‘Oh Boohoo’ – The Violence Against Peaceful Protesters at Reform UK’s Conference, and the Reaction To It, Should Worry Us All

In America, Donald Trump has shown us what happens when politicians laugh at violence from their supporters and suggest its victims brought it on themselves. Reform UK is MAGA-fying in front of us.

A note from our Editor-in-Chief:

Thank you for subscribing to Zeteo UK. We are still in soft-launch mode until mid-September as we finish recruiting our team, but given the craziness of the British news cycle right now, we will be publishing stories and op-eds on a semi-regular basis between now and then. Please do become a paid subscriber today so you can read and watch all of our Zeteo UK original content without hitting a paywall – and also so you can help fund independent journalism in Britain. – Mehdi Hasan

Scenes of violence at the Reform UK conference. Photo: Climate Resistance

A woman, exercising her democratic right to protest, at Reform UK’s party conference on Friday was struck over the head with a walking stick by a delegate, as others in the audience grabbed at her face and pulled her hair. Another protester was thrown to the ground and dragged from the hall while interrupting Nigel Farage’s keynote speech.

You might be thinking a political party is entitled to remove people who cause disruption – that is not the issue. The issue is that members of the audience responded with violence and, more importantly, Reform’s most senior politicians excused it. The Party is MAGA-fying in front of our eyes.