The oodles of dark money, the shadowy tech bros, and social media manipulation tools are all on his side, as is the widespread voter discontent, the usual foundation for authoritarians. All ripe for exploitation by the wide boy of British politics, Nigel Farage. He may prove unstoppable.
Reform UK’s annual conference was held in Birmingham this week, as great a gathering of misfits, half-wits, closet racists, and sociopaths that you can find anywhere outside the Republican Party. Apparently, 5,500 tickets have been sold. He told the assembled fruit cakes to prepare for government and vowed to solve the small boat problem "in two weeks" if elected.
This is taking a leaf straight out of Trump’s playbook and will probably be enough to get him into Downing Street.
Farage is said to be a “powerful magnet attracting discontented voters to his party.” Some polling by Survation shows 80% of his supporters are 'confident' he will address the immigration issue. I assume they are talking about the boat people, although it’s an almost infinitesimal part of immigration as a whole. This is ironic given that he is the man behind Brexit, the very reason we’ve got a small boats issue.
Britain has many problems, but inflatables carrying a few pitiful asylum seekers across the Channel isn’t in the top 50, and the notion that a solution is in Farage’s (or any PM’s) gift is risible. It’s like Canute ordering the tide to ebb. None of our problems would be better or more rapidly resolved with Nigel Farage at the helm. In fact, he - and his swivel-eyed cranks - would only make them a whole lot worse. He would have us looking wistfully back at Liz Truss’ brief but disastrous premiership as a golden age.
The truly depressing thing is that the very people most likely to vote for him are those who will suffer the most.
You can watch dozens of YouTube video clips of Americans who voted for Trump and now regret it, farmers and factory workers who are losing their businesses and jobs, particularly, but also members of the Hispanic community. They all assumed when Trump talked about deporting criminals and cutting waste and fraud, he was talking about someone else. No, it turns out he had them in mind all the time.
So it will be in Clacton and Epping and Stevenage and all the other sad areas that badly need new investment and an injection of new blood. The pensioners, people who are struggling on benefits or in low-paid jobs, who were waving Union Jacks for Farage, will find it’s all about him. Just like Trump.
Farage isn’t a team player. He couldn’t manage a cabinet of capable people, let alone the screwballs who he gathers around him. Nobody lasts very long in Farage’s circle. He fell out with Allan Sked, the founder of UKIP, and he hasn’t stopped falling out with people ever since. Ben Habib and Rupert Lowe are just the latest examples.
I am not sure Farage actually wants the PM job anyway. It would be like offering a demolition firm the contract to build The Shard. He is a disruptor, never happier than when he's breaking something or demonising and marginalising a section of the community. That’s his forte. He couldn’t be trusted to build anything that isn’t divisive, racist, or just economically disastrous.
However, and it pains me to say this, it may be that we need to get Farage out of our system. Six months in government would reveal he has no ideas, no vision, can’t work with others, and has no organisational ability whatsoever. The Rayner fiasco of the last few days would be a weekly event as, one after another, the murky past of his ministers is exposed. Some vile racist comments made years ago, financial misconduct from a string of failed businesses, bullying, fraud, or other criminal behaviour would come out, forcing constant rows and resignations.
You don’t need much imagination to see that is what is likely to happen. It would be extremely costly but it could finally end the scourge of Faragism and may prove to be a price worth paying.
I see Nadine Dorries has ‘defected’ to Reform. She joins Jake Berry a former Tory chairman, Graham Simpson, a Tory MSP, Tim Montgomerie the founder of Conservative Home, and even the husband of Suella Braverman, once a Tory Home Secretary. She has ruled out throwing in her lot with Farage, and so has Priti Patel. But the minute he looks like becoming PM, they will both join him, I'm sure.
Reform UK Ltd is nothing more than the dregs of the Tory party, a distillation of the worst and most incompetent people on the extreme right of British politics. But, let us be honest, we need to get used to the idea of Nigel Paul Farage (61) as a Rt Hon, member of the Privy Council, Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury. I am afraid enough people in this country are that stupid and will vote for him again and again, no matter what.
If he winds up as head of the largest party but with no overall majority (the likely outcome at the moment) look out for paralysis and a constitutional crisis as well.
Reform is a MAGA-like cult with Farage at the head. Take heart from the fact that his premiership is not likely to last very long.
