Reform UK is standing in every seat in this election for Lincolnshire CC, a dark mirror of what is happening elsewhere in England.

Reform UK will argue that they are not like other parties and this is the only statement they will make and will ever make that can be considered true. Everything else is a lie.

All other parties have a democratic heart to a greater or lesser degree, sometimes messy and noisy, but the members usually elect their leaders and have some power within the party.

Reform UK does not elect its leaders. Reforrm UK Ltd was a creation of Farage after his failure on Brexit it was set up as a company rather than a political party and has a murky set of financial arrangements and opaque governance.

Despite Reform UK’s recent announcements on constitutional changes, people don’t join Reform UK, they are really subscribers. They have no say in who should be their leader, or the candidates presenting themselves to you in this election. Normal democratic parties, as they have done for years,  choose their candidates through a democratic process. They are held to account. Reform UK is not normal. It is not held to account.

Farage is a very rich man and so are virtually all the other Reform MPs who now squat in the constituencies serving some of the poorest areas in the country. They have made not a jot of difference to those communities. Go to Skegness, Clacton and Ashfield. Seats with MP’s milking it for themselves and no improvements  to the lives of their constituents,

Reform UK attracts failed Tory councillors, failed Independent councillors, racists, conspiracy cranks, far right extremists, incels and the whole glitterati of people who turn their self pity into expressions of hate and anger on other people in the community. Farage even suggested the summer riots may have had some legitimacy – setting fire to a hotel holding vulnerable asylum seekers appears to be fair game in his appalling attempts to excuse the behaviour of the far right. Vulnerable, angry and dispossessed people are  always sold a pup by Farage and his mates who say they can create a better Britain and then without a glimmer of grace, hide wealth in tax havens and off-shore accounts. Farage and his mates all love Trump and bow down to Putin’s Russia. They are classic appeasers in the 1939 sense – essentially arguing Ukraine should give in to Putin and damn the consequences.

On public policy, Farage would get rid of the NHS and replace it with a hugely expensive and inefficient insurance system on the US model. He and his co-owners are more interested in the money that can be made for businesses they may have a hand in, rather than delivering free, high quality care to all people regardless of their means.

Not surprisingly, Farage and Reform UK campaigned continuously  for Britain’s withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights – Churchill’s great legacy following the second world war.  The constant attacks on the judicial system, the demonisation of migrants and asylum seekers, friendly links with far right and neo-Nazi parties in Europe as well as attacking elections results in this country, add to the clear argument that this is an extreme, far right party.

The Farage pantomime performance as ‘man of the people’ is so divorced from reality as to be laughable. As the highest paid MP and with the worst record for visiting his constituency and helping his constituents, the idea that he and his party even care about Britain, let alone have the ability to actually do anything is for the birds.

There has always been a strong tradition in this country to reject extremism in all its forms. Let’s send them a clear message on 1st May and ensure that Reform UK becomes nothing more than another failed Farage venture.