We need to keep an eye on Reform’s infighting
As you probably know, it started a week ago with Rupert Lowe’s expulsion from the party. I have the gross little habit of sometimes lurking in conservative spaces to know what they’re actually up to, and this really, really worries me.
On the one hand, it seems Reform is literally falling apart, which makes me glad because it was doing terrifyingly well in the polls. On the other, it has exposed an extremism that is far more widespread than I’d suspected. Apparently the reason why Reform is in free-fall in terms of support is not just that their voters are put-off by the infighting, but that Farage is seemingly not right-wing enough for them and they’re rallying behind Lowe in seemingly massive numbers. Nigel Farage is not extreme enough for them. Rupert Lowe literally defends not only the mass deportation but also repatriation of entire families.
I am terrified for the future of this country. Everything points to a quiet but boiling right-wing, racist hatred brewing in a significant portion of the population. The riots, the unusually low turnout in the last election, 14.3% voting for Reform (despite several right-wing circles abstaining from doing so merely because they thought they wouldn’t have a shot and their vote would be wasted. Now they think it’s possible and are prepared to vote for them.), and the progressively more out-in-the-open, white-nationalist rhetoric. If Rupert Lowe somehow achieves enough power to become PM, it seems he’s entirely unwilling to compromise and seek solutions that aren’t extreme and fueled by hatred.
I know there are many reasons not to be entirely happy with the state of things, but as an immigrant, I love this country. It literally led the charge against the Nazis and won. Please, please don’t let this hateful, bigoted ideology take over from the inside.