Kmflett's Blog

The Spectator a weekly magazine of the right which has been published since 1828 is currently edited by Michael Gove.

It seems unable to work out whether it backs the Tories or Reform or both but its comment from Political Editor Tim Shipman on the latest Farage farrago is to the point:

[Nigel] Farage should also be cognisant that the mood in the bars around Birmingham last night was utterly mutinous. Those who are putting themselves forward as Reform candidates confided their despair. ‘We are giving up our businesses and putting family lives on hold to fight for Reform and this is going on behind the scenes,’ one said …

The overwhelming reaction in my WhatsApp groups from operatives in the other main parties was incredulity at the recklessness of it all. ‘If this is how they talk to people they don’t know, imagine what they are saying to people they trust,’ observed one former Downing Street Tory …

So why did they do it? It is the experience of everyone I have ever known near the summit of politics that political operations take their character and operating logic from the person at the apex of the triangle. Leaders set culture. The worrying thing for Farage admirers is that if [Dan] Jukes and [James] Orr behaved like this it is because they believed it to be okay by the boss. Both boasted on camera of their closeness to the leader. In the meeting at the pub with the fake donor, Farage seemed both au fait with how the money would be transferred to Reform, and grateful for it.

The scrappy, sod the rules, bugger the establishment vibe comes from him. This is another reminder of the timeless rule that every major politician’s greatest strength is also their greatest weakness. Farage’s insurgent image has put him in a place where he might win power but made his operation demonstrably less suitable to exercise it.

A moment for those who want to stop the racist politics of Reform to mobilise