I'm taking a lot of comfort in that too mate!
Nigel Farage - Reform leader
- Thread starter golden_blunder
- Start date
I'm taking a lot of comfort in that too mate!
No surprise
Reform candidate in Wales steps down after apparent Nazi salute
A Reform UK candidate for the Welsh Senedd elections in May has announced he is standing down because of his mental health, after a photograph emerged of him apparently making a Nazi salute as an imitation of Adolf Hitler.
The announcement by Reform comes a day after Nigel Farage defended Corey Edwards, its lead candidate for the Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg constituency, saying he might have instead been impersonating the John Cleese character Basil Fawlty.
Reform has also experienced problems with candidate selection in Scotland, where four of its picks for elections there in May stood down or were suspended within a week of being announced by Farage.
The photograph of Edwards, an ex-adviser to the Conservative former Welsh secretary David TC Davies, was published by the Nation.Cymru website and showed him raising his right arm, with a finger of his left hand under his nose.
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...ndidate-wales-senedd-corey-edwards-photograph
No evidence of 'family voting' in by-election
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyxeqpzz2no
I really wish he would just feck off before we end up having our own Capitol Building style attack caused by his dipshit supporters getting all hot and bothered by his lies and bullshit.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyxeqpzz2no
I really wish he would just feck off before we end up having our own Capitol Building style attack caused by his dipshit supporters getting all hot and bothered by his lies and bullshit.
Key question to me here is surely who Democracy Volunteers are. Are they a legit independent organisation? Are they linked to Reform? Why is it only their volunteers who spotted this alleged voting issue?
I'm not sure but the director of the organisation became a director for a "fine art" company the day before the election and the allegations started so he was very busy.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/17054766
Hmm, this guy - suggests it’s legit but I guess also depends who they recruit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ault
Seems like the other director for Democracy Volunteers is also director of a private healthcare consultancy?
https://find-and-update.company-inf...cers/JGLsp6wU4Q3rxGohceCsckJuzKA/appointments
Edit: dodgyly enough it doesn't come up on his page unless you search for it separately... Same guy, same DOB but different correspondents address.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11242619/officers
They are legit - politically neutral. But 'high' levels were a couple of dozen out of tens of thousands. And the organisation made allegations based on attending a small number of voting places and expressing concern, rather than overtly alleging illegality. Naturally this has been blown out of proportion by Reform.
The real story is that an independent election monitoring organisation expressed concerns about a small number of ballots, and those concerns were investigated by police and no offences were found to have been committed.
It is also worth stating that this offence was introduced by the Tories and it is narrowly drawn to target the 'problem' of family voting in Muslim communities primarily. It is also a badly drawn law, in that it doesn't make illegal coercion outside of the voting booth, nor does it cover postal voting, which you would assume to be more prone to abuse. Also, you can have someone in the voting booth with you, but they cannot influence you.
Democracy Volunteers state:
In the 2024 UK general election Democracy Volunteers observed family voting in 21% of polling stations, with 3.5% of all the voters we observed causing, or being affected by, family voting.
In 2025 we observed elections in other countries. In Norway, we saw it in 16% of polling stations, in Finland 12% and in the Netherlands it was also 12%. It is an international issue, not just a UK one.
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They don't make a claim about the types of communities where family voting takes place. Reform are just running on an Islamophobic narrative here.
Someone explain what they mean by family voting?
This according to them...
family voting (where two voters either confer, collude or direct each other on voting) which breaches the secret ballot.
https://democracyvolunteers.org/major-concerns-over-family-voting-in-gorton-and-denton-poll/
So I guess when I turned up to a polling station with my housemates a few years ago and we conferred about how we would vote tactically, I/we engaged in family voting.
Basically it's to do with extremist Muslim men who viciously indoctrinate their family into extremist Muslim beliefs such as voting for a woman whose party's leader is a gay Jew.
Yes, although I think the concern around it is more having two people actually in a polling booth and a “family” all being forced to vote the same way (I.e. let’s say having your dad looking over your shoulder and ensuring that all the kids vote as he wants them to).
That's what I assumed it meant, but that's not the definition they use in their stats. So my example would be included in their numbers.
A tale as old as time.
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It's another right wing dogwhistle to demonise and ostracise Muslims in the West.
See also: praying in Trafalgar Square for Eid being an act of 'domination'.
It was made a crime in 2023 by the Tories. You cannot influence someone's vote in the polling station or voting booth. There was 'concern' that in 'certain communities' votes were being directed by certain people.
I would be surprised if we could find any sensible person disagree that family voting is wrong. Clearly an individual should be free to vote for whoever they want without fear of recriminations.
Whether, this is a thing that’s happened is a different matter entirely.
It's a really poorly drafted law. Covers in person voting but not postal voting.
Here's the offence:
Influencing voters at polling booths
(1)A person who—
(a)is with another person at a polling booth, and
(b)intends to influence that other person to vote in a particular way or to refrain from voting,
commits an offence.
(2)A person who—
(a)is near a polling booth when another person is at that booth, and
(b)intends to influence that other person to vote in a particular way or to refrain from voting,
commits an offence.
"Influence" is ill defined and overly broad, which means it gives prosecutors a lot of discretion.
For example, usually people in a long term relationship will have similar political views. They may have conversations about who to vote for and may convince the other to vote in a particular way. That would be legitimate in my view, and presumably other people's view too.
When does legitimate influence become illegitimate?
It is already a criminal offence to influence someone's vote in and around a polling station, or to discuss political matters.
Family voting was reported in the Runcorn by election which Reform won by 6 votes. It occurred at lower levels than in Gorton, but could have swayed the result in Runcorn. I object to Reform (and other commentators) politicising this matter in relation to a by election with a significant Muslim population, with little to nothing said about reports in Runcorn.
I assume the issue would be coercion and not just influence. But don't people go the booth individually? How can they be "influenced" in that moment?
You can have someone in the voting booth with you in the UK, but they cannot influence your vote.
Excellent question, I was wondering that myself
Eh? Really? Why are they allowed to be in a polling booth together?
In NI you couldn’t
In Ireland you can’t
It seems bizarre to me
You can to ask someone you trust, like a parent, carer, or friend who is over 18, to come with you to the polling station to support you whilst you vote.
If you can’t fill in the ballot paper yourself, you can ask polling station staff or someone you trust to mark it for you. Speak to the staff if you’d like to do this.
If you are blind or partially sighted, you can ask for a large print ballot paper as a guide, or a special voting device, to help you cast your vote.
If you are disabled, your local elections team will be able to provide extra support for you to cast your vote. You might want to speak to them about this before polling day.
https://www.electoralcommission.org...oung-people/your-vote/ways-vote/voting-person
I didn't know that, here in portugal it's only allowed if you have a disability that prevents you from putting the x on the ballot.
To come to the station with you, it doesn’t say go into the booth with you
Other than a disability there is no reason for anyone else to be in the booth other than the individual voting
The second paragraph would apply.
In England, anyone over the age of 18 can help you cast your vote. They do not need to be eligible to vote in the election.
They're often not booths. Just tables with a divider. So not very private in the first place if multiple people are marking ballots at the same time.
You would think there’s more scope for illegitimate behaviour with postal voting.
Much law these days seems to be poorly executed.
The only reason should be because the person needs assistance. This could be done by one of the assistants at the voting station - but I suppose that would bring its own issues. Practicality here is a challenge.
I think electoral law reform is decades overdue. We have some rules dating back to the late 19th century, predating television, let alone social media.
We simply don't have effective rules, and nor are they joined up. Your point about postal voting is an example of this.
The current elections bill goes a little way to rectifying some issues, but there are still big problems: https://electoral-reform.org.uk/ele...-change-to-voting-but-misses-big-opportunity/
The problem with electoral reform is that only the party in power can do anything about it - and of course they will only skew things to their own advantage.
But yes agree, needs to be looked at.
It’s one of many areas that I think government should dedicate time to - perhaps they should have far more debate time and far less recesses to actually get some shit done.
Reform insiders fear links to extreme figures such as Andrew Tate will scare off voters
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...xtreme-figures-andrew-tate-young-men-misogyny
Interesting piece.
Tommy Robinson, Victoria Hervey, Holly Valance and Caprice are a hell of a combination of celebrity support.
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...xtreme-figures-andrew-tate-young-men-misogyny
Interesting piece.
Tommy Robinson, Victoria Hervey, Holly Valance and Caprice are a hell of a combination of celebrity support.
Caprice 
This is where the influence of others, family, friends, or any other persons can be involved in acts of persuasion, threats and through use of personal obligations, are carried out to influence a persons vote.
Some 'collusion' has always taken place in some families, or groups of people, usually before anyone gets anywhere near a polling station.
Which is why the law is really poorly thought through. Makes a good headline, but as you say, there are probably millions of votes that have been influenced. I've changed my vote before in certain elections after conversations with family members and friends.
If anyone has eaten a baby, it's this guy. When he smiles it looks like he's unhinged his jaw.
Louder please.
Farage has the ultimate cheat card to play here - he has sacked him.
Now in any other political party, their vetting process gets properly called to question but everyone has accepted Reform is a joke in that regard. So all Farage has to do is throw eggs at the wall, hope they don’t crack and if they do he just gets rid of them - looking like a strong leader who acts quickly - and then can play loony roulette again
Has he sacked him? All he said was that he’s not spokesman anymore. He’s probably shuffled off to some other role