Lib Dems launch ‘Reform watch’ to monitor party in local government

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/11/lib-dems-reform-uk-watch-monitor-party-local-government

by qwerty_1965

30 comments

  1. Excellent Idea. You just know that the media outside of Private Eye and Byline Times won’t take any interest in Reform’s behaviour at council level.

  2. Surely the Lib Dems should be considered left of Labour at this point?

  3. Excellent. Having an effective opposition, holding the government, councils, whoever, to account is as important as an effective government.

  4. Anyone with a new Reform councillor should be bombarding them with case work at the moment. These people need to be shown up as the idle frauds they are.

    If there’s dogshit on your High Street, complain to your elected councillor.

  5. All the established parties should be on Reform watch.

    Of course there will be scandals like there are in every party, however Im not sure if any of those will move the dial for Reform UK voters. They seem very dyed in the wool just like Trump voters in the US.

  6. The account on social media ‘ reform exposed ‘ is a goldmine for this .

    Councillors resigning and creating costly by elections not even in the job a week .

    Councillors being exposed for liking content from Tommy ten names and Britain First

    Paper candidates who have won but never shown up ( more cost to tax payers )

    One of them realising forcing all council staff to work in offices 5 days a week , when councils have sold off their buildings and can’t accommodate it

    That’s less than two weeks in

  7. In very typical Lib Dem fashion. This strategy isn’t anywhere near as coherent as you’d think.

    Their plan is to monitor and see if Reform councils keep their election promises. If they do, then the LibDems will actively highlight them keeping those promises to voters, in the hope that voters are disgusted by the policies they voted for and it makes the party less popular.

    I’ll be kind and call it an interesting strategy, but I’m very doubtful it will yield the results they want.

  8. Does anyone out there have any information on the newly elected MP Sarah Pochin (Runcorn & Helsby)…or advise on where to look? I’ve looked on govt websites but as she’s never been an MP before there’s no info on her voting record in the HoC ..big fat zero except for she was once a conservative local councillor (I think) for south Cheshire….and she’s a magistrate.

  9. The problem is why have they never done this for any other political party? You can’t hold one political party to account more than another.

  10. This strikes me as a good thing but my only real curiosity is, when did this idea of political parties monitoring and holding to account other political parties become some kind of ‘special operation’ rather than simply part of their primary function?

    I’d really expect every party to have a ‘watch’ on every other party that isn’t them and report on, and make political capital from any mistake that is made. This kind of crucible is what is supposed to keep people honest and their feet to the fire.

    So, good on the LDs for doing it, but I honestly thought they would have been doing it anyway.

  11. It’s the guardian again 😂 amazed that those poor little sausages are able to concentrate on work after how upset they were about Trump’s victory….

    For those unaware, the guardian offered counselling to their staff so they could cope with Donald Trump’s victory… never let that be forgotten. Half of the UK has real world problems, the guardian staff are in tears about someone 3000 miles away becoming president…. Pa…thet…ic

  12. As someone hoping to be going to do my masters in Scotland (which is why I’m lurking on this sub) are Lib Dems the same as American Dems? Where it’s all substance? Or do they have actual action plans?

  13. Reform UK don’t really have much left to cut, so I don’t see them doing a disastrous job locally.

  14. As long as they’re honest and accurate about it, that’s perfectly fine. Somehow I doubt it will be though. 

    But let’s face it, they should do this for every council.

    Labour, Conservative,  green and independents. 

  15. As a Southend resident,they are most likely going to win my council next year with all the Tory heartlands here.

  16. This should be a countrywide initiative, government money should be pouring into far right surveillance and investigating where the money is coming from and how to stop it if it is illegal. If it’s not illegal the people behind it should be made public and journalists should then do their jobs properly to help ensure our country isn’t ruined further by obvious grifters, Russian money, propaganda and far right religious scum from America doing Russia’s work for them.

  17. If the people in the UK fall for this farage guy again, then they are as hopeless as the US

  18. Fwiw Labour are doing this too. Source: relative chairs a constituency council

  19. Lib dems, especially with their rejoin EU stance, are getting in my good books so far

  20. You know reform is gonna push their own agenda on people. Vaccine conspricies will be pushed for one.

    Some of their guys are pro hitler so. Historical revisionism will take place also.

  21. The media are fucking obsessed with Reform, the way the BBC were talking about it, it’s like Reform won the fucking General Election. This type of stuff just makes me wish that we got The Lib Dems in power instead of Starmer’s Tory Tribute Act.

  23. this is like watching scavenger animals fight over pieces of a dead body

    reform and lib dem are feasting on the bones of labor and tories

  24. Desperate from the party led by a guy who went black ops when it turned out he betrayed the Post Workers.

    Then ran his election campaign doing cringe publicity stunts 🤣

  25. Well thank god someone is finally going to keep an eye on them, I’ve barely heard anything about them for ages now…

  27. This country doesn’t deserve the awesomeness that is Ed “suburban daddy vibes” Davey.

  28. Before this May, a party led by Farage has only ever been in control of one council, and that council declared bankruptcy seven months after they took over.

  29. The Guardian and other media of that slant have had journalists camped out in Clapton submitted ChatGPT dross for over a year on a near daily basis. It worked ABSOLUTE WONDERS.

  30. Shame we didn’t have this when councils were spaffing budgets up the wall left, right and centre.

    Here’s an easy one for the policy wonks:

    Block any emails and calls coming from Oracle from reaching any local governments.

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