Fourteen years of Conservative government has decimated the UK’s economy and public services. And no party – not the Conservatives, Labour nor Reform – have realistic plans to get us out of the mire – soon. It is easy to understand why people have turned to Nigel Farage, but he represents a dangerous and false dawn.
Prior to his reengagement with politics and the publication of the Reform manifesto, comparisons between Farage and Hitler seemed unnecessarily fear-inducing. But, as the campaign has progressed, the similarities become increasingly evident.
This election is just one stage in Farage’s road map to power and he has made no secret of his desire to be PM by 2029. With many Reform candidates believing that the party is a welcoming place for those with positive things to say about Hitler, a future slide toward dictatorship in the UK seems closer than ever. Every vote for Farage now will strengthen its likelihood.
Reform has launched its manifesto, not as an agenda for implementation, but as an opposition platform from which Farage can springboard into power in the 2029 election. He has no expectation of implementing these policies but will attempt to force the next government to do so, much like Hitler forced the Reichstag to introduce emergency powers in 1933 and then used them to suppress dissent when he became Chancellor shortly after. As was noted by Time Magazine, “the German government appeared to be trying to ‘out-Hitler Hitler’” – much like the Conservative Party is now attempting to out-Reform Reform.
The makings of a dictator
Comparing Farage and Reform with fascists of the past can act as a useful indicator of the threat they pose to UK democracy. Farage is charismatic, engaging, fun, friendly, and purports to be ‘man of the people’. He is enormously popular (although divisively unpopular too).
Europe’s more recent dictators (Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) were all, initially, popular and gained power through democratic means. A respectable 37% of the vote was garnered in Hitler’s case. Once in power, Hitler used every democratic means at his disposal to destroy the German democratic state. Modern-day despots will also target those international institutions; in particular the United Nations and the European Union, developed to check their dictatorial aspirations.
Otherwise, the methods of gaining absolute control have changed little: dictators disenfranchise opponents or those who might not vote for them; create ‘states of emergency’ to intervene to ‘save’ the country from ‘traitors’; identify a popular enemy – Jews, Muslims, immigrants, communists, etc., to blame for the country’s ills or their own failures; remove the rights of these targeted groups (and then extend to other groups); seek to deport/expel the scapegoated group; control the means of communication, education and access to information; lie to create an environment of mistrust and insecurity in governmental or political institutions; and bend the judiciary to their will.
Reform’s ‘scapegoat’
Immigrants and especially asylum seekers and Muslims are Farage’s target, and he has already promised to create a state of emergency, ostensibly to ‘stop the boats’. Reform also promises to ‘take back’ small boats to France, as has hinted that it is willing to allow a number to drown (with no measures planned to prevent it). Reform will deny asylum to all who apply and detain and forcibly deport all asylum seekers to countries or remote islands.
Much of this is already UK law under the Conservatives, but not yet implemented. The plan is reminiscent of Hitler’s 1940 plan to ‘relocate’ Jews to Madagascar. When harsh citizenship denying policies and persecution had failed to ‘deter’ Jews from remaining in Germany, and other countries had stopped giving them refuge, the solution was forced deportation. Its failure led to the gas chambers.
Wealthy second or third generation Jewish German citizens, ‘exception Jews’ as Hannah Arendt termed them in the Origins of Totalitarianism, initially differentiated themselves from the more newly arrived Jews from the Russian pogroms, accusing the new arrivals of lacking patriotism, bringing unwelcome traditions and ideas into Germany and failing to assimilate. Some settled German Jews supported Hitler’s discrimination against the newcomers.
By the time German ‘exception Jews’ understood they faced the same fate as more recent arrivals, it was too late. Their wealth was taken from them, and they were subjected to the same treatment. Some wealthy British Muslims are denouncing newer arrivals, particularly refugees, and offering support, including financial support to Farage.
Suppression of free speech
Farage’s manifesto promises to change UK institutions such as the BBC, the civil service, schools and universities, the police and the health service in ways that will weaken and prohibit them from expressing any views that do not conform to his ‘patriotic curriculum’ (another steal from Hitler’s approach). These institutions will be prohibited from broadcasting or giving voice to those considered to be ‘the left’ or ‘woke’.
In the manifesto, this is wrapped up in the Orwellian language of ‘free speech’ and ‘anti-woke’ but his intention to suppress free speech and to enforce political orthodoxy is clear. Although not in the manifesto, it is said often by Tice that those public servants who do not or are unable to do as they are told will be sacked.
Farage has a long list of non-believers to attack: elites, ‘experts’ and professionals; all political parties and politicians other than Reform; religious or ethnic minorities other than Christians; institutions that protect liberties such as the police, courts and judges; and those who challenge him or hold him to account, particularly the media. He pours invective on others knowing that they will not stoop to his level in their responses while being ‘charming’ in person. His election currency is hatred and anger.
Protections for UK (and non-UK) citizens will be slashed. Farage will scrap the 2010 Equalities Act, withdraw the country from the European Court of Human Rights and revoke any extant protective EU legislation. He will require government leaflets, to be printed solely in English. Only the elderly or those who cannot leave their homes will be permitted postal votes. His ‘culture agenda’ (perhaps implemented through a Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda as Hitler did?) will ‘Reclaim Britain’ and prioritise white, British Christians, leaving the way open for attacks on other groups and no protection for them. An anti-Muslim Kristalnacht from the far-right beckons. Following his amnesty for crimes committed by UK armed personnel, while ensuring the police follow his agenda, he will be able to do pretty much as he likes and citizens will have no recourse to protective laws or institutions.
Farage does not hide his personal dictatorial ambitions. The Reform Party is owned by him, he is in charge, the policies are his and he sacks those who get in his way. He has already removed Richard Tice from the leadership role (Tice says he resigned) and Anthony Mack from standing in Clacton. Mack is now standing as an independent. In the last election he stood Reform candidates down just immediately prior to the election, meaning they lost their deposits and were barred from campaigning.
The importance of the economic climate
It is unlikely that Hitler would have won the election had it not been for the economic crash of 1929 and the crippling debts Germany was required to pay after WW1. The German people were suffering great hardship with no government plans to help. It was the poorest who paid the price of reparations-induced austerity (starvation in many cases). They felt they had nothing to lose – although it turned out that they did. It is unlikely that, in better times, a man of Farage’s ambitions, behaviour and views would be countenanced as a serious contender for PM. His political presence is indicative of the deep seated and enduring problems in the UK.
While the political mainstream may ‘deserve’ to be thrashed in this election, Farage is not the answer. His positive policies, improved access to health care for example, simply crumble away under scrutiny, requiring so many more immigrants to implement them. Farage’s only tangible promise is that, in the hierarchy of hardship, working-class white people will continue to suffer at least as much as they do now, but black, brown and Muslim people will be made to suffer more.
Read more from Dr Stella Perrott here, and check out our free Yorkshire Bylines Election Gazette:
