From Daniel Lismore (UK-based artist, designer & perfumer) on his FB Page…

“Polls say Reform voters are the least educated.

Polling consistently shows that Reform UK draws its strongest support from voters with lower levels of formal educational attainment. That fact matters. Not as a slur, but because it helps explain a pattern that keeps repeating.

Reform supporters are being told, clearly and repeatedly, what the party’s policies would mean in practice. They are being told that Reform supports weaker worker protections, a rollback of human rights safeguards, cuts to public spending, and a shift away from universal healthcare toward systems where individuals pay more themselves. They are being told that council taxes are rising under Reform-run councils despite explicit promises that they would not. They are being told that the party is dominated by former Conservative figures whose last period in power left the country poorer and public services weaker.

And yet many supporters refuse to engage with these facts.

Instead, warnings are dismissed as “establishment lies” while the same political figures are trusted again, even when the consequences are spelled out in advance. This is not confidence. It is avoidance.

There is a psychological pattern at work. When people are under sustained economic pressure, anxious about the future, and angry at a system that has failed them, simple narratives become comforting. Blame is redirected outward. Immigrants. Protesters. Cultural enemies. The promise offered is emotional relief rather than material improvement.

This is why Reform’s messaging prioritises grievance over detail. The party does not need supporters to understand policy. It needs them to remain angry long enough not to look too closely.

The uncomfortable reality is that Reform’s policies would hit its own voter base hardest. People on lower incomes rely most on public healthcare. They are least able to absorb higher costs when services are privatised or withdrawn. They are most exposed to cuts in legal protections, benefit changes, council tax rises, and the erosion of local services.

Reform’s politics depends on keeping that contradiction unresolved.

As long as supporters stay locked in outrage, they are spared the moment of reckoning where they have to confront what is actually being offered to them: less security, fewer protections, higher costs, and a thinner safety net, all repackaged as freedom.

That is not empowerment. It is control.

Anger is being used as a distraction from policies that would leave people poorer, sicker, and more exposed. And the more uncomfortable that truth becomes, the louder the shouting gets.

This is not about intelligence. It is about manipulation.

And the people being manipulated will be the first to pay the price.

Reform’s model depends on confusion. Fear is the glue. Outrage is the shield. Because once voters understand what Reform actually proposes, the support does not harden. It collapses.”

For the non-Facebookphobes, here is DL’s original FB post. I find myself persuaded by his arguments…