What do you make of 'Reform's' gains in local elections yesterday ?

I think it's the influence of social media. The Reform party are streets ahead of the opposition parties in that respect.
It's a worrying trend that votes are going to right wing parties.
I worry that there's a generation of self entitled, 'I'm alright Jack', voters. Finding Trump and Farage funny, or even, heaven forbid, relatable.
Billionaires and millionaires playing the ordinary man, and the gullible are lapping it up.

I think that the main parties should take it seriously. When you write off Reform, or Trump voters in America, as just a bunch of ignorant nationalists/racists you minimise the threat and you potentially fail to read the room. Elections aren't won by the extremes, they are won in the middle ground. Extremists don't have the numbers to win elections unless in very small seats. What matters is who most influences those who are essentially on the fence or close to it. The extreme left will always vote left and the extreme right will always vote right. The people in the middle can swing and if you ignore the concerns of a large chunk of voters as being the concerns of a small extreme of voters then you can have a huge blind spot.

Whether the votes that you don't want are protest votes or opposition votes, you are being sent a message and you should respond accordingly if you want to remain in power. What those who aren't in power, and certainly those who have never been in power, have a great ability to do is to promise the earth. It should be recognised that such promises don't only influence the uneducated. In fact, when considering opposition voters they should be treated as educated and informed regardless of whether they are or not. You should carefully consider their concerns, however alien to your own belief system, and you should strategise accordingly. That is not to say that you must pander to extreme views, but those in the middle ground won't have extreme views anyway. While they don't have extreme views they might not have your views and you should not assume that they do. Ignoring politically sensitive issues is playing into the hands of the extremists. The biggest mistake that parties can make is to get caught up in snobbery. Trump was a massive Trojan horse's ass. His supporters were branded as racists and bigots, no particular threat. He'll never get into power, said so many on the left. They ignored the legitimate concerns of many non extreme voters as being the concerns of only the extreme voters. If our two main parties, at least as once were, do the same then they'll sleep on Farage and he might just bite them in the ass.

People unfortunately use local elections to register "protest" votes against national government. Large swings have been achieved on low turnouts, so I would not attribute that much significance to the results. The Reform party will now have to produce results in the counties that it controls. If they succeed, well done to them. But I think they are going to have a rude awakening and find that the real business of government is a bit more complicated than spending all day writing unpleasant social media posts about foreigners.

I'm hoping it's only a protest. The dripping words of dislike for 'others' disgusts me. Their candidate for the West of England Metro Mayor described the whole of Bristol as 'extreme leftist Marxists' and said he would bring DOGE tactics if he won. Andrea Leadsome (new East of England Mayor) wants to put immigrants in tents (but doesn't say whose land in her area she expects them to go and who is paying for the land and facilities). They are trying to use the populist scare tactics used by the Trumpeting hoards in the US to try to de-stabilise the country. They could be a force going forward, but I for one will not be silent with anyone who tells me that they support this shower.

Lots of advocates for democracy seem to get very upset when democracy happens and doesn't go their way, would be my observation.