How the media created Reform

It is indefensible as Graphite's post makes clear.
The only positive is that he is 'being hoisted by his own petard'.

My goodness, I cannot believe I have read some posts by apologists for the behaviour of the attackers. Have you seen the video? I call being totally surrounded by a large group of people, while the ones at the front are pulling your hair and hitting you with a crutch is a distinct case of mob assault. Some clear footage so I hope the attackers are dealt with.

Plevey08

I thought Farage encourages free speech?

I thought he was all for the protection of women?
He certainly has enough donations for the security he says he needs.
He is despicable. And they are the typical Farage supporters? God help us.

Yes there was no need for the pensioners to get stuck in as plenty of security showed up.

Nandalot

My goodness, I cannot believe I have read some posts by apologists for the behaviour of the attackers. Have you seen the video? I call being totally surrounded by a large group of people, while the ones at the front are pulling your hair and hitting you with a crutch is a distinct case of mob assault. Some clear footage so I hope the attackers are dealt with.

I don’t think anyone has stuck up for them Nandalot!

MaizieD

I don't think that you're likely to see this on the mainstream media.

A woman protestor being assaulted as she is removed from the Reform conference.

bsky.app/profile/davidrvetter.bsky.social/post/3muqsb3nopc25

Oh yes that is bad. Those men at the front grabbed her, then those pensioners at the back getting stuck in.
Definitely want arrested for assault.
That girl must have been terrified.

Farage should have called it out- if he had a clear view. Not good imo!

A picture of the man with the stick/crutch who also assaulted the blonde woman, just seconds before he and the other man in the picture push/knock a dark-haired woman to the ground.

Video:

x.com/gingerrtom/status/2096170950110683186

Labour refuse to acknowledge the reasons why Reform are so popular so they are doing their best to discredit them. They must think we are too stupid to realise.

I'm not fixating on this one incident at the conference. I think about why Reform has suddenly grown to be such a comparatively large party. What gap are the other parties not addressing?

I would like to hear what the protesters said/shouted out before I pass judgement. I noticed a large number of people recording the incident on their phones so it should not be too difficult to release a full account.

MT62

Farage should have called it out- if he had a clear view. Not good imo!

Both Farage should have called it out as well as the security guards who had nearby plain sight and did not protect this woman. I agree not good enough- but beyond that- Farage has demonstrated he condones how the woman was treated.

Farage laughed and said on the clip that the woman "looked as though she was doing herself an injury". She was unable to do herself an injury as she was constrained and being carried out. It was clear the injury was against her and only could have been against her. He did in fact have sight of the woman being carried out and did see sufficient to comment about her injury.

Farage then chanted to the crowd 'you know what I think of that' ( i.e the woman- who he could see was being carried out), 'boring, boring, boring' and the crowd joined in with him.

Farage has since also had the chance subsequently to review this footage from yesterday and clearly see how the woman was being attacked. He should have called such behaviour out and made a statement that such behaviour will not be tolerated by the security guards and they will be removed. he has made no such statement

Just why is Farage emptying security guards that allowed injury against this woman by other attendees? Why has he not called this out after his speech yesterday or today?

emplying not emptying

Yes LemonJam she wasn’t doing herself an injury (daft statement).
He hasn’t done himself any favour’s.
But Labour are without incident- Mike Amesbury, John Prescott come to mind! Such hooligans 🙄

Aveline

I'm not fixating on this one incident at the conference. I think about why Reform has suddenly grown to be such a comparatively large party. What gap are the other parties not addressing?

It's Farage's response to this incident and others at the conference that is of major concern to me. From a free speech perspective, that Farage laughed and condoned the attack on this woman, and concern about his values and what his values would mean for the treatment of any dissenters and the treatment of women if Reform was in government. condoning injury against women and laughing about it. I do not see other party leaders behave in this way- thats the comparison I'm making.

I have never seen any other party leader either condoning such behaviour in their party conference or employing security guards which would not remove perpetrators of violence against another conference attendee.

MY62 14.36

Yes all parties no doubt have MPs who have pugnacious personalities. Farage however is the party leader, he sets the tone and values of his party He set a poor tone and poor values in my eyes.

John Prescott indeed was a pugnacious man. He reacted when a man threw an egg at him and then got involved in a brawl with that man and the police intervened. That entirely highlights my point- neither the body guards or Farage intervened to stop other attendees attacking this defenceless woman On the contrary Farage stood and laughed and waited whist they continued chanting 'boring, boring, boring' .

This woman had not thrown any eggs yet was clearly physically attacked whilst she was constrained by body guards. They called no other bodyguards to come and remove the attackers.

It’s understood the protesters in the audience were from Climate Resistance.

They shouted “Nigel, you’re bankrolled by billionaires” which he is.

Two held up a banner which read “Reform works for billionaires” which it does.

Greenpeace has claimed it put the small banners on the stage which read, "Collect £5 million Burn the Planet."

People have a right to protest and not be beaten to the ground.

Today, Lee Anderson has been joking about having a whip round to buy a new stick for the pensioner who used his to hit two women. Audience members clapped and cheered.

Reform are disgusting.

mum2three

Labour refuse to acknowledge the reasons why Reform are so popular so they are doing their best to discredit them. They must think we are too stupid to realise.

Farage and Reform UK are doing a pretty good job of discrediting themselves- they don't need the Labour Party or any other party to do the job for them. The general public are not too stupid to realise as they can see for themselves.

I personally cant understand the benefit of deflecting from the actions of Farage et al in his party to the Labour Party but lets run with what you would like the Labour Party to acknowledge, as you claim they 'refuse to do so".

What are the reasons in your view that Reform is 'so popular"? Is there a place where that general consensus is listed? Once there is such a consensus, in what way do you think that the Labour, Greens, Lib Dems, and Conservative parties etc should acknowledge these reasons?

I'm mindful that the Labour Party is the more popular than Reform UK in the polls currently. Why is it that Farage is refusing to acknowledge the reasons why in a reciprocal way or is he refusing to do so?

Plus Andy Burnham has by far the highest personal poll ratings, higher than Farage and all the other party leaders. Why is Farage refusing to acknowledge the reasons why Andy Burnham is more popular than him right now?

Graphite 15.07, I agree.

Be careful. What you see these days is often manipulated and I rarely believe anything I see. There are two girls, the one standing up and the other being pulled around. They are not the same person, so that is manipulative for a start. Farage may not have even been talking about the woman being pulled around. Maybe the other woman did something we can't see. I very much doubt he would laugh at someone being assaulted, so that is almost certainly fake.

I am not an apologist and if the woman being pulled around is genuine footage then that's appalling. But just be aware that everything is fake these days. Can you really trust anything you see?

Farage himself is a major impediment to Reform getting anywhere. He's so unlikeable and unpleasant even to look at. Shallow I know but appearance matters these days.
I was more struck by the ordinariness of the hundreds of Reform members I saw in the video of the conference.

MT62

Yes LemonJam she wasn’t doing herself an injury (daft statement).
He hasn’t done himself any favour’s.
But Labour are without incident- Mike Amesbury, John Prescott come to mind! Such hooligans 🙄

Aren’t

See Graphite 12.45 post. There was more than one woman. There is a variety of footage from various angles taken by various attendees. On the balance of probability I would not expect each and every video to be false and their mobile device will have timings of when recorded. The woman who as attacked has since made herself known and been interviewed as Graphite posted and showed her bruises and gave her account to the interviewer. There now is a police crime reference.

Farage referred to the woman attacked in the same video as though she looked as though she was doing herself an injury whilst the woman was physically restrained by body guards and other attendees were assaulting her. Farage may be asked to provide a police statement what he meant by the woman was causing herself an injury and how that was possible if she was physically restrained.

The bodyguards who physically restrained and carried her out of the building should have completed incident forms and detailed her injuries, her account and the actions of the attackers- if they are professional body guards that is. That evidence should be made available to the police to assist their investigation. The police may also seek witness testimony from attendees, particularly those who secured video footage.

Aveline

Farage himself is a major impediment to Reform getting anywhere. He's so unlikeable and unpleasant even to look at. Shallow I know but appearance matters these days.
I was more struck by the ordinariness of the hundreds of Reform members I saw in the video of the conference.

Oh mean not covered in tattoos & wearing balaclavas 😂

Farage response reported 15.42 today:

Nigel Farage has hit back at criticism over the treatment of protesters at the Reform UK conference, calling it utter nonsense and accusing his critics of taking a one-sided view.

West Midlands police has asked a female protester to come forward after footage appeared to show her being manhandled and having her hair pulled by a Reform audience member as she was removed from the conference yesterday.

Speaking to broadcasters, Farage said: “It’s all one way, isn’t it? I can have milkshakes chucked in my face, be bashed over the head with placards and that’s all fine. That’s absolutely fine. (well actually it wasn’t fine the woman was arrested, prosecuted and sentenced).

Yet, well, we have a big event that people have paid a lot of money to come to and we get people there trying to disrupt it and we remove them. Suddenly we’re in the wrong. Utter nonsense

He added: “This is just also one sided. It is ridiculous. There were people there trying to disrupt our conference. We always have them. We always have them and we remove them quickly and expeditiously.”

LemonJam

MY62 14.36

Yes all parties no doubt have MPs who have pugnacious personalities. Farage however is the party leader, he sets the tone and values of his party He set a poor tone and poor values in my eyes.

John Prescott indeed was a pugnacious man. He reacted when a man threw an egg at him and then got involved in a brawl with that man and the police intervened. That entirely highlights my point- neither the body guards or Farage intervened to stop other attendees attacking this defenceless woman On the contrary Farage stood and laughed and waited whist they continued chanting 'boring, boring, boring' .

This woman had not thrown any eggs yet was clearly physically attacked whilst she was constrained by body guards. They called no other bodyguards to come and remove the attackers.

Yes I totally agree, that’s if he saw the whole scene as it looked very dark to me, but like you said he could have called it out today.

TBH, I don’t blame JP for his reaction towards that guy as he could have been throwing a much worse substance
. I think it was a knee jerk reaction to the assault.
The other guy, well I was disgusted.