Will Reform UK win the next general election? It’s possible, not probable. Between now and then the Establishment – chiefly the liberal political and media class – will throw everything it can at Reform to stop them (witness The Guardian’s pitiful attempts to smear Farage for his schoolboy behaviour). If they do manage to gain power, the Blob will strain every sinew to stop the party governing effectively. This is all presuming Labour don’t cancel the election on the pretext of some emergency or other.
If Reform do somehow manage to enact the policies the country desperately needs they will be met head on by the professional activist class. There will be protests up and down the country every weekend, amplified by the BBC and other broadcast media. Musicians and actors will make foul-mouthed verbal assaults on the government at awards ceremonies, Gary Lineker will tweet that Farage makes Hitler look moderate, trade unions will take their members out on strike more than they are at work. It’s going to be grim; it will make the 1980s look like a walk in the park.
Adding to my gloom on this front, I also contend that Britain is now too wrecked to be saved – and we still have three years of this hateful socialist government to go. The 21st century has seen the UK Uniparty make one suicidal decision after another, the chief one of course being the open borders policy, followed by the unhinged delusions of Net Zero, the sadistic, senseless and sinister lockdowns, the deliberate fertilisation of an unaffordable welfare state and the reluctance to stem the spread of the crazy, authoritarian creed of Woke (“What’s wrong with Woke?” fat liar Boris Johnson said.)
Take Net Zero. Over the next three years, Milliband will make decisions which will affect Britain long into the future: a Reform government will be able to do little to stem the rollout of windmills and solar farms, while getting drilling in the North Sea and fracking in Lincolnshire will be fought at every turn by well-funded lawyers and NGOs.
Stepping back from the potentially rocky future for a moment, the immediate prospects for Reform seem rosier – perhaps. I guess it depends on whether you think home being given to several Tory defectors is a good thing or not. For me, Braverman, Jenrick, Kruger and Rosindell are more than welcome. Not so much Berry, Dorries and Zahawi, respectively a Net Zero advocate, an Online Safety Act architect and a ‘vaccine’ zealot. Reform is walking a tightrope here. Yes, they aren’t going to let in the likes of Joker Johnson or Priti Useless (if they did, I would simply not vote for them ever), but taking on many more Tories with terrible records will wreck the party, probably forever. They need to tread cautiously; according to Farage, they are.
Should we instead hope that Labour MPs come over? I’m not sure about that either. With strong doses of neo-Thatcherism required in the 2030s to give Britain any chance of avoiding full economic and social collapse, how many ‘former’ socialists would be wise and brave enough to vote for policies that will be needed?
Reform’s ideal candidates might instead be people untainted by association with any political party previously, perhaps those successful in the business world or sport or entertainment. But it could be a struggle to get such folk to enter the political bear pit, one that is sure to get more violent in the coming decades.
Some of my friends on the Right aren’t happy with so many prominent Muslims in the party, such as Zia Yusuf and London Mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham. I say: ‘we are where we are’. We should have never reached this point but we have. And is not better to have such people ‘on-side’? (Also, they appear to be secular Muslims.) Rather like being at the point where it would be unkind and silly to never offer parts in TV, film and theatre to non-white actors, we can’t deny access to the top of political parties to ethnics, it would be absurd.
I can’t defy my natural instincts. I would cheer to the rafters if the superb Matt Goodwin won the Gorton and Denton by-election on 26 February. If you’re in any doubt as to why that would be a brilliant thing, google a few of the above words in this paragraph to see how the regime types are putting him down. It would be fabulous to see him win just to see them made miserable.
Reform are imperfect. But then how could they not be? All political parties ever are. You have to vote for the least worst party in any election. And who else would you vote for if you have any semblance of rationality and patriotism? It is impossible to vote Tory ever again. Lacerating your testicles would be preferable to voting Labour. Lib Dems, Greens, Your Party – of course not.
The Uniparty has to be destroyed, it must never be allowed to rear its foul head again – so that means voting Reform. Yes, they’re not flawless, yes, they may disappoint, yes, they might be thwarted anyway, but surely it’s best to try them because they are different. They are not the Uniparty. They represent the most electable party we have that might – might – be able to save the country, or at least parts of it.
Russell David is the author of the Mad World Substack.
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A very moderate, perceptive, and realistic analysis of the subject. Well written.
Afraid I don’t hold out much hope because Nigel has already publicly stated in at least one interview, that it wouldn’t be possible to conduct mass deportations – and I doubt if he would be strong on illegal OR legal immigration when push comes to (perhaps literally) shove.
He’s a member of the establishment, and I can’t see him being strong enough to withstand the kind of savage attacks that would come his way if he showed himself to be serious about changing immigration laws.
As for the author’s contention that “it’s best to try them because they are different”
Sorry, but I disagree with that – that is a recipe for dangerous times ahead.
So, What is it you suggest we all do?
What I’ve been doing for years now, is going into the voting booth and leaving a message for all concerned in every available piece of white paper, each corner, above and under each name, wherever, explaining, in blunt short notes, why I can’t vote for any of them.
If enough people boycotted the elections, perhaps, just perhaps, some change might be effected? Or maybe that would open the door to a formal dictatorship?
Then, at least, we’d know what’s what. I remember reading a comment from a person living in Russia many years ago, where he said to a person from the UK that he felt sorry for us. When they read their news, see their TV news, listen to their politicians, he said, they know they are being lied to – we tend to believe it all, gullible, trusting, whatever.
That’s my suggestion, MJ – boycott the elections by spoiling the ballot. A friend of mine, now deceased, former SNP supporter who worked at the voting centres on election night told me that they had to show every candidate every spoilt vote, so that all would agree they really were spoilt votes – so they do, literally, get the message.
Thoughtful article, especially the second paragraph (Reform would not be able to govern the UK without immediately instigating the kind of radical actions that they simply would not). Why is the UK doomed, even under Reform?, simple – Reform is part of the Uniparty and it becomes clearer every day with every defector accepted and failure to even promise to act upon the wishes of potential voters by ignoring the herd of elephants in the room.
Oh, Gawd! Let’s all jump off a cliff, instead?
No, let’s just standby and watch the chaos c/o the Uniparty, including Reform, and then when the actual violence starts decide whether to join in with it or help in other ways.
‘and then when the violence starts…’ ‘or help in other ways’
What does that actually mean?
Are you with-holding your vote until the election is over – if we all do that: do we end up, yet again, with a party with only 20% of the vote that could win, yet again.
They can then proceed to hand over the Country to the EU or China (as is happening right now without any referendum or discussion?)
Where is our Democracy in this stitch-up?
Democracy has never really existed and most likely never really will. I’m beyond caring which party or leader ‘wins’, they are all equally as self-serving. Only when things reach the lowest ebb (like the examples you give) maybe, just maybe, there will be a popular uprising that will, of necessity, violently sweep all the stables clean – not everyone wants, or is capable, to fight but there are many other ways to contribute.
You first!
‘…perhaps those successful in the business world, or sport or entertainment’ – show me one person in the world of sport or entertainment who aren’t rabid lefties. 99% of the main stream media and those in it, used to behave as though the lefties were ‘in power’ even when they were not, and now they are, it’s a million times worse.
I know I’ll get shot down in flames, but I get really weary with hearing the old ‘uniparty’ buzz word. Labour didn’t have a pandemic dumped on them – whether or not you agree with steps taken at a time when nobody knew what to do, whether or not you agree with the current fashionable opinion that ‘it was a con’, or ‘it was only a sniffle’ – I had it twice and it didn’t feel like a sniffle to me, but hey, we have to blame the last government for everything, don’t we? Have you forgotten that Starmer wanted earlier and harder lockdowns? Labour also didn’t have a war in Europe dumped in their laps.
The previous government were also at least giving us until 2035 to ‘go over’ to EVs, and now seem to be set fair to ditch Net Zero altogether, or at least not letting it bankrupt us. Leaving the ECHR, (which might hopefully help in the war against illegal immigration), doing away with stamp duty and business rates, keeping the two child benefit cap, all seem quite sensible plans, but we must not listen, lest our hatred starts to look a bit like cutting off our noses to spite our faces.
Somebody on here last week told me that Ms Badenoch was not all that clever – he obviously hates her, as he used her full first name and said she might only be clever by standards set in a place in Africa which I can’t remember the name of off the top of my head – BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T GET A FIRST. I replied that by those standards, Winston Churchill must have been a bit of a moron, as he didn’t even go to university, let alone get a degree – but of course that is complete nonsense.
Labour have done things that I can’t see the Tories ever doing – targeting farmers, caning pensioners, VAT on private school fees, the Chagos debacle, the assisted suicide bill, abortion up to the day of delivery, cousin marriage – I could go on, but nobody wants to hear it. We have to hate the Tories, Kemi must not be given a chance, she has to pay for EVER for things that happened when she wasn’t leader. Nobody must listen to any of her sensible plans to make right the wrongs and do anything good. We have to hate, because we want Saint Nige to sweep in and fix everything – if he doesn’t get a better offer and sweep off to somewhere else.
A word about Matt Goodwin. I saw him described in a comment section as a ‘GB News shock-jock’, which he most certainly is not. Absolutely far from it. But people won’t listen to anything other than what they hear from people who think the same way as they do. Rather like Reform supporters who will insist on saying ‘Uniparty’ even when they have voted Reform and it will still be as though Labour never went away. Which, at this rate, they may not.
I wouldn’t get too wound up about the uniparty buzzword. It’s only shorthand for ‘all current political parties, their leaders, Councillors, MPs,
Lords and aspirant Councillors, MPs and Lords are cut from the same cloth, eat from the same trough or aspire to’.