He\u2019s hardly a soul-mate but I\u2019m grateful to Nigel Farage. No really. Not for Brexit or his views on global warming. Or worrying about a Romanian family moving in next door.<\/p>\n
I am grateful for the clarity he brings to the question: who governs Britain and, more important, how it is governed. Farage is the blood test that reveals a chronic sickness we\u2019ve suspected for a long time but can\u2019t face up to. Our political system is in intensive care. Major surgery is needed.<\/p>\n
Established institutions are leaking public trust. Abject failure by successive governments to deal with a derelict NHS and the cost of living is compounded by the effects of global crises \u2014 migration, climate change, cyber warfare, pandemics, potholes.<\/p>\n
NHS waiting lists stand at 7.4 million. Local authorities \u2013 Birmingham, Croydon, Thurrock \u2014 are going bankrupt. Prisons are bursting at the seams. Real wages remain at or below 2008 levels. Brexit has slashed trade and investment and increased business costs. Child poverty is at a record high.<\/p>\n
This is not a party political disorder. All parties have contributed to this mess. All parties have failed to grasp the nettle because all of them are incurably tribal. It\u2019s a systemic affliction.<\/p>\n
Granted we live in a tangled, fast-changing world full of risk and ambiguity. It\u2019s not easy to govern. But that\u2019s the job. To govern is to choose. And so far, leaving aside his performance on the world stage, Keir Starmer has made, or perhaps more accurately, agreed to some pretty poor choices.<\/p>\n
Where\u2019s the difference from the previous lot?<\/p>\n
Less than a year on from his resounding election victory, Starmer is executing a messy U-turn on some of the frankly bewildering policies announced by his Chancellor Rachel Reeves: the winter fuel payment cut; the two-child benefit cap; the upcoming welfare cuts.<\/p>\n
Nobody seriously believes the Prime Minister\u2019s claim that the Government can afford to look again at these policies because the economy is growing faster than expected. At its most basic, it\u2019s the Farage effect. In particular, Reform UK\u2019s deft positioning as a reborn socially conservative working class party.<\/p>\n
Reform\u2019s stunning success in the local elections and in the Runcorn parliamentary by-election on May 1, with a whopping 17.4% swing from Labour, speaks for itself. That has also sparked a revolt in Labour\u2019s ranks, where feelings about a Tory-lite agenda are running high.<\/p>\n
Farage now promises to destroy not just the Tories (\u201cIt\u2019s over. It\u2019s done\u201d) but Labour as well. And who\u2019s to say this is just bluster? Reform are already in government. They\u2019ve swept to power in 10 local authorities and two mayoralties. Even Sir John Curtice, that modest, trustworthy, political oracle, concedes it\u2019s not impossible.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t matter that Farage has no track record as a legislator. Or that he promises the earth without properly costing his proposals. Or that his rhetoric is replete with contradictions. Farage can waffle for England. But he can also be as clear as a bell and sharp as a flick-knife. People like that.<\/p>\n
The easy response to all this is to fall back on the \u201cit\u2019s just a protest vote\u201d argument. And for much of the past 100 years that has been the case. Witness the rise and fall and rise again of the quintessential Third Force, the Liberal Democrats and their predecessors the Liberals: 158 MPs in 1923, 8 in 2015, 72 in 2024.<\/p>\n
But British politics is becoming increasingly fragmented. As with any marketplace, people increasingly crave wider political choice. As the world changes and communities diversify, tastes evolve. If we don\u2019t like what\u2019s on offer, we go elsewhere \u2014 drawn by niche brands that offer \u201ctailored experiences\u201d.<\/p>\n
The evidence for our disenchantment with politics as usual is overwhelming. In its last survey, the Office of National Statistics found that just one in four people trusted the Government while only 12% trusted political parties. I hear you say: \u201dWhat do you expect?\u201d But that\u2019s a really shocking figure which should give us pause.<\/p>\n
And yet there\u2019s a real disconnect between our disillusionment and our actions. Slagging off politicians is a national sport. They\u2019re liars, time-servers, out of touch and out for themselves. But come elections we still troop to the polls and hand them the keys to the house. Like the hostages\u2019 Stockholm syndrome, it\u2019s a weird mix of fear and false hope.<\/p>\n
Farage is a wake-up call to those who still believe in politics by the book. He\u2019s a warning to those who persist in the old alliances of Left and Right. Politics, like shopping, is no longer a binary choice.<\/p>\n