Nigel Farage's Trump-influenced far-right party Reform UK is going through a purple patch at the moment. Opinion polls show them with a comfortable lead: Reform 31%, Labour 20%, Conservatives 16%, Liberal Democrats 14%, Greens 10%.
According to other polls, 34% believe that Reform has a good long-term economic plan, and 38% think they have a good plan for changing Britain generally. But, crucially, over half say they are not confident in ANY of the parties.
And there's the rub. The poll indications are not so much because the Reform Party and its policies are intrinsically that popular. It's more a function of disaffection with the other main parties. Labour came to power in last year's general election with a strong majority, after years of Conservative mismanagement, chaos and scandal. But Labour too has proved ineffectual, dithering and underwhelming since the election.
And, it has to be said, Farage talks a good game - embarrassingly extreme when you stop and think about what he is actually saying, but couched in appealing populist terms. Donald Trump has singlehandedly moved the Overton window so far, that much of Farage's schtick seems almost reasonable.
For example, clinging onto Trump's coattails as he drags America into a new dark age, Farage says that if elected, he will take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights and engage in a mass deportation of immigrants on a scale not even dreamt of since the days of Enoch Powell.
In fact, I'm not convinced that many of the 30-odd per cent of Britons who claim to be in favour of Reform UK actually know much about its policies. It's more of a knee-jerk pox-on-both-your-houses type reaction. And that's probably the most dangerous type of reaction. Brits should be careful what they wish for.
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