You know Nigel so well. Brilliantly observed. Don't under estimate fury out there at Rupert Lowe for voting for assisted dying. Given everything we know about Govt over reach and incompetence and medical malfeasance over last few years, it's completely unforgivable that Tice, Lowe and Anderson voted in favour. It's shows they are unfit to govern.
Looks to me like Farage has been taking notes from his orange bezzy mate over the pond. Very reminiscent of his derogatory comments made upon the likes of Mattis and Bolton. It won't end well.
To echo Pete, a leopard can't change his spots, and without attributing any of a leopard's attributes to Farage neither can he. The sooner he goes off to the USA to brown his nose and fill his bank account instead of rinsing those of his supporters here the better. To mis-quote the pythons he 'is not the messiah (he never was) he's just a very naughty boy' all said without an affectionate tone.
Ben Habib was the best of them. They may not realise it but that is a real loss to Reform. Reform were never going to cut the mustard anyway. Which was why I was hesitant to vote for them in the GE. Rupert Lowe is currently their best MP. He and Habib should join forces, either start their own party or join Homeland. Need to know more about Homeland
Farage is going for the hat-trick having used and abused both UKIP and the Brexit party he is set to destroy Reform.
Farage is in politics for his own enrichment and self-promotion. Sure he kept the pot boiling over the years for us to leave the EU but he failed to lead the No Campaign and had no intellectual plan to offer for us to leave the EU unlike Flexcit produced by Pete North's father Dr Richard North.
It is a fact that when Farage abandoned UKIP there were more able bodies outside the party than in it having all seen Farage for what he is.
The facts are that anyone who believes Farage is the answer to our country's problems is asking the wrong question.
Nice piece of writing Pete - I'm amazed that anybody would continue to see this man (Farage) as part of the solution but a few still do. Niall and John have both nailed it.
One other factor that should be coming into it without sounding nasty or discriminatory is...Farage's age. The odds on him having the energy to be still going in 6-7 years time are close to zero and it's revealing that Ben Habib has been shoved out.
Ben Habib is exactly the type of person who a challenger party needs - neither a bumbling idiot (and UKIP/Brexit/Reform have had an avalanche of those) nor the sort of 'professional politician' people got sick of a long time ago. This is the false paradigm Farage seems to end up traveling on - a few muppets come out with something outrageous and...oh well, we'd best become identikit, nothing to say 'professional politicians' then.
Hell no...is he misguided or is this a deliberate mis-steer? Does it even matter?
Ben's in that 'third category' which would appeal to intelligent people and get them on board. Logically consistent, well thought out and a robust arguer - should we really be shocked that Farage has binned him?
<<<It only adds to the perception that Reform is gradually morphing into a duplicate Tory party.>>>
Based on the migration figures released yesterday, annual average net migration under the Tories (2010-23) was 340k. And under the last Tory govt of Boris et al (2020-23), it was 580k!!! Reform's policy of zero net migration is thus a million miles away from duplicating the Tories' abject performance on net migration.
Yes, one might argue that zero net migration isn't sufficiently radical. But this doesn't mean that Reform is close to duplicating the Tories.
<<<On the whole, it wasn’t a good day for Farage.>>>
But there was more on the plus side than Andrea Jenkyns joining. Reform also announced it had 100k members and 400 branches. That's quite some achievement.
That said, I'd have expected Farage to have had a more well-worked-out response re McMurdock. And I agree that Farage's response about re Habib ("the sun has got its hat on") was rather tasteless.
However, wrt Habib, it's worth pointing out that he didn't entirely cover himself in glory in the lead up to the election campaign. Party policy wrt small boats was "pick up and take back". And yet Habib advocated for an entirely different policy, namely "pushback". Not only was this a breach of party discipline but Habib never acknowledged the widely-held view that pushback was very likely illegal. And he also took part in a disastrous interview (23 Apr) with Julia Hartley-Brewer in which it looked like he was saying migrants should be left in the Channel to drown.
Thus, whilst I have some sympathy for Habib, I struggle to see him as "the one man who could bring intellectual coherence to the party".
<<<Starmer is coming out all guns blazing, attacking the Tory record on immigration, accusing the Conservatives of running an open borders experiment...Reform could even end up being outflanked by Starmer on immigration>>>
Starmer has experienced perhaps the most precipitous drop in popularity of any PM. And I don't think too many are going to take his statements on immigration seriously. After all this is the man who famously said that "there is a racist undercurrent which permeates all immigration law”!" Thus, I think it improbable that Starmer will match Reform's policy of zero net migration. Or attempt to outflank Reform by going further.
<<< That said, being that Farage has a certain flair for electioneering, it's still possible that Reform could reach new heights, but it will shed any talent it has, and every principle it holds in the process, to become exactly what it seeks to replace.>>>
It is I suppose possible that Starmer outflanks Reform and that Farage and Lowe become involved in a deadly feud which leads to the party self-destructing. But I'm not sure it's the most likely scenario. And I'm glad Pete acknowledges it's at least possible that Reform might reach new electoral heights.
But I don't see why achieving this would require Reform shedding "every principle it holds". Unlike any other party in Parliament, Reform has staked (pretty much) its entire reputation of tackling immigration. And so Farage et al will know only too well that if they go soft of immigration they're done for.
Farage is certainly making mistakes and doesn’t have universal appeal to more intellectual people. If I were leading Reform I’d be looking to engage as many smart supporters as possible and Ben Habib would certainly be prominent in my team. However the thought of Starmer coming at anyone other than a white protester or keyboard warrior “all guns blazing” is frankly laughable. Labour are as dead and irrelevant as the Tories. The rest of the west is rejecting socialism as is the democratic world with very few exceptions. The only chance Labour have of winning a GE is either some coalition of the right vote splits to help them.
Homeland has a myriad of problems - a) it's name - take away Home & put Father and you might get a teeny weany inkling as its values and vision b) it's leadership - whichever way you cut it, the leadership can't change its provenance which doesn't look or 'smell' to savoury to me ( & others).
Finally c) it's membership - young white, pale, stale working class males in ill fitting suits doesn't exude the vibe that it's open to new comers of perhaps the successful female business variety.
Call me cynical - but slowly, given what's happening to labour, it's starting to disintegrate under the weight of its own contradictions and lack of competent heavyweights ( oh dear there goes a cabinet lightweight in pink) - the Tories, whisper it quietly ( you know the ones who have been in government for most of the past 120 years) seem to be rebuilding their brand, coherence and funding ( as they always do). Sure, they need time to recover , to sharpen their act significantly with policies that really matter to people- but they strike me, given their history, money and national reach a far stronger chance than some extreme right-wing country yokels having a hoe down in a dank 2 star Derbyshire hotel.
Homeland is the only political party unashamed to assert the principle of self determination for ethnically British people. I can't think of anything unsavoury about it so far. The Swedish Democrats did not have the most ideal provenance, but they have been able to achieve some success.
Ethnically British - oh yeah - that is we're a mongrel race of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Romans, Normans and Celtic Britons the majority of whom were white skinned.
The main challenge which we face in the UK isn't just the number of immigrants ( of any kind or culture) it's what Pete and his father Richard have described as integration and assimilation into the UK culture - it is a major problem which is increasingly hard to find a solution.
Integration and assimilation is not desirable. We are not a mongrel race. That is a leftist canard. The Romans did not leave a major genetic imprint and nor did the Normans.
I understand - it's a bit like having your child called ugly - but we are, by history, a mongrel ethnicity - it's a pesky fact, not an opinion - just historical reality.
Over the centuries the UK /GB has had waves of successful integration & assimilation by, for example, the huguenots in the 16-18th centuries and the Jews 19th/20th century - the key thing is - these groupings integrated well into our culture & social mores.
The challenge of the 21st century is that many Muslims ( including illegals) and certain Hindu's have spectacularly failed to integrate into the UK way & this has led to many of the difficulties/problems that we now face.
If certain ethnicities fail to integrate and assimilate - this causes the indigenous population severe problems on the social and cultural fabric of the country as we are now seeing.
Now accepted that the Anglo saxons formed as much as 10-40% of the indigenous UK/GB population oh, and the English language - that's a hefty chunk - add the Roman know-how in engineering/infrastructure & you've got a fairly big 'imprint' by our historic invaders both DNA & culture.
Ben Habib was the best asset Reform had, and a good counterbalance to Nigel who has his merits but is also Marmite. Ben is impossible to dislike, a really rare quality in politics.
Not sure where that leaves homeless conservatives? Back to the Tories or waste time with mini-parties like SDP, Heritage, Homeland? Wait for a new party from Dom Cummings? Here’s an idea. Why not get as many names signed up to the Proto-Party. This will exist with members, a manifesto and generate lots of ideas. It will however have no candidates but will, come any election, endorse whichever party or whichever candidate is closest to its principles. It will scrutinise and challenge local candidates. Members will commit to supporting the candidate. There will be no wasted and split votes, and a large number of decent MPs who owe their wins to the Proto Party.
The alternative is a Tory-Reform race to the bottom, vying to squeak in because things are so bad, or a whacky rainbow coalition.
You know Nigel so well. Brilliantly observed. Don't under estimate fury out there at Rupert Lowe for voting for assisted dying. Given everything we know about Govt over reach and incompetence and medical malfeasance over last few years, it's completely unforgivable that Tice, Lowe and Anderson voted in favour. It's shows they are unfit to govern.
Looks to me like Farage has been taking notes from his orange bezzy mate over the pond. Very reminiscent of his derogatory comments made upon the likes of Mattis and Bolton. It won't end well.
To echo Pete, a leopard can't change his spots, and without attributing any of a leopard's attributes to Farage neither can he. The sooner he goes off to the USA to brown his nose and fill his bank account instead of rinsing those of his supporters here the better. To mis-quote the pythons he 'is not the messiah (he never was) he's just a very naughty boy' all said without an affectionate tone.
Hang on one moment. How can you describe a brand new party performing like Reform did, at quite short notice, an underperformance? Not really fair.
They did well at short notice, but seem to have lost momentum.
100,000 membership.
Let's see how many renew after this limited company was sold to its'new Muslim chairman.
That is my only significant disagreement with the article. It seems that they did well in the circumstances.
Ben Habib was the best of them. They may not realise it but that is a real loss to Reform. Reform were never going to cut the mustard anyway. Which was why I was hesitant to vote for them in the GE. Rupert Lowe is currently their best MP. He and Habib should join forces, either start their own party or join Homeland. Need to know more about Homeland
Farage is going for the hat-trick having used and abused both UKIP and the Brexit party he is set to destroy Reform.
Farage is in politics for his own enrichment and self-promotion. Sure he kept the pot boiling over the years for us to leave the EU but he failed to lead the No Campaign and had no intellectual plan to offer for us to leave the EU unlike Flexcit produced by Pete North's father Dr Richard North.
It is a fact that when Farage abandoned UKIP there were more able bodies outside the party than in it having all seen Farage for what he is.
The facts are that anyone who believes Farage is the answer to our country's problems is asking the wrong question.
Nice piece of writing Pete - I'm amazed that anybody would continue to see this man (Farage) as part of the solution but a few still do. Niall and John have both nailed it.
One other factor that should be coming into it without sounding nasty or discriminatory is...Farage's age. The odds on him having the energy to be still going in 6-7 years time are close to zero and it's revealing that Ben Habib has been shoved out.
Ben Habib is exactly the type of person who a challenger party needs - neither a bumbling idiot (and UKIP/Brexit/Reform have had an avalanche of those) nor the sort of 'professional politician' people got sick of a long time ago. This is the false paradigm Farage seems to end up traveling on - a few muppets come out with something outrageous and...oh well, we'd best become identikit, nothing to say 'professional politicians' then.
Hell no...is he misguided or is this a deliberate mis-steer? Does it even matter?
Ben's in that 'third category' which would appeal to intelligent people and get them on board. Logically consistent, well thought out and a robust arguer - should we really be shocked that Farage has binned him?
A few points on which I differ.
<<<It only adds to the perception that Reform is gradually morphing into a duplicate Tory party.>>>
Based on the migration figures released yesterday, annual average net migration under the Tories (2010-23) was 340k. And under the last Tory govt of Boris et al (2020-23), it was 580k!!! Reform's policy of zero net migration is thus a million miles away from duplicating the Tories' abject performance on net migration.
Yes, one might argue that zero net migration isn't sufficiently radical. But this doesn't mean that Reform is close to duplicating the Tories.
<<<On the whole, it wasn’t a good day for Farage.>>>
But there was more on the plus side than Andrea Jenkyns joining. Reform also announced it had 100k members and 400 branches. That's quite some achievement.
That said, I'd have expected Farage to have had a more well-worked-out response re McMurdock. And I agree that Farage's response about re Habib ("the sun has got its hat on") was rather tasteless.
However, wrt Habib, it's worth pointing out that he didn't entirely cover himself in glory in the lead up to the election campaign. Party policy wrt small boats was "pick up and take back". And yet Habib advocated for an entirely different policy, namely "pushback". Not only was this a breach of party discipline but Habib never acknowledged the widely-held view that pushback was very likely illegal. And he also took part in a disastrous interview (23 Apr) with Julia Hartley-Brewer in which it looked like he was saying migrants should be left in the Channel to drown.
Thus, whilst I have some sympathy for Habib, I struggle to see him as "the one man who could bring intellectual coherence to the party".
<<<Starmer is coming out all guns blazing, attacking the Tory record on immigration, accusing the Conservatives of running an open borders experiment...Reform could even end up being outflanked by Starmer on immigration>>>
Starmer has experienced perhaps the most precipitous drop in popularity of any PM. And I don't think too many are going to take his statements on immigration seriously. After all this is the man who famously said that "there is a racist undercurrent which permeates all immigration law”!" Thus, I think it improbable that Starmer will match Reform's policy of zero net migration. Or attempt to outflank Reform by going further.
<<< That said, being that Farage has a certain flair for electioneering, it's still possible that Reform could reach new heights, but it will shed any talent it has, and every principle it holds in the process, to become exactly what it seeks to replace.>>>
It is I suppose possible that Starmer outflanks Reform and that Farage and Lowe become involved in a deadly feud which leads to the party self-destructing. But I'm not sure it's the most likely scenario. And I'm glad Pete acknowledges it's at least possible that Reform might reach new electoral heights.
But I don't see why achieving this would require Reform shedding "every principle it holds". Unlike any other party in Parliament, Reform has staked (pretty much) its entire reputation of tackling immigration. And so Farage et al will know only too well that if they go soft of immigration they're done for.
Farage is certainly making mistakes and doesn’t have universal appeal to more intellectual people. If I were leading Reform I’d be looking to engage as many smart supporters as possible and Ben Habib would certainly be prominent in my team. However the thought of Starmer coming at anyone other than a white protester or keyboard warrior “all guns blazing” is frankly laughable. Labour are as dead and irrelevant as the Tories. The rest of the west is rejecting socialism as is the democratic world with very few exceptions. The only chance Labour have of winning a GE is either some coalition of the right vote splits to help them.
History does repeat itself or, as Pete writes, "Leopards can’t change their spots."
Sad though.
Homeland has an uphill struggle but might make it.
Homeland has a myriad of problems - a) it's name - take away Home & put Father and you might get a teeny weany inkling as its values and vision b) it's leadership - whichever way you cut it, the leadership can't change its provenance which doesn't look or 'smell' to savoury to me ( & others).
Finally c) it's membership - young white, pale, stale working class males in ill fitting suits doesn't exude the vibe that it's open to new comers of perhaps the successful female business variety.
Call me cynical - but slowly, given what's happening to labour, it's starting to disintegrate under the weight of its own contradictions and lack of competent heavyweights ( oh dear there goes a cabinet lightweight in pink) - the Tories, whisper it quietly ( you know the ones who have been in government for most of the past 120 years) seem to be rebuilding their brand, coherence and funding ( as they always do). Sure, they need time to recover , to sharpen their act significantly with policies that really matter to people- but they strike me, given their history, money and national reach a far stronger chance than some extreme right-wing country yokels having a hoe down in a dank 2 star Derbyshire hotel.
Homeland is the only political party unashamed to assert the principle of self determination for ethnically British people. I can't think of anything unsavoury about it so far. The Swedish Democrats did not have the most ideal provenance, but they have been able to achieve some success.
Ethnically British - oh yeah - that is we're a mongrel race of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Romans, Normans and Celtic Britons the majority of whom were white skinned.
The main challenge which we face in the UK isn't just the number of immigrants ( of any kind or culture) it's what Pete and his father Richard have described as integration and assimilation into the UK culture - it is a major problem which is increasingly hard to find a solution.
Integration and assimilation is not desirable. We are not a mongrel race. That is a leftist canard. The Romans did not leave a major genetic imprint and nor did the Normans.
I understand - it's a bit like having your child called ugly - but we are, by history, a mongrel ethnicity - it's a pesky fact, not an opinion - just historical reality.
Over the centuries the UK /GB has had waves of successful integration & assimilation by, for example, the huguenots in the 16-18th centuries and the Jews 19th/20th century - the key thing is - these groupings integrated well into our culture & social mores.
The challenge of the 21st century is that many Muslims ( including illegals) and certain Hindu's have spectacularly failed to integrate into the UK way & this has led to many of the difficulties/problems that we now face.
If certain ethnicities fail to integrate and assimilate - this causes the indigenous population severe problems on the social and cultural fabric of the country as we are now seeing.
No more mongrel than many other groups.
Now accepted that the Anglo saxons formed as much as 10-40% of the indigenous UK/GB population oh, and the English language - that's a hefty chunk - add the Roman know-how in engineering/infrastructure & you've got a fairly big 'imprint' by our historic invaders both DNA & culture.
Fascinating article ,well done.
Ben Habib was the best asset Reform had, and a good counterbalance to Nigel who has his merits but is also Marmite. Ben is impossible to dislike, a really rare quality in politics.
Not sure where that leaves homeless conservatives? Back to the Tories or waste time with mini-parties like SDP, Heritage, Homeland? Wait for a new party from Dom Cummings? Here’s an idea. Why not get as many names signed up to the Proto-Party. This will exist with members, a manifesto and generate lots of ideas. It will however have no candidates but will, come any election, endorse whichever party or whichever candidate is closest to its principles. It will scrutinise and challenge local candidates. Members will commit to supporting the candidate. There will be no wasted and split votes, and a large number of decent MPs who owe their wins to the Proto Party.
The alternative is a Tory-Reform race to the bottom, vying to squeak in because things are so bad, or a whacky rainbow coalition.