Clacton-on-Sea is 90 minutes by train from Liverpool St Station, but culturally it’s as far from London as Australia, Nigel Farage told me told me last week.
I caught up with Farage in the constituency he is campaigning to win for the Reform Party at the General Election on July 4.
The seaside resort in Essex is a part of a very different Britain than the one most visitoros encounter.
ts residents are older than the British average (56.6 compared with 49.5). They are more likely to own a house but average incomes 28 per cent lower than the national average. They are predominantly white and socially conservative
Farage’s campaign has exposed the fault line in UK Conservative politics. His support comes mainly from Conservative voters on strike unsatisfied with the performance of Conservative prime ministers over the last 14 years.
There is undoubtedly an “It’s Time” factor. The last Tory government to last more four terms left office in 1830.
Yet this is a decisive moment for the Conservative Party. A robust debate has begun about the future of conservatism in the UK which I cover in the latest episode of Reality Bites TV recorded in the UK with contributions from Lord Daniel Hannan, Lord David Frost, Tony Abbott and historian David Starkey.
The disruptor