Restore: Ructions on the right
I know, I know. You don’t want to read another of my boilerplate critiques of Restore. I don’t especially want to write them either. I would be super pleased if there was no call to. On this occasion, though, I’m sort of obliged to do a short write-up because I can hear the galloping hooves of vindication coming my way.
In an interview, Rupert Lowe has stated quite plainly that he detests ethnonationalism, equating it with neo-Nazism. That doesn’t mean he will actually do anything about the ethno-nats in his ranks because he says he doesn’t see why he should audit his own membership. If he did, he’d have to take a close look at Charlie Downes.
But then, having said that, they might just solve that particular problem for him. The clip has gone viral and the usual suspects of the ethno-right are not happy at all. Seething, in fact. This could be the moment Lowe’s most vocal supporters take their bat home and start yet another new party.
That then puts Restore in the position of being criticised by Reform for being too racist, while facing relentless criticism from the right for not being racist enough. There’s just no pleasing some people.
This would be far less of a problem for Restore if it was able to articulate what it actually is - but having not committed pen to paper, nobody is quite sure. In common with Reform, it is whatever the leader says it is at any given moment. They could dig themselves out of their hole just by reiterating what their actual policy is, but one wonders if whoever is running Rupert Lowe’s X account has actually read it. If Charlie Downes ever read it, he’s forgotten what’s in it.
The thing is, Restore Britain is dabbling with what they don't understand. There's a reason you have to keep the hardliner ethnats at bay, and it's because their worldview comes as a package. If you make accommodations for any of their ideas, they won't stop until you adopt all of them. What they want is the full doctrinal British ethno-nationalist prospectus - which is socialist and isolationist, whose antisemitism isn't just casual Jew hatred. Its the linchpin on an entire ecosystem of batshit conspiracy theories, which (if held to be true) cascades into a number to suicidal and monstrous policies.
Ultimately, Lowe’s undoing will be his own naivety and lack of political acumen. The rationale for starting an alternative to Reform was (and still is) pretty sound. As Reform grows larger as a generic populist movement, the more intellectually incoherent it is. It is pulled this way and that by political tides, leaving the causal observer wondering if it stands for anything at all.
Just recently, it has adopted more robust immigration rhetoric to fend off Restore, but that sees figures in its own ranks complaining that it’s drifting away form the centre. As such, it is becoming a clone of the Tory party to the extent of replicating all their dysfunction and disunity. Consequently, the immigration rhetoric can be as tough as you like, but there’s no basis to trust it - especially given Farage’s own stated views on demographics and the plausibility of mass deportations. Farage’s recent essay is just more evidence that he will reverse his views if the circumstances demand it.
As such, there is an obvious requirement for a trustworthy party of the right with a coherent position on immigration, but it has to be one calibrated to win. It cannot dabble in overt ethnonationalism, nor can it make houseroom for antisemite wreckers - but that’s precisely what it is doing. Consequently, there is a fight for control of the steering wheel, and they’ll steer it into the rocks - as they did with Homeland.
Regular readers will know I’ve been predicting this split pretty much since Restore’s inception. It’s all born of the fundamental lack of a definition, and it was absolutely inevitable. It’s why I didn’t join. It’s even odds at this point as to whether the party can survive it, and much will hinge on whether his own staffers fall in behind his direction - or whether they’ll continue to show ankle to the very people who would rather wreck Restore than allow it succeed on any terms other than their own. My money is on the latter.
The problem for Restore, though, is if you do actually shake off the fleas and put up ideological guardrails against the cranks, there’s then not a lot to distinguish them from Reform. Competing on competence ground is now out of the question, that’s for sure. As to the the ethno-right, if they want an explicitly ethno-nationalist party that hates Jews and wants to deport all brown people, they should simply stop trying to infiltrate other parties and start one of their own. We could all use the laugh.