Tattered, dirty flags hanging like limp rags from lamp posts symbolise Nigel Farage and Reform’s decline during a long, hot summer of discontent on the Hard and Far Right. Torn St George’s crosses and threadbare Union banners, neglected by the burly race-baiters who put them up in towns without asking if they were even wanted, have been abandoned to become filthy eyesores.
Reform's fortunes fade alongside its emblems
Reactionary, knee-jerk Reform cheered on the flag mania and, fittingly, the party has declined alongside the cheap emblems, dropping in the polls and descending into backbiting crudely vicious even for our fractious and frazzled politics.
Writing off the party completely would, obviously, be foolish and a hubris, inviting the electoral gods to raise up again the fallen, but the heyday of Reform and the flag fetishists feels over for good reasons.
Leadership battles and internal strife
Farage himself is considerably weaker, the £5million questions and Clacton hollow victory over a bin leaving him unable to control an increasingly fractious mob. Tory recruit Robert Jenrick wants to replace him as leader, as do loose cannon Zia Yusuf and, deposed in 2024, Richard Tice, while whispers claim sidelined Suella Braverman, another Conservative retread, wants a safer seat or she’s off.
Bob hates Zia who detests Bob who dislikes Richard who has no time for Bob and Zia. And Nigel? Since Clacton, he’s vanished, presumably to spend more time with other rich people’s money.
Historical parallels and uncertain future
Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Shirley Williams and the one nobody remembers (Bill Rodgers) were the Gang of Four who, in 1981 and 1982, vowed to transform politics with their anti-Labour Social Democratic Party before flopping at the ‘83 election then dissolving four years later.
We live in a different era so old maps are of limited use and Reform – an ultra Tory force – may prove more durable but there is also a flash-in-the-pan element. Without Farage, it would be nothing. As he sulks in one of his many homes, a beneficiary of a something-for-nothing culture in which global tycoons invest in politicians to champion vested financial interests, Farage may well ask himself whether the best is past for both him and Reform. The SDP’s fate may be on his mind.
