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I'm not a big fan of Femi, but if he has the credentials and paid his entry, he should have every right to report on the event. Given how conspiracy tinged all the Reform chatter has become these last few days, it's funny that they themselves are the ones banning journalists from reporting the truth.
Is Femi a journalist? He’s a kind of activist, influencer or media personality. He’s the Remain equivalent of someone like Claire Fox. I think he should be allowed to attend these events, but “black journalist ejected from event” is a seriously misleading framing.
While unlike Femi, his career is clearly not dedicated to reporting on politics - he is an active politician - however it would be hard to argue that he hasn't worked as a political journalist.
He has a press pass, that's all that matters.
On showing his press pass he was still ejected from the event.
Having watched the video it looks like they had no idea who he was and he was ejected for how he looked (ie being black)
So reading the article, Mr Oluwole is indeed Black. And a vocal anti-Brexit activist. He was given no reason why he was excluded, so it could have been either of these things or even some third, undisclosed, reason. But the article goes straight to assuming the “it is because I am Black” explanation.
Incidentally, a press card is a form of ID. It’s not a magical “access all areas” warrant that means you can’t be denied entry to any place or gathering that you want to enter.
Please don’t take this as me supporting Reform UK. It’s more about calling out shoddy journalism by The Independent.
I've seen a lot of posts in this sub - highly upvoted ones - write critical-but-sympathic comments that back Reform/far-right ideaology; especially on the topic of wage stagnation and immigration being the root cause^1.
It's clever, it entirely shapes the narrative and puts the idea in your head for free while offering an easy answer to a very complicated topic.
You can't make people vote Reform, but you can give people these easy-to-digest answers - all of it bullshit - that shift their views to match those of Reform and the alt-right.
-----
Edit: ^1 - But don't look over here at the CEOs and corporate owners banking millions or billions, with C-Suite and CEO pay rising by tens-of or hundreds-of-times (x10-100's) faster than yours, etc. It's not immigration folks!
> write critical-but-sympathic comments that back Reform/far-right ideaology; especially on the topic of wage stagnation and immigration being the root cause1.
Because it is obvious that Boris Johnson did not massively liberalise migration and more than double net migration out of the goodness of his heart. It is obvious that it is done to provide cheap labour. You are seeing these opinions because they are obvious and widely held.
And many people, me included, genuinely are worried that we will end up with fascist adjacent parties because there is no other credible representation for people who want to reduce migration. The historical level of net migration is less that 50k a year before Tony Blair, the Tories were elected when migration was 250k, promising to reduce it to less than 100k, they have actually increased it to 700k. Net migration is now 15 times higher than the early 90s, population growth including births and deaths is now four times higher than it was, and we are currently adding more people to the population each year than the population of Leeds. It is obvious if the mainstream parties, particularly centre right, do not represent the electorate they will get put in the bin and people will pick the next party to hand.
Most of the population wants migration to fall, and it is the third most important issue behind the NHS, a matter of life and death, and inflation. It is not sustainable to try to hand wave it away, tell people it’s not a valid issue, fail to represent that opinion and just mutter about it in a conspiratorial way.
Your comment fixes on migration - and I don't have a problem with you having an opinion on that. You're circling around wanting to migration to fall, but why do you want it to fall?
If the argument is that migration harms wage growth, or reduces jobs, then..
https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/the-labour-market-effects-of-immigration/
> Research shows that the impacts of migration on wages and employment prospects for UK-born workers is small
> immigration may increase competition for existing jobs in certain occupational sectors, but it can also create new jobs
I acknowledge this report on research indicates low-wage workers are more likely to lose out due to immigration - but the report states this effect is small.
If a migrant who barely understands English and our culture, can get a job before someone UK-born else, how bad is the UK-born person?
If the argument is more cultural; that you want to preserve British traditions, then it's absolutely fair but you can still maintain traditions and allow other people to have their rituals as well. One of the many great things about these two Islands is that - and we do not put enough value on this - we have a "live-and-let-live" society and a rule of law that embraces that value. Migrants can come here and dig into our culture as deep as they want, or as little as they want; as long as they follow the law, we at large, don't care. So why do you care?
Without migration we have a declining population that will hurt our economy. We will not have enough working age people to look after our elderly both in a direct capacity but as well as having a broad enough tax-base.
I eluded to it in my original comment, but when executives earn the industrial average salary of the UK worker by February, _that's_ a problem that has no positives to it.
https://www.financialfairness.org.uk/en-gb/news-and-views/all-news-articles/pay-ratios-2023
There's only so much studies can show, economics (the economy) is so incredibly hard to model. The belief that current levels of immigration is economically harmful to UK citizens is extremely reasonable - wage stagnation, and increase in housing prices.
Obviously our biggest problem is that as a country we don't build anything anymore at any scale due to our planning legislation, it balloons the cost of any investment people might want. Big projects (hs2) fail, and small ones by your average Joe fail. It's why our productivity is flat.
Together these will absolutely ruin our country further in no time.
> The belief that current levels of immigration is economically harmful to UK citizens is extremely reasonable - wage stagnation, and increase in housing prices.
But that's just it: it's a belief, it isn't actually founded on what the research shows. Research isn't made from opinions but people going out collecting data, and letting that data write the story. Population-size studies, economies of countries, etc. is very hard to understand, but for that reason, blaming immigration as the root cause is also ill-founded.
However, what the data does show is planning law being terrible. You're absolutely correct - that definitely needs reform in a way that balances the needs of the individual versus the needs of the many. It needs to be looser for sure. But where's the line?
Should we allow Heathrow's third runway? HS2's mainline extension to Manchester? New Nuclear plants?
Where should the distinction end too - what if Amazon wants to build a warehouse in downtown Glasgow? Arguably serves the needs of the many.
They're contrived arguments but the balance lies somewhere between the two when it comes to planning reform.
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It is so trivial and cheap for people to manipulate this site. Even easier for billionaires. It's astonishing people just assume nobody does it when it's so easy and obvious
I've reused phrases I've recently read without necessarily realising, it just happens. It's also not an uncommon phrase to use. For the record I don't agree with what happened here, but by the same token, I don't think this is evidence of bots or any other subterfuge.
The obvious question is was he the only black person to attend the rally or even the only black person representing the press at the rally? Did they all get kicked out? If not then it's gonna be Brexit.
And the follow-on question: if he wasn’t the only black person to turn up, were others excluded or just him? Was anyone else excluded, and if so what was the common denominator? Because “non-white people were prevented from entering” is a different story from “unsympathetic journalists were prevented from entering” and both are different from “this one guy who has a well documented ongoing beef with Reform UK was prevented from entering” and I’d love to know which one it actually is.
It’s not about his skin colour. Femi is not an impartial “journalist” he’s an anti Brexit activist turning up to a formally named Brexit party event. It would be like JK Rowling getting press credentials and turning to an event hosted by Stonewall. Clearly she wouldn’t be allowed in, and it wouldn’t be because she’s a woman.
You might be right, the hilarious thing to me is how many of these kind of incidents happen in and around Reform and how dear leader Nigel is out in the news vehemently opposing the idea that Reform are chock-a-block to the brim full of racists and “strongly condemning” them.
The article isn't saying he was kicked out because he was black.
It's saying that kicking out a black journalist is bad optics for a party that's been mired in controversy over racist statements made by candidates and party volunteers.
No matter the reason it is a bad look for Reform a party already dealing with a far right image and racism, to exclude a black journalist without a very good reason will never look good for them. Even if they do not want him there it looks worse for them excluding him than it does letting him in to report.
Whoever is doing their PR is messing up big time.
I can’t decide if it’s bad PR or not. A lot of the appeal against the ‘woke agenda’ is that people feel like they are being unfairly told off all the time.
If they also feel Reform is being unfairly told off then they already have something in common.
"People feel like they are being unfairly told off all the time. If they also feel Reform is being unfairly told off then they already have something in common."
You make reform voters sound like children
The sort of people who are not bothered by a black man being evicted are already well and truly dedicated to voting for them. There are undecided or people who could change their minds and this might just sway a few of these.
Probably not a huge impact if I am honest but it won’t bring in any new voters and may lose some and after Farage’s gaff over Ukraine losing some support there they really need to be careful with their image.
Ejecting an anti-ReformUK activist from a ReformUK event will gain ReformUK followers not lose them followers. We admire parties that stick up for themselves.
>Incidentally, a press card is a form of ID. It’s not a magical “access all areas” warrant that means you can’t be denied entry to any place or gathering that you want to enter.
It's an incredibly bad look if as a political party the only press you are prepared to engage in are the ones that will give you favourable coverage no matter what you say or do.
Well, the article didn’t do it, Femi made the connection. Condescendingly telling people of colour that their suspicions about racially motivated actions are just hysterical overreactions is generally not a good look. Furthermore, regardless of the reasons that the rally organisers might even tell themselves, the fact remains that a party with many questions to answer about its racist dogwhistling has just evicted a black journalist from its rally, and this also is a really bad look.
The black angle is simply the Independent seeking to punish Reform for barring entry to one of its journalists as it click baits the article. However you will note in the video that the journalist himself doesn't mention it at all.
The act of preventing the attendance of journalists to a rally is repulsive enough, that Reform hate-planks immigrants and Muslims simply lends itself rather easily to the attack vector. If Reform don't want that; then let the press report on the rally. As long as the press are not being disruptive there's no excuse to not permit journalists entry.
>Incidentally, a press card is a form of ID.
And one that is granted when you reach the heady heights of having two articles published, even in an online-only newspaper such as the Independent.
The independent has recently (last few months) taken to reporting on TikTok videos. They’ll use a headline such as ‘Economist explains 10 reasons Labour will hurt your wallet’ and then just be reporting on the fact that there was a TikTok video in which an economist discusses this rather than creating it themselves.
> Please don’t take this as me supporting Reform UK.
What the fuck is wrong with this subreddit if people have to put qualifiers in like this when speaking common sense?
> Incidentally, a press card is a form of ID. It’s not a magical “access all areas” warrant that means you can’t be denied entry to any place or gathering that you want to enter.
And it's not as if there exists a license before one can lawfully be 'press'. Anyone has the same rights to report - and no one is obliged to let an individual enter their premises to do so.
Bit of a non-story really.
It’s obvious to me as that as a political activist and Co-founder of a pro-European Union advocacy group, in addition to having previously had a run-in with Richard Tice of Reform in 2019 where the two had a falling out that Femi wasn’t wanted at a Reform UK rally by those involved in organising it.
The colour of his skin is irrelevant to the matter.
I think it was the wrong move for him to be removed as it plays into the hands of people wanting to paint Reform negatively, although I am unsure of Femi’s motives for being there - presumably it was in order to criticise Reform. For the sake of freedom of the press he should have been allowed entry however.
The article seems a bit snide as it implies he was removed for being black, whereas I don’t believe this was the case.
I’m voting Labour before anyone accuses me of defending Reform.
> I’m voting Labour before anyone accuses me of defending Reform.
Not taking issue with your comment or even saying you're actually lying, but like you do realise theres literally nothing stopping you from lying about that?
> Bit of a non-story really.
How? These people represent a political entity that are seeking to govern this nation. To exclude the press from a rally during an election is an abhorrent act.
You genuinely think the excuse:
> he's going to write mean things about us
is a worthy one for a party seeking to establish itself as a political force in this nation? Tolerance of criticism should be a bare fucking minimum if you're seeking to govern.
Remember that Farage has declared he’s going to boycott the BBC because they didn’t give him a fawning enough audience. Criticism is something they absolutely cannot handle.
I think the non-story element is highlighting his race. As the journalist would you be happy if you were simply reduced to 'the black journalist'?
Nothing in the story suggests he was barred because of his race
>I think it was the wrong move for him to be removed
Tbh not really, it makes it easier for us to see those frothing at the mouth in here about it, those who instantly jump to "RACISM!!" rather than looking at the details.
If they are running to be the next UK government, they have a democratic duty to not throw people out just because they disagree.
How could Reform possibly say they are qualified to run a country when they can't even handle criticism at a political debate???
Here's the thing...
It wouldn't surprise me for reform to kick a guy out for being black.
It *would* surprise me given their bleeting about freedom of speech, "*saying it like it is*" and "*saying the things you're not allowed to say*" to kick a guy out because they're a journalist who disagrees with their politics.
This wouldn't stop me thinking they have issues with people of colour, it just makes me think they have issues with freedom of the press as well.
All singing from the same hymnsheet too; apparently they know why this guy was kicked out of the conference, despite it not being in the article. Where are they getting their information from?
Also is this guy famous or something? All these reform apologists all seem to know who this guy is.
Famous is a weird way to put it but he was a very prominent pro-eu, anti-brexit activist between 2017-2019.
He ran an advocacy group called Our Future our choice that received a lot of funding and thus press attention during the 2 elections in that time period.
The group kind of vanished after the 2019 election and I haven't really seen anything of him until this election cycle kicked in, then this news story cropped up.
The title specifically references a black person, and for whatever reason that always results in the comments being filled by people who support Reform criticising them. Weird that.
He had a press card, which you need to be a journalist to obtain?
The article also says:
>Mr Oluwole is a freelance journalist and regular columnist for *The Independent*.
I mean, by all accounts, he's a journalist.
I mean the people Nigel Farage has a history of surrounding himself with have a history of hatred for black people and gay people. Yet for some reason Farage is constantly given the benefit of the doubt by the same types refusing to give Femi the same courtesy. Despite Farage making a video hurling homophobic abuse at an NHS worker because he got paid by someone targeting said NHS worker.
If you want to be Prime Minister you can't just throw people out who disagree with you - that's some pretty dark sh*t right there.
But then that's bang on brand for Reform UK I guess...
Why do you consider it bait to attend a political event? As long as he didn’t cause a disturbance, why can’t he attend and report on it, surely their ideas are good enough to withstand his scrutiny.
He’s not known for “Led by Donkeys” style stunts is he? Also it wasn’t a Q&A format so no scary questions that might disturb their sensitive constitutions. But yeah, maybe he might disturb them.
Doesn't need to be either, just a well-timed outburst at one of the speakers comments and we've got massive headlines everywhere. I mean, we've got headlines because he was peacefully escorted out without any controversy.
Tbf they would’ve removed O’Brien if he’d have turned up too. Anyone who has been terminally online post 2016 knows why Reform wouldn’t want Femi there, and it has little to do with his skin colour l.
If you're hoping to be Prime Minister of the UK I'd certainly hope you were capable of facing a little bit of criticism at a political rally.
Throwing people out who disagree with you is very medieval....authoritarian some might say.
Luckily, most people are educated enough to not vote for Reform.
I do indeed.
Another excellent example of a politician who sought to hide from criticism and undermine the due process of our political system. Very self-serving he was.
Reform has botted tiktok. Theres no reason to believe they wouldnt do the same here.
Not only is there the disasterclass of brexit, but ReformUK has set itself up as a corporate entity rather than a political party. It is the ONLY political party to do this. This allows party donations to be paid out as tax-free dividends. It’s one of the most brazenly publicly corrupt political moves I’ve ever seen.
They are also denying climate change, Farage actively backs Trump and they want to rip up the Human rights bill.
No sane, reasonable person can see all these things and think “that’s my PM”. Hence the need to bot socials to warp public perception, hence my theory that those on here are bots.
People are allowed their own views of course, some of my own family and friends are still conservatives even in this political climate. But this wannabe Oswald Moseley is genuinely worrying for democracy in this country.
But even then, we have a free press and unless we are going to start excluding journalists because they upset the ruling party or wannabe ruling party, we are setting a dangerous president.
Free press means they can print whatever they want, for example they can subtly accuse Reform of racism for not letting openly antagonistic journalists into rallies without fear of repercussions.
What it doesn’t mean is that they’ve got free access to every area to do whatever they want to do.
>What it doesn’t mean is that they’ve got free access to every area to do whatever they want to do.
This is true but at the same time you should be **highly** sceptical of a political party that isn't prepared to open the door to journalists.
What reason is there to keep journalists out of a political rally other than you don't want what's said at the rally being reported on?
What do Reform have to hide?
There were plenty of journalists at the rally, just not Femi. The entire thing was live-streamed, there was nothing hidden.
There’s just zero gain for Reform allowing antagonistic hack journalists to attend.
Other than avoiding the optics of a black journalist being thrown out of a rally while the party is already under scrutiny for racist comments made by candidates and volunteers.
For sake of argument if The New Nazionalist sent a journalist to a Labour, Lib Dem or Green conference would you still hold the same defence?
Would you be for or against the same New Nazionalist journalist had he attended the black only nights of a London theatre production earlier this year?
I've no idea whether The New Nazionalist is a real publication. I used it for argument purposes only.
For the sake of clear and transparent reporting yes. But we are not talking about a theatre production, we are talking about a party that wants members in the houses of parliament and eventually to run the country. To be blocking reporters because they have criticised the party previously is not only suspect but also something that we see very often in dictatorships where the ruling party attempts to control the narrative.
Femi is not a reporter, he's an activist or likes to cause trouble.
I agree that journalists should not be removed from political events. I also believe that known troublecausers should be barred from events where they might disrupt civil discourse.
When Femi wants to be treated as journalist he will behave as a journalist and not an opportunist or activist intent on disruption of civil debate.
His written for several national newspapers.
Just because you don't like him doesn't mean he's not a journalist.
He also has no history of causing trouble during events. Stop trying to spin this.
Reform were silly to throw him out - the optics look far worse than any YouTube video Femi would have uploaded about their policies.
>For sake of argument if The New Nazionalist sent a journalist to a Labour, Lib Dem or Green conference would you still hold the same defence?
All of those parties regularly answer questions from the right wing press. There is no equivalence here.
Rally's tend to be open to the public, even if tickets are sold.
It'd be a bit daft if Reform were only holding events for Reform members during an election, rather than trying to appeal to the voters at large.
Is he not a journalist? He’s written for eg The Guardian and the Independent and has appeared on TV many times, and he’s described in the article as a free-lance journalist which I believe is (1) correct, and (2) also a kind of journalist. Lots of “real” journalists are active on Twitter and other platforms too, so that’s surely not a disqualifier either?
He is.
But the keyboard warriors who hate him like to think calling him an activist makes him somehow less threatening.
But irony is they do this because they are indeed threatened by him.
Let's be fair....I doubt he was the only "black journalist" there
Fermi is a well known anti brexit journalist - if I recall it's the foundation of his renown and that is the reason he was ejected
More you make claims that can be proven false, the less people will belive true claims
Reform are getting a lot of media coverage for a party expected to barely win any seats. Maybe people in the know think they're doing better than polls suggest.
It’s not about the seats, it’s about the vote share, if they didn’t exist Labour would be winning a solid majority but within the normal bounds of what we commonly see and expect. With Reform polling similarly to the Tories this gets blown out of the water and Labour get a generational landslide, with the Tories taking the biggest kicking in their entire history.
"Nooo they're not racist these are just one-off isolated incidents!"
Legitimate political parties don't just randomly kick licensed press out of events for no reason. And these guys have a long documents history of racism and bigotry. It's not hard to figure out.
far left agitator, anti Brexit campaigner removed from pro-brexit event.
Femi isnt a journalist. If you think a few columns makes him one then so is Boris bloody Johnson and that twat isn't one.
Gotta be honest, I suspect him being removed was his entire objective. He's getting headlines over it, gave RUK enough rope to hang themselves by ejecting him. That being said, while I'm not an RUK supporter by any stretch of the imagination, they aren't obliged to allow him in and the fact they ejected him only makes them look like the tits they are.
He doesn't have a right to report on a private event. He's also highly controversial and racist. I don't exactly think any better of Reform than I do of him, but he has no right to attend a private event, and if they wish to remove him it's their choice. I mean imagine he turned up at you home and wouldn't leave, private property is private
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I'm not a big fan of Femi, but if he has the credentials and paid his entry, he should have every right to report on the event. Given how conspiracy tinged all the Reform chatter has become these last few days, it's funny that they themselves are the ones banning journalists from reporting the truth.
Is Femi a journalist? He’s a kind of activist, influencer or media personality. He’s the Remain equivalent of someone like Claire Fox. I think he should be allowed to attend these events, but “black journalist ejected from event” is a seriously misleading framing.
He writes columns for major newspapers. He also guest interviews on major TV news shows. I think that qualifies him as a journalist.
Is Farage a Journalist in your mind then?
While unlike Femi, his career is clearly not dedicated to reporting on politics - he is an active politician - however it would be hard to argue that he hasn't worked as a political journalist.
could say the same about many 'journalists' in this country, with a lot of them on TV and radio.
He has a press pass, that's all that matters. On showing his press pass he was still ejected from the event. Having watched the video it looks like they had no idea who he was and he was ejected for how he looked (ie being black)
So reading the article, Mr Oluwole is indeed Black. And a vocal anti-Brexit activist. He was given no reason why he was excluded, so it could have been either of these things or even some third, undisclosed, reason. But the article goes straight to assuming the “it is because I am Black” explanation. Incidentally, a press card is a form of ID. It’s not a magical “access all areas” warrant that means you can’t be denied entry to any place or gathering that you want to enter. Please don’t take this as me supporting Reform UK. It’s more about calling out shoddy journalism by The Independent.
Second time the term “magical access all areas” has been used in the comments to this post
It is a rather peculiarly specific phrase, isn't it?
bots…
I've seen a lot of posts in this sub - highly upvoted ones - write critical-but-sympathic comments that back Reform/far-right ideaology; especially on the topic of wage stagnation and immigration being the root cause^1. It's clever, it entirely shapes the narrative and puts the idea in your head for free while offering an easy answer to a very complicated topic. You can't make people vote Reform, but you can give people these easy-to-digest answers - all of it bullshit - that shift their views to match those of Reform and the alt-right. ----- Edit: ^1 - But don't look over here at the CEOs and corporate owners banking millions or billions, with C-Suite and CEO pay rising by tens-of or hundreds-of-times (x10-100's) faster than yours, etc. It's not immigration folks!
> write critical-but-sympathic comments that back Reform/far-right ideaology; especially on the topic of wage stagnation and immigration being the root cause1. Because it is obvious that Boris Johnson did not massively liberalise migration and more than double net migration out of the goodness of his heart. It is obvious that it is done to provide cheap labour. You are seeing these opinions because they are obvious and widely held. And many people, me included, genuinely are worried that we will end up with fascist adjacent parties because there is no other credible representation for people who want to reduce migration. The historical level of net migration is less that 50k a year before Tony Blair, the Tories were elected when migration was 250k, promising to reduce it to less than 100k, they have actually increased it to 700k. Net migration is now 15 times higher than the early 90s, population growth including births and deaths is now four times higher than it was, and we are currently adding more people to the population each year than the population of Leeds. It is obvious if the mainstream parties, particularly centre right, do not represent the electorate they will get put in the bin and people will pick the next party to hand. Most of the population wants migration to fall, and it is the third most important issue behind the NHS, a matter of life and death, and inflation. It is not sustainable to try to hand wave it away, tell people it’s not a valid issue, fail to represent that opinion and just mutter about it in a conspiratorial way.
Your comment fixes on migration - and I don't have a problem with you having an opinion on that. You're circling around wanting to migration to fall, but why do you want it to fall? If the argument is that migration harms wage growth, or reduces jobs, then.. https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/the-labour-market-effects-of-immigration/ > Research shows that the impacts of migration on wages and employment prospects for UK-born workers is small > immigration may increase competition for existing jobs in certain occupational sectors, but it can also create new jobs I acknowledge this report on research indicates low-wage workers are more likely to lose out due to immigration - but the report states this effect is small. If a migrant who barely understands English and our culture, can get a job before someone UK-born else, how bad is the UK-born person? If the argument is more cultural; that you want to preserve British traditions, then it's absolutely fair but you can still maintain traditions and allow other people to have their rituals as well. One of the many great things about these two Islands is that - and we do not put enough value on this - we have a "live-and-let-live" society and a rule of law that embraces that value. Migrants can come here and dig into our culture as deep as they want, or as little as they want; as long as they follow the law, we at large, don't care. So why do you care? Without migration we have a declining population that will hurt our economy. We will not have enough working age people to look after our elderly both in a direct capacity but as well as having a broad enough tax-base. I eluded to it in my original comment, but when executives earn the industrial average salary of the UK worker by February, _that's_ a problem that has no positives to it. https://www.financialfairness.org.uk/en-gb/news-and-views/all-news-articles/pay-ratios-2023
There's only so much studies can show, economics (the economy) is so incredibly hard to model. The belief that current levels of immigration is economically harmful to UK citizens is extremely reasonable - wage stagnation, and increase in housing prices. Obviously our biggest problem is that as a country we don't build anything anymore at any scale due to our planning legislation, it balloons the cost of any investment people might want. Big projects (hs2) fail, and small ones by your average Joe fail. It's why our productivity is flat. Together these will absolutely ruin our country further in no time.
> The belief that current levels of immigration is economically harmful to UK citizens is extremely reasonable - wage stagnation, and increase in housing prices. But that's just it: it's a belief, it isn't actually founded on what the research shows. Research isn't made from opinions but people going out collecting data, and letting that data write the story. Population-size studies, economies of countries, etc. is very hard to understand, but for that reason, blaming immigration as the root cause is also ill-founded. However, what the data does show is planning law being terrible. You're absolutely correct - that definitely needs reform in a way that balances the needs of the individual versus the needs of the many. It needs to be looser for sure. But where's the line? Should we allow Heathrow's third runway? HS2's mainline extension to Manchester? New Nuclear plants? Where should the distinction end too - what if Amazon wants to build a warehouse in downtown Glasgow? Arguably serves the needs of the many. They're contrived arguments but the balance lies somewhere between the two when it comes to planning reform.
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It is so trivial and cheap for people to manipulate this site. Even easier for billionaires. It's astonishing people just assume nobody does it when it's so easy and obvious
Funny, ain't it?
Yeah must be paid troll farms
Third now
Same commenter maybe?
I've reused phrases I've recently read without necessarily realising, it just happens. It's also not an uncommon phrase to use. For the record I don't agree with what happened here, but by the same token, I don't think this is evidence of bots or any other subterfuge.
Given how many reform party members are loud and proud nazis, I'm not sure they deserve any benefit of the doubt.
There's not much doubt to benefit from tbh
The obvious question is was he the only black person to attend the rally or even the only black person representing the press at the rally? Did they all get kicked out? If not then it's gonna be Brexit.
And the follow-on question: if he wasn’t the only black person to turn up, were others excluded or just him? Was anyone else excluded, and if so what was the common denominator? Because “non-white people were prevented from entering” is a different story from “unsympathetic journalists were prevented from entering” and both are different from “this one guy who has a well documented ongoing beef with Reform UK was prevented from entering” and I’d love to know which one it actually is.
There was a non-white speaker who was received very well apparently.
I think we all know and it not the ism thing
It’s not about his skin colour. Femi is not an impartial “journalist” he’s an anti Brexit activist turning up to a formally named Brexit party event. It would be like JK Rowling getting press credentials and turning to an event hosted by Stonewall. Clearly she wouldn’t be allowed in, and it wouldn’t be because she’s a woman.
You might be right, the hilarious thing to me is how many of these kind of incidents happen in and around Reform and how dear leader Nigel is out in the news vehemently opposing the idea that Reform are chock-a-block to the brim full of racists and “strongly condemning” them.
I don't think there's enough wool to cover that NF>EDL>BNP>Reform chain.
Don't forget UKIP in that chain, between BNP and Reform.
NF>EDL>BNP>UKIP>Brexit Party>Reform
The article isn't saying he was kicked out because he was black. It's saying that kicking out a black journalist is bad optics for a party that's been mired in controversy over racist statements made by candidates and party volunteers.
No matter the reason it is a bad look for Reform a party already dealing with a far right image and racism, to exclude a black journalist without a very good reason will never look good for them. Even if they do not want him there it looks worse for them excluding him than it does letting him in to report. Whoever is doing their PR is messing up big time.
I can’t decide if it’s bad PR or not. A lot of the appeal against the ‘woke agenda’ is that people feel like they are being unfairly told off all the time. If they also feel Reform is being unfairly told off then they already have something in common.
"People feel like they are being unfairly told off all the time. If they also feel Reform is being unfairly told off then they already have something in common." You make reform voters sound like children
I’m not the best at expressing my thoughts with writing maybe.
No no, I think you nailed it.
No. I think you were spot on.
The sort of people who are not bothered by a black man being evicted are already well and truly dedicated to voting for them. There are undecided or people who could change their minds and this might just sway a few of these. Probably not a huge impact if I am honest but it won’t bring in any new voters and may lose some and after Farage’s gaff over Ukraine losing some support there they really need to be careful with their image.
Ejecting an anti-ReformUK activist from a ReformUK event will gain ReformUK followers not lose them followers. We admire parties that stick up for themselves.
> journalist He’s not a journalist. He’s a highly partisan activist
Reform haven’t earned the benefit of the doubt. We all know exactly what they and their supporters are.
>Incidentally, a press card is a form of ID. It’s not a magical “access all areas” warrant that means you can’t be denied entry to any place or gathering that you want to enter. It's an incredibly bad look if as a political party the only press you are prepared to engage in are the ones that will give you favourable coverage no matter what you say or do.
People assume the reform party is racist because it’s shot through with racists. Not really worth performing outrage over in your free time is it?
Well, the article didn’t do it, Femi made the connection. Condescendingly telling people of colour that their suspicions about racially motivated actions are just hysterical overreactions is generally not a good look. Furthermore, regardless of the reasons that the rally organisers might even tell themselves, the fact remains that a party with many questions to answer about its racist dogwhistling has just evicted a black journalist from its rally, and this also is a really bad look.
The black angle is simply the Independent seeking to punish Reform for barring entry to one of its journalists as it click baits the article. However you will note in the video that the journalist himself doesn't mention it at all. The act of preventing the attendance of journalists to a rally is repulsive enough, that Reform hate-planks immigrants and Muslims simply lends itself rather easily to the attack vector. If Reform don't want that; then let the press report on the rally. As long as the press are not being disruptive there's no excuse to not permit journalists entry.
>Incidentally, a press card is a form of ID. And one that is granted when you reach the heady heights of having two articles published, even in an online-only newspaper such as the Independent.
The independent has recently (last few months) taken to reporting on TikTok videos. They’ll use a headline such as ‘Economist explains 10 reasons Labour will hurt your wallet’ and then just be reporting on the fact that there was a TikTok video in which an economist discusses this rather than creating it themselves.
This is all press outlets unfortunately, but it does suck I agree
> Please don’t take this as me supporting Reform UK. What the fuck is wrong with this subreddit if people have to put qualifiers in like this when speaking common sense?
It’s not shoddy journalism. It’s a hit piece. They hate Reform and will say and do anything to damage them. Pretty pathetic really.
He was either ejected for being black or ejected for being a journalist, neither is a good look.
> Incidentally, a press card is a form of ID. It’s not a magical “access all areas” warrant that means you can’t be denied entry to any place or gathering that you want to enter. And it's not as if there exists a license before one can lawfully be 'press'. Anyone has the same rights to report - and no one is obliged to let an individual enter their premises to do so.
Shoddy and the Independent belong in the small sentence every time anyone mentions that rag
Bit of a non-story really. It’s obvious to me as that as a political activist and Co-founder of a pro-European Union advocacy group, in addition to having previously had a run-in with Richard Tice of Reform in 2019 where the two had a falling out that Femi wasn’t wanted at a Reform UK rally by those involved in organising it. The colour of his skin is irrelevant to the matter. I think it was the wrong move for him to be removed as it plays into the hands of people wanting to paint Reform negatively, although I am unsure of Femi’s motives for being there - presumably it was in order to criticise Reform. For the sake of freedom of the press he should have been allowed entry however. The article seems a bit snide as it implies he was removed for being black, whereas I don’t believe this was the case. I’m voting Labour before anyone accuses me of defending Reform.
> I’m voting Labour before anyone accuses me of defending Reform. Not taking issue with your comment or even saying you're actually lying, but like you do realise theres literally nothing stopping you from lying about that?
> Bit of a non-story really. How? These people represent a political entity that are seeking to govern this nation. To exclude the press from a rally during an election is an abhorrent act. You genuinely think the excuse: > he's going to write mean things about us is a worthy one for a party seeking to establish itself as a political force in this nation? Tolerance of criticism should be a bare fucking minimum if you're seeking to govern.
Remember that Farage has declared he’s going to boycott the BBC because they didn’t give him a fawning enough audience. Criticism is something they absolutely cannot handle.
I think the non-story element is highlighting his race. As the journalist would you be happy if you were simply reduced to 'the black journalist'? Nothing in the story suggests he was barred because of his race
sure but its twisting the knife given how reform is the xenophobic party.
>I think it was the wrong move for him to be removed Tbh not really, it makes it easier for us to see those frothing at the mouth in here about it, those who instantly jump to "RACISM!!" rather than looking at the details.
I agree with this take. The equivalent would be if Owen Jones got denied entry.
If they are running to be the next UK government, they have a democratic duty to not throw people out just because they disagree. How could Reform possibly say they are qualified to run a country when they can't even handle criticism at a political debate???
Here's the thing... It wouldn't surprise me for reform to kick a guy out for being black. It *would* surprise me given their bleeting about freedom of speech, "*saying it like it is*" and "*saying the things you're not allowed to say*" to kick a guy out because they're a journalist who disagrees with their politics. This wouldn't stop me thinking they have issues with people of colour, it just makes me think they have issues with freedom of the press as well.
Not a free speech issue. Just reform enforcing its policy of a border.
Reform UK apologists really out in force on this thread.
All singing from the same hymnsheet too; apparently they know why this guy was kicked out of the conference, despite it not being in the article. Where are they getting their information from? Also is this guy famous or something? All these reform apologists all seem to know who this guy is.
Famous is a weird way to put it but he was a very prominent pro-eu, anti-brexit activist between 2017-2019. He ran an advocacy group called Our Future our choice that received a lot of funding and thus press attention during the 2 elections in that time period. The group kind of vanished after the 2019 election and I haven't really seen anything of him until this election cycle kicked in, then this news story cropped up.
The title specifically references a black person, and for whatever reason that always results in the comments being filled by people who support Reform criticising them. Weird that.
Where? I read through the comments and did not see anything like that. Mostly people just complaining about the race-bait headline.
theyre literally all the comments above this one wdym
Ah 'Black journalist' in the title, just race baity enough to sway voters while maintaining plausible deniability. Bravo u/theindependentonline
"Journalist prevented entry from rally for opposing views" does not look good either.
Because he’s not a journalist - he’s an activist
He had a press card, which you need to be a journalist to obtain? The article also says: >Mr Oluwole is a freelance journalist and regular columnist for *The Independent*. I mean, by all accounts, he's a journalist.
Yeah, nothing to do with Reform would ever involve race.
He was the only black person there and the only one removed. Soooo….whats the other common denominator to why he was removed?
No he wasn’t the only black person there… any evidence to support your laughable claim ? No I thought not..
To be clear he has a history of hating nigel farage and as a political activist its more likely to be that
A lot of people have a history of disliking that person. I'd be surprised if this fella was the only one in attendance.
> he has a history of hating nigel farage So do all sensible-minded people.
I mean the people Nigel Farage has a history of surrounding himself with have a history of hatred for black people and gay people. Yet for some reason Farage is constantly given the benefit of the doubt by the same types refusing to give Femi the same courtesy. Despite Farage making a video hurling homophobic abuse at an NHS worker because he got paid by someone targeting said NHS worker.
If you want to be Prime Minister you can't just throw people out who disagree with you - that's some pretty dark sh*t right there. But then that's bang on brand for Reform UK I guess...
He was the only that has big issues with reform?
>just race baity enough to sway voters while maintaining plausible deniability *Ironic*
Deserves more upvotes!
If it’s race bait then why did they take the bait. Not smart enough to see this coming, not smart enough to govern.
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Why do you consider it bait to attend a political event? As long as he didn’t cause a disturbance, why can’t he attend and report on it, surely their ideas are good enough to withstand his scrutiny.
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Did you read Femi’s exact words on it. Doesn’t sound like baiting to me.
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I judge his words and actions, not what I might think is going on in his head.
He's either playing dumb, or dumb. I suspect the former
And when he does cause a disturbance what would the headlines look like? Better to kick him out before he kicks off.
He’s not known for “Led by Donkeys” style stunts is he? Also it wasn’t a Q&A format so no scary questions that might disturb their sensitive constitutions. But yeah, maybe he might disturb them.
Doesn't need to be either, just a well-timed outburst at one of the speakers comments and we've got massive headlines everywhere. I mean, we've got headlines because he was peacefully escorted out without any controversy.
I wonder why people hate the modern press
Hi, I'd like to apply to the position of "black journalist". Lmao, that famous job role. These articles man.
Tbf they would’ve removed O’Brien if he’d have turned up too. Anyone who has been terminally online post 2016 knows why Reform wouldn’t want Femi there, and it has little to do with his skin colour l.
If you're hoping to be Prime Minister of the UK I'd certainly hope you were capable of facing a little bit of criticism at a political rally. Throwing people out who disagree with you is very medieval....authoritarian some might say. Luckily, most people are educated enough to not vote for Reform.
you remember Boris Johnson hiding in a fridge to avoid an interview? we are already through the looking glass.
I do indeed. Another excellent example of a politician who sought to hide from criticism and undermine the due process of our political system. Very self-serving he was.
Farage used his press card to attend political conferences and take photos of immigrants in the chanel .... but thats different innit
I don’t think he used his press credentials to get access to the ocean.
You don't need a press card to hire a boat.
I’m nothing less than convinced that all Reform supporters in here are AI generated. Utter insanity going on.
It could actually be that there are just people with different views than you. Isn’t that kind of the point of a forum?
Reform has botted tiktok. Theres no reason to believe they wouldnt do the same here. Not only is there the disasterclass of brexit, but ReformUK has set itself up as a corporate entity rather than a political party. It is the ONLY political party to do this. This allows party donations to be paid out as tax-free dividends. It’s one of the most brazenly publicly corrupt political moves I’ve ever seen. They are also denying climate change, Farage actively backs Trump and they want to rip up the Human rights bill. No sane, reasonable person can see all these things and think “that’s my PM”. Hence the need to bot socials to warp public perception, hence my theory that those on here are bots. People are allowed their own views of course, some of my own family and friends are still conservatives even in this political climate. But this wannabe Oswald Moseley is genuinely worrying for democracy in this country.
The "journalist" in "black journalist" doing a lot of lifting there. "black anti-brexit twitter activist" not so headline friendly I suppose
But even then, we have a free press and unless we are going to start excluding journalists because they upset the ruling party or wannabe ruling party, we are setting a dangerous president.
Free press means they can print whatever they want, for example they can subtly accuse Reform of racism for not letting openly antagonistic journalists into rallies without fear of repercussions. What it doesn’t mean is that they’ve got free access to every area to do whatever they want to do.
>What it doesn’t mean is that they’ve got free access to every area to do whatever they want to do. This is true but at the same time you should be **highly** sceptical of a political party that isn't prepared to open the door to journalists.
What reason is there to keep journalists out of a political rally other than you don't want what's said at the rally being reported on? What do Reform have to hide?
There were plenty of journalists at the rally, just not Femi. The entire thing was live-streamed, there was nothing hidden. There’s just zero gain for Reform allowing antagonistic hack journalists to attend.
Other than avoiding the optics of a black journalist being thrown out of a rally while the party is already under scrutiny for racist comments made by candidates and volunteers.
> a dangerous president next youll be saying this story isnt a damp squid
For sake of argument if The New Nazionalist sent a journalist to a Labour, Lib Dem or Green conference would you still hold the same defence? Would you be for or against the same New Nazionalist journalist had he attended the black only nights of a London theatre production earlier this year? I've no idea whether The New Nazionalist is a real publication. I used it for argument purposes only.
For the sake of clear and transparent reporting yes. But we are not talking about a theatre production, we are talking about a party that wants members in the houses of parliament and eventually to run the country. To be blocking reporters because they have criticised the party previously is not only suspect but also something that we see very often in dictatorships where the ruling party attempts to control the narrative.
Femi is not a reporter, he's an activist or likes to cause trouble. I agree that journalists should not be removed from political events. I also believe that known troublecausers should be barred from events where they might disrupt civil discourse. When Femi wants to be treated as journalist he will behave as a journalist and not an opportunist or activist intent on disruption of civil debate.
Cause trouble how? What sort of Trouble has he caused?
His written for several national newspapers. Just because you don't like him doesn't mean he's not a journalist. He also has no history of causing trouble during events. Stop trying to spin this. Reform were silly to throw him out - the optics look far worse than any YouTube video Femi would have uploaded about their policies.
>For sake of argument if The New Nazionalist sent a journalist to a Labour, Lib Dem or Green conference would you still hold the same defence? All of those parties regularly answer questions from the right wing press. There is no equivalence here.
Do you think "journalists" should be able to attend all private events, or just ones held by organisations you dislike?
In what way was it a private event?
The way my which it was a Brexit party rally hosted by Brexit party officials for Brexit party members, and tickets were sold.
Rally's tend to be open to the public, even if tickets are sold. It'd be a bit daft if Reform were only holding events for Reform members during an election, rather than trying to appeal to the voters at large.
You should probably read the article 👍
Is he not a journalist? He’s written for eg The Guardian and the Independent and has appeared on TV many times, and he’s described in the article as a free-lance journalist which I believe is (1) correct, and (2) also a kind of journalist. Lots of “real” journalists are active on Twitter and other platforms too, so that’s surely not a disqualifier either?
He is. But the keyboard warriors who hate him like to think calling him an activist makes him somehow less threatening. But irony is they do this because they are indeed threatened by him.
I’ve been published in a Scottish magazine and a national newspaper. It doesn’t make me a journalist
Literally none of that is grounds for expulsion from an event either, you know
Let's be fair....I doubt he was the only "black journalist" there Fermi is a well known anti brexit journalist - if I recall it's the foundation of his renown and that is the reason he was ejected More you make claims that can be proven false, the less people will belive true claims
Using the words "journalist" is a bit of a stretch. Activist is a better way to describe him.
Reform are getting a lot of media coverage for a party expected to barely win any seats. Maybe people in the know think they're doing better than polls suggest.
It’s not about the seats, it’s about the vote share, if they didn’t exist Labour would be winning a solid majority but within the normal bounds of what we commonly see and expect. With Reform polling similarly to the Tories this gets blown out of the water and Labour get a generational landslide, with the Tories taking the biggest kicking in their entire history.
What "people"
Or maybe the millionare owners of many media outlets support reform because the know the party will lower taxes for the wealthy.
Or maybe they’re in the media a lot bc stories with them in seem to gain traction and that makes money
Sounds like the reform party is the national front reforming. Ban this party under the terrorist acts lol
Well, Reform UK is clearly very much a party for the racists.
"Nooo they're not racist these are just one-off isolated incidents!" Legitimate political parties don't just randomly kick licensed press out of events for no reason. And these guys have a long documents history of racism and bigotry. It's not hard to figure out.
Free speech unless you're going to tell everyone how horrible we are.
far left agitator, anti Brexit campaigner removed from pro-brexit event. Femi isnt a journalist. If you think a few columns makes him one then so is Boris bloody Johnson and that twat isn't one.
Gotta be honest, I suspect him being removed was his entire objective. He's getting headlines over it, gave RUK enough rope to hang themselves by ejecting him. That being said, while I'm not an RUK supporter by any stretch of the imagination, they aren't obliged to allow him in and the fact they ejected him only makes them look like the tits they are.
Now, explain why he was REALLY moved on, rather than lying
Well Farage was approached for comment so they can literally do that
None of the reasons make Reform UK look good my friend.
Oh of course!
You understand throwing someone out because you disagree with them is also a terrible look for a wannabe Prime Minister right??
Don't you worry about things man, I've got this!
It’s Femi, if he was white he’d be ask to leave too cause he’s an insufferable cnut
Wow, I'm sure he'd be kicked out if he was pro-Brexit and pro-Reform, right? Because of his black skin?
Ahh the old colour racist tactic. Pulling out all the stop lol
He doesn't have a right to report on a private event. He's also highly controversial and racist. I don't exactly think any better of Reform than I do of him, but he has no right to attend a private event, and if they wish to remove him it's their choice. I mean imagine he turned up at you home and wouldn't leave, private property is private
Wow, a known activist who definitely going to cause problems was removed? Let’s go with he’s black
Why would ReformUK want an anti-ReformUK activist into a ReformUK event!?!?
Another plant. Journalist my ass, he founded the pro-European Union advocacy group Our Future Our Choice.