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Say what you like about Spiked but Tom Slater has half a point at least. "Almost a year on from his break with Nigel Farage, everything Lowe once said about Reform is much more true of himself. If Farage was ‘messianic’, and leading a ‘protest party’, what does that make Restore Britain, built entirely around one MP and his X account, who clearly fancies himself as Britain’s white-steed-riding saviour? A party for whom the best-case – though still unlikely – scenario electorally would be depriving Reform UK of votes, and risking some Lab-Green-Lib Frankenstein coalition. All so he can bathe in those sweet retweets. The vanity of it all would make Zarah Sultana blush". Where Slater is wrong is that there is very much a need for Restore to exist, because the lack of basic principles has allowed Reform to drift off the point, forget who it represents, and morph into the uniparty. I don't know why a smart man like Slater can't see it. He says "That both Yusuf and Cunningham support banning the burqa, and are vocal critics of Islamic sectarianism, isn’t enough for those who want Muslims, regardless of their views, banned from office". But this is neither here not there. Policy is whatever Farage says it is, and if Farage thinks banning the burka is too much like hassle, or detrimental to Reform's prospects of re-election, he won't do it. Like the Tories, they talk tough in opposition, but we cannot trust they'll do what they say they will because every principle is expendable if it gets Farage closer to Number 10. Nobody wants another centre-right Tory party. Moreover, Slater should recall the reasons why Restore came into being. Lowe said of Reform last April: "For months, I pushed Reform to propose radical, but credible policies. To detail it, with substance and costings. Write it down, produce policy documents. I was mocked and ignored. I hoped that there might be some form of plan for these elections, maybe a well-thought out policy or two? To even go as far to write a proposal - not thrown together on a flashy social media graphic, but in properly constructed sentences on an actual document. None came. Nothing. All we get, day after day after day, is glossy pictures of Nigel Farage. No manifesto, just an empty promise that ‘Reform will fix it’. HOW? Please, tell me how? If I have to watch another overproduced video of Farage, I’ll vomit turquoise coloured confetti. Sweeping shots, backed by booming dramatic music, of the man going about mundane campaigning activities. It’s a parody. Where is the policy?! All we get is vacuous bull, piled on top of more vacuous bull - purely designed to pump up Farage’s ego at a time when British airspace is already dangerously full. I’m not interested. I want numbers, detail, substance. A plan.” He went on to say “I simply cannot endorse a party that has put so frighteningly little thought into what it would actually do with power". Lowe's words resonated with a lot of people, myself included, which is why I've been watching with interest - but it's also why I've gone cold on the idea of Restore Britain. There's a fundamental reason why Reform is the disorganised embarrassing clown show that it is. It stems from an "it'll do for now" mentality. Preparation, principles and planning are all superfluous. They've been reassuring us for two years that they would professionalise and get serious, but there isn't the slightest indication of this. It will remain a lightweight populist protest party and will falter at the first serious hurdle because they haven't thought things through. As such, if I were to climb aboard Restore Britain to make it a success, I would want to see that it was markedly different from Reform in spirit and attitude - but I can already see that it isn't. The launch of Restore Britain reveals much of the mindset at work. Lowe launched the party without first coming to an accord with Ben Habib, without even registering as a political party, and without refreshing their website. It was all done on a whim with a view to sorting out the details later. As such, he and Farage are peas in a pod. That lack of preparation and intellectual foundation is already causing problems for Lowe and he isn't even aware of it. Being a vibes based party without setting down parameters of what values the party stands on, there's already an influx of neo-Nazis and groypers whose conduct is so appalling, they will trash Lowe's reputation and cause a split in the party, especially if Advance continues to exist. Meanwhile, the lack of serious policy will lead to haphazard messaging. His lieutenants could produce the best policy in the world but like Farage, Lowe will be ad-libbing through every interview, undermining their own work. That's the essential problem when your party leader is a mascot. The online right won't hear of it though. they've found their new messiah, who can do no wrong, and will make endless excuses for him, just as they did for Farage and Johnson. The new messiah is closer to their tastes so they'll die on the hill for him, accepting whatever slop is served up to them, never demanding better, and like Reform, will bitterly attack and bully critics. There is a formula to follow to avoid all these self-owns but they don't want to know. Groupthink being what it is, they will only accept conformity or silence. As such, while Lowe's personal politics largely reflect my own, Lowe lacks the ability to run a serious political organisation. Ukippy pathological amateurism is in his DNA - just as it is with Farage and Habib. There's no escaping it, and it always produces the same results. At most Restore will serve as a magnet for all the people Farage doesn't want on board, so Restore won't even have the effect of moving the Overton window and dragging Reform into it. Edgelord controversy has its uses, but eventually you can go so far beyond the pale that decent people wash their hands of it. The net result will be that many people conclude that Farage might have a point about these people after all.