If the rise of Britain's Nigel Farage is to be understood, significant parliamentary representation is no longer needed to dominate media coverage, nor be considered ready for government.

Farage's flatulent micro-party, Reform (nee UKIP of Brexit-fanning fame) secured just five seats in the 650 House of Commons in 2024.

Farage himself was one of the newcomers - previous electoral rejections forcing him to make ends meet on the humble salary of an MEP ($233K). That's right, the fulminating "Mr Brexit" was simultaneously anti-Europe and a 20-year member of the European Parliament.

More front than Harrods, you might say. Not that his ballooning base cares. As Donald Trump demonstrates daily, such glaring hypocrisies are mere water off a duck's back.

Just a year after Keir Starmer rode to

See Full Page