The main effect of multiparty politics on Britain is seemingly to replace two useless parties with five of them.

This local election campaign has demonstrated a vast spread of practical and moral failure.

Watching it play out against the backdrop of the Iran crisis has been a sobering experience. Around the world you see profound, generation-defining jeopardy. And in the face of it, what do we get?

An anti-elite party led by a man who pockets millions from foreign backers. A progressive party led by a man who wants to emulate populism rather than defeat it. A governing party led by a man who is unwilling to govern. And an official opposition led by a woman with no judgement or seriousness whatsoever.

The revelations about Nigel Farage’s finances over the last few days have been significant. We once wondered how the Reform leader could afford to go back into politics in 2024, given he previously said he was “skint”. Well now we know. A secret £5m donation by Christopher Harborne, a mysterious billionaire based in Thailand, who also goes by the name Chakrit Sakunkrit. He holds a 12 per cent shareholding in the Tether cryptocurrency.

A year later, Farage’s policy agenda promised to make Harborne – or Sakunkrit, or whatever he calls himself now – an even wealthier man. The Reform leader pledged to use a new crypto assets bill to launch “a crypto revolution”, including a massive reduction of capital gains tax on crypto transactions from 24 per cent to 10 per cent and the establishment of a bitcoin reserve in the Bank of England. A spokesperson for Reform has said Harborne’s donation was a “personal........

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