Merry Christmas

It’s been a frustrating year for me. I started the year as a member of an up-and-coming nationalist party only to see it ripped apart by infighting and ego clashes. I really thought the Homeland Party was a promising venture, despite my many reservations. Though it is still a going concern, it seems unlikely to recover the momentum it had. The lesson, I think, is for any emergent political entity to avoid recruiting e-celebs and to build an offline base.

The other problem came from having a much younger constituency which prefers hardline edgy rhetoric rather than carefully crafted messaging. You can shift the Overton window with spicy rhetoric but you can push it too far. That has certainly been the case with some former members who, when faced with the choice of building an electable movement or harvesting approval on X, always choose the latter - with a big helping of antisemitism.

For some in the party, it never sat right with them that I spoke in defence of Israel. I would have thought there was a lot to learn from a country that unapologetically defends its own interests and safeguards the existence of its own people. Unfortunately, though, when you start dabbling in ethno-nationalism, you can easily fall into the purity spiral - and antisemitism seems to go with the territory.

To Kenny Smith’s credit, he attempted to park the issue, but “anti-zionism” is the loyalty test in British nationalism, which leads them to embrace every crank conspiracy theory going. You can’t build a coherent movement with that as raw material and it’s futile even to try. If you believe the cause of every problem is “the Joos” then you lack the discerning capacity to propose viable solutions to our problems.

Still, though, it wasn’t wasted effort in that much of the policy work I did went into The Manifesto Project. The content is still very much a work in progress, but even in its current state, it’s still been a worthwhile contribution - as has my exploratory work on ECHR withdrawal. That’s an unresolved debate which will, no doubt, re-emerge.

In the last three months, though, I’ve been on semi-hiatus. Partly due to despondency, but also because politics as a whole has been pretty flat this year. I suppose that’s natural between elections, but I’m not alone in sensing a broader disengagement. Public debate doesn’t seem to feed into politics because our politicians are in a fantasy world of their own. Political engagement seems like wasted breath.

Meanwhile, any hope of whipping Reform into shape has died a death. The lack of policy and preparation is largely priced into Reform. Even at their worst, they couldn’t possibly be worse than the alternatives. Farage is banking on that at the next election and sees no real reason to improve their offer.

That then leaves myself and others just shouting into the void, and that’s demoralising of itself. Most other commentators are just regurgitating the same old talking points to an increasingly bored audience, while the rest seem to have abandoned British politics to focus almost exclusively on US politics - particularly regarding Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson.

If you ask me, the British right has an unhealthy relationship with the American right, and fails to understand that US politics doesn’t organically transpose on to British politics - especially if they’re going to dabble in confected Christian nationalism. It’s as phoney as when prime ministers pretend to support football teams - and voters know it.

Essentially, I’ve been treading water for a few months, struggling to comment on any of it when every day is groundhog day these days. I’ll get halfway through writing a post only to realise I’ve written pretty much the same article before. While repetition is part of campaigning, one can get sick of hearing one’s own voice.

The big shift this year, though, is the popularity of DIY political podcasting. I’ve lost count of the number of appearances I’ve made over the last year or so. With that in mind I’ve built up a home podcasting studio out of plastic cups and Sellotape, and it’s pretty nifty. Sod’s law, though, that it falls around Christmas time when I traditionally go a bit mute. I remember bordering on depression last year so I tuned out of politics for the holidays and composed an acid techno album instead. I’ve learned not to force it. How my Dad manages to keep producing content for Turbulent Times every single day amazes me.

My seasonal funk will pass eventually. It always does. And I will be back to my usual verbose self, and when that happens, I’ll be producing a series of video blogs and policy explainers. I’m quite excited about 2026 and the possibilities of home recording. I’m probably not going to go viral, but I’ll be able to build a respectable YouTube presence.

As much as anything, there will be more to comment on in the not too distant future. The Labour Party is on the verge of falling apart and Starmer’s days are numbered. As the mood shifted in 2025, it will shift again. Despondency will turn to fury - and that’s the best surf for a terminally online commentator like me.

On a final note, I’d like to draw your attention to a new initiative by Michael Reiners. Michael was producing some interesting works for The Restorationist before the site was hijacked, sabotaged and shut down by a hostile associate of his. He’s aiming to rebuild his online presence and restore some of his previous works - and I’d like to see him succeed. Give him a follow.

In the meantime, if I don’t post on here before the new year, just assume I’m taking a sanity break and I’m twiddling knobs on the TB303 or building a model aeroplane. Anything but doom-scrolling on X. If I don’t see you, have a very merry Christmas and I’ll see you real soon. Once again, thank you for all your support this year, particularly during the ordeal of my arrest. I was humbled and deeply grateful. I hope my work in 2026 repays your attention.