Reflections on the Civil War in Faragia

The real reason the Nigels are fighting the Ruperts

In a dire period for the sensible ye take your comfort where ye may. So the terminal falling out between the owner of the Reform party and one of the most prominent and self-promoting of his four fellow MPs has been a rare joy. The member of Great Yarmouth, Rupert Lowe has effectively been chucked out of the party, accused of threatening behaviour towards its chair, Zia Yusuf, and other misdemeanours. The police have been called. Mr Lowe refutes the allegations in terms that must surely lead to him suing the Faragists.

Seeking enlightenment on what was going on, I searched out the far right broadcasting and online ecosphere, mainly looking at posted segments from the broadcaster GBNEWS and whatever it is NewsUK’s Talk TV now is. There I found former deputy chairmen of previous iterations of Farage’s party interviewing former MEPs or other former deputy chairman of the same parties about the ructions in the tiny world they all inhabit.

As Trump imposed, de-imposed and re-imposed his tariffs the “big story of the week” according to Mike Graham of Talk TV was the Reform split because “a lot of the people who listen to this show, who are Talk aficionados, are Reform voters”. And indeed, it’s difficult to see why you would listen to Graham and his colleagues if you weren’t. On the other hand, you do feel as if you get inside the heads of Reform activists when you tune in.

So for days now it’s been “I know Rupert and he’s a perfect gentleman” or “Nigel and I have been friends for years” and that’s just the presenters - though it should be said that on these stations the presenters often fill in time by interviewing each other.

The main narrative concerning the falling out was one of personal rivalry. Obscure figures who have been wronged by Farage over the years queued up to talk about his brutal way with dissenting or competing wannabes. A very angry man called Ben Habib - co-deputy leader of Reform for 9 months up to the July election- was ubiquitous (his fellow co-deputy leader at the time has been a presenter on Talk TV since 2022). Even Alan Sked who founded UKIP back in the Jurassic was exhumed to complain about Farage. The Reform leader’s defenders included “one of my favourite guests” and now Reform spokesperson Anne Widdecombe.

The often-confused Reform-supporting hosts – who visibly had no idea whose side to take - would regularly suggest to their guests that it would be better if everyone went silent and settle their differences in private. Which would be an odd position for journalists to take.

To boil it down, the battle was represented as being between a ruthless leader determined to maintain control of a party that he had created and in which he was easily the most charismatic figure – and a highly effective, successful businessman-turned-parliamentarian. “It’s like having Messi and Ronaldo both on your team sheet” was one TALK host’s implausible judgement. Though judging by the call-ins to the shows and the comments beneath the YouTube segments, the Lowe supporters were outnumbering the Farage fans ten to one or more.

But it was exactly there that you began to get an idea what this was about for the denizens of this online space. “Farage & the muslim need to go from the party” wrote one underneath a Mike Graham interview, “Yes, they have to go”, someone replied, “100%” a third added. Routinely the commenters referred to Zia Yusuf as “Mohamed Yousuf’ using his first name (by which he is not known), instead of the one he calls himself. Essentially it was a parochial version of the old Trumpite “Barack HUSEIN Obama” trick. It’s a badge.

So immediately my sect-antennae picked up that the even-further right elements of Reform’s support were throwing their support behind Lowe. It followed that this was probably not a matter of who wins the Ballon de Merde, but rather one of which direction should the party go in – should it copy the Meloni tack to respectability or emulate the AfD’s doubling down on ethnonationalism (or racism to use the old name).