I see the Theatre Royal is staging Jesus Christ Superstar next year with Sam Ryder singing the lead role. I have already booked my ticket. I have always been very fond of this musical. Long ago I used to teach RE and I often used songs from this musical in my lessons because I thought it was a very good rendering of the latter days of Jesus’ life, the entry to Jerusalem, the last supper, the passion and finally the crucifixion.
There is a scene when the chief priests debate what to do about Jesus as the crowds cheer him. “What then to do about Jesus of Nazareth?, Miracle wonderman, hero of fools… But how can we stop him? His glamour increases, By leaps every moment he’s top of the poll.” In the local elections a year ago Reform surged and took control of 10 local authorities, including Durham. I expect senior Labour and Tory politicians were thinking somewhat similarly to the high priests in Superstar, only they substituted the name Farage for Jesus.
The Clacton by-election
Nigel Farage won the Clacton by-election, on a smaller turnout than before, but Count Binface gave him a good run for his money. If you do the maths, the total electorate is 75,900, and of these under a third voted for Farage. Under our electoral system that gave him enough to win, since the turnout was 44.37%, but I would hardly consider it a ringing endorsement from the people of Clacton.
Nigel Farage showed what he thought of the people of Clacton, not turning up for the count, and thereby insulting the hardworking Returning Officer and his staff, who had had to deal with 34 candidates. The whole circus cost the taxpayer £250,000 and Reform has the gall to tell voters it will eliminate waste and save public money. Farage tried to spin some tale that he was being threatened if he went to the count, but the police stated they had not advised him not to come. The real reason is he went to a victory bash to bask in the adulation of his supporters.
Now he is back in parliament the investigations into the fact that he took a gift of £5 million from the cryptocurrency tycoon Christopher Harborne and alleged undeclared donations linked to the convicted fraudster George Cottrell will continue. The whole stunt has got us nowhere and we are back where things were before. At the same time, he is trying to construct a theory that he is being persecuted by the “establishment”. The similarities with Trump in America are overwhelming and describing him as a “Poundland Trump” is pretty accurate, He tries to show that the media are against him, so he can denounce anything he doesn’t like as “fake news”, and that there is somehow an establishment plot against him. This enables him to “play the victim” and secure the support of those who feel the system is stacked against them. When challenged about the fact that he is personally enriching himself, just as Trump does, voters just shrug it off and say, “they all do it”. The trouble is he cannot do it as convincingly as Trump. Perhaps he should try and engage Caroline Leavitt, Trump’s utterly shameless and aggressive PR woman, now that she has left Trump’s employment.
It is easy to point out Nigel Farage’s shortcomings, and apparent lack of any moral character, but the fact remains he is able to secure votes, particularly in areas which are predominantly white and feel they have been neglected. This is primarily because of illegal immigration. I am not talking about legal migration, which is necessary to provide staff for vital public services such as the NHS and care services, but the illegal immigration which we see daily on our TV screens. Most of the migrants appear to be young men. The fact that some, but by no means all, of recent horrible crimes have been committed by people of foreign origin unfortunately links in the public mind with illegal immigration. More extreme elements will even see it as a deliberate attempt to undermine our society. Trump supporters in America even promote the narrative that the Biden administration somehow allowed in illegal migrants because they were more likely to vote Democrat and keep the Republicans out of power. Some people even believe it.
Unless illegal immigration can be brought under control Nigel Farage and his followers will continue to thrive. It is my view that Andy Burnham is right to keep Shabana Mahmood as Home Secretary, and that tough action is needed. The tender consciences of some Labour MPs will have to put up with it. If we cannot do this then Nigel Farage and Reform will continue to thrive.
This matters because some of their other policies are dangerous. Undermining Net Zero when large parts of the country are on fire and also backing away from support for Ukraine. In Durham where I live, they have even tried to stop us having electric buses. They claim immigrants are taking housing needed for poor people in this country but show no sign of building new council houses. Worse still they undermine standards of public life with crude abuse thrown at their opponents.
Reform is bad news for our politics, but they do represent a genuine grievance. Andy Burnham must stop the criminal trade in illegal migration.
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