Politics is what interior decorators call a “mood board” – a collage of tones, emotions and contrasts intended to convey an underlying message.
That spectrum at the over-eventful Reform UK conference ranged from gloomiest black mood, peddling victim status to the teal-suited larkiness of Nigel Farage. Even so, the biggest showman in UK politics laced his gutsy “I will survive” message with a bleaker one about his family wishing he would quit frontline politics.
The mood of the Birmingham gathering therefore veered wildly between the excitement Reform generates (to the envy of other parties) at its rallies, with Boney M belting out 1980s hits at the Friday night disco and the aggrieved response to a Channel 4 News expose. The expose, first deemed “hoax” but then lead to instant suspensions and news that Farage was “not pleased” with the role of his adjutants in the documentary.
It was a reminder that Reform’s core strength and its Achilles heel simultaneously is that so much that happens in its power structures and public presentation depends on the day-to-day mood of one man and his instant preferences. Reform has” founder syndrome” – the dominance of one person who created it from the roots of Ukip and the Brexit party – and who can give an instinctive thumb up or down on every issue that matters in his ranks.
