Bernard Argente is a parliamentary researcher and campaign confidante to former MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston.
He who sups with the Devil should have a long spoon, and to sup with Nigel Farage, the Spoon of Romshishok would be the bare minimum.
Over the course of weeks, political pundits and even conservative ones, such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, believe they have found the remedy for the Conservative Party: working with Reform UK. From my political insight alone, I can assure you this remedy is more like fool’s gold.
Let us consider the reductio ad absurdum that working with Reform UK is optimal.
Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage, whom Richard Tice fancies as a Gandhi or Mandela, has more similar characteristics to Prometheus. I use this parallel to highlight how both Prometheus and Farage purloined the fire from the gods, in Farage’s case the ‘political establishment’, and gave it to the people. If Farage considers the Conservatives the establishment he wishes to destroy in order to compartmentalise the political duopoly, then working with him would be nurturing a viper in your bosom.
Even in nature, Reform UK is filled with turncoats that have backstabbed Kemi Badenoch, which highlights the characteristics of their party.
James Cleverly, who is a fervent Warhammer fan, will agree with me that their ex-Conservative politicians are like those of the heretic Astartes. There is also some disingenuity with Farage first advocating to move past first past the post, which at first appeared reasonable to most as it didn’t favour parties with few parliamentarians and large popularity, making it harder to receive allocated time, though now he has extended his definition as ‘First Past the Post can be your enemy, but there comes an inversion point at which it becomes your friend’.
Nevertheless, I understand why commentators would wish for a coalition between the Conservatives and Reform.
If the Liberal Democrats, Greens, and Labour all formed some rainbow coalition, then ‘mere anarchy is loosed upon the world’. But Reform UK isn’t as politically consistent as Danny Kruger would like you to believe. Whilst Kruger is excellent at policy, Robert Jenrick is substandard, and this could be the reason why Zia Yusuf wrote on X: ‘Robert’s answer is not Reform policy’. I had also woken up to a community note on Guido Fawkes’ X post on Jenrick detailing falling net immigration, which labelled Jenrick as ‘disingenuous’ and stated that it was James Cleverly who made changes to the visa scheme that resulted in the current net migration reduction. Then the note delivered the final blow: ‘Jenrick could have, but didn’t’.
Essentially working with Reform UK, who had always been a stalking horse — a Trojan horse, to be precise, looking like a gift but in reality, a trap — is fundamentally dangerous for the Conservative reputation. “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster”.
To expand on this philosophy of Nietzsche, one ought to consider the Conservatives, Apollonian, representing balance, order, and justice, and Reform UK, Dionysian, representing all that is opposite, such as chaos and mayhem, which is what they most definitely achieved in the council elections in England, hence dividing the political balance. This looks great to those who cry for change, but in reality, it is a road to hyper normalisation.
Truly, I understand how tempting an alliance appears.
My constituency, Orkney, has always been a Liberal Democrat stronghold, but the Conservatives still had a foothold in the regional vote. Though in the recent general election Reform had absorbed votes in Moray, causing Tim Eagle to lose, and votes around the Highlands and Islands meant Jamie Halcro Johnston was unable to be returned to Holyrood. For reference, I was an agent at the count, and the Reform UK paper candidate, whom no one in Orkney knew, had not bothered to show up. Voters placed their trust in a candidate who had not bothered to make a speech or attend such an important moment.
Jamie Halcro Johnston, however, had appeared, and even though the results were blistering truths, he had courageously, in his final speech, thanked me and the team. Reform UK, the same party that commentators believe we should give courtesy, letting them run in Makerfield so the Conservatives could run a candidate in Aberdeen South for probability reasons alone, had allowed the SNP, Greens, and Liberal Democrats to get into Holyrood in my constituency alone by taking votes from the Conservatives.
Yet when another party appears to take their votes this time, Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain, an ex-Reform UK politician, Reform proponents throw a hissy fit and advocate for Reform to ask Restore not to ‘split the vote’. See the pattern? Reform has U-turned on several policies, including FPTP, and are divided before even in government. Now they’re going through comeuppance or contrapasso, traditionally reserved for the Guelphs and Ghibelline factions in Dante’s Inferno.
Reform UK is responsible for Orkney losing a hard-working MSP, Jamie Halcro Johnston, who fought for Orcadians and emphasised the importance of agriculture and the A9 dualling program, and whose family has been in Orkney since before the 16th century. Scottish leader of Reform UK, Malcolm Offord, has proven to have no solid stance on independence and seems to be opening the gates to John Swinney’s independence dream; this is not a party of opposition.
However, the good in the good, the bad, and the ugly of Reform UK does exist.
Richard Tice’s senior staffer Ryan Powell, who is talented, informed me about young people getting into politics and the betrayal that it entails. He was right about politicians metaphorically knifing each other in the back, but he never told me about Jess Phillips claiming she would ‘knife Jeremy Corbyn in the front’. Reform UK is the party of betrayers who masquerade in wanting change, the public doesn’t buy it.
Another good thing in Reform was in fact from Nigel Farage; he advised his Reform politicians to ‘keep disagreements private’. Unfortunately, Labour had not taken that advice, and while Wes Streeting perhaps tried to adopt that doctrine, it only lasted 17 minutes.
Unfortunately, the good doesn’t outweigh the bad, and Reform UK has done more harm than good.
As mentioned, their policies are inconsistent and rely on Danny Kruger and James Orr, who are both talented and managed to make the think tank Re:State happy with a Whitehall reform agenda. But this is simply not enough, and if we were to form a coalition with every imitative Conservative party because we wanted a majority, we would be no better than the Official Monster Raving Loony Party that merged with other ludicrous micro-parties.
People will come to realise that Restore Britain, Reform UK — which Sarah Pochin will confuse with each other — and other parties not important enough to name, are copies of each other and wish to be a party that they’ll never be – the Conservative Party.
Bernard Argente is a parliamentary researcher and campaign confidante to former MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston.
He who sups with the Devil should have a long spoon, and to sup with Nigel Farage, the Spoon of Romshishok would be the bare minimum.
Over the course of weeks, political pundits and even conservative ones, such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, believe they have found the remedy for the Conservative Party: working with Reform UK. From my political insight alone, I can assure you this remedy is more like fool’s gold.
Let us consider the reductio ad absurdum that working with Reform UK is optimal.
Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage, whom Richard Tice fancies as a Gandhi or Mandela, has more similar characteristics to Prometheus. I use this parallel to highlight how both Prometheus and Farage purloined the fire from the gods, in Farage’s case the ‘political establishment’, and gave it to the people. If Farage considers the Conservatives the establishment he wishes to destroy in order to compartmentalise the political duopoly, then working with him would be nurturing a viper in your bosom.
Even in nature, Reform UK is filled with turncoats that have backstabbed Kemi Badenoch, which highlights the characteristics of their party.
James Cleverly, who is a fervent Warhammer fan, will agree with me that their ex-Conservative politicians are like those of the heretic Astartes. There is also some disingenuity with Farage first advocating to move past first past the post, which at first appeared reasonable to most as it didn’t favour parties with few parliamentarians and large popularity, making it harder to receive allocated time, though now he has extended his definition as ‘First Past the Post can be your enemy, but there comes an inversion point at which it becomes your friend’.
Nevertheless, I understand why commentators would wish for a coalition between the Conservatives and Reform.
If the Liberal Democrats, Greens, and Labour all formed some rainbow coalition, then ‘mere anarchy is loosed upon the world’. But Reform UK isn’t as politically consistent as Danny Kruger would like you to believe. Whilst Kruger is excellent at policy, Robert Jenrick is substandard, and this could be the reason why Zia Yusuf wrote on X: ‘Robert’s answer is not Reform policy’. I had also woken up to a community note on Guido Fawkes’ X post on Jenrick detailing falling net immigration, which labelled Jenrick as ‘disingenuous’ and stated that it was James Cleverly who made changes to the visa scheme that resulted in the current net migration reduction. Then the note delivered the final blow: ‘Jenrick could have, but didn’t’.
Essentially working with Reform UK, who had always been a stalking horse — a Trojan horse, to be precise, looking like a gift but in reality, a trap — is fundamentally dangerous for the Conservative reputation. “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster”.
To expand on this philosophy of Nietzsche, one ought to consider the Conservatives, Apollonian, representing balance, order, and justice, and Reform UK, Dionysian, representing all that is opposite, such as chaos and mayhem, which is what they most definitely achieved in the council elections in England, hence dividing the political balance. This looks great to those who cry for change, but in reality, it is a road to hyper normalisation.
Truly, I understand how tempting an alliance appears.
My constituency, Orkney, has always been a Liberal Democrat stronghold, but the Conservatives still had a foothold in the regional vote. Though in the recent general election Reform had absorbed votes in Moray, causing Tim Eagle to lose, and votes around the Highlands and Islands meant Jamie Halcro Johnston was unable to be returned to Holyrood. For reference, I was an agent at the count, and the Reform UK paper candidate, whom no one in Orkney knew, had not bothered to show up. Voters placed their trust in a candidate who had not bothered to make a speech or attend such an important moment.
Jamie Halcro Johnston, however, had appeared, and even though the results were blistering truths, he had courageously, in his final speech, thanked me and the team. Reform UK, the same party that commentators believe we should give courtesy, letting them run in Makerfield so the Conservatives could run a candidate in Aberdeen South for probability reasons alone, had allowed the SNP, Greens, and Liberal Democrats to get into Holyrood in my constituency alone by taking votes from the Conservatives.
Yet when another party appears to take their votes this time, Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain, an ex-Reform UK politician, Reform proponents throw a hissy fit and advocate for Reform to ask Restore not to ‘split the vote’. See the pattern? Reform has U-turned on several policies, including FPTP, and are divided before even in government. Now they’re going through comeuppance or contrapasso, traditionally reserved for the Guelphs and Ghibelline factions in Dante’s Inferno.
Reform UK is responsible for Orkney losing a hard-working MSP, Jamie Halcro Johnston, who fought for Orcadians and emphasised the importance of agriculture and the A9 dualling program, and whose family has been in Orkney since before the 16th century. Scottish leader of Reform UK, Malcolm Offord, has proven to have no solid stance on independence and seems to be opening the gates to John Swinney’s independence dream; this is not a party of opposition.
However, the good in the good, the bad, and the ugly of Reform UK does exist.
Richard Tice’s senior staffer Ryan Powell, who is talented, informed me about young people getting into politics and the betrayal that it entails. He was right about politicians metaphorically knifing each other in the back, but he never told me about Jess Phillips claiming she would ‘knife Jeremy Corbyn in the front’. Reform UK is the party of betrayers who masquerade in wanting change, the public doesn’t buy it.
Another good thing in Reform was in fact from Nigel Farage; he advised his Reform politicians to ‘keep disagreements private’. Unfortunately, Labour had not taken that advice, and while Wes Streeting perhaps tried to adopt that doctrine, it only lasted 17 minutes.
Unfortunately, the good doesn’t outweigh the bad, and Reform UK has done more harm than good.
As mentioned, their policies are inconsistent and rely on Danny Kruger and James Orr, who are both talented and managed to make the think tank Re:State happy with a Whitehall reform agenda. But this is simply not enough, and if we were to form a coalition with every imitative Conservative party because we wanted a majority, we would be no better than the Official Monster Raving Loony Party that merged with other ludicrous micro-parties.
People will come to realise that Restore Britain, Reform UK — which Sarah Pochin will confuse with each other — and other parties not important enough to name, are copies of each other and wish to be a party that they’ll never be – the Conservative Party.