Nigel Farage absolutely loves the USA. He’s been there at least nine times since being elected as MP for Clacton in July 2024. This man visits the USA as casually as most of us visit our local pub.
Farage has been in the USA talking about how Britain is “authoritarian”. Unlike Keir Starmer, I don’t think that Mr Farage is “badmouthing” Britain. He is badmouthing its government — a government that most British people very much dislike. If Prime Minister Starmer does not want his government to be called “authoritarian”, he should change the laws and standards that have led to comic writers being arrested over mean tweets.
Still, when Mr Farage urges American politicians and businessmen to tell their British counterparts that they have “got it wrong” on free speech, I am not sure what he is accomplishing. Perhaps the only thing that could make British people warm to Keir Starmer is if he is being nagged by a bunch of meddling Yanks.
There is a real extent to which Reform UK are succeeding in spite of themselves. They have not created the dissident energy in Britain — as I have written before — but are its beneficiaries. One example of their more inept attempts to capture the public mood is their imitation of Donald Trump’s America.
Reform UK’s attempt to ape the Trump administration is a little baffling
Zia Yusuf, the previous Chairman of Reform UK, is leading the Reform UK Department of Government Efficiency. In the US, “DOGE” was a complete flop — systemically misunderstanding the nature of American governance and saving a small fraction of what it intended. Its architect, Elon Musk, keeps slagging off Nigel Farage. Reform, then, are in the curious position of imitating the failed project of someone who dislikes them.
Scanning the Reform Conference agenda, one finds other strange attempts to imitate the Trump administration. In the USA, gravel-voiced crank RFK, Jr. is leading an attempt to “Make America Healthy Again”. The Reform UK Conference boasts a speech with the title “Make Britain Healthy Again”. Clearly, it is ironic for a party led by Farage, who seems happiest with a cigarette in one hand and a pint in the other, to be banging on about health. But it is also revealing that the speech is being delivered by the serial misinformation artist Aseem Malhotra — a man who has hopped from blaming carbohydrates for everything to blaming COVID vaccines for everything. For example, Malhotra speculated that the death of cricket legend Shane Warne was linked to vaccines — somewhat overlooking a history of smoking, drinking and yo-yo dieting.
Reform UK’s attempt to ape the Trump administration is a little baffling. President Trump is widely disliked in the UK — with YouGov suggesting that he is disliked by 70 per cent of people and liked by 16 per cent of people — making it no election winner. Cries of “Make Britain Great Again” have no constituency, as well as being tiresomely unoriginal. Like or loathe President Trump, he has not had the sort of governmental success that would make it obvious to imitate his formulae. The next US presidential election might well precede the next British general election, which means that Farage and Trump’s friendship may not be useful if and when Reform are in government.
Brexiteers were absolutely right that the UK could not become just another European country (in the bland sense of progressive managerialists). But nor can Britain become the USA. This is not to suggest that we cannot take inspiration from our American friends (for example, on free speech). But inspiration is not the same as imitation.
“We read the same books,” said Mr Farage this week, paying tribute to the so-called “special relationship”, “We watch the same movies, we listen to the same music, we share a language, and our countries are closer than ever.” Again, it is doubtless true that Britain and the USA share cultural commonalities — and quite right too. But Britain also needs its cultural distinctiveness. Perhaps Mr Farage should set aside his love for the glamour of the USA and look closer to home. How can he aspire to lead Britain to bigger things if it seems too small for him?
