| Did Reform field AI candidates? 17:03 - Jul 8 with 11467 views | Zx1988 |
Just came across this on Twitter, and it certainly poses some interesting questions:
Some interesting responses to the original Tweet, alleging similar concerns about other Reform candidates in other constituencies.
With regards to "Mark Matlock" he didn't even attend his count because, apparently, he had pneumonia. |  |
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| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:09 - Jul 8 with 6376 views | NthQldITFC |
I've long suspected that Fartrage is C3PO's hipper brother. Something about body shape and carriage. |  |
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| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:12 - Jul 8 with 6344 views | Ryorry |
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| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:15 - Jul 8 with 6308 views | CaptainAhab |
Let's see his hands | | | |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:17 - Jul 8 with 6299 views | _clive_baker_ |
I do find it odd how they managed to unearth so many candidates at relatively short notice. There's dozens that have seemingly never been seen or heard from in real life. |  | | |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:24 - Jul 8 with 6230 views | Zx1988 |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:12 - Jul 8 by Ryorry |
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It feels like a bit of a mixed bag, if any of the allegations turn out to be true.
On the one hand, the Tories lost a number of seats owing to the intervention of non-existent candidates.
However, if any impropriety on the part of Reform leads to elections in certain constituencies being re-run, it might lead to non-Tory MPs losing their seats where Reform successfully split the right-wing vote. [Post edited 8 Jul 2024 17:31]
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| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:27 - Jul 8 with 6204 views | Ryorry |
So let's get this straight - if the story's true, it would mean that in the UK, you need ID to vote - but not to stand as a candidate ...  | |
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| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:30 - Jul 8 with 6161 views | NthQldITFC |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:15 - Jul 8 by CaptainAhab |
Let's see his hands |
That test fails for Norfolk constituencies. | |
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| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:35 - Jul 8 with 6099 views | syntaxerror |
Paper candidates are nothing new though.
Reform had Morgan Tara Young in South Dorset admit to being one:
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/reform-uk-candidate-dorset-morgan-t
And to avoid the paywall:
Morgan Tara Young admits she is ‘not active’ in the constituency she is supposed to be contesting in the general election
A candidate running for Reform UK in Dorset lives 200 miles away and has visited the county only once on holiday.
Morgan Tara Young, who lives in a village in Derbyshire, is running in South Dorset against Richard Drax of the Conservatives, who first won the seat in 2010. She has never attended a hustings and when questioned by The Times made no secret of the fact that she was a “paper candidate”.
“I work for the party, I work in their office in Leicestershire,” Young said. “I can’t really go into too much detail. I have just stood as a paper candidate, so I’m not active.”
She said she had been to Dorset once before, when she took her daughter there on holiday, but has not returned since being placed on the ballot. “Not since the election has been called, no,” she said. |  | | |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:39 - Jul 8 with 6049 views | Ewan_Oozami |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:17 - Jul 8 by _clive_baker_ |
I do find it odd how they managed to unearth so many candidates at relatively short notice. There's dozens that have seemingly never been seen or heard from in real life. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_candidate |  |
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| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:42 - Jul 8 with 6035 views | Zx1988 |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:35 - Jul 8 by syntaxerror |
Paper candidates are nothing new though.
Reform had Morgan Tara Young in South Dorset admit to being one:
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/reform-uk-candidate-dorset-morgan-t
And to avoid the paywall:
Morgan Tara Young admits she is ‘not active’ in the constituency she is supposed to be contesting in the general election
A candidate running for Reform UK in Dorset lives 200 miles away and has visited the county only once on holiday.
Morgan Tara Young, who lives in a village in Derbyshire, is running in South Dorset against Richard Drax of the Conservatives, who first won the seat in 2010. She has never attended a hustings and when questioned by The Times made no secret of the fact that she was a “paper candidate”.
“I work for the party, I work in their office in Leicestershire,” Young said. “I can’t really go into too much detail. I have just stood as a paper candidate, so I’m not active.”
She said she had been to Dorset once before, when she took her daughter there on holiday, but has not returned since being placed on the ballot. “Not since the election has been called, no,” she said. |
If Reform fielded AI candidates, though, this goes beyond paper candidates and more into the realms of electoral fraud, especially given that nomination papers need to be signed by ten people in the constituency that actually know the candidate.
If you're a fledgling extremist party, knowing that high numbers of votes yielding a small number of seats will strengthen your argument for PR, there's a lot to be gained by running candidates in as many seats as possible, even if said candidates don't even exist.
Given that the vast majority of Reform's vote share will have been based on people voting for Reform/Farage, rather than the local candidate, they'd have been able to gain thousands of votes just by being present on a ballot. [Post edited 8 Jul 2024 17:44]
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| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:42 - Jul 8 with 6029 views | factual_blue |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:35 - Jul 8 by syntaxerror |
Paper candidates are nothing new though.
Reform had Morgan Tara Young in South Dorset admit to being one:
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/reform-uk-candidate-dorset-morgan-t
And to avoid the paywall:
Morgan Tara Young admits she is ‘not active’ in the constituency she is supposed to be contesting in the general election
A candidate running for Reform UK in Dorset lives 200 miles away and has visited the county only once on holiday.
Morgan Tara Young, who lives in a village in Derbyshire, is running in South Dorset against Richard Drax of the Conservatives, who first won the seat in 2010. She has never attended a hustings and when questioned by The Times made no secret of the fact that she was a “paper candidate”.
“I work for the party, I work in their office in Leicestershire,” Young said. “I can’t really go into too much detail. I have just stood as a paper candidate, so I’m not active.”
She said she had been to Dorset once before, when she took her daughter there on holiday, but has not returned since being placed on the ballot. “Not since the election has been called, no,” she said. |
Although she does actually seem to be a real person. |  |
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| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:43 - Jul 8 with 6019 views | _clive_baker_ |
I don't have an issue with that, but the suggestion is these candidates don't exist at all. There's a curious lack of online footprint for a number of them. | | | |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:48 - Jul 8 with 5971 views | redrickstuhaart |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:43 - Jul 8 by _clive_baker_ |
I don't have an issue with that, but the suggestion is these candidates don't exist at all. There's a curious lack of online footprint for a number of them. |
Matlocks website seems to haev vanished, if it ever existed. | | | |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:55 - Jul 8 with 5928 views | redrickstuhaart |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:42 - Jul 8 by Zx1988 |
If Reform fielded AI candidates, though, this goes beyond paper candidates and more into the realms of electoral fraud, especially given that nomination papers need to be signed by ten people in the constituency that actually know the candidate.
If you're a fledgling extremist party, knowing that high numbers of votes yielding a small number of seats will strengthen your argument for PR, there's a lot to be gained by running candidates in as many seats as possible, even if said candidates don't even exist.
Given that the vast majority of Reform's vote share will have been based on people voting for Reform/Farage, rather than the local candidate, they'd have been able to gain thousands of votes just by being present on a ballot. [Post edited 8 Jul 2024 17:44]
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You can see exactly how the conversation would go.
Have we got someone as a paper candidate here?
Nope- no names left at head office Nige.
Ah well, theyre not going to win, its just about getting the party on the ballot. Put any old name down... | | | |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:56 - Jul 8 with 5919 views | DanTheMan |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:48 - Jul 8 by redrickstuhaart |
Matlocks website seems to haev vanished, if it ever existed. |
It did exist. Not sure if this link will work - EDIT: It does not, just copy and paste the below in the address bar to view.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240624162420/ http://www.markmatlock.co.uk/
What gets weird is when you look at the domain registration.
https://who.is/whois/markmatlock.co.uk
"Nominet was not able to match the registrant's name and/or address against a 3rd party source on 31-May-2024"
This could be nothing, but it's a bit peculiar. [Post edited 8 Jul 2024 17:56]
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| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 18:01 - Jul 8 with 5885 views | redrickstuhaart |
His picture on that site is plainly AI generated, or conceivably, doctored with some sort of filter to make him look like someone from the Sims.
Not a single piece of information on there about who he is, where is from, or what his background is. Pretty extraordinary for a political candidate website. | | | |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 18:07 - Jul 8 with 5839 views | PhilTWTD |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:35 - Jul 8 by syntaxerror |
Paper candidates are nothing new though.
Reform had Morgan Tara Young in South Dorset admit to being one:
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/reform-uk-candidate-dorset-morgan-t
And to avoid the paywall:
Morgan Tara Young admits she is ‘not active’ in the constituency she is supposed to be contesting in the general election
A candidate running for Reform UK in Dorset lives 200 miles away and has visited the county only once on holiday.
Morgan Tara Young, who lives in a village in Derbyshire, is running in South Dorset against Richard Drax of the Conservatives, who first won the seat in 2010. She has never attended a hustings and when questioned by The Times made no secret of the fact that she was a “paper candidate”.
“I work for the party, I work in their office in Leicestershire,” Young said. “I can’t really go into too much detail. I have just stood as a paper candidate, so I’m not active.”
She said she had been to Dorset once before, when she took her daughter there on holiday, but has not returned since being placed on the ballot. “Not since the election has been called, no,” she said. |
The difference is Reform are accused of standing people who don't exist, which is fraudulent. |  | | |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 18:12 - Jul 8 with 5781 views | redrickstuhaart |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 18:01 - Jul 8 by redrickstuhaart |
His picture on that site is plainly AI generated, or conceivably, doctored with some sort of filter to make him look like someone from the Sims.
Not a single piece of information on there about who he is, where is from, or what his background is. Pretty extraordinary for a political candidate website. |
Wayback machine has one imprint from 2018, which is a near blank page saying mark matlock resident of guernsey. And an email address.
Mark matlock guernsey searches suggest someone of that name ran a short lived antiques business, according to Companies House. [Post edited 8 Jul 2024 18:14]
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| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 18:17 - Jul 8 with 5768 views | Mullet |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 17:42 - Jul 8 by factual_blue |
Although she does actually seem to be a real person. |
Not sure that works if you stand for, or support Reform does it? |  |
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| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 18:54 - Jul 8 with 5543 views | factual_blue |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 18:17 - Jul 8 by Mullet |
Not sure that works if you stand for, or support Reform does it? |
Good point. | |
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| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 19:13 - Jul 8 with 5452 views | PhilTWTD |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 18:12 - Jul 8 by redrickstuhaart |
Wayback machine has one imprint from 2018, which is a near blank page saying mark matlock resident of guernsey. And an email address.
Mark matlock guernsey searches suggest someone of that name ran a short lived antiques business, according to Companies House. [Post edited 8 Jul 2024 18:14]
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Private Eye appear to think they've spoken to him.
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| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 19:15 - Jul 8 with 5426 views | Zx1988 |
| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 19:13 - Jul 8 by PhilTWTD |
Private Eye appear to think they've spoken to him.
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From a cynical point of view, they certainly spoke to *someone* who, allegedly, doesn't own a suitable tie and of whom no other photographs exist. | |
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| Did Reform field AI candidates? on 19:20 - Jul 8 with 5396 views | factual_blue |
It seems I grew up in that constituency. | |
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