Post Brexit Foxy 🦊

The split on the right is exclusively to do with immigration. The Tories are responsible for the Boriswave, and even if they promised to fully reverse it, we would see the same mithering about "fairness" from Tory MPs that we see from Labour back benchers. They cannot be trusted to clean up their own mess, especially not after Badenoch's conference speech. Her undisguised contempt for Reform was a mask off moment. But then Reform is also a problem. There is a gulf between what Reform members expect and what Farage would actually do. While Yusuf is tough on the rhetoric, Farage keeps rowing it back. In this, I have some sympathies with Farage. He's realistic about what can be achieved in the current political climate, and knows the limits of what the wider electorate will accept. Going balls to the wall on immigration is a losing proposition for his party. Restore, meanwhile, does not accept this - and is skirting the far reaches of politically acceptable discourse. While my sympathies lean in that direction, Restore lacks the necessary realism and pragmatism. Their own deportations policy is workable, but not immediately deliverable, and the electorate is not yet ready for that conversation. It's more pragmatic to take what you can get for now. I do understand, though, why Restore does not like or trust Farage. Farage's cautious realism is commendable, but on a more fundamental level, he keeps letting it slip that he doesn't think the damage is repairable, isn't willing to try, and doesn't care that much about it. Some men only have so much to give and he's given it. He's spent, and the new generation of right wing nationalists are not willing to accept defeat. Nor should they. But that leaves us with something of an impasse that keeps the right out of power while Labour makes everything worse. This is a near intractable dilemma. What's clear is this doesn't get resolved by 2029. I don't know if there is a party political solution. What I do know is that the Tory party has not changed, cannot be trusted, and cannot be given the benefit of the doubt. My feeling over the last three years is that there has to be more of a reason to vote Reform than just punishing the Tories. I was half right. It is preferable if Reform professionalises to the extent that it could form a viable government, but that's not going to happen. If, though, it continues to keep the Tories out of power then that is sufficient. The economy can wait. This dispute is over a more fundamental, existential matter where compromise is akin with surrender. The line has to be that the Tories will not be allowed anywhere near power for as long as they are a liberal party. If that means a permanent block then so be it. It just means party politics isn't the mechanism by which this is resolved. There are other means at our disposal. Eventually things will worsen to the extent that the public is ready for a more robust approach, and Farage will retire eventually, at which point there is likely to be more unity on the right. Farage is a big part of the problem. But once Reform, under new leadership, is unambiguous on its approach to immigration and deportations, Restore will evaporate. Reform will then have to pair up with the street protest movement to keep the system off balance until the Tories are no more. It may take a decade, but that's how it has to be. The main objective in the interim, is to bury Badenoch's party for good.