Dear Britain, do you worry that Team Farage is just a hot mess in power? Or is everyone too angry to care | Marina Hyde

"There is much to enjoy about the patriotic revolution in government promised by the leaked footage obtained by the Guardian of the Reform UK group of councillors running Kent county council. Take council leader Linden Kemkaran speaking for all free speech absolutists when she declares: Paul! Paul! I'm going to mute you in a minute! Or consider her repeatedly stated vision of the imperfections of representative democracy: You're just going to have to fucking suck it up, OK?"

"The thing about Reform is that it could fairly soon be running something as big as the United Kingdom, with the most recent MRP poll suggesting that if a general election were run right now, with tactical voting, Reform would win a majority with 367 seats. Without tactical voting, they could be on for 445 the largest majority since the franchise was extended in 1918."

"The first one is summed up by Dominic Cummings, who this week emerged to give a full interview explaining that he had absolutely no desire to return to politics, while observing that Farage will be prime minister if he builds the right team around him. The second school of thought is that displays such as Kent Reform's Teams meltdown will be the thing that eventually implodes Farage's march towards Downing Street,"

Leaked footage captured Reform UK councillors in Kent making contentious remarks and displaying internal disorder. Council leader Linden Kemkaran threatened to mute a colleague and told opponents to "fucking suck it up" about representative democracy. Kemkaran framed avoiding a full 5% council tax increase as the best demonstration that Reform can manage a large council and argued success in Kent would show capacity to govern at scale. Recent MRP polling projects Reform winning a parliamentary majority: 367 seats with tactical voting and 445 without. Opinions split between Cummings' prediction that Farage could become prime minister with the right team and warnings that public gaffes could derail the party.

Read at www.theguardian.com