Inside politics
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What people get wrong about Farage
On Monday night, a hundred jubilant Reform UK staff and donors met in a Marylebone pub, where they ran up a five-figure bill toasting the local election results, says James Heale in The Spectator. Opponents will argue that winning is not the same as governing, and that Reform will be âfound out in officeâ. Running a major council, sniffs one Labour MP, is about âserious hard workâ. So far, Reform has made plenty of headlines with plans to use its councils to wage a series of campaigns: fighting the Home Office in court to stop asylum seekers being housed in their areas; insisting only national or county flags be flown on authority buildings; and resisting diversity training in all its forms. But what was striking during the election campaign was how much the party focused on delivery rather than dogma: âbin strikes instead of British sovereigntyâ.
Farage is a far more pragmatic politician than is generally understood, says Jason Cowley in The New Statesman. The standard view on the left is that âReform profits from despairâ, and itâs true that Farage speaks of âsocietal declineâ. But when he does, itâs always âenergetically and jauntilyâ. Consider a typical picture of him: âhe will be laughingâ. And thereâs nothing gloomy about Reform rallies. I recently reported from one that had the âraucous atmosphere of a night at the darts at Ally Pallyâ. By remodelling his own rhetoric for broader appeal, Farage is deliberately aping Italyâs Giorgia Meloni, who softened some of her more extreme views to win office. âSheâs disappointed some of her more radical supporters,â he tells me, but sheâs become a âstable prime ministerâ.
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Heroes and villains
Hero
Mother Superior Aline Pereira Ghammachi, who has reportedly been sacked by an Italian abbey for making and bottling prosecco as a side hustle. It reminds me of that old joke, says Carol Midgley in The Times, about a young girl in convent school who said she wanted to be a prostitute when she grew up. âWhat did you say?â screamed the horrified nun. âA prostitute,â the girl repeated. âOh, thank the Lord for that,â said the nun. âI thought you said âprotestantâ.â
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