I totally agree with you, Alex. Well said. The fact that Ben Habib and Rupert Lowe can't even get together reveals something: that it's about them both wanting to be top dog! Is their aim merely to destroy Reform? Because they haven't a cats in hell chance of getting to power.
Alex, you are obviously bright and ambitious and I have enjoyed your zesty writing on the odd occasion, even if your love of alliteration gets a bit tiresome.
What's even more tiresome is your fawning Farage fangirl flag-waving (sorry, couldn't resist), which means you seem to spend a lot of time and effort attacking Habib or Lowe for having the temerity to criticise Nigel, instead of actually addressing their concerns. Your derision is starting to sound rather like the dreadful Oakeshott, belittling and demeaning anyone from the right who doesn't fall into line with Farage, Tice, Anderson and Yusuf. A more smug bunch of snake oil pushers you'd struggle to name, and yet if a man like Rupert Lowe tries to pursue his convictions, he (and by extension the many who support him) is to be cast aside in the most unseemly and pathetic of ways.
What's more, any of us who don't lap up such reprehensible behaviour as Reform demonstrated in the Lowe affair, and who don't stay quiet 'for the good of Reform', are therefore politically homeless, yet we're expected to remain mute instead of looking for representation.
As someone who has known Nigel for 20 years. Worked in politics for as long. Has dedicated her life to trying to change this country, and knows Ben and Rupert personally, I reserve the right to critique the lot of it.
Why oh WHY can all of these top, TOP guys get together for the good of our beleaguered Great Britain 🇬🇧😀
So many people good people have been lost from this 'right' venture over the years.....inevitably inflated 'egos' have probably been the cause, and it STILL continues‼️
PLEASE BUILD OUR COUNTRY SAVING TEAM Nigel, 'tis our only hope 🙏👌🤞
For all of Nigel's energy and charisma and showmanship, he's never done two things that are essential for a party that wants to form a government. He has never signed up to a properly thought-out manifesto. When UKIP produced one, he disowned it and invented his own policies on the fly. He has never built up a credible team of "big beasts". Kilroy-Silk, Douglas Carswell, Rupert Lowe, Ben Habib, Catherine Blaiklok and many others have been stabbed in the back.
Inevitably, the people who have worked for him over the years have concluded that Reform is going nowhere. Nobody wants to split the vote and nobody wants to have to go through all the grind of building up another party. Unfortunately, there is really no alternative.
The 2015 UKIP Manifesto was fully costed and anachronistic in its political genius.
BXP didn't need one for Euros, why have policies when it's a show of rebellion about leaving the EU, not drawing up desires for Brussels diktat.
2019 was a snap election so all parties were caught short, as was 2024
There is now a Reform.reseaech unit and.think tank, showing intent to create a properly financed manifesto for when it really counts.
It makes me very sad that 2 men have done so much to try to skewer the success of the party that for the first time in 100 years could shake up the way the country is run. Anybody who thinks they are bigger or more important than this once a generation glimmer of hope is in fact a very small person indeed.
So what, exactly did they do? Habib wanted a democratic party, rather than a private company controlled by one or two men. Lowe wanted a proper structure rather than a one-man band led by someone with a messiah complex.
Even if you disagree with their criticism, how does that justify calling the police with an obviously false claim that Rupert Lowe threatened to kill the chairman? Does it not bother you that none of the MPs and cabinet ministers from the Tory party shows any interest in joining Reform, even when Reform has twice as many supporters in the opinion polls?
This country faces an existential threat to its very existence and you chose to attack Ben and Rupert.
It’s going to take an army of men and women of Ben and Rupert’s calibre to fight this battle on so many fronts and you, of all people should understand that.
Rupert's quest is noble, all strength to his elbow.
Ben on the other hand,.whom I know exceptionally well on a personal level, has become unrecognisable from the person he once was. Which is likely why Rupert has no interest in joining his 'party'
You may think I am being unfair but as one of very few people who knows everyone involved and everything that happened, I can.at least honour my readers by telling them the truth.
Sorry Alex but I do not recognise your characterisation of Ben.
Some people may give more weight to your opinion because you know all these men personally, but sometimes, loyalty to one individual through long association can get in the way, can’t it?
It’s interesting that you use the word ‘noble’ in relation to Rupert given the appalling way he was treated by the leadership of Reform. Involving the police, no less, is a tactic employed by those on the left and takes things to another level. Disgraceful.
You claim that Rupert has no interest in joining Ben’s ‘party’. Just for clarification, Rupert in now an independent M.P. and Advance U.K. is not yet a fully fledged party. However, I think it’s fair to say at this stage that their views are very much aligned so who knows what may happen in the future?
I am a member of Reform by the way having joined the party when it had less than 30,000 members. It saddens me immensely that both Rupert and Ben are now outside of the party. Two intelligent, patriotic and highly articulate men that Reform can ill afford to lose.
I think she's 'attacking' them because they serve no purpose but to split the vote on the (actual) right, at a time when Reform is looking very well primed to win the next election. It's like a suicide job. Either that or they actually WANT to split the vote. The mind boggles at the sheer vanity of it all. As Alex writes, creating a party that can credibly win under First Past the Post takes a lot of hard graft over a considerable number of years.
I think that both you and Alex attribute motives to Ben and Rupert that they don’t actually have.
The problem with Nigel is that he seems incapable of building a team of people who have exceptional ability and talent This is what Trump has done in America and we need to do the same. Reform is Nigel Farage - but what would happen if he walked away, or God forbid, became unwell?
Our country is being destroyed on so many levels and the task ahead is momentous.The burden cannot rest on the shoulders of one man. Is he man enough to recognise that though?
Whatever the motives of Ben and Rupert, they are not helping but gravely hindering the cause. They are amateurs, especially in comparison to Nigel Farage who has been doing politics for years, and is arguably the most influential politician of the last half century. It's simply not true that Reform is a one man band and, whatever you may think of their team, they have been riding high in the polls for months. What kind of egomaniac then thinks to himself: hey, what if I now started another party to compete with Reform, and thus diminish the chances of the old guard being overturned? The plight of the country is desperate, and dangerous. We can't be doing with all this internal division amongst those who want to set things aright. It's just plain demented to go down this path, and Dan Wooton must take his fair share of the blame for encouraging this unholy pilgrimage.
Ben's thing is possibly a bit pointless but Rupert's is not a party, I see it as a bit like Project 2025 in the states that must've influenced Trump and his team, so even though they're not mates anymore Rupert can help Reform. I especially like the idea of the great repeal act, and I do wonder if Liz Truss might be involved behind the scenes which could also be good, if they develop policies and influence the government and reform or the Tories I don't see any harm in that.
Our salvation is not with the Labour or Conservative Party. They are lost causes that are incapable of reading the mood of the country. If I read the runes correctly we are desperately in need of a government that is prepared to act in the interests of the British people, which is difficult in itself as we have become a nation of strangers. You only have to travel from London to a Shire village to see the utter gulf in possible consensus. The support for Reform is coming from people who want to live in a country where they feel safe. Where they can watch their children recieve a balanced and honest education and continue to thrive as they grow. Where everyone feels that there is a positive future in front of them.
It's not looking that way is it. Successive goverments have gradually eroded the necessary social contract. We no longer trust politicians which is a very sad state to be in. So one thing Reform have to do is restore honesty and integrity before they do anything else - otherwise we continue to live in a society akin to the Wild West.
As you say """god luck":"", here in Durham we have "at last" got rid of liebore we know there's no magic bullet but they have started as they mean to go on, happiest been for ages
I worry that we are at the end of the road I was a huge fan of Nigel but he really puts me off when he takes unprovoked shots at Tommy Robinson, it seems he is becoming the establishment
Alex, if you see Farage as PM material then you and I have a very different view of the world because I see that as a complete disaster for the UK. Farage is not cut from the same cloth as Winston Churchill and that is what we need. In some strange way I think Rupert Lowe is, perhaps Robert Jenrick as well. The pool we are fishing in is pretty shallow but Farage!!
Well said Alex I am a Reform member. In Wales so will be voting next year . No party can be all things to all people,I don’t agree with everything but do agree with most of the information so far. And it’s a compromise I am willing to make . I voted conservative all of my life 72yrs old and counting.. Not any more and as for the Starmer/ Hermer party 🤬🤬🤬🤬
I totally agree with you, Alex. Well said. The fact that Ben Habib and Rupert Lowe can't even get together reveals something: that it's about them both wanting to be top dog! Is their aim merely to destroy Reform? Because they haven't a cats in hell chance of getting to power.
Boring.
Alex, you are obviously bright and ambitious and I have enjoyed your zesty writing on the odd occasion, even if your love of alliteration gets a bit tiresome.
What's even more tiresome is your fawning Farage fangirl flag-waving (sorry, couldn't resist), which means you seem to spend a lot of time and effort attacking Habib or Lowe for having the temerity to criticise Nigel, instead of actually addressing their concerns. Your derision is starting to sound rather like the dreadful Oakeshott, belittling and demeaning anyone from the right who doesn't fall into line with Farage, Tice, Anderson and Yusuf. A more smug bunch of snake oil pushers you'd struggle to name, and yet if a man like Rupert Lowe tries to pursue his convictions, he (and by extension the many who support him) is to be cast aside in the most unseemly and pathetic of ways.
What's more, any of us who don't lap up such reprehensible behaviour as Reform demonstrated in the Lowe affair, and who don't stay quiet 'for the good of Reform', are therefore politically homeless, yet we're expected to remain mute instead of looking for representation.
'PFLs at The Mog', give me strength 🤮
Why read my work if it bothers you so much?
As someone who has known Nigel for 20 years. Worked in politics for as long. Has dedicated her life to trying to change this country, and knows Ben and Rupert personally, I reserve the right to critique the lot of it.
Why would people not read your work. I read it and let me decide to NOT subscribe to you.
Spot on Alex! It's a vanity project! I'm afraid Ben will be lost in the long grass of political history. Shame really!
Why oh WHY can all of these top, TOP guys get together for the good of our beleaguered Great Britain 🇬🇧😀
So many people good people have been lost from this 'right' venture over the years.....inevitably inflated 'egos' have probably been the cause, and it STILL continues‼️
PLEASE BUILD OUR COUNTRY SAVING TEAM Nigel, 'tis our only hope 🙏👌🤞
For all of Nigel's energy and charisma and showmanship, he's never done two things that are essential for a party that wants to form a government. He has never signed up to a properly thought-out manifesto. When UKIP produced one, he disowned it and invented his own policies on the fly. He has never built up a credible team of "big beasts". Kilroy-Silk, Douglas Carswell, Rupert Lowe, Ben Habib, Catherine Blaiklok and many others have been stabbed in the back.
Inevitably, the people who have worked for him over the years have concluded that Reform is going nowhere. Nobody wants to split the vote and nobody wants to have to go through all the grind of building up another party. Unfortunately, there is really no alternative.
The 2015 UKIP Manifesto was fully costed and anachronistic in its political genius.
BXP didn't need one for Euros, why have policies when it's a show of rebellion about leaving the EU, not drawing up desires for Brussels diktat.
2019 was a snap election so all parties were caught short, as was 2024
There is now a Reform.reseaech unit and.think tank, showing intent to create a properly financed manifesto for when it really counts.
It makes me very sad that 2 men have done so much to try to skewer the success of the party that for the first time in 100 years could shake up the way the country is run. Anybody who thinks they are bigger or more important than this once a generation glimmer of hope is in fact a very small person indeed.
So what, exactly did they do? Habib wanted a democratic party, rather than a private company controlled by one or two men. Lowe wanted a proper structure rather than a one-man band led by someone with a messiah complex.
Even if you disagree with their criticism, how does that justify calling the police with an obviously false claim that Rupert Lowe threatened to kill the chairman? Does it not bother you that none of the MPs and cabinet ministers from the Tory party shows any interest in joining Reform, even when Reform has twice as many supporters in the opinion polls?
How condescending Alex. You demean yourself!
This country faces an existential threat to its very existence and you chose to attack Ben and Rupert.
It’s going to take an army of men and women of Ben and Rupert’s calibre to fight this battle on so many fronts and you, of all people should understand that.
Why are you attacking them?
Linda, I personally know all the men involved.
Rupert's quest is noble, all strength to his elbow.
Ben on the other hand,.whom I know exceptionally well on a personal level, has become unrecognisable from the person he once was. Which is likely why Rupert has no interest in joining his 'party'
You may think I am being unfair but as one of very few people who knows everyone involved and everything that happened, I can.at least honour my readers by telling them the truth.
Sorry Alex but I do not recognise your characterisation of Ben.
Some people may give more weight to your opinion because you know all these men personally, but sometimes, loyalty to one individual through long association can get in the way, can’t it?
It’s interesting that you use the word ‘noble’ in relation to Rupert given the appalling way he was treated by the leadership of Reform. Involving the police, no less, is a tactic employed by those on the left and takes things to another level. Disgraceful.
You claim that Rupert has no interest in joining Ben’s ‘party’. Just for clarification, Rupert in now an independent M.P. and Advance U.K. is not yet a fully fledged party. However, I think it’s fair to say at this stage that their views are very much aligned so who knows what may happen in the future?
I am a member of Reform by the way having joined the party when it had less than 30,000 members. It saddens me immensely that both Rupert and Ben are now outside of the party. Two intelligent, patriotic and highly articulate men that Reform can ill afford to lose.
I think she's 'attacking' them because they serve no purpose but to split the vote on the (actual) right, at a time when Reform is looking very well primed to win the next election. It's like a suicide job. Either that or they actually WANT to split the vote. The mind boggles at the sheer vanity of it all. As Alex writes, creating a party that can credibly win under First Past the Post takes a lot of hard graft over a considerable number of years.
I think that both you and Alex attribute motives to Ben and Rupert that they don’t actually have.
The problem with Nigel is that he seems incapable of building a team of people who have exceptional ability and talent This is what Trump has done in America and we need to do the same. Reform is Nigel Farage - but what would happen if he walked away, or God forbid, became unwell?
Our country is being destroyed on so many levels and the task ahead is momentous.The burden cannot rest on the shoulders of one man. Is he man enough to recognise that though?
Whatever the motives of Ben and Rupert, they are not helping but gravely hindering the cause. They are amateurs, especially in comparison to Nigel Farage who has been doing politics for years, and is arguably the most influential politician of the last half century. It's simply not true that Reform is a one man band and, whatever you may think of their team, they have been riding high in the polls for months. What kind of egomaniac then thinks to himself: hey, what if I now started another party to compete with Reform, and thus diminish the chances of the old guard being overturned? The plight of the country is desperate, and dangerous. We can't be doing with all this internal division amongst those who want to set things aright. It's just plain demented to go down this path, and Dan Wooton must take his fair share of the blame for encouraging this unholy pilgrimage.
Ben's thing is possibly a bit pointless but Rupert's is not a party, I see it as a bit like Project 2025 in the states that must've influenced Trump and his team, so even though they're not mates anymore Rupert can help Reform. I especially like the idea of the great repeal act, and I do wonder if Liz Truss might be involved behind the scenes which could also be good, if they develop policies and influence the government and reform or the Tories I don't see any harm in that.
100% Alex. No more to add except the vanity of men…🙄
I totally agree Ben needs to get over himself,he is coming across as immature and vindictive.
Our salvation is not with the Labour or Conservative Party. They are lost causes that are incapable of reading the mood of the country. If I read the runes correctly we are desperately in need of a government that is prepared to act in the interests of the British people, which is difficult in itself as we have become a nation of strangers. You only have to travel from London to a Shire village to see the utter gulf in possible consensus. The support for Reform is coming from people who want to live in a country where they feel safe. Where they can watch their children recieve a balanced and honest education and continue to thrive as they grow. Where everyone feels that there is a positive future in front of them.
It's not looking that way is it. Successive goverments have gradually eroded the necessary social contract. We no longer trust politicians which is a very sad state to be in. So one thing Reform have to do is restore honesty and integrity before they do anything else - otherwise we continue to live in a society akin to the Wild West.
Well said, Steve.
As you say """god luck":"", here in Durham we have "at last" got rid of liebore we know there's no magic bullet but they have started as they mean to go on, happiest been for ages
I worry that we are at the end of the road I was a huge fan of Nigel but he really puts me off when he takes unprovoked shots at Tommy Robinson, it seems he is becoming the establishment
Alex, if you see Farage as PM material then you and I have a very different view of the world because I see that as a complete disaster for the UK. Farage is not cut from the same cloth as Winston Churchill and that is what we need. In some strange way I think Rupert Lowe is, perhaps Robert Jenrick as well. The pool we are fishing in is pretty shallow but Farage!!
Do you know what a boondoggle is? (It’s a pair of steel balls!)
Well said Alex I am a Reform member. In Wales so will be voting next year . No party can be all things to all people,I don’t agree with everything but do agree with most of the information so far. And it’s a compromise I am willing to make . I voted conservative all of my life 72yrs old and counting.. Not any more and as for the Starmer/ Hermer party 🤬🤬🤬🤬
Keep up the good work Alex