It’s Friday evening, and your partner asked you, do you fancy a Chinese or Indian takeaway this evening ?
You muse for a second and then say oh a Chinese please….
Advance UK was previously called the Integrity Party, and is headed by Ben Habib.
Ben Habib was formally the deputy leader of Reform UK, but pushed out by Farage.
The original launch of the party wasn’t really a launch, it more crept out that Ben had his name against a new party.
Anyway back to the takeaway, the takeaway is ordered, it arrives, and you eat it, but there’s a niggle in the back of your mind. You really wanted fish and chips, it was a long time since you had eaten fish and chips, and you knew you liked it. You didn’t hate the Chinese, but you did wonder if there was something you would have liked more.
Advance UK is being facilitated by Ben Habib, but with a different approach to other parties. That approach sets a group, termed the college, of around 50 that will develop and set manifesto, as well as appoint the party senior management team.
Why is that important ? It develops policy against the principles of the party (as set down in the Constitution) but those policies don’t come from one single person, it comes from a group that is separate to the party. The party needs you to be for the principles of the party, but be fully onboard with the democracy of the party that the college group will deliver on them.
This looks as far as you could possibly go in installing democracy within the party, and from the the very roots of it.
As much as you may like Reform UK, it is run on blind trust of the members that they will do the right thing, which is great if that works.
There has been a soft launch of Advance UK, with the short-term aim of generating 30,000 followers.
It is not yet formally registered with the Electoral Commission, the objective is to generate that initial following, some income through that, and then formally appoint key positions within the party.
You finish your Chinese takeaway, and it was OK, but next time your partner makes a suggestion, you will be ready to suggest the takeaway that you really wanted. You have a niggle in the back of your head that having only 2 options was a presupposition of the takeaway you wanted. You have a further niggle in why you are now using language pattern analysis to understand a takeaway order.
The point with Advance UK is that if you are fully on board with Reform UK, then you will argue that it isn’t needed. That will lead you to thinking that Advance UK will be stealing Reform UK votes.
But there is an argument that everyone needs to place themselves in a loop of questioning what they believe in and why they are making the decisions that they are. If you are sticking with Reform UK, which it is likely many will do for now, do it with knowledge and understanding why you are doing that.
If you are writing other options off, without looking at them, and that could be things like Rupert Lowe’s, Restore Britain, or the new Jeremy Corbyn party, just be sure why you are doing that too.
Don’t be eating the takeaway that you don’t want though.
The main pointers of Advance UK:
It has soft launched with a set of principles by Ben Habib.
Aim of developing 30,000 followers, then elect key roles.
A group of 40 to 50 people will act independently of the party leadership to set policy direction.
The core principles are around nation, democracy, and equality under UK Law.
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