Unscrupulous politicians use a tactic of consistently repeating lies, resulting in some people believing them to be true, despite available evidence saying otherwise.  Their subsequent tactic is to discredit the reputable sources that can expose these lies, famously used by Donald Trump, who brands mainstream media ‘fake news’.

Trump and his British apprentice Nigel Farage, create divisive false narratives and use social media and their cultists to amplify them, with parallel realities created.  We’ve seen this with the far-right Reform Party narrative that ‘Britain is broken’ and that only they can fix it.  It’s absurd on both counts, but it’s relentlessly repeated and some believe it.

Along with other western democracies, Britain has long-term difficulties, but we’re not some kind of failed state where anarchy rules and nothing functions.  In fact, one of the worst things in our country right now is the rise of the far right and the threat they pose to democracy.  Make absolutely no mistake, a Reform Government would aggressively act like a dictatorship.  Already modelling itself on Trump’s America, all the warning signs are there.

There is a parliamentary investigation over Farage’s undeclared £5 million ‘gift’ and a journalist has now exposed more serious questions about his finances, with details emerging of his funding by a wealthy convicted criminal.  The Farage files need full public scrutiny.

During Crawley’s local elections in spring, households received four separate Reform direct letters via Royal Mail I don’t know how many hundreds of thousands of Pounds this cost, but a legal loophole enabled it to be claimed as national expenditure and not counted under local election expenses limits, despite it obviously being mailed to influence local elections.  Normal local election expense limits are a fraction of what Reform spent in targeting Crawley’s local elections.  

Manipulative lies, under headings of ‘Britain is broken’ were able to reach Crawley households week after week, and it worked, with Reform winning most council seats up.  A dangerous path, I believe questionable (at best) money from abroad is unfairly funding activity to effectively buy elections. Britain is not broken, but our politics could be.

Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group

8th July 2026