Dusty Wentworth

  Clacton Deserves an Election, Not a Political Boycott Nigel Farage resigning as MP for Clacton and forcing a by-election looks, to many, like political theatre. It is difficult to see it any other way. He is under serious scrutiny over a reported £5 million personal gift from Christopher Harborne, with questions raised about whether it should have been declared and what the money was for. Farage denies wrongdoing and insists there is no case to answer. That matters. Allegations are not convictions, and scrutiny is not guilt. But the timing is politically obvious. A damaging story is circling, pressure is building, and suddenly the people of Clacton are being asked to act as a jury in a by-election Farage himself has engineered. So yes, criticism of Farage is fair. Calling it a stunt is fair. Calling it a hissy fit, as Kemi Badenoch reportedly has, may be politically blunt, but it is not difficult to understand the sentiment. But that is not the real issue. The real issue is this:...

There was a time—not so long ago—when two people could sit across a table, engage in a spirited debate, shake hands, and part ways without questioning the other’s character. Political opponents could cross the aisle for a drink, families could hold divergent views without the Sunday roast descending into a shouting match, and disagreement, though often heated, was still seen as a natural and necessary part of civic life. Today, that picture feels increasingly like an artefact of a bygone era. In the public square—whether that square is physical or digital—the ability to disagree without declaring an enemy appears to be eroding. The line between challenging someone’s opinion and attacking their character has blurred to the point of near-invisibility. The consequences of this shift are not merely social niceties lost; they are structural fractures in the way our society processes difference. If we cannot disagree without malice, we cannot debate meaningfully. And if we cannot...