Farage’s political insurgence is for those “ordinary people who just want their country back”. But did our country ever leave us? Starmer has 5 years to make the case.

The dust is starting to settle on the General Election earthquake that has seen Starmer take power on the back of Farage.

Labour are rolling out their policies at pace and with gusto on a ‘mission driven’ mission to prove they can fulfil their missions!

Their manifesto appeared written by AI and I don’t say this to be derogatory - I challenge you to read it and not conclude something similar.

That is not to say there aren’t many positives in there, but it was so broad and vague that it was difficult to understand exactly what it is they will be doing.

I’m not sure it matters, my feeling is that people just want some competency and decency at this point in time.

Starmer, whilst prone to retract and u-turn, at least has the appearance of sensibleness at face value, and such is the low level of expectation we have of our national leaders, the famine of this quality makes it now a rare and precious commodity!

Only a glaringly poor policy that might affect the public psyche will prevent him enjoying a gentle time of it for now - unless Farage has anything to say about it. For Farage, now he is in the House of Commons, is Starmer’s real opposition and stands on an entirely different platform and one of conviction.

I am neither for Farage or Starmer, but despite Labour’s landslide, it is Reform who are the real revolutionaries.

For this reason, despite my immense admiration for Farage’s political feats and indefatigable character and personal charisma, I wish to go against the grain of Farage’s exponential popularity and highlight a number of areas of concern.

I do this because I believe, pending heinous circumstances similar to that of Trump’s unequivocally evil assassination attempt (for which Farage is out in America helping Trump with emotional support), that Farage could very well be the Leader of the Opposition after the next General Election - at the very least.

Conservative Plight

He has been flying the Conservative's right wing flag for decades and is ready to “give the ordinary person their country back” - whatever that means.

Whoever the chosen one will be as the new Tory leader, only a miracle can save them now as it stands. Those who voted Tory to stop Labour could well be making their short journey to Reform and that can only mean potential annihilation.

I am sure there will be many Conservative supporters who will say I am wrong and they will re-group and come again, but their second-coming is wholly dependent on the downfall of Farage. This is, of course, very possible, but this is not a strategy they can rely on. Electing someone with Farage’s views won’t help either because why would voters go to the diluted version?

However, whilst I agree with parts of his manifesto - raising the personal allowance tax threshold to £20K is a good idea if it can be paid for - there are some serious questions to be asked with some of the pledges that appear somewhat authoritarian and highly discriminatory with his attacks on the so-called woke brigade.

Starmer Provokes with Woke

As it happens, Starmer’s opening speech as Prime Minister in the House of Commons was a firework of woke - to coin a phrase that will never take off, a firewoke if you will - as he celebrated just how ‘diverse’ the new members were. From exploiting Mother of the House, Diane Abbott - who barely scraped the Labour selection panel - to becoming the world’s most LGBTQ+ parliamentary house in the world.

I would not categorise myself within the bastardisation of the word ‘woke’ and have a disdain for virtue-signalling, but I fully embrace how important it is for a civilised society to accept all people regardless of background.

The groups he was celebrating have suffered very badly in the past and so I can see all the reasons our country should be proud of it.

Yet, whilst praise for a tolerant and liberal society is justified, I sensed - and I could be wrong - that Starmer used it also to goad Farage somewhat.

It may be one of the many tactics they have in store for him over the next five years, because they will need to do everything they can if they wish to stop him.

Force Farage

Like him or loathe him, agree with him or not, I believe Farage will do down as one of the most revolutionary figures in our history. Were his achievements in Roman times and we could only read about his feats, we may all be wondering quite how one man was able to impress his will without ever having taken any official power.

His very personable persona disguises just what a brilliant mind he has and just how determined and singularly bloody-minded he is.

In a strange way, Starmer’s lack of charisma understates just how politically talented he is too, but I believe his flimsy beliefs will be overwhelmed by a man who has spent decades espousing the one same message about immigration.

Starmer is up against a person who forced the most powerful man in our country to launch the Brexit vote; won the Brexit vote, taking our country out of one of the most powerful political organisations in the world against the might of Tory, Labour, Lib Dem, Green, and SNP party machines as well as the desperate wheeling out of four former Prime Ministers in Brown, Blair, Cameron and Major; and has now reduced the oldest political party in the world to rubble - all without being an MP. Just think what he could do to Labour now he is in the henhouse.

(To be fair to Starmer, he did ruthlessly maul his former friend, party leader and staunchly Labour comrade to pieces, whilst attempting to take out every other left leaning Corbynista across the country, so he is no pushover either.)

I cannot see Starmer and his team (Blair, Mandleson, Stewart, et al) take Farage lightly and will have already hatched many plans to thwart him.

One such plan should involve focusing the lense on his leadership style and authoritarian-strong manifesto.

Farage the Authoritarian

Like all of us, everyone has flaws.

Reform’s manifesto, whilst in many ways feels like common sense, contains a number of elements that could be perceived as racist, intolerant and authoritarian, whilst there are dictatorship tendencies in some of Farage’s leadership style.

He has already spoken about democratising his party, and his awareness of this will be crucial because it could end up undermining all his hard work in convincing people to trust him thus far.

Unfortunately, this has yet to happen.

He turfed out the Clacton Reform Parliamentary Candidate and promoted himself to leader, demoting Tice, all after saying shortly before he wouldn’t even stand as an MP.

This has now been followed by the ousting of Ben Habib as Deputy Leader, now replaced by Tice, who said ‘Reform cannot make the argument for democracy, let alone champion it, with such a glaring democratic deficit.'

Moreover, Farage’s philosophy, as quoted, is “peace through strength”, which has an ominous tone to it that manifests itself into a number of polices in their so-called contract.

The Reform Contract

He seeks:

Zero tolerance policing; to build 10,000 new detention spaces; recruit 40,000 new police; recruit preferably ex-military into police leadership; send youth offenders to high intensity training camps; recruit 30,000 more into the military; increase military spending by £14bn; permit tax breaks for military manufacturing and technology; introduce a patriot curriculum in schools; make the British Armed forces independent; protect military personnel from UK civil law; and leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

These may be attractive policies from many sections of the public’s perspective, but from the perspective that these types of authoritarian minded people get to be in charge of all of this, I worry.

Though it’s hard to see, the tone echoes that of another country in another time.

That is without mentioning the overt racism in one particular policy of the manifesto that I am surprised was legal.

The policies in the ECHR are as any person who believes in basic human rights would want them to be, but if they are to go, what is the replacement document? Or is he saying he advocates us losing all of our human rights?

Multiculturalism

It is all in the name of giving “our country back to ordinary people”, but in my view there is no such thing.

Our multicultural society is here to stay (you can’t throw people out the country who were born here, nor should you because very few of us would be left!), and so the key is to work out how to ensure we can live together in harmony.

Farage’s comments on the Leeds riots serve to inflame the division and plays perfectly into his narrative.

It’s so easy to join the dots and suggest people are unable to get on based on their colour or creed, but look around and you’ll find peace and harmony almost everywhere regardless of background.

In this case, the individuals who broke the law should, and have been arrested like any other citizen of the UK.

For those who believe in his dream to rid these people off our shores - he cannot do it.

Play it out for a second.

How does he divide up all the people that he deems worthy to go?

Is it first, second or third generation? Is it by continent? How much blood of the Celts, Romans, Germanic, Scandinavian or French is permitted to be classed British? What shade of brown is acceptable? How much of the English language is enough to know? What philosophies or religious beliefs must you have and have not?

With this on the horizon it may be wise to research one’s background to ensure our heritage is acceptable.

If it is not, will we be expected to volunteer our extradition?

If our backgrounds are so mixed - as they are to varying degrees - which country does he suggest we head to?

Where would this leave our Royal Family?

Five Year Culture War

This is it, the race has begun.

Labour has been given a five year head-start to make the case for a fair-minded and even-handed government.

They need to stop rubbing woke in people’s faces and just get on with being a reasoned and sensible government.

For those tempted to provoke Farage into escalating the culture war through unnecessary woke ideology, I urge you to resist.

Let’s get back to a society of meritocracy and earning one’s place off the back of hard work and talent.

Let’s draw a thick red line on the boundaries of women’s rights, but address the trans issues with respect and dignity.

Where there is seemingly impossible disagreement, let us do so with patience, compassion, forgiveness and respect.

Most people have accepted all people from all backgrounds, they just don’t want to tread on eggshells as they try not to offend anyone.

There is a balance to everything and it has been reached. There is already a strong sense of overreach and it will only push otherwise perfectly liberal-minded people, who understandably are sick of it all, over to Farage, as he is seen as the only hope they have to put a stop to it.

I wish Farage was the one to fix these problems, but he is not a peacemaker.

He is an aggressor whose polices will stoke anger in others that will eventually lead to violence, which will self-prophecise into the need for more violence in the name of security and protection.

No one is saying we shouldn’t sort illegal immigration out; have a very serious conversation about dropping net migration, review cultural integration policies; exercise pride in our British culture (whatever that may be); and attend to by law, those in our country that seek to overthrow the British way of life, but Farage’s path requires deep questioning as this type of politics has been tried before.

We are a free and liberal country and already live in relative peace. For those who want their country back, I would argue, but for a few turns in the wrong direction, our country never left us.