Is the UK vulnerable to a Trump-style clean sweep?

As the Maga slogan starts to resemble a fast-spreading religion and the Mega slogan materializes, Brits are starting to wonder if Trumpism could take root in their own green and pleasant land.

As has been pointed out, Britain does not have a written constitution, relying instead on what The Independent calls “the spirit” of the rules rather than the actual rules themselves and the “decency” of the average Brit.

But with the leader of the far-right Reform UK party, Nigel Farage, hailing Trump as “an inspiration” and willing the MAGA winds to blow his way, nothing seems impossible.

At a Reform UK rally in Essex, Farage told supporters, “I think also we’re beginning to see a wave that is crossing the Atlantic from the east coast of America,” the BBC reports.

“Donald Trump, standing on a platform many of whose policies were not dissimilar to what we put to the British people in that contract last July [for the general election], has won this incredible victory and got off to the most amazing start,” he added.

“I hope and believe that many things that will happen in America will serve as an inspiration to us,” he ended to enthusiastic applause.

So what would it take for Farage and his party, currently leading the polls, to sweep aside the British establishment with all its institutions and traditions, rebuilding it to serve their own ends?

First off, Britain must have a pliant media – the equivalent to Fox news. Enter GB News where Farage acts as one of the presenters.

Getting regulators to resign and be replaced with workers loyal to the new order would be no big deal either, according to The Independent. An order of council would suffice, a simple procedure that allows primary legislation to be altered without parliament’s go-ahead.

Meanwhile, the House of Lords, a supposed check on the House of Commons, cannot actually veto bills that have been passed and, in any case, most of the so-called peers are appointed by the King on the Prime Minister’s recommendation.

The last line of defense as we are seeing in the US are the judges and the Supreme – or High – Court. The UK has always chosen judges on merit and are not hand-picked by the Prime Minister.

But what's stopping this being tackled with legislation that would allow for the installation of judges beholden to the powers that be? according to The Independent.

The UK is not the only country, of course, on this side of the Atlantic to feel concerned about Trump’s influence. And with reason.

A 2,000-strong meeting of the far-right in Madrid on February 8 brought together members of Patriots for Europe – the coalition set up by Hungary’s autocratic leader, Victor Orban.

Now the third biggest force in EU politics, this new formation has clearly been buoyed by Trump’s disruptive activity and is whipping up support by tweaking Trump’s mantra to Make Europe Great Again.

‘Yesterday we were the heretics. Today we are the mainstream … We are the future,” said Orban, standing alongside Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and his Spanish host, Vox leader Santiago Abascal.

According to Spanish news site El Pais, Le Pen talked about “Hurricane Trump” and a “global shift,” but she also added that it wasn’t about Europe adopting Trumpism but bringing about the block’s rebirth, one that would work for it.

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