The Reform rally at the Birmingham Arena (entrance by ticket £5) was hit by protests on Friday. Media reports suggest that the event was delayed by an hour by anti-racist protests before the owner of Reform, Nigel Farage, could deliver his latest ‘thoughts’.
Also active were the prangsters Led By Donkeys who specialise in deflating the enormous egos of hard right politicians.
A report in the Observer (30th March) notes that while the venue held 10,000 it was only around half full. As the report goes on to note this is still an impressive turnout, at least until you factor in an important rule of organising a political meeting. Namely that the space booked should be a bit smaller than the numbers anticipated so it can be claimed that it was ‘standing room only’. The report also suggests that at one point chanting broke out for Rupert Lowe who has been expelled from Reform
All this will be a footnote at best to media reports that tend to hang on every word Farage spouts but the impact on those Reform types who thought they were signing up for a respectable alternative to the Tories (and there will be some even if we assume Reform has been inflating its reported membership figures of 200,000+} will be there.
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