Here is the News.

I drove an American down to Heathrow last week and was telling him about the party and how “I didn’t think leopards would eat my face!”

He was most amused.

There were Jews who were concentration camp guards. These would be those people. Beyond comprehension

Yeah I know that and get you’ll always get some lured by some sort of perverse power, but to see a group of Asians, with heavy Indian accents chanting ‘reform’ is quite something. And rather fucking sad. (And obviously the even further right ‘restore Britain’ crowd were using them as a reason not to vote Reform…..).

Do you think people in senior positions in reform and the greens actually believe that people are voting for them, rather than against the two (historically?) main parties?

Probably, there's a fair amount of hubris at the top of politics and those parties.

I imagine they do. You've got to have a big degree of arrogance to go into politics, so the fact people support your views is just obvious to you. Why wouldn't they, your views are, after all, the only sensible ones?

I can confirm that my 85 year old father votes for them because of their policies

I vote Green due to their policies.

An awful amount of people actually are voting for them rather than protesting. They want a Reform government. (Or a Green one but nowhere near as many people)

They are economically illiterate. But OK.

Fixie cycles for everyone.
Greens have been power-sharing in Sheffield for a while now. Ever since, the city has seen loads of ludicrous, expensive pro-cycling highways changes (road closures, a £20m roundabout ffs) due to a very loud, but small minority of well-connected mamils.
And the beauty is, people think it's still a Labour council, so they get all the blame (not innocent as they have enabled it) and the Greens escape scrutiny.

Wait till you hear how much they spend on roads.

PS: Absolutely every cyclist in Sheffield thinks the amount of infrastructure is a joke compared to other cities in the region, so it seems they're not pleasing anyone.

PPS: Feel free to educate yourself about the "£20m cycling roundabout" (summary, it was £18m and the cost covered improvements over a much wider area than just the roundabout, which is also for cars not just cyclists): www.reddit.com/r/sheffield/comments/1isgzaj/how_did_the_new_dutch_roundabout_cost_18_million/

Apologies - didn't realise you'd spoken to "absolutely every cyclist in Sheffield". Dutch roundabouts work in the Netherlands because it's flat and nearly everyone cycles. Sheffield is not and most people don't. No matter how much you throw at improvements to the cycling infrastructure to please the mamils, you are not going to convert normal people to cycling, so it's a waste of money. (And no, electric bikes are not yet in the price range for most residents of Sheffield to be a consideration). Allow bikes on buses/trams and you might make some progress.
And reports suggest the cost with all the additional improvements to the wider area was actually £27m. More than the cost of building a 180-place SEND school. I know which Sheffield needs more.

It's a global phenomenon to look at road change costs and blame bikes, even though the relative home due to bikes is negligible.

But it's easy, and auto-eroticists hate the thought of anyone being happier than them.

Back on tricky's "they are telling you to be upset"

I know a lot of ‘mamils’ if you insist on using that fucking annoying acronym and I can assure you that none of them are in the least interested in bike lanes in and around city centres (although they always get the blame for them from grumpy cyclist-haters). They’re built to try to encourage people away from cars and on to more environmentally friendly transport. They’re also there to try to encourage people who would otherwise not go near a bike to give it a go when they perceive it to maybe be a bit safer.
I’m not sure it’s the best way to spend a fuck-tonne of money but I appreciate the sentiment. And like it or not there’s going to be more and more of them until they feel enough people have been discouraged from just driving into town.