Gawain Towler explains the ongoing campaign by the British establishment to destroy the existential threat The Reform Party poses to them.
The first aim, the one they would toast if they achieved it, is to take Farage down altogether, to force a resignation. They will not be so lucky. The second aim is subtler and in its way just as dangerous. It is aimed at the rear echelon. At the Reform leaning voter, the not sure but interested, the undecided man or woman who is being told, day after day, that these people are chaotic, tainted, not quite safe. Frighten the reserves and the front line starves.
If Farage were to resign, which he will not, Burnham would call a general election the next morning, before the smoke cleared. Since he will not, there will be a delay, and the pounding will continue. That is the nature of the thing. Preparatory bombardments do not stop because the defenders are steady. They stop when the attacker runs out of shells or out of time.
So what is required of us is not cleverness. It is resilience. We have been shelled before, in 2016, in 2019, in 2024, and we have remained undimmed. Morale is the true objective of every barrage, and morale is the one thing entirely within our own keeping. Courage under fire is not a slogan, it is a discipline, and it consists mostly of not doing things. Not wavering. Not sniping at our own. Not mistaking noise for damage.
If you are even vaguely considering supporting Reform, then you are the target of this carefully orchestrated campaign to convince you to do otherwise. I urge you to read the entire linked article: The Guns Before the Whistle.
Thucydides famously observed that “the secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage.”
Take courage.
Ooooo, he’s dishonest, he’s weird, his morals are gutterish, he’s in it for himself, he’ll cause chaos, he makes intemperate and childish decisions, he’s a danger to our democracy . . .
They’re following a proven playbook. That playbook works very well on a lot of credulous types, including here. Let’s see if they can repeat it with Farage.
Perhaps the argument should be — you are worried that Reform will screw things up? I mean how could they possibly do worse than the current government or the one before?
As soon as Reform hit a poll lead back in late 2024 I said that the next 4 years would be a litany of character assassination attempts on the party and particularly Farage. Who in their right mind thinks that the Establishment is going to just sit idly by while a bunch of iconoclasts sail serenely into power? Its going to be hard pounding, and we need to be able to pound harder and longer than they can.
One wonders why they are using up this ammunition now though, unless it is a straw in the wind that an election is far closer than anyone thinks. Burnham may have declared ‘No early election’ but frankly what value does that statement have? He’s obviously quite happy to say one thing one day and the opposite the next, so is quite capable of calling an election anyway despite his previous denials, and would never be called on it by the Usual Suspects. So maybe we should prepare for a GE sooner rather than later.