“We used our hands for guidance
Like the children of a preacher”
This years Reform party conference was overtaken by more questions surrounding their funding and donations.
It started with a further £4m from the British crypto billionaire Ben Delo, formerly in Hong Kong, Reform are confident this will not be caught by the new overseas donor cap.
Delo, who was convicted in the US in 2022 for failing to implement adequate AML controls, before being pardoned by Donald Trump.
This takes Dalo’s donations to £8m, making him the party’s second biggest contributor after the Thailand based crypto investor Christopher Harborne.
Harborne and another billionaire donor, Sasan Ghandehari, could potentially be caught by the donor cap applied since March, which states donors must be on the UK domestic electoral register for at least 12-months to avoid being subject to a £100,000-a-year annual cap.
The bigger story was the party suspending James Orr, their head of policy, and Dan Jukes, a senior aide to Farage, after they were filmed in an undercover investigation appearing to plot to get around electoral laws on foreign donations.
The journalists posed as a potential supporter and his wealthy American father, an impermissible donor, who paid for £30,000 of polling commissioned by Reform which benefited the party when it was published in national newspapers.
There was also the offer of a further £500,000 through a “permissible” British intermediary – his son, which would be unlawful.
Rather than saying that the father cannot be the cash’s source or that the son can legally only donate his own money, Farage is filmed saying “thank you both” when it was explained.
We have two issues.
Firstly, whilst the party does knows the rules, they appear happy to discussed how to circumvent them.
Secondly, why are they attracting such large donations from overseas interests, or overseas Brits?
In terms of policies, the big revelation was their intent to eliminate “obstacles” to their plans, by declaring a “national emergency” and threatened to overhaul the House of Lords and how judges are appointed if they stood in the way.
During this first 100 days, the party will stop small boat crossings, cut energy bills by £250 a year and ending the net zero “lunacy“.
This sounds somewhat like Hitler’s 1933 “Enabling Act”, or Trump’s use of Executive Orders which, whilst legally binding, sidestep Congress.
‘like Hitler’s 1933 “Enabling Act”, or Trump’s use of Executive Order’
No doubt buoyed by Reform and Restore legitimising racism, this weekend saw anti-small boat protests in both Dover and Portsmouth.
In the latter, far-right protesters, some wearing balaclavas and many are wearing black, blocked roads for hours as they attempted to prevent the new arrivals from being taken to a processing centre. The demonstration ended around 3am, when police obtained a dispersal order and threatened arrests.
Stirring the pot via a livestream from the scene was Daniel Thomas, a former bodyguard of Tommy Robinson, who encouraged viewers to join the protest.
Thomas had previously planned Operation Overlord, to send far-right activists to France to “stop the boats”. French authorities subsequently banned him, after he and his supporters filmed themselves slashing abandoned dinghies on a French beach.
Somewhat further afield, our ownership of the Falkland Islands looks to be tested again, after the Argentinian president, Javier Milei, said “winds of change” favourable to his country’s claim to the Falklands were “blowing around the world”.
Milei, who resides in Trump’s pocket, spoke-up following Trump’s comments cast doubt on American support for British control of the islands.
Asked whether he could review British sovereignty over the islands as a way to push the UK to spend more on defense, Trump said: “I always review every position. That’s just one of many.”
Trump is no doubt looking to get his own back for our perceived lack of support in his foolish Iran war, and there is also the fact that Trump sees oil around the Islands, and thinks, that via Argentina, he can make a grab for it.
“winds of change” favourable to his country’s claim to the Falklands were “blowing around the world”
For his part, Milei, said companies developing oil “behind the back of the Argentine government” would be barred from doing business in Argentina.
In response to Milei’s totally pointless, so-what threat! the foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, said the UK would “resolutely uphold” the self-determination of the islands.
Trump might be better served dealing with his own domestic problems rather than interfering with everyone else.
The latest CNN poll of polls show 63% of the electorate view him unfavourably.
This is hardly surprising as he simply hasn’t delivered. He promised no more overseas wars and the Iranian debacle looks increasingly desperate; the military has fired off most of their missiles and the fleet is fast degenerating. Inflation is running hot due the war and his tariffs and rising interest rates on Treasuries threaten to overwhelm the economy,
Also, voters are becoming more hostile to big tech’s data centres, which Trump defended saying: “The only reason that communities throughout the USA should not want data centres is if they want to end up being backwards and poor.”
And the midterms are only 2-months away.
‘voters are becoming more hostile to big tech’s data centres’
On the surface, they should spell disaster for Trump, but there is already talk of the elections being rigged with armed officers involved. Steve Bannon said on his podcast: “You’re damn right, we’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November. We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again. And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen”.
Overall, the concept of the “Rule of law”, especially international law, seems alien to the Trump administration, as evidenced by many of his tariffs being ruled illegal under U.S. law, with many also violating past agreements signed by presidents, including Trump himself.
Which leads to a point highlighted by the economist, Paul Krugman.
Many countries hold at least some of their gold reserves in the vaults of the New York Federal Reserve.
It would appear that some fear this administration might devise some excuse to seize their gold.
‘this administration might devise some excuse to seize their gold’
Recently, the Dutch central bank announced plans to move C.$12 billion to the BoE’s vault, following France moving an even larger sum to Paris. Other countries are considering similar moves.
We finish with this weekend’s election in Saxony-Anhalt, where the populist, far-right, anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) fell three seats short of winning a majority in its quest to form Germany’s first far-right state government since WW2.
The AfD won 39 out of the 83 seats, taking 43.8% of the vote, more than double its showing 5-years ago, with a record 76.5% turnout.
Their candidate for governor, Ulrich Siegmund, has promised to immediately start a remigration and deportation offensive, ban rainbow flags in schools, halt the building of new windfarms. He also wants to change the state slogan from “Think Modern” to “Think German”, and to reintroduce the singing of the German national anthem in schools.
The AfD is pro-Kremlin, and plans to stop support for Ukraine, and to stop Ukrainians receiving refugee status.
‘we face a major challenge in the face of a populist wave which is spreading around the world’
Elon Musk congratulated the party on the result, writing “Well done!” on X. In response, Siegmund, thanked the nativist US tech billionaire for his support.
Elsewhere in Europe the result was met with less enthusiasm.
The French finance minister, Roland Lescure, said: “It clearly sends out a very, very worrying signal. This shows that we face a major challenge in the face of a populist wave which is spreading around the world today and which we must resist.”
Poland’s PM, Donald Tusk, said: “only idiots or traitors can rejoice at the triumph of the AfD in Germany”.
“You still think swastikas look cool
The real Nazis run your schools”
The right continues to make headway.
Yesterday’s election result in Germany wasn’t unexpected, but it is nonetheless unwelcome. What it does tell us is that voters still feel left behind and poor, and they have a continual lack of faith in mainstream parties.
Given the ongoing carnage caused by Trump, who is no different from the AfD or any other aspiring hard-right politician, I had hoped people might start to learn.
What we are seeing is potentially a new world order, I referred to this in “Love Thy neighbor” as an axis of evil, and I see no reason to change my mind.
Trump continues to destroy anything that was good about the US. His time at the top is fast coming to an end.
His support for anyone seems to be based on what he thinks he can get from them, Argentina is the latest example. The PM is in Trump’s pocket and any oil Argentina might garner from the Falklands will benefit the big oil companies.
As for Reform…..it just gets murkier.
The whole thing is rather a mess!
Lyrically, we start with “Nice ’n’ Sleazy” by The Stranglers and end with “Nazi Punks F*** Off” by Dead Kennedys.
Eins, zwei, drei.….
Philip.
@coldwarsteve
Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.
Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s
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