The insurgency led by Nigel Farage may be driven by anger and dissatisfaction with the main political parties but its apparent embrace of the values of family and flag and faith is also attracting Christian voters

Listen carefully and you will hear it. It’s the sound of cracks spreading, foundations creaking, institutions swaying. For some, it is the noise of Armageddon, of the tolerant, peaceful liberal consensus teetering before the forces of barely disguised racists and fascists. For others, it is the sound of hope, of renewal, of liberation.

Barely two years ago, the idea that Reform might form (even part of) a British government, or that Nigel Farage might occupy Number 10, would have been dismissed as an unthinkable fantasy. Today, it is neither unthinkable nor fantastic. Over the last six months, pretty much every opinion poll has put Reform somewhere between nine and 16 percentage points ahead of their nearest rivals. There’s many a slip between opinion poll and voting booth, of course, and people will tell pollsters all sorts of things that they magically forget on election day. But if the twenty-first century has taught us anything, it is that we dismiss insurgencies at our peril.

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