Reform’s contract with you

Contracts are a bit of a touchy subject at Reform HQ right now. Reform UK is in many ways a pretty shabby insurgency, neither a high-gloss updated 20th Century dinosaur like Le Pen’s National Rally, nor a dark ideological machine like Alternative for Germany. But maybe we shouldn’t expect a slick operation here, maybe it’s… Continue reading Reform’s contract with you

Contracts are a bit of a touchy subject at Reform HQ right now.

A man with a contract

Reform UK is in many ways a pretty shabby insurgency, neither a high-gloss updated 20th Century dinosaur like Le Pen’s National Rally, nor a dark ideological machine like Alternative for Germany. But maybe we shouldn’t expect a slick operation here, maybe it’s not very British to expect a challenger from the far right to be anything other than scrappy and a bit lairy.

Anyway, who’s that in the picture at the top? That’s Newt Gingrich, pugnacious Speaker of the US House of Representatives during the 1994 Congressional mid-terms. He wrote the Republican Party’s programme for that election, an enormously influential document that many credit as the beginning of the populist turn, the epic shift in American politics that ultimately produced you know who.

Gingrich’s document was no mere manifesto, no mere platform, though. it was a contract. A Contract with America. The idea was that instead of promoting a dry programme of dry legislation to be fought out vote by arduous vote through the congressional system once in power, the party would lay out an ambitious reworking of the system itself. A series of linked measures that would, together, overturn decades of post-war liberal orthodoxy – economic, social, diplomatic. It’s a fascinating document, not least because it self-consiously marked the end of folksy, positive, forward-looking Reagan conservatism and the beginning of the darker variety the whole world is now familiar with – George W Bush’s messianic militarism, Trump’s ‘American carnage‘.

Gingrich’s contract must have come to mind for many yesterday when Nigel Farage launched Reform’s ‘Contract With You’. His contract isn’t quite as ambitious – and it’s likely to be a bit less influential (we suspect it was written in a bit of a hurry – see if you can spot the typos). But it’s an intriguing document all the same.

So why a contract?

The Contract With America wasn’t quite the ideological bulldozer Gingrich hoped it would be – it was essentially cut to ribbons in congress – by hostile conservative Republicans as well as by the last of the Clinton Democrats – and Gingrich went from sole proprietor of congressional conservatism to “who?” in a few years. But his aggression, his unwavering resistance to the bi-partisan conventions of congress and his disrespect for his party’s elders have all influenced American politics to the present day. So why would Farage choose to borrow the contract idea?

Another man with a contract

It stands out from the crowd. The Reform contract quite cleverly opens up some distance from the other parties’ documents. It’s the only set of promises in play that’s not a manifesto, not a dreary document like all the other dreary documents. At his launch, Farage said: “today is not a manifesto launch. If I say to you ‘manifesto’, your immediate word-association is ‘lie’…”

Contracts are for consumers. The idea of a contract is a much better expression of our relationship with contemporary politics. Electors in the third decade of the 21st Century are not expected to engage with politics any more – as activists or organised workers or even as enthusiastic private citizens. We’re expected only to consume politics, to rate its quality via occasional elections and sometimes to switch brands, in the same way we switch gas providers or mobile phones. Meanwhile, political movements are over, replaced by narrowly-focused campaign groups. Incidentally, this explains why we feel so disempowered and disconnected from politics, why so many people say “they’re all the same…” – the politicians like it that way.

Businesses love contracts. Reform UK is a business. Tice and Farage and Habib have enthusiastically embraced the ‘start-up’ idea. Journos and critics noticed ages ago that Reform UK is not a conventionally incorporated political party. Columnists and social media geniuses thought the revelation that the party is just an ordinary limited company would be an absolutely killer gotcha. “Look, it’s not a political party, it’s a scam!” Of course it made no difference at all. Nobody cares. Limited companies are famously easy to set up in Britain. It costs £50 and takes less than 24 hours. The fact that the simplest and most robust organisational form for the new force in British politics was actually an off-the-shelf company really does suit the project. A disruptive, entrepreneurial enterprise like Reform probably ought to be a business and not a fusty old not-for-profit.

Chaos suits them

Reform UK wasn’t ready for the election when Sunak announced it but that’s fine – it’s a start-up – the rag-tag Reform team mobilised resources with the ‘fuck you’ energy of a tech entrepeneur. ‘Move fast and break things’ could almost be their slogan. Hiring and then quickly firing candidates as they’re exposed as racists and lunatics is all part of the energy of an insurgent party. When opponents get excited about the chaos inside the Reform operation they’re profoundly missing the point. That’s how they like it – and, let’s face it, electors seem to like it too.

What’s in this contract?

Next time we’ll look at the content of Reform UK Ltd’s ‘Contract With You‘…

This episode of Politico’s weekly podcast, about Nigel Farage’s return to the party he founded, is fascinating.

Reform’s arrangement with a vetting software company is the other contract in the news this week.

We published a thread summarising the history of Reform and its precursor parties last week.

Part one of our guide to the parties in Hertsmere for the general election covers Reform and all the other fringe parties.