Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Hopefully, but I'd be happier if it was from a polling company with a better track record ie YouGov or IPSO. But fingers crossed.

I watched the special Question Time from Makerfield last night. Unexpectedly, the Reform candidate made a fair fist of pretending to be calm, reasonable, and rational, with his best weddings suit on, but his attempt to play down his sexism and mysogyny fell flat - certainly if the angry faces of the many women in the Makerfield audience (much shaking of heads in evidence) were any measure. He was also completely skewered by the Green candidate, who invited him to apologise directly to Carol Vorderman , which he declined to do. I think it’s fair to say that he wasn’t convincing anybody.

Burnham kept to his usual script. Localism the success of Greater Manchester he wants to bring to the UK nationally. Still dancing around the question of whether he intends to challenge Sir Keir for the Labour leadership, no doubt for fear of appearing complacent about winning in the by-election, though he gave a sort of direct answer, saying he wanted to seek to represent Makerfield “at the highest level” and claiming bizarrely -and wrongly - that a Labour leadership challenge had already been triggered by Wes Streeting.

Of the others, the Tory was weirdly likeable, I thought. The Green lass quite bolshy and belligerent, but did well to (metaphorically) twist the Reform bloke’s scrotum. The Lib Dem was deeply unimpressive, and irrelevant. Shamefully, Lord Binface was not mentioned.

Localism the success of Greater Manchester he wants to bring to the UK nationally.

Why is it that when I hear phrases like that, I get flashbacks to "Radio Active, your national local radio station"? (Which of course, we now have)

I'm surprised no-one has suggested anarcho-syndicalism on a national scale yet. Or indeed, the kibbutz model for all the ageing hippies.

There's already a devolution programme going on. One wonders again what the difference with Starmer-Reeves is supposed to be.

Oboogie wrote: ↑Fri Jun 05, 2026 12:55 am Hopefully, but I'd be happier if it was from a polling company with a better track record ie YouGov or IPSO. But fingers crossed.

To be fair Survation haven't been bad for about 8 years now, they were really ropey when they came in but they are ones I would take on face value, also they've done two now which is better than one off ones that say "Findoutnow" would do.

Oddly they haven't done one which does make me wonder.

mattomac wrote: ↑Fri Jun 05, 2026 5:36 pm

Oboogie wrote: ↑Fri Jun 05, 2026 12:55 am Hopefully, but I'd be happier if it was from a polling company with a better track record ie YouGov or IPSO. But fingers crossed.

To be fair Survation haven't been bad for about 8 years now, they were really ropey when they came in but they are ones I would take on face value, also they've done two now which is better than one off ones that say "Findoutnow" would do.

Oddly they haven't done one which does make me wonder.

Survation are far from the worst (that would be Findoutnow, who aren't even trying) but YouGov have the most consistently accurate track record.

Kenyon's QT performance went as well as you'd expect

At least the one on the left admitted he wasn't qualified for the role.

Ant Middleton backs Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon in Makerfield byelection

Middleton was convicted in 2013 of the unlawful wounding of a police officer and common assault on another outside a nightclub. He was banned in 2025 from being a company director, after his company failed to pay more than £1m in tax. He had parted ways with Channel 4 in 2021 after controversial comments on the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter.

Restore Britain, the hard-right party set up by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe after he and Nigel Farage fell out, is widely expected to come third in the Makerfield election.

The party’s performance could cost Reform the seat, according to a leaked poll, which was circulated internally among Labour staffers and published by the i newspaper. It put Lowe’s party on 13% of the vote, with Reform on 24% and Labour on 35%.