The commentator Peter North often writes things that make the reader sit up and take notice. You may not agree with him for political and other reasons but I believe that it’s difficult to deny that Mr North is well informed about politics in the UK.

Mr North has recently written a piece discussing the prospects of both the Reform and Restore Parties and comes to the conclusion that both Reform and Restore are parties of chaos and shambles. I find it difficult to disagree especially as more media attention is being paid to challenger parties and examples of internal party incompetence regarding policy content, the sometimes poor calibre of candidates and poor communications are being uncovered.

I’m not going to quote much from Mr North’s piece as I really want my readers to go and read the entirety of Mr North’s piece and make up their own minds but this particular section stood out to me as indicative of the mess that the challenger parties are in.

Mr North said:

“The right, in my view, is only going to prosper with a sane, genuinely centre-right party (but one that is deadly serious about immigration and demographics). As soon as you go wading into murky nationalist waters, you’re in with a pretty shady bunch. For sure, they might have massive social media reach, but much of it is international – and has next to zero bearing on elections. They’re also pretty shitty people. You’ll see them get more abusive as time goes on.

Essentially, Rupert Lowe’s personal politics are quite close to what the British right-leaning voter wants, but his party is running its own hustle – and I doubt Lowe is even aware of the shifting tides in his own party. But here’s the thing… It won’t go unnoticed. Mainstream political columnists have already seen Restore’s true colours, and word will get out. Shire Tories might like the cut of Rupert’s jib, but they won’t vote Restore if it doesn’t past the sniff test.”

You can read the entirety of Mr North’s post via the link below:

https://www.northernvariant.co.uk/p/all-eyes-on-makerfield

I agree with Mr North that this failure of the challenger Right parties is an opportunity for many Conservative Party voters to return to the Tory fold but in my view much depends on what the Tories are offering. If they can offer something that appeals to the sort of voters who might be flirting with Rupert Lowe’s personality cult party but without either the personality cult aspects or Lowe’s collection of political nutbags, then they might do well or better than many might expect at the next General Election.

Where I disagree with Mr North is his assessment of the significance of the Makerfield by-election. This contest is a chance to throw a political grenade into the Labour Party and help to plunge Labour into a damaging leadership fight. If Burnham wins then there is basically a coronation of him as Labour leader and a continuation or a worsening of the sort of terrible policies we’ve already seen from Labour. This is why I believe it’s a strategic and tactical necessity for those on the Right and those opposed to Labour to support Reform in Makerfield. The candidate sure isn’t perfect and neither is the party but a Labour Party led by Burnham might be a whole lot worse.

As usual we have in Mr North’s piece a great piece of analysis. You may not like it if it criticises the party or personality cult that you may be favourable towards, but as always Mr North always makes you think.