Reform UK’s boast that they’re ‘the voice of the people’ is quite a claim. Are they performing a combination of mind-reading and ventriloquism? That would bring to mind those unconvincing magicians on 1970s TV variety shows – probably not the image Nigel Farage and his crew are aiming for. No – they mean their party represents the views of ordinary, salt-of-the-earth members of the British public – views some voters can’t express in our ‘woke’ society.
But like conjurors, Reform UK make use of misdirection. Determined to win seats in the local elections on May 1, they’ve focused their patter on the everyday issues facing people in our towns and cities: crime, getting a GP appointment, schools, roads, even bin collections. Whichever political group runs their local authority, Reform UK candidates accuse them of doing a rubbish job, and promise to fix the problems, regardless of whether or not the issue falls within a council’s remit . The punchline is their predictable crowd-pleaser: “Stop the Boats”. (“No, of course we’re not racists – we just have a ‘common-sense’ approach to immigration.”)
Meanwhile, attention is deftly diverted from what Reform UK would rather keep out of the spotlight: the cosying-up to Donald Trump, the support for authoritarian far-right regimes in Europe, the potential for increased surveillance and the oppression of free speech, human rights, equality and diversity.
If Reform UK do win enough seats in the local elections to increase their political influence, no doubt the next part of the act will be gaslighting the public into thinking their hidden agenda was all part of the deal – after all, ‘the people’ voted for them.
But are they really offering what ‘the people’ want? Is Nigel Farage really ‘saying what everyone’s thinking’? We decided to go out on the streets and find out.
The results were a real eye-opener.
‘We’ are an evolving movement of volunteer activists called Common Ground, formed as a pushback against the increasing roll-out and normalisation of far-right views and policies. It’s a follow-on from the South Devon Primary, which successfully united the progressive vote in the run-up to last year’s general election, and booted out the constituency’s Tory MP.
We think most people are more level-headed, tolerant and community-minded than Reform UK give them credit for. We believe most people would like to see politicians exploring solutions, not instigating hate campaigns against undeserving scapegoats. We think many voters feel that mistakes have been made in the past and that our leaders should now be adapting their views to the current national and global situation.
To test the water, a group of us have been going into Devon’s town centres, talking to passers-by and inviting them to agree or disagree with a few statements on key issues, including the UK’s relationships with the EU and the US, the far-right agenda, the creation of a ‘wealth tax’ and the current response to the climate crisis. We also asked whether they’d like to see more kindness in our politics and society. So far we’ve gathered public feedback in Ashburton, Totnes and most recently in Exeter, which we visited on Wednesday, April 23.
Gathering the views of shoppers in Exeter
In a slightly scruffy area of the city centre, where the High Street merges with a less affluent shopping area, our stand fitted in very well. No slick signage or glossy exhibition-style banners – just a couple of folding tables, a flipchart display stand and some leaflets. There was no technology – we used sticky labels to represent the agree/disagree votes, and handed out felt-tip pens for people to write any further comments on an old roll of wallpaper. Maybe this makeshift presentation was part of our appeal – we probably looked intriguingly unintimidating.
We weren’t gathering support for any political party – the only visible messaging on our stand was a ‘Say No to Reform UK’ leaflet. (One man spotted the word ‘Reform’ and marched up to give us a piece of his mind, thinking we were canvassing for them – he was happy that we certainly were not.) Because we didn’t have any clear political branding, the people who approached our stand were initially curious, then surprisingly forthcoming.
Once they understood what we were all about, they really wanted to talk to us and contribute their views to our on-the-spot survey. As the votes mounted up on the flipchart and more comments were added to the roll of paper, we noticed people responding even more positively as they saw that they were not alone in their opinions, or in their unease about the current political climate. Their relief was heartfelt, and heartening.
A young mixed-race woman told me: “I’ve noticed a lot more racism lately .. I was in a pub with my friend who’s also non-white and someone started saying really racist things – it was weird because we hadn’t done anything, we were just standing there! People are saying things in public now that they wouldn’t have said before.”
Another visitor to the stand said: “Nigel Farage has done so much damage already, and he’s about to do more.”
And another: “All this hatred, racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny – politicians are taking us back 50 years instead of forward.”
An archaeology student from Exeter University stunned us when she talked about the list of ‘banned words’ issued by the Trump administration – a list that applies to academic essays written by American students on her course, as well as to US government communications. [Ed: and we also wrote about these words in the context of grants being pulled by the Trump administration] The censorship is ostensibly a crusade against ‘wokeness’, but in reality it is an Orwellian attack on free speech – it includes words such as ‘diversity’ and ‘gender’. Apparently it also forbids archaeology students from referring to ‘culture’, ‘heritage’ or ‘Native Americans’. She added that the US students on her course were no longer able to find jobs in their home country and were even considering applying for political asylum.
Everyone who added a vote to our flipchart – which we call the ‘democracy-meter’ – said they were concerned about hatred and division in society and felt that voter apathy is a real problem. All but one person said they were worried about inaction over the climate emergency. Nearly all said they were concerned about the rise of Reform UK, and about what is happening in the US under the Trump regime.
Asked to vote on whether they would like this country to have a closer relationship with the EU or the US, all but one person voted for Europe.
The additional comments included:
“I’m worried about apathy. If people do not vote, Farage and his ilk will grow.”
“The press is largely in the hands of the right-wing and the rich – radical alternatives get rubbished daily.”
“Brexit should never have happened.”
“I’m concerned about the rise of far-right rhetoric and anti-immigration policies.”
“Young people are disillusioned with politics and the divisions in our society.”
Quite a few people also made a point of thanking us:
“This is amazing,” “It’s fantastic what you’re doing here,” “Activism is really important.”
It was much the same in the other towns we visited – slightly different questions, a broader range of opinions, but little enthusiasm for the far-right agenda.
Of course, it’s easy to dismiss our tiny, makeshift opinion polls as insignificant. Reform UK supporters would be the first to point out that we were just attracting the type of people who don’t feel represented politically and are already predisposed towards a different set of ideas; well, their party would know all about that. Exeter’s Reform UK branch chairman was quick to mock us on social media – but someone who talks about ‘Making Exeter Great Again’ isn’t exactly being subtle about his own influences.
Our snapshot of public opinion was small, but it made one thing very clear: Reform UK do not speak for ‘the people’. The headlines in the right-wing press, the pundits on GB News and the political influencers on social media are not reflecting ‘what everyone is thinking’. Many people are keeping quiet not because they secretly support Reform UK and other right-wing narratives, but because they feel no-one’s listening to their opinions.
Yet if people don’t vote in the local elections, they could be effectively giving Reform UK a mandate for their toxic policies. Local election turnout is always low, and Reform will be banking on large numbers of voters not bothering to make a trip to the polling station. Absence of opposition can mean tacit approval; at the ballot box, under our current voting system, it means victory by default.
So let’s use our power. The Movement Forward (the people behind Stop The Tories) has created an online tool for identifying the candidate to back in your local electoral division on May 1 if you want to keep Reform UK out of local government and a step further away from Westminster.
Our democracy is flawed, but we still have a choice: let’s choose to make the real voice of the people well and truly heard.
