Farage supporters just want tighter immigration control and secure borders with a focus on the existing citizens of their country, which is in tatters because net migration is too high. They believe it needs controlling so our infrastructure can cope.
Absolutely not. That's what they SAY they want. The truth is very different. I've always thought of you as a smart guy so this has surprised me.
Spend a little time lurking on the Mail Online comments section or the GB News social media channels or even Reform UK's own boards. If you can stomach it. I did all of those for a good long while until I was sussed out by the admins (& until I deleted my X account last month)
What they actually want is many faceted. A few choice examples:
1) A move away from a taxation funded NHS towards an American style insurance model. They take great care to stress that it wouldn't FULLY move that way. Just enough to relieve the strain. In practice of course what that means is " I earn a good whack so I'd be able to afford it. **** everyone who can't " A nice little two tier NHS, with them in the top tier.
Of course they also want to stop immigration so the NHS would then have a staff crisis, so even more of a two tier divide (with them again at the top)
2) They don't like taxes. & at the same time decry the fact that infrastructure is falling apart. Schizophrenic politics 101.
Solution? Immigrants again. Get rid of them all & everyone else would have great well paying jobs, so we wouldn't need as much taxation because people could afford private services & we can cut public ones. Everyone who uses them is a scrounger after all (conveniently ignoring the fact that the vast majority of immigrants work in low paid jobs)
Politics as seen through the eyes of a 10 year old.
3) It's not just illegal immigration. It's all of it. Turn the UK into a white boy paradise. In their fevered minds, this will absolutely eliminate crime, increase a national sense of identity & (wait for it) Make Britain Great Again.
Some quotes that have stuck with me:
" I don't get the Ukraine thing. Let Putin get on with it. If your army is shit why is that our problem? Tough luck mate. Anyway aren't they all Nazis in Ukraine? Why are we sticking up for them. Plus a lot of them are gypos aren't they? I read that somewhere. So well, you know WTF "
" I'm sorry but even if you were born here & so were your parents I still don't think that makes you English. It takes more than that. I know that's not supposed to be said but I think a lot of people are waking up now "
" They actually make me feel physically sick. They don't belong here at all. England used to be lovely when I was a girl. It's horrible now it's full of these people. They do almost all the crime & also just scrounge benefits & take all the jobs " (I love that last part. Make up your mind me duck)
There are many, many more.
Reform UK everybody. The NF in a Barbour jacket.
Nigel himself was intimately connected to the far right all the way back to his schooldays at Dulwich College. First time I ever saw his name was on a list acquired from a regional office of the NF. He would have been at uni at that time. Long before he was a public figure.
The list was part of an operation the NF was considering at the time to place supporters inside the Conservative party at local level & within the YC on uni campuses. They had to be people who supported the policies of the Front but had never officially been members as that would be too easy to trace.
The Tories of course have never had a problem with allowing extremists to be members, as long as they absolutely promised that they had reformed & were no longer naughty boys & girls. But a former card carrying NF member would likely have been a step too far.
The operation was swiftly abandoned though. For one thing the NF was losing sway at that time & the BNP were taking over as the fascists of choice for the so inclined.
The other factor was summed up as " Well, Maggie is actually doing a lot of the stuff we wanted anyway. Lets hang back for a bit & see how it goes "
Farage is a racist, a bigot & an opportunist con artist & so are the majority of his admirers. I've met enough of them to be certain of that.
Reform UK is the last bastion of Little England delusion.
They'd have you on a boat soon as look at you.