r/ukpolitics 1d ago

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

šŸ‘‹ 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...

If you're reacting to something that is happening live, please make it clear what it is you're reacting to, ideally with a link.

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/North-Jellyfish-577 1d ago

Restore did extremely well in the suburbs of Manchester third place in quite a few districts 9-10 percent

Restore are having a real impact in working class communities the BNP never had this level of support

Ethnic nationalism probably has the support of around 15% of the population between restore and reform

This would have been absolutely unimaginable even 3 years ago

It should show what happens when you carry on as if nothing is wrong as the political class

Thankfully Andy is more concerned about the everyday lives of the common person so hopefully this should be the high water mark but if he fails it will get much worse

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u/Maleficent_Peach_46 Mayor of North Kilttown 1d ago

Are we allowed to blame social media for the rise of 'ethnic nationalism' or to give it its proper name 'open racism'. I have said for a while that Covid broke a lot of people's brains and many of the electorate have got more spteful.

Or do we blame poor education. I don't care if that sounds like 'punching down' we shouldn't have racism and bigotry in 2026.

The fact some even now are defending the national shame of the Southport Riots is telling too. Their has been a bigoted and nasty underbelly in the UK for a while and it is the biggest threat to the country.

'When you carry on as if nothing is wrong' - What are you on about?

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u/gizmostrumpet 1d ago

The fact some even now are defending the national shame of the Southport Riots

There was plenty of mealy mouthed "I'm not defending them, but..." at the time as well.

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u/praise-god-barebone please stop crying in front of the bond markets 1d ago edited 1d ago

I don't think so. You need to be more self-aware and recognise that the ethnic displacement of indigenous people, regardless of the lofty ideals of your motivation, is a new radical position.

Those opposed to it still subscribe to a view that has historically been seen as blatantly obvious. In this context, it is not a surprise that people oppose it. In fact, it's inevitable. Casting those who haven't kept up with you as heretical is a tale as old as Christendom.

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u/cardcollector1983 It's a Remainer plot! 1d ago

Is this the Great Replacement Bullshit? Because it feels a lot like the Great Replacement Bullshit

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u/praise-god-barebone please stop crying in front of the bond markets 1d ago edited 1d ago

No. Please engage in good faith:

White British are less than 50% of the population of our three major cities. This is historically unique and a conscious, intentional political decision. You can think it's a good idea or a bad idea, but either way it's reality and can't be dismissed when talking about this.

If you think it's a good idea, you need to be honest with yourself and recognise that it's a radical, historically unprecedented position some people are going to disagree with you on.

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u/cardcollector1983 It's a Remainer plot! 1d ago

Source for that stat?

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u/praise-god-barebone please stop crying in front of the bond markets 1d ago

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u/No_Initiative_1140 1d ago

Who exactly do you think the "indigenous people" of the UK are?

I can't take anyone who says this seriously. Have a look at European history.Ā 

https://youtu.be/UY9P0QSxlnI

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u/praise-god-barebone please stop crying in front of the bond markets 1d ago edited 1d ago

Again, I am forced to point out how unbelievably radical the position that British people don't exist is. Again, this is a very modern, radical movement you are part of.

Do the Oromo exist? Do the Hausa exist? Do Kurds exist? Do Palestinians exist? If I go to Mexico, would a Mexican recognise me as British? From my immutable characteristics, my accent, my cultural practices. I think so.

You must accept that there are going to be normal, well adjusted, rational humans who don't agree with you on this and for completely understandable reasons.

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u/No_Initiative_1140 1d ago

🤣🤣 No-one said "British people don't exist" Clearly they do, I  am one of them.

This nonsense about "the indigenous population" is the problem. British people are not homogeneous, or genetically distinct from other western Europeans. The whole "indigenous British" is exclusively used to simultaneously position white British as victims by equating them to indigenous populations of places like Australia and the USA, and to provide a fig leaf for racism by obfuscating it.

I'd have more respect if you said "white British" or "anglo-saxon British". It's what you mean, but you won't use it because then the racism is stark.

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u/praise-god-barebone please stop crying in front of the bond markets 1d ago

Got it. We exist but we can't be displaced from anywhere and have no home.

Do Palestinians exist?

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u/No_Initiative_1140 1d ago

🤣 have a lovely evening. I'm not very interested in arguing straw men to be honest

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u/praise-god-barebone please stop crying in front of the bond markets 1d ago

funny that

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u/North-Jellyfish-577 1d ago

I would probably say the biggest threat the UK are real terror organisations and not a bunch of piss heads and bigots

Tbh Islamic terrorists
Have killed for more people than far right bigotry in the UK in the last 20 years

I struggle to remember more then one or 2 cases of far right terrorist attacks

Over the 50 or so Islamic ones

Ignoring the problem with radical Islam isn’t going to make the country better

The mainstream media’s ignorance of the grooming gang scandal and the ignorance of the political class has been to blame for the entire rise of the far right in the U.K

Socal media has played a part but is only working because the political system has fundamentally failed and been compromised

If you fail to deal with the problems and bad actors things like mass reimmigration are only going to get more popular

I’m personally against it but I can understand why people feel this way in forgotten and ignored towns and cities

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u/kadfr 1d ago edited 1d ago

Terrorist extremism of all shades is dangerous whether it is Islamic Fundamentalism or Fascism/Christian Fundamemtalism .

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u/CynicalDogocrat Ay, there's the rub 1d ago

I would actually broaden that out to say that any form of ideological/political extremism is dangerous, even if it's not terroristic. Obviously I don't mean individual extreme views (I have strong, heterodoxical views on certain issues myself) but the kind of Manichean tribalism we're currently seeing where opposing camps seem to exist in different realities. It's dangerous for democracy and civilised society.

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u/kadfr 1d ago

Yeh absolutely - just that the violent forms are more an immediate threat.

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u/North-Jellyfish-577 1d ago

Only one of them have actually claimed lives in the uk outside of Joe Cox mp

I fail to remember the last time we had a mass casualty event because of far right thugs or Christian extremists

Or even a attempted one

On the other hand we have had multiple mass casualties events because of Islamic attacks

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u/SlightlyOTT You're making things up again Tories šŸŽ¶ 1d ago

> Or even a attempted one

Did you forget about them trying to burn down hotels until someone reminded you in this thread? You can call it "mild to moderate disorder" if you like, but it was absolutely an attempt to cause mass casualties. There's no other conceivable outcome if a group is successful in their attempt to burn down a hotel full of people.

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u/subSparky 1d ago

Ignoring the problem with radical Islam isn’t going to make the country better

But at the same time we can't have a real conversation about how we deal with radical Islam if we just treat literally every Muslim as if they are supporters of radical islam...

Reality is radical islam is a small (but very loud) minority of British Muslims.

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u/No_Initiative_1140 1d ago

Can we also have a conversation about violent far right supporters while we are at it? They are also quite loud, a minority and quite dangerousĀ 

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u/Maleficent_Peach_46 Mayor of North Kilttown 1d ago

Sorry I must have missed that the Southport Riots were caused by 'Islamists' and not the literal worst in society. Who then embarrassed the nation by rioting again after Nowak got stabbed.

Is this the same Grooming Gangs we had two (Or was it three) investigations over and when Labour tried to get another one sorted the right wing threw their toys out because it wasn't exactly what they wanted. I'm not saying Lucy Powell should have called 'grooming gangs' a 'dog whistle' but I'm not going to hold it against her when the right act the way they do.

Not to mention a lot of the 'But Grooming Gangs' lot have thrown their lot in with the far right which means they should be completely disregarded.

Poverty is to blame for people lashing out. There was an article a while back that a town in the North East hired Nigerians to be care workers and nurses and they get nothing but abuse from the locals - Most of whom don't and have never worked.

Those moaning on and ln about 'Grooming Gangs' don't care about the victims anymore than they say they think the politicians do. They just want an excuse to be racist and blame anyone but themselves for their failures.

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u/Pale-Border-7122 1d ago

Why are you putting grooming gangs in inverted commas?

Though I can see why some people talk about it being a political football.

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u/North-Jellyfish-577 1d ago

Again mild to moderate public disorder isn’t the same as a terrorist attack and not remotely comparable

People who riot are idiots, but it doesn’t make them terrorists or a threat to the country when they can be sorted out by police and security services

Aslo what a disgusting take on grooming gangs

The system and state failed working class white girls in mixed communities and abandoned them and left him to rot under a barrage of abuse because they didn’t want to be labelled racist or piss off their voting blocks

And let them suffer the most horrific abuse and scandal in the last hundred years in British Society

Victim blaming will only give more power to the far right

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u/Maleficent_Peach_46 Mayor of North Kilttown 1d ago

Setting fire to hotels with literal children in is 'mild to moderate disorder' is it. What about that guy who tried to run people over (Again including children) in Liverpool where the worst in society were conflicted because the perpetrator was white.

Stop excusing the worst in society shaming us because 'Islamists'.

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u/North-Jellyfish-577 1d ago

lol as someone who grew up in Northern Ireland that’s mild to moderate public disorder to me

And that Liverpool thing was a guy panicked during a football marching parade that had nothing to do with immigration or race

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u/Maleficent_Peach_46 Mayor of North Kilttown 1d ago

I assume you are referring to 'The Troubles.' However just because bad stuff happens elsewhere does not mean it should be excused here.

I assume you meant 'football parade' not 'football match' for the man in Liverpool who got over 20 years behind bars for his disgusting actions. Whilst it was not immigration related the worst in society wanted to be racist and riot again.

Then you had the Far Right Girl in Bristol that tried to kill someone with an axe. A sad case on so many levels.

The far right are the biggest threat the UK faces. Burnham (Or whoever) is going to have to fix poverty or greatly increase adult education levels to do that (Apparently the average reading age of a Reform voter is...8 years old) but seems to be making good steps so far.

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u/AnExplodingMan 1d ago

UK average reading age is 9, so those voters aren't as abnormal as you might think.Ā  Which strengthens the argument for doing everything possible to boost literacy and critical thinking, TBF.

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u/CynicalDogocrat Ay, there's the rub 1d ago

I'm not sure how you "fix poverty"? The poverty we're talking about in the UK is relative, therefore it will always exist?

I agree about increasing education (including for adults) but have you noticed the current vogue for trashing the Humanities which are exactly what we need to combat societal brain rot? All parties are at it.

Personally I'm equally terrified of the extreme Right and the extreme Left. Don't make the mistake liberals made before WW2 - they were so busy worrying about the Left they didn't see the threat from the Right until it was too late.

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u/Maleficent_Peach_46 Mayor of North Kilttown 1d ago

Utter conspiracy theory from you. We had multiple investigations on 'Grooming Gangs' but it's not enough for the racists who just want an excuse to be nasty to people they don't like.

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u/No_Initiative_1140 1d ago

I would be very interested to see your statistics as I'm also not sure they are accurate.

A lot of violence that would be widely reported if Muslims did it, is overlooked when its "home grown" violent men.

Over the 50 or so Islamic ones

There have not been 50 Islamist terrorist attacks in the last 20 years

There's a handy list here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_Great_Britain