You have to hand it to them. Reform UK is led by Nigel Farage, and yesterday they won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, a seat in which Labour had a 15,000 majority just last year. What’s more, it looks like Reform UK will smash the Tories in local elections. And Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer won one of the largest parliamentary majorities in British history last summer but has suffered the fastest decline in popularity of any newly elected government.
All of which is unsettling enough. Even worse is that the man leading them is the ghastly Nigel Farage.This is the man who led the charge for Brexit, who rejoiced when the UK left the EU: “We won it without firing a single bullet.” True enough. But Brexit was riddled with promises of sunny uplands, a new golden era for Britain. The reality of the past nine years in Britain has been a descent into darkness and threadbare weakness.
And the puzzling thing is, why did Britain do it? Once bitten, twice shy – whatever became of that old guide-rule? Farage and friends have conclusively proved that Britain outside the EU is having a horrible time economically and is seeing housing and the NHS descend into a terrifying mess. So what the hell are the Brits doing, voting for this man and his party ? What are they thinking of?
Well, probably something similar to millions of Americans. Having elected Trump in 2016 and experienced first hand the stumbling braggadocio of the Orange Man, last year they gave him an even clearer mandate than they did in 2016.
How is it that both Britain and the US think it’s a good thing to elect two men and their parties who are clearly on the make for themselves, not Joe Public? For some simple souls, it’s the personality, the admiration of the strong man who will be Daddy or at least our favourite jokey uncle, who’ll take control and fix the whole thing.
But for most, votes for frauds like Trump and Farage spring from the sentiment conveyed in Paul Simon’s ‘The Sound of a Train in the Distance’: “The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and bones.”
That yearning for a better tomorrow is a blessing, in that it propels the human race forward in search of better things. It’s a curse in that we grab blindly at creeps and tricksters who convince us that they and they only have the road map.
You have to hand it to them. Reform UK is led by Nigel Farage, and yesterday they won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, a seat in which Labour had a 15,000 majority just last year. What’s more, it looks like Reform UK will smash the Tories in local elections. And Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer won one of the largest parliamentary majorities in British history last summer but has suffered the fastest decline in popularity of any newly elected government.
All of which is unsettling enough. Even worse is that the man leading them is the ghastly Nigel Farage.This is the man who led the charge for Brexit, who rejoiced when the UK left the EU: “We won it without firing a single bullet.” True enough. But Brexit was riddled with promises of sunny uplands, a new golden era for Britain. The reality of the past nine years in Britain has been a descent into darkness and threadbare weakness.
And the puzzling thing is, why did Britain do it? Once bitten, twice shy – whatever became of that old guide-rule? Farage and friends have conclusively proved that Britain outside the EU is having a horrible time economically and is seeing housing and the NHS descend into a terrifying mess. So what the hell are the Brits doing, voting for this man and his party ? What are they thinking of?
Well, probably something similar to millions of Americans. Having elected Trump in 2016 and experienced first hand the stumbling braggadocio of the Orange Man, last year they gave him an even clearer mandate than they did in 2016.
How is it that both Britain and the US think it’s a good thing to elect two men and their parties who are clearly on the make for themselves, not Joe Public? For some simple souls, it’s the personality, the admiration of the strong man who will be Daddy or at least our favourite jokey uncle, who’ll take control and fix the whole thing.
But for most, votes for frauds like Trump and Farage spring from the sentiment conveyed in Paul Simon’s ‘The Sound of a Train in the Distance’: “The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and bones.”
That yearning for a better tomorrow is a blessing, in that it propels the human race forward in search of better things. It’s a curse in that we grab blindly at creeps and tricksters who convince us that they and they only have the road map.
Never underestimate the power of celebrity. Even before he became President Donald Trump had a very high profile. Nigel Garage is nowhere near as famous but he has been on our TV screens now for what seems like an eternity. Unfettered immigration has changed the demographic landscape of England. The white population are fed up with how their country has been transformed. Trump used the fact America elected a (sort of) black man in 2008 and 2012 to spook the racist undertones always at the heart of Republican politics in the USA, a sort of backlash. Farage and his horrible “party” have played on the fears of the great unwashed. Tories who lose their seats can wrap themselves in the Reform flag and bash foreigners. A second chance at a cushy number. Many years ago that old hypocrite Enoch Powell tried the same thing. He was just against black and brown faces in general. Even though he ached to be Viceroy of India.