The Reform Coalition
Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2025 10:22 am
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... rage-party
Found this a very interesting piece of polling and analysis that digs into the different social groups that make up Reform's polling majority and why they have turned towards them.
Reading that, you'd say there's only two ways to stop them. The first is if Labour somehow manage to do what the Conservatives spent 14 years proving was impossible and make an economic boom out of austerity, specifically one that benefits the poorest and makes everybody feel better off. Do that, and the 48% of Reform's vote that comes from "Squeezed Stewards" and "Reluctant Reformers" will have their major concern taken care of and be switched off by Reform's nuttier behaviour/policies.
The second is by Polanski keeping the Greens' momentum and not either fucking up or having a major closet-skeleton reveal. If they establish themselves as second place in more than just outlier polls, then the "Reluctant Reformers" who "back Reform out of frustration with mainstream politics rather than conviction" are definitely in play, and they are equivalent to 6.4% of Reform's recent polling of 32%. While a 100% transfer is unlikely, there's also a decent possibility of pinching some of the Squeezed Stewards and Contrarian Youth as well, given Polanski's outsider-to-mainstream-politics status and promises of rebalancing the economy so that it would work for the many, not the few for more ordinary people. Get Reform down to 24-26% and Greens up to 20-23% and suddenly Labour are on the wrong side of the FPtP tactical voting bollocks for once, and I suspect the red rosette partisans will be much more likely to hold their nose and vote tactically than the blue-rosette true-Tories.
Weirdly, that means that the two possibilities for hope are diametrically opposed. Option 1 involves praying that Labour are actually competent and do manage to save the country, whereas Option 2's best chance of happening comes if Labour continue to shit the bed and drive away their base without any gains to show for it (probably including a series of damaging leadership elections where another identikit bland establishment austerity bastard in a suit is shuffled into the place of the last one).
In short, it's horribly distressing living on the verge of a fascist electoral win, and I am "coping" by doing analysis of polls and political research like it will a) make any difference to the result or b) not make my mental health much much worse. How's everyone else doing?
Puja
Found this a very interesting piece of polling and analysis that digs into the different social groups that make up Reform's polling majority and why they have turned towards them.
Reading that, you'd say there's only two ways to stop them. The first is if Labour somehow manage to do what the Conservatives spent 14 years proving was impossible and make an economic boom out of austerity, specifically one that benefits the poorest and makes everybody feel better off. Do that, and the 48% of Reform's vote that comes from "Squeezed Stewards" and "Reluctant Reformers" will have their major concern taken care of and be switched off by Reform's nuttier behaviour/policies.
The second is by Polanski keeping the Greens' momentum and not either fucking up or having a major closet-skeleton reveal. If they establish themselves as second place in more than just outlier polls, then the "Reluctant Reformers" who "back Reform out of frustration with mainstream politics rather than conviction" are definitely in play, and they are equivalent to 6.4% of Reform's recent polling of 32%. While a 100% transfer is unlikely, there's also a decent possibility of pinching some of the Squeezed Stewards and Contrarian Youth as well, given Polanski's outsider-to-mainstream-politics status and promises of rebalancing the economy so that it would work for the many, not the few for more ordinary people. Get Reform down to 24-26% and Greens up to 20-23% and suddenly Labour are on the wrong side of the FPtP tactical voting bollocks for once, and I suspect the red rosette partisans will be much more likely to hold their nose and vote tactically than the blue-rosette true-Tories.
Weirdly, that means that the two possibilities for hope are diametrically opposed. Option 1 involves praying that Labour are actually competent and do manage to save the country, whereas Option 2's best chance of happening comes if Labour continue to shit the bed and drive away their base without any gains to show for it (probably including a series of damaging leadership elections where another identikit bland establishment austerity bastard in a suit is shuffled into the place of the last one).
In short, it's horribly distressing living on the verge of a fascist electoral win, and I am "coping" by doing analysis of polls and political research like it will a) make any difference to the result or b) not make my mental health much much worse. How's everyone else doing?
Puja