Good post Pete - it should have been as plain as the nose on your face that Farage et al were never interested in anything resembling serious work. It'll be interesting to find out what the folks of Clacton, Skegness et al say about their new Reform MPs on the constituency level. My hunch is...not much.
Like UKIP before them, reform are taking up a spot on the stage marked 'insurgent threat to Conservative Party' without showing any sign of a branch structure, actual active members, an intellectual foundation of what Reform-ism is (i.e. one that goes beyond which side of the bed Nige got out of) and a mechanism for forming policy as a result.
As it stands they're not really a political party, more a franchise taking the lazy option of 'campaign by media' rather than establishing a ground game. Everything about them seems to be wired up to the principle of least effort.
One slightly random observation if I can...given that it's a company not a political party does that mean Farage/Tice could 'sell' to the Tories or someone else if a suitable bid came in? Would the membership then move across accordingly? Strange model for a political organisation, I'll say that much...
I agree and his creation of a bespoke manifesto is a master stroke that will become a useful tool in the future but the reform of of our governance is a long term project with many twists and turns on the way.
Like most faux politically centre right writers , they’ve gone leftwards because the wind has gone that way - for clicks and subscribers , substack is full of them
Reform got 4m votes, the Tories nearly 7m , how is the right broken ? And that’s on a very low turnout
Instead boring us all to death like so many others that the Tories are toast ( very obvious from 2022 btw ) it’s more constructive to find a way back
Otherwise this , do you want a Labour / Liberal govt for the next 20-25 years ?
Polling clearly shows a big % of people want lower immigration , lower taxes , better policing and judiciary , anti woke education and less blob and nannyism
This is where the right will land success
Reform are on it but in a very amateurish way - but nevertheless they are
This Labour govt ISN’T centre left at all - its way left and the public will find out and someone like you should be pointing that out and everyone else writing public blogs etc instead of telling us the ‘bleedin obvious about the Tories
Why don’t you try and coalesce around the opposite view for the country against this harsh left wing politburo type govt
If I wanted to read anti Farage stuff it's already well covered in the hands of the Spectator and the Telegraph. Watching the about to be defeated Tories in the run up to July 4th, Labour showed neither intellectual capacity nor the need for any. Where was Hilary Benn? and I don't count Cooper, Starmer, Reeves in that category, more committee apparatchiks: def: a blindly devoted official, follower, or member of an organization (as a corporation or political party).
They follow a hostile agenda where the minorities, the lowest common denominator, are pandered to for street troops, the more educated already embedded in the institutions by Blair and Campbell.
This is what is wrong with the EU, UK and Democrat USA and the globalist Tories showed no appetite to change anything. The Tories spent as much time decrying Reform as they did Starmer.
As with a car driver on the day after passing their test or a student receiving their degree they are no more capable than the day before. With Reform they have 6 new drivers. They have a remit from their voters, more numerically than the Lib Dems, two thirds of the Tories and not far off half of Starmer's. Nobody asked for intellectual capacity, we've seen the PPE graduates' lack of common sense and zero nous since Cameron and Clegg. Little good that was for us.
Farage is a symbol. Kings no longer lead the battle on horseback from the front. He does. They never concerned themselves with the cookhouse or the camp followers. Boris's problem was he couldn't delegate, at least not to loyal competence. Farage has the common touch, he appeals to ordinary people, those also unconcerned with dotting 'i's and crossing 't's. It's potholes, excess immigrants, ill spent taxes, the list is long.
Ben Habib is an unlucky general and failed twice. He's not gone. I imagine Habib and Bull foresaw a battle of egos between Suella and Nigel and are temporarily gagged. I'll be surprised if Suella doesn't turn up on the doorstep with her suitcase full of credibility and a portfolio of dotted 'i's and crossed 't's. With luck she'll be followed by others with parliamentary experience. No big beasts, they're too busy squabbling.
You misrepresent Farage. Give me a lazy king anyday. Who in their right mind wants to be PM? At 65? He'll hand over without a murmur to the right person. Meanwhile Starmer runs Labour with three people, half of Reform MPs and the Tories have less on offer.
In short I think you are guilty of lofty disdain and should get off your high horse and look around you. Perhaps even offer your services to Reform, like Matt Goodwin does.
The SDP are NOT a Right Wing party. They are patriotic left leaning social democrats; the acceptable face of the Left. They are not a long term home for anyone conservative or right wing. A temporary refuge at best...the Right need something different and there isn't anything.
Reform need to work very hard not in the addictive media / punditry but as Pete says in the committees and back rooms contributing to serious debate & analysis to establish their interlectual & visioning credentials as well as understanding the basics of governance. By doing so they build the chances of an alliance with the conservatives. Farage & Anderson are incapable. The others possibly but thinly spread. The word 'merger' denotes some sort of equality. There is none 5 MPs v 120 MPs. 200 years of history versus 2 at best. Thousands of councillors versus a dozen may be. There will be no merger. Reform is a pressure group but no party of government and never will be unless behind the lazy populism it builds a machine of government and an actual 'political ' depth, which right now seems vey improbable though as ever not impossible
I agree with every word and I wish I could identify a solution at this juncture. There is nobody who appears to have the intellectual and charismatic clout to lead the right. Such leadership is wholly absent in the Conservative Party, with the added bonus that he know them to be a bunch of cowardly liars.
I will keep hoping and looking, and looking and hoping
I think you are right, alas, about Farage and Reform -- but to say the right is broken beyond repair' is a counsel of despair. If Reform / Tories are dead/dying, we have to build something else. We should think of it as an opportunity. Also, darkest hour before the dawn, etc.
Seems like you are doing a fair bit of knocking from the sidelines. I think NV is one of the few courageous people ready to put his head above the parapet and speak unpopular truths. I think he offers lucid, valuable commentary. What have *you* done? What 'practical solutions' do *you* offer?
We are heading to rock bottom from where, as all nations have and do, will rise again and then the people need to demand change to give them more power as set out here.
Like Nazi Germany. If not, why not? One can go "Harrogate Agenda", "Harrogate Agenda", "Harrogate Agenda" but it is not an answer. What is this "Right" that is broken anyway? It is good to write a manifesto, to gather the best ideas in the existing ones, but what are they based on?
As to THA it's really very simple either the 'people' demand more power over politicians or we continue to give them a free hand to do as the largely please.
The'people' may current be asleep but I predict they will wake up and demand our governments listen to them and initially it will be ugly then hopefully sense will prevail and, following the peaceful principles of Gene Sharp, THA style reforms to our governance will evolve.
If you see other and better outcomes please let me know.
The people are already awake. They voted for leftist parties, Labour, Lib Dem, Green etc. The better course would be to return to the Christianity on which our constitution was based (see Vishal Mangalwadi etc.), barring mistakes made previously. Il faut reculer pour mieux sauter.
Good post Pete - it should have been as plain as the nose on your face that Farage et al were never interested in anything resembling serious work. It'll be interesting to find out what the folks of Clacton, Skegness et al say about their new Reform MPs on the constituency level. My hunch is...not much.
Like UKIP before them, reform are taking up a spot on the stage marked 'insurgent threat to Conservative Party' without showing any sign of a branch structure, actual active members, an intellectual foundation of what Reform-ism is (i.e. one that goes beyond which side of the bed Nige got out of) and a mechanism for forming policy as a result.
As it stands they're not really a political party, more a franchise taking the lazy option of 'campaign by media' rather than establishing a ground game. Everything about them seems to be wired up to the principle of least effort.
One slightly random observation if I can...given that it's a company not a political party does that mean Farage/Tice could 'sell' to the Tories or someone else if a suitable bid came in? Would the membership then move across accordingly? Strange model for a political organisation, I'll say that much...
Pete North has basically set up a one man think tank. That is a significant contribution. More should join him.
I agree and his creation of a bespoke manifesto is a master stroke that will become a useful tool in the future but the reform of of our governance is a long term project with many twists and turns on the way.
Just you wait! I am not pleased about having my 100 pounds transferred to very rich GPs.
It shows this is a one man band blog / post
Do you even know what centre right politics is ?
Like most faux politically centre right writers , they’ve gone leftwards because the wind has gone that way - for clicks and subscribers , substack is full of them
Reform got 4m votes, the Tories nearly 7m , how is the right broken ? And that’s on a very low turnout
Instead boring us all to death like so many others that the Tories are toast ( very obvious from 2022 btw ) it’s more constructive to find a way back
Otherwise this , do you want a Labour / Liberal govt for the next 20-25 years ?
Polling clearly shows a big % of people want lower immigration , lower taxes , better policing and judiciary , anti woke education and less blob and nannyism
This is where the right will land success
Reform are on it but in a very amateurish way - but nevertheless they are
This Labour govt ISN’T centre left at all - its way left and the public will find out and someone like you should be pointing that out and everyone else writing public blogs etc instead of telling us the ‘bleedin obvious about the Tories
Why don’t you try and coalesce around the opposite view for the country against this harsh left wing politburo type govt
If I wanted to read anti Farage stuff it's already well covered in the hands of the Spectator and the Telegraph. Watching the about to be defeated Tories in the run up to July 4th, Labour showed neither intellectual capacity nor the need for any. Where was Hilary Benn? and I don't count Cooper, Starmer, Reeves in that category, more committee apparatchiks: def: a blindly devoted official, follower, or member of an organization (as a corporation or political party).
They follow a hostile agenda where the minorities, the lowest common denominator, are pandered to for street troops, the more educated already embedded in the institutions by Blair and Campbell.
This is what is wrong with the EU, UK and Democrat USA and the globalist Tories showed no appetite to change anything. The Tories spent as much time decrying Reform as they did Starmer.
As with a car driver on the day after passing their test or a student receiving their degree they are no more capable than the day before. With Reform they have 6 new drivers. They have a remit from their voters, more numerically than the Lib Dems, two thirds of the Tories and not far off half of Starmer's. Nobody asked for intellectual capacity, we've seen the PPE graduates' lack of common sense and zero nous since Cameron and Clegg. Little good that was for us.
Farage is a symbol. Kings no longer lead the battle on horseback from the front. He does. They never concerned themselves with the cookhouse or the camp followers. Boris's problem was he couldn't delegate, at least not to loyal competence. Farage has the common touch, he appeals to ordinary people, those also unconcerned with dotting 'i's and crossing 't's. It's potholes, excess immigrants, ill spent taxes, the list is long.
Ben Habib is an unlucky general and failed twice. He's not gone. I imagine Habib and Bull foresaw a battle of egos between Suella and Nigel and are temporarily gagged. I'll be surprised if Suella doesn't turn up on the doorstep with her suitcase full of credibility and a portfolio of dotted 'i's and crossed 't's. With luck she'll be followed by others with parliamentary experience. No big beasts, they're too busy squabbling.
You misrepresent Farage. Give me a lazy king anyday. Who in their right mind wants to be PM? At 65? He'll hand over without a murmur to the right person. Meanwhile Starmer runs Labour with three people, half of Reform MPs and the Tories have less on offer.
In short I think you are guilty of lofty disdain and should get off your high horse and look around you. Perhaps even offer your services to Reform, like Matt Goodwin does.
The SDP are NOT a Right Wing party. They are patriotic left leaning social democrats; the acceptable face of the Left. They are not a long term home for anyone conservative or right wing. A temporary refuge at best...the Right need something different and there isn't anything.
Reform need to work very hard not in the addictive media / punditry but as Pete says in the committees and back rooms contributing to serious debate & analysis to establish their interlectual & visioning credentials as well as understanding the basics of governance. By doing so they build the chances of an alliance with the conservatives. Farage & Anderson are incapable. The others possibly but thinly spread. The word 'merger' denotes some sort of equality. There is none 5 MPs v 120 MPs. 200 years of history versus 2 at best. Thousands of councillors versus a dozen may be. There will be no merger. Reform is a pressure group but no party of government and never will be unless behind the lazy populism it builds a machine of government and an actual 'political ' depth, which right now seems vey improbable though as ever not impossible
I agree with every word and I wish I could identify a solution at this juncture. There is nobody who appears to have the intellectual and charismatic clout to lead the right. Such leadership is wholly absent in the Conservative Party, with the added bonus that he know them to be a bunch of cowardly liars.
I will keep hoping and looking, and looking and hoping
As I've said many times before if you think Farage is the solution you are asking the wrong question..
I think you are right, alas, about Farage and Reform -- but to say the right is broken beyond repair' is a counsel of despair. If Reform / Tories are dead/dying, we have to build something else. We should think of it as an opportunity. Also, darkest hour before the dawn, etc.
This is the light we need!
https://harrogateagenda.org.uk/
You sound like someone who hasn't read anything I've written in the last three months.
He is offering a bespoke manifesto which is putting his money where his mouth is.
Seems like you are doing a fair bit of knocking from the sidelines. I think NV is one of the few courageous people ready to put his head above the parapet and speak unpopular truths. I think he offers lucid, valuable commentary. What have *you* done? What 'practical solutions' do *you* offer?
NV?
He is a political commentator and a good one.
I was replying to the commenter 'David'; as I said, NV [Northern Variant] is 'one of the few courageous people', etc.
Sorry that I misunderstood your comment!
No worries!
We are heading to rock bottom from where, as all nations have and do, will rise again and then the people need to demand change to give them more power as set out here.
https://harrogateagenda.org.uk/
Like Nazi Germany. If not, why not? One can go "Harrogate Agenda", "Harrogate Agenda", "Harrogate Agenda" but it is not an answer. What is this "Right" that is broken anyway? It is good to write a manifesto, to gather the best ideas in the existing ones, but what are they based on?
What is like Nazi Germany?
As to THA it's really very simple either the 'people' demand more power over politicians or we continue to give them a free hand to do as the largely please.
The'people' may current be asleep but I predict they will wake up and demand our governments listen to them and initially it will be ugly then hopefully sense will prevail and, following the peaceful principles of Gene Sharp, THA style reforms to our governance will evolve.
If you see other and better outcomes please let me know.
The people are already awake. They voted for leftist parties, Labour, Lib Dem, Green etc. The better course would be to return to the Christianity on which our constitution was based (see Vishal Mangalwadi etc.), barring mistakes made previously. Il faut reculer pour mieux sauter.