Kmflett's Blog

Reform ‘conference’ ,the End of Days & the stench of fascism

I did not of course attend Reform conference. For one thing I have an aversion to the NEC (which is arguably in Solihull) having spent years representing union members on the adjacent business park.

I did however check the livestream and read (some) of the media comment, not including BBC Chris Mason.

It was not of course a conference (the actual conference season kicks off with the TUC at the Brighton Centre on 13^th September). Rather it was a rally and those attending were more like a mob than delegates.

Witness the roughing up of hecklers on the Friday. Heckling is a democratic tradition but less tolerated in recent times. Even so the ejection of hecklers is handled by accredited security people not a chance for a general melee.

The speeches were the usual bombastic bullshit from the main stage. The fringe which seemed to run through all sessions may have been more useful but it was not livestreamed.

Most of those attending seemed to be of a senior type (like me) and could take time off during the week. The fringe where evidence appeared seemed to have some younger people. Looking at the (entirely) men who did contribute at one fringe that was livestreamed one got the impression of people who might thump you if you disagreed. Still one shouldn’t judge by appearances.

Where there was a message in the speeches it was the ‘end of days’ rhetoric, familiar from the US MAGA and indeed JD Vance himself. The rapture is coming and if Matthew Goodwin is to be believed (he isn’t) there is one last General Election to sort it, or it will happen.

There was the impression, which you can find detailed in E P Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class for the 1820s and 1830s, of people who looked outwardly normalish (leaving aside the twerp who was dressed as a Crusader) but in their heads Apocalypse Now is underway.

Finally there was the Thursday Business Day. After the C4 expose some questions might get asked in various boardrooms about why they thought adding their names to the event was a good idea.

Reading media coverage the focus is the dodgy donations and frankly absolute shambles the event represented. But behind the bombast and bullshit you could pick up a very unpleasant smell, the stench of fascism.

Suella Braverman talked of plans to make pupils sing the national anthem and hymns in schools and if that didn’t happen the schools would be reported. Farage talked about over riding the Lords and judges to push through Reform’s measures. You could compare it to Hitler’s 1933 Enabling Act but as history shows he was deadly serious and had the means to do it. The comparison is more with Trump’s Executive Orders. Mostly not legal but causing never ending chaos.

Reform are very keen on authoritarianism and if they ever do professionalise that could become a very worrying problem.

Standing  up to racism has never been more important.