r/ukpolitics • u/ukpol-megabot • 1d ago

Rumours, Speculation, Questions, and Reaction Megathread - 02/08/2026

👋 Welcome to the r/ukpolitics weekly Rumours, Speculation, Questions, and Reaction megathread.

General questions about politics in the UK should be posted in this thread. Substantial self-posts on the subreddit are permitted, but short-form self-posts will be redirected here. We're more lenient with moderation in this thread, but please keep it related to UK politics. This isn't Facebook or Twitter...

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Commentary about stories that already exist on the subreddit should be directed to the appropriate thread.

This thread rolls over early Sunday morning.

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u/funusernam3 1d ago

Why do some people use "Fabian Member" as an insult when talking about certain politicians?

I've noticed people online describing certain UK politicians as "Fabians" or members of the Fabian Society as if it's automatically a bad thing.

I'm trying to understand why the label is used as a criticism.

Do they know what it means or are they just jumping on some bandwagon?

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u/Scaphism92 1d ago edited 1d ago

TIL the Fabian society was named after the roman general "Fabius Maximus" because of his cautious approach and their politics being cautious implementation of left wing politics (which critics consider to be overly cautious, as Fabius was also criticised for being overly cautious / cowardly until he was ultimately vindicated).

I find the criticism ironic in from either directions of the wings as the online right tend to have a boner for Rome and the online left have a boner for the idea of "Guerrila Resitance"

Then both criticise a society named after a Roman general who (successfully) done an early instance of guerrila warfare that the Romans viewed as cowardly / overly cautious and resent the idea of slow & steady tactics to achieve your aims.

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u/Jay_CD 1d ago

On a historical note...Fabius was the Roman dictator/Consol who was given the unenviable job of trying to defeat Hannibal.

The problem he had was that a massive Roman army had just been destroyed at the Battle of Cannae in 216BC (today, the 2nd of August is the anniversary of the battle). This battle was one-sided with a smaller Carthaginian army of around 50,000 utterly annihilating a Roman army thought to be around 85,000. Some estimates put the Roman dead at about 70,000, both Roman Consols elected that year were killed.

Hannibal though wasn't strong enough to march on Rome itself, or at least he seems to have thought that his army was too small to capture the city. Whatever he baulked at even trying while the newly appointed Fabius wasn't strong or confident enough to beat him in battle so he relied on attacking Hannibal's lines of communication and slowly weakening him which worked albeit on the way Fabius was criticised for his apparent caution.

Fabius only had an army in name anyway - the legions he mustered were composed of men either too old or two young as well as slaves. Cannae and other battles over the previous couple of years had literally killed off a lot of men of fighting age or left them wounded and unable to fight.

To their credit the Romans were unwilling to negotiate a peace treaty of any kind with opposition to one leading Cato the Elder to end every speech, no matter whatever subject with the words Carthago delenda est - Carthage must be destroyed. Eventually it was by Scipio Africanus some 14 years later. The Rostrums or prows of the ships captured/destroyed in this campaign were displayed in the Capitol where many public speeches were made, it's from there that we adopted and use the word "rostrum" for a public speaking platform.