Reform UK ("We must preserve freedom of speech" Reform UK) apparently isn't so keen on freedom of the press. The Reform UK leader of Nottinghamshire county council has banned his 41 councillors from speaking to a local newspaper that has been reporting local news since 1878 because he didn't like an article they published about plans for the restructuring of local government.

Oh, how the stupid will cheer.

NUJ responds to Reform refusing to speak to local journalists in Nottinghamshire

Reform council’s Nottingham Post ban a ‘massive attack on local democracy’

Isn't "Nottinghamshire Live" just one of those clickbait local sites where there are other "Insert place name Live" all over the place, few are remotely readable and most are online junk sites, not proper newspaper websites, many have the same look about them.

This is the kind of complete garbage "news" that sites like Nottinghamshire Live and their clones publish;

Boxing Day bank holiday moved from December 26.

www.nottinghampost.com/news/uk-world-new...5408?int_source=nbae

Why are they making a story out of a predictable and common in lieu bank holiday at Christmas in 2026 right now in August 2025, something that happens every now and again anyway. Trashy clickbait tripe designed to misinform with the headline.

If this is an example of the "journalism" out of Nottinghamshire Live I can well believe they've been reporting a heap of ignorant, fake and uniformed nonsense about Reform UK and the council policies.

Farage has always been a snakeoil salmesman, is this supposed to be surprising Jo?

Rich wrote:
Isn't "Nottinghamshire Live" just one of those clickbait local sites where there are other "Insert place name Live" all over the place, few are remotely readable and most are online junk sites, not proper newspaper websites, many have the same look about them.

This is the kind of complete garbage "news" that sites like Nottinghamshire Live and their clones publish;

Boxing Day bank holiday moved from December 26.

www.nottinghampost.com/news/uk-world-new...5408?int_source=nbae

Why are they making a story out of a predictable and common in lieu bank holiday at Christmas in 2026 right now in August 2025, something that happens every now and again anyway. Trashy clickbait tripe designed to misinform with the headline.

If this is an example of the "journalism" out of Nottinghamshire Live I can well believe they've been reporting a heap of ignorant, fake and uniformed nonsense about Reform UK and the council policies.
The Nottingham Post seems to be the main newspaper still in existence for Nottinghamshire.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Newspaper...d_in_Nottinghamshire

This decision by the council leader looks like a taste of what's to come if Reform UK forms a government. Stifling the freedom of the press because they don't like what's written about them.

Clever political people don't gift their opponents with any easy stick to beat them with, and as Reform UK and Farage do stand against cancel culture as far as I know then they should not engage it themselves. Maybe these reporters/editor with that paper are on a deliberate crusade against that council to mis-report facts now the status quo has been overturned there.

I was never aware that any local papers I read in the past ever even had a political position like national papers do.

The surprising thing here is that Reform councilors actually turned up for work !

Most constituents complain they and their Reform MPs are Missing in Action.

What with a leader who has German passport (as do his kids for easy transit in Europe), a generous EU pension and who is hardly ever seen in the UK and another MP apparently living in Dubai I wonder how they actually get any constituency work done?

I really get the feeling that for all the bluster and publicity Reform generate, they really will fizzle out in the near future.

hedda wrote:
The surprising thing here is that Reform councilors actually turned up for work !

Most constituents complain they and their Reform MPs are Missing in Action.

What with a leader who has German passport (as do his kids for easy transit in Europe), a generous EU pension and who is hardly ever seen in the UK and another MP apparently living in Dubai I wonder how they actually get any constituency work done?

I really get the feeling that for all the bluster and publicity Reform generate, they really will fizzle out in the near future.


I hate to admit it but I think you could well be right.

If Farage was to do a John Smith I think the Reform UK opinion poll share would probably deflate to half its current level within a few months, or even weeks or even worse. Unlike almost any other leaders, Farage really is bigger than the party.

A potential 4 years to 2029 is a hell of a long time. 4 years ago in the late summer of 2021 PM Boris and the Tories were well ahead of Labour and Starmer had just lost the Hartlepool by-election to them and was looking on his way out.

However I've seen a new poll in the past 48 hours put Reform UK on 34%, and for the first time that beat the combined percentage of both the Tories and Labour together. If this does manage to hold up over the next couple of years I suspect the dirty tricks and desperation of the cosy self entitled Establishment will go into overdrive.

Despite the number in the Commons, it's clear Farage is now the Leader of the Opposition in any meaningful sense. He's been campaigning in August during recess as if there is an election imminent when it's not. Meanwhile the technical Leader of the Opposition, the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, where the hell is she? I'm astonished the Conservatives are allowing Reform and Farage to power ahead and gain all the headlines without much of a fightback of their own. They are being eaten alive.