Musk's Millions really would 'Change Politics For Good' - THIS IS HOW
If Elon Musk did donate $100 million to Reform UK, the entire political landscape would change. Forever.
It was amazing what we did in 2013, 2014 and 2015. For the most part, we were a tiny team (the core of whom you could fit into a broom cupboard) but a bit like the wardrobe in Narnia, the world on the other side looked far greater, even if fantasticaI.
I used to find it astonishing that while my phone ran out of battery by 11am, as 11 missed calls piled in during the time in which I had handled just one media enquiry lasting mere minutes, the Conservatives had hundreds of staff at CCHQ not to mention the Parliamentary researchers and press officers for every single MP. And yet, we had them on the run. It took working weeks easily totalling one hundred hours and the sort of resolve to survive the trenches, yet I concluded that being tiny also meant being fleet of foot, and came with a David versus Goliath mentality. I worked on my birthday, at my cousin’s wedding, while in hospital, while on dates (did I even have any? I doubt it). The only time I remember not working was when Nigel gave me the green light to put the bloody phone down during a PFL (Proper F*cking Lunch). The alarm went off at 05:45, and I was lucky to get to bed by midnight, with a slew of check calls from overnight producers still lighting up my mobile phone in the wee small hours. It made me so exhausted I ended up in hospital with suspected Hodgkins Lymphoma. Thankfully, I was just knackered. But it was worth it.
I'm talking about the UKIP years, for which I was the Head of Media during the party’s heights of success and prominence between 2013-2015. When we came third in local elections, almost took seats in 2013 by elections, won the European elections in 2014 and fully planted ourselves on the map come the General Election of 2015. I saw firsthand how hard it is to fight behemoths when not only the establishment is against you, so are the finances.
I was then of course part of The Brexit Party, partly helping with the early set up of the party before being elected to the European Parliament myself.
And I was there in Reform UK, encouraging my old MEP colleagues to get involved over a year ago to so that we could begin sowing the seeds that this was a party of the future by exponentially increasing visibility, arguing that the only way to truly change politics in the UK would be via this vehicle, and this vehicle alone. And it worked. A variety of faces suddenly popping up across various channels expanded the brand and breathed fresh life into what was to become the Reform UK of today.
So I’ve seen and done a lot when it comes this game, ever since 2007 when I first encountered UKIP during the Welsh Assembly elections as a fresh faced student journalist.
What I have learned along the way in those 18 years (wow! 18 already) is that money really really does buy you success. Much like a football team, when you have staff and resources, output exponentially improves and climbing up the league becomes a probability.
It’s also true that you cannot have multiple small parties pulling in different directions to topple the Big Beasts. You need one, well resourced entity, that has its finger on the pulse to offer a red blooded alternative. Sorry, Reclaim and UKIP of today. That is not you.
So can Reform UK dream of winning the next General Election? Oh the Establishment finds that reassuringly far-fetched. After all, the less they get it, the greater the political divide that become stepping stones to power.
The answer is yes. And I can now see a path to doing so that no longer feels outrageously fanciful.
Here is how.