I HAVE received an email from Reform UK, informing me that my membership is up for renewal. And my thought was, do I really want to renew it?
This may seem a surprise in light of my previous articles in support of the party and active involvement in leafleting at last year’s general election.
I’m not thinking of defecting; Labour under Starmer is just as I expected, and the smaller parliamentary parties are still purveyors of woke stupidity, wilful ignorance and nastiness. The Conservatives deserve nothing other than to wither and die as a political entity.
No, my quandary is the result of incidents and inferences and soundbites during and since the election, a few of which I mention below. Any of these could be dismissed as trivial compared with the mountain Reform is climbing. But taken together, I’m wondering if they are indicative of a drift now the party is soaring in the polls. Is it shying away from the full scope of the promise to its core supporters, of being clearly set apart from the legacy body politic, of saying and doing the things no other party has the courage to say or do?
A few commentators have played apologists for Reform, indicating that it must tack to the centre on certain issues to win enough votes to become the number one or number two UK party. But I’m wondering if this apparent policy of tacit appeasement will become the norm. Will it further compromise its stance to retain power? Will it become more Boris Johnson, and less Donald J Trump?
Sure, the party needs to attract that middle ground of electoral votes but Reform seems to be moving to them, rather than pulling those potential votes towards Reform. It must not shy away from the radical policies needed to fulfil the expectations of the indigenous British working classes, people who may not have cast their vote since Brexit, or ever.
Recently, in an interview with Winston Marshall, Nigel Farage was challenged about his stance on the threat of Islam to Britain, and confronted with the Henry Jackson Society polling that revealed three-quarters of British Muslims don’t believe Hamas committed murder or rape on October 7, almost half think that Jews have too much power in Britain and that British Muslims are more likely to have a positive than negative view of Hamas.
In response, Farage himself confirmed that ‘23 per cent of 18-to-24-year-old Muslim men thought Jihad was acceptable’. He added: ‘So there’s nuance to these arguments. If we politically alienate the whole of Islam, we will lose.’ I’m sorry, Nigel, but to me that projects a stunning naivety about Islam, its core beliefs and goals, and how it operates in societies it wishes to dominate. If you honestly think you can win over Muslim society, when much of it is deliberately isolated from the rest of Britain and is controlled by its more fundamentalist elements, and has embedded itself across government departments, then you are living in Cloud Cuckoo Land. I’m not sure that Reform has the courage to take on that most important of tasks, of quelling the incipient Islamism in Muslim-majority communities.
Richard Tice recently referred to Tommy Robinson supporters in a highly derogatory and dismissive manner. Richard, I am a Robinson supporter while realising, as the man himself has admitted, that he is not perfect. But I have done my research, and can recognise (as have the likes of Delingpole, Peterson and Murray) how he’s been targeted and persecuted by consecutive governments, simply because he raised inconvenient truths and refused to back down. Tommy has demonstrated far more determination and raw courage than the vast majority of our limp MPs – he has made one of the most important contributions to exposing the Muslim rape gangs. Nigel’s vow, delivered in a rather condescending manner, that he will educate Musk and others in the USA ‘on who Tommy Robinson actually is’ In response to Elon Musk’s and other informed commentator’s view that he is indeed a ‘political prisoner’, seems to indicate hubris.
I wondered too about Reform’s loyalty to their foot soldiers when, during the election campaign of last year, our local candidate Mark was assaulted whilst canvassing. The police were called, and it was Mark who was taken away for questioning, and again for a further four-hour grilling on the night before polling day – the same police force that refused to charge Sir Keir Starmer with breaking lockdown rules with his beer and curry party. Reform HQ was informed of the assault and what I would term police harassment, but there was no call from anyone at HQ to check on Mark’s situation, or offer encouragement. He was left to fend for himself.
On the other side of the coin, Reform is the only game in town capable of destroying the Uniparty stranglehold on UK politics. And Rupert Lowe is a refreshingly unabashed straight-talker. I’m hoping it hasn’t peaked too soon and ends up having to make too many compromises as it comes under even greater scrutiny. A drifting, arrogant Reform UK could result in the pushing away of its core supporters before the next election. I hope not, but four years is a very long time in politics.
