My take is that Reform are currently a maybe three-trick pony (and still primarily a pony called Nigel) which makes their current polling quite remarkable. Question is can they expand their repertoire? Because there is a genuine and growing wave of discontent with establishment politics that is gaining energy every day. But energy is not enough. Can Reform offer it the kind of focus that makes it a genuine option of leading the country rather than just being the protest voting option? Personally I think they need to get rid of Farage. He has been the most influential British politican of the first quarter of this century but I feel there is not much road for him left. Getting Reform past that personality cult (and that is what it ultimately is and I make that statement without judgement on the merits of that) and it really does stand on the cusp of something quite extraordinary.
I think getting rid of Farage at this stage would be a disaster. Having said that I'd probably agree with most of your criticisms of him....indeed, I posted in support of Habib and fully agree with his reasons for leaving, Farage is turning Reform into Tory 2.0 (because he's looking for defectors), which means he's softening the message.
For people like you and me that's not going to cut it as we know what the future of the country is rapidly moving towards. However, Reform isn't going to grow or attract the kind of investment it needs to move from a protest vote to taking over from the Conservatives without broadening that Church.
I understand the tactics I just resent the process.
Reform's biggest supporter is the ineptitude and sheer detachment that the Tory parliamentary party have from most right wing voters. What's worse is that their base is mostly old boomers....who while more right wing than the parliamentary Cameron types still have all the same boomer myths and are too stuck in their ways to change....probably still reading newspapers most of them.
Like the MPs they are more concerned about not being seen as racist than anything else, the want to be liked by the left and end up accepting the kind of egalitarian waffle that turned their party into a Blair clone. They voted for Cameron over Davies, they voted Badenoch over Jennick....both times it was probably the blue rinser women who largely did it......I mean choosing Badenoch over Jennick is so tone deaf.....no chance of getting those red wall voters, but hey at least you're not racist. You have to laugh really.
Reform is trying to appeal to the likes of them and yeah.....it's kind of cringe to watch it.
Still if you removed Farage it would be as self harming as the Tories removing Johnson......yeah, of course they are a liability but the public know them and like them. The time to change horse is when the new horse has that recognition.....It should never be forgotten that most people aren't political and that recognition and time spent with a politician really matters.....It's why the next Reform leader will most probably have to be Tice or Anderson.
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