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Gangs in a Cartel – Fate of the Conservatives and Reform UK

 

With a General Election looming in the latter half of 2024, there are two things I have been watching with interest lately. Firstly, the way the Conservative Party is handling Rishi Sunak. Secondly, the behaviour of Reform UK.

 

With regards to the Conservatives, it is almost certain that they will perform dismally at the Election, and so should it be the case. The problem that the Conservatives have, is that as unpopular and dislikable as Rishi Sunak is, nobody with any competence or career prospects within the Conservative Party will dare to take his place. His position now is the ultimate poisoned chalice. It is no surprise that although various factions of Tories talk about ousting him, those same factions don’t come quickly to throw their own hats into the ring. Because whoever takes his place is almost certain to lose the coming election, AND almost certain to then be replaced themselves in the aftermath, with their career unlikely to ever recover.

 

Which leads us to the Conservatives’ biggest concern at the moment politically – Reform UK.

 

Where that Party branded itself upon launch as a ‘third option’ to the Labour and Conservative duality, over time it has, as me and others predicted, centralised itself to the point where it is now almost indistinguishable from the Conservatives. Not a surprise, given that Richard Tice, its Leader, was a long-time Tory donor for most of his life. Over the past few months, Reform UK has routinely purged any candidates or members that it perceives (correctly or not) to be ‘too far-right', that is, too radical. At the same time, it has continued to fill its upper echelons with Tory defectors, the most recent being Lee Anderson, former Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party.

 

What is ultimately happening, and will continue to happen, is that Reform will fill itself with Tories to the point where the party IS the Tories. The fact that, even now, the polices are almost identical is a harbinger of this. Come the General Election, the polices will be so utterly similar that nobody other than a hardcore political commentator will be able to tell the difference.

 

The appeal of ‘Tory Party Mk 2/3/4’, in whatever form they take, is only limited to disaffected Tory voters. It offers nothing to the disaffected Labour voter, or to the non-voter. In the same way as entities like the Greens and TUSC (Trade Union and Socialist Coalition) only offer something to disaffected Labour voters, likewise does Reform only offer anything to disaffected Tories. And the more they centralise themselves in order to compete with their larger rival, the more they eliminate the only purpose they have for even existing.

 

This entire saga of rivalry and influence highlights the mentality of the people who populate the leadership of these parties. They are part of the Westminster Crime Cartel, vying for influence against each other but hostile to everyone outside of the cartel. And no matter which ‘gang’ they belong to, they will still behave exactly the same way, because the problem is NOT with the ideologies or the Parties, but with the nature of the kind of people that the current political system enables to reach positions of power.

 

This dance between the Tories and Reform highlights something that me and my colleagues have said for a long time – that any Party which wants to offer a genuine alternative, must be both radical and fearless, different enough to justify the entire mass of disaffected voters across the spectrum engaging with it. If it isn’t radically different, it isn’t worth it.

 

By Alek Yerbury

 

Party Leader