At the beginning of 2025, I wrote about what was becoming a slow‑motion tragedy on the political right.
I said then that the Conservatives and Reform UK would eventually have to face a truth they’ve spent years avoiding: if they ever wanted to achieve anything meaningful, they would have to work together.
Instead, they’ve done the opposite.
Back then, the loudest voices talking about new right‑leaning movements were Andrew Tate and Dominic Cummings. Both have since drifted away. Into the vacuum has stepped Rupert Lowe MP with his Restore concept – and with the launch of the Restore Britain Party over the weekend, the whole thing has taken on a shape that is chaotic, predictable, and depressingly familiar.
And let’s be honest: even the supposed “amalgamation” with Advance UK hasn’t been confirmed. That alone tells you everything about the egos involved. Even when the opportunity to unite is staring them in the face, they still can’t bring themselves to compromise.
Everyone wants to lead. Nobody wants to work together. It’s the same behaviour that caused this mess in the first place.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives – who bear as much responsibility for the state of the country as the current government – are quietly reinventing themselves. They are using the passage of time as camouflage, hoping the public forgets that many of the very people speaking for them today were the ones making the decisions yesterday. And now, in a twist that should surprise nobody, a steady stream of Conservatives have jumped to Reform.
If anything exposes the illusion that Reform is “anti‑establishment,” it’s that.
You cannot build the future with the architects of the past.
Yet here they are – simply moving to a new office and repainting the sign above the door.
People already disillusioned with Reform have rushed to declare that the “real solution” has finally arrived. And Lowe has certainly played to that crowd, posting content all weekend that feels like a direct challenge to Nigel Farage – almost a competition to see who can best bottle the private frustrations being whispered at breakfast tables across the country. The things people genuinely worry about but would never dare say out loud for fear of being cancelled or whatever sharpened edge of political correctness the establishment decides to use next.
Alex Phillips – both a Reform‑aligned commentator and a Talk Radio presenter – probably captured best what many on the right were thinking. Her view was blunt: the damage is done, and splitting the vote like this may simply hand a coalition of the left an easy win.
But here’s the part nobody wants to hear.
The idea that only the left can make things worse after the next general election is a fantasy. Because no matter which party, group or ideology we’re offered at the ballot box in the system we have today, the outcomes for real people, businesses and communities end up being exactly the same.
Supporters of Reform, Restore or any new right‑leaning movement will insist otherwise.
They’re different! They’ll put us first! They know what we need!
But these are the same lines you’ll hear from supporters of the Conservatives, Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens. It’s what you’ll hear from every party that claims to be offering something new or different while operating inside the same political culture and the same centralised system.
And while all eyes are glued to the chaos on the right – the personalities, the posturing, the endless parade of “new movements” – the political landscape is shifting beneath our feet. The reinstated local elections, the Gorton & Denton by‑election, the daily realignments and defections – they’re not the story. They’re the timestamp. They’re the scenery that shows how fast everything is moving.
The left is wobbling too – but the right is louder.
The spectacle is drowning out the substance. And that’s the point.
The fragmentation of the right is not the cause of our political crisis. It is the symptom.
The cause is the paradigm that every party – left, right and everything in between – is trapped inside.
And unless we confront that, nothing changes.
These are the things anyone who wants genuine change has to think about:
Why Nothing Changes – No Matter Who You Vote For
If you want to understand why nothing changes, start here:
1. The Political Class
- Politicians care more about holding power than delivering outcomes.
- Parties choose candidates precisely because they’ll obey, not because they’ll represent.
- Politics today is about process, performance and control – not results.
- When ego enters the room, truth leaves it.
- Anyone who wants to “be a leader” instead of serving the outcome is unfit to lead.
2. The System We’re Trapped In
- Every party serves the establishment because they’re all chained to the same tool: money.
- The system is built on centralisation – and centralisation kills real democracy.
- Every part of the political machine is shaped by money and the power culture around it.
- You can have a money‑centric system or a people‑centric system – but never both.
- Capitalism and socialism both end up in the same place: centralised control of everyone and everything.
3. Representation and Decision‑Making
- Decisions are always better when made by the people they affect.
- We don’t need national parties; we need power returned to the local level.
- Politicians rely on theories about how the world should work instead of how it actually does.
4. Society and Power
- People know best, but politicians stopped listening long ago.
- Crushing the independence of others is the reflex of the weak, not the strong.
The Paradigm Is the Problem
The fragmentation of the right isn’t the story. It’s the warning sign.
What’s happening on the right is simply the first place the cracks are showing. It’s the most visible example of a much deeper problem – the same problem that affects every party, every ideology and every attempt at “reform.”
All political solutions today are sold as different, but they’re built on the same foundations. They all operate inside the same paradigm. They all accept the same assumptions about value, power, centralisation and the money‑centric system that shapes everything.
And because they all share the same foundation, they all produce the same outcomes.
This is why nothing ever changes.
This is why every “new movement” ends up looking like the old one.
This is why the right is tearing itself apart – not because its ideas are unique, but because its solutions are indistinguishable from the system it claims to oppose.
The real divide in politics isn’t left versus right anymore. It’s paradigm versus paradigm.
Until we recognise that the system itself – the assumptions beneath it, the structures that shape it, the money‑centric worldview that defines it – is the problem, no election, no party and no new political brand will deliver meaningful change.
The right can keep rearranging the furniture.
The left can keep repainting the walls.
Everyone can keep arguing about where the chairs should go.
But the room is still the same room. And the room is the problem.
The only way anything truly changes is by stepping beyond the paradigm we’re trapped in – and finally walking through the doorway we’ve been ignoring for far too long.
Adam Tugwell 