My first thought was “wow those comments must be shockingly bad if even Reform UK is suspending/investigating them”.

They absolutely are awful and embarrassing comments. But they’re also comments I would fully expect a Reform UK candidate/supporter to make. Therefore I’m pretty surprised Reform UK is investigating them in the first place. Perhaps it’s because they said the quiet bit out loud?

They’re a right-wing populist and Eurosceptic party after all, so of course they’re gonna attract racists and transphobes.

That this prejudice will follow these children into adulthood is perhaps the bleakest part.

This is the thing that horrifies me the most about this story. Adults, schools, and parents are setting an abominable example to these children.

I can only imagine the confusion and shame a child must experience when being told to hide their insulin pumps, their wheelchairs, their hearing aids, etc. And I’m frightened to think of the pupils who feel empowered to “other” their classmates because they are being “othered” by the adults. It’s a clear example of how we teach children bigotry.

An experience from my childhood which still sticks with me to this day is from when attending an ultra-orthodox church. I was maybe 5 years old and tried to follow my dad into a restricted area and being stopped by the priest, being told “sorry, only boys are allowed back here”.

As a child I was taught that adults are always right, and to listen to them. This may very well be my earliest memory of being taught sexism, which only got reinforced throughout my life due to trusting the adults at this church and through trusting my very religious right-wing father. Even as a kid I recognised that what I was witnessing was unfair, but I did not have the power, the understanding, nor the will to challenge this unfairness because the adults must know what they’re doing… right?