How do you pronounce ‘mayoralty'?
The most inventive seemed to be Jonny Dymond on Radio 4, who called them mayoralities, introducing an i, as in words such as realities or moralities. Although mayoralities wasn't exactly the required word, it sounded much better than the popular but hideous method of basing its pronunciation on mayor as if it consisted in two syllables, may and or, with the second stressed.
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Times
7 hours ago
- Times
Reform UK bans local branches from organising events on WhatsApp
Reform UK has banned its local branches from organising political events on WhatsApp amid fears of infiltration from the far right. Rules handed down to local affiliates last month, seen by The Times, will force branch officers to sign non-disclosure agreements and prevent them from opening their own bank accounts. It hands sweeping powers to the national party to override the rules and suspend members. Sources familiar with the rules said the strict approach was needed to prevent potential entryism from the far right. The branch rules were initially published in December under Zia Yusuf, then party chairman, who had been brought in to professionalise the party's operation. However, a tightened version, including the restrictions on social media use, was published last month. It added that branch officers 'are not permitted to use social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, etc, to communicate party and branch operations and activities to members and/or supporters'. Communications should instead be limited to email and to branch meetings, it said. Zia Yusuf, the former chairman of Reform UK TOLGA AKMEN/EPA Despite the apparent ban on Facebook, there appear to be dozens of groups for local Reform branches actively operating on the platform. The previous version of the rules said the party could suspend or expel members if they brought Reform into disrepute 'by association with, or membership of, any organisation which the board has declared to be incompatible with membership of the party'. However, in the updated version of the document, the threat of suspension or expulsion has been expanded to include 'association with any individual … whether public or private'. Reform has previously suspended candidates for saying they used to be members of the fascist British National Party, but has stopped short of suspending those who have reshared material or appeared at rallies led by Tommy Robinson, the far-right activist. Reform has set up more than 450 branches and at the most recent local elections had more candidates standing for office than any other party. Reform sources said the rules act as an 'insurance policy' against any threat posed by the former Reform MP Rupert Lowe IMAGEPLOTTER/ALAMY Dissent against Farage's party from the right has been led by Rupert Lowe, the former Reform MP who was suspended amid bullying allegations, which he denies. Lowe has set up Restore Britain, which he has called a 'movement' rather than a political party. Reform sources said that while there did not seem to be an immediate threat from Lowe to attempt a takeover of local branches, the rules act as an 'insurance policy'. Farage has previously said he has done 'more than anyone else to defeat the far right in Britain' and told The Sunday Times to 'wait till what comes after me' if he cannot represent young men in politics. Many of the Reform branch rules are unprecedented for a major political party, including mandated non-disclosure agreements for officers. The document also differs from other parties by setting a three-year term limit for branch chairs and limiting how many elected councillors can run the local branch. Luke Akehurst, Labour MP and a member of the party's national executive committee, said: 'These very draconian rules show far more central command control than any of the existing mainstream British political parties. 'This degree of control freakery over minutiae of local organising suggests a fundamentally undemocratic mindset, a lack of appreciation of need for local variation according to circumstances, and a complete lack of trust in their grassroots membership by the party HQ.' Unusually, Reform also holds a list of approved speakers at events held by local branches. The rules state that only 'only speakers on the 'approved event speakers list' are eligible to give talks or hold question-and-answer sessions at branch events … and deviation may result in disciplinary action'.
Telegraph
8 hours ago
- Telegraph
Farage is not selling out, he is just preparing Reform for government
There's a whisper on t'internet that Nigel Farage has sold out. It's based on things he's said – ie 'it's impossible' to deport every illegal alien – or the dissenting views of individual Reformers. Vanessa Frake, his new justice adviser, recently opined that it's impractical to ban all trans women from all prisons, contra the position of Farage himself. Journalists said Reform must be divided; the Tories, that Reform has turned wet. 'Men belong in men's prisons,' wrote Rob Jenrick. 'End of.' In a sign of how far the Overton window has shifted, even Labour is now attacking Farage as soft on crime. Its latest ad says he 'wants to make it easier to share revenge porn online', as if Nigel had secreted a camera into Rupert Lowe's bedroom and uploaded the grim results on YouTube. What is going on? The fuss around Frake needs to be contextualised: she was speaking for herself, and there's nowt wrong with that. Reform is a start-up. The whole premise is to offer a platform to those who hate machine politics but still want to serve the public. Such people, completely new to this business, are going to be opinionated; they will speak their mind. Isn't that what we want? Voters complain that politicians are robotic, yet the minute one of them demonstrates free will, commentators leap on it as evidence of civil war. Moreover, pluralism of thought is inevitable in any organisation growing this fast. A year ago, Reform was a one-man band. Today it has around 230,000 members, 450 branches and over 850 councillors, with competitive elections under way to staff the board. Farage could've banked winning 10 councils and moved on: instead he has set them a task, chiefly to save money, and invited voters to judge the national party on how local officials, operating beyond his direct control, do. That's brave; a hostage to fortune. But it reflects Farage's personal transformation from spoiler vote to potential PM. If he's moderating his rhetoric, it's probably not just because it's necessary to win. I think that Farage believes he will win. This is a man of conscience on the cusp of power, being careful not to over-hype expectations of what a Reform government can actually achieve. Consider past mistakes. Rishi Sunak said 'stop the boats', and didn't. Keir Starmer said 'smash the gangs', and he still hasn't. The failure to deliver promises on immigration has done as much damage to the country as mass migration itself, fuelling perceptions of elite failure – or lies – and eroding faith in democracy. The Left assumes that when Farage says Britain is on the verge of 'social collapse', of disorder and riots, this is what he wants to happen, but the opposite is true. He means it as a warning. Instinctual conservatives like Farage abhor revolution, and it's precisely because he has long operated on the interzone between centre and radical Right that he knows the anger that's out there and the potential for violent upheaval. Hence a Reform government, far from being fascist, might be the last chance to do the things that quell nativist anger. Saving our system from itself is the historic role Farage played in the late 2000s, when the rise of Ukip drained support from the BNP, channelling it into the safer waters of euroscepticism. He is the last gasp of the 20th century, defending its liberality and patriotism, and has an old-fashioned reading of British identity rooted in history and constitutionalism, not race or religion. 'I haven't fought the change,' caused by immigration, he once said, 'provided it comes with integration.' I'm sure that to him, men like Zia Yusuf – Reform's former chairman, Muslim and stinking rich – exemplify a British Dream that stretches from the beaches of Dunkirk to Ibiza, the freedom not to be told what to do, the right to have a laugh. To populist critics, however, Yusuf is a suspicious character who kept dragging Reform back to an illusionary centre-ground – compromise and betrayal – and Nigel's tolerance of him epitomised a lack of intellectual rigour. Farage might be tougher than the establishment on immigration, they say, but he's out-of-date. Doesn't see how bad things have got, doesn't get the existential threat posed by Islam. Lowe has speculated that he was driven out of Reform, in part, because the leadership didn't want him talking about 'mass deportation'. Spying an opportunity, the Tories are triangulating against Reform, suggesting Farage has embraced full communism by seeking to expand child benefit or nationalise industries. Arguably this illustrates their own, very unconservative addiction to economic dogma. Farage has evolved with circumstances – this is an insecure age that demands more babies, more manufacturing – and out of loyalty to constituencies that have been loyal to him. In short: if Scunthorpe wants its steel protected, he'll do it. The alternative is to offer the working class a dry lecture on supply and demand and what the country cannot afford. A bitter pill given Westminster earmarked £7bn to relocate Afghan refugees to the UK. Indeed, the basic problem the Conservatives have with trying to attack Farage from the Right is that we can remember what they did in office. Even if the Tories dumped Kemi and brought in Jenrick, who Farage has said will 'almost certainly' end up to the Right of him on immigration, Farage will turn to him at that first debate in 2029 and ask: 'Why did your party open the borders and refuse to leave the ECHR?' Jenrick has undergone a genuine conversion on these points, but my gut tells me the Tories are essentially a liberal party that occasionally says conservative things, whereas Reform is a conservative party that occasionally says liberal things. I am therefore more willing to give Reform the benefit of the doubt. The physical comparison between the slimline Jenrick and old Nigel, in a blazer, beneath a halo of cigarette smoke, would also be significant. Farage embodies his conservatism. So does Donald Trump. Trump, too, has said things at odds with his base – on abortion or war – and several Republicans ran against him from the Right in presidential primaries. They lost. Ultimately, politics is about vibes, and you are never going to convince the voters that Nigel Farage is a globalist cross-dressing as a nationalist.
Daily Mirror
12 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Fish and chip shops 'could vanish' due to Nigel Farage's net zero opposition
Labour MP Bill Esterson, chair of the Energy Security and Net Zero Select Committee, accused Reform UK of ignoring the dangers of climate change and its impact on prices Fish and chips are at risk of vanishing from the high street if Nigel Farage has his way, a senior Labour figure has warned. British waters have seen record average temperatures over the first seven months of the year, leading to shifts in the species living in our waters, and creating challenges for fishing. Statistics also show the average price of fish and chips jumped from £6.64 in January 2020 to £10.09 in January 2025, despite industry attempts to ' cushion the blow ' for consumers. Labour MP Bill Esterson, chair of the Energy Security and Net Zero Select Committee, has now accused Reform of ignoring the dangers of climate change, and argued it was seeing prices soar in a blow to business. He told The Mirror: "While Nigel Farage wants us to ignore climate change, part of the British way of life is under threat. The seas around the UK are warming up. Cod and haddock are moving to colder waters." It comes after a Reform UK police chief's 'dark heart of wokeness' claim comes under fire. He continued: "The Labour government is taking climate action at home and abroad which will help limit the rise in sea temperatures. Reform needs to explain why they are happy for the British public to pay through the nose for our fish and chips, or possibly even lose our nation's favourite dish once and for all.' Mr Farage has previously described the UK's net zero target as 'complete and utter madness', while his fellow Reform MP Richard Tice recently 'declared war' on green energy projects. National Federation of Fish Friers President Andrew Crook told The Mirror climate change could be a factor in the price increases, and that the UK's chippies were doing their best to keep prices down for customers. He said: 'Most of the fish used in the nation's fish and chip shops comes from the Barents Sea and the waters around Iceland as the fish prefers deeper colder water than around the UK. We are currently feeling the effects of the quota for cod being reduced from 1m tonnes five years ago to 340,000 tonnes this year as scientists are trying to address a couple of poor year classes of fish. 'These could be caused by climate change, predation or another natural occurrence. In isolation we could handle it but we are seeing increases across the board and high tax burden which unfortunately has led to some increases but we are trying to cushion consumers as much as we can so they can continue to enjoy the nation's favourite dish.'
