Something of a Rubicon was crossed last week. The local council and mayoral elections swinging heavily towards the right wing Reform party. The unpopularity of both the Tories and our current government meant voters had few realistic options to express their discontent through. And so The Farrago of Lies grinned his muppet face into a position where he couldwell be the opposition party in four years time, or even the government.
In the quiet small 'c' conservative backwater of Upper Sheringham we had no council vote this year. Progress towards deciding the form of a new unitary Norfolk authority hadn't moved far enough for a vote for a mayor etc to take place. So we will have that unpalatable joy next year. North Norfolk Council is currently run by the Lib Dems, and our current MP is Lib Dem too. But it has been known to alternate with the Tories in the past. In 2024 Reform took votes off the Tories that let the Lib Dems winning the Constituency.
If Reform completely wipe out the Tories in four years time, then it is entirely feasible North Norfolk could be theirs. As the majority of Norfolk is rural, it has always been resolutely, never endingly Tory. So I can see the unitary authority and mayoralty being handed to Reform on a greasy plate. As a centre left progressive with little choice in our broken first past the post system, I'm already preparing myself to tactical vote yet again, and being further disheartened. Labour hardly features at all in this area;
It seems clear why all this is happening. Many folk now feel disenchanted with the existing political status quo, I certainly do, which seems incapable of bringing realistic change, nor provide the leadership and moral consistency it requires. A lot of voters now feel they have no personal investment in, nor perceive any benefit from maintaining our democracy, so they will quite happily trash it all if needs be. As has happened in the US.
What surprises me, and maybe this shouldn't, is that people do see through The Farrago of Lies, everyone knows he is a fraud, a con man, the man who sold us the pigs ear of Brexit, that all this 'man of the people' stuff is as inauthentic as his beer stained tweeds, that he is really a rich posh boy of the elite, that his party is backed by dodgy people, who don't want to be known, and no one appears willing to publish who they are. The Farrago of Lies isn't going to say, because he knows they are shameful and wont be the least bit vote winning. His main selling points are he speaks plainly, bluntly, coming across as authoritative and provides clear firm leadership, even when what he is saying is utter bilge with only a scintilla of truth to make you feel his solutions might plausibly be needed . We don't appear to have politicians on the centre or left who can match him for frankness on the same terms.
Another thing is you rarely hear anyone talking in the street about how they proudly voted Reform. Because folk know two things, that it might be dangerous to do so, provoking more than antagonistic swear words in the street, but significantly they do feel shame over doing so. They know what they are doing is shameful, but still they do it, because they have convinced themselves that any change is better than no change at all. That maybe a bit of lite fascism wont do us any harm. The voters are now in 'disruptor' mode, and that will only bring chaos in its wake.
If there is any hope, its that four years of Reform being held accountable to the electorate might disillusion the voters, to see there really are no easy fixes to reverse our countries continuing decline. But the British media has always been suspiciously kind towards The Farrago of Lies, and he has remained largely unchallenged for quite some time. I suspect this will not change anytime soon. But its significant how narked The Farrago of Lies gets when he is put on the spot, and asked to be accountable for the things he says. How dare they!
Our present government is unwilling to level with us just how fucked our economy is. I increasingly hold out little hope that the Labour Party will some how pull off a remarkable reversal of fortunes. I get the sense that their fate may already be sealed in the broader electorates mind, no matter what good they do over the next four years. I feel my position as a married gay man is no longer as secure as it felt even a year ago. Because authoritarians have form in picking upon minorities, and are not known for holding back from being nasty vengeful fuckers. So we'd better all start preparing for fighting off full fat fascism in the UK. Or else it will eat us all alive
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