The tone was set for my entry into the world of Reform UK when I walked in to be confronted by a crowd loudly applauding David Starkey. He is, you may recall, the racist historian who disappeared from public view after claiming that slavery wasn’t genocide because of the survival of “so many damn blacks”. Yet there he was at the first of two appearances at their party conference, pontificating about the welfare state being “the tragedy of the 20th century” and proclaiming his “absolute indifference” to events in Afghanistan or Gaza.

This cantankerous character was being interviewed by Mark Littlewood, the think-tank boss who was the brains behind Liz Truss’s disastrous premiership. Starkey stated that Nigel Farage was “99 per cent certain to win the election” and would then need to declare a state of emergency and emulate Donald Trump. He railed against judges, spoke of the need to deal with the “insurrectionary religion” of Islam, spat out distaste for politicians who obeyed rules and insisted they would need to shut down “vast swathes of the state”.

It is easy to dismiss nonsense spewed out by an attention-seeking controversialist at a conference fringe. Yet in so many ways, Starkey set the mood for Reform’s big gathering in Birmingham – from that hubristic assumption they would attain power through to their core discomfort with modern Britain. Despite all the flags, national anthem and declarations of patriotism, this is a party at its heart that dislikes how its nation has evolved and wants to turn back the clock. “Sometimes the old times are the best,” said Starkey, claiming our country was a role model in the 1950s.

These attitudes were echoed throughout the two-day event as Farage’s latest insurgency lured thousands of new followers to Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre. When I entered the main hall, three young councillors on stage were being asked about bringing back national service 75 years after its abolition. One waffled about indoctrination in schools – a common theme of the conference. Another said he had been in Israel the previous week, meeting soldiers proud to fight for their country, winning cheers at his mention of the Israel Defence Forces despite the atrocities and starvation in Gaza.

“I want my country back,” thundered

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