Is Reform The Answer?

Henry Bolton OBE

December 11, 2024.

I know a great many people, myself included, have completely lost faith in the Conservative Party, and Labour is pro-actively wrecking the country, and so the trend on the centre-right is to gravitate towards Reform.

I understand that, but Reform famously doesn’t do detail. Their list of intentions is far better presented by Nigel Farage, because he has the personality for it, than those of the Conservative Party, but, just like the Tories and Labour, Reform says they have a plan, but doesn’t.

It’s a list of things they say they want to do. That’s not a plan. There is no detail. The questions as to what they will do, why they will do it (even if seemingly obvious), when they will do it, how they will do it, what it will cost, where the money and resources will come from, and how they will manage the second and third order implications, are all totally lacking.

It’s very easy to tell people what they want to hear, it’s equally easy to draw up a contract with the people or a list of pledges. It’s a very different thing to actually deliver on those pledges, particularly if you’ve not done the detailed analysis and planning, which Reform have not, that’s absolutely necessary.

Reform will not have my confidence - no party will - until they’re able to demonstrate that they’ve actually done the difficult part of politics; that they’ve done the analysis and planning so that they know how to do the things they say they want to do.

An example:

Reform say they’ll stop the boats -

when I ask, “How?”

I’m told, “We’ll leave the ECHR.”

I then ask, “How will leaving the ECHR (which I support by the way), in itself, stop the boats?"

the answer is, “That’s detail Henry”.

More than 30,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats in 2024, including 20,000 since Labour came to power.

(Getty via the BBC)

Yes, it’s detail, but it’s rather important detail! We are seeing with Labour the incredible damage that a party can do in government if it simply charges forward with things it’s not thought about properly in advance.

I’d suggest we’ve had enough of parties that tell you everything you want to hear, and possibly, like Reform, are sincere in their intentions, but who haven’t done the difficult political work of figuring out how they’ll do it.

The result? Either they fail and disappoint, or they create other, bigger problems.

Henry Bolton OBE is a former British politician who was the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 29 September 2017 to 17 February 2018. He served in the British Army and the Police.

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