The Guardian carried this story on Friday, and I think it is worth sharing in full, using their own summary box:
Remember that we are talking about a party here that Farage aligns with.
This is the party that the Trump cohort, with whom Farage aligns, went out of their way to support before the recent German elections.
And this is the party that the far-right in France, with whom Farage has very clear sympathies, also supports.
This is a Reform adjacent party, and it has been ruled to be a far-right extremist organisation, as I also think Reform is.
You cannot run a party on the basis of hate, which vilifies those who care about others in their communities, and sets up ethnic minorities as objects of hate to be discriminated against, and which denies science, and which seeks to undermine intellectuals and the arts, whilst using faith as a basis for discrimination in a community, whilst all the time promoting radical nationalism, and not be far-right extremists, or fascists for short. These are what the symbols of the far-right are. These things are what Reform does.
These people are not the centre-right as they claim to be. That ground is occupied by Labour. Reform, and the Tories, who share many of these traits and who would share them all if and when Jenrick becomes their leader, are the far-right in the UK.
Remember that this VE Day weekend. These people share many of the opinions of the fascists that people fought and died - as one of my grandfathers did - to free Europe from. And now they are running ten councils in this country.
Please don't ask me to tolerate them, understand them, accommodate them, or sympathise with why they feel as they do. I won't. No one should. I live my life seeking to love my neighbour as myself, which I think is a pretty good way to approach the obligation to all others, whether a person follows a faith or does not. Reform and those who support it oppose that idea. They do, as a result, oppose the whole tradition of thinking that has supposedly underpinned our society for around fifteen centuries.
The desire to overthrow the essence and culture of a society to fundamentally change the norms of behaviour within it is what defines extremism. That is why the far-right is properly described as such. That is why Germany has got this right with regard to the AfD. That is why Reform should also be named as such here in the UK.
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Marco Rubio attacked the German position and Germany has hit back.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/03/marco-rubio-germany-afd
This is what they said “This is democracy. This decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law. It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped.”
The comparison with the US is stark. Trump is ignoring the constitution and rule of law.
Meanwhile Trump has helped to defeat the more right wing parties in Canada and Australia.
We need to be united on this.
Agreed
Neither AfD nor Deform will be beaten by logic, laws, labels. Both parties have an emotional appeal mostly based on “immigrants” (one could say the same ref National Alliance – Italy). The emotional appeal has been driven by (in the UK), foreign-owned media – which the UK state, despite several opportunities, has failed to reform. In the Uk, the way to stop Deform/Fart-rage is to expose them for the incompetants that they are – this will occur because now the will now have the pleasure of running things.
Regarding media regulation, it is interesting that the Uk state has legislated to prevent UK serfs making their feeling/thoughts known via severe anti-demo legislation – whilst doing exactly nothing to prevent foreigners using UK media to advance their own interestes. e.g. the Daily Mail etc is owned by………a French man. Fart-rage is arguably German (he has a German passport). Begging the question – where do his sympathies lie? With the UK?
If the problem is immigrants and foreigners running things, why do UK serfs tolerate so many owning media and leading political orgs?
Suggestion: no UK politician, @ any level can hold two passports. This includes those sitting in the House of Lords & includes those holding Irish passports. It also extended to any and all appointments of people by UK politicians (= good bye McSweeney good riddance to bad rubbish).
That’s me out then ….
It is a great pity that having written the German Constitution & set up its institutions after WW2 Britain & the USA didnt adopt them ourselves
Like one union for each industry; proportional representation, worker represntation on the boards of big companies, and a federal, more decentralised state.
Exactly so. The German MMP voting system, for example, was expressly designed to inhibit the return of extremist politics after the Nazi era by making any one party less likely to attain a majority. Although AfD are popular now, maybe with FPTP they’d be in charge.
It’s true they are far right, but so far 30% support them, so what will the incumbents in Germany and the EU do it that percentage grows?
There is outrage in German press over this issue.
I’m not supporting either see, but neither is going to come out of this situation well.
Why?
Thankyou for highlighting this.
The challenge will be to get journalists and news editors and QT presenters to put Reform on the spot about their extremist colleagues, the AfD. Will they? Will Fa***e be challenged with it next time he is on air?
But this is good news for omnibus conversations. It will be helpful when warning people that not all protest votes are equal, but some are aiding and abetting extremism. Do those who voted Reform believe some ethnic or religious groups should be defined as inferior in law to others, or should we treated as equal under the law?
If those who control or supply our media cannot do their duty, then no wonder voters are deceived.
I wonder how much coverage it will get?
In a month’s time how many omnibus passengers will have had a chance to hear about it, let alone reflect on it?
A rampant Reform and VE day celebrations all around – is this just not totally absurd?
It’s like being in something written by Samuel Beckett.
From the National:
“SCHOOLS will be forced to teach pupils to love the UK and that the British Empire did “more good for the world than it did bad” if Reform UK’s Nigel Farage becomes the next prime minister.”
I doubt that will go down well in Scotland. Our education system is also separate and distinct from the English system so good luck with that Nige.
Well done to Germany for taking decisive action to protect democracy. It gives cause for hope. Trump’s fascist US called Germany’s action against the AfD “tyranny in disguise”. How far the US has fallen in not much more than 100 days – grim.
Talking about schools…
This week’s Jewish Chronicle is targeting teacher’s unions, NEU & NASUWT for antisemitism.
Two other of this week’s JC targets, MPS Clive Lewis and Zara Sultana.
The anti-teacher stuff fills almost the first half of the paper.
What do you expect when they are Netanyahu aligned?
This book was written by Sathnam Sanghera (author of Empireland) as an accessible introduction for younger readers . He has distributed free copies to many schools and encourages debates in schools.
The story of the British Empire is complicated and Sathnam tries to look at it objectively – and explain its part in Brexit…
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stolen-History-British-Empire-shaped/dp/B0BDZPN83M/
I’m old enough to remember when ‘International Socialism’ was an important thing. Now we have ‘International Fascism’ instead. I have lived too long!
FtF offers hope.
Whereas the inequalities and insecurities arising from Neoliberalism fuel fascism.
I have become inexcusedly intolerant of the Reform/Fascist garbage. I have taken to telling them my dad landed on Sword Beach and shot lots of your type, my uncles did likewise. They clearly did not shoot enough. I’m 73, I’ve had enough of dialogue.
When referring to Farage’s political ‘party’ it’s true title should always be used, i.e., ‘Reform UK Party Ltd’.
It’s a business pure and simple, selling nastiness. It has nothing else to offer. No policies.
Richard is right. It will collapse eventually like all Farage’s opportunistic selfpreening projects that are just about him and his ego.
There will need to be a lot of repair work done after Reform UK Party Ltd has feasted on the popular prejudices endemic in unrestrained human selfishness.
But herein is the opportunity to rebuild the UK free of its decrepit and redundant establishment imperialist supremacism.
There is us no button to reply to your question “Why?”, but my answer is is that the incumbent party are making themselves even more unpopular by making the far right victims I my stad of showing them up for the fascist they are.
The last time Germany moved in this direction, 250 of my grandfather’s family in Poland and Ukraine died for being Jews.,which is why I said what I did, and also why I hate the current regime in Israel.
It seems quite extraordinary – and even more alarming – that 70 percent of the total AFD seats were won in the former East Germany , and 41 of the 44 seats in that region went to the AFD. I have seen no discussion of this in the UK. How is this being “spun” in Germany? If the AFD is now officially classed as an extremist organisation , is there a possibility it could be banned from standing in elections? What might be the implications ? I have no answers – I’m just asking questions.
I do not know the answers either
The registered party Reform UK Party Ltd is owned/controlled (since Feb 2025) by recently created “Reform UK 2025 Ltd”, directors Fa***e and Yussuf, stating “no persons with significant control”, and no financial report due till March 2026.
Anti corruption/registration of interest/conflict of interest controls are tighter for local government than for MPs and Ministers, so that should be interesting. It wouldn’t surprise me if we lose some Reform councillors quite quickly. I hope someone checks Darren Grimes’ connections very carefully, now he is a Durham County Councillor.
When organisations/movements/parties get labelled as extremist or terrorist, there are often sanctions applied to those who associate with them.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/proscribed-terror-groups-or-organisations–2
I wonder when/if the AfD will find its way onto one of those lists (with consequences for Reform UK and German passport holder Fa***e)?