The War Against the Future
Reform, Restore, Conserve, Britain’s various flavours of far-right politics are in the ascendancy and feeding-off the collapse of mainstream parties. They are venturing into new extremes as they jostle with each other for power.
In many senses the news that a Reform government would cut the minimum wage for younger workers is absolutely in tune with their policies on climate. They know that they have no supporter base among young people so they have no incentive to reach out to them. In many ways this is a war against the future and an intergenerational feud, with a whole generation of financially privileged and culturally entitled people leaving their descendants in abject conditions because they don’t like the world they’ve retired into.
It’s easy to laugh at them, so we will.
Almost frame by frame this broadcast is either hilarious, terrifying or filled with factual errors. Here you go:
Alexa – show me the fever dream of an ageing toff with a WW2 obsession who wants to re-live his over-privileged childhood. pic.twitter.com/HgpOe67KwU
— Parody Nigel Farage (@Parody_PM) February 16, 2026
“In 1997 Britain was in good shape, we knew who we were, we were still one country, and most importantly the population was stable …” intones Lowe behind a blur of London buses, Red Squirrels, the White Cliffs of Dover, Sheep, people playing cricket, and drinking proper British pints, eating proper British sausage rolls and subtle messaging like ‘the State is Bad’.
The broadcast continues with the arrival of James Bond, Dad’s Army, the Mini, and, er the Boer War, with flashes of the 1966 World Cup Final and the Red Arrows over the words DEPORT DEPORT DEPORT … before reaching some kind of orgy of Boomer Slop with Nelson and a Lion on top of a Rolls Royce.
The messaging never rises above crude parody and undiluted bigotry, casually conflating and switching between ‘England’ and ‘Britain’ and dipping into a fervent Christian Nationalism.
It’s also worth watching Rupert’s personal message here:
I am today launching Restore Britain as a national political party.
Join us.https://t.co/RMtEuHopgV pic.twitter.com/jQMAOjQJ5A
— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) February 13, 2026
“This is the England I know, and this is the England I love” mutters Rupert as he inspects some unidentified material in his barn, before unburdening himself with a horrendous racist diatribe.
Next, he explains he is issuing invitations to ‘Patriots’ as he lines up a new party for the next General Election that will be even more extreme than Reform UK.
The impression of Britain cascading not only backwards but down towards some very dark future is overwhelming.
The iconography of English fascism is simultaneously hilarious and terrifying. For while it’s difficult to comprehend something as stupid as this (how do you critique something that is already a pastiche?), it is also deadly serious, with Elon Musk flooding money into Rupert Lowe’s bizarre outfit.
The TUC tells us: “BREAKING | Reform announce plans to legalise discrimination. Plans include scrapping the Equality Act, which would legalise discrimination against a worker if they were a woman, disabled, black, pregnant or gay. From ripping up equality protections, to backing fire-and-rehire, to opposing a ban on zero-hours contracts, Reform UK have made it clear whose side they’re on – and it’s not working people.”
It’s worth noting that Reform’s newly announced Shadow Cabinet is 100% privately educated. Britain has not had a 100% privately educated Cabinet since 1955.
Today, Farage announced his ‘Shadow Cabinet’ (some of who aren’t even MPs). As a readers note to a Farage tweet stated: “The Shadow Cabinet is an official part of the UK Parliamentary system, and is formed from members of His Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition, appointed by the Leader of the Opposition. As Farage is not Leader of the Opposition, he cannot appoint a Shadow Cabinet.”
The freelance journalist Sam Bright: “Nigel Farage has appointed Robert Jenrick as his second in command – his “shadow chancellor” – an accomplice to 14 years of Conservative economic crimes. On so many levels, he’s a thoroughly loathsome politician.” He explores this central idea here.
Many of the people Farage has surrounded himself with have the same personal qualities as Jenrick: none. As Bright notes: “… this latest political conversion epitomised the Jenrick we’ve come to know and loathe over recent years – a man who’s constantly shapeshifting in a desperate attempt to acquire the political status he thinks he deserves.”
These people used to operate on the margins. They were considered odd, unhinged, and embarrassing.
Now, in part accelerated by the crisis of identity that was the Brexit fiasco, they are front and centre, ready to take office.
Here’s Suella Braverman “Declaring a war on woke ideology, Suella Braverman pledged to create a “patriotic, balanced curriculum, which fosters a love of this great country” and end “transgender chaos in the classroom”
Despite accelerating environmental collapse, and despite us all witnessing the horrific reality of the mass deportations they advocate playing out in the US, here we are. Watch as Farage, Trump-like ignores and deflects Anna Gross’s question here.
As Europe is “urged to prepare for 3C of global heating” and grotesque social inequality grows in Britain, large sections of the population appear to support the most extreme far-right politics you have ever seen in your life. This is The War Against the Future.
….. Dear God !!, this is indeed TERRIFYING, that individual is demonstrably the embodiment of a “Fascist” …. his England/Britain “our Country” … eh! … there are TWO other COUNTRIES and the Provence of Northern Ireland in this U.K. …. seems like we’ve all been subsumed into a ‘Greater England’, (well paint me surprised !!), for my part Scotland, Wales & N.I. should wish his England “Bon Voyage” and in the Immortal words of the Late/ Great Winnie Ewing …. “stop the world, we want to get on” …. this cluster F*@k has to end now !!!
An entertaining soliloquy and somewhat one dimensional, no real conclusion reached.
Let’s be clear political parties are there to be glorified and pilloried as we wish, no one party will have all the answers.
I found the piece unhelpful, unnecessarily rude to the extreme, this is not the way to make your point, the British need a way out of the mess that’s been created over the last 30 years or so, let’s try and be subjective please.
LOLs – note to self, don’t be rude to fascists. Right.
To use a term so beloved of Reform supporters your response betrays you as a ‘bit of a snowflake’.
Reform are a bunch of far right Tories who gave us Brexit which had caused many of the problems they are now highlighting.
Farage is a racist chancer who is not only a Trump fanboy but wants to be the UK Trump. To do so he has formed a private party filling up with failed Tories. He is an economic literate who worshipped Liz Truss’s budget who has little to offer beyond complaining about immigration. Net migration in UK is predicted to be negative by end of 2026 so they will turn to repatriation. Farage would sell out the NHS to US private healthcare at the drop of the hat.
Rupert Lowe is even further right than Farage and has even less relevance to Scotland than Farage.
Reform have very few policies for Scotland and little to offer beyond immigration. They are currently a repository for racists and the ‘plague on all their houses’ voters.
Rupert Lowe is even too right wing for Farage but is probably useful because Lowe’s extremism makes Farage seem less extreme though he may peel off the racist vote especially as he will be backed by Musk’s money.
Lowe’s relevance to Scotland lies in the fact that he said (on Facebook) that he would abolish the Scottish parliament (and Welsh Senett). Reform would work within it.
There is a more general interest in that his supporters are toying with reviving English ethno-nationalism, which was largely abandoned in Scotland around the late 1970s or early 1980s, e.g. by reading Alan Macfarlane’s Origins of English Individualism.
Stephen – I await with bated breath Reform’s Scottish policies for upcoming Holyrood election.
I think there is every chance that Rupert Lowe’s party will drag Reform further rightward to a more English nationalist position in a similar way that UKIP and Reform have dragged the Tory Party (& some say the Labour Party) rightward.