The restore online are giving me the same vibes as the Corbynistas did in 2017. They are convinced that their own enthusiasm and passion is shared outside of their bubble. I’d like Burnham to loose to Reform because it should chasten Labour & prompt a bid of soul searching. No doubt they’ll screech racist at reform voters if denied the seat and double down on schemes to keep labour in power- but we can but hope.
Makerfield just proves the ego & lack of political nous of Lowe.
Assisting Burnham to effectively get in will be hugely damaging to our country.
Strategically, having a perpetually wounded Starmer as PM - a kind of gift that keeps on giving is better for the UK when a general election has to be called by 2029 and a more coherent resurgent centre right party is able to take over.
Lowe is bouncing back from the pernicious smear campaign launched against him by Farage, Yussuf and Co. I don't blame him one bit.
He's rattled Farage’s cage and that's a result immediately. That Reform are adopting Restore’s more determined policies is also confirmation that Farage sees Restore as a threat.
The growth of Restore has been remarkable, despite no coverage or acknowledgement from MSM.
Another pessimistic article. What is your opinion about the direction of travel for the UK? It seems that you have no confidence in any party on the right. I’m trying to discern where you are coming from. What would be your ideal solution? It’s ok to be negative on occasion, but some positive energy is really needed in England right now. I don’t see much positivity coming from you.
I agree about Farage. Big disappointment. I actually prefer Lowe or at least his willingness to battle it out with the blob. You need some fighters in England.
Pete is 80% black dog and ashes - part of his job is to identify and highlight the problems of the centre right - it's not apparent that, over the years, he's a problem solver.
I don't think they're listening to the messenger - to put it politely, you're damaged goods - I don't think your little sojourn to The Homeland Party helped - it just consolidated the damage.
Even if, as a nation state we're in that terminal trajectory phase ( think loss of power/prestige, demographics , failed multiculturalism mores etc) we really ought to be able to slow the rate of descent and still have a reasonable quality of life for a few decades.
Maybe it’s because I live in Australia that I see this tendency towards negativity, as opposed to how the Australian people think. I do understand though that the UK is going through a tremendous transition stage. The country has problems which are apparent, such as the Marxist universities, the sectarian politics, the bat-shit crazy greens/communists, incompetent administration etc, but there are still a lot of really intelligent people there. All this should be able to be overcome with courage. We do have similar problems with the left/green/globalists here too.
Yes, Albanese is remarkably similar to Starmer. Same level of hypocrisy and arrogance. The Labor Party is practically imitating the British Labour Party, same climate change BS, same focus on “renewables”, same kowtowing to Islam etc. Australians are somehow a bit more immune than Brits to it though. Example is the referendum of “The Voice”. Giving Aboriginal activists in the cities veto power over the Government. That was rejected by a two thirds majority despite millions of dollars thrown at it by corporates and media. Albanese and the Labor Party are really on the nose now with their latest economic measures.. After the Bondi Beach attack at Hanukkah , he couldn’t even mention the word “Islam”.
SDP are culturally conservative, but economically more left leaning, which I believe is where the populist vote really lies, but they can't/won't get the exposure to make a breakthrough.
Restore I'd regard as worse slop than Reform, who really are just Rupert Lowe and his desire to erradicate the state and seek revenge on Farage. Both Farage and Lowe are a hinderence to the right, yet supposedly their charisma is a vote winner.
Farage has left a trail of very bitter former compatriats, and he seemingly has no desire to placate, all he can do is cause chaos, and at each step of those confilcts he looses a couple percentage points of the electorate.
Without Farage (and possibly Yusef, his treatment of Lowe was poor, albeit he could always claim it was under Farage's orders), Reform would be in a better position, but their intellectual underpinnings don't really extend beyond Danny Kruger.
I suspect the political difference between Kruger and Clouston (SDP leader) are pretty minimal, SDP have already done the donkey work, Reform could easily incorporate that agenda. I think supporters would approve, but leadership are really washed out Thatcherites.
So, yes Pete is right, we are currently in stasis, but there is a pathway... but it doesn't involve Farage!
The media-fuelled shit-stirring over Makerfield can go do one.
*It truly doesn't matter.*
Whoever wins, Labour has 3 years to go before having to call a GE.
This may be sooner if there's a catastrophic, 1976-9 style state and economic collapse, IMF loans and all. Certainly quite possible given UK's parlous finances, but Makerfield itself has minimal influence on that.
Who cares whether Starmer or Burnham is the sucker holding the hot potato when it all goes to shite? Right now, everyone should be preparing to survive interminably rising prices, electrical blackouts, gas shortages, rising unemployment and stealth taxes galore.
I guess the political incompetence we're witnessing across-the-board is the prime facie evidence that 50 years of UK govt delegation of decisions to the big boys of Brussels has eviscerated institutional knowledge and wisdom. Rather than "learning lessons" and, er, "fixing the foundations", our govt will - like they always do - take the short-termist quick fix of cosying up to the EC in order to curry favour. Which, of course, won't work at all. The EU has many of the same problems and the German wallet isn't as capacious as it used to be.
Sooner or later a bond market strike will happen. Without access to cheap borrowing, taxes will have to rise and spending cuts will have to be enacted. QE will probably be abused (it's Labour after all), meaning currency devaluation, inflation, more price rises, interest rate rises, recession, mortgage default, homelessness and so on.
My interpretation of your effort is - wait for Badenochs dismissal and then vote Tory!
Very helpful, having destroyed the economy the armed forces and the populace - another Tory leader will do the trick!
Never mind, I’m sure the Torys will offer someone who dutifully obeys the WEF/EU and charismatically leads us, singing hi ho - all the way to the crematorium.
A good read as ever - interestingly I speak to a few Restore enthusiasts who don't get some of thwe points you make. Lowe essentially comes across as a sort of Microwave Meal 1980s Tory but some of the people around him are sailing close to the badlands of 'rabble politics' and I've always wondered if he knows what he's doing. Paul's point is a good one - get a bunch of Restore supporters together and they become convinced that they're going to win the 2029 election. On what basis? Aren't Restore polling at similar numbers to Reform immediately before Nigel's return? The other thing worth remembering, without wishing to sound ageist, is Rupert isn't exactly in the first flush of youth is he? They've got a hell of a lot of hoops to jump through before they can be seen as credible or serious and I can't see them lasting the course.
I just don’t think their appeal is as wide as they think it is. Like it or not, in order to win a general election, you need to bring some of the centrist dads and working mums with you.
We all curse in unison at our increasingly incompetent, parasitic and economically illiterate political classes; but from where did they come? Why did they coose that career? Why does our media celebrate every new "youngest baby of the house" MP straight out of PPE at Oxbridge with high ideals, no life experience and barely able to tie their own shoelaces?
Less often does one hear about the equivalent drop in political and economic literacy in the wider general public. Individually, Bazza, Dazza and Shazza can barely count their two front teeth, yet their three votes combined outweigh yours and mine. Tyranny of the masses indeed. It cracked me up to see Bridget Philipson (I think) recruiting intellectual heavyweight Gemma Collins to discuss the finer points of education policy.
This devaluation of knowledge and education in favour of compliant welfare serfs is a trend that started in the early 1960s (with Anthony Crosland IIRC) and we're now starting to enjoy the results as the baby boomer generation increasingly shuffle off their mortal coils.
My view is that one of the best investments one can make these days is to learn new skills in fixing things, defending self and property and all-round self-sufficiency. In the worst shit-holes of Karachi, the one who doesn't crap in their own back-yard is less likely to die of cholera.
I agree. MPs should be at least 35, with a non-public sector work history. Sadly, most people simply have no interest in politics. I think it should be harder to vote, not easier. No party labels on the voting slip, maybe not even names - you do your research and write in the name of your preferred candidate, in accurate English. The turnout would drop to about 2% but at least it would be informed.
yeah it's the classic curse of the echo chamber. Get a bunch of people who agree with each other in a room and they become convinced they are representative of the whole country...
I don't wish it this way but I've said for some time now that our country's decline will continue until the election after the next.
Then with Labour having destroyed itself as did the Tories and the the right having learnt the lessons that populist tropes aren't enough to win elections and Lowe having helped expose Farage as a charlatan and returned to his farm the Right will finally have to get its act together under decent leadership with a clear vision and well worked out policies.
Only then can we start the long hard slog to rebuild our country.
I still have an inbuilt faith that a majority of the electorate will support a grown up decent Right of centre party when one comes to the fore.
They will never allow the system they have used to inflict these horrors on us, to ever offer real solutions, they do however love our continued engagement with it.
If Lowe publishs the finding of his inquiry into the rape gangs before the election, & they're as damning as I suspect they will be, Burnham may not get anything like the votes that the pollsters are forecasting....
I fear that this report will get little attention, certainly from the MSM, and none at all from politicians as it wasn’t “official” and hence has no standing. Which is partly why Farage withdrew their proposed inquiry, sadly it will be shouting into the void. I hope I am wrong.
It looks like Restore Britain will restore Andy Burnham to Parliament leaving Makerfield - a Brexit heartland - in the hands of Remainer, pro-migration Burnham.
Pete, if you think there's a "centre right" party and it's supporters good with 1m+ deportations, we must be looking in different places.
Where we agree is that Restore are already surviving on fumes (check the reaction to Rupert Lowe's son's marriage), and Reform cannot find palatable candidates (MattGPT and misogynist Rob are real problems).
I'd be voting Tory in Makerfield, at least the candidate has done something in office as Wigan mayor.
The restore online are giving me the same vibes as the Corbynistas did in 2017. They are convinced that their own enthusiasm and passion is shared outside of their bubble. I’d like Burnham to loose to Reform because it should chasten Labour & prompt a bid of soul searching. No doubt they’ll screech racist at reform voters if denied the seat and double down on schemes to keep labour in power- but we can but hope.
Makerfield just proves the ego & lack of political nous of Lowe.
Assisting Burnham to effectively get in will be hugely damaging to our country.
Strategically, having a perpetually wounded Starmer as PM - a kind of gift that keeps on giving is better for the UK when a general election has to be called by 2029 and a more coherent resurgent centre right party is able to take over.
Lowe hates Farage, that’s all Restore is.
And vice versa.
Lowe is bouncing back from the pernicious smear campaign launched against him by Farage, Yussuf and Co. I don't blame him one bit.
He's rattled Farage’s cage and that's a result immediately. That Reform are adopting Restore’s more determined policies is also confirmation that Farage sees Restore as a threat.
The growth of Restore has been remarkable, despite no coverage or acknowledgement from MSM.
Another pessimistic article. What is your opinion about the direction of travel for the UK? It seems that you have no confidence in any party on the right. I’m trying to discern where you are coming from. What would be your ideal solution? It’s ok to be negative on occasion, but some positive energy is really needed in England right now. I don’t see much positivity coming from you.
I agree about Farage. Big disappointment. I actually prefer Lowe or at least his willingness to battle it out with the blob. You need some fighters in England.
Pete is 80% black dog and ashes - part of his job is to identify and highlight the problems of the centre right - it's not apparent that, over the years, he's a problem solver.
I just explain where the fautlines are. It could be fixed, and I've explained many times how, but nobody's interested.
I don't think they're listening to the messenger - to put it politely, you're damaged goods - I don't think your little sojourn to The Homeland Party helped - it just consolidated the damage.
Yes, it’s a pity because what the UK needs right now is positive ideas and solutions.
Even if, as a nation state we're in that terminal trajectory phase ( think loss of power/prestige, demographics , failed multiculturalism mores etc) we really ought to be able to slow the rate of descent and still have a reasonable quality of life for a few decades.
Maybe it’s because I live in Australia that I see this tendency towards negativity, as opposed to how the Australian people think. I do understand though that the UK is going through a tremendous transition stage. The country has problems which are apparent, such as the Marxist universities, the sectarian politics, the bat-shit crazy greens/communists, incompetent administration etc, but there are still a lot of really intelligent people there. All this should be able to be overcome with courage. We do have similar problems with the left/green/globalists here too.
SDP…
Yes, Albanese is remarkably similar to Starmer. Same level of hypocrisy and arrogance. The Labor Party is practically imitating the British Labour Party, same climate change BS, same focus on “renewables”, same kowtowing to Islam etc. Australians are somehow a bit more immune than Brits to it though. Example is the referendum of “The Voice”. Giving Aboriginal activists in the cities veto power over the Government. That was rejected by a two thirds majority despite millions of dollars thrown at it by corporates and media. Albanese and the Labor Party are really on the nose now with their latest economic measures.. After the Bondi Beach attack at Hanukkah , he couldn’t even mention the word “Islam”.
SDP are culturally conservative, but economically more left leaning, which I believe is where the populist vote really lies, but they can't/won't get the exposure to make a breakthrough.
Restore I'd regard as worse slop than Reform, who really are just Rupert Lowe and his desire to erradicate the state and seek revenge on Farage. Both Farage and Lowe are a hinderence to the right, yet supposedly their charisma is a vote winner.
Farage has left a trail of very bitter former compatriats, and he seemingly has no desire to placate, all he can do is cause chaos, and at each step of those confilcts he looses a couple percentage points of the electorate.
Without Farage (and possibly Yusef, his treatment of Lowe was poor, albeit he could always claim it was under Farage's orders), Reform would be in a better position, but their intellectual underpinnings don't really extend beyond Danny Kruger.
I suspect the political difference between Kruger and Clouston (SDP leader) are pretty minimal, SDP have already done the donkey work, Reform could easily incorporate that agenda. I think supporters would approve, but leadership are really washed out Thatcherites.
So, yes Pete is right, we are currently in stasis, but there is a pathway... but it doesn't involve Farage!
The media-fuelled shit-stirring over Makerfield can go do one.
*It truly doesn't matter.*
Whoever wins, Labour has 3 years to go before having to call a GE.
This may be sooner if there's a catastrophic, 1976-9 style state and economic collapse, IMF loans and all. Certainly quite possible given UK's parlous finances, but Makerfield itself has minimal influence on that.
Who cares whether Starmer or Burnham is the sucker holding the hot potato when it all goes to shite? Right now, everyone should be preparing to survive interminably rising prices, electrical blackouts, gas shortages, rising unemployment and stealth taxes galore.
I guess the political incompetence we're witnessing across-the-board is the prime facie evidence that 50 years of UK govt delegation of decisions to the big boys of Brussels has eviscerated institutional knowledge and wisdom. Rather than "learning lessons" and, er, "fixing the foundations", our govt will - like they always do - take the short-termist quick fix of cosying up to the EC in order to curry favour. Which, of course, won't work at all. The EU has many of the same problems and the German wallet isn't as capacious as it used to be.
Sooner or later a bond market strike will happen. Without access to cheap borrowing, taxes will have to rise and spending cuts will have to be enacted. QE will probably be abused (it's Labour after all), meaning currency devaluation, inflation, more price rises, interest rate rises, recession, mortgage default, homelessness and so on.
It's going to be a rough decade.
Prepare accordingly.
Is the heat getting to you?
A parasol might help (£16.99 Home Bargains).
My interpretation of your effort is - wait for Badenochs dismissal and then vote Tory!
Very helpful, having destroyed the economy the armed forces and the populace - another Tory leader will do the trick!
Never mind, I’m sure the Torys will offer someone who dutifully obeys the WEF/EU and charismatically leads us, singing hi ho - all the way to the crematorium.
A good read as ever - interestingly I speak to a few Restore enthusiasts who don't get some of thwe points you make. Lowe essentially comes across as a sort of Microwave Meal 1980s Tory but some of the people around him are sailing close to the badlands of 'rabble politics' and I've always wondered if he knows what he's doing. Paul's point is a good one - get a bunch of Restore supporters together and they become convinced that they're going to win the 2029 election. On what basis? Aren't Restore polling at similar numbers to Reform immediately before Nigel's return? The other thing worth remembering, without wishing to sound ageist, is Rupert isn't exactly in the first flush of youth is he? They've got a hell of a lot of hoops to jump through before they can be seen as credible or serious and I can't see them lasting the course.
I just don’t think their appeal is as wide as they think it is. Like it or not, in order to win a general election, you need to bring some of the centrist dads and working mums with you.
Yeah.
We all curse in unison at our increasingly incompetent, parasitic and economically illiterate political classes; but from where did they come? Why did they coose that career? Why does our media celebrate every new "youngest baby of the house" MP straight out of PPE at Oxbridge with high ideals, no life experience and barely able to tie their own shoelaces?
Less often does one hear about the equivalent drop in political and economic literacy in the wider general public. Individually, Bazza, Dazza and Shazza can barely count their two front teeth, yet their three votes combined outweigh yours and mine. Tyranny of the masses indeed. It cracked me up to see Bridget Philipson (I think) recruiting intellectual heavyweight Gemma Collins to discuss the finer points of education policy.
This devaluation of knowledge and education in favour of compliant welfare serfs is a trend that started in the early 1960s (with Anthony Crosland IIRC) and we're now starting to enjoy the results as the baby boomer generation increasingly shuffle off their mortal coils.
My view is that one of the best investments one can make these days is to learn new skills in fixing things, defending self and property and all-round self-sufficiency. In the worst shit-holes of Karachi, the one who doesn't crap in their own back-yard is less likely to die of cholera.
I agree. MPs should be at least 35, with a non-public sector work history. Sadly, most people simply have no interest in politics. I think it should be harder to vote, not easier. No party labels on the voting slip, maybe not even names - you do your research and write in the name of your preferred candidate, in accurate English. The turnout would drop to about 2% but at least it would be informed.
yeah it's the classic curse of the echo chamber. Get a bunch of people who agree with each other in a room and they become convinced they are representative of the whole country...
Just posted this on Turbulent Times:-
I don't wish it this way but I've said for some time now that our country's decline will continue until the election after the next.
Then with Labour having destroyed itself as did the Tories and the the right having learnt the lessons that populist tropes aren't enough to win elections and Lowe having helped expose Farage as a charlatan and returned to his farm the Right will finally have to get its act together under decent leadership with a clear vision and well worked out policies.
Only then can we start the long hard slog to rebuild our country.
I still have an inbuilt faith that a majority of the electorate will support a grown up decent Right of centre party when one comes to the fore.
They will never allow the system they have used to inflict these horrors on us, to ever offer real solutions, they do however love our continued engagement with it.
The tory party are not an option to consider until such a time as Kemi drags the dregs out of CCHQ, beats them with a stick then exiles them.
Middle of the road Toryism is what got us into this mess - voted in to sort the problems out and then deliberately made them worse.
The reality is that there are NO serious contenders this day to deal with the problems in the UK
Time will tell......
If Lowe publishs the finding of his inquiry into the rape gangs before the election, & they're as damning as I suspect they will be, Burnham may not get anything like the votes that the pollsters are forecasting....
I fear that this report will get little attention, certainly from the MSM, and none at all from politicians as it wasn’t “official” and hence has no standing. Which is partly why Farage withdrew their proposed inquiry, sadly it will be shouting into the void. I hope I am wrong.
One is a grasping. Duplicitous, lying, kisser and coveter of the establishment ring. A flip flopper, a betrayer. The other one is Golem
I thought the bookies have settled this affair.
It looks like Restore Britain will restore Andy Burnham to Parliament leaving Makerfield - a Brexit heartland - in the hands of Remainer, pro-migration Burnham.
Many misunderstand what is happening.
Restore have no intention of winning.
Makerfield is the perfect launch vehicle.
After the votes have been cast, and the sleazeball bimbo Burnham has won, then the post election analysis begins.
It will be clear that had Restore stood down, then Reform would have won. Or might have won. No matter.
Two things will come to pass:
1. Restore will enter the consciousness of the non-political ordinary British voter.
Free advertising.
2. Reform will realise they have to take Restore seriously. What that means in practice is harder to predict.
-
Toad of Toad Hall will not willingly enter into a voting pact, non-aggression pact, or any sort of coalition with Restore.
But something will need to be done.
Reform may consider shifting Rightwards to occlude Restore, for example.
As for Labour. Whether we have Sir Oink-a-Lot or Sleazy Burnham.
What does it matter to the ascendant Right.
Pete, if you think there's a "centre right" party and it's supporters good with 1m+ deportations, we must be looking in different places.
Where we agree is that Restore are already surviving on fumes (check the reaction to Rupert Lowe's son's marriage), and Reform cannot find palatable candidates (MattGPT and misogynist Rob are real problems).
I'd be voting Tory in Makerfield, at least the candidate has done something in office as Wigan mayor.
Is Kenyon rubbish because of his out-spoken views on 'covid' jabs? https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/26/reform-makerfield-byelection-candidate-covid-x
But I agree that Restore should keep away spastics, but I just don't think there are that many of them who haven't already crashed out.