Finally we have an answer to the question: ‘How popular is Rupert Lowe’s party Restore?’ The answer is: ‘Less popular than the BNP.’ Despite swarming Makerfield with aggy canvassers barking ‘Nigel Farage is controlled opposition’, the party won just 6.8 percent of the vote. Back in the 2010 general election the oafish BNP got 7.4 per cent in Makerfield. Oh dear. Taxi for Rupert. Back to your cushy pad down south, sir.

That’s what happened to Restore in Makerfield: the collective hallucinations of the very online right crashed against the normalcy and decency of working-class Britain

That’s what happened to Restore in Makerfield: the collective hallucinations of the very online right crashed against the normalcy and decency of working-class Britain

The self-delusion of Restore’s digital minions felt almost malarial. Every day they made ever more feverish predictions about their imminent ascension to power. Some of them predicted they’d get more than 20 per cent in Makerfield. Lowe – or whoever runs his socials – was madly tweeting about all the things a ‘Restore government’ would do. Weed-head Elon Musk lapped it up while your average Brit was thinking: ‘Rupert who?’

Rarely has there existed a party so untethered from reality. It’s normally the anorak left that engages in such lunatic self-deception, like when three men and a musty dog meet above a........

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