On first meeting Peter, he appears to have nothing in common with the likes of Farage or Anderson, yet he agrees with all of their ideas, as put forward in the 2024 manifesto. He also believes that Tommy Robinson is misrepresented, and supports Trump. But he has a genuine desire to help people through psychotherapy, and numbers a young Ghanaian refugee among his friends.
A young professional
Peter is a committed Christian and describes his faith as “very important,” as it helped him get through a troubling period of his life. Having just gained a first in his UEA psychology degree, Peter intends to take a counselling MA at Waverley Abbey College, a Christian college. All of this seems to be diametrically opposed to some of the hatred and bile, so often espoused by Farage et al.
Frames of reference
On becoming a person by the eminent psychologist Carl Rogers, is one of Peter’s favourite books, and he brought it along to the interview. Praised by psychotherapists and his peers, Rogers believes that everyone should listen as well as speak, and he encourages acceptance of others.
Rogers advocates tolerance, but Peter takes the argument in a different direction by explaining, “not everyone uses the same terms of reference, [a proposal postulated in Rogers’ book, but not in defence of the far Right]. If a person voted Trump in the US, their frame of reference might be different from ours.” They might have gained their information from sources other than the mainstream media (MSM).
These alternative sources include Truth Social and Fox News in the US, You Tube, X and other online platforms in the UK. As these outlets never criticise Trump in the US, nor Farage and others of their ilk in the UK, the voter will simply have reinforced their bias.
Familiar tropes
The Reform war cry against immigration has resonated with Peter. He believes that “there is too much mass immigration into this country, but this isn’t a question of prejudice against individual migrants; I have lots of friends who are migrants.” In fact, recently, Peter spent some time with a Ghanaian refugee, helping him with his IT skills. But Peter still believes that “being against the frequency of migration isn’t the same as disliking it per se.”
Conversation turned to the Reform manifesto which Peter believed was very similar to that of the outgoing Conservative government: the strain on housing, the NHS, welfare services and homelessness can all be blamed on immigration, not bad planning and lack of infrastructure investment by the last government. When asked where those fleeing war, famine and persecution are supposed to go, the response is, “we can’t help everyone.”
Peter talked about the uselessness of the last Tory government; he believes that both the Tories and Labour are “corrupt,” and that there is a permanent bureaucracy that ensures the status quo remains in place. He believes Reform can genuinely change this, even though he says, “I have no proven record that they would be any better than the established parties.”
Fragmented thought
Throughout the interview, Peter expressed his strong belief in Reform and what he thought the party stood for, but he didn’t realise that Reform UK Ltd was in fact a private limited company. Even more surprising was the fact that he hadn’t researched the candidate he voted for; he just voted for the party. While he attributed the early release of prisoners programme to Starmer, it was, in fact, an agenda initiated by the Tories.
Peter uses You Tube and X as his news sources, and the reasons he voted for Reform were to provide a plausible choice because Farage had been in politics “for a long time and was experienced.” The fact that the EU has had to recuperate expenses from the former MEP’s salary as a result of his misuse of his funds seems to have bypassed Peter.
A disenfranchised voice
Peter feels disenfranchised. He is obviously concerned about the state of the world but when it comes to joined up thought about the news he absorbs, in common with so many, Peter believes that the MSM is too biased and that’s why he only sees and listens to like-minded individuals.
Interestingly, the views of his peers don’t enter into the equation; most of his friends voted Labour. He did have the courage to tell his migrant friends about his voting intentions, and said to them, “It’s not that I don’t like you because you’re an immigrant, it’s that I think the number’s too much, it’s really that simple.” And he added, “They weren’t bothered.”
Peter sincerely believes that the mainstream parties are “part of a club; they could solve problems if they wanted and they don’t want to.” He added, “If we separate their intentions from their policies, I think that will become clearer over the next few years.” “If we separate their intentions from their policies, I can’t know who’s trustworthy or not.” Peter certainly has a problem with the trustworthiness of politicians and that’s totally understandable. However, Peter missed the fact of Farage’s woeful attendance record when he was an MEP, sitting on the Fisheries Committee, and his disruptive attitude.
It appears that what has driven this bright, and well-meaning, but ill-informed graduate, to vote for Reform, is a dislike of the mainstream media, a fear of immigration, a distrust of the major political parties, and a whole raft of You Tube videos and Tweets. He believes Reform’s policies are “wise”. However, when quizzed about them in detail, he was on rocky ground. When questioned on how Reform would fund their policies, Peter like so many others, didn’t have an answer. He shows compassion, but fervently believes that immigration is the root of all the UK’s problems, and that Reform can solve all of these.
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