Regular readers might want to skip this one. Even I’m bored of it. I’m not saying anything new, but there are certain markers I must log for my own purposes. Rather predictably, the infighting has intensified. There’s considerable disquiet on X among Restore Britain supporters. They are slowly coming to terms with the fact that Rupert Lowe is not whatever they assumed he was.
Earlier this week he denounced ethnonationalists, and another interview has emerged where he makes it clear that he is a boomer conservative civic nationalist. This is counter to the direction his lieutenants are taking his party in.
Consequently, the party as a whole is incapable of settling on a consistent message, where the leader, largely unaware of what is being done in his name, undermines the efforts of his top people who are always in damage control mode. They can’t get Lowe to stick their script. As with Reform, the party ideology is whatever the leader says it is, and however hard Restore activists attempt to project an alternate interpretation, they can’t get away from the fact that Rupert Lowe is what he is.
Already the hardline ethnonationalists are taking their bat home, and thus the party is gradually shedding its most vocal, but most fickle online support base - who’ve spent the last three months telling us that Lowe is really the real messiah this time. Charlie Downes can no longer keep up the pretence that his party is something that it isn’t, and nobody would believe him if he did.
Readers will know that this is precisely what I predicated many times over. A party that sets out without a nailed-down definition will end up with an internal space race to define it, having to fend off entryists who want to turn it to their purposes - who will wreck the party rather than allow it to proceed on any terms other than their own.
The problem for Lowe now is that he has set the parameters, parking the party alongside Farage ideologically, and is now a direct competitor, with no obvious unique selling point. He now has Reform attacking him as well as the online right, and not even Lotus Eaters can paper over the cracks for him.
Ultimately, Restore was only ever going to succeed by presenting as a more serious party than Reform. It was for Rupert Lowe to demonstrate that Restore met Rupert Lowe’s own criteria for seriousness. What we’ve seen instead is the exact same low effort populist slop, just with a Daily Mail comments section tinge. To my mind, if there was a role for Restore, it was to demonstrate what Reform should be doing in terms of messaging and policy content - but you’re dealing with people who simply don’t want to put in any serious effort or thought.
As to whether Restore can survive in some form, I really don’t know. They’ve put up a candidate for the Manchester mayoral race, a father of a grooming victim, but the issue simply doesn’t have the electoral traction they think it does across a whole metropolitan area. It should, but it doesn’t. They are not set to perform well, and will struggle if their activist base is already disillusioned.
Ultimately, the hardline ethnonationalists will have to learn that if they want a party that sings their tune; that wants full remigration, and is explicitly “anti-zionist”, then they will have to start one. Being a home for the largely self-discrediting figures of the far right, it is unlikely to gain any traction outside of a small corner of X.
It is notable that even with deep pockets, major US attention and an endorsement by Elon Musk, Restore still isn’t able to gain ground. These pathological losers have nowhere else to go. They either have to shut up and accept Restore for what it is, taking what they can get, or watch another ill-conceived venture fail.
To my mind, there was never much mileage in building another party around a messiah, especially not an old irascible tyrant. If you’re going to do that, the first mission is to build an organisation on an intellectual foundation that can withstand the departure of its leader. Without Lowe, the party is little more than a fraternity of angry zoomer men without adult supervision.
The sad part part is that this has been a huge waste of an opportunity. The rationale for creating an alternative vehicle on the right was sound. While Reform has firmed up its rhetoric, there is no basis to trust that it will do what it says in office. There is even more ideological contradiction in Reform, and it is still a completely unserious rabble. But now we’re stuck with it. It is the de facto protest vehicle of the right.
For my money, the next three months will be decisive. Any which way you spin it, Reform is not yet an election winning machine. It is not winning by-elections, and its polling has been stagnant for some time. Much is contingent on just how bad Andy Burnham will be as Prime Minister. Labour can expect a short-lived polling bump just for ridding us of Starmer. It might just be enough to keep Reform at bay if Burnham calls a snap election. Right-leaning voters might very well conclude that we don’t have the luxury of any more psychodramas on the fringes.
I live in Australia and we have very similar problems to the UK. In fact, it could be a clone of what the UK is undergoing at the moment. Instead of Reform/Restore, we have “One Nation” which is currently polling at “Reform” levels. The Tory equivalent, the LNP, has been falling apart, but is trying hard to recover. The Labor Party (yes, the spelling is correct) looks very much like the British Labour Party. Anthony Albanese, the current PM, was a communist in his student days. Today though, he is a millionaire with several expensive properties. Ultimate hypocrisy. We have a problem with radical Islam and sectarian politics. Immigrants from war torn areas in Africa. Somalians and Sudanese who haven’t given up their machetes yet. A couple of years ago the regime attempted to impose something called “The Voice”. Intended to be a special place for selected Aboriginal city based activists, which could inspect any government legislation and change or block it completely. “The Voice”, introduced by Albanese, was backed by most of the major Corporations, sporting bodies, the left in general, including the Greens, of course. The referendum vote was two thirds “No”, one third “Yes”, so it was defeated. Did that teach the “woke” any lessons? No sir. All the leftist favourite issues (gender, race etc) are the same in Australia. One difference-Australia is increasing defence spending. Ethnicity is not really a problem in Australia. Culture is, and rightly so, and we do want to preserve the European character of the country.
Credit where credit is due:
Restore's prompt, first past the post, national grooming gang report, even though it's quoted horrendous, nationally embarrassing, if anywhere near correct, 250K victim projection, may or may not be somewhat of a exaggeration, (which for victim's sakes I hope it is) is surely a major and sadly positive milestone in UK political history?
Their vote total in Makerfield I thought it was very respectable for an out of the box, fledgling party.
Everyone would be well advised to wait and see how they perform in any other by-elections and membership numbers, before attempting to write them off at this rather early stage.
More well enough educated members with respectably strident oratory skills, and who can boast excellent top job potential, are needed in the party's ranks in order to further Restore's nationwide potential as a more Right sided alternative to Reform.