Clown prince in waiting

In Britain, no one takes much notice of local body politics other than local politicians, and with very few exceptions, no one knows one local politician from the next.

- Andrew Anthony

They're just part of faceless party politics, and the indifference they inspire leads to very small electoral turnouts. But this month, something happened in local elections in England that signalled a dramatic change in British politics, and perhaps in Britain itself.

The party that won the most council seats in the local body elections on May 1 was Reform UK, the latest incarnation of Nigel Farage's disruptive ambition. Reform is the successor to the Brexit Party, itself a successor to the UK Independence Party, both of which were essentially single-issue outfits designed to remove the UK from the European Union as completely as possible.

In this they succeeded, and here's the curious thing: it's been a largely unpopular development, blamed, at least in part, for a sluggish economy and low national morale. Yet Reform, led by Farage, the most instrumental figure in forcing Brexit, now leads the polls in the UK.