Nigel Farage has said many times that Britain is broken, and on that rare occasion, I find myself nodding along. He’s also been very clear that Brexit hasn’t delivered the sunlit uplands promised, and he’s laid the blame squarely at the feet of the Conservatives. Fair enough. After all, there’s no shortage of clips of Farage solemnly warning the nation that you should never trust a Tory.
Which makes it all the more impressive that he’s now welcoming those very same failed Tories into his party. Apparently, “never trust a Tory” now comes with an asterisk.
These are, of course, the same Conservatives who treated the country to 14 years of austerity. Despite periods of high employment, they somehow managed to leave us with the highest tax burden in 70 years and wages that have barely moved since the iPhone was invented.
The same Tories who hollowed out health and social care, tripling NHS waiting lists in England to 7.6 million, widening health inequalities, and ensuring that if you were poor, you were also more likely to die earlier. Efficient, if nothing else.
The same Tories who gave us five Prime Ministers — Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, and Sunak — each one a thrilling new episode in the long-running political soap opera How Low Can We Go? Complete with constant policy U-turns, because consistency is for amateurs.
The same Tories who stood by while 2.8 million people — about 4% of the population — lived in households reliant on food banks. But don’t worry, they assured us the economy was doing great.
The same Tories who quietly removed 20,000 police officers, presumably to encourage criminals to develop a sense of personal responsibility.
And, in a final flourish, the same Tory government that opened the gates for a massive Labour majority, paving the way for the mess we’re now told is someone else’s fault entirely.
Now Farage says he’ll also be welcoming former and current Labour MPs into the fold. MPs who, since handing power to the Conservatives in 2010, have achieved precisely nothing. A bold recruitment strategy: assemble a greatest-hits album of political failure and call it “experience.”
Reform may well seize power at the next general election, whether outright or via a hung parliament. If that happens, the cabinet will inevitably be stacked with the very “experienced” ex-Tories Farage assures us we need. In other words: more of the same, but with a new logo.
And yet, people will still vote for him.
Yes, Britain is broken. But if this is the repair plan, don’t expect it to be fixed anytime soon.
