The Manifesto Project

So guys, I'm working on something quite big and you're going to like it. As you know, I've been an ardent critic of Reform's weak manifesto and lack of policy. I've written a few critiques, which is easy to do, but when it comes down to it, critiquing policy is a lot easier than writing it. As such, I've been toying with the idea of writing a manifesto. It's time to put my money where my mouth is.

By coincidence, the chairman of Ukip has asked me to improve theirs, which seems like a springboard for this. Even as it stands, Ukip's current manifesto is the best of all of them, with the SDP's offering being a close second, but I think we can do better.

As such, the intention is to produce the mother of all manifestos, making it the most comprehensive manifesto in existence, which will stand as the basis for a lightweight version for wider circulation. Ukip will have first refusal on all policies but we'll actively encourage others to adopt our policies. The intention is to produce high quality policy that will set the agenda for the next election.

Having been a political blogger for well over a decade, I have endless sources of material, and some expertise in a number of areas. I've already made a start on defence, energy, policing and immigration policies, but there is no way I can do this alone. I'll struggle with health and education because these are not areas of interest to me, and I'm not (despite my godlike reputation) an oracle on all things.

Writing this will be an open process, where at least once a week, I will publish a section to Substack and X, inviting comment, where the best suggestions will be fed back into the content. This is the same process The Leave Alliance employed in the writing of our comprehensive Brexit plan. We anticipate this running to several chapters, running anywhere up to 100k words. By the end of this process, we hope the offering will be the definitive right wing agenda.

The first draft is already in the works, but I'm inviting any and all input, and you can be merciless in shooting it down. We want this to be unarguably the best, so we'll be road testing it on the fly.

This is, of course, going to be time consuming, and it will cost me to produce it. With that in mind, please consider subscribing to my Substack. My policy is that all content will remain free to read, but I do have bills to pay, and I will need your support.

I've set a provisional deadline to have a starter-for-ten version online a month from now, but the process of refinement will take longer. It will be as detailed as it needs to be, and no stone will be left unturned. Between us, there is enough passion and expertise to rival even the best funded think tanks and I'm confident we'll do it better.

You can support this initiative by donating here:

https://www.paypal.me/petenorth303