Memo to councillors: don’t normalise Reform UK
As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, we face within Britain the very same forces that we defeated from outside in 1945. Reform UK are not, yet, a full-blown fascist party, but they are unmistakably from the same family: racist, nationalist, and above all authoritarian and anti-democratic.
You can see this in Nigel Farage’s arrogant dismissal of all initiatives to promote equality and inclusion in our society, and in his attempt to make Reform wipe out, with a stroke of the pen, all the efforts of councils to combat the climate emergency. You can see it, above all, in his slavish worship and aping of Donald Trump’s authoritarian and dictatorial regime.
Remember that Farage defended Trump’s attempted violent coup in 2020. If Reform UK were to come to power in 2029 – thanks to our corrupt first-past-the-post system which might give him victory with 30 per cent of the votes – he would resort to the the antidemocratic steps that Trump took to hang on to power.
So here is my message to our Liberal Democrat, Green and Independent councillors: don’t normalise Reform. Allow then to represent their constituents (if they do), give them their fair share of committee places, but don’t do deals with them, don’t let them run things, keep them well away from power. They need to be defeated as we defeated their forerunners in the 1940s.
Seaton & Colyton MATTERS 