In recent months I've helped train a hundred or so Reform members, most of whom hoped to become councillors. The vast majority never planned to enter politics. It was something other people did.
They were from all walks of life. Former teachers and police officers. People who'd served as soldiers, nurses, civil servants. One man - a builder - felt out of his depth. But, persuaded by those around him, he went on to give a brilliant and humbling account of what had propelled him to stand for Reform. Why he could do no other.
The groups were mixed in terms of class and race and religion, to a degree that I think would astonish many of the Party's critics.
They were united in a belief that the country they were born in, or had moved to, was not the same country they would die in. It had mutated in their lifetimes in a way that rendered it unrecognisable and, many of them felt, ungovernable in the future.
They were not bigots or opportunists or charlatans. They are the best of Britain. Thoughtful patriots. Conscientious citizens. Mothers and fathers who fear for the society their children will inherit. Screwing up their courage, they had taken a leap of faith. Decided to do something they feel might shape our future. Help us all avert catastrophe.
Simply moaning on Facebook or X or at the bar was no longer an option for them.
These are the people who will go into this weekend with a new sense of purpose, as part of our island story of democracy. As newly-elected Reform councillors. I pray they can stay the course and give thanks that people like them - all over Britain - have chosen to stand up and be counted.
#Reform
They just can’t help themselves.
The Bank, not the government, cuts interest rates — and it has been doing so because the economy is flat on its back.
Foreign inward investment has been weak. Last year well below 2023 for example.
Inflation doubled under Labour (from 2% to almost 4%) within a year and is still at 3%, 50% above the 2% target it inherited.
Debt is rising not reducing.
There was a budget surplus in January. There always is in January. We’re still on track to rack up another multi-billion pound budget deficit in 2025/26.
Gaslighting is now Labour’s default position — and truth a stranger.
Shame on Sky News for this utterly misleading headline. Anyone pushing this false narrative deserves complete contempt.
Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED, yet they name me even before Prince Andrew, who did visit.