More on the Reform Implosion

It’s not looking good for British Populists

Very interesting video commentary on the Reform internal war has been shared by my friend John Le Sueur. John is a great writer who does superb round up pieces for The Conservative Woman (TCW) online news network, a kind of journal of sensible conservatism sympathetic to Populism in contrast to the Establishment conservatism that views Populism with distrust and loathing.

The video commentary is here:

What it describes is Tory Cameron era CCHQ figures taking over Reform.

These are the ‘experts’ who were placed at the top of the Tory Party by Cameron and Osborne. They were all Blairite metropolitan globalists. The Lotus Eaters podcast has previously described how these figures totally wrecked the Conservative Party by ‘reforming’ it to be in line with London Labour style attitudes and the kind of views that are only very popular in Islington, Westminster and within the political and media class itself.

CCHQ purged the Eurosceptic wing and traditional conservatives. They kept them out of decision making. They thought that to win they needed to be like Tony Blair and they took that lesson just as the general public were sick to death of New Labour.

You could describe them as New Tory, and they were the cause of the Tory Party totally losing its way and alienating its core vote, even more than the pro immigration, pro EU turn that occurred under pre and post Thatcher leaders.

These are literally the guys that Farage defeated on Brexit, now taking over the Reform Party with Farage’s help after destroying the Conservative Party. Farage should know from personal experience defeating them how utterly clueless these people are, but is now putting them in charge of his supposed Populist rebellion.

People in the metropolitan Westminster and London bubble, including ones who should know better like GBNews and the pollster Matt Goodwin, believe that Farage is pursuing the vital, election winning Centre Ground.

But Populist Parties can’t pursue compromise with Globalism, adopt Globalism, or be run by metropolitan Globalists because the WHOLE APPEAL of Populism is being the only alternative to that elite consensus.

And what employing the Con Inc Metropolitan Left, and letting them direct you, will do to Reform is exactly what it did to the Conservatives. That’s NOT what your voters want. Reform volunteers, local grassroots activists, and voters are already making this clear, even if the effect is yet to hit the polling figures. Here’s a typical reaction:

The pursuit of the illusory middle is NOT the path to power that Farage and Goodwin think it is. It doesn’t even appeal to a real, nationwide Centre. Because the Westminster Centre is INSANE when viewed from outside London. The centre of the whole country is much more traditionally conservative, rather than progressive and woke like all metropolitans. That’s why the Labour Party lost the Red Wall.

The people who tend to destroy movements of the Right always think that they need to shift that party Left, even when the Left is radicalised and itself alienating the ACTUAL centre of views held by the general public. And they always forget that what is sensible and normal in elite circles is usually precisely what a party of the Right and especially a Populist Party exists, in the eyes of its voters, to oppose.

What Farage has allowed to take over is disastrous for a Populist Party. Nobody wants to vote for Reform candidates and leaders who sound like David Cameron. Reform is now copying the egregious error made by the very Cameron Conservatives he is recruiting and letting run Reform for him.

In trying to attract the CCHQ experts, and thinking that expands the vote, Reform will ironically strengthen the Conservatives again. If the worst Tories go to Reform, it’s easier for the Conservatives to say they have learned their lesson and are going back to the views of the voters and away from Globalism. Their globalists are now in Reform. So they can, rather ridiculously but justifiable, present themselves as more populist than the party that emerged from them being too Globalist.

Such is British politics now. It’s a competition where every party tries to be more hated and out of touch than the others, because every party is only IN touch with the small number of people who live in London and work in politics.

A Populist Party though is especially likely to be damaged by metropolitan leadership. It should NEVER focus on recruiting enemy ‘leaders’. It should focus on recruiting the ordinary VOTERS already abandoned by those leaders. You can’t take both. And a building stuffed full of strategic idiots who call themselves seasoned political pros is as damaging to you as securing huge chunks of actual voters is good for you.

Normal politics expands by betrayal and compromise, but then the history of that eventually makes them unelectable. Populism expands by being consistent, principled and NOTABLY DIFFERENT to the main parties. If it reaches out to others not in its core vote, it does so to those who SHARE strong disagreements with Globalism, as Trump did with Democrat recruits, NOT by reaching out to firm Globalists.

The Farage ‘get those Tory experts in’ strategy is rather like Trump recruiting Hillary Clinton instead of Robert F.Kennedy Jnr.

But people in the metropolitan bubble see appealing to other Metropolis Clones as the route to victory, forgetting there is a country at all beyond London or Washington.