get, the weaker our country will become. As patriots, we should do what we can to keep them away from the reins of power.

However the sheer onslaught of stories, ranging from the highly distressing to the laughable, is of such a volume that I am not in a position to keep up, let alone produce any original content as such. There are probably more effective ways I can channel my time when others are doing this better than I.

And the last thing I want to do is end up giving the impression that all the things I missed including didn’t happen or aren’t important. Indeed, it’s on us all to keep ourselves updated as much as possible on what’s emanating from the people who want to rule over us – funded by billionaires, for the billionaires – who will stoop down to any moral depths to get the rest of us – the real “people in the street” they pretend to represent – to fight each other rather than stand up against them whilst they seek to disempower us, remove our rights, and corruptly transfer our wealth to themselves. All whilst exercising unspeakable cruelty against some of the most unlucky people in the world.

The good news is that there are no shortage of outlets that currently cover a lot of this. One motivating fear I originally had was that after a while the media and other online commentators would get “bored” of monitoring and reporting on Reform. This thankfully hasn’t happened, or at least not in every case. Other organisations will do so far more effectively than I.

Below are a few sources I have found to be good sources of information, so would highly recommend anyone read and support their efforts in the future.

Campaigning organisations:
Hope Not Hate (including their Reform Watch newsletter)
Searchlight
Stand Up To Racism

Newspapers:
The Guardian
i
and in fact almost any British newspaper, at least the broadsheets, seems to do some level of reporting on Reform’s worst excesses if you prefer papers of a different ideology; as far as I have seen the Guardian simply report most frequently.

Local papers can be great sources for keeping track of what damage your local Reform councillors are doing and how many of their promises to you they’ve broken – search for your nearest one. Nottinghamshire Live is one such site, that the snowflakey free-speech-hating Reform tried to block from reporting on their local activities.

Magazines:
Byline Times
The New World
New Statesman
Prospect

Blogs, newsletters etc.
The Lead
Left Foot Forward,
Bearly Politics

Social media:
Reform Party UK Exposed
Reform Are Not Your Friends
Led By Donkeys

This far from an exhaustive list. There are so many more awesome folk doing this work, particularly on social media, all just a simple search away. Keep informed. Do what you can stop Reform committing the daily acts of cruelty and incompetence that unpatriotically weaken our country and hurt us, the common people of Britain.

Reform’s head of Staffordshire council exposed for his extraordinarily racist social media activity

Hope Not Hate exposes yet another Reform politician in a position of power who has seen fit to express extremely concerning, very racist, opinions on social media.

This time it’s Reform’s leader of the Staffordshire council, Councillor Ian Cooper. And he’s not even trying to hide his sickening behaviour.

Reform UK’s Cllr Ian Cooper has posted dozens of racist and bigoted posts to YouTube and X/Twitter under his personal accounts.

Hope Not Hate then reminds us that ReformExposed already recently revealed that Ian Cooper is listed as a “Top Fan” of an openly racist Facebook page called “The European Race”. In Facebook terms, this means that, according to Facebook’s definition:

People can become eligible for a top or rising fan badge on your Page or profile by being one of the most active engagers, which can include liking or reacting to content, and commenting on or sharing posts.

It’s an award that the person concerned has to specifically accept, so he’s obviously proud enough of his activity. And sure enough he’s been busy liking posts that say ridiculous things like “White Men Have The Best Lives Because We Are White & Better Than The Rest Of the World“.

Hope Not Hate then dug out Councillor Cooper’s accounts on other social media sites – Youtube and X.

They weren’t pretty:

The picture painted by Cooper’s social media posts is of a man who is deeply bigoted and tapped into far-right media and terminology. In response to a video clip showing the lawyer and academic Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, Cooper replied with a crude mangling of her surname and suggestions that she should “F[uck] off back to Nigeria.”

The “crude mangling” concerned was him calling her “Shaga Bing-Bong”.

Predictably, he endorses the usual “Great Replacement” style conspiracy theories in line with the typically off-the-scale right-wing scared and paranoid fantasist, with one post including:

…We are constantly indoctrinated into believing that, “Diversity is Our Stength”. We all know this is a lie and those who have arrived fromthe “Global Majority South” are intend on colonising the UK, destroying all that has gone before….Oppression by the global majority applies, disguised as DEI…

He also doesn’t believe that someone who doesn’t present as White with a stereotypical British-sounding name can in fact be British, British citizenship and birthplace be damned.

He responded to presenter Sangita Myska writing that she is English with:

Only in your dreams… You are neither ethnically, culturally or historically English. Your diaspora isn’t NW European. All you have is a piece of paper entitling you to British citizenship.

Even ignoring its offensive nature, this is not opinion remotely suitable for a man who literal job is to represent all his constituents, whether or not he thinks they come from a “NW European diaspora”.

He called the mayor of London, Sadiq Kahn, a “narcissistic Pakistani” whilst doing down Britain’s capital city.

London has become a 3rd world shit hole – fact! Truth hurts this narcissistic Pakistani.

Whilst suggesting that British MP David Lammy, a British citizen who was born in London, should not in fact be allowed to be a MP in the first place.

No foreign national or first generation migrant should be allowed to sit in parliament.

Hope Not Hate goes on to reminds that Ian Cooper isn’t the first such reprehensible Reform member of Staffordshire council to be exposed.

This is not the first embarrassment to stem from Reform’s Staffordshire contingent. In January, the Staffordshire County Organiser,, resigned after HOPE not hate exposed his links to the neo-Nazi Patriotic Alternative group.

And just a fortnight ago, another Staffordshire councillor apologised for posts referring to “fat-arsed black women” and calling police “indoctrinated British hating scum”.

This from a party who, let’s remember, believes that their vetting procedures are just too strict, too diligent. So either they’re comfortable with the sort of appalling and racist rhetoric Councillor Cooper promotes, or they’re extremely incompetent – these posts were after all all in his own name, publicly shown under his own personal account. These are not suitable attributes for a group who wants to literally run the country.

So much for being anti-establishment: Reform tells donors it expects to strike a deal with the Conservative party

For all their railing against the establishment and statements to us, the British public, that they’d never ally with the useless and corrupt swamp of previously mainstream political parties, it seems that they are telling the people they really care about – the mega rich folk they want to give them vast globs of money – that actually they will do.

Nigel Farage has told donors he expects a deal or merger between his Reform UK party and the Conservatives ahead of the next general election, suggesting he does not believe he can sweep to power alone.

One donor said that Farage had told them he expected to do a deal with the Tories, whether it is a merger or an agreement on co-operation between the two parties, to ease Reform’s route to election victory.

…

Another associate who met with Farage in recent months said that the Reform leader described a pact or merger as inevitable but added it may take some time.

Increasingly often, Reform are in actually not only considering allying with the Conservative party, but literally the same people as the Conservative party was a few years ago. At the present time, twenty previously Conservative MPs have switched allegiances to Reform. This includes a few duplicitous self-interested chancers who previously announced that they would never do such a thing, such as Jonathon Gullis.

Part of Reform’s appeal to some folk comes from their constant rhetoric that they’re something new, something different, something that will smash up the useless parties that have usually been in charge. It’s an appealing thought in many ways for sure.

But it’s also yet another one of their lies; something they’ll say publicly and then do the opposite. In fact Reform is one of the most establishment of the parties out there – a totally unaccountable, friendly only to the very rich who might give them money, anti worker’s rights, anti small business, pro-corruption, anti-democratic and accountability-shrugging private business owned by an exploitative multi millionaire who will sink to almost any depth in order to personally enrich himself and his mega-rich friends, all at your expense.

Small businesses have no reason to believe that Farage’s party will do anything but make life even harder for them

As Peter Brown writes in a letter to The Yorkshire Post, the policies promoted by Reform’s leader and those around have indisputably harmed small businesses

Yet this is the same man who drove Brexit – a decision that has inflicted lasting damage on the very firms he now says he wants to help, creating barriers and bureaucracy that choke trade and stifle growth.

A 2025 survey by European Movement UK found 72.8 per cent of SMEs were negatively affected by Brexit, 96.4 per cent said it had harmed their communities, and 98.2 per cent backed re-joining the European Single Market.

Independent research from the LSE and ONS also shows UK goods exports to the EU have fallen, and many small firms have stopped trading with Europe because they cannot absorb the customs checks, rules of origin and paperwork created by leaving the Single Market.

Given the rhetoric Reform apply, there’s no reason to think they’d do anything but make the current situation even worse:

If Mr Farage truly cared about them, he would admit the best support any government could offer is to reduce these Brexit burdens – something a Reform-led administration is unlikely ever to do.

Instead, Reform has signalled it would oppose or unwind parts of Labour’s UK–EU reset, and senior Reform figures have warned energy investors that contracts could be challenged – a move Labour and industry say would endanger clean-energy jobs and the SMEs that depend on them.
…
Britain’s 5.5 million SMEs need practical help, not the kind of empty promises used to sell Brexit.

How Reform undermines Christianity

Holly-Anna Petersen highlights how despite their occasional appeal for the votes of Christians, Reform are about as anti-Christian as they come, in an article for Premier Christianity.

Reform UK is using explicitly Christian language in an attempt to win Christian voters. For example, in a recent conference speech, Reform leader Nigel Farage spoke about “the Judeo-Christian culture” which “underpins everything that we are”. He also used terms like “Christian forgiveness” when defending colleagues embroiled in scandal. These are not accidental flourishes; they are targeted signals designed to expand the party’s Christian support base.
…
It uses Christian-coded language while promoting policies that dehumanise people fleeing persecution.

But remember one of the most famous and important messages of Christianity:

When Jesus was asked which commandment mattered most, he said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul…and love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39).

He distilled the Christian faith to its essential moral core: love of God, and love of neighbour.

Reform does not want us to love our neighbours. Quite the opposite. They campaign on hate.

So, when a political movement sprinkles Christian jargon on top while urging us to fear our neighbour, resent the stranger or reject the vulnerable, we should find it insulting rather than appealing. It suggests Christians will abandon the core imperatives Jesus gave us the moment someone utters a few familiar words. It assumes our convictions are shallow.

But this is not what Christianity is about. As Jesus warned in Matthew 16:26: “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”

At the end of the day, they may try to leverage the language of faith in a greedy attempt to obtain the votes of people who otherwise would bear them no truck. But if they succeed in doing so, the country will likely become less, not more, culturally Christian.

Reform may claim they want to defend Britain as a Christian nation. Yet the opposite is true. People become less Christ-like when they trade hospitality for hostility, solidarity for scapegoating, and love for fear.

When we close our doors to the stranger, we are closing our hearts to our faith. This is the path by which Britain stops being a Christian country.

Continuing Reform’s chaos in Doncaster, the local council leader quits after receiving “vitriolic” texts from his own party

From the BBC:

The leader of Reform UK on Doncaster Council has stepped down, claiming he had received “vitriolic texts that border on abuse” from members of his own party.

…

Aston said: “While I would expect such behaviour from the extreme wing of our opponents, it is disappointing to see it coming from my own side.”

He went on to state: “I believed Reform was better than this. Clearly, I was mistaken.”

The Doncaster Free Press also reports on the situation, and then presents it in the context of the rest of the resignation-happy chaos that Reform has subjected Doncaster council to in recent months.

37 Reform UK councillors were elected at the local elections in May, within a month this was reduced to 36 after Cllr Mark Broadhurst was stripped of the party whip over social media posts he had previously made on his Facebook page.

A few months later, Cllr Samuel Booth resigned entirely as a councillor, prompting a by-election in Bentley ward.

In September, Cllr Dave Knight lost the party whip over the establishment of Fly Doncaster (Auxiliary Services) Ltd, prompting conflict of interest concerns due to his position on the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee (OSMC) which was about to scrutinise the council’s plans to re-open DSA with public funds.

Cllr Rachel Reed had to step down as OSMC chair and as Cllr Aston’s deputy due to her links with the establishment of the company, though she retained the party whip.
Weeks after that, Cllr Christopher Marriott voluntarily resigned the party whip, prefering to sit as an independent councillor.

Reform Councillor Tom Pickup suspended for his unpleasant Whatsapp group activity

Reform Councillor Tom Pickup has been suspended for participating in a rather unsavoury Whatsapp group.

Per the Guardian:

A Reform UK councillor has been suspended for participating in a WhatsApp group where members allegedly called for a “mass Islam genocide”.

Tom Pickup, who was elected to Lancashire county council in May, confirmed to the Guardian he was a member of the group set up by a rightwing activist.

In one exchange, one person said Keir Starmer “needs a fucking bullet”, to which another replied: “He’s a DICKtator.” Pickup responded by calling the prime minister a “dicktaker”.

In other messages, he called a government minister a “Ukrainian boy penetrator” and said he agreed with “mass deportations”.

He would also appear to have confirmed out loud the fear that a lot of people who are sympathetic to one or two Reform policies rightfully have:

He posted: “Everyone in Reform is a lot more hardline on immigration than is typically stated publicly, to get a majority government we have to be tactical.”

Nathan Gill, former leader of Reform in Wales, jailed for accepting bribes to make statements in favour of the Russian government

Nathan Gill, the former leader of Reform UK in Wales and MEP for
Reform’s predecessor party, UKIP, has been jailed for 10 years on the basis of him have previously accepted bribes from a pro-Kremlin agent in order to make public statements in support of Russia.

Police believe Gill received the equivalent of at least £30,000 and could have got even more from Oleg Voloshyn, a former Ukrainian MP and alleged Russian asset. The offences took place when Gill was an MEP in 2018-19, having been elected as one of the Ukip group led by Farage, and later joining the Brexit party.

He even badgers his colleagues in what are really the former incarnations of the Reform party to get involved, albeit unknowingly.

The political fallout from the case also appeared to widen on Friday as it emerged Gill had been paid to arrange for other Brexit party and former Ukip MEPs to make pro-Russia statements, without their awareness.

…

A sentencing note from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) indicated that four other MEPs who had been in Ukip with Gill made interventions, after he was promised bribes from Voloshyn to arrange for them to make statements. These include Steven Woolfe, William Dartmouth, Jonathan Arnott and Jonathan Bullock.

A fifth, David Coburn, who had been in Ukip and was the party’s leader in Scotland at one point, was also mentioned in WhatsApp messages between Voloshyn and Gill.

Some of the statements appear to be attempts to boost the story that the Russian government wanted to tell the world just before their illegal and aggressive invasion on Ukraine

The statements by Gill in the European parliament and on 112 Ukraine, a pro-Russian TV channel, were designed to benefit the Kremlin’s narrative on Ukraine in the period before Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022.

The Crown Prosecution Service highlights how serious these offences are.

He represented Wales in the European Parliament from 2014 until the UK’s departure from the EU in January 2020, took the money in exchange for tabling motions, delivering speeches, and facilitating media access for individuals linked to pro-Russian interests.

Bethan David, Head of Counter Terrorism for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This case strikes at the heart of democratic integrity. Accepting bribes from foreign nationals to influence parliamentary proceedings undermines public trust and the proper functioning of government.

Is it just Nathan Gill? We have seen previously that Nigel Farage appears to have an unhealthy weakness when it comes to Russia himself. He’s being urged to set up an investigation of his party in order to eliminate any other such potentially treasonous links between members of his party and the Russian state.

However, Labour called on Farage to “leave no stone unturned” in reviewing “every inch” of Reform UK’s party structures, membership, party donors and representatives, to ensure any remaining pro-Russian links were rooted out.

When the news originally broke, the Reform bosses Nigel Farage and Richard Tice both claimed to have nothing to do with Gill, probably never met him, don’t know who he is, etc. etc. Which is weird for someone who held an important position in their own parties.

And also totally contradicted by the discovery of photos of Nathan Gill hanging out with both of them. Farage himself had previously given him a character reference of a type, claiming in public that Gill was “honest as the day is long“.

Liars, or people with extraordinarily bad judgement? Neither of those are good attributes for people who want to run our country.

More on this from elsewhere on the web:

5 Reform resignations in Cornwall council highlight a level of chaos that rivals even Reform Kent’s incompetency

The Reform-run council in Kent is likely the most famously incompetent laughing stock of the councils they (try to) dominate – but Reform’s formerly dominant position in Cornwall Council has also descended into farce

Cornwall’s Council, in which Reform UK holds the most seats of all the parties, has fast entered into a spiral of incompetence it’s hard to believe can be true.

Both their leader and deputy leader quit, within a couple of days of each other.

First, deputy leader Cllr Rowland O’Connor, one of their most impressive players, not only stepped down from his role but also from Reform itself, becoming a Standalone Independent. He said: “Remaining within the party was limiting my ability to speak and act freely for our community.”

He told his ward members in St Columb Major, St Mawgan and St Wenn he could now serve them “without party influence”…

Apparently this party that pretends to value “freedom” wouldn’t even let its councillors speak openly.

Perhaps O’Connor’s major flaw was that he actually claims to have wanted to work on behalf of his constituents to improve the council services he would have had some control over. It turns out he picked the wrong party to do that. Farage et al apparently told him to forget all that and bang on about things he had effectively no control over – the usual bogeymen that scare all the little babies in Reform HQ: “net zero” and “migration.”

As he told the Guardian:

“I made a commitment to serve the people of my division as a local councillor and to represent their best interests on anything to do with council services: buses, transport, roads, hedges, potholes, bins, all the things that one would expect a council to be involved in,” said O’Connor, who represents St Columb Major, St Mawgan and St Wenn division.

“But the position I found myself in as deputy leader and also as a Reform UK councillor, was that the national agenda right was being emphasised.”

O’Connor said the two key propositions from Reform UK on a national level were challenging immigration and net zero. “The direct impact of immigration in Cornwall is negligible,” he said.

On net zero, Reform councillors sitting on planning committees – like all councillors – are required to be apolitical in their decision-making, he added.

“There was an ongoing divergence between what time I was able to dedicate to serving the residents in my division versus trying to unravel the push-pull between national and local.”

Then the local Reform leader, Councillor Rob Parsonage, also quit his role, for reasons fairly unknown as far as I can tell. Although later he did tell the Guardian that he too felt the frustration of Reform HQ bullying him into focusing on things that weren’t even necessarily legal to do. Nothing that helps their constituents – just stuff that does nothing except help Farage’s inane soundbites:

Parsonage, who represents Torpoint, said as leader he would receive “instructions” over WhatsApp from “head office” ordering them to “put motions in to scrap all net zero target-related matters”.

“The trouble with that is you have to go in there with an open mind and with a view to assessing a planning application based on its merits, the regulations and the law,” Parsonage added. “So, effectively, you’re being asked to do something that you’re not allowed to do.”

Then there’s the case of Curt Mellows, former chairman of the South East Cornwall branch of Reform. He had a lot to say about Mr Parsonage. None of it complimentary.

Curt Mellows – former chairman of the South East Cornwall branch of Reform UK – said he had thought long and hard about speaking out about the leadership, but felt he now had to as his accusations of bullying and harassment within the party have been ignored both regionally and nationally.

Pulling no punches, Mr Mellows said: “So the management team of Reform Cornwall, appointed by the self-appointed, so-called leader, has fallen apart. The odious little man who grabbed the leader’s position is failing on a massive scale.”

Referring to Cllr O’Connor’s resignation, he added: “He [Cllr Parsonage] can spin this however he wishes but this is one of the consequences of his complete unsuitability for the role. He possesses neither the intellect nor leadership qualities, or indeed any charisma at all, required for this important role. I hope he is replaced soon due to the damage his poor judgement is causing Reform in Cornwall.”

Mr Parsonage’s wife is also a Reform Councillor – but Christine Parsonage has come under fire for basically not bothering to turn up to any meetings. Probably because she never had any intention of doing so, seeing herself as a paper candidate. She never imagined she might have to represent the interests of the voters who inadvertently trusted her with their vote. But stood anyway, because, you know, it’s a laugh, or something.

One of those is Cllr Christine Parsonage, wife of the erstwhile leader. Living 45 miles away from her St Columb Minor and Colan seat, she was roundly criticised by members of Newquay Town Council for not attending meetings. Since the hoo-ha she has gone on a period of special leave for three months.

Her colleague Susanne Desmonde, another Reform councillor, had to seek special leave for medical reasons as well, although no-one can be held responsible for bad luck with health of course.

The afore-mentioned former Reform leader Rob Parsonage then went on to set up a new rival political group which seem to have encouraged the defection of a few more of previously-Reform councillors:

The former leader of Reform UK at Cornwall Council has resigned from the party over the weekend to set up a new independent political group. Cllr Rob Parsonage has left Reform along with his wife Cllr Christine Parsonage and Cllr Anna Thomason-Kenyon.

They have joined forces with the Reform group’s former deputy leader, Cllr Rowland O’Connor, and Cllr Karen Knight – who left the party last week – to form the breakaway Cornish Independent Nonaligned Group at the council.

Enough Cornwall councillors have now quit the party such that Reform has managed to defeat itself, no longer holding the most seats there. A win for the Lib Dems it seems.

The changes now mean that the political make-up of Cornwall Council is:
Liberal Democrats – 26 seats
Reform UK – 23 seats
Independents – 16 seats
Conservatives – 7 seats
Cornish Independent Nonaligned Group – 5 seats
Labour – 4 seats
Mebyon Kernow – 3 seats
Green Party – 3 seats